Richard Douthwaite was born in Sheffield in 1942. He worked as a journalist before studying economics at the University of Essex and the University of the West Indies, Kingston, Jamaica. His ground-breaking study, The Growth Illusion: how economic growth enriched the few, impoverished the many and endangered the planet, was published in 1992, followed by Short Circuit (on how communities can become more independent of the world economy) and The Ecology of Money, which calls for different currencies for different purposes and for changes in the way money is put into circulation. He is a founder member of FEASTA, the foundation for the economics of sustainability.
This essay is published in a collection entitled What Machines?, published by independent publisher Mermaid Turbulence, at £4.72 (€6). For copies, write to Mermaid Turbulence, Annaghmaconway, Cloone, Leitrim, or telephone 078 36134.