When a lifetime of activity and a whole movement’s history frames one’s thinking, the first thing to say is that there are few original ideas in this book. It is more an amalgamation of fifty years of the concepts, ideas, and research of others. So I enthusiastically acknowledge the millions of people engaged on these issues over many decades, and I thank you all for your passion and commitment and for your love of humanity and the planet’s extraordinary life force.
In this regard I particularly note Greenpeace, both as its own phenomena and as the home for thousands of courageous campaigners and their groundbreaking activism over four decades. You opened my eyes to limitless possibility as well as making me a global citizen.
I also acknowledge those who in more recent times have called the end of economic growth and have worked so hard to define how we might transition to a new approach. People such as Herman Daly and Tim Jackson, and organizations such as the New Economics Foundation, CASSE, and many others. You were right all along and your time has come.
On a personal level, there are many individuals who have steered me on my course but only a few will be named here. Jim Dixon for haranguing me over many decades on the importance of science. Peter Garrett for expressing faith and providing practical support to a young activist and for decades of friendship since. To all my friends on the Cambridge Programme, including Jonathon Porritt, Polly Courtice, Peter Willis, and others for having the courage to let a provocative, non-academic into the hallowed halls and allowing me to test and hone my thinking with such a powerful audience. To all my colleagues at Ecos and Easy Being Green, far too many to name but you know who you are and what a powerful contribution you all made to the thinking throughout this book.
To Joakim Bergman for endless encouragement and belief, through Greenpeace and life over twenty years, including a firm hand when needed. It is such rocks of friendship and support that define a life well lived. In the same vein, I thank Murray Hogarth and Rick Humphries for sharing life and debating the issues for hours—there are few ideas here that haven’t been tested over beer and rugby, perhaps a uniquely Australian process of applying intellectual rigor! Go the gut.
For teaching an activist about business through providing opportunities and wise counsel, but also for your personal commitment to these issues: Jac Nasser, Bruce Blythe, Chad Holiday, Paul Tebo, Ellen Kullman, Mike Hawker, Sam Mostyn, John Pollaers, John Doumani, and countless others. And to Julie Birtles for much personal counsel and many reviews of the original “Great Disruption” letter in 2008. Your strength and passion for transformational change is a wonderful gift.
Sometimes small acts by one lead to major consequences for another. Tom Friedman, a friend and intellectual sparring partner since our walk up the mountain at Davos in 1995, wrote about the Great Disruption in his New York Times column in March 2009. That column triggered the invitation for me to write this book. So without your involvement, Tom, I doubt this book would exist. Thank you for the way you use your extraordinary leverage and brilliant writing to tirelessly push the United States and the world to act on climate, and for making the geopolitical and economic case for doing so.
Inspired by Tom’s column, my editor, Peter Ginna, and my agent, Pilar Queen, both approached me. I thank you both for all your efforts to make this project happen. Peter, your confidence in my ideas and your courage to take them to the mainstream, along with your professional guidance, have been crucial and greatly appreciated.
Another who deserves special acknowledgment is Professor Jorgen Randers. I thought I had been focused on these issues for a long time until I met Jorgen—who started writing The Limits to Growth before I started high school. Never losing good humor or the curiosity for new ideas—and never displaying what would be understandable bitterness at being right but ignored for forty years—says a lot for your character and humanity. Your time has finally come and The Limits to Growth will now be recognized for its accuracy and its profound historical significance.
To Paul Ferris and Michelle Grosvenor for reviewing countless drafts and for probing and researching to provide rigor and a critical eye to my ideas and opinions. Being challenged by fearless but caring critics made this book much stronger.
Finally and most of all, to my wife and soul mate Michelle and to my life’s most important outcome, my children—Callan, Asher, Jasper, Oscar, and Grace. Michelle, you know you have always been half my story; loving, pushing, propping up, and slapping down as needed. Mostly for always being there. To my little ones, some of whom are now bigger than me and all of whom soon will be. This is really for you, in every way. You will live with the consequences of our actions longer than I, and your children longer than you. I know you will do your best for them, as I have done for you. I hope and believe it will all turn out well.