Less is More: How Degrowth Will Save the World

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He also links economic inequality and ecological destruction: “any policy that reduces the incomes of the very rich will have a positive ecological benefit” (p. 186). I was a bit surprised, though, to find that he doesn’t mention a universal basic income, which elsewhere he champions. Capital as in Capitalism needs expansion (3% annual GDP growth at a minimum at a global level) at and hence starts exploiting resources (natural, land and people) until it hits a limit. Most countries measure their progress by measuring the growth of GDP. But they measure and set goals for it just for the sake of it. They don't focus on the actual effects of the growth - desirable or not. For years, I (and many others, I suspect) have been reacting to this tug the same way: Saying Yeah, something is wrong here and then continuing to go about my day. I can't do that anymore. I can't. The way that everyone interacts with the world is a product of a system that is fundamentally flawed. A system that has taught us to assign value to a thing not based on utility, but based on how hard it is to get, on scarcity, on how it makes people look at us, on how much we can get for it when we sell it. Capitalism.

The Development Delusion: Foreign Aid and Inequality". American Affairs Journal. 16 August 2017 . Retrieved 22 November 2020. Despite, the rise of the service sector and renewable energies, it has also driven our carbon emissions well beyond sustainable levels. Far from being in the midst of an energy transition, we are witnessing an “energy addition” with catastrophic ecological consequences: “We are sleepwalking into a mass extinction event – (…) the first to be caused by human economic activity.” We’ll always have Paris, hu? One of the most important books I have read. Less is Morecalmly dismantles the central myths of capitalism, exposing its destructive madness for all to see. It then does something extremely rare: it outlines a clear path to a sustainable future for all. A manifesto for movements and a manual for policymakers, everyone needs to understand its urgent message.” If you choose to read a single non-fiction book next year, then this should be the one. I left so many little colorful bookmarks in this book that it looks now like a rainbow. Definitely on my list to re-read in the near future. Biographies | Lancet Commission on Reparations and Redistributive Justice". projects.iq.harvard.edu . Retrieved 22 November 2020.Jason's research focuses on global inequality, political economy, post-development, and ecological economics, which are the subjects of his two most recent books: The Divide: A Brief Guide to Global Inequality and its Solutions (Penguin, 2017), and Less is More: How Degrowth Will Save the World (Penguin, 2020). I disliked the author's attempt to label all things white, developed north, technology, etc. as "bad" as opposed to all things colored, undeveloped south, native beliefs, etc. as "good". I thought such generalizations as overly trite and simplistic--and more than a bit bigoted. Also, he does dive a bit deeply into the hippie dippy cliches of my youthful friends in days past. a b One Hundred and Eighty-Third Final Exercises (PDF). University of Virginia. 20 May 2012. p.24 . Retrieved 12 February 2021.

In addition to the “crisis of elite disaccumulation,” Europe’s capitalists had created a system of mass production and needed somewhere to sell it. Enclosures and colonization became the solution (also acting as a source of primitive accumulation): Take the chainsaw.....it’s a remarkable invention that enables loggers to fell trees, ten times faster than they are able to do by hand. But logging companies equipped with chainsaws don't let their workers finish the job early and take the rest of the day off. They get them to cut down ten times as many trees....." T]his is the core principle of capitalism: that the world is not really alive, and it is not certainly our kin, but rather just stuff to be extracted and discarded – and that includes most of the human beings living here too. From its very first principles, capitalism has set itself at war against life itself.” The sleepwalkers And if you are telling to yourelf that won't happen in your lifetime, then it is good to know that:

The philosophical backdrop

The World's Sustainable Development Goals Aren't Sustainable. There are big problems with the United Nations' most important environmental metric. Our fears of needing more to achieve a “good life” is contrasted with the actual measures of wellness. Historically, this has not been from working to death/destroying our surroundings but from the creation of new Commons: public sanitation, public healthcare, public education, public housing/land reforms, improved working conditions, socialized safety nets/old age pensions/childcare, etc. ( Perilous Passage: Mankind and the Global Ascendancy of Capital). …Thus, degrowth is the transformation from artificial scarcity to radical abundance. There onwards Authors gets in to a solution mode and prescribes action items that can be implemented.

And if temperatures rise by 3 or 4 degrees Celsius, sea levels will go up by as much as 100 cm, and possibly 200 cm. Virtually all of the planet's beaches will be underwater. Much of Bangladesh, home to 164 million people, will disappear. Cities like New York and Amsterdam will be permanently flooded, as will Jakarta, Miami, Rio and Osaka. Countless people will be forced to flee coastal regions. All this century.'He served on the U.K. Labour Party task force on international development in 2017–2019. [11] [12] As of 2020 he serves on the Harvard- Lancet Commission on Reparations and Redistributive Justice, [13] on the Statistical Advisory Panel for the UN Human Development Report, [14] and on the advisory board for the Green New Deal for Europe. [15] Scholarship [ edit ] International development [ edit ] This book is a great companion book to the one I've mentioned before "The More Beautiful World Our Hearts Know Is Possible" by Charles Eisenstein. That book is more of a philosophical book, whereas "Less Is More" is practical and down to earth. Our planet is in trouble. But how can we reverse the current crisis and create a sustainable future? The answer is: DEGROWTH. However, it seems to spend more time positing a concept of an idyllic past where humans were happy and at one with nature. Even if this is accurate, the subsequent proposition that we can return to such a state and resolve our current ecological crises is unworkable and has very little logical support in the book.