The Doughnut Economy - Going Local!

Well... this is exciting! I read a book a few months back, The Doughnut Economy by Kate Raworth and have been meaning to blog about it ever since but... it always got bumped to the back of the blogger to-do list.

Now though... it's front and centre again because Nanaimo is going to implement the Doughnut model! The first municipality in Canada to take it on! That is excellent news. And, here's a link to their planning paper (opens as a pdf). Nanaimo is not the first city to take this on... Amsterdam was first out of the gate on that one... but still, first in Canada is something!

So, here's the doughnut model in five minutes or less. The idea is that there is a lower and an upper limit within which we can live a sustainable life, not just for ALL humans but also for the environment which is not infinite.

The author, Kate Raworth (an economist) calls the lower boundary the Social Foundation (that's the dark green ring in the middle). It includes things like social equity, gender equity, health, food, water, income, education, resilience, voice, jobs and energy.

The upper boundary (the outer dark green ring) is the Environmental Ceiling and includes things like chemical pollution, atmospheric aerosol loading, ozone depletion, biodiversity loss, land use change, climate change, freshwater use, nitrogen and phosphorous cycles and ocean acidification.

This is an out of balance model - essentially
the state of the world today. Red means not good.

The goal is to live within those two green rings - the safe and just space for humanity that is built on inclusive an sustainable economic development. So, take care of all humans but not at the expense of the earth. Take care of the earth but not at the expense of humans.

This is very exciting news. When I read the book earlier this year, it really gave me hope that we can see our way forward through this environmental and humanitarian disaster that is looming over us.

For those interested, I blogged about the book on one of my other blogs (yes, I have more than one!). It was while I briefly resurrected my 2019 book reading challenge (which took a hiatus at the end of June 2019). I found that reading was fine... but reading AND taking notes AND blogging was not sustainable. But... I did an 8-part series on the Doughnut Economy book by Kate Raworth.

Here's the link for the first blog on the book. To read the rest of the series, scroll to the bottom of that blog post (not this one), and just below the Comments, you'll see a line with "Newer Post" on the left and "Older Post" on the right. Click on Newer Post and it will take you to the second part of the eight-part series... etc.

I highly recommend the book. I know, I know... economics... ick! So dry, so boring. But, no! Not this one. It is really good and very much worth a read. It's gonna be fascinating to see how Nanaimo implements this!