"Economic growth" justifies everything

Take this for example:

"But the prime minister's approach has always been that you can't address the problem of climate change by harming the domestic or world economy."

The spokesman stressed that: "The best thing to do is to have a world economy which can afford to invest in research and development for new technology.

It just seems to be complete nonsense. What do these people think 'economy' means. In this case we're talking about air flight. How would stopping flying harm the economy? It makes no sense. If we can't fly and movement is essential to maintain innovation (the real source of economic growth) then we'd find new ways to move, and perhaps focus more on the transfer of ideas.

It seems we are at an impass. The world needs a new vision for what we think economy means but we're being totally unimaginative or stubborn to explore the possibilities. I am sure there are libraries full of such ideas but maybe an ethical and accountable economy is the next thing we can move towards?