We are currently trapped in the illusion of growth. The belief that all businesses should grow indefinitely. To expand their business, profits, and workforce… Everything in nature is circular, so there’s nothing natural about this growth craze.
Angelos Arnis • Designing for the last earth
The thing about growth is that it sounds so good. It’s a powerful metaphor that’s rooted deeply in our understanding of natural processes: children grow, crops grow … and so too the economy should grow. But this framing plays on a false analogy. The natural process of growth is always finite. We want our children to grow, but not to the point of be
... See moreJason Hickel • Less is More: How Degrowth Will Save the World
One person who was willing to risk political suicide was the visionary systems thinker Donella Meadows – one of the lead authors of the 1972 Limits to Growth report – and she didn’t mince her words. ‘Growth is one of the stupidest purposes ever invented by any culture,’ she declared in the late 1990s; ‘we’ve got to have an enough.’ In response to t
... See moreKate Raworth • Doughnut Economics: The must-read book that redefines economics for a world in crisis
It’s really quite straightforward. Right now, the dominant assumption in economics is that all sectors of the economy must grow, all the time, regardless of whether or not we actually need them to. This is an irrational way to manage an economy at the best of times, but during an ecological emergency it is clearly dangerous. Instead, we should deci
... See moreJason Hickel • Less is More: How Degrowth Will Save the World
“Infinite growth in a finite world is an impossibility” goes a popular quote. It is usually rolled out to illustrate that sustainability requires humanity to impose limits. Sometimes people then point to a specific element that they argue we will run out of in relatively short order, for instance phosphorus. I believe that this view is fundamentall... See more