Student Work Example: Oil Spills are Good for Us! Rethinking the GDP

Summary: After an in-depth unit on ecological economics using Creative Change curriculum, freshman high school students created a humorous skit to highlight the shortcomings of the GDP (Gross Domestic Product).  (The skit was performed at a 1998 public forum on sustainability hosted by Washtenaw County government.)

In the skit, The the GDP (the student) is all smiles about environmental disasters such as oil spills because they cause money to be spent.  Through these and other examples--and a follow up presentation using economic data---students demonstrated how negative activities such as clear cutting and crime count as positive economic growth in the eyes of the GDP simply because money is exchanged.

"But imagine if we subtracted the costs of environmental degradation and social decay from the Gross Domestic Product," the student wrote. "What would things look like then? Would we still seem to be making progress and headed in the right direction?"

Students then made the case that measuring progress towards sustainability requires new indicators that take into account the true social and environmental costs of activities. The Genuine Progress Indicator, developed through the transdisciplinary field of ecological economists, is one such indicator.Using this data, students shows that when social and environmental factors are figured in, the genuine progress of the country hasbeen dropping even as the GDP has been rising.

Some of the concepts, standards, and skills addressed by this activity:

• Comparing and analyzing data on economic indicators

• Developing criteria for fair policies

• Evaluating impacts of economic activity

• Posing questions and defending a position on important policy issues

• Using data to defend an argument

Learn more: Lessons on indicators and economic measurement are part of our "Economics for the Common Good" program.