Climate Education class of June 20: Measuring What Counts ... Beyond GDP

At this meeting we discussed the ideas in the book, Measuring What Counts:  The Global Movement for Well-Being -The Movement for New Metrics, Beyond GDP. (Gross Domestic Product) By Joseph Stiglitz,Jean-Paul Fitouzzi, & Martine Durand

If you missed it but want to delve into the ideas, here are some resources about the new metrics, researched by one of our members.

VIDEOS, PDFs, and WEBSITES for Measuring What Counts.

  If time is short, focus on the highlighted sources. The Climate Team's interest was sparked by a video on Doughnut Economics.  The book offers several different ways of looking at metrics which are more inclusive of measures around climate change or moving away from GDP as an indicator/motivator of growth regardless of impact. 

     The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) hosted a 5 year program (2013-2018) on the Measurement of Economic Performance and Social Progress.  This effort was after the global economic crisis of 2008 and recognition of the inadequacy of GDP to represent impacts on climate, inequality and democracy.

 These links cover five different metric models:  Doughnut Economics; Reduced Globalization -Going Local; Happiness; Genuine Progress Indicator; and, Well-being (OECD).

 Doughnut Economics

 Defined:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doughnut_(economic_model)

 Video:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CqJL-cM8gb4 - Kate Raworth (17 minutes)

 Article:    A Brief Digest on Donut Economics

 Going Local - more a movement than a metric

 Videos: 
     -- Short graphic explanation,  here,  associates ‘going local’ with happiness

     -- Economics of Happiness   - 20 mins
     -- Economics of Happiness, long version  - 1 hour+

       --  Website:  https://www.localfutures.org/degrowth-a-call-for-radical-abundance/

Genuine Progress Index

 Website:  http://www.sustainwellbeing.net/gpi.html

        Defining GPI:  http://wikiprogress.org/articles/initiatives/the-genuine-progress-index  

 Measuring Happiness - (different from the ‘local movement happiness)

 Defined:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Happiness_Report

    -- Video:  Happiest Countries in the World, Explained    UN/Gallup Poll related  - 6 mins

   --  World Happiness Report:  https://happiness-report.s3.amazonaws.com/2020/WHR20.pdf

 Well-Being  (OECD)

      -- Defined:  http://www.oecd.org/sdd/OECD-Better-Life-Initiative.pdf

      --   Joseph Stiglitz on  Problems with GDP as an Economic Barometer    8 mins

 Website:  http://www.oecd.org/statistics/measuring-well-being-and-progress.htm

 Report:  http://www.oecdbetterlifeindex.org/#/11111111111

Upcoming events with XRAustin; WCAT meeting on 6/20.

Here are some of the upcoming events that we shared with each other at Wednesday's (June 3) meeting, as well as some recommendations to watch or read.

 Saturday June 20^th, 7:30 pm,  we’ll continue exploring the topic of post-growth economics, focusing on the book Beyond the GDP: Measuring What Counts; and we’ll have a short meeting.  


Thursday, June 4, 7:30-9  [this event has passed--here is a recap.]  XR and some crossover members of  WCAT watched this video together, which presents powerful reasons why racial justice issues are inseparable from climate change.  The video is on Youtube at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3U7PYZCObtk&list=PLtl05oPWV9aztV_PGQSBhxozpTq0462_F&index=2&t=3872s

"Getting it Together before it’s Too Late: Building Solidarity Across Race and Class" A live discussion with Roger Hallam, Adam Elliott-Cooper and Dr. Ian Haney Lopez (14 May 2020) . Ian Haney Lopez is an academic at the forefront of research into a new approach to radical politics. He argues that in order to order to build a mass movement we must recognise that racism is the main weapon in the class war the rich are winning - https://www.ianhaneylopez.com/

Michael Moore's film, Planet of the Humans - pro and con discussion

We had a great discussion this morning (June 3)  of Michael Moore's controversial film, Planet of the Humans.

If you missed it, and want to look into the issues on your own, here are some sources we used for background. Also, further below are two links to the movie.

    - 5-minute critical video from George Monboit, who writes for The Guardian: 
               https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__UJ09PZFoI

 - Two PRO and CON videos:
       https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bop8x24G_o0  - Michael Moore and associates respond to criticism of new bombshell environmental film.
       https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iTYJCAxlOgs   -   Filmmaker Josh Fox responds to Michael Moore on bombshell climate film.

       -Movie review from the blog at Union of Concerned Scientists:
      https://blog.ucsusa.org/john-rogers/movie-review-michael-moores-planet-of-the-humans-traffics-in-myths-errors-and-dangerous-misdirection

    
Here are two links to the full movie:
    (1)      https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=planet+of+the+humans&docid=13819390115178&mid=EE549FD7AEF08C68D723EE549FD7AEF08C68D723&view=detail&FORM=VIRE
     (2)       https://www.filmsforaction.org/watch/michael-moore-presents-planet-of-the-humans/

In addition, here are links to two recommendations from Becky Allen during our discussion:

     - a documentary, Endgame 2050, available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8YomEOExkc .  For more information, see https://www.endgame2050.com/
     -the website, www.climatehealers.org