Interstate Degrowth Exploration and Advocacy
Massachusetts Peace Action is hosting a webinar by Juliet B. Schor
7pm EST on Thursday, December 5:
"Five steps to a sustainable and peaceable economy".
To register, click on the link: https://masspeaceaction.org/event/five-steps-to-a-sustainable-and-peaceable-economy-2/.
Our current economic system is based on endless growth, despite the climate and human costs. Dr Schor will present some steps we can take to shift to a more just and environmentally sustainable economy.
Juliet B. Schor is an American economist and Sociology Professor at Boston College. She has studied trends in working time, consumerism, the relationship between work and family, women's issues and economic inequality, and concerns about climate change in the environment. Books include "The Overspent American", "The Overworked American", "After the Gig", "Born to Buy".
1. WHO ARE WE? 2. WHAT IS DEGROWTH? 3. WHY DEGROWTH?
1. WHO ARE WE?
The INTERSTATE DEGROWTH EXPLORATION and ADVOCACY group...
...includes members from various activist backgrounds and several states.
We believe in an integrated whole-picture approach to solving the world's critical problems, from housing to international affairs. We research degrowth, ecology and economics and seek to inform and work in coalition with the wider community of activists.
We meet via zoom once a month to discuss a particular reading or other topic.
Ground Rules:
1. No name calling, swearing or personal attacks
2. Handle disagreements with respect and kindness
3. No interruptions during live conversations, allow everyone to share time equally
Guidelines:
1. Try not to post more than 3 emails to the group per day
2. If you appreciate or agree with something someone says, let them know
3. If you disagree, give your reasons, agree to disagree
To join the discussion, contact us via email: OneHappyJS@gmail.com
2. WHAT IS DEGROWTH?
PLANNED DEGROWTH IS...
“Degrowth is a planned reduction of energy and resource use in rich countries designed to bring the economy back into balance with the living world in a safe and equitable way.”
A Transition to a Well-being Economy, NOT a Recession or Economic Disaster
Providing for Human Needs While Staying Within Planetary Limits, including:
- Universal Free Health Care
- Universal Free Education Including Higher Education
- Affordable Housing for Everyone
- Affordable and Available Public Transportation
- Affordable and Available Childcare and Eldercare
Greatly Reduced Military Spending and Warfare
Democratizing the Economy, including:
- Citizens Assemblies
- Ranked Choice Voting ("instant run-off elections")
- Worker Owned and Operated Cooperatives
- Democratic Planning and Control at all levels including workplaces and public policy
- Public ownership and democratic control of utilities
International Cooperation, Including:
- Sharing of Resources, Wealth and Information
- Support for Developing Countries, including assistance with climate mitigation and debt relief
- Taking responsibility for climate immigration
Key Environmental Measures, Including:
- Making everything compostable, reusable or recyclable
- Ending built-in obsolescence and fast fashion changes
- Reducing Unnecessary Consumerism and Advertising
- Reducing Use of Energy and Resources
- Reducing Waste and Pollution and Increasing Accountability for Cleanup
- Reducing Unnecessary Shipping via Localized Production and Patent Release
- Regenerative Organic Agriculture
- Preserving and Restoring Forests and Wetlands
Reducing Inequality, Including:
- Cancelling all unpayable debts, eliminating compound interest and capping interest rates
- Reducing the workweek, increasing job sharing and guaranteeing employment
- Making the rich pay their fair share in taxes
For more on what degrowth is, contact us via email: OneHappyJS@gmail.com
3. WHY DEGROWTH?
WHY DO WE NEED PLANNED DEGROWTH?
Human Activity is Taking the Earth to Irreversible Tipping Points.
Since 1970, we have already used the resources of and polluted the earth faster than its capacity to regenerate.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecological_overshoot
Unless we drastically reduce fossil fuel emissions, as well as chemical pollution and material use (including rare minerals for batteries), and stop deforestation, the earth will reach one or more irreversible tipping points, not just ending growth by catastrophy, but ending civilization and most life on earth.
For example, exceeding 1.5 degree Celsius global warming could trigger multiple climate tipping points:
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abn7950
https://sdg.iisd.org/news/2030-emissions-must-fall-28-42-to-limit-warming-to-2c-1-5c-unep-report/
Climate Change is a Real and Urgent Problem and We are Causing It
There is unprecedented human-induced climate change, with its severe storms, droughts, fires, ocean acidification, glacial melting and rising sea levels¹. The loss of glacial water and severe droughts are increasing water shortages.
As Long as the Economy Keeps Growing We Cannot Save the Planet
While we’ve made significant progress in increasing renewable energy production, the current rate of economic growth would double production, consumption and the demand for energy by 2050, and greatly increase the need for extraction. To meet the total demand with renewable energy, many times the current amount of metals and rare minerals would need to be extracted. Even if these could be found, their mining would devastate forests, destroy or pollute habitats and deplete water supplies and farmland. Plans for total conversion to “renewable” energy also include high risk schemes, such as harvesting forests for wood pellets to burn for energy and capturing the carbon from the emissions. Even if this unproven technology would work, it would reduce the amount of carbon captured naturally by forests. Other high risk schemes include spreading reflective chemicals into the atmosphere, likely causing rainfall changes and wild swings in surface temperature.
A growing economy just requires more and more energy (including from fossil fuels) and other resources. Technology alone cannot solve this problem. As long as the system of economic growth persists, any gains in efficiency feed into greater production and consumption and more energy and material use rather than less. Companies use gains in efficiency to produce more of a product at lower cost, increasing profits. For example, a chain saw can be used to cut down more trees in the same time instead of cutting down the same number of trees in less time. If the market for the extra products does not yet exist, it can be created through advertising, by privatizing what was free or low cost, or making an older product obsolete.
In addition to population growth, economic growth also drives the clearing of forests and wetlands for agriculture and human habitation. The richest people want larger and larger estates, multiple vacation homes and multiple luxury condos. New food and fuel products, such as those from palm oil, drive the clearing of land for their production.
Material and energy use due to economic growth has exceeded the limits of what the Earth can sustain. The poorest countries still need to grow in order to be able to sustain human life. The richest countries have grown far more than needed to provide a good living to everyone if essential services and wealth were better distributed. The worst part of economic growth in the richest countries is that it has continued to grow exponentially and shows no sign of letting up.
https://www.thelancet.com/pdfs/journals/lanplh/PIIS2542-5196(22)00044-4.pdf
Climate Change is not the only Critical Problem we Face due to Economic Growth
Some Other Things we are Doing to the planet:
- The loss of forests² and wetlands³ and the changing climates are causing the extinction of many species and the spreading of diseases from animals to humans.
- The loss of mangroves and rising seas are causing damage to unprotected coastlines.
- Soil is being eroded and depleted.⁴
- Chemical fertilizers are choking waterways with algae⁵.
- Pesticides are killing bees⁶.
- Plastics are choking our waterways, oceans and marine animals⁷.
- Coral reefs are dying⁸.
What We are Doing to Each Other:
Growing disparities in, and competition for personal wealth and access to resources is driving growing problems for many people. The concentration of wealth into fewer and fewer hands is driving:
- increased homelessness and a lack of access to affordable housing,
- a lack of access to educational opportunities,
- a lack of access to essential transportation,
- a lack of access to health care,
- a lack of access to childcare and eldercare,
- and increasing personal and national debts.
Developing countries suffer the greatest effects of climate disasters and displacement.
The extraction of natural resources to support growth (even "green" growth) relies on inequitable relations between countries. China and other countries are now doing deep sea mining for the rare minerals needed to keep up demand for electric car batteries and smart phones, disrupting old growth ocean ecosystems.
Vital human services are suffering to feed a growing commodity economy and a growing military budget, while pitting people against each other.
How Planned Degrowth Can Help:
Planned degrowth is democratic planning, not bureaucratic planning, because it requires a shift from power over to power with. That means democracy at every level. Decisions about what to produce and what services to provide and how these are to be done must be made by the workers involved and the communities that it affects. This serves the interests of everyone and the planet, not just a power elite.
For more information on why we need Degrowth, contact us via email: OneHappyJS@gmail.com
Comments
Post a Comment