2

Researched, written, and produced by

Jim Dator <dator@hawaii.edu>

and Park Seongwon

with assistance by William Kramer

Hawaii Research Center for Futures Studies

Department of Political Science University of Hawaii at Manoa

2424 Maile Way Honolulu, Hawaii 96822 USA

<www.futures.hawaii.edu>

March 31, 2009

3

TABLE OF CONTENTS

"Through a Brushwood Door: Should Korea Become a Conserver Society?"

I. INTRODUCTION: NEED AND PURPOSE OF THIS REPORT

Central Conclusions of this Report Outline of This Report Rationale for the Report

Continuous Economic Growth and Development. Counter Voices. Why this Matters for Korea Telecom. Analogous Reference for this Report: The Conserver Society

II. THE CANADIAN CONSERVER SOCIETY PROJECT The Rationale Behind the Conserver Society Project Different Designs of a Conserver Society Five Alternative Models of a Conserver Society

Conserver Society Zero (CS0) Conserver Society Model 1 (CS1) Conserver Society Model 2 (CS2) Conserver Society Model 3 (CS3) The Squander Society (CS-1)

Conclusions about the Conserver Society Project

III. FROM THEN TO NOW: 1970s COMPARED TO 2009 A Sampling of Warnings from 2009-1970s Summary of Differences Between the 1970s and 2009

Some Major Challenges Now Compared to the 1970s Some Major Advantages Now Compared to the 1970s

IV. CULTURAL RESOURCES IN KOREA FOR A RENEWED CONSERVER SOCIETY V. RECOMMENDATIONS APPENDIX A. A Bibliography of The Conserver Society Project of the Science Council of Canada

Conserver Society papers by the Science Council of Canada Conserver Society research by the GAMMA Group Conserver Society papers by other research groups and individuals Commentaries of the Conserver Society Project and concept.

APPENDIX B. A Bibliography Supporting Conserver Society Concerns (2009-1970s)

APPENDIX C. Nature is Dead: The Artificial World of "The Anthropocene Era".

A Bibliography APPENDIX D. Economic Optimism, Anti-environmentalism and Sustainability.

A Bibliography APPENDIX E. Cultural Resources in Korea for a Renewed Conserver Society. A Bibliography

4

THROUGH A BRUSHWOOD DOOR:

SHOULD KOREA BECOME A CONSERVER SOCIETY?

A report to Korea Telecom

by the Hawaii Research Center for Futures Studies Department of Political Science University of Hawaii at Manoa Honolulu, Hawaii 96822 USA

<www.futures.hawaii.edu>

March 31, 2009

I. INTRODUCTION: NEED AND PURPOSE OF THIS REPORT

Central Conclusions of this Report:

1. It is time for Korea seriously and deeply to consider becoming a "Conserver

Society" instead of a "Consumer Society."

For at least sixty years, Korea has followed the path of economic development

through continued economic growth with enormous success. But there are growing

indications that Korea--and the world--might need to find different paths towards

different futures. Thus, a nationwide exercise in considering a "Conserver Society"

alternative is imperative.

2. Korea Telecom should consider becoming a lead institution in undertaking this

exercise.

KT might follow the example of Canada during the 1970s when their Science

Council led a nationwide consideration of "The Implications of Canada as a

Conserver Society."

3. Korea, and the world, in 2010 are quite different from Korea, Canada, and the

world in 1975--in some ways much better, in others much worse. The differences

need to be carefully assessed in light of new challenges and opportunities rushing

from the futures.

5

Outline of This Report.

This study begins with an elaboration of these conclusions.

It then summarizes in some detail the activities of the work of the Science Council of

Canada's "Committee on the Implications of Canada as a Conserver Society" in the

1970s.

The study then discusses some of the most significant changes in relation to

economics, the environment, and energy over the past forty years. They all lead to the

conclusion that Korea must engage in a nationwide discussion of its futures, as

Canada did in the 1970s, and specifically focus on the possibility of shifting from a

Consumer Society to a Conserver Society.

Some historical, cultural, and intellectual traditions within Korea that could be called

upon to enable Korea to become a vibrant Conserver Society are discussed.

There is an extensive bibliography of works undertaken during the Canadian

Conserver Society Project, as well as of the challenges facing Korea that make it

essential that Korea undertake a re-examination of its policies towards the futures.

This bibliography is a very important part of the report and should be studied

carefully. The titles alone indicate how extensive the Conserver Society Project was,

and show especially how business and private enterprise can thrive in a Conserver

Society [See Appendix A]

The Conserver Society Project was not, and should not ever be viewed as "anti-

business" or "anti-capitalist" or "anti-free market" and the like. Using the market,

entrepreneurial and other business acumen to achieve the goals of a Conserver

Society are matters of careful, scientifically-informed social system design, and not of

ideology of any kind. Stanley Shapiro, Dean of the School of Business of Simon

Frazer University, near Vancouver, Canada, was an active member of the original

Conserver Society project. He focused especially on delineating how businesses can

thrive in a Conserver Society. He published several reports on that topic and

6

encouraged the publication of others. They are all listed in the bibliography [See

Appendix A].

In 2002, Dean Shapiro published in the Journal of Business Administration and

Policy Analysis a lengthy evaluation of the original Conserver Society project, and of

the renewed necessity of a Conserver Society for the 21st Century. He again stressed

numerous ways businesses can make money in a Conserver Society. He compared the

work of the Conserver Society with the recommendations of the World Business

Council on Sustainable Development Report, "Sustainable Production and

Consumption: A Business Perspective" (Geneva, Switzerland, April 1996), further

reinforcing the point that businesses now should embrace and not run from the

Conserver Society perspective.

It is very important that this point be clearly understood.

Rationale for the Report.

Korea has a long history, and over its history has gone through many changes,

from warring clans, to divided kingdoms, to a modern nation-state, to a colonized

territory, to (currently) two polities divided by ideology. This study focuses on South

Korea during this latter period when South Korea moved swiftly from a country

utterly devastated by war, to one relying for its economic development and wealth

first on agriculture, then on the export of unprocessed agricultural and mineral

resources, to processed foods and simple industrial products, to the manufacture and

export of heavy industrial equipment, to the manufacture of cheap and then

increasingly sophisticated electronic and biotechnological products until it now

produces world-class electronic products and is moving increasingly from the

production of goods to becoming a leading provider of cutting-edge information and

know-how. In many ways, Korea is rapidly becoming a world leader in innovative

ideas and ways of organization--including government.

Looking at these changes from another point of view, Korea has moved at a speed

unmatched by any other country in the world from an agricultural society, to an early

light industrial society, to a mature heavy industrial society, to a post-industrial

7

information society, and most recently into potentially the world's first dream society.

In following this trajectory, Korea was simply doing, with incredible speed and

success, what all nations have been trying to do, and some have successfully done, for

the past two hundred-plus years--move from a sedentary and stable society based

largely upon agricultural production through a turbulent and stressing period based

largely on industrial production, to a dynamic and exciting era based largely upon the

production of knowledge and ideas, and then the production of hopes and dreams.

Continuous Economic Growth and Development.

In doing so, Korean leaders were following ideas of continual scientific/technological

innovation, and of perpetual social and environmental change, generally known and

promoted worldwide by many national, international, and transnational organizations

as "development" and more specifically "economic development." The intention of

"development" is to turn all of the world into societies of continued economic growth-

-into societies where tomorrow is always better than today and each generation is

better off than the one before it in terms of overall wealth and in the possession of

ever-increasing, and increasingly sophisticated, consumer goods.

All educational, economic, and governmental policies, practices, and institutions of

modern states, such as Korea, are bent to this one task: to create and then sustain a

society of continuous economic growth. And no country in the world was been better

at that, and in such a short period, than South Korea.

Counter Voices.

While there were always some voices in all societies, including Korea, who demurred

from such a goal, they were overwhelmingly drowned out everywhere by those who

wanted more growth, more jobs, and more products to consume. Among the many

reasons for this position was that population was continuously growing, and so wealth

and goods needed to continue growing as well. Another reason was the unquestioned

belief that planet Earth is endlessly bountiful in resources humans want to exploit and

endlessly absorptive of wastes that human development produces.

8

But beginning in the late 1960s and early1970s more people were beginning to doubt

that a society of continuous economic growth is either possible or desirable. Some

argued it was not possible because humans live on a planet with finite resources that

we are using at a pace faster than they can be replaced. Some argued that continuous

economic growth as the main point of life and policies was undesirable even if

technologically possible, because the resulting social change was destroying cultures

and values that had served for millennia, values that many people still found to be

highly valuable and relevant. Others said continued economic growth was

undesirable because the processes that enabled it also destroyed the environment of

Earth, and therefore were fundamentally unsustainable.

There was for a short period of time in the 1970s a pause in the ideological

dominance of continued economic growth as many people insisted, instead, that there

are, or should be Limits to Growth; that a Sustainable Society, based on principles of

"sufficiency" or "enoughness" was both necessary and desirable. Small is Beautiful,

some said. However, those voices were soon silenced or muffled in the 1980s onward

when the world, and Korea, went on a spurt of high economic growth (with some

short episodes of recession--some quite serious) previously unknown in the

experience of humanity.

Many people proclaimed that the key to continued economic growth for everyone

forever had been discovered in an economic theory often known as "global

neoliberalism" which advocates minimal (preferably no) restraints by governments on

economic activities, and seeks "free trade:--the rapid creation of a single global open

market for labor and all goods and services.

Many economists and policies makers announced that they knew how to prevent

damaging economic cycles--especially recessions or depressions--and that, if their

principles were followed precisely, a world of unprecedented continued economic

growth for all would soon ensue.

It turned out, in late 2007 and through 2008 and continuing, that that belief was

wrong. The global economic system, led by its financial sector, collapsed and is still

collapsing. Those who were most vocal in demanding government keep its hands off

9

economic activities immediately turned to government, demanding--the getting--sums

of money as "bailouts" in amounts that would have seen preposterous to even

contemplate a year or so earlier.

At the same time, mounting concerns about the end of oil before new equivalent

energy sources come online have emerged while doubters about the reality of global

climate change and sea-level rise have been silenced not only by the unanimity of all

credible scientists but also by the actual experience of climate change and the

consequences of sea level rise.

So while most policy makers at present remain obsessed with finding policies and

actions that will get the old economy working again, more and more people are saying

that it is not possible to do so, even if it were desirable. There is not sufficient energy,

time, or resources to do so, and thus every society, including Korea, needs to re-

examine its preferred future, and to focus on something other than continued

economic growth.

Why this Matters for Korea Telecom.

It is our suggestion that Korea needs to re-evaluate its future in the light of current

experiences and future challenges and opportunities. We feel Korea Telecom is

particularly suited in helping Korean leaders and citizens do this because it is a

respected and experience provider of telecommunication services. As such it not only

can help disseminate ideas and facilitate discussions about preferable futures for

Korea but also it can illustrate in its own organization and technologies, what a

different future for Korea might be like.

Analogous Reference for this Report: The Conserver Society.

Fortunately, there is an excellent example for doing this that KT should learn from.

During the 1970s, the National Science Council of Canada engaged in and sponsored

extensive research into transforming Canada from a Consumer Society into a

Conserver Society. Reacting to the sudden extreme rise in the price of oil in the early

1970s, and rapidly growing concern about The Limits to Growth, environmental

10

pollution, and inadequate natural resources, the Science Council of Canada engaged

scores of individuals, research organizations, governmental institutions, and media

sources in developing and presenting ideas about what Canada would be like if it

were oriented towards being a Conserver Society rather than a Consumer Society.

In 1974, Jim Dator, head of the Hawaii Research Center for Futures Studies, was

called from Hawaii to Toronto. Canada, where he worked for two years with TV

Ontario (Ontario Educational Communications Authority) and the Science Council of

Canada developing and disseminating ideas, and facilitating discussions about Canada

as a Conserver Society. During that time, he became tremendously impressed by the

work done by many other scholars, business persons, and government officials in

Canada on this topic.

Unfortunately, the Conserver Society work was about thirty years ahead of its time. In

the late 1970s and early 80s, dominant economic and political forces in Canada, the

US and elsewhere ended the project as well as the concept before the results of the

projects could be implemented. Canada, along with the rest of the world, plunged

even more deeply into becoming a Continued Growth, Consumer Society.

But recently some of the people originally associated with the Conserver Society

project have resurrected the ideas that came from it on the assumption that the time

has now come for Canada to consider becoming a Conserver Society in earnest once

again.

11

II. THE CANADIAN CONSERVER SOCIETY PROJECT From, "Hymn to the Spring"

By Chong Kug-in (1401-1481) ….

Nature and I are one; the same pleasure As I go out through the brushwood door, As I sit in the arbor, as I walk and recite.

Days pass quietly among hills and waters;… I shun riches. I avoid a title.

Apart from the clear breeze and bright moon, Who, who else is my friend?

With a handful of rice and a gourdful of water, Nothing distracts me, nothing diffuses my wit.

Well, what do you say, my friends, To the prospect of a hundred years of delight?

in Poems from Korea, Peter H. Lee. U Press Hawaii, 1974, p. 74

The term "Conserver Society" apparently was used for the first time in Report No. 19,

Natural Resource Policy Issues in Canada (January 1973), of the Science Council of

Canada, an agency of the Canadian national government. The report contained

recommendations for policies and institutions needed to protect Canada's resources.

One recommendation said "that Canadians as individuals, and their governments,

institutions, and industries, begin the transition from a consumer society preoccupied

with resource exploitation to a conserver society engaged in more constructive

endeavors." (p. 39)

Subsequent Science Council reports on the computer industry, energy, population,

and food contained similar statements. The proposal for a study specifically on "The

Implications of a Conserver Society" was adopted at the 42nd meeting of the Science

Council in June 1973 and a committee of the Council (called "The Committee on the

Implications of a Conserver Society") was established to define more precisely what a

"Conserver Society" meant. A provisional definition was given by the Committee in

March 1975:

The concept of a Conserver Society arises from a deep concern for the

future, and the realization that decisions taken today, in such areas as energy

and resources, may have irreversible and possibly destructive impacts in the

medium to long term.

The necessity for a Conserver Society follows from our perception of

the world as a finite host to humanity, and from our recognition of increasing

global interdependence.

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…

In a Conserver Society, the pricing mechanism should reflect, not just

the private cost, but as much as possible the total cost to society, including

energy and materials used, ecological impact, and social considerations. This

will permit the market system to allocate resources in a manner that more

closely reflects society needs, both immediate and long term.

The Canadian Conserver Society Project was undertaken by the Science Council of

Canada, from 1973 until 1978. In order to specify the features of a Conserver Society

in detail, the Science Council commissioned and encouraged nationwide research and

discussion on the limitations, evils, and pathologies of Canada as a Consumer Society,

and the necessity, advantages, and alternative ways of Canada becoming, and

sustaining itself as, a Conserver Society.

Some of the research and reports of work done were undertaken by the staff and

seconded members of the Science Council Committee on The Implications of a

Conserver Society. The members of the Committee were among the best-known

leaders in government, business, industry, academia, and media in Canada. It was a

Blue Ribbon Committee beyond all possible Blue Ribbons, and commanded the

attention and respect of most Canadians.

In addition, the Committee engaged the services of a group of researchers from the

University of Montreal and McGill University, in Montreal, Quebec, called

GAMMA. They were led by Kimon Valaskakis, Professor of Economics at the

University of Montreal, Peter Sindell, Professor of Anthropology, and J. Graham

Smith, Professor of Management, both at McGill University. They assembled a very

impressive group scholars and researchers from other Canadian universities and

industries, and engaged in research focusing on developing and presenting several

different versions of a future Conserver Society.

Many government agencies also contributed to the effort, such as The Office of

Energy Conservation, Environment Canada, the Central Mortgage and Housing

Corporation, the National Research Council, and others, including many in provincial

and municipal governments.

13

In addition to describing the general contours of a Conserver Society, these groups

did impressive sectoral research, indicating what the economy, business, the media,

advertising, energy supply and consumption, recycling, education, and government

might be like in each of the different versions of a Conserver Society that emerged

during the research.

The bibliography at the end of this report lists the publications of many of these

groups, as well as commentaries on the Conserver Society concept from people aware

of but not formally engaged in the project, within Canada and elsewhere in the world.

The bibliography is arranged into different sectors, according to who did the research

and publication, and by date of publication within each sector, from the earliest to the

latest [See Appendix A]

Rarely has a research project on any topic engaged so many people in so many walks

of life voluntarily and enthusiastically.

Of course, one might say that the very concept of "development"--especially the

importance and possibility of "economic development" and "continuous economic

growth"--is a strong counter example. Surely tens of thousands of scholars in

thousands of government and private research agencies and universities around the

world have churned out millions of books, articles and reports on "development". The

United Nations has had scores of pro-development programs and agencies within its

structure, and has several times declared international "Development" years.

Korea itself is a nation whose government embraced "economic development" as a

national goal early on, and engaged in many research projects, policy plans, and

educational curricula which did indeed transform Korea very quickly from an isolated

agricultural society into a thriving industrial society, and more recently into a hugely

successful, globally-connected, information society while on the cusp of becoming

the world's first dream society.

On the other hand, one might also say that Marxism and communism were another

example of similar social engineering on a massive global and national scale,

14

although at base, both communism and capitalism were simply competing routes to

economic development. Neither ideology doubted the desirability of economic

development at all, and neither did anything seriously to anticipate, prevent, or

ameliorate the social and environmental consequences (and the ultimate impossibility)

of endless economic growth.

So at the least, the Canadian Conserver Society project may be the only example so

far of a respected agency of government attempting to help its citizens to contemplate

and refocus the purpose of life away from perpetual material acquisition and

consumption towards other values and activities.

The Rationale Behind the Conserver Society Project.

Why did the Science Council of Canada embark on the Conserver Society Project? In

one of their earliest official reports, issued in February 1976, and titled, "Toward a

Conserver Society: A Statement of Concern," the Conserver Society Committee

wrote:

We live in an advanced industrial society. In the quest for ever-

increasing productivity, we have been enormously successful. … We have

moved slowly from an industrial system which sought to satisfy basic human

needs to one which seeks to satisfy ever more exotic needs in ever more costly

ways. …We are coming to realize that there must be limits to this type of

activity. Growth processes (biological or social) must at some point slow

down; they run into environmental limits, resource supply bottlenecks…and a

kind of entropy arising from the increasing complexity of social interactions.

… Indiscriminate growth for growth's sake will have to give way to a more

selective growth.

One attempt to describe this change is to say that we face a transition

from a "consumer society" to a "conserver society." (p. 1f)

The "Statement of Concern" then discussed eight general features of a Conserver

Society:

15

1. Economy in Design. A Conserver Society aims "to do more with

less." … What is implied by the Conserver Society is not only the re-assertion

of the values of good design, but also the enlargement of the concept of design

to include a greater appreciation of external or social costs, and appreciation of

the total system as being finite or closed. … The concept of "doing more with

less" represents a departure from the approach taken by our society over the

past fifty years. …. [T]here has been both an implicit feeling and explicit

expression that "bigger is better." (pp. 2-5)

2. Attitudes. Thrift, saving, efficiency, and avoidance of waste all

played an important role in the early days of the industrial revolution. ….

[These] traditional values which formerly guided individuals in their daily

lives have, for a variety of reasons, come to be regarded as passé. Why

practice thrift, be efficient or avoid wasteful practice, when we seem to have

so much production, when our supermarkets and department stores seem to be

bursting with products? Why worry?

We have become used to a high throughput consumer society

which depends on obsolescence, a high rate of consumer spending, and an

almost total disregard for waste--both individually and socially.

A conserver attitude will evolve either by choice or by

necessity. (pp. 5-8)

3. Recognition of Total Costs. [P]rices in the market should reflect

external (social) costs as well as the direct internal (private) costs to the

individual producer and consumer. To the extent that prices reflect only

internal costs…, the market either fails as an allocating mechanism or it

misallocates. If we wish to preserve the marketplace as the principal

mechanism by which a free society expresses its priorities, we must assist

rational choice by reducing as much as possible the self-deceptive elements.

The fallacies of basing choices on purely financial accounting

are apparent in the case of energy supply, and "net energy accounting" is now

seen to be an essential supplement to traditional accounting methods." (pp. 8-

10)

16

4. Encouragement of Diversity. Diversity in energy means that a

number of different energy sources can be developed to suit each unique

situation, optimizing the use of local resources, as well as increasing resilience

against problems of supply in other regions, such as might be occasioned by

labour disputes or Middle East politics. … To the extent that society is not

"locked in" to one energy system or another, a transition can easily be made to

alternative energy sources….

Diversity of choice for consumers is not the illusory diversity

that comes from producing a number of marginally different competing

products (product differentiation), but is a genuine diversity that allows the

consumer to meet his or her unique needs. (pp. 10-12)

5. Concern for the Future. Rather than exploiting everything for

today's benefits and leaving the future to fend for itself, society will be

conscious of conserving resources and options for future generations.

Non-renewable resources, or resources which are renewed only

over long periods of time, merit special attention. We currently allow the

vicissitudes of market conditions, which are oriented toward the short term, to

determine the rate of resource development and use. (pp.12-15)

6. Questioning Demand. Rather than concentrating on simply

expanding supply to meet demand in every case, the approach of the

Conserver Society is to encourage an examination of why the demand is as

large as it is and why it appears to grow at such a rapid rate.

Attention would be directed to "planned obsolescence", a

practice which has an impact on supplies of materials as well a energy….

Going further, the Conserver Society would carefully examine

the role played by the advertising, marketing and packaging industries in

shaping demand for various primary and secondary commodities. (p. 15f)

7. The Finite World and Global Interdependence. The Conserver

Society recognizes the necessity of treating the world as finite. [Humans] must

come to terms with and live in a sustainable equilibrium with the biosphere.

(p. 16f)

17

8. Planning, Government and Corporations. [A] Conserver Society

must depend ultimately on the beliefs and attitudes of individuals. …

Nonetheless, governments have unique responsibilities; government action is

essential to any real and lasting change in the ways of a society.

Governments, as major consumers, can set an example and lead

the way in the transition to a Conserver Society. … As producers,

governments in a Conserver Society would restrain their own tendencies to

growth, and would refrain from promoting the use of their services…. Here,

just as in the advertising of commercial products, one must draw a fine line

between the role of advertising to inform the consumer that a product or

service is available, and the persuading of the consumer that he or she has a

desperately unfulfilled need.

Consider the building of luxury hotels, extensive convention

centres, the growing amount of business-related airline travel, expensive and

well-furnished office buildings. We pays for all of this? Who decides that

society's resources should be allocated in this fashion? … [D]ecisions are

taken to erect expensive monuments (office buildings) knowing that

corporations or governments will lease the space at the prevailing costs and

that there exists the ability to pass on to the taxpayer and/or the consumer the

cost of such office space. … The ability to pass on the cost of such activities to

"other" segments of society means that the market system does not serve its

function of properly allocating resources.

Decisions to buy products in the market place give rise to other

decisions which the original consumer never considered and over which he or

she has no control. The corporation can plan to hold an annual sales meeting

in a remote vacation setting, send people to all parts of the globe, lease and

lavishly furnish expensive office space, embark on a expensive advertising

campaign with the knowledge that these costs can be passed on to the final

consumer. (pp. 17-22)

Conclusions. The transition to a Conserver Society does not mean that

we are going into a period of austerity and shortages. In fact, it is the reverse.

Only by adopting a more rational and conserving approach to the common

18

energy, resource, and environmental pool which sustains us all, can we ensure

a continuing high standard of living for future generations. (p. 22)

Different Designs of a Conserver Society.

While many researchers developed reports about the Conserver Society, the most

extensive and intensive work came from GAMMA, a think-tank at the University of

Montreal and McGill University. Under a contract with fourteen departments and

agencies of the national government of Canada, they produced four-volumes of

technical papers written by fifteen experts from different disciplines. They also wrote

several summary reports. The following examples of a Conserver Society come from

a book titled The Conserver Society: A workable alternative for the future, published

by Harper and Row, a highly-respected American publisher, in 1979 (authored by

Kimon Valaskakis, Peter S. Sindell, J. Graham Smith and Iris Fitzpatrick-Martin, with

an introduction by Alexander King).

Based upon the initial work of the Science Council of Canada, outlined above, and its

own research, the GAMMA group determined that there were seven assumptions that

should under gird the specifications of a Conserver Society (pp. 90-93):

1. Conservation is a means to an end, not an end in itself. The end is

human fulfillment in harmony with nature.

2. Human happiness depends on a balance between needs and

commodities. Happiness is a commodity for every true need.

3. In a throughput process, it is not possible to "economize" all inputs

simultaneously. Whenever we use less of one input, we use more of at least

one other.

4. There are many selection criteria. Most commonly, they are based

on economic, environmental, or value considerations, or a combination of all

three.

5. There are several variations of Conserver Societies.

Focusing on the "throughputs" used by societies to achieve differing growth

and development options, the GAMMA team produced five models of a Conserver

Society:

19

The status quo, characterized by the slogan, "doing more with

more," which we can call CS0 (Conserver Society Zero).

CS1 (Conserver Society Model 1), which stresses growth by the

phrase, "Doing more with less."

CS2 (Conserver Society Model 2), the affluent or high-level

stable state best characterized by the phrase, "doing the same with less."

CS3, the post-industrial conserver society, in which we would

learn to "do less with less and do something else." CS3 is the most radical of

the conserver options and would require substantial value change.

CS-1, the squander or anti-conserver society, whose creed is

"do less with more." (p. 3)

6. The Conserver Society options must be both site specific and culture

specific. They must be ideally suited to their environment and culture. What is

best for Pasadena, California may not be best for Contre-Coeur, Quebec.

7. The Conserver Society must be made compatible with the goal of

reducing income inequalities both nationally and internationally.

20

Five Alternative Models of a Conserver Society. "Insincerity"

By Kim Sowol (1902-1934) I know how you want to ask about thinking it over again,

with, What exactly was it you could not believe, but today, this moment,

its cruelty invisible to our eyes, what use is it to say a heart

like water has flowed away and vanished?

Black clouds that linger at the base of the hill, mountain deer calling so piteously,

I would bring them to my heart and embrace them. But the tide falls, night grows dark,

no way to know where the anchor was let go. Only the trade on the streets of the town,

all done on credit, the letting and the getting. In Azaleas, David R. McCann, Trans. Columbia U Press, 2007, p. 166

Conserver Society Zero (CS0)

Key Concepts:

Continued Economic Growth

Continuous Inefficient Production and Consumption

Doing More with More

Conserver Society Zero is basically the status quo. It is the world of the 1970s when

Canada was confidentially growing in every way--through high fertility, high

immigration, expanded agricultural and industrial production, and the early stages of a

full-fledged Consumer Society. There is no concern about conservation, efficiency, or

anything that gets in the way of continuous growth in the production and consumption

of goods. Resources are considered limitless and the Earth is believed to be able

endlessly to absorb and naturally recycle the waste products of these human

processes. All boats rise as the economy continues to grow.

Conserver Society Model 1 (CS1)

Key Concepts:

Growth with Conservation

Efficiency and Expansion

Doing More with Less

Conserver Society One is aware of the limits to growth, and is designed to change

people's behavior whether or not they change their values. While it is desirable for

people to want to be thrifty and save resources, it is also assumed they will want to

21

have a growing economy. Since there is so much waste in the existing Consumer

Society, the goal of Conserver Society One is to design the economy so that there is

growth without waste--expansion through efficiency. By being more efficient and less

wasteful, steady growth can be maintained with less use of energy and other

resources, thus doing more with less.

If anything, the Conserver Society One is a return to a world driven by the original

Protestant Ethic made famous by Max Weber. It was the Protestant Ethic that was the

key to ending the endless poverty of the European Middle Ages and enabling the

world of continuous economic growth of modern capitalism. Before the Protestant

Reformation, the Roman Catholic Church taught that work was a curse for Adam and

Eve having defied God in the Garden of Eden. Work is a penalty for sin. Thus work is

something to be avoided and endured at best. Protestants, on the other hand, believed

that individual initiative, entrepreneurship, progress, economic growth and wealth

were all signs of God's approval.

Catholics stressed the biblical saying that warned it is as hard for a rich man to enter

into the Kingdom of Heaven as it is for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle. It

is far better to be righteously poor than greedily rich.

Protestants, on the other hand, focused on the biblical story of the man who gave an

equal sum of money to each of his three sons. One son spent it, which was bad; one

buried it, which was better; but one invested it and ended up with much more than he

had been given. That was behavior that God approved. Under any circumstance,

showing off one's wealth is reprehensible, and merely hiding it away like a miser is

not much better. Instead of either stuffing one's money under a mattress, or spending

it away on frivolous consumer products--big cars and big houses stuffed to

overflowing with goods--the poorest as well as the wealthiest person should reinvest

whatever they have so that not only they personally but the society as a whole will

grow and prosper. Conspicuous consumption is to be avoided above all else.

Conserver Society One can come in two forms: The traditional Anglo-American

version of the Protestant Ethic which stresses individual entrepreneurship guided by

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Adam Smith's Invisible Hand, or a French, statist version with efficiency-directed

central planning leading the way.

There are six primary components to the design of Conserver Society One:

1. Reform of Inefficient Consumption = RICH, whereby riches accrue

from the increase of efficiency and the reduction of waste in production and

consumption. CS1 focuses on efficiency in water, electricity, heating and

cooling fuels, and gasoline consumption. It penalizes waste in packaging,

mandates recycling, and uses waste from one system as a resource in another

whenever possible.

2. Sharing by Renting. Renting reducing the demand for new products

by promoting more efficient use of existing ones; favors the production of

durable goods of high quality and penalizes planned-obsolescence; allows

more people to have a higher standard of living by sharing in the use of

products; and encourages a diverse but equitable society with minimal

differences between the richest and the poorest. The rental of apartments in

energy and resource efficient condominiums is favored over the urban sprawl

of privately owned homes.

The ownership of rented goods can be in the community as a

whole, probably meaning the state; in corporations (such as rental cars now);

in a co-operative; or by an efficient mixed of those three, with private

ownership of some personal items, of course.

There are disadvantages: the rental period should coincide with

each use period so that items are not idle for long periods; on the other hand,

all items can't be in full use at all times or there would be a "nightmare of

traffic jams, pollution, and energy waste." Rental locations may also be

inconvenient and transfer times lengthy, and people may be more likely to

take better care of things they own than things they rent.

3. Better Time Management. Wasted time means wasted resources.

Rush hour traffic and downtown buildings that stand empty at nights and

weekends are examples. Staggered work hours, blurring the distinction

between night and day and week days and week ends, and greater use of fees

for piecework rather than salaries for time spent, are all possible solutions.

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4. Conserver Technology. Ideally, the relation between humans and the

environment via technology would produce no waste, no pollution, and no

unused byproducts. That is not possible, but that should be the goal. This

means that some earlier technologies might come into use again, but it mainly

means new, high-tech devices that better achieve these aims are designed,

produced and used.

5. Full-Cost Pricing. At the present time, there is a vested interest in

being wasteful. More products must be produced and consumed if they are

used inefficiently and wear out quickly. More importantly, at the present time,

the cost of pollution, environmental degradation, resources depletion, and

recycling are not reckoned in the selling price of virtually any product.

Economists call these "externalities" and ignore them. Full-cost pricing would

include these costs into the cost of all products since society must pay the cost,

one way or another, at a later time. The people who enjoy the use of a product,

and not future generations who do not, should bear the full costs. Perversely,

at the present time, resource-consuming industries can write off resource

depletion from their taxes as well! Better they be taxed, and that the

consumer's cost reflect the depletion instead.

6. An Optimum-Mix Economy. Conserver Society One is neither a

full-market nor a command economy. It promotes the judicious mix of

communal guidance and individual initiative and profit. It is absolutely false

to say that conservation is anti-business, or that conservation is "too costly" to

engage in at this time because it lowers profits and displaces workers. Quite to

the contrary, there are tremendous new business and labor opportunities in

conservation of all kinds--energy, recycling, new resources and new

technologies, new forms of packaging, marketing and advertising appropriate

to a Conserver One Society, and many more.

There is also a role for the state. If business does not account

for externalities, government must. Moreover the market is often unreliable.

Monopolies or oligopolies distort true market prices. Some activities have

historical subsidies or price indexing, and in general, where advertising reigns,

there is insufficient and distorted information about products and their true

costs. Often there is a lag in prices so that the price of an exhaustible resource

increases too late to save the resource from exhaustion. And sometime the cost

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or risk of a socially-valuable activity seems to require governmental

intervention. In all of these cases the government has an affirmative role to

play. At the same time, the state also will have to continue to perform its duty

of preserving individual liberties and safeguarding the rights of minorities in

relation to the overall needs and preferences of society.

Principles that will be used to determine the optimum-mix economy

include that whoever can do the job most efficiently should perform it. When

the state plays an active role, should it be at the local, provincial, or federal

level? In terms of modes of intervention, the state should first encourage

desired behavior through moral suasion. When that is not enough, it should

use a carrot-and-stick approach including tax credits, subsidies, or interest-free

loans along with surtaxes and penalties. When even that is not enough, the

government must regulate the activity directly--or perhaps even undertake it as

a governmental function. In general the first two modes are preferred over the

third.

Conserver Society Model 2 (CS2) From "The Country Life"

By Ch'a Ch'on-no (1556-1615)

To exercise my talent or leave my mark, That is not my intention, not at all.

What is a name? What is a rank? I would rather view Mt. Shang and follow

The way of the four bearded sages. Riches are not for me.

Among mountains and rivers, Among the ravines and pine woods, I build A grass-roofed hut with a brushwood door.

…. Above all, I endorse a calm and simple life-- Thus will I live, and live ten thousand years.

in Poems from Korea, Peter H. Lee. U. Hawaii, 1974, p. 109f

Key Concepts:

An Affluent Stable State

Moderation is the Ultimate Virtue

Do the Same with Less

While CS1 is based on efficiency, it still encourages economic growth and wealth

accumulation. CS2 is based on the belief that there should be limits to growth and to

the accumulation of wealth and consumer products. The challenge is to determine at

what point there has been "enough" growth and from then on that a steady-state, no-

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growth economy is preferable. It is also necessary to recognize that some things

should stop while others continue growing for a while.

The necessity of limiting growth is well illustrated by a story told by Tuzo Wilson,

the Canadian geophysicist famous for his theory of plate tectonics and continental

drift, and Director of the Ontario Science Centre. He asks us to imagine that we

decide that the ideal growth rate for a human is 50% per year. So if a male baby is

born weighing 8 pounds, by his first birthday he weighs 12 pounds, by his third he

weighs 18 (and so would be considered very small), by four years old he weighs 27

and by five he is 41 pounds--and doing very well. However, if he continues at this

rate of growth, he weighs 60 pounds at age six, 90 pounds at 7, 135 pounds at 8, and

200 pounds at age 9, and is now turning into a monster. Clearly, we expect a person

to stop growing at such a high rate and ideally to achieve a steady-state. "We do not

point an accusing finger at a thirty-year old adult and call him 'a no-growth human''',

Wilson points out, so why can we not also understand that economies eventually

reach a desirable size and should strive to maintain it from then on, rather than to

grow endlessly? (p. 171f)

This is the CS2 principle of "doing the same with less." It embraces Zero Artificial

Needs Growth--ZANG; Zero Industrial Growth--ZIG; Zero Urban Growth--ZUG;

Zero Energy Growth--ZEG and, very importantly, Zero Population Growth--ZPG. In

such a stable situation, since there is general affluence for everyone, labor takes only

a fraction of the time it takes now so that people are able to spend more time with

family and friends--or merely become introspective and reflective. In a stationary

state, no one is poor and no one desires to become rich--certainly not obviously richer

than anyone else!

ZANG distinguishes true needs from artificial ones, and both true and artificial from

harmful needs. It does not encourage the development of artificial needs by seductive

advertising, marketing, and packaging, and it of course does not permit the

encouragement harmful needs at all. While all advertising provoking unnecessary

consumption is discouraged, balanced, fair, and accurate information about products

is permitted, and desirable.

26

Typically, economic growth has been justified because population has been growing.

The economy has to grow to keep up with the growing population. Therefore the key

to CS2 is zero population growth. It may be necessary to have minus population

growth--that is to say, depopulation--for a while in order to bring down the population

to the level it can be easily sustained by zero economic growth and a healthier,

rejuvenated environment.

"Moderation" is the key virtue. "Enough is enough." More is generally not better. CS2

seeks optimum growth, optimum wealth, optimum population, which is somewhere

between maximum and minimum levels.

Conserver Society Model 3 (CS3) "Mountain Hut"

By Cho Chi-hun (1920-1968)

By the closed brushwood door, Petals tremble.

The hut, lapped by clouds,

Echoes the stream's limpid voice.

The orchid leaves shudder, Wet by the sweet rain,

And the honey bees swing by The sun-flared paper screen.

Stubborn rocks sit still,

Proud of their slick moss.

Amid a wind's faint ripples, The ferns curl their tendrils.

in Poems from Korea, Peter H. Lee, U Hawaii, 1974, p. 177f

Key Concepts:

"The Buddhist Scenario"

Being, not Buying

Do Less with Less, and Doing Something Else.

The patron saint of CS3 is E. F. Schumacher, author of the world famous book, Small

is Beautiful. He believed in what he called "the Buddhist Scenario", stating "The

Buddhist sees the essence of civilization not in a multiplication of wants but in the

purification of human character." (p. 205) The aim of CS3 is neither efficient

economic growth nor an affluent stable state. It is to refocus our lives on spiritual

growth and development. In the terms of Tuzo Wilson's analogy, the thirty year old

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man does not keep growing in weight, but grows instead in maturity, understanding,

wisdom and enlightenment.

Whether CS3 is truly "Buddhist" or not is not the point. Rather it was chosen by

Schumacher and others as a way of getting Westerners to consider a completely

different purpose of life, and style of life, from the Conserver Society of the time. In

contrast to CS2, CS3 has three principle strategies: Negative Artificial Needs Growth-

-NAG; Negative Industrial Growth (that is, deindustrialization)--NIG; and Negative

Urban Growth (that is, a return to a sustainable agrarian society)--NUG.

CS3 argues that if we do not adopt these strategies voluntarily, humans numbers and

activities will overshoot the carrying capacity of Earth, and we will be forced to return

to earlier ways of life whether we like it or not.

The values of CS3 distinguish between "appropriate technology" and "inappropriate

technology", and between "alienating technology" and "technology on a human

scale". It facilitates local self-sufficiency and the satisfaction of basic subsistence

needs in small rural communities, enabling "right livelihood" which is work that will

enable each of us to develop our own unique qualities while helping us overcome our

egos by participating in meaningful and necessary communal tasks. Working will not

be separated from living and leisure since the pace of life will be steady, slow, and

enjoyable.

This is the way of Voluntary Simplicity, with the slogan, "live simply so others may

simply live." Health and happiness abounds in such a world with all human needs--

biological, social, and psychological--in harmony.

False measures of the satisfaction and achievement, such as GNP which counts

income from "bad" things equal to the income from "good" ones while ignoring many

factors that are not quantified (such as the unpaid labor of mothers and housewives)

will be replaced by true Quality of Life--QOL--measures.

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The Squander Society (CS-1) "The Toksu Palace"

By Cho Pyong-hwa (1921--??)

A butterfly reels away from the trampled lawn by the lake.

A bronze seal spouts water from its mouth

in the garden of the marble building.

A tramp is taking a fitful nap in the shadow of wisteria vines.

Wastepaper, cigarette butts, chewing gum

strewn on the ground by the Sunday crowd.

With dull movements A weary old widow cleans up the mess.

Fading azaleas.

Disillusion.

A dreary feeling weighs upon the peony garden in the Toksu palace.

The trampled lawn by the lake--

little lances of gleaming light. in Poems from Korea, Peter H. Lee. U Hawaii, 1974, p. 178f

Key Concepts:

Conserver Society Minus One

The More Activity the Better, Even if it is Wasteful

Do Less with More (in order to stimulate ever-increasing production)

In order to contrast the three versions of a Conserver Society with the current

situation, the GAMMA group posited the characteristics of a Squander Society. Its

three underlying assumptions are that waste not only is not bad, it is positively good;

that the environment is an endless source of resources and repository for our garbage;

and that only the present is worthy of consideration: let the future take care of itself.

Under these circumstances, any attempt to restrain any kind of economic activity in

the name of environmental protection or in the interests of future generations is

rejected. Two reasons are usually given: 1) These restrictions will negatively impact

jobs, individual initiative, and economic growth. 2) The free-market is better at taking

care of these concerns than is governmental policy. Indeed, the more wasteful a

society is, the greater are the employment opportunities since new goods and services

will be needed to replace the old ones.

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The Squander Society requires full employment, insisting that all people work even if

their labor is not needed. Thus numerous fictitious jobs are created with pay as low as

possible. Their purpose is to keep people disciplined, diverted, and in debt, even

though their labor is not actually needed. These jobs are of course shed as soon as

there is an economic downturn. By contrast, in the Conserver Society, each task that

is truly required should be performed as efficiently and economically as possible.

In a Squander Society when production exceeds the purchasing power of workers (as

it inevitably will), one solution is the creation of easy consumer credit, so that

artificial needs still can be created and then satisfied by artificial money. A penny

saved is a penny not spent, and thus wasted, according to the values of a Squander

Society. The limits to consumer debt soon become apparent in a Squander Society,

and so the economy becomes one of endless booms and busts fueled by new and ever

more complex debt instruments, until the house of cards finally collapses for good.

Conclusions about the Conserver Society Project.

It is clear that the Conserver Society Project of the Science Council of Canada was an

extraordinary intellectual and political feat. It is impressive in its scope and intention.

Among its most important features is the fact that alternative models of what a

"Conserver Society" could mean were explored in such detail.

However, the project ended in 1978, and from the early 1980s Canada and the rest of

the world embarked on a period of economic activities that exceeded even the

description of the Squander Society in many ways. That period ended with the

collapse of the global fiscal system in 2008 and may or may not be able to recover--

even if such a recovery is desired. Untitled

by Kim Yuk (1580-1658) Be sure to invite me

When your good wine is brewed. I shall certainly invite you

If flowers bloom in my arbor. We shall discuss, then, how to live

A hundred years without worry. in Poems from Korea, Peter H. Lee. U Hawaii, 1974, p. 124

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III. FROM THEN TO NOW: 1970s COMPARED TO 2009

In the remainder of this report, we seek to make it clear that it is now urgent for Korea

and all parts of the world to take the collapse of the old system as an opportunity to

re-envision its future by undertaking nationwide, citizen- and expert-based activities

similar to those of the Conserver Society Project. However, it is important to realize

that although the Consumer Society perspective has dominated the past 40 years,

there have always been voices in opposition and warning. They have largely gone

unheeded in most parts of the world, though now their message seems to be more

significant and urgent than ever.

A Sampling of Warnings from 2009-1970s.

What follows is a sample of warnings about the pathologies of the Consumer Society

that have been made in widely respected publications from the 1970s to the present.

They are given here in reverse chronological order, from the most recent, to those of

the 1970s.

1. "Climatologists tend to fall into two camps: there are the cautious ones who say we need to cut emissions and won't even think about high global temperatures; and there are the ones who tell us to run for the hills because we're all doomed," says Peter Cox, who studies the dynamics of climate systems at the University of Exeter, UK. "I prefer a middle ground. We have to accept that changes are inevitable and start to adapt now." In order to survive, humans may need to…rethink our society not along geopolitical lines but in terms of resource distribution. "We are locked into a mindset that each country has to be self-sustaining in food, water and energy," Cox says. "We need to look at the world afresh and see it in terms of where the resources are, and then plan the population, food and energy production around that." "I would like to be optimistic that we'll survive, but I've got no good reason to be," says Paul Crutzen [of the Max Plank Institute, Germany]. "In order to be safe, we would have to reduce our carbon emissions by 70 per cent by 2015. We are currently putting in 3 per cent more each year." Gaia Vince, "How to survive the coming century", New Scientist, February 25, 2009

2. The world is only at the beginning of a depression that will last for quite a while and will get far worse than it is now. The immediate issue for governments is not how to recover but how to survive the growing popular anger they are all, without exception, facing.

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Immanuel Wallerstein, "The Politics of Economic Disaster", Commentary No. 251, Feb. 15, 2009

3. If it is not apparent to you yet, it will be soon: there is no magic

bullet for this economic crisis, no magic bailout package, no magic stimulus. We have woven such a tangled financial mess with subprime mortgages wrapped in complex bonds and derivatives, pumped up with leverage, and then globalized to the far corners of the earth that, much as we want to think this will soon be over, that is highly unlikely…. We are going to have to learn to live with a lot more uncertainty for a lot longer than our generation has ever experienced. We keep pouring money into the dark banking hole of this crisis, desperately hoping that we will hear it hit bottom and start to pile up. But so far, as hard as we listen, we can’t hear a thing. And so we keep pouring ….

Thomas, Friedman, "Elvis Has Left the Mountain" <http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/01/opinion/01friedman.html?th&emc=th>

4. Q: Do we have time…to save ourselves from climate change? A: Not a hope in hell. Most of the "green" stuff is verging on a gigantic

scam. Carbon trading, with its huge government subsidies, is just what finance and industry wanted. It's not going to do a damn thing about climate change, but it'll make a lot of money for a lot of people and postpone the moment of reckoning. I don't think humans react fast enough or are clever enough to handle what's coming up. Kyoto was 11 years ago. Virtually nothing's been done except endless talk and meetings. James Lovelock in interview with Gaia Vince, "One last chance to save mankind" New Scientist January 23, 2009

5. The planet is now so vandalised that only total energy renewal can save us. It may be too late. But without radical action, we will be the generation that saved the banks and let the biosphere collapse. George Monbiot, The Guardian, Tuesday November 25 2008

6. Gerald Celente, the CEO of Trends Research Institute, is renowned for his accuracy in predicting future world and economic events. Celente says that by 2012 America will become an undeveloped nation, that there will be a revolution marked by food riots, squatter rebellions, tax revolts and job marches, and that holidays will be more about obtaining food, not gifts.

Joseph Watson, "Celente Predicts Revolution, Food Riots, Tax Rebellions By 2012," Thursday, November 13, 2008 <http://www.prisonplanet.com/celente-predicts-revolution-food-riots-tax-rebellions-by-2012.html>

7. We face an ecological credit crunch far greater than the global financial crisis. The Earth's natural resources are being depleted so quickly that the equivalent of two planets would be required to sustain current lifestyles by the mid-2030s.

"Disastrous 'eco crunch' threatens planet," New Scientist, October 29, 2008 <http://environment.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn15063&print=true>

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8. "The government in March stopped publishing the figure that measures the extent of America's money supply, possibly because by some estimates the financial risk exposure in the global markets for leveraged derivatives now stands at a sum somewhere in the vicinity of $60 trillion, four times the size of the American economy."

Harper's Magazine, November 2007, p. 9 9. On September 7, 2006, Nouriel Roubini, an economics professor at

New York University, stood before an audience of economists at the International Monetary Fund and announced that a crisis was brewing. In the coming months and years, he warned, the United States was likely to face a once-in-a-lifetime housing bust, an oil shock, sharply declining consumer confidence and, ultimately, a deep recession. He laid out a bleak sequence of events: homeowners defaulting on mortgages, trillions of dollars of mortgage-backed securities unraveling worldwide and the global financial system shuddering to a halt. These developments, he went on, could cripple or destroy hedge funds, investment banks and other major financial institutions like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The audience seemed skeptical, even dismissive. The United States will likely muddle through the crisis but will emerge from it a different nation, with a different place in the world. "Once you run current-account deficits, you depend on the kindness of strangers," he said, pausing to let out a resigned sigh. "This might be the beginning of the end of the American empire."

Stephen Mihm, "Dr. Doom," The New York Times Magazine, August 15, 2008 10. We've taken the past 200 years of prosperity for granted. Humanity's progress is stalling, we are facing a new era of decay, and nobody is clever enough to fix it. Bryan Appleyard, "Waiting for the lights to go out", The Sunday Times Magazine October 16, 2005 <http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2099-1813695,00.html>

11. Growth is eventually detrimental to human well-being and, as a consequence, a steady-state economy is a long-run necessity; a steady-state economy can accommodate the requirements of a capitalist system; (...). As such, there is no reason why a steady-state economy and a democratic-capitalist system should not thrive in each other's presence. Phil Lawn, "Is a democratic-capitalist system compatible with a low-growth or steady-state economy? Socio-Economic Review, May 2005

12. The airline industry has no future. The same is true for airfreight.

No air carrier has a viable plan to make a profit with oil at current prices—much less in years to come as the petroleum available to world markets dwindles rapidly. That’s not to say that jetliners will disappear overnight, but rather that the cheap flights we’ve seen in the past will soon be fading memories. In a few years jet service will be available only to the wealthy, or to the government and military.

Richard Heinberg, "Saying goodbye to air travel," 2008-05-14 <http://www.richardheinberg.com/blog>

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13. "After 40 years, I'm part of a huge community of scientists who

have become alarmed with our discovery that if we continue our present growth path, we are facing extinction," Professor Peter Barrett said, "Not in millions of years, or even millennia, but by the end of this century."

"Human extinction within 100 years warns scientist," Wednesday, November 17, 2004 <http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/print/0,1478,3099128a10,00.html>

14. When the chief economist at Morgan Stanley says we have a one-in-10 chance of avoiding economic Armageddon, one tends to take notice. When America's second-largest creditor tells us to get our economic house in order the same week, two points begin to determine a line. But the Bush administration has not so much as flinched. When GOP strategists are asked, "Where do we go from here?" they answer, "toward an economic 9/11."

Patrick C. Doherty, "Quo Vadis: Playing For Keeps," December 2, 2004, TomPaine.com <http://www.tompaine.com/print/quo_vadis_playing_for_keeps.php>

15. With its rising budget deficit and ballooning trade imbalance, the United States is running up a foreign debt of such record-breaking proportions that it threatens the financial stability of the global economy, according to a report released Wednesday by the International Monetary Fund. Prepared by a team of I.M.F. economists, the report sounded a loud alarm about the shaky fiscal foundation of the United States, questioning the wisdom of the Bush administration's tax cuts and warning that large budget deficits pose "significant risks" not just for the United States but for the rest of the world.

Elizabeth Becker and Edmund L. Andrews, "I.M.F. Says Rise in U.S. Debts Is Threat to World's Economy", New York Times, January 8, 2004

16. "This year [2002], more people will end up bankrupt than will suffer a heart attack. More adults will file for bankruptcy than will be diagnosed with cancer. More people will file for bankruptcy than will graduate from college. And, in an era when traditionalists decry the demise of the institution of marriage, Americans will file more petitions for bankruptcy than for divorce." "Having a child is the single best predictor of bankruptcy." Elizabeth Warren and Amelia Tyagi, The Two-Income Trap: Why Middle-Class Mothers and Fathers Are Going Broke, New York: Basic Books, 2003.

17. "I think the odds are no better than 50-50 that our present

civilization on Earth will survive to the end of the present century". Sir Martin Rees (Royal Society Research Professor at Cambridge University), author of Our final hour: A scientist's warning: How terror, error, and environmental disaster threaten humankind's future in this century--on earth and beyond. Penguin 2003.

18. "An Armageddon is approaching at the beginning of this century. But it is not the cosmic war and fiery collapse of mankind foretold in sacred scripture. It is the wreckage of the planet by an exuberantly plentiful and

34

ingenious humanity. The race is now on between the technoscientific forces that are destroying the living environment and those that can be harnessed to save it." "To pass through the bottleneck, a global land ethic is urgently needed."

Edward O. Wilson, The Future of Life. New York: Knopf, 2002

19. Governments are no longer interested in global environmental issues.... Climate change seems very far away. Only local pollution problems concern them, and economics dominates everything. Industry is all that matters at the minute.

Fred Pearce, "Cold shoulder for climate research," New Scientist, May 25,1996,

20. In 1981, before the American budget and current-account deficits started to balloon, the net investment position was a positive $140.9 billion, the Commerce Department said. As recently as 1984, the United States was a net creditor to the rest of the world by about $3.3 billion. The United States, already the world's largest debtor, sank an additional $154.2 billion into the red last year [1988] as foreign money poured in to plug the nation's balance-of-payments gap. The value of foreign investments in the United States, ranging from stocks to factories, exceeded American investments abroad by $532.5 billion at the end of 1988, up from $378.3 billion a year earlier, the Commerce Department said last week.

"US a bigger debtor nation," New York Times, July 4, 1989 <http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=950DE6D91F39F937A35754C0A96F948260>

21. The unprecedented international imbalances of the first half of the 1980s have fundamentally altered the structure of the world economy. The United States, the creator of the postwar economic system and home of the world’s key currency, has become the largest debtor nation ever known to mankind—and its red ink will continue to flow at least into the 1990s. Japan, widely viewed as a developing country only a generation ago, has become by far the largest creditor.

C. Fred Bergsten, "Economic imbalances and world politics," Foreign Affairs, Spring 1987.

22. Over the more than four-and-a-half billion years since the

formation of the planet Earth, its climate has remained remarkably stable, and has apparently sustained life for about four billion of those years. Throughout that long period the oceans and the atmosphere have maintained an uneasy equilibrium; the sun has been a sufficiently steady source of heat so that the oceans have neither boiled their water away into space nor frozen down to the equator--fates that many other planets and satellites of the solar system have suffered.

Within roughly the last 50 years a new factor has been added--the activities of man himself. A growing accumulation of evidence has persuaded most of the scientific community that human activity may be contributing to a substantial change in the Earth's climate on a global scale. In particular, large-scale consumption of fossil fuels (coal, petroleum and natural gas) is leading

35

to an accumulation of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, which if continued appears likely to increase the average surface temperature of the Earth by several degrees over the next 50 to 70 years. And the release into the atmosphere of other gases arising from human activity may add significantly to this overall "greenhouse effect."

William Kellogg and Robert Schware, "Society, Science and Climate Change, Foreign Affairs, Summer 1982

23. There is a question in the air, a question so disturbing that I would

hesitate to ask it aloud did I not believe it existed unvoiced in the minds of many: “Is there hope for Man?” Robert Heilbroner, An Inquiry into the Human Prospect. W. W. Norton, 1974

24. Our conclusions are these:

1. If present trends in world population, industrialization, pollution, food production, and resource deletion continue unchanged, the limits to growth on this planet will be reached sometime within the next one hundred years. The most probable result will be a rather sudden and uncontrollable decline in both population and industrial capacity.

2. It is possible to alter these growth trends and to establish a condition of ecological and economic stability that is sustainable far into the future. Donella Meadows, et al., The Limits to Growth. Universe Books, 1972

25. We stand at an extraordinary point in man's social development. Really, for the first time, we are beginning to be in a position to devise, intentionally, the style of life in which we believe we should live, instead of having to accept society as we find it.

Gordon Rattray Taylor, Rethink: A paraprimitive solution. Dutton, 1972

26. "We believe the optimum population for the world is unlikely to be

above 3,500 million (ie., US 3.5 billion) and is likely to be a good deal less". Edward Goldsmith, et al., editors of the Ecologist, A Blueprint for

survival. Middlesex, UK: Penguin Books, 1972, p. 47

27. We are living now in the first stages of a planetary crisis. It is the first such known crisis in the history of the planet. … The crisis is of planetary scope because the danger is not confined to any part of the planet; the patterns of behavior that generate the crisis are created by the scale of production and lifestyle in the most advanced industrial societies…. An adequate response eventually requires a new pattern of organization and coordination that needs to encompass the entire planet. Richard Falk, This endangered planet: Prospects and proposals for human survival. Random House 1971

36

Summary of Differences Between the 1970s and 2009.

[Note: See Appendix B for a bibliography supporting the following statements]

Some Major Challenges Now Compared to the 1970s:

Population. The Korean and global population is vastly larger now than it was

in 1970. At the same time, fertility is very low and dropping in Korea. Continued

global population growth increasingly threatens the ability of Earth to support humans

at all, while decreasing Korean population challenges conventional economic theories

and practices based on continued population growth. In 1970, many humans lived in

self-sufficient rural, agricultural communities. Now most live in highly-dependent and

increasingly-crowded urban areas. Adequate housing is a growing challenge.

End of Oil. More than half of the oil available in the Earth has already been

used up within just 100 years. Thus while there will be temporary dips, the price of oil

will rise very sharply overall as demand increases and supplies drop. This fact is one

of the most important to bear in mind: in the economic downturns of the last 200 plus

years of the modern era, there were always abundant energy sources waiting to be

called upon to get the productive engines turning again. This is not the case now and

for the foreseeable future. Even if we somehow were to have once again the wealth

necessary to spend to achieve renewed economic growth, we do not have the

abundant and cheap energy sources required to renew and sustain such growth.

End of Other Conventional Fuels. It is not the case that there are abundant

energy sources in existence that can quickly and efficiently replace oil. Shortages of

coal and fissile material for nuclear power plants also loom, while the increased

burning of fossil fuel sources contributes even more massively to an already over-

burdened and severely-threatened environment.

No Energy Alternatives. Moreover, while many sustainable alternatives to

fossil fuels exist in principle, none exist now in anything remotely approaching

sufficient amounts and rates of efficiency to replace oil. It will take time, money, and

energy to develop them. Thus a serious "gap" between the effective "end of oil" and

37

the emergence of effective alternative sources may emerge. How many years that gap

might be is uncertain, but it might be very long indeed.

Net Energy. One of the most important points to know and remember when

assessing energy futures is "EROI" (Energy Return on Investment) or "Net Energy".

In order for an energy source to replace oil, it must equal or surpass the ability of oil

to generate almost more energy than it consumes. At the present time, there is no

alternative energy system even near the efficiency of oil. All current alternatives

require a substantial energy subsidy from oil--and as oil itself gets more and more

scarce, its own net energy efficiency will get worse and worse. Be skeptical of claims

of new sources replacing oil. Find out what the EROI is before embracing it too

enthusiastically.

Global climate change is real, serious, and ongoing. The fact that most nations

have refused to do anything about either the causes or consequences of global climate

change, including sea-level rise, simply means that the challenge for current and

future generations to deal with them will be greater and greater. The longer nations

continue to waste their time, talent, and wealth on consumer-driven Continued

Economic Growth, and refuse to consider and move towards some kind of a

Conserver Society, the fewer will be the options available to humanity, and the

severity of the resulting calamity.

Food Shortages. There was great concern in the 1970s about food shortages.

Worldwide famine was predicted. While there were indeed many pockets of serious

famine and deaths, the Green Revolution of genetically-modified plants, and vastly-

increased industrial agriculture, postponed the days of reckoning for several decades.

For a while there were food surpluses. Now the specter of food scarcity has arisen

once again. Humans in the industrialized and industrializing nations of the world

basically eat oil. Without massive oil-burning processes and oil-based pesticides and

fertilizers (along with biologically-modified foods), the predicted famines would have

occurred long ago. Now, as we approach an era of oil and other energy shortages and

higher prices, humanity edges closer and closer to the possibility of global food

shortages again. Local food security must become a major concern for all

communities, large or small.

38

Water Shortages. Similarly, potable water sources are becoming more and

more polluted, and harder and harder to access. As long as there is ample cheap

energy, we can perhaps dig deeper, decontaminate, and otherwise find and create

drinkable water. But since energy will be increasingly scarce and expensive, obtaining

pure water will become an increasingly important matter, and source of conflict.

Water and air are life's two most essential resources, and both are in decreasingly

affordable supply to more and more humans.

New and Renewed Diseases. While many of the old diseases that plagued

humanity were contained and thought eliminated in the 19th and 20th centuries,

careless use of medicines and new environments for vectors as a consequence of

global warming and sea level rise may wipe out past victories at the same time new

health challenges, such as HIV/AIDS, Ebola, and Avian flu pandemics, threaten.

Increased Threat of Nuclear, Biological, and Space-Based Warfare. While

most wars of the future are expected to be small scale and local, involving "terrorists"

of one kind or another, the possibility of globally-threatening nuclear warfare has

actually increased as the number of bomb-possessing nations has increased.

Biological warfare remains so far only a possibility, but a grave one, and the

likelihood of weaponizing space also increases as the number of space-faring nations

increases over the 21st Century.

From an Industrial Society to a Consumer Society. Even though the Canadian

Conserver Society project specifically stated that it sought to convert Canada from a

Consumer Society to a Conserver Society, the Canadian economy, as well as the

economy of the United States, was still heavily dependent on primary and secondary

sectors of resource extraction and industrial production in the 1970s. Many people

were farmers, fishers, miners, and factory workers. A true Consumer Society where

most people were in white collar or service occupations, propped-up by ever-

increasing national, corporate and especially personal debt that enabled many people

to acquire cleverly-advertised consumer goods, was still several decades in the future.

In the 1970s, general-use credit cards with ever-rising credit limits were in their

infancy. Most people had to save their money if they wished to buy consumer

39

products, or pay so-call "lay away" installments, only acquiring the goods when all

payments were made. Governments tightly regulated airlines, railroads, banks, and

other financial institutions. Rates of taxation where very progressive. This began to

change by the very end of the 70s, and substantially so from 1980 onward. By the

time the system collapsed in 2008, the economy was different in every way from what

it had been in 1975. The engine of economic growth was now not the goods-producer,

but the goods-consumer, seduced into acquiring ever-improved products at ever-

reduced prices by downsizing and outsourcing labor, deregulating or failing to

enforce rules over fiscal, productive and related activities, and providing extravagant

and expanding lines of credit to people who often did not ask for them and who had

no ability or perhaps even intention to repay them. In brief, North Americans,

Europeans, Koreans and some others were encouraged to acquire products produced

overseas by money lent to them by people overseas. Almost all deregulated activities

thrived, but those in the financial sectors vastly more so by creating ever-more

complex debt instruments in an orgy of creativity and fiscal fantasy that finally fell

apart, bringing down the entire house of cards with it, and ruining the present and

future lives of many millions of people worldwide, with more yet to come.

Anthropocene Era. In sum, until recently, the resources of nature, and the

ability of nature to absorb and recycle the wastes of human productivity, were greater

than the ability of humans to deplete resources and produce waste. Now we live in a

world where, in effect "nature is dead". We live in an increasingly "artificial world"

that requires heroic human imagination, attention, care, and management in order to

survive. More and more human time, money, and attention must be diverted away

from the production and acquisition of consumer goods and turned towards

"governing evolution" as Walter Truett Anderson put it. Humans now live in a new

geological era of their own unintentional making that is called the "Anthropocene

Era". Humanity is now the major force controlling the future of life and death of

everything on the planet. Even though we may not be ready (intellectually and

emotionally) to take up this unique responsibility, we must attempt to do so since it

was humans who created the situation we now must manage [See Appendix C for a

bibliography on the Anthropocene Era].

40

Some Major Advantages Now Compared to the 1970s.

More Smart Humans. We have many more and much better educated and

globally-aware people. Julian Simon is correct in calling humanity the "Ultimate

Resource". Humans are a resource we have in true abundance. Very importantly

more people, especially young people, understand and embrace the challenges ahead.

They are willing and able to work for an exciting alternative to a Consumer Society.

Older people who find it difficult to accept the need for and desirability of a

Conserver Society should at least step out of the way to let younger people create

them, if they are unwilling to join them in the quest.

Models of Sustainability. While there were many people in the 1970s who

produced plausible models for new economic systems focused on sustainability and

sufficiency, we have had forty more years to refine and develop those ideas. Thus,

there is no need to start from scratch. Viable models of the economic engine of a

Conserver Society already exist and can be used and improved quickly. Indeed,

because of years of research, education, and activism, there is much greater awareness

of sustainability challenges and solutions now, even though there have been

inadequate actions taken so far.

End of Old Ideologies. In the 1970s, the attention and talent of the world was

diverted in a ridiculous "Cold War" between two competing, highly-militarized

ideologies, both focused singlemindedly on Continued Economic Growth. The

cumbersome and authoritarian Communist system collapsed almost exactly twenty

years before the chaotic, debt-burdened, global neoliberal financial system collapsed.

Both systems were unsustainable in many ways. Now that this ideological diversion

is out of the way, bright, talented and energetic people, especially young people, are

free to turn their attention away from being either commissars, quantfund wizards, or

generals to envisioning and creating viable Conserver Societies.

Rise of Asia and Islam, and the decline of Europe and North America. The

past era of global economic development along with population growth and decline

has resulted in the re-emergence of East, Southeast, and South Asia into cultures of

world-class standing and influence. Europe and North America has relatively (and in

41

population, absolutely) declined. It is unlikely that any single culture will dominate

the next 200 years the way Western civilization dominated the past 200. A new era of

cross-cultural contacts and of new cultures promises great hope for the emergence of

new ideas and processes to face the challenges of the future.

Communication Revolution. The emergence of increasingly powerful and

sophisticated communication technologies is a huge difference between 2010 and the

1970s. "High tech" in the 1970s meant vacuum tube television sets to most people.

Computers were massive cumbersome machines that actually computed something.

There were no desktops or laptops or multitasking mobile phones; no Internet, no

Google, no YouTube, no Wikipedia. Related dramatic advances in robotics and

artificial intelligence are especially important.

Biological Revolution. The idea that it would be possible to use biology as a

technology was only a crazy idea in the 1970s. Now it is an increasing powerful

technology by which we may solve energy, materials, food, communication, and

transportation challenges--as well as all those presented by the Anthropocene Era.

Space Exploration and Settlement. While it has been forty years since humans

walked on the moon, several nations plan to do so again in the coming decades, while

also planning to go to Mars shortly after. While many things could prevent that from

happening, including prolonged economic depression and energy shortages, if space

settlement does proceed it will result in new knowledge and new ideas and,

eventually, the emergence of new species of "spacekind" separate from Earthbound

"humankind" and the spread of Earth-born cultures across the inner solar system and

beyond.

The Singularity. Ray Kurzweil, Sustantha Goonilatake and many others who

focus on the convergence of robotics, artificial intelligence, artificial life, genetic

engineering, new materials, nanotechnology, space exploration and related high

technologies foresee the immanent coming of the Singularity when a world of

abundance and leisure will result. Their knowledge and optimism must also be

embraced by those envisioning alternative models of Conserver Societies. [For a

bibliography of technological optimism and anti-environmentalism, see Appendix D]

42

43

IV. CULTURAL RESOURCES IN KOREA FOR

A RENEWED CONSERVER SOCIETY

Untitled Chinsa By Sin Hum (1566-1628) …. Don't laugh, foolish people, if my Roof beams are long or short, the pillars Crooked. This snail shell, my grass hut, The vines that cover it, the encircling hills And the bright moon above, Are mine, and mine alone. in Poems from Korea, Peter H. Lee. U Hawaii, 1974, p. 121

Throughout this report, we have sprinkled Korean poems to suggest that the

desirability of a Conserver Society is deeply embedded in Korean tradition. In many

ways, the way of life of a Conserver Society is nothing new at all. What is in fact new

was the recent period of economic growth without concern about its effects upon the

environment in which we all must live, and the cultures we all cherish--and without

understanding the limits to all such growth. It is now time to consider reviving the

older, sustaining virtues once again, and to learn to live meaningful and fulfilling lives

that are not spent solely in endless acquisition, consumption, and waste.

We can excavate traces of a Conserver Society throughout Korean history in terms of

three Korean properties: a deep concern for future generations; self-fulfillment in

harmony with nature; and the virtue of moderation. Let us look at historical and

contemporary evidence that shows that Koreans cherished such a Conserver Society.

Deep concern for future generations: There is a Korean saying: "A farmer will not eat

seeds even though he starves to death". In an agricultural society, seeds signify lives

of the future while grains of rice imply lives of the present. If a farmer ate the seeds,

he would not only commit suicide in way, but also would destroy the lives of the next

generation. So, the saying connotes that a farmer has a deep concern for future

generations.

Even though we moved from an agricultural society to a post-industrial society, we

still find the farmer’s consideration for the future in our mothers’ carefulness for

children. Korean senior citizens remember the time when Korea was devastated in the

1950s and 1960s. Mothers did not eat meals as often as their children ate because

44

there was not enough food for everyone. Mothers often said to her children who

worried about their mother’s health, “I am already full by seeing you eat.”

Unfortunately, this kind of careful behavior has become threatened in affluent society.

We are in danger of becoming careless persons who eat the seeds of the future.

However, many Koreans still harbor the farmer’s mind that takes care of the next

generation by sacrificing herself. Through news media, we often hear touching stories

about senior citizens who gave huge donations to colleges as scholarships. What is

interesting about these stories is that the senior citizens are not millionaires. Most of

them earned money by selling small rice cakes or vegetables. They are so frugal that

they could save the money. In fact, what they donated is almost all the money they

saved. Why did they do this? It was because they could not get any education

themselves since they were so poor when they were young. Poverty frustrated them.

So, they want the next generation not to be discouraged by poverty. This is a good

example that Koreans show the farmer’s sacrifice for the future.

This kind of sacrifice is not the only way to take care of future generations. In the

past, Koreans developed social structures aimed at brightening the future. Dooreah,

for example, was the farmers’ cooperative system in the late Chosun Dynasty that

enabled members of a community to exchange their labors and to share what they

had. Regarding the role of Dooreah, the famous Korean writer and activist, Kee-Sook

Song (2005), asks us, “How many children miss lunch everyday in Seoul?” He

answers, “more than 100,000 children.” This is outrageous because Seoul is a highly

economically developed city. There is plenty of food for everyone. But it is sadly true

that many go hungry today.

Song argues that in the past, even poor children did not skip meals when society

followed the Dooreah tradition. When it was a year of famine, those who had food

shared it, and local governments aided the poor. The Dooreah tradition led people to

help each other by humane activities. Dooreah was not only for the current

generation’s sake, but also for the next generations who will continue to live in a

community. People wanted to transfer their humane system, Dooreah, to their

descendants. However, according to Song (2005), when Japan ruled the Korean

peninsula from 1910 to 1945, its government prohibited Koreans from organizing

45

Dooreah activities because the government worried that Koreans would use them to

protest against the Japanese government.

Dooreah evolved into a unique cultural organization. Young-Dong Bae (2005) argues

that Dooreah was not only a way to mobilize farming labor but also a way to organize

cultural activities. For example, Homissisi was a festive event that celebrated the end

of weeding. Nonmaegi was a workers’ celebration after they have transplanted young

rice plants. Dooreah was vibrant and full of fun. As Kang-Hyun Choo (2006) points

out, Dooreah is not obsolete, but rather a renewable spirit that enables contemporary

people to find a proper balance between labor and happiness that can lead Koreans to

sustainable growth.

Self-fulfillment in Harmony with Nature: When autumn returns, Koreans pick fruit

from many trees. But, as for the persimmon trees, people leave some persimmons to

let the birds eat them. Winter is just around the corner, so birds need food. The

persimmons left are called Kachi-bab. Kachi means a magpie and bab means food. In

Korea, a magpie is regarded as an auspicious bird that brings good fortune. Most

people do not seriously believe this superstition-- they just want to live in harmony

with all of nature.

As we have seen in the poems in this report, Korean ancestors stressed the importance

of enjoying their relationship with nature. Contemporary Korean people also like to

live with nature. There are many people who enjoy the slow life that looks for the real

value of living. Even though society changes faster, people enjoying the slow life

pause and rethink how to fulfill their lives with nature. Some people move away from

metropolitan cities and build their own house with yellow earth to get natural energy.

They experience that their mental and physical pains are cured by living with nature

now, just as they were in the old days. After curing themselves, they began to work

again, creating new businesses that are pro-nature: sharing eco-farming skills,

providing slow food (instead of fast food), and building earth-houses.

We have another example that shows self-fulfillment by living in harmony with

nature. Let us go to Buan village in the Chunbuk province of the southern part of

Korea. Buan is a farming and fishing village. The population is 65,000. In 2003, this

46

small and peaceful village became famous because the Korean government appointed

Buan as an area for dumping nuclear wastes. Even though the government made a

promise to give Buan people huge reparation money, the people declined the

government’s offer. Lots of people severely protested against the government, and

hundreds were injured by policemen who tried to stop them from protesting. In 2004,

the people voted whether they wanted the reparation by allowing construction of a

building for nuclear wastes, or whether they wanted to leave Buan as it is. A majority

of the people rejected the reparations.

Five years later, Buan was reborn as a green energy village by efforts of the people.

While they protested against the government’s nuclear energy policy, they also

acknowledged that the environment is so important for their lives. So, they set up

three solar power plants and started organic farming without fertilizers. They began to

teach children about the importance of the environment. Now, they have a plan to

reduce their energy consumption by 30% in 2015, and to develop alternative energies

such as solar and wind powers. Hyun-Min Lee (2008) notes that the Buan people will

not forget what they strived for in 2003. They have taken pride in constructing their

green energy village. The people show what local wisdom is and prove what lives

living with nature rather than against it truly are.

One can argue that old traditions do not work any more in contemporary society

because cultural and social contexts are different from those of the old days. This is

partially true. However, consider cremation rituals that were prevalent in the unified

Shilla Dynasty (654-935) and the Goryeo Dynasty (918-1392). The rituals of

cremation came from Buddhism. Buddhism is close to the idea of a Conserver Society

with regard to its philosophical preference that it is more important to be rather than

to have. Both of the Dynasties encouraged people to burn dead bodies into ashes in

accordance with Buddhism. Mee-Rea Koo (2002) notes that King Mun-Mu of the

Shilla Dynasty expressed his dying wish: “If you excessively prepare for my funeral

after I die, you will waste material and human labor. Please burn my body into ashes

and follow a frugal funeral service” (Koo quoted this from the Goryeo historian, Kim

Bu-Sik’s book Samkusaki). There are complicated reasons why people wanted to burn

corpses according to Buddhism, but Korean ancestors like King Mun-Mu wanted to

conserve natural resources for the future.

47

This carefulness for nature can be also found with contemporary people. Until the

1970s, cremation was not a popular funeral method for Koreans who were influenced

by Confucianism. After the Chosun Dynasty banned cremation by law, people did not

burn their parents’ corpses. Only 10% of Koreans had cremation funerals in 1970.

However, the rate of cremation has gradually increased up to 58.9% as of 2007.

According to survey data from the Ministry for Health, Welfare, and Family Affairs,

the main reasons why people want cremation are to protect the environment; more

effectively to use lands; and to save money. This is a good example to show that even

old traditions can be useful in fulfilling the needs of contemporary people.

Moderation: Throughout Korean history, moderation has been the key virtue of

Koreans. They were able to find a balance between material satisfaction and spiritual

happiness. For example, the Chosun Dynasty encouraged people to activate Sunbi

spirituality. What is Sunbi? According to Harvard Professor Tu Wei-Ming, Korean

Sunbi is like the Chinese "Exemplary Man" (��) who exhibits human dignity and

civic spirit (Seung-Hwan Lee, 2001). Jang-Tai Kim (1978) interprets Sunbi as a

person who keeps a virtuous mind even though he is seriously hungry. Seo-Hyeng

Lee (2001) notes that Sunbi is honest, moral, and diligent. The best example of Sunbi

is Jeong Yak-Yong who lived in the late Chosun Dynasty. Jeong was a prolific

scholar, pragmatist, and a clean-handed government officer.

Regarding Sunbi spirituality, Jeong said, “A profound thinker, Sunbi always has

integrity in his mind and thinks of greed as a disease” (Lee, 2001). According to Lee

(2001), this Sunbi spirituality is based on Hwarangdo of the Shilla Dynasty and

Yangri spirit of the Goryeo Dynasty. Hwarang were youths who excelled in beauty,

bravery, and martial arts. They were disciplined to have integrity and humane

leadership. Yangri was a clean-handed government officer who whole-heartedly

supported the people. In the Goryeo Dynasty, every man, especially noble men,

should be frugal in their lives. Integrity was the number one priority for those men.

They were self-sufficient and enjoyed their frugal lives (Hoon-Pyo Yoon, 2006).

Thus, Sunbi spirituality has a long tradition.

48

However, in the 19th Centuries, Sunbi was regarded as an irrational moralist who was

not practical but rigidly against the changes of society. According to Do-heum Lee

(2008), in the 19th Centuries, there were four types of attitudes towards capitalism: an

irrational moralist, a rational moneymaker, an irrational moneymaker, and a rational

moralist. In the text of Oh-Ryun-ga (the prose poem of the Confucian five moral

rules), the poetic narrator, Choya-nongbu (the farmer in the retired country) is an

irrational moralist. He follows Confucian morals too seriously and keeps himself

away from money. He regards money as waste paper. In contrast, in the text of

Dendong-eomi-hwajeon-ga (A badly burned wife’s prose poem), Dendong-eomi is a

rational moneymaker. She makes her money rationally but has a weak sense of

Confucian morals. Lee (2008) argues that the rational moneymaker gradually won the

struggle against the irrational moralist. Capitalism legitimated rational moneymakers.

Even though Sunbi partially reflected the irrational moralist in the past, Sunbi

spirituality can be renewed as pragmatism (Hong-Chan Cho, 2004). Cho (2004), as an

example, takes Kil-Jun Yu who was a progressive politician in the late 19th Century

and the early 20th Century. Yu grew up following Sunbi spirituality and tried to make

a balance between a tradition-minded person and a revolutionary. When he was

eighteen years old, he went to Japan to study Japanese modernization and then went

to the United States to research ideas of western democracy and freedom. After Yu

came back to Korea, he revolutionized the Korean old political system in order to

catch up with Western industrialization. Yu did not follow Western ways without

thinking. Rather, he developed his own political and economic philosophy in order to

create a new Korean system.

In a Conserver Society, Koreans can go beyond Yu’s pragmatism into a new

pragmatism that enables people to secure not only the lives of future generations but

also Mother Nature. Koreans can pave the way to a sustainable economic growth that

is in harmony with nature. In order to facilitate this way, Koreans should acquire the

ancestors’ wisdom while developing more future-oriented minds and behavior. In

short, Koreans should restore and restrengthen the three fundamental Korean

properties: deep concern for future generations, self-fulfillment in harmony with

nature, and moderation. [See Appendix E for bibliography of sources cited]

49

V. RECOMMENDATIONS. "Earthly Food"

by Oh Sae-Young (1942- )

You fly only to come back down.

Birds, wake from the egg,

just as you flutter your silver wings. Though you put your faith in the sky,

though you believe only the sky is freedom, you will never know without soaring into the air

what great despair freedom is. A few grains

scattered in the muddy fields, the food you dream about

is found only on earth. Birds,

illogical birds. in Flowers Long for Stars, You & Silberg, Tamal Vista, 2005, p. 43

The purpose of this report is to urge Korea Telecom to begin a process by which

Korea may seriously and effectively consider becoming a Conserver Society. We

have shown that it is essential for Korea--and every part of the world--to do so. It is

no longer possible for Korea or any part of the world to follow the path of Continued

Economic Growth blindly. That path, which led to so much that is good in the present

also led to much that is bad. But whether it is good or bad by some ethical or cultural

standard is beside the point now. The old Continued Economic Growth path is no

longer sustainable. That is to say, even if we might very much wish to continue to

follow that model, we cannot. Substantial changes must be made either by humans by

their design and intentions, or by events out of human control.

Thus, in order to be responsible to future generations as well as to current generations,

Korean leaders and citizens must consider and then devise alternative paths forward

that are sustainable and that also enable everyone to live vibrant, meaningful, and

satisfying lives. If we do not attempt to envision and create such a society, the end of

Continued Economic Growth will almost certainly lead to chaos, destruction,

bloodshed, and profoundly unhappy lives for everyone.

The only responsible duty before us all is not whether to consider alternatives to

Continued Economic Growth, but to decide on which of several alternatives is

preferred, and then to move towards it with all of the vigor and success that marked

50

Korea's transformation from an isolated feudal, agricultural society into the global,

dynamic information/dream society.

It is beyond the scope of this study to suggest specific alternative models. That is the

task of Korean Telecom and whatever process it chooses to undertake. But there are

alternatives. We set the ground for that by showing how the GAMMA group devised

three very different versions of a possible Conserver Society for Canada in the 1970s.

It would be prudent to follow their example now.

We have also tried to show some of the very many ways in which Korea and the

world are different now from what they were in the 1970s. Some things make the

task of creating a Conserve Society much more daunting--and necessary--while other

things provide valuable resources which simply did not exist at all in the 1970s.

Leaders and all citizens in Korea are at a turning point in history. You can continue

down the path of success that led to the present, and choose only to modify the society

in minor ways, hoping for the best. Or you can pause and engage in a nationwide

discussion on what might be better paths ahead, and then decide which way to go,

following it into the future with the wit and vigor that you exhibited in recent years.

The choice is yours.

We hope our report here will encourage you to consider the Conserver Society

alternative. We stand ready to continue to work with you in any way you might

desire. "Suddenly"

by Ko Un (1933- )

Shall we go back to the songs of the old days,

to the tales of the old, old days?

On a night of blank moon, well…

What a bright moon!

Shall we go back to those days?

Suddenly, as I squint back,

maybe we've drifted too far down, wading hither and yon in a lost confusion.

in The Three Way Tavern,You & Silberg U California, 2006, p. 134

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APPENDIX A.

The Conserver Society Project of the Science Council of Canada A Bibliography

By categories and reverse chronology CONSERVER SOCIETY PAPERS BY THE SCIENCE COUNCIL OF CANADA Arthur Cordell and Ray Jackson, Study on the implications of a Conserver Society. Ottawa: Science Council of Canada, 1974 Committee on the Implications of a Conserver Society, Toward a Conserver Society: A Statement of Concern. Ottawa; Science Council of Canada 1976 Committee on the Implications of a Conserver Society, Canada as a Conserver Society. Ottawa: Science Council of Canada, 1977 Ursala Franklin, chair, Canada as a Conserver Society: Resource uncertainties and the need for new technologies. Ottawa: Science Council of Canada, Report No. 27, 1977 F. T. Gerson, Materials recycling: History, status, potential for a Conserver Society. Ottawa: Science Council of Canada, 1977. Committee on the Implications of a Conserver Society, Canada as a Conserver Society: An agenda for action. A statement from a workshop of concerned citizens held in Toronto, January 13-15, 1978. Ottawa: Science Council of Canada, 1978. Conserver Society Notes, V. 1, No. 1-3; spring-fall 1978; V. 1, No. 4- V. 2, No. 1; winter-spring/summer 1979. Ted Schrecker, The Conserver Society revisited: A discussion paper. Ottawa: Science Council of Canada, 1983. CONSERVER SOCIETY RESEARCH BY GAMMA (The Gamma Institute, created in 1974, was a futures-oriented research group of the University of Montreal and McGill University that conducted many studies for the Conserver Society Project) B. P. Warkentin, Agriculture, Food and Renewable Resources in a Conserver Society, Montreal: GAMMA 1975 Szymon Chodak, Property-rights and income distribution in a Conserver Society, Montreal: GAMMA, 1975

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Kimon Valaskakis, et al., Conserver Society Project: Report on Phase I. Tentative blueprints for a Conserver Society in Canada. Montreal: GAMMA, 1976 Kimon Valaskasis, et al., Conserver Society Project: Report on Phase II. Montreal: GAMMA 1976 Kimon Valaskakis, et al., The selective Conserver Society. Montreal: GAMMA, 1976 Kimon Valaskakis, J. G. Smith, P. S. Sindell, I. Martin, "The Conserver Society" Strategy & Leadership, Vol. 5, No. 5, 1977, pp. 16-22 Kimon Valaskakis, et al., with an introduction by Alexander King, The Conserver Society: A workable alternative for the future. New York: Harper and Row, 1979 Kimon Valaskakis, "The Conserver Society: Emerging Paradigm of the 1980s?" The Futurist, April 1981, Vol. 15, No. 2, p. 5 Kimon Valaskakis, W. Lambert Gardiner, Peter Sindell, The management of time in a Conserver Society. Montreal: GAMMA, 1982 SECTORAL PAPERS BY OTHER RESEARCH GROUPS AND INDIVIDUALS Arthur Porter, "Workshop on the transition to a Conserver Society: The role of the media. Toronto: Ontario Educational Communications Authority, 1974 Angelo Grima, Toward a Conserver Society: The role of demand management. Toronto: University of Toronto, Erindale College, Institute for Environmental Studies, 1975 Cathy Starrs, Conversations with Canadians about the future: An interim report on the Conserver Society Project. Ottawa: Environment Canada, Advanced Concepts Centre, 1975. Cathy Starrs, Canadians in conversation about the future: A working document for the Conserver Society. Ottawa: Environment Canada, Advance Concepts Centre, 1976 Consumer's Association of Canada and Pollution Probe-Ottawa, Living well in times of scarcity. Ottawa: Toward a Conserver Society Project, 1976 Canadian Council on Urban and Regional Research and the Centre for Continuing Education, University of British Columbia, Moving towards a Conserver Society. Vancouver: Pulp Press, 1976 James J. Kay, An investigation into engineering design principles for a conserver society. Waterloo, Ontario: University of Waterloo, Department of Systems Design, 1977.

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Bruce McCallum, Environmentally appropriate technology: Renewable energy and other developing technologies for a Conserver Society in Canada. Ottawa: Fisheries and Environment Canada, 1977. Greg Mason and John McGuire, eds., Business opportunities in a Conserver Society: Proceedings of a seminar sponsored by the Manitoba Economic Development Advisory Board and the Manitoba Research Council. Winnipeg: Manitoba Economic Development Advisory Board & Manitoba Research Council, 1977 B. Hannon, "Energy, labor and the conserver society," Technology Review, Vol. 79, No 5, January 1977 Robert Crow, Peter Szegedy-Maszak, Christopher Conway, Energy planning in a Conserver Society: The future's not what it used to be. Toronto: Energy Probe, 1978. Stanley J Shapiro, "Marketing in a Conserver Society," Business Horizons, Vol. 21, No. 2, April 1978, pp. 3-13 The Conserver Society: The technological challenge. Background papers. Ottawa: Ministry of State for Science and Technology, 1978 Chris Conway, et al., Energy planning in a Conserver Society: Implementation strategies. Toronto: Energy Probe, 1979. J.R. Brent Ritchie, John D. Claxton, Gordon H.G. McDougall, Consumer energy patterns in Canada: Indicators for the Conserver Society. Calgary: University of Calgary. Faculty of Management, 1979 Langdon, J. Brian, Conserver Society: A planning strategy and social ethic for Canada's future? Toronto: Ryerson Polytechnical Institute. School of Urban and Regional Planning, 1979. The Conserver Society: An annotated resource guide to selected books, films, periodicals & organizations. Saskatoon Public Library, 1979 Trevor G. Hancock, , "The Conserver Society: Prospects for a healthier future," Canadian Family Physician, Vol. 25, March 1980, pp. 320f COMMENTARIES ON THE CONSERVER SOCIETY PROJECT AND CONCEPT William Leiss, The limits to satisfaction: An essay on the problem of needs and commodities, University of Toronto Press, 1976 D. Spurgeon, "Canada: Towards a conserver society," International Development Research Centre, 1976 <http://idl-bnc.idrc.ca/dspace/handle/123456789/17890>

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Edward Goldsmith, "The future of an affluent society. The case of Canada", The Ecologist, Vol. 7, No. 5, June 1977, <http://www.edwardgoldsmith.com/page262.html> J. G. Smith, "A Conserver Society: Some Implications for the Packaging Industry, " Planning Review, July 1978 J. G. Smith, "Conservationist Growth: An Opportunity for Canadian Business?" Business Quarterly, Winter 1978 Lawrence Solomon, The Conserver Solution. Doubleday, 1978 Karl E. Henion and Thomas Kinnear, eds., The Conserver Society. Chicago: American Marketing Association, 1979. James Lawrence, ed., The Harrowsmith sourcebook: A consumer guide for the Conserver Society. Camden East, Ontario: Camden House, 1979 André Morin, The Conserver Society: A solution to growth problems. Ottawa: Library of Parliament, 1980. N. L. Alcock, Towards a Conserver Society--Implications for Urban Planning at the Local Level, 1980 George Haines, et al., "Impacts of the Conserver Society on Canadian Marketing Management," in Donald Thompson, et al, eds., Macromarketing: A Canadian Perspective, American Marketing Association, 1980 Hugh Nash, ed., introduction by David R. Brower. Progress as if survival mattered: A handbook for a conserver society. San Francisco: Friends of the Earth, 1981. Karl, E. Henion, "Energy Usage and the Conserver Society: Review of the 1979 AMA Conference on Ecological Marketing," Journal of Consumer Research, Vol. 8, No. 3, 1981, pp. 339-342 Eva M. A. Luczynska, A critique of the Science Council's concept of Canada as a Conserver Society [microform]. Ottawa: National Library of Canada, 1982. Linda Ann Herrero, The Conserver Society alternative. A community values study [microform]. Ottawa: National Library of Canada, 1983 Stuart Oskamp, "Psychology's role in the conserving society," Population & Environment, Vol. 6, No. 4, December 1983, 255-293 Lionel Rubinoff, Beyond the domination of nature: Moral foundations of a Conserver Society, 1985 Michael Peter Mersereau, Community development in a Conserver Society [microform]. Ottawa: National Library of Canada, 1986.

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John F. Chant, Donald G. McFetridge and Douglas A. Smith, "The economics of the conserver society," Economics and the environment. Vancouver: Fraser Institute, 1990, p. 1-93 The Hon. Ruth Grier, The road to a Conserver Society. Adapted from a speech to the 38th Annual Ontario Waste Management Conference, June 17, 1991.Toronto: Ontario, Environment, 1991 Ted Trainer, The Conserver Society: Alternatives for sustainability. London: Zed Books, 1995. Ted Schrecker, The political economy of a Conserver Society: Case studies in recent Canadian energy planning [microform]. Ottawa: National Library of Canada, 1995. Simon P.J. Batterbury, "Ted Trainer and the ‘Conserver Society’," West London Papers in Environmental Studies, Vol. 3, 1996, pp. 1-12. William Kilbourne, et al., "Sustainable Consumption and the Quality of Life: A Macromarketing Challenge to the Dominant Social Paradigm," Journal of Macromarketing, Spring 1997 Dixon Thompson, "The Conserver Society," The Canadian Encyclopedia. <http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/PrinterFriendly.cfm?Params=A1ARTA0001865> Stanley Shapiro, "Sustainability in historical perspective: Canada's conserver society studies revisited," Journal of Business Administration and Policy Analysis, January 1, 2002 < http://www.allbusiness.com/sector-55-management-companies-enterprises/430282-1.html> "Consumer vs. Conserver Society" <http://renaud.ca/wordpress/?p=57> November 22, 2008

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APPENDIX B.

Bibliography Supporting Conserver Society Concerns (2009-1970s)

(In reverse chronological order)

For Sustainable Environments and Economies: Preventing Environmental, Energy, and/or Economic Collapse

2000s

Dmitry Orlov, "Five Stages of Collapse," <http://www.energybulletin.net/40919.html>, Feb 14 2009 Dmitry Orlov, "Thriving in the Age of Collapse" and "Post-Soviet lessons for a Post-American Century" <http://www.lifeafterpeakoil.com/BreakingNews.html>, 2009 Charles A. S. Hall, et al., "What is the Minimum EROI that a Sustainable Society Must Have?", Energies, 2, 25-47, 2009 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Annual reports. <http://www.ipcc.ch/>, 2009 Terry L. Anderson, et al., eds., Accounting for Mother Nature: Changing demands for her bounty. Stanford University Press, 2007 Graham Turner, A comparison of the Limits to Growth with thirty years of reality. Socio-economics and the environment in Discussion. CSIRO Working Paper Series 2008-2009. June 2008 James Speth, The bridge at the end of the world: Capitalism, the environment and crossing from crisis to sustainability. Yale University Press, 2008 John Blewitt, Understanding sustainable development. Earthscan, 2008 OECD, Cost of inaction on key environmental challenges, Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, 2008 Peter Dauvergne, The shadows of consumption: Consequences for the global environment. MIT Press, 2008 John Foster, The sustainability mirage: Illusion and reality in the coming war on climate change. Earthscan, 2008 John Ehrenfeld, Sustainability by design: A subversive strategy for transforming our consumer culture. Yale University Press, 2008 Eric Janszen, "The next bubble: Priming the markets for tomorrow's big crash," Harpers, February 2008

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Gwynne Dyer, "World countdown to crop catastrophe," New Zealand Herald, April 3, 2008 <http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm7c_id+objectid=10501681> Cass R. Sunstein, Worst-case scenarios. Harvard University Press. 2007. Richard Heinberg, Peak everything: Waking up to the century of declines. New Society Publishers, 2007. Kurt M. Campbell, et al, The age of consequences: The foreign policy and national security implications of global climate change. Center for Strategic and International Studies; Center for a New American Security, 2007 Robert Costanza, et al., Sustainability or collapse? An integrated history and future of people on Earth. MIT Press, 2007. Naomi Klein, "Disaster Capitalism: The new economy of catastrophe," Harpers October 2007 Alan Weisman, The world without us. St. Martins Press, 2007 Nassim Nicholas Taleb, The Black Swan. The impact of the highly improbable. Random House, 2007 Newt Gingrich and Terry Maple, A contract with Earth. Johns Hopkins Press, 2007 National security and the threat of climate change. Center for Naval Analysis. 2007 <http://securityandclimate.cna.org/report/? Bill McGibben, Deep economy: The wealth of communities and the durable future. Holt and Company, 2007 Nicolas Stern, "The Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change" <http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/sternreview_index.htm>, October 2006 Robert Neuwirth, Shadow cities: A billion squatters, A New Urban World. Routledge, 2006 Dmitry Orlov, "Closing the 'Collapse Gap': The USSR was better prepared for collapse than the US" <http://energybulletin.net/23259.html>, December 4, 2006 Thomas Homer-Dixon, The upside of down: Catastrophe, creativity, and the renewal of civilization. Island Press, 2006. Tim Flannery, The weather makers: How man is changing the climate and what it means for life on Earth. Atlantic Monthly Press, 2006 Jared Diamond, Collapse: How societies choose to fail or succeed. New York: Penguin Books, 2005

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Vaclav Smil, "Limits to Growth Revisited: A Review Essay," Population and Development Review, 31/1, March 2005 James Howard Kunstler, The long emergency: Surviving the converging catastrophes of the 21st Century. Atlantic Monthly Press, 2005 Kenneth Deffeyes, Beyond oil: The view from Hubbert's Peak. Hill and Wang, 2005 James Speth, Red sky at morning: America and the crisis of the global environment. Yale University Press, 2004 Robert Heinberg, Powerdown: Options and actions for a post-carbon world. New Society Publishers, 2004 David Cook, The natural step: Towards a sustainable society. Schumacher Society, 2004 Paul Roberts, End of oil? On the edge of a perilous new world. Houghton Mifflin, 2004 Herman Daly and Joshua Farley, Ecological economics: Principles and applications. Island Press, 2004 Paul Ehrlich and Anne Ehrlich, One with Nineveh: Politics, consumption, and the human future. Island Press, 2004 Dennis Meadows, Jorgen Randers, and Donella Meadows, Limits to growth: The 30-year update. Chelsea Green Publishing, 2004 Martin Rees, Our final hour: A scientist's warning: How terror, error, and environmental disaster threaten humankind's future in this century--on Earth and beyond. Basic Books, 2003. Bill McGibben, Enough: Staying human in an engineered age. Times Books, 2003. Edward O. Wilson, The future of life. New York: Knopf, 2002 William McDonough, Michael Braungart, Cradle to cradle: Remaking the way we make things. North Point Press, 2002 Robert Mendelson, Global warming and the American economy: A regional assessment of climate change impacts. Northhampton, MA: Edward Elgar, 2001 Matthew Stein, When technology fails: A manual for self-reliance and planetary survival. Clear Light Books, 2000. Paul Hawken, Amory Lovins and Hunter Lovins, Natural capitalism: The next industrial revolution. Back Bay Books 2000.

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Daniel Quinn, Beyond civilization: Humanity’s next great adventure. Three Rivers Press, 2000.

1990s Richard Falk. Predatory globalization: A critique. Blackwell, 1999 Hazel Henderson. Beyond globalization: Shaping a sustainable global economy. Kumarian Press, 1999. Harvey Cox, "The Market as God." Atlantic Monthly, March 1999 James Robertson, The new economics of sustainable development; A briefing for policy makers. Kogan Page, 1999 David Malin Roodman, The natural wealth of nations. Norton, 1998. Colin J. Campbell & Jean H. Laherrere, "The End of Cheap Oil. Scientific American, March 1998 Herman Daly, Beyond growth: The economics of sustainable development. Beacon Press, 1996 Paul Brown, Global warming: Can civilisation survive? Cassell, 1996 David Pimentel and Marcia Pimentel, eds., Food, energy and society. University of Colorado Press, 1996 (revision of 1979 publication) Lamont Hempel, Environmental governance: The global challenge. Island Press, 1996 Janet Abramovitz, Imperiled waters, impoverished future: The decline of freshwater ecosystems. Washington:Worldwatch Institute, 1996 Hazel Henderson, Building a win-win world: Life beyond global economic warfare. Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 1996 Michael Marien, ed., Environmental issues and sustainable futures: A critical guide to recent books, reports, and periodicals. World Future Society, 1996 President's Council on Sustainable Development: Sustainable America: A new consensus for prosperity, opportunity, and a healthy environment for the future. PCSD, 1996 Kaoru Yamaguchi, ed., Sustainable global communities in the Information Age. Adamantine Press, 1997 Commission on Global Governance, Our global neighborhood. Oxford University Press, 1995

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Michael Common, Sustainability and policy. Limits to economics. Cambridge University Press, 1995 Richard Leakey and Roger Lewin, Sixth extinction: Biodiversity and its survival. New York: Doubleday, 1995. John Raven, The new wealth of nations: A new enquiry into the nature and origins of the wealth of nations and the societal learning arrangements needed for a sustainable society. Royal Fireworks Press, 1995 Jules Pretty, Regenerating agriculture. Policies and practice for sustainability and self-reliance. Joseph Henry Press, 1995 Fulai Sheng, Real value for nature: An overview of global efforts to achieve true measures of economic progress. WWF International. 1995 Daniel Coleman, Ecopolitics: Building a green society. Rutgers University Press, 1994 Jeffrey Fisher, The plague makers: How we are creating catastrophic new epidemics and what we must do to avert them. Simon & Schuster, 1994 Robert Guttman, How credit-money shapes the economy. M.E. Sharpe, 1994 Paul Kennedy, Preparing for the 21st Century. Random House, 1993 Paul Hawkin, The ecology of commerce: A declaration of sustainability. Harper, 1993 Serge Latouche, In the wake of the affluent society: An exploration of post-development. Zed books, 1993 Virginia Abernethy, Population politics: The choices that shape our future. Plenum Press, 1993 Donella Meadows, et al., Beyond the limits: Confronting global collapse, envisioning a sustainable future. Chelsea Green Pub. Co., 1992. Lester Brown, et al., Vital signs: The trends that are shaping our future. W. W. Norton, Published annually since 1992 to the present Hazel Henderson, Paradigms in progress: Life beyond economics. Knowledge Systems, Inc, 1991) Herman Daly, Steady-state economics. Revision of 1977 edition. Island Press, 1991 John Gever et al., Beyond oil. University Press of Colorado, 1991 Kevin Phillips, The politics of rich and poor: wealth and the American electorate in the Reagan aftermath. New York: HarperPerennial, 1991.

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Brian Burrows, et al., Into the 21st Century: A handbook for a sustainable future. Adamatine Press, 1991 Robert Heilbroner, An inquiry into the human prospect: Looked at again in the 1990s. (Revised version of 1974 and 1980 editions) W. W. Norton, 1991

1980s Stephen Schneider, Global warming: Are we entering the Greenhouse Century? Sierra Club Books, 1989 Peter Jay and Michael Steward, Apocalypse 2000: Economic Breakdown and the Suicide of Democracy 1989-2000. Prentice Hall, 1988 Joe Tainter, The collapse of complex societies. Cambridge University Press, 1988 Walter Anderson, To govern evolution. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1987 James Robertson, Future work: Jobs, self-employment, and leisure after the industrial age. Universal Books, 1985 James Robertson, TOES--The other economic summit < http://www.toes-usa.org/about.html> 1984-2004 Lester Brown, et al., The state of the world. W. W. Norton, Published annually since 1983 to the present. Gerald. O. Barney, ed., The Global 2000 Report to the President: Entering the 21st Century. New York: Penguin Books, 1982

Ernest Callenbach, Ecotopia emerging, Banyan Books, 1981 Hazel Henderson, Politics of the Solar Age: Alternatives to economics. Anchor/Doubleday, 1981 Robert Heilbroner, An inquiry into the human prospect: Updated and reconsidered for the 1980s. (Revised version of 1974 edition) W. W. Norton, 1980

1970s Hazel Henderson, Creating alternative futures: The end of economics. Berkley Publications,1978 Herman Daly, Steady-state economics: the economics of biophysical equilibrium and moral growth. W. H. Freeman, 1977 Ernest Callenbach, Ecotopia. Banyan Books, 1975

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James Robertson, Turning Point newsletter 1975-2000 Robert Heilbroner, An inquiry into the human prospect. W. W. Norton, 1974 Mihajlo Mesarovic and Eduard Pestel, Mankind at the turning point. The Second Report to The Club of Rome. New York: E. P. Dutton, 1974, E. F. Schumacher, Small is beautiful: Economics as if people mattered. Harper & How, 1973 Herman Daly, ed., Toward a steady-state economy. W. H. Freeman, 1973 Roberto Vacca, The coming Dark Age. Doubleday, 1973 Gordon Rattray Taylor, Rethink: A paraprimitive solution. New York: E. P. Dutton 1972 Donella Meadows, et al., The limits to growth. A Report for the Club of Rome's Project on The Predicament of Mankind. New York: Universe Books, 1972 Edward Goldsmith, et al., A Blueprint for survival. Penguin Books, 1972 Gordon Rattray Taylor, The doomsday book: Can the world survive? World Publishing, 1970 Aurelio Peccei, The chasm ahead, Macmillan, 1969

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APPENDIX C.

Nature is Dead: The Artificial world of "The Anthropocene Era"

A Bibliography in alphabetical order

Walter Truett Anderson, To govern evolution. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1987 Jesse Ausubel and Dale Langford, eds., Technological trajectories and the human environment. Washington, DC: National Academy Press, 1997. Pierre Baldi, The shattered self: The end of natural evolution. MIT Press 2001 Stephen Budiansky, Nature's keepers. Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1995 Lawrence Busch, et al., Making nature, shaping culture: Plant biodiversity in global context. University of Nebraska Press, 1995 Manuel Castells, The Information Age: Economy, society, and culture. Vol 1: The rise of the network society. Blackwell, 1996. William Clark and Nancy Dickson, "Sustainability science: The emerging research program", Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, July 8, 2003 T. Collins, 'Toward sustainable chemistry', Science, 291, 2001 William Cronon, ed., Uncommon ground: Toward reinventing nature. W. W. Norton, 1995 Paul Crutzen, "Geology of Mankind: The Anthropocene Era," Nature, January 3, 2002 Jim Dator, "Assuming 'responsibility for our rose,'" in Jouni Paavola and Ian Lowe, eds., Environmental values in a globalising world: Nature, justice and governance. Routledge, 2004, Chapter 13. Jared Diamond, The third chimpanzee: The evolution and future of the human animal. HarperCollins, 1992 Claus Emmeche, The garden in the machine: The emerging science of artificial life. Princeton University Press, 1994 Susantha Goonatilake, Merged evolution: Long-term implications of biotechnology & information technology. Gordon & Breach, 1999 David Goodman and Michael Redclift, Refashioning nature: Food, ecology, and culture. Routledge, 1991.

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Andrew Isenberg, The destruction of the bison: An environmental history 1750-1920. Cambridge University Press, 2000 Robert W. Kates, et al., "Sustainability Science", Science, April 27, 2001 Leo Marx, The machine in the garden: Technology and the pastoral ideal in America. Oxford University Press, 1964 Shepherd Krech, The Ecological Indian: Myth and history. Norton, 1999 J. R. McNeill, Something new under the Sun: An environmental history of the Twentieth-Century world. W. W. Norton, 2000 Stephen R. Palumbi, The evolution explosion: How humans cause rapid evolutionary change. W. W. Norton. 2001. Daniel Richter, "Humanity's transformation of Earth's soil: Pedology's new frontier", Soil Science, 2007 Will Steffen, et al, "The Anthropocene: Are Humans Now Overwhelming the Great Forces of Nature?" Ambio, December 2007 R. J. Swart, et al., "The problem of the future: sustainability science and scenario analysis," Global Environmental Change Part A, July 2004, Colin Tudge, The time before history: 5 million years of human impact. Scriber, 1996 Billie Lee Turner, ed., The Earth as transformed by human action: global and regional changes in the biosphere over the past 300 years. Cambridge University Press, 1990 Peter Vitousek, ed., "Human dominated ecosystems," Science, 25 July 1997 Christopher Willis, Children of Prometheus. The accelerating pace of human evolution. Perseus, 1998 M. Williams, Deforesting the Earth: From prehistory to global crisis, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2003

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APPENDIX D.

Economic Optimism, Anti-environmentalism and Sustainability

A Bibliography in Alphabetical Order

"Big business says addressing climate change 'rates very low on agenda'" (A survey of 500 firms) <http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/big-business-says-addressing-climate-change-rates-very-low-on-agenda-774648.html>, January 27, 2008 H. S. D. Cole, et al., Models of doom; a critique of The limits to growth. With a reply by the authors of The limits to growth. Universe Books 1973 Bob Davis and David Wessel, Prosperity: The coming 20-year boom and what it means to you. New York Times Books, 1998 Stan Davis and Christopher Meyer, Blur: The speed of change in the connected economy. Addison-Wesley, 1998 Benjamin Friedman, The moral consequences of economic growth. Knopf, 2005 Newt Gingrich, Winning the future. The 21st Century Contract with America. Regnery Publishing, 2005 James K. Glassman and Kevin Hassett, Dow 36,000. New York Times Books, 1999 Peter Huber, Hard Green: Saving the environment from the environmentalists: A conservative manifesto. Basic Books 2000 Charles Kadlec, Dow 100,000. Prentice-Hall. 1999 Herman Kahn, et. al., The next 200 years: A scenario for America and the world. Morrow, 1976 Herman Kahn, The coming boom: Economic, political and social. Simon and Schuster, 1982 Bjorn Lomborg, The skeptical environmentalist: Measure the real state of the world. Cambridge University Press, 2001 Bjorn Lomborg, Global crises, global solutions. Cambridge University Press, 2004 Bjorn Lomborg, Cool it: The skeptical environmentalist's guide to global warming. Alfred A. Knopf, 2007 Patrick Michaels, Meltdown: The predictable distortion of global warming by scientists, politicians and the media. Cato Institute, 2004

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Michael Sanera, et al., Facts, not fear: Teaching children about the environment. The Fraser Institute, 1999 Peter Schwartz, et al., The Long Boom: Forging a better future for our families, communities, and business in the new global economy. Perseus Books, 1999 Julian Simon, The ultimate resource 2. Princeton University Press, 1998 Julian Simon and Herman Kahn, eds., The resourceful Earth. A response to" Global 2000". New York: Basil Blackwell, 1984

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APPENDIX E.

CULTURAL RESOURCES IN KOREA

FOR A RENEWED CONSERVER SOCIETY

A Bibliography in Alphabetical Order

Bae, Young-Dong. Culture Complex Characteristic of Dooreah in the late Chosun Dynasty. Nongupsa-yonku. 4(1), pp. 47-65. 2005. Cho, Hong-Chan. The Pragmatism of Yu Kil-Jun’s Political Thought. Dongyang-jeongchi-sasangsa, 3(2), pp. 169-191. 2004. Choo, Kang-Hyun. Dooreah, the history of farmers. Seoul: Dulnyek. 2006. Kim, Jang-Tai. Cho Kwang-Jo and the Spirit of Confucian Scholars of Yi Dynasty. Iljisa. 4(1), pp. 1180-1194. 1978. Koo, Mee-Rea. How Buddhism Has Affected the Cremation Rituals. Shilchon-minsok-hakhoi. 4, pp. 117-145. 2002. Lee, Do-heum. On Attitude Types of Commodity-money Economy in Gasa of the 18-19th Centuries. Kojunmunhag-eonku, 34, pp. 61-106. 2008. Lee, Hyun-Min. The Buan Village, Curing Its Hurt and Moving Toward Viable Village. Hwankyung-kwa-Saengmyong, 57, pp. 178-193. 2008. Lee, Seo-Hyeng. Traditional Sunbi Spirituality and A Clean-handed Mind. Hankuk-Hyengjong-Sahakji. 10, pp. 83-106. 2001. Lee, Seung-Hwan. The Role of Confucianism in Contemporary Society. Cholhak-kwa-hyunsil. 51, pp. 75-93. 2001. Song, Kee-Sook. A Small Village, the Beautiful Commonwealth. Seoul: Whanam. 2005. Yoon, Hoon-Pyo. The Social Backgound and Standards of Honor and Shame in the Goryeo Period: a Study on the Government Positions and Private Lives of the Ruling Class. Dongbanghagji, 135, pp. 47-90. 2006.