Doughnut Economics: Seven Ways to Think Like a 21st-Century Economist

by Kate Raworth

The implication? The last two centuries of extraordinary economic growth in high-income countries are largely due to the availability of cheap fossil fuels. It makes sense when you break it down: the energy contained in a single gallon of oil is equivalent to 47 days of hard human labour, making current global oil production equivalent to the daily work of billions of invisible slaves.37 What then are the implications for GDP in the post-fossil-fuel future that we must create? ‘We have to anticipate the possibility that economic growth will slow down or even turn negative,’ warn Ayres and Warr. ‘In short, future GDP growth is not only not guaranteed, it is more than likely to end within a few decades.’