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.
Four scientists, a few small nations, and making unthinkable climate action possible
Stan Cox and Larry Edwards
A remarkable mid-January legislative hearing by the Joint Climate and Energy Committees of Ireland’s Oireachtas (legislature) grabbed our attention as we listened from afar, here in the United States. Four eminent climate scientists made blunt, strong, urgent policy recommendations of a sort policymakers rarely, if ever, hear from scientists. Testimony and Q&A went on for three hours (see video for Jan. 12 here). It wasn’t just the frank discussions of harsh climate realities and hard choices that the scientists put forward that made the hearing remarkable. It was also the desperate understanding that Ireland, as a small nation whose future, […]
Cuba Shows How to Take Action on Climate Change
Helen Yaffe
Cuba, a small island besieged by the United States, is taking concrete measures to reorient its economy in the fight against climate change. It’s an example that the whole world should take seriously. Cuba may be responsible for only 0.08% of global CO2 emissions, but this Caribbean island is disproportionately hard-hit by the effects of climate change. The frequency and severity of extreme weather events — hurricanes, drought, torrential rain, flooding — is increasing, to the detriment of ecosystems, food production, and public health. Without action to protect the coastline from rising sea levels, up to 10% of Cuban territory […]
Degrowth Is About Global Justice
Jason Hickel
Who’s driving the ecological crisis? It is overwhelmingly the rich countries of the Global North: the United States, Canada, Europe, Israel, Australia, New Zealand and Japan. These countries are collectively responsible for 92 per cent of excess emissions…. Rich countries consume on average 28 tonnes of material stuff per person per year – which is about four times over the safe per capita boundary for the planet. Most Global South countries are well under that boundary. In fact, many low-income countries need to increase resource use to meet human needs. The ecological crisis is being driven overwhelmingly by rich countries […]
Bright Green Lies Torpedoes Greens
Robert Hunziker
Bright Green Lies (Monkfish Book Publishing, 2021) grumbles and growls like a rambunctious thunderstorm on an early spring day opening up darkened clouds of acid rain across the world of environmentalism, including celebrated personalities. According to Bright Green Lies authors Derrick Jensen, Lierre Keith, and Max Wilbert: “We are writing this book because we want our environmental movement back.” As such, they charge ahead with daggers drawn, similar to Planet of the Humans (2019-20), nobody spared. As explained therein, Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring (1962) brought on the environmental movement as well as establishment of the EPA, the Clean Air Act, […]
Path to Extinction or Path to a Livable Future?
Don Fitz
As climate change leads humanity’s march to Armageddon, data surfacing during late 2021 suggests that the march could be much briefer than previously thought. “Nature is starting to emit greenhouse gases in competition with cars, planes, trains, and factories,” asserts Robert Hunziker. The Amazon has switched from soaking up CO2 to emitting it. Likewise, the Arctic has flipped from being a carbon sink to becoming an emission source. Permafrost is giving off the three main greenhouse gases (GHGs): CO2, methane, and nitrous oxide. So much Siberian permafrost is melting that buildings are collapsing as methane bombs explode, resulting in craters […]
US Plastics Industry Will Have More Emissions Than Coal by 2030
Elizabeth Gribkoff
With dozens of new plastics manufacturing and recycling facilities in the works, the U.S. plastics industry will release more greenhouse gas emissions than coal-fired power plants by 2030, say the authors of a new report. Emissions from the plastics sector equaled that of 116 coal-fired power plants last year, according to the report out Thursday from Bennington College’s Beyond Plastics project. Meanwhile, 42 plastics manufacturing and recycling facilities have opened, or are in the process of being built or permitted, since 2019. “As the world transitions away from fossil fuels for electricity generation and for transportation, the petrochemical industry has […]
Climate goals will fail as long as cryptocurrency exists
Ben Kritz
The minimum energy usage attributable to Bitcoin activity, as of this week, is 43.8 terawatt-hours (TWh) per year, and its estimated actual energy demand is 176.83 TWh per year, according to Digiconomist. For comparison, that estimate is the equivalent of a bit more than 16 weeks of average energy usage in the entire Philippines (based on the total usage of 562 TWh in 2019, according to Department of Energy data). A 2018 study by researchers from the University of Hawaii and published in the journal Nature conservatively estimated (based on 2017 data) that emissions related to Bitcoin alone would contribute […]
From Popovers to Popunders: The Kind of Decarbonization That Can Succeed
Stan Cox and Priti Gulati Cox
So much carbon dioxide has now accumulated in the atmosphere that it’s no longer possible to prevent a dangerous rise in global temperatures through purely technological means. In other words, it’s too late to prevent catastrophic ecological damage and human suffering simply through building more renewable electric capacity and improving energy efficiency. Humanity can keep atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration within tolerable limits, but only if we do not aim to sustain today’s profligate material production and wealth accumulation, let alone continue increasing production. Instead, we must deeply reduce production and thereby shrink energy and material use. In contrast, conventional green-growth […]
Don’t Expect Real Climate Solutions from COP26. It Functions for Corporations
Simon Pirani
The politicians’ third and more complex deception is in the technology-centered “decarbonization” measures they embrace in the name of “green growth.” These rely on tweaking, rather than transforming, the big technological systems through which most fossil fuels are consumed — tThe politicians’ third and more complex deception is in the technology-centered “decarbonization” ransport networks, electricity grids, urban infrastructure, and industrial, agricultural and military systems. An example is electric vehicles, promoted as the principal means to reduce transport sector emissions. Governments ignore the carbon footprint of the vehicles’ manufacture and electricity use (unless and until the grids are 100 percent green), […]