Economy featured

Reflections on ‘Beyond Growth’

By Nate Hagens, originally published by The Great Simplification

May 23, 2023

morel mushrooms

Recorded May 16th, 2023

Description

On this Frankly, Nate reflects on the Beyond Growth Conference held at the European Parliament, including the stunning public acknowledgement by EU President that a growth model based on fossil fuels is now obsolete. In the context of this growing and relevant conversation, Nate unpacks what the degrowth movement is getting right, but also what is missing from the conversation. Is it possible to purposely navigate from our current system to one with lower energy and material wealth? How does a large and growing global debt overhang impact this possibility? Is a transfer of wealth between nations feasible or even desirable based on realistic outcomes? In any case, as to the inevitability of a post-growth world, the degrowth conversation needs to be expanded.  It’s the primary movement mapping out what a desirable destination might look like as we move through a Great Simplification.

Show Notes

00:05 – Beyond Growth Conference

00:18 – Morchella Mushrooms

00:30 – Clip of European Commissioner at the Beyond Growth Conference

01:27 – Degrowth

01:35 – Episodes for Vandana Shiva, Giorgos Kallis, Timothee Parrique, Olivia Lazard, Simon Michaux

01:48 – Kate Raworth

03:42 – 350-400% debt to GDP ratio

03:47 – US 90% energy independent

03:50 – 32 trillion dollar in debt and 200 trillion in unfunded pensions and social security

05:05 – Global North responsible for 80% of emissions

06:08 – The top 1% of earners in the US spend 7% of their income while the bottom 40% spend 104%

 

Teaser photo credit: By Gzirk – Own work, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3959627. By Gzirk – Own work, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3959627

Nate Hagens

Nate Hagens

Nate Hagens is the Executive Director of The Institute for the Study of Energy & Our Future (ISEOF). Allied with leading ecologists, energy experts, politicians, and systems thinkers, ISEOF assembles roadmaps for understanding how human societies might adapt to lower-throughput lifestyles.

Nate hosts the podcast The Great Simplification, where he has conversations with experts in energy, ecology, government, technology, and the economy to provide a systemic view of the world around us.

After ten years in finance, Nate left Wall Street to study the interrelationships between energy, ecology, and economics—and the implications for human futures. He was the Managing Editor of The Oil Drum, one of the most respected websites for analysis and discussion of global energy supplies and implications of the upcoming energy transition.

Tags: degrowth perspectives, systems thinking

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Tony Weddle
Tony Weddle
3 years ago

Degrowth, in its simplest sense will happen (not sure what Nate means by “post growth”) but the degrowth movement don’t really have proposals in detail for how degrowth happens and what a sustainable steady state target will look like. I very much doubt that most people understand that their society will not look anything like it does today if it were sustainable.

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