By Timothée Parrique, Timothée Parrique blog
In the very same month the IPCC publishes an 8-year in the making, almost 3,000-page report, I find it scientifically insulting that someone dares to cobble a few graphs together in defence of a crackpot hypothesis whose scientific legitimacy has come close to Flat Earth theory.
By Timothée Parrique, Timothée Parrique blog
What I intend to show in this paper is that the reassuring claim that decoupling is feasible, as one may read in the Summary for Policymaker and hear in the media, is scientifically ungrounded, and this based on the very analysis provided by the IPCC report.
By Samuel Alexander, The Simplicity Institute
Capitalism has various growth imperatives that are inconsistent with environmental limits. That is, capitalism must grow for stability but cannot grow limitlessly on a finite planet. It follows that the future will be post-capitalist – by design or disaster.
By Timothée Parrique, Uneven Earth
So, is green growth happening? The answer is no, not really. As of today, economic growth is still a vector of resource use and environmental degradation.
By Brian Davey, Feasta
Promoting economic growth is unethical because economic activity has overshot the carrying capacity of the biosphere and is degrading the ecological system.
By R. Strand, Z. Kovacic, S. Funtowicz, L. Benini, A. Jesus, European Environment Agency
Economic growth is closely linked to increases in production, consumption and resource use and has detrimental effects on the natural environment and human health.
By Caroline Whyte, Feasta
In other words, it is impossible, within the time constraints that we are now facing, to decouple GDP growth from environmental damage strongly and deeply enough to be able to adequately repair that damage.
By Gunnar Rundgren, Garden Earth Blog
In most prevailing sustainability narratives, increased efficiency is a prominent component. It is a prerequisite for the supposed possibility to combine decreasing pressure on natural resources with economic growth.
By Jason Hickel, Jason Hickel blog
My appeal to McAfee: let’s try to get beyond this sort of thing and engage more honestly with the empirical and theoretical work that has been done, so we can have more meaningful conversations. If we are going to realise our shared goals, we can and must do better.
By Gunnar Rundgren, Garden Earth
My milk package, the electric cars, agriculture land use and the wood saving stoves are all examples showing why overall reduction in resources use or emissions (absolute decoupling) through substitution and efficiency is a pipe dream in a growth economy.
By Nafeez Ahmed, Insurge Intelligence
For years, financial institutions and governments have been focused on the idea of ‘decoupling’ GDP growth from resource use. This has been driven by the recognition that to stay within the ‘safe limit’ of 2 degrees Celsius, we have to dramatically reduce our material consumption.
By Timothée Parrique, Uneven Earth
Is economic growth compatible with ecological sustainability? To answer this question, we need to talk about decoupling. The term ‘decoupling’ refers to the possibility of detaching economic growth from environmental pressures.