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 Director of The Institute for the Study of Energy & Our Future (ISEOF) an organization focused on educating and preparing society for the coming cultural transition. Allied with leading ecologists, energy experts, politicians and systems thinkers ISEOF assembles road-maps and off-ramps for how human societies can adapt to lower throughput lifestyles.

Nate holds a Masters Degree in Finance with Honors from the University of Chicago and a Ph.D. in Natural Resources from the University of Vermont. He teaches an Honors course, Reality 101, at the University of Minnesota.

Tags: degrowth perspectives, systems thinking

Why bioregional learning is vital to how we transform systems

By Joe Brewer, Earth Regenerators

Bioregional learning opens up the design pathways for systemic change to emerge. And it does so with life at the center of every major decision that needs to be made.

September 22, 2026

Restoring Nature is our Only Climate Solution

Restoring nature is our only climate solution

By Richard Heinberg, Resilience.org

Most activities driving climate change rely on technology, so we naturally turn to new technologies for solutions. But what if more technology worsens the problem? This article explains why trees, soil, and biodiversity may be our true lifelines.

September 22, 2026

Humans have pushed bird populations toward extinction. Peregrine recovery efforts offer valuable conservation lessons

By Sophie A.H. Osborn, The Observatory

From DDT and pesticide exposure to collapsing insect populations and habitat disruption, birds are warning us about the growing environmental pressures reshaping ecosystems worldwide.

September 21, 2026

Comments

Welcome to the new Resillience commenting system!

We have moved from the former Disqus commenting system to a new system as of September 10, 2026.

  • Your past comments have not disappeared.
  • You can log in with your old Disqus credentials, as well as Gmail credentials or a Resilience account (formerly Resilience+). Login with Facebook and other credentials is coming soon.

We made this change because of privacy concerns regarding Disqus. It's also part of a set of changes to bring more services to the Resilience community under a single login: commenting, (coming September 2026), and online courses (coming 2027). Unfortunately, your old Disqus comments may not reliably link to your account in this new system. Please contact us if you have any questions or concerns.

Subscribe
Notify of
1 Comment
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
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.

0