While it is not necessary to admit how nature has contributed to economic growth, GDP has encouraged unsustainable practices that have contributed to climate and biodiversity emergencies. In other words, GDP is like a ledger that doesn't accept red ink. Like accounting tricks, it allowed us to release greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, destroy habitats, and ignore human well-being without worrying about the consequences. Of course, economist Simon Kuznets didn't have to think about the current environmental disasters when he developed the concept after the Great Depression of the 1930s. However, despite the limitations that Kuznets himself was aware of, GDP remains the most important economic indicator today. This puts policy makers in some dilemmas trying to limit global warming.