The Conservation Society
This pamphlet published in 1977 begins with a depressingly contemporary air "The world, or at least the Western World, is in crisis; this, at least, is certain. The Financial system is in disarray... Economically, we are in the middle of the worst depression for 40 years, and there is little sign of any end to it... So bad have things become that in most industrial countries groups of individuals, desparing of getting any sort of satisfaction out of our present society, are trying to opt out of modern life..."
However most of the predictions that follow have not been lived out - the whole account is based on the eminent crippling of 'modern' society due to the rises in fuel costs limiting transport of goods and people - and yet while fuel prices have continued to rise over the last 30 years they have not resulted in the changes Barraclough expected. While food prices have risen in the last year or two they are still relatively lower than 1977, industry has become increasingly globalised rather than localised, and every aspect of consumption has become yet more "throw out". It is not Barraclough's long life goods leading to a 'Chippendale in every home' but Ikea and Primark than have won the nations hearts.
It is an interesting account but not only is it unfulfilled it is also perhaps misguided (even for a treehugger like me) as the road to the 'Conservation Economy' is paved with massive state intervention and a heavy tax regime, and some ideas that seem simply crazy - like the replacement over the course of a century of the entire 'historic' housing stock of the UK with new energy efficient homes, on the belief that this would not only be achievable be would also unlock a net saving in energy and resources.
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