There is something fundamentally wrong in treating the Earth as if it were a business in liquidation.

While the invisible hand looks after the private sector, the invisible foot kicks the public sector to pieces.

The economy is a wholly owned subsidiary of the environment, not the reverse.

Reproduction is more pleasurable than death.

We need an economics fit for purpose in a finite and entropic world.

Even if we could grow our way out of the crisis and delay the inevitable and painful reconciliation of virtual and real wealth, there is the question of whether this would be a wise thing to do. Marginal costs of additional growth in rich countries, such as global warming, biodiversity loss and roadways choked with cars, now likely exceed marginal benefits of a little extra consumption. The end result is that promoting further economic growth makes us poorer, not richer.

Growth chestnuts have to be placed on the unyielding anvil of biophysical realities and then crushed with the hammer of moral argument.