Unlike the capitalists dream of an ever increasing market reality has to be considered, if we cannot asset strip space; then we better balance our resources and consumption here on earth.
By the early '00s, the frailties of the planet were becoming even more evident—and unsettling—as greenhouse gases accumulated and chunks of Greenland's glaciers began breaking off into the sea. "We've had 125,000 generations of humans, but it's only been the last eight that have had growth," Victor told me. "So what's considered normal? I think we live in very abnormal times. And the signs are showing up everywhere that the burden we're placing on the natural environment can't be borne."
The capitalist solution has been to declare that growth will solve the economic issues. We may however have come to the point...hmm...we have been past this point for quite some time; where you have to rob Peter to pay Paul. We just haven't been made to notice our colonial heritage since we could at one time hide the inequality of our world. Now we both have to compete for the same resources we cannot just plunder what we please and we have to realize their are real limits to economic expansion. One of those being our own biosphere.
We have to develop a sustainable economic system, our politicians are hell bent on avoiding that at any cost. We will solve the [perceived] economic issues before we can solve the [real] economic issues type of rhetoric is all too common.
What you have to do is develop an economy which at best stays static with respect to access to primary resources and will contract in relation to population. Forget about growth saving the day, start thinking inside the biosphere and what needs to be done to preserve and improve the quality of life, then you might just have a shot at making it sustainable.