Can you have infinite growth on a finite planet? Of course not. And while government and big business ignore this fact, a growing number of local, grassroots movements are rebuilding on a more human, sustainable scale.
Libby Peake learns about them through the new film, The Economics of Happiness

The Economics of Happiness, a new film by the International Society for Ecology and Culture (ISEC), opens with the claim that we are facing an environmental crisis, an economic crisis and a crisis of the human spirit. Its subsequent analysis lays the blame at the door of government-sponsored economic globalisation. Though this modern trend is promoted as a means to end poverty and bring the world together, the film argues that it’s really about profit and has worsened nearly every problem the world faces – ethnic conflict, climate change, financial instability and depression.

According to the director of ISEC and the film, Helena Norberg-Hodge, The Economics of Happiness grew out of her book (and film), Ancient Futures, which describes the disastrous effects of globalisation on India’s Ladakh region. “There was a lot of interest in Ancient Futures”, she says. “People told me again and again that it was their story, too.”