A Manifest (translated from Swedish)

The 20th century may be looked upon as a period of economic growth. This growth was made possible by a continues and expanding supply of fossil fuels and these today represent more than 80% of the worlds total energy consumption.

The 21st century will become a period of energy shortage. First, the ’oil-peak’ is expected to be reached within 10 years. Second, the greenhouse effect will further restrict the use of fossil energy.

We are thus confronted with a powerful challenge. If this is not met by relevant and effective measures we will very soon face serious political, economic and social problems and, eventually, threats to the survival of man.

Unfortunately, this challenge does not correspond to the attitudes we meet in the public debate. Instead, threats are underestimated and replaced by wishful thinking, often far from reality. Examples:

• The links between fossil fuel and the greenhouse effect are still being questioned by many people despite the UN Climate Panel’s full agreement on the issue.

• The belief that fossil energy and nuclear power can be replaced by renewable energy is widely spread. With today´s available techniques we can, optimistically, replace one third only.

• Many people claim that economic growth can go hand in hand with the development of a sustainable society. This despite a close relationship between economic activity and energy consumption during the 20th century.

These examples illustrate an escape from reality which, to a large extent, has to do with our fear for changing life-styles. Harry Martinsson, one of Sweden´s more famous authors has expressed this dilemma as follows: "What is most frightening is peoples unwillingness to think. If they really thought through the consequences of the reality they live in, they would die of horror – or change the world."

The changes now required cannot be done within the framework of our current society system. There is a need for a system change. The following measures must be taken:

Our current industrial society is extremely energy demanding. As an example we can take production of food in which the process now consumes twenty times more energy than the content of the food. A small-scale infrastructure with small distances between producer and consumer must be aimed at.

The urbanization process has created an imbalance between urban and rural settlements. Biologically productive rural areas have, to a large extent, been replaced by biologically unproductive cities. A concrete measure for restoring a balance would be a ’rural settlements movement’ similar to one that started in Sweden 100 years ago. On a global scale land reforms for the restriction of further large scale farming policies will be required.

A driving force behind economic growth is our high dependence on income. This dependence can be reduced if we ourselves produce more of the goods and services we need. In this way we may also rectify the imbalance on the labour market.

The above measures will cause conflicts. To avoid these we should learn from our previous change of society systems. The industrial system was then developed parallel to the agricultural one and they thereby did not cause conflicts to each other. Similarly, a sustainable post-industrial society can replace our current unsustainable one.

The under signers of this manifest urge politicians and other decision makers immediately to terminate the ’economic growth death dance’ to which we now devote ourselves. This must be replaced by the development of a sustainable society!

(90 persons, all attached to different Swedish environment organizations have up to date (September 2007) signed the manifest.)