Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
Degrowth is a movement built around a critique of the growth economy, which draws strongly on the limits to growth (cf also The Growth Illusion of Richard Douthwaite) and strong sustainability debates of the 1970s.
One thing everyone I met has in common is a desire to create a new world order, a new way of creating, connecting and being which is beyond the market, beyond ownership, growth and capitalism.
Degrowth? For most Americans, the idea of a movement dedicated to non-growth, let alone one that can attract so many people, is incomprehensible.
…I won’t be marching this weekend. I’ll be taking action instead.
There is little mindfulness about how the way in which we communicate our message comes across to people beyond the bubble.
In order to fully understand the necessary scale and speed of action required to significantly reduce climate change risks, citizens and governments must first understand the full extent and implications of the carbon budget challenge.
In order to keep within a ‘safe’ temperature threshold, deep and rapid decarbonisation is required, and yet existing trends show that global emissions are still growing rapidly.
Perhaps post-growth thinkers need to embrace a both/and strategy—both policy reform and grassroots change—rather than privileging one over the other or wasting energy on the wrong audience.
Bill Rees recorded in April at the Vancouver Degrowth Event on why degrowth is the only realistic path to sustainability.
Thus far the debate around unconventional gas/fracking has focussed on pollution, flammable water, earthquakes, noise, toxic fumes, climate change, etc. As a result people mainly focus on the "what?", or at a local level the "where?", of the issue. My research leads me toward one single question… "why?".
The scale of emission reductions required to meaningfully impact Climate Change will result in economic stagnation or contraction. This will render much of the financial system non-viable, greatly exacerbating the economic problems.
We turn now to a pair of climate scientists who are calling for what some may view as a shocking solution to the climate crisis: a rethinking of the economic order in the United States and other industrialized nations.
