This article shows how false accounting appears to show that the use of resources (relative and absolute de-coupling) is becoming more efficient in the richer countries when, in fact, the imports of products and materials from poorer countries is not properly accounted for. As always, Monbiot supplies links to the scientific sources of his arguments. Coming in the run up to the Paris Climate Summit (CoP 21) this little known error of accounting is exposed in a timely manner. As usual Monbiot cuts to the quick, striking at the heart of the existential threat of untrammelled economic growth on Spaceship Earth.