Who says growth is good?  Who says unlimited, unchecked growth is good for people and communities?  Maryland is becoming more densely populated than ever.  Developers have even more sway over what happens in your community as they work hand-in-hand with our elected officials to extract enormous profits leaving your community with projects you don’t want, congested roads, overcrowded schools and overburdened infrastructure.

Unlimited growth – with ever larger corporations and retailers, more congested roads, gated enclaves and industrial agriculture – is no longer a feasible or desirable model for Maryland.

For us to sustain our own lives and our own communities, we must exchange the current outmoded model of unchecked development for one that focuses resources on already-existing communities, supports locally owned businesses and farms and walkable public transit-oriented neighborhoods.

Using the steady-state approach to managing Maryland’s economy, energy and development, rather than the current unsuccessful smart-growth strategy, we can ensure that Maryland’s existing communities and businesses become sustainable economically and environmentally while providing all of us the quality of life we want and deserve but have rarely achieved under the old, outmoded economic and business models we have had forced on us for decades.

A steady-state approach is the only truly Green economic model and is one Maryland should adopt now to meet the demands of a 21^st century society.

Stability does not mean stagnation, in fact the opposite.  Stability means that communities will strengthen from within to meet the needs of individuals.  The steady-state economy is based on achieving stable population and stable consumption of materials and energy at a sustainable level.

The primary goals of a steady-state economy are to maintain the health of ecosystems and the life-support services they provide; extract renewable resources like fish and timber at a rate no faster than they can be regenerated; consume non-renewable resources like fossil fuels and minerals at a rate no faster than they can be replaced by the discovery of renewable substitutes; and deposit wastes in the environment at a rate no faster than they can be safely assimilated.

Steady-state economies encourage innovation and technological progress, provide for private and public ownership of economic resources, reduce poverty because there are more resources for each person and community and free us from the boom and bust economic cycles because it is structured for stability, a stability we need as individuals and communities.

A steady-state economy for Maryland is the only type of approach that is sustainable over the long term. It is an economy that meets people’s needs without undermining the life-support services of our planet. It represents the ultimate social movement toward a better world for all. Our lives are downshifted and we can all take a collective breath as overconsumption, congestion, sprawl, and unfair trade practices fade away. People instead focus on community, relationships, sufficient consumption, and the things that really matter in life.

Isn’t this what you want and need from the people you elect?  Using the same old models that not only do not benefit us, but harm us and our environment, is no longer acceptable or sustainable.

Maryland is on a trajectory of unlimited growth that ensures people and our communities have less and less say in what happens to us resulting in even less control over own own lives.  Electing new thinkers and leaders who will implement policies that are good for people and communities first is essential if we are to live in the kind of state and society we want.

Sustainability, not unlimited growth!