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