1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910820752203321

Autore

Purchase Bryne

Titolo

Navigating on the Titanic : economic growth, energy, and the failure of governance / / Bryne Purchase

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Montreal, [Quebećbec] : , : School of Policy Studies, Queen's University : , : McGill-Queen's University Press, , 2013

©2013

ISBN

1-55339-335-X

1-55339-507-7

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (160 p.)

Collana

Queen's Policy Studies Series

Disciplina

330.973

Soggetti

Economic development - United States

Economic development - Canada

Power resources - Environmental aspects - United States

Power resources - Environmental aspects - Canada

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references.

Nota di contenuto

Chapter 1: The Brief History of Economic Growth -- Chapter 2: Energy Matters: Energy Price Shocks and the Global Economic Transformation -- Chapter 3: Global Energy Mega-Risks: Resource Depletion, Geopolitical Security, and Climate Change -- Chapter 4: Why Private Organizations and Markets Fail -- Chapter 5: Can Our Governments Act Pre-emptively? -- Chapter 6: Can Our Governments Forestall Climate Change? -- Chapter 7: Looking Forward.

Sommario/riassunto

Navigating the Titanic outlines the brief history of economic growth and the private and public institutions - markets, corporations, households, and governments - which underpin that growth. Bryne Purchase examines mega-risks related to our economy's use of fossil fuels and specifically looks at resource depletion, energy security, and climate change - all "mega-risks" because they are both global in scope and potentially existential in impact. Focusing on North America, with a particular emphasis on the United States, Purchase's central argument is that the institutions which have produced spectacular economic growth are not capable of acting with prudence to deal with these



mega-risks before they become a real danger. He identifies certain institutional design flaws that, while underwriting economic growth, leave society open to potentially catastrophic failure and reveals how these design flaws have been compounded by the stresses of the growing income inequality in society.