Degrowth is a challenging idea that goes against the grain of everything we’ve been led to believe; that we could and should produce more, buy more, consume more relentlessly, and that such activity creates wealth. Supporters of the growth model (previously everyone) have suggested somewhat miraculously that this idea is also compatible with “sustainability”.
In light of the IPCC climate realities this seems at best implausible.
In simple terms, growth is incompatible with our survival.
As Tim Jackson, Juliet Schor and Peter Victor write in Degrowth: A Vocabulary for a New Era: “The foundational theses of degrowth are that growth is uneconomic and unjust, that it is ecologically unsustainable and that it will never be enough.”
“On Thursday we launched Scotland’s Degrowth Commission at the venerable Pearce Institute in Govan. With a delicious irony and timing that can’t be ignored, that very day saw New Zealand…”