Less is more - The Limits to Growth and the Better Life

Less is more - The Limits to Growth and the Better Life

How sustainable is our way of life? What can we do without sacrificing our quality of life? To answer these questions, the filmmaker visits people, firms and initiatives that have recognized that economic growth need not be the measure of all things, and that a sustainable lifestyle doesn't have to mean living like a monk.


From the producers of international box office hit "Taste the Waste".

No prosperity without growth. That has been the motto of government and business up to now. Economic growth was seen as the key to jobs and quality of life. Doubting the dogma of growth means being looked at askance, and held to be a dreamer. But climate change and global economic crisis have called this dogma into doubt. Population explosion, energy crisis and environmental damage are problems that can no longer be ignored. If all people on earth were to live the way modern Germans do, for instance, we would need the resources of three planets. More and more people are convinced unfettered growth is no longer possible in a world of limited resources. Although our gross domestic product continues to rise, personal happiness has not risen in industrial countries since the '70s. Could it be our consumer society doesn't deliver on its promises of happiness? What do we really need for a satisfied life? On her journey, the filmmaker discovers living sustainably doesn't have to mean sacrificing quality of life. On the contrary, it often means a better life.