Is Degrowth an Academic Field or a Mass Movement? Taking Degrowth to the People!
By Phil Wilson, originally published by Resilience.org May 7, 2024
"...Tens of millions will either be mobilized to act, or not. The climate emergency cannot be mitigated...via private acts of conscience, nor...without a program of action and a massive base, expect to meaningfully oppose corporate reflexes. Intellectual virtuosity has limits – we would all do well to read Thoreau, but also, we must understand that his literary brilliance did not slow down the robber barons.
...degrowth, cannot be titrated in order to make it palatable to either profiteers or addicted consumers. It is inherently radical and based on the assumption that any alternative will be catastrophic...many...articles rather casually assumed that degrowth might be employed within the context of reform rather than revolution. There are no historical events that support such optimism..."
Can economic growth be decoupled from emissions? Yes, for sure, easily even.
Can economic growth be decoupled from environmental degradation in general? Absolutely not. The sheer throughput of materials through the economy, from extraction to waste disposal, must decrease. If we address GHG emissions in isolation from topsoil and biodiversity loss, we will fail to preserve the ecosystems on which we depend for life.
Radically Open Security, the nonprofit computer security company donates 90% of its profits to NLnet. Today @ros turned 10 years old and crossed the magical number of 1 million euro in donations to NLnet.
Happy birthday ROS! And thanks a million :-).
We interviewed ROS co-founder and CEO Melanie Rieback to learn why she decided to give the company such an unusual business model.
I didn't expect the #degrowth tag to have such a high proportion of posts arguing against it. Or more often, taking potshots at straw-man versions. So here's a small corrective.
Capitalist growth will doom even its beneficiaries to a hostile future. We need degrowth at every scale, as soon as possible, by any means necessary. Use adblock, become a quiet quitter, eat less meat, sabotage a golf course, learn to compost. We owe this – and much more – to future generations of the living world.
How to unite local initiatives for a more sustainable global future
By Vasilis Kostakis, Nikiforos Tsiouris, originally published by ScienceDirect May 1, 2024
"...In a state of emergency, it is audacious to place all our hopes for tackling the ecological crisis and wealth inequality in technology –worse even, in technology that is yet to materialize... High-tech is not unsustainable in its essence, but its scale and mode of production in the capitalist realm are.
...the crux of the matter is profoundly political. The development and production of technology in the modern era are intricately interwoven with wealth inequality and environmental deterioration. Technology is not being produced in a vacuum, thus it is not neutral. On the contrary, it is highly influenced by the decisions of manufacturers, legislators, consultants, designers and everyone else involved –directly or indirectly– in the process..."
Podcast:
Crazy Town 86. Escaping Growthism: Wendigo Economics, Mystery Houses, and Becoming the Bear
By Asher Miller, Rob Dietz, Jason Bradford, originally published by Resilience.org May 1, 2024
"...Grow or die. It’s the governing principle of companies, investment portfolios, national economies, and even philanthropic foundations. Oh, and cancer. Asher, Jason, and Rob lay bare the stats on everything from human population, energy consumption, global GDP, greenhouse gas emissions, and the size of cars and cruise ships, before concluding that the global economy should be named after the Wendigo from Algonquian folklore. They turn to the natural world for examples of self-regulation, along with promising new economic frameworks and on-the-ground models, for how to end Wendigo economics before it ends us.
Warning: This podcast occasionally uses spicy language."
Among the ancestors - By Chris Smaje, originally published by Small Farm Future April 29, 2024
"...Those who say that radical changes are necessary to meet the challenges of our times but can only treat with scorn the possibility that part of those changes might involve reversing the breakneck capitalist urbanization of recent decades do not strike me as people who are genuinely wrestling with the enormity of the changes upon us. They strike me as people who are desperately trying to cling to the status quo. ...I think the body of our collective contemporary world political economy is manifestly dying, while its mind in the form of its public culture is largely in denial. But the denial can’t mask the frailty of old age in our political economy. ...I believe a major thing that lies behind this is a fear of individual death..."
Eco-Collapse Hasn’t Happened Yet, But You Can See It Coming
By Stan Cox, originally published by TomDispatch April 30, 2024
"...In short, this sort of indefinite expansion of the U.S. and global economy into the distant future is doomed to fail, but not before it’s crippled our ecological and social systems. In its 2024 Global Resources Outlook, the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) reported that humanity’s annual consumption of physical resources had grown more than threefold in the half-century since The Limits to Growth was published. Indeed, resource extraction is now rising faster than the Human Development Index, a standard measure of well-being. In other words, overextraction and overproduction while producing staggering wealth aren’t benefiting the rest of us..."
Domestic bliss at #LikaLodge : It’s #raining. I made a bed for the #Dog. #Bike is here too, covered a bit. #Fireplace & #tea. This morning I had breakfast at sunrise, under #Lipa / #Linden . Earlier I made a room-divider from a #patchwork curtain I got at #DeGrowth conference last year. Memories & fantasies… plus enjoying the moment!