It’s the end of growth as we know it
Beyond living standards, economic growth has shaped how societies cope with shocks and distribute gains. As growth weakens, these less visible functions may prove just as consequential as its economic effects.
degrowth
Debates on degrowth: What drives us to keep growing?
Economic growth does not increase our well-being. It drives environmental damage and will inevitably slow as we hit resource limits. Yet many countries, companies, and individuals remain fiercely attached to growth. This article uses systemic analysis and System Dynamics diagrams to explore why we keep pursuing more, despite what we know.
We have entered the age of consequences for climate and energy inaction: An interview with Richard Heinberg
In the final part of this three-part interview series, Richard Heinberg reflects on decades of ignored warnings about energy descent and economic collapse, calling for a voluntary relocalization of economics and politics.
Food, energy and collapse: The missing realities in today’s climate discourse
A critique of contemporary food and energy analysis, this essay argues that many proposed solutions to food insecurity and fossil fuel dependence remain trapped within the assumptions of growth and technological complexity. Instead, it calls for a more honest reckoning with ecological limits, inequality and the possibility of a lower-energy, more localized future.
Transition Towns are key to degrowth, but current movements remain too reformist
The Transition Towns movement has helped popularize local resilience, but current movements stop short of the structural change required. In a world of overlapping crises, it calls for more radical forms of economic relocalization and material simplicity.
Managing energy descent means using less, not just building more: An interview with Richard Heinberg
In this interview with 15/15\15 magazine, Richard Heinberg argues that current transition strategies ignore a central reality: replacing fossil fuels is not enough without reducing overall energy use.
A non-prepper’s guide to surviving collapse
As housing costs rise and populations age, underused space in existing homes offers an overlooked solution. In-home suites can provide affordable housing, support aging in place, and strengthen community ties while making better use of what we already have.
Why I assume “fixes” meant to prevent collapse won’t work
The airwaves and internet are filled with “solutions” each day to the myriad interlocking environmental and resource limits humanity faces. A very tiny number call for extraordinary reductions in consumption. The rest aren’t solutions at all.
From Growth, through Degrowth, to a Pluriverse of Flourishings
Only by defying the persistently narrow choice between ‘growth’ or ‘degrowth’ in forms that are categorically given, can the twin faces of colonial modernity in technocratic consumerism and environmental authoritarianism finally be confronted and transformed.
André Gorz’s Vision for Autonomy and Radical Frugality
Gorz’s reflections on everyday, autonomous ways of meeting our needs encourages us to redefine what it means to live well – which certainly isn’t the abundance erroneously promised by capitalism: what do we want today for happy, collective frugality?
Degrowth: The Path to a Better Life
The path to a good life is not what we own, or the places we travel, or what we individually achieve. It is living in harmony with ourselves, with the planet and all of its inhabitants, in finding joy in nature’s wonders and in our connection to ourselves and others.
The time to de-grow and adapt is now
No search results give any indication that de-growth is not already underway. No evidence anywhere supports the idea that we can do all these things that we haven’t yet done.
