When I write, I'm assuming the audience is well-enough educated. Regardless of whether they like what I have to say, I don't infantalise them with dishonest and abstract fantasies of what will never be.
This is collapse. The 'Great Dying' of the End-Permian mass-extinction took tens of thousands of years to do what is happening now in hundreds. We are utterly #fubar. Finished. #TheEnd.
Regarding the laudable if somewhat misguided efforts of The Degrowth Movement, ask yourself this -
Can the unsustainable be made sustainable again?
"While I agree with the broad goals of degrowth, the specific vision championed by most degrowth advocates relies on an egalitarian distribution of industrial goods. It calls for “modern housing, healthcare, education, heating/cooling, transit, washing machines, refrigerators, induction stoves, sanitation systems, computers, mobile phones, internet, etc…for all 8.5 billion people.” Its advocates claim this can be sustainably provided based on calculations of the energy and material inputs necessary to produce and operate all of that stuff.
The problem is that the calculations are laughable."
"...the calculations are laughable." - Very clearly, even efforts directed towards what is poorly described as 'degrowth', in effect, demand the maintenance of an already unjust and ecocidal system of extraction and exploitation and a hypergrowth of this violence and destruction as the systems of production are transformed, (at least in theory) redesigned, and built anew - energy, housing, transport, agriculture, medicine.... etc.
The truth is that these efforts cannot be divorced from the 'externalities' of a finite world, nor can they be divorced from the imperialist economics which would enable such a transformation. None of these efforts can be said to be 'growth-free' and none of these supposed degrowth efforts can be termed 'stable-state'.
In reality, none of these processes occurs without material/energy use and the entropic waste/pollution which inevitably follows it. None of this occurs without violence to the more-than-human world, and none of this occurs without maintaining violent systems of capitalist exploitation and oppression.
This popular and mainstream version of degrowth perpetrates the same violence it claims to mitigate. Alternatively, rather than make new and transform, lets seek to repurpose the enormous amount of already existing products, as salvage in a collapsing world.
Thanks for your comment Tristan. I understand that collapse has started. I've said as much in this space. I don't think degrowth is a Utopian vision that will solve everything. Taking a degrowth path is simply a better option than business as usual. It won't solve everything. Collapse will still happen. But what collapse ends up being will be better if we do something, than do nothing. That's it. I don't know what that will look like and I'm certainly not promising that that will mean life is wonderful and full of consumption for 8.5 million people.
I'm trying to grow a community so that more people are aware of the reality we are in. Keep talking about collapse yourself. People need to hear it.
Thanks Matt. Yes, there is no solution. The #RadicalDegrowth of a #JustCollapse seeks partial and relative measure of socio-ecological justice in a collapsing world. Through our collective efforts, the #TalkCollapse campaign continues to grow that community. Thanks for your efforts in that regard - everybody has the right to know.
Such great points. I'm a communications professional starting to learn about Degrowth and thinking a lot about how to effectively communicate this without losing the audience. Love what you said about different messaging for different audiences - market segmentation in other words.
Ha. I've heard the phrase 'more-than-human' (or, another variant, 'other-than-human') quite a lot. It can refer not just to animals, but also plants, or even rivers. Anything living or life-giving. There's something about the phrase that doesn't quite sit well with me, though. Maybe because I'm tired of humans always having to butt in somewhere/somehow. Or maybe because I don't think humans are lesser beings (and I dislike the 'othering' of 'other-than-human' beings). What's wrong with 'the natural world'? Or Nature? Thinking out loud here...
Language is important, but honesty, is more so.
When I write, I'm assuming the audience is well-enough educated. Regardless of whether they like what I have to say, I don't infantalise them with dishonest and abstract fantasies of what will never be.
This is collapse. The 'Great Dying' of the End-Permian mass-extinction took tens of thousands of years to do what is happening now in hundreds. We are utterly #fubar. Finished. #TheEnd.
Regarding the laudable if somewhat misguided efforts of The Degrowth Movement, ask yourself this -
Can the unsustainable be made sustainable again?
"While I agree with the broad goals of degrowth, the specific vision championed by most degrowth advocates relies on an egalitarian distribution of industrial goods. It calls for “modern housing, healthcare, education, heating/cooling, transit, washing machines, refrigerators, induction stoves, sanitation systems, computers, mobile phones, internet, etc…for all 8.5 billion people.” Its advocates claim this can be sustainably provided based on calculations of the energy and material inputs necessary to produce and operate all of that stuff.
The problem is that the calculations are laughable."
"...the calculations are laughable." - Very clearly, even efforts directed towards what is poorly described as 'degrowth', in effect, demand the maintenance of an already unjust and ecocidal system of extraction and exploitation and a hypergrowth of this violence and destruction as the systems of production are transformed, (at least in theory) redesigned, and built anew - energy, housing, transport, agriculture, medicine.... etc.
The truth is that these efforts cannot be divorced from the 'externalities' of a finite world, nor can they be divorced from the imperialist economics which would enable such a transformation. None of these efforts can be said to be 'growth-free' and none of these supposed degrowth efforts can be termed 'stable-state'.
In reality, none of these processes occurs without material/energy use and the entropic waste/pollution which inevitably follows it. None of this occurs without violence to the more-than-human world, and none of this occurs without maintaining violent systems of capitalist exploitation and oppression.
This popular and mainstream version of degrowth perpetrates the same violence it claims to mitigate. Alternatively, rather than make new and transform, lets seek to repurpose the enormous amount of already existing products, as salvage in a collapsing world.
https://www.resilience.org/stories/2025-07-16/on-abundance/
Thanks for your comment Tristan. I understand that collapse has started. I've said as much in this space. I don't think degrowth is a Utopian vision that will solve everything. Taking a degrowth path is simply a better option than business as usual. It won't solve everything. Collapse will still happen. But what collapse ends up being will be better if we do something, than do nothing. That's it. I don't know what that will look like and I'm certainly not promising that that will mean life is wonderful and full of consumption for 8.5 million people.
I'm trying to grow a community so that more people are aware of the reality we are in. Keep talking about collapse yourself. People need to hear it.
Thanks Matt. Yes, there is no solution. The #RadicalDegrowth of a #JustCollapse seeks partial and relative measure of socio-ecological justice in a collapsing world. Through our collective efforts, the #TalkCollapse campaign continues to grow that community. Thanks for your efforts in that regard - everybody has the right to know.
Guilty! Although I do like the term 'sufficiency' in place of 'degrowth' for the uninitiated.
No problem with sufficiency. We named "Arketa Institute" b/c Arketa is the Greek word for "enough".
Such great points. I'm a communications professional starting to learn about Degrowth and thinking a lot about how to effectively communicate this without losing the audience. Love what you said about different messaging for different audiences - market segmentation in other words.
Whatever way you look at it.... Its not going to work for most of our global population..
Ha. I've heard the phrase 'more-than-human' (or, another variant, 'other-than-human') quite a lot. It can refer not just to animals, but also plants, or even rivers. Anything living or life-giving. There's something about the phrase that doesn't quite sit well with me, though. Maybe because I'm tired of humans always having to butt in somewhere/somehow. Or maybe because I don't think humans are lesser beings (and I dislike the 'othering' of 'other-than-human' beings). What's wrong with 'the natural world'? Or Nature? Thinking out loud here...