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#degrowth

56 posts45 participants8 posts today
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Climate Jenny 2.1

@afewbugs I never used an electric toothbrush until 2020, when I realized that it might not be safe to visit the dentist again any time soon. Trade-offs.

I once heard a credible person on a #degrowth podcast argue that there is enough wealth in the world for *everyone* to have access to a washing machine. I need to look that up again.

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Fernando Racimo

How did the @ScientistRebellion movement emerge and spread so quickly around the world? My new book, Science in Resistance (out in October with UC Press) documents the evolution of the SR movement over the past 5 years. Combining personal stories, interviews with scientist-activists, and insights from research on direct action and academia, I explore the challenges scientists face when taking a stand for climate and ecological justice.

Half of the proceeds will go to SR and allied climate justice groups.

ucpress.edu/books/science-in-r

Cover of book "Science in Resistance" including author Fernando Racimo and an image of scientists engaging in civil disobedience at the steps of the Spanish parliament.
#ClimateJustice#ClimateChange#Activism
Public
Bread and Circuses

If large-scale action is going to take place quickly enough to stave off the worst damages of ecosystem breakdown, it will have to start at the top. We need total system change!

End capitalism. End colonialism. End imperialism. Break up the large nation-states. Commence degrowth.

Barring all that, which admittedly seems unlikely to happen, then it will be up to individuals and communities to make collective grassroots changes that might allow most of them to survive.

Either way, it's time to act.

Meme with a raised fist. Text says: "System change, not climate change."
#Environment#Climate#ClimateChange
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Bread and Circuses

We presently face the most radical of challenges to the continuation of a livable biosphere — and indeed to humanity’s existence as a species — and therefore I believe the most radical response is justified and is urgently required.

First: Nationalize and then shut down the fossil fuel industry, the auto industry, the airlines, and the factory farms. The US military budget also must be deeply slashed, as they are the world's biggest single source of institutional emissions.

When I say shut down all those industries, I don't mean literally overnight. I realize of course that we can't stop burning fossil fuels instantly. I'm suggesting, however, a very rapid reduction, something on the order of 20% per year, meaning after five years we are down to zero. TRUE zero, not the phony greenwashed “net-zero.”

Second: Confiscate all previous financial holdings from fossil fuel corporations, their executives and their major investors, and dedicate a portion of those funds to help countries in the Global South raise standards of living without overly expanding the use of fossil fuels. Some of the funds can also be used to ease a transition for employees of the shuttered industries.

Third: Let the dust settle, see where we are with emissions, and maybe then consider deploying some solar geoengineering techniques, but only as a last resort.

Now, you might be concerned that many people would suffer and have to endure hardships if we shut down the fossil fuel industry and the auto industry and the airlines and the factory farms — and you’re right, they would.

However, that’s almost nothing compared to how many people will suffer and how great their hardships will be in the next few decades if we DON’T do all those things now.

Would this plan be easy to accomplish? No, not at all. Would it cause inconvenience and misery? Yes, certainly. Real change comes at a real cost.

Sorry to say it, but the choice we face is between a very bad outcome and a very VERY bad outcome.

#Economics#Environment#Climate
Replied to Jeff C
Public
Mark Burton

@JeffC1956
Yes, but of course the brunt will be borne by the poorer sections of the population.
Tariffs are a blunt tool to relocalise production, in contrast to the planned / managed degrowth we advocate e.g. gettingreal.org.uk and
monthlyreview.org/2023/07/01/p
On tariffs as a crude macroeconomic strategy see former Spanish minister and friend of #degrowth Alberto Garzón: agarzon.substack.com/p/when-ta

Getting Real about the Crises Facing the UKGetting Real about the Crises Facing the UK | Stop the Damage! Build a Better Future!Britain and the rest of the world face a set of almost intractable challenges, ecological (including climate), economic and social. Yet political leaders with few exceptions are failing to propose the actions and policies that could address the scale of this pancrisis. Here though is an alternative initiative, a kind of alternative manifesto with a portfolio of illustrative policies...
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Bread and Circuses

I agree with everything that Athena (@Climatehistories) says in a recent essay titled "Climate and the End of Capitalism."

Here are a few excerpts...
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The pace of global warming has been significantly underestimated.

Last year marked a historic and deeply troubling threshold: for the first time, global temperatures exceeded 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels. In March 2025 the global temperature was 1.6°C above pre-industrial averages — the 20th month in a 21-month period that global temperatures exceeded the 1.5°C threshold. Arctic sea ice hit its lowest March extent since satellite records began 47 years ago, marking four consecutive months of record lows.

These aren't just worrying trends — they’re flashing red alarms.

Despite decades of warnings, global carbon emissions are still rising. If current policies persist, we’re heading for a world between 2.2C and 3.4C warmer.

In recent days, commentators on social media, sometimes jokingly, have referred to US tariffs as ‘right-wing degrowth.’ It’s a catchy phrase, but misleading.

Degrowth calls for a controlled and equitable reduction in economic activity to protect people and the planet. Idiotic tariffs that raise the cost of food, clothing, and essentials don’t do that. They hurt lower-income families without helping the environment. Economic nationalism risks destroying the economy it claims to protect. It’s a path to chaos and instability.
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FULL ESSAY -- theclimatehistorian.substack.c

Bar graph showing "Global surface air temperature anomalies" for the month of March in every year from 1979 through 2025. The amount of warming has steadily increased and is now beyond the 1.5° C target.
#Politics#Economics#Science
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