Reframing Progress
Progress acts as a kind of meta-narrative, an incredibly potent and pervasive trope that is woven through stories ancient and contemporary, and forms a core part of our culture.
limits to growth
Learning from Icarus
What if Icarus’ father—knowing his son would fly too close to the sun—had made the wings he designed more resilient?
Use and Abuse of the “Natural Capital” Concept
Some people object to the concept of “natural capital” because they say it reduces nature to the status of a commodity to be marketed at its exchange value.
How to Shrink the Economy without Crashing It: A Ten-Point Plan
If there is a theoretical pathway to a significantly smaller economy we should try to identify it.
Degrowth-movement refuted by climate-report? No, not at all!
[I]nternational media, governments and the United Nations enthusiastically welcomed a new report entitled “Better Growth, Better Climate” and trumpeted its central message around the globe: that economic growth and tackling climate change can go hand in hand….
Limits to Growth: Where We Are and What to Do About It
In this talk, Nate Hagens synthesizes the current landscape of global energy, environment and financial risks while offering suggestions on what to do as a hominid living on a full planet.
Paul Krugman and the limits of hubris
Economist Paul Krugman evidently feels irked and irritated by the notion that there might be limits to economic expansion: he has followed up his New York Times op-ed with a new piece. It reveals a great deal about how economists think, and why they tend to disregard physical science when it comes to questions about finite resources and the possibility of infinite economic growth on a small planet.
Trapped in Techno-Scientism: Is this hindering our becoming an eco-city?
The project of modernity to achieve human self-determination and freedom is a struggle against the limits imposed by nature.
Life in a ‘degrowth’ economy
What does genuine economic progress look like?
The Buffalo Wind
I’ve talked more than once in these essays about the challenge of discussing the fall of civilizations when the current example is picking up speed right outside the window.
Dark Age America: The Senility of the Elites
The illusion of invincibility is far and away the most important asset a mature ruling elite has, because it discourages deliberate attempts at regime change from within.
Mobilising a counter-hegemonic climate movement
…never has it been more important to embrace a collective demand for ‘system change’ as the surest way to limit global warming and ensure environmental sustainability.
