ECONATION
For People and Planet
Since 2008, ECONATION has been an independent source of information about well-being and sustainability.
Our purpose is to help people thrive, and sustain the planet whilst doing so. This purpose is driven by two truths:
People are using more resources than the planet can sustainably provide
The issues are complex but one thing is abundantly clear: the earth is ailing because of human over-consumption.Consumption beyond satisfying basic needs does not provide more well-being
The fact that per capita well-being has not increased since the 1950s whilst per capita production has more than doubled, shows that the modern economic machine has decoupled from the general well-being of the people, and that half of all production is a waste.
What is the purpose of the economy if it’s not the well-being of people? Some people who have relatively little can be quite happy whilst others are never satisfied no matter how much they have. This being the case, consumption is much less important for well-being than you think.
In practice, how do we become sustainable? Sustainability happens when peoples’ demand for resources (ecological footprint) is smaller than the earth can sustainably supply (biocapacity or carrying capacity).
About ECONATION
ECONATION’s tagline is “For People and Planet”.
The “Eco” in ECONATION stands for ecology and thus: ecosystem, ecosphere or more broadly, Planet Earth. The German zoologist Ernst Haeckel first coined the word ecology in a publication in 1866. Haeckel applied the term oekologie to the “relation of the animal both to its organic as well as its inorganic environment.” The word comes from the Greek oikos, meaning household, home, or place to live. Planet Earth is the shared home of all life.
The “Nation” in ECONATION stands for the people. A nation is a group of people with something in common; this could be a country, culture, race, religion, region or, in this case, an ecosphere. Since all people share the ecosphere, Econation refers to all the people on planet earth. The most significant environmental issues of our time – climate change, rising sea levels, soil erosion, deforestation, habitat loss, desertification – are truly global. This is because our economies are global, and it is impossible to restrict the impacts these economies make within national borders.
People talk about national and international, but I use the term “econational”. While the terms national and international imply political and economic divisions, econational has a much broader interpretation, one where people and the ecosystems we live in are considered in terms of well-being and sustainability. While it is essential to embrace and celebrate cultural, ethnic, religious, racial and historical differences, it is also necessary at times to transcend these differences and acknowledge that our shared existence is limited by the earth’s capacity to provide for all life. We must find ways to work together to ensure the enduring quality of our shared home for all future generations.
ECONATION was set in 2008 by Michael C. Lockhart. It is a not-for-profit undertaking, and with over 500 pages of information about sustainability and well-being on the website it has always been a labour of love. If you want to share the love please check out the ECONATION.one website and consider making a donation there.