The new horizons of the economy

Abstract

There is no doubt that the pandemic caused by COVID 19 is causing a serious economic crisis whose ultimate consequences are for now absolutely impossible to predict. But, if we don't limit ourselves to the current situation and instead look to the past, there has been a general decline since the disaster of the  subprime mortgages in 2007. At this point, by correctly and realistically evaluating all the indicators at our disposal, one is led to think of a slow and inexorable agony that the world economy, and the social system connected to it, are currently experiencing. However, it is evident that these elements are inserted within a broader decline, linked to undeniable health problems and overpopulation, to great environmental difficulties deriving from global warming and to the consequent change in the climatic conditions of the planet that support our life with increasing difficulty. Since the first industrial revolution, human activities have led to the depletion of natural reserves with the consequent release of an enormous quantity of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. Everything that derives from this represents a real threat to our future, hence the need for important alternatives that progressively replace the traditional economic culture, based on the extraction of fossil fuels to obtain energy. Given these premises, also on the basis of countless writings produced by the scientist Giorgio Nebbia, this work, to whose memory this article is dedicated, aims to analyze an alternative but valid way of approaching environmental, economic and energy problems, investigating the many aspects that characterize and link these materials to each other.