Bad Crunch????

The credit crunch has apparently hit all of us. (except the millionaires) But how much has this had an impact on us? Has it helped us get a little bit nearer our sustainable development targets or not?

The Guardian claims that as the credit crunch hits there will be less incentives for businesses to work towards a more sustainable future as all the focus will be about improving profits. An example of this says the Guardian is BP who are digging up Canadian tar sands to get their profits back on track.

Is this really helping sustainable development? OK, we are using less oil for our cars but this is just encouraging the oil companies to increase their amount of extraction to bring the prices back down.

However maybe there is a silver lining. We are consuming less and spending less. But this is not necicerilly a good thing as people aim to buy cheaper food which will not be organic and will contain pesticides which are harmful to the environment. People buy second hand cars and other machinery, but these have high emmisions compared to newer cars which are built for a more sustainable future.

So it would seem that the credit crunch is not doing anything to help us reach our sustainable development targets.

Will we learn to live within our means?

I believe that the answer is no. It is human nature to always want more, and to have competition to always be and have the best. Why would we want to live with less than what we have had in the past, when we believe it is still available?