Climate Change And The Cargo Cult

Climate Change is a major threat to our way of life, and requires urgent political action to remedy its many threats, but is it a symptom rather than the disease? This book argues that the problem lies deep in our commitment to the quest for ever increasing economic growth. At some time in the 1970s the Western World passed a point of economic satiety beyond which further economic growth was of little benefit, and indeed was counter-productive, to living the good life. We must therefore seek a better understanding of our environment and of what constitutes genuine wealth. Life without the frenetic economic activity and culture of selfish possession that drives the modern economy can indeed be more humane, more pleasant and more meaningful than what we have today , but to reach it will require a major re-evaluation of what is important in business, politics and culture.

Chris Cunningham is a retired Associate Professor of Urban and Regional Planning at the University of New England, Armidale, NSW, Australia. Born in Tamworth, NSW, he grew up and completed his primary and secondary education in the Blue Mountains, west of Sydney. He studied architecture and town planning at the University of Sydney, and geography and economics at Macquarie University.

He worked as a regional planner and policy adviser in Australia and the UK before taking up an academic position at the University of New England in 1981. He is the author of several books as well as numerous academic articles and broadcasts on topics related to town planning and community. His book about early European exploration in the Sydney Region, The Blue Mountains Rediscovered, won the inaugural NSW Premier’s Prize for Regional and Community History in 1997. Chris is married to Anne, a retired GP. They have four adult children.