For the "What's Next For Earth" call, I thought about my chickens. It's cheaper to buy organic free-range eggs in the store than to raise chickens. That's economic efficiency. But currently, when a shortage of eggs due to bird flu happens, my chickens start laying more as the days get longer. I can walk in the backyard and find the latest spot where they lay their eggs. On the other hand, balance is key. Growing cocoa trees and making chocolate will not work so easily in my backyard. And, I am so lucky to even have a backyard to do this.
"Economic efficiency tends to lead to more specialization: individuals specialize according to their skills, and regions specialize according to their relative abundance of resources (such as minerals, water, or energy). Efficiency also leads to economic stratification, both within regions (because some professions are more highly rewarded than others) and across regions (as manufacturing moves to places with lower labor costs)."
Richard Heinberg, “How globalization undermines resilience“, from the Think Resilience course.
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