I acquired this book Small is Stupid under the misapprehension that it might contain some interesting criticisms of Dr Schumacher's 'Small is Beautiful' theories or of the human scale principles that underlie the work of the Institute for Social Inventions.
In fact this book is almost an offence against the Trades Description Act and has nothing whatsoever to do with its title. It is simply the author making a professedly unbalanced and one-sided case for the defence against the Green lobby's calls for action to preserve the environment; and arguing in favour of economic growth and in favour of the assumption that future generations will invent some solution to the problems unfettered economic growth could cause them.
Wilfred Beckerman talks blithely of how false prophecies of the impending exhaustion of resources have been common throughout the ages, without taking into account that civilizations have indeed fallen in the past for just such reasons, including the 'loss of topsoil' about which he is so complacent. (Readers are referred, for instance, to the article 'The erosion of civilizations' by John Seymour on page 62 of the The Book of Visions, Institute for Social Inventions, 1992.)
His final call to arms is against 'panic action', such as 'hastily concocted international agreements to adopt draconian cuts in the use of fossil fuels'. It is far more important, he believes, 'to dismantle current policies that subsidise uneconomic use of fossil fuels and to promote further research into energy efficiency and the development of economically viable substitutes'.
Having debunked a host of environmental concerns, he deigns to list those that even he considers genuine: these include, for example, identifying the sources of local water and air pollution; studying the disposal of waste of all kinds, from nuclear waste to car tyres; designing policies to prevent over-fishing of certain species; and giving priority to the population problem in developing countries. He also admits that there is 'strong - if patchy' evidence that species may be being made extinct at an undesirable rate.
I suppose we should be grateful that eccentric academics seemingly living in a topsy-turvy parallel universe are not extinct at the university that gave us Lewis Carroll's sublime Adventures in Wonderland. Beckerman is wrong about the past, is proselytising a lost cause in the present and is no friend of the future. Perhaps he can write verse?
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