Nobody likes #degrowth. It sounds like a downturn and reeks of a return to a less comfortable past. What if we instead sell it as a change of parameters? A vision of progress, but measured in things like hapiness and meaningfulness instead of production and consumption?
Should we continue emitting copious amounts of carbon, expecting future technology to save us? Absolutely not.
Should we be hopeful technological advancements will help mitigate the impacts of #ClimateChange? Absolutely yes.
It will always be cheaper, wiser, and more equitable to reduce emissions today than to remove them in the future, #degrowth, but improving efficiency of direct air capture is something we should celebrate as a needed complement.
This was an interesting email to receive today. It reminded me of some things we discussed back on The Oil Drum about this very thing (the online archive still available: http://theoildrum.com/special/archives ) - how paving over all the old city & county gravel roads had introduced a pile of fixed costs (not just paving, but regular re-grading, snow plowing, etc) that towns would eventually have to shed.
In other words, at some point in the not too distant future, they will start turning roads back into gravel roads, slowly but surely, starting at the very outside edges and creeping inward until only a certain core of local paved roads remains.
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> Nothing can be the same from now and that means a massive effort to build a better, socially and economically just, and ecologically safe future.
Mainstream political leaders call for economic growth but we know that growth only makes the situation worse. They distract by calls that point to enemies beyond our shores, or among the peoples that live here. They may nod to sustainability but only halfheartedly, with proposals that will address only part of the problem.
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How working for place-based solutions can change the world By Patrick Mazza, originally published by The Raven May 28, 2024
"...We must anticipate & prepare for extremes while also doing all we can to mitigate them and reduce their intensity. The more stressed systems become, the more difficult it will be for them to respond to stress. It’s a vicious cycle, the kind of feedback loop that leads to collapse. That is why we must build strong and resilient communities in our places, in our cities, towns, rural areas and bioregions. If systems break down at larger levels, we will have to fall back on our own places..."
I have mentioned many times that we will need to be prepared to take in our friends & family who will be displaced here in the US by disasters and climate collapse. The govt is not going to help. Our neighborhoods and congregations will be the basis of our sustainability.
Desirability and feasibility of perpetual economic growth is a matter of academic debate.
As of now degrwoth is not even considered as a climate change mitigation measure in projections of future #climatechange. Instead, they rely on technological innovation and further growth.
Here is cool new paper on the challenges of implementing the concept of #degrowth in models. 👇