Define what is meant by GDP, and explain the limitations of using it as a proxy for economic growth.

GPD, or Gross Domestic Product, can be defined as the total value of goods and services produced in an economy over a given period of time; specifically, GDP includes all private and public consumption, government outlays, investments and exports minus imports that occur within a defined territory, and can be calculated per annum, or even on a quarterly basis.
Nonetheless, its usefulness as a metric for economic growth continues to be widely challenged. Firstly, GDP does not reflect the negative externalities that are usually incurred when reaching higher levels of economic growth; for example, whilst GDP may increase through a rise in industrial output, such output will likely occur at the cost of increased pollution, limiting sustainable growth in the long-run. Additionally, the GDP figure favours negative expenditures, when in reality these too will limit economic sustainability in the long-run; the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill, for example, added a sizeable $61.6bn dollars to GDP growth - in actuality, this incident is far from an economic success suggested by the increased GDP figure, and is completely undesirable. GDP is thus a very convoluted and misleading indication of growth, which ought to be substituted for other metrics, such as HDI.