The Case for Prosperity

I’ve been wrestling with two truths lately. One: we are in a planetary emergency. Two: people are more likely to change by feeling inspired, not afraid.

This is the tension at the heart of the discourse on climate and nature. The situation is urgent and alarming, but fear isn’t a great motivator. People change when the alternatives are attractive, not terrifying. They say yes when it is easy, when there is something in it for them.

As a proud Yorkshire-man, I’m been raised to be sceptical of wealth as a fundamental driver of happiness, see 4 minute seminar here: Four Yorkshiremen (subtitled) (also depicted above) and it was Janet Jackson who taught us that the best things in life are free, Luther Vandross & Janet Jackson/ The Best Things In Life Are Free but there’s another phrase from the 90s that remains broadly true - it’s the economy, stupid. This was political shorthand for what really drives people’s decisions. And in a world of abstract environmental warnings, it’s still the economy that shapes what most people actually do.

So here’s my argument: maybe we should stop talking so much about ”sustainability”.

That word - sustainability - it’s about maintaining, keeping things the same. But who gets excited about standing still? And let’s be honest, it also comes wrapped in a history of tree-hugging and hair shirts. The other words like ‘polycrisis’ and ‘degrowth’ and ‘system change’ are increasingly used by well intentioned people who are perhaps the best informed of us all, but are so far, on the fringes and seen as naive or impractical.

What story therefore should we tell to inspire a change? Some people say, focus on nature. We all value the beauty and mystery of the natural world. But I don’t think we can expect everyone to be obsessed with David Attenborough documentaries or feel spiritually at one with the Earth. Instead, let's make it incredibly easy to ‘say yes’. Do you care about the future - for yourself, your children, your community?

That’s why it might help to reframe this conversation around prosperity.

Prosperity is positive and ambitious. And it’s just vague enough to let us reshape it in bold ways. It’s not about “less” or about guilt. It’s about a good life - now and in the future.

Let’s simply return to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs….

Prosperity means safety and security - both under threat from extreme weather, geopolitical instability, resource scarcity.

It means food and shelter - already disrupted by crop failures, floods, fires, and housing shortages.

It means meaningful work - many industries are under pressure, but a net-zero world opens space for new, fulfilling jobs.

Perhaps this is the case we need to make: a thriving future isn’t something we have to sacrifice prosperity for. It is prosperity.

The challenge is our understanding of time, our collective bias towards the immediate. It’s still possible to argue that the best route to short-term growth, to ‘prosperity’ is business-as-usual - digging, burning, extracting, exploiting. Kicking the costs of pollution, degradation, and climate chaos down the road. But that’s not prosperity, that’s debt.

Real prosperity is stable, secure, inclusive, and long-term. It’s cleaner air, warmer homes, more resilient communities, better food, and a fairer economy. That’s the future worth fighting for - not just a sustainable one, a prosperous one.

Let’s reshape the debate. Let’s make prosperity the goal. And let’s build a version of it that brings us out of emergency, not deeper into it.