Driving at speed in the wrong direction

This is now mainstream thinking among scientists working on these problems. For example, a major global ecosystem assessment report has warned that the dual trends of the growing exploitation of ecosystems and their generally declining condition are unsustainable. There is an increasing risk of “non-linear changes” in ecosystems, including accelerating, abrupt and potentially irreversible changes, which could have “a catastrophic effect on human health”.

However, governments will not admit to this possibility. Given our politics - ruthless, opportunistic, theatrical - they probably cannot admit it. So, perversely, they continue to promise continuing stability, peace and prosperity while, at the same time, exploiting people's unease and anxiety (as Costello’s comments illustrate).

Whether the probability of calamity is 5 per cent or 95 per cent is almost beside the point. It deserves far more serious consideration by governments in their visions of the future and their policy priorities. Yet they continue to treat these issues as something they can deal with by fiddling at the margins of the economy, the main purpose of which remains to serve, and promote, our increasingly extravagant - and unhealthy and unsustainable - consumer lifestyle.

Costello likened the economy to a “highly engineered racing car”. But we don’t want a racing-car economy. Racing cars are gas-guzzling, temperamental and highly specialised creatures, good for only one thing: running round and round a circuit at high speed to entertain us. We need a “car” that is fuel efficient, non-polluting, reliable, robust and versatile, a vehicle that serves the useful purpose of making life better for everyone, now and into the future.