The Myth of Progress

Toward a Sustainable Future

Tom Wessels

In this compelling and cogently argued book, Tom Wessels demonstrates how our current path toward progress, based on continual economic expansion and inefficient use of resources, runs absolutely contrary to three foundational scientific laws that govern all complex natural systems. It is a myth, he contends, that progress depends on a growing economy. Wessels explains his theory with his three laws of sustainability: (1) the law of limits to growth, (2) the second law of thermodynamics, which exposes the dangers of increased energy consumption, and (3) the law of self-organization, which results in the marvelous diversity of such highly evolved systems as the human body and complex ecosystems. These laws, scientifically proven to sustain life in its myriad forms, have been cast aside since the eighteenth century, first by Western economists, political pragmatists, and governments attracted by the idea of unlimited growth, and more recently by a global economy dominated by large corporations, in which consolidation and oversimplification create large-scale inefficiencies in both material and energy usage. Wessels makes scientific theory readily accessible by offering examples of how the laws of sustainability function in the complex systems we can observe in the natural world around us. He shows how systems such as forests can be templates for developing sustainable economic practices that will allow true progress. Demonstrating that all environmental problems have their source in a disregard for the laws of sustainability that is based on the myth of progress, he concludes with an impassioned argument for cultural change.

Cloth: $25 | E-book: $24.95

ISBN-13: 9781684581528

Pages: 176 | Size: 5.5 in. x 8 in.

Date Published: June 1, 2023

Imprint:

Brandeis University Press

This is an impassioned, critical, and bold book. Wessels is guided by his overwhelming sense that the laws of sustainability demand respect, understanding, and interpretation, and unless we educate ourselves about their full complexity and truth, we will do irreparable damage to the landscapes we love.

Northern Woodlands

Reviews

Wessels is a tried-and-true master of nature writing. . . . [He] argues deftly that due to the limits of material resources, the finitude of time itself and the laws which govern the states in which energy can be captured, transferred or lost, we simply cannot expect to progress for no other reason than progress itself.

Monadnock Ledger-Transcript
This is an impassioned, critical, and bold book. Wessels is guided by his overwhelming sense that the laws of sustainability demand respect, understanding, and interpretation, and unless we educate ourselves about their full complexity and truth, we will do irreparable damage to the landscapes we love.

Northern Woodlands

About the Author

Tom Wessels

Tom Wessels is professor emeritus at Antioch University New England where he founded the master’s degree program in conservation biology. He is the author of Reading the Forested Landscape: A Natural History of New England; Forest Forensics: A Field Guide to Reading the Forested Landscape; Granite, Fire, and Fog: The Natural and Cultural History of Acadia; and New England’s Roadside Ecology: Explore 30 of the Region’s Unique Natural …

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The Myth of Progress

Toward a Sustainable Future

Tom Wessels

Reviews

About the Author

Tom Wessels

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