Growth, the antithesis of preservation

It's always the same story, countries that experience a birth-rate drop, like Japan or Italy for instance, seem condemned to economic recession or regression.

This would suggest that in order to sustain a certain level of economic comfort and prosperity, the world is doomed to growth today, and by extension, to environmental destruction tomorrow.

Another way to look at it, is that sustained growth addresses our short-term hedonist needs, while our long term future is under attack and menaced by massive and irreversible destruction, but we choose to stick our head in the sand and cherish our short term pleasure regardless of the ominous cost we'll end up paying much sooner than we think...