Matt Orsagh’s Post

If the global economy grows just 2% per year, the global economy doubles in 35 years. Where are the resources going to come from to double the economy every 35 years? And if you do find those resources, that is going to make our environmental problems, including climate change, much worse than they are today. #degrowth

Good to see the EU focusing on the well-being economy. Looking forward to see where this #postgrowth conversation leads.

We humans are simple creatures. We do what we are incentivized to do. If we work for a for-profit media company, we are more likely to make decisions that further that profit. Large media outlets whose mission is ultimately the profit of shareholders are going to have a hard time getting to the story of #degrowth, without a reflexive “degrowth bad” reaction. That is understandable. Degrowth is a threat to their business model.

A primer for the media on #degrowth. Let’s start with a definition of degrowth from people who have been working on this much longer than me. Degrowth is: An equitable downscaling of production and consumption that increases human well-being and enhances ecological conditions at the local and global level, in the short and long term. Degrowth can also be seen as a de-emphasis on growth. Our global economy is set up to be a perpetual growth machine. But we are running into a problem. We can’t keep growing forever on a planet with finite resources. https://lnkd.in/e3Jpi7Uf

So, we could do the responsible thing and recycle our e-waste and leave the CCZ alone, or we could dredge the ocean floor so we can destroy the more pristine natural habitat of life forms we know very little about so that we can grow and produce more e-waste. What’s it going to be? #degrowth https://lnkd.in/eE3Z2gdF

You may have missed it, as there wasn’t much media coverage, but last week (18 – 21 of June), the 10th International Degrowth Conference and the 15th Conference of the European Society for Ecological Economics were held in Pontevedra, Spain. #degrowth