Less is More: How Degrowth Will Save the World

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i) Technocratic climate “solutions”: “decoupling” myth of more efficient processes meaning we can “dematerialize” economic growth vs. All products are made to be sold, and when a company figures out how to make a product better/faster, they simply want to sell MORE of it. Even when Pollin considers “degrowth” of GDP, his progressive reformism barely registers as he compares this with economic crises which also “degrow” GDP! It’s not clear to me that renewables will be able to support even a substantial portion of our current energy use.

I usually like to include a quote from sources I find interesting, but in this case, I found so many quotes that I thought were profound that I can't include them all.In the first two chapters, he traces the origins of this view back to our separation from nature in ancient times, manifested in the idea that humans should have “dominion” over the earth (Genesis 1:26) and Plato’s dualism. Green New Deal mineral requirements targeting the Global South; must-read: A People’s Green New Deal). Even though I am critical of some aspects of the book, in general it is spot on as to both the basic problem of modern civilization and the approach which we should take concerning the environmental crisis.

We will not be able to grow ourselves out of the current and imminent climate catastrophe, nor will magical thinking about technology as some sort of savior of humanity prevent or offset the catastrophe. Jason is able to personalise the global and swarm the mind in the way that insects used to in abundance but soon shan't unless we are able to heed his beautifully rendered warning. The Enclosures destroyed self-sufficient economies, which created a mass supply of workers and a mass supply of consumers. Dit klinkt misschien dramatisch of zelfs een beetje radicaal, maar het goede nieuws is dat dit mogelijk is zonder dat we moeten inboeten op vlak van welvaart en welzijn, integendeel. To reverse capitalism’s logic, the ontological change is to dismantle the dualism, to move from dominion to reciprocity.a. He presents a range of solutions that are interesting to think about, but ultimately should serve as a primer to kickstart our own social imaginations. He discusses that investments in clean energy have not replaced use of coal and oil but have simply added to our net energy demands.

It's not entirely clear that disaster is as close as Jason Hickel argues, but we ignore the consequences of exponential growth in resource use at our extreme peril. I’m not sure how I felt about him providing “steps” to shifting our economy centered around exchange-value to one centered around use-value.Ice sheets are thicker in the middle than they are around the edges, so as icebergs break off they once they expose taller and taller ice cliffs. When I was reading about why capitalism is destructive for the world (climate change, the sixth extinction) there is always a "but"? What if humans were to also live in the same way - instead of just taking taking taking (extraction), what if we also focused on giving back? so we can spend our precious time on earth with loved ones and rebuilding communities/ecologies; this is a crucial framing that Hickel should emphasize more.