Welcome to our in-depth exploration of degrowth. In a world shaped by economic systems, our articles delve into the intersection of green politics, degrowth, and anti-capitalist principles, providing a unique perspective on reshaping economic paradigms.
Our articles offer a green perspective on degrowth, examining how it aims to redefine success beyond mere GDP growth and advocates for a sustainable, balanced approach to resource allocation.
Discover how anti-capitalist ideals align with the Green vision for an economic system that prioritizes people and the planet over profit. We explore the complexities of dismantling the current economic framework and replacing it with one that emphasizes social justice, environmental sustainability, and community well-being. Navigate through insightful articles that unpack the strategies proposed by green political movements to reduce the size of the military-industrial complex.
Together, let’s envision and advocate for a future where economic prosperity is intertwined with social and ecological well-being.
Onslaught of the Oily Authoritarians
Stan Cox
Democratic politicians are being pressed hard on issues of critical importance to Black, Native, and Latinx communities—those most harmed by state oppression, economic injustice, the extraction and use of fossil fuels, and the impacts of climate change. In response, a minority of the party’s lawmakers began in 2021 to push harder for stronger voting rights and climate legislation. But without a functioning majority in the Senate, they flopped on both fronts. The party remains stalled largely because it’s tightly limited in how far most of its members will go in challenging the economic power structure. That has led some on […]
Decriminalized Marijuana Reinvents Racism and Poisoning
Don Fitz and Susan Armstrong
The change in marijuana laws across the US raises issues far beyond, “Hey, dude, we can blow a joint now without getting busted.” The racism that permeated the age of criminalization now lurks throughout the phase of decriminalization. The burgeoning business of growing pot raises the specter of corporate agriculture with its threats to human health and natural ecosystems. Are there ways to enjoy weed while challenging racism and corporate domination over the environment? An Attack on Black and Brown Cultures Spanish-speaking people, who have lived in the US since it stole half of Mexico’s land, have a tradition of […]
Contribution to the development of an ecosocialist program
Fourth International
The ecocidal accumulation of capital threatens the very conditions of human life on the planet. The Covid pandemic confirms this, insofar as the increase in zoonoses over the last forty years is attributable to the destruction of ecosystems. The global ecological limits of sustainable human development have been crossed in several areas (climate, biodiversity, nitrogen and land use). They are in the process of being crossed in chemical and plastic pollution, while there is great uncertainty about other key factors of sustainability (freshwater resources, fine-particle pollution, the phosphorus cycle, etc.). Capitalist progress has always been incompatible with the rational management […]
The Climate and the Republic, Melting Down in Real Time
Stan Cox
The United States is facing two grim prospects in 2022: one, that continued abuse of the ecosphere could render much of the Earth unlivable for humans and myriad other species, and two, that the United States’ current political drift toward autocratic rule could accelerate, dashing any hope of attaining a multiracial, pluralistic democracy. These two emergencies are intertwined. Either we find meaningful responses to both, or we fail dramatically on both. (For more on this image, see It’s Time ) Our climate predicament has been apparent for decades, but last month, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change issued its starkest […]
Green Capitalism “Can’t Work”
Fanny Kinsch
Daniel Tanuro argued that the energy transition would require an increase in fossil energy, and therefore an increase in emissions. So somewhere along the line, to balance the climate equation, we need to compensate for this by cutting production and transport. He suggested eliminating useless or harmful production, such as weapons production or advertising. The government’s climate plans that have been adopted to date would put global warming at 3.2°C. But there won’t be any civilisation at 3.2°C, Tanuro said, as there won’t be enough food for everyone.
Cap the War, Cap the Wells: A Bipartisan Oil Rush or the Phasing Out of Fossil Fuels?
Stan Cox
Introduction by Tom Engelhardt of TomDispatch: In case you hadn’t noticed, we live on an eternally well-oiled and well-gassed planet. Only recently, for instance, Joe Biden announced that the U.S. was going to ramp up the supplies of frozen liquid natural gas (LNG) it sends to Europe by 15 billion cubic meters in response to the invasion of Ukraine and the sanctions on Russia that followed. That’s a lot of gas and, as a result, it looks like new LNG terminals will be opened in the Gulf of Mexico in the coming years. Hooray! The U.S., it seems, will be […]
Cuba Prepares for Disaster
Don Fitz
The September 2021 Scientific American included a description by the editors of the deplorable state of disaster relief in the US. They traced the root cause of problems with relief programs as their “focus on restoring private property,” which results in little attention to those “with the least capacity to deal with disasters.” The book Disaster Preparedness and Climate Change in Cuba: Adaptation and Management (2021) came out the next month. It traced the highly successful source of the island nation’s efforts to the way it put human welfare above property. This collection of 14 essays by Emily J. Kirk, […]
Why We Need Much More Than the Green New Deal
Ted Trainer
In view of the attention Green New Deal proposals have received there has been very little concern to assess its technical feasibility. It involves two major technical claims, firstly that renewable energy can sustain present societies at a relatively low cost, and secondly that economy can be decoupled from resource consumption and environmental impact. The validity of these assumptions is often taken for granted. Robert Pollin is unusual in providing arguments for them. This article puts forward technical reasons for rejecting both claims and then considers the implications for the design of sustainable and just systems. It is concluded that […]
The Digital World’s Real Impact on the Environment
Jonathan Thompson
URLCryptocurrency mining is often characterized as an act of solving a set of complex equations, evoking images of a Red Bull-guzzling genius hunched over a calculator searching for the Bitcoin-creation formula. But actually it’s less about calculation than it is about trial and error — making guesses in hopes of landing on a random, 64-digit number. Whoever has the most energy-intensive computing power can make the most guesses in a short time frame, and whoever makes the most guesses likely will solve the puzzle first, and will be rewarded for their “proof of work” with one of a finite number […]