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Degrowth offers alternative to global consumer culture

By October 19, 2012
super sale sign

If everyone lived like the average American, according to the Global Footprint Network, the Earth could sustain only 1.7 billion people -- a quarter of today's population -- without undermining the planet's physical and biological systems. Over-consumption in industrialized societies and among developing world elites causes lasting environmental and human impacts. In his chapter, "The Path to Degrowth in Overdeveloped Countries," Worldwatch Senior Fellow and State of the World 2012 Project … [Read more...]

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Manifesto for a post-growth economy

By September 25, 2012
sunset with kite

Editor's introduction: Gus Speth has been a co-founder of the Natural Resources Defense Council, an advisor to presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton, the head of the United Nations’ largest international assistance program, and Dean at Yale University’s School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. “Right at the time I should be settling into a rosy retirement,” Speth says, “I find I am instead quite alarmed about the appalling future we’re on track to leave our … [Read more...]

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A Labor Day without jobs

By September 3, 2012
Labor Day Parade 1909

Even if you recognize that Labor Day wasn't always just a day off from work to spend on cookouts and watching sports on TV, you may think of it as another bland holiday dedicated to celebrating something people don't care much about. Namely, work. A little history reminds us that labor leaders pushed through the holiday to further their cause and pressured President Grover Cleveland to sign it into law as part of an election-year compromise in 1894, only six days after federal troops broke a … [Read more...]

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The dark side of the “Green Economy”

By August 24, 2012
protesters reject greed economy

Everywhere you look these days, things are turning green. In Chiapas, Mexico, indigenous farmers are being paid to protect the last vast stretch of rainforest in Mesoamerica. In the Brazilian Amazon, peasant families are given a monthly “green basket” of basic food staples to allow them to get by without cutting down trees. In Kenya, small farmers who plant climate-hardy trees and protect green zones are promised payment for their part in the fight to reduce global warming. In Mozambique, … [Read more...]

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Charles Eisenstein wants to devalue your money to save the economy

By August 15, 2012
Charles Eisenstein

Imagine if you had a warehouse full of bread that would go stale in three days. You'd want to get rid of it as quickly as possible. Of course, you wouldn't try to sell it at premium prices. Instead, you'd want to hold a liquidation sale. Or, maybe even not go through the bother of trying to sell it at all — just give it away. In that way, you'd earn both gratitude and favors that you could call in later. In a sense, giving away all your bread would become an investment in social … [Read more...]

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Lowering the speed limit for world economic growth

By August 2, 2012
stop slow down sign

It seems everywhere you look these days economies are gearing down to much slower speeds. Indeed, some economies are already at a standstill (or even moving in reverse) and it’s likely more will soon follow. Whether it’s North America and Europe or even China and India, the story is much the same — the world’s largest economies are running out of gas. Despite the best efforts of central banks and finance ministries, even unprecedented fiscal and monetary stimulus aren’t enough to … [Read more...]

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Without growth, there’s only one ending for Euro debt crisis

By June 1, 2012
Euro blackboard

European voters are rejecting further fiscal restraint, showing the door to former austerity-imposing politicians in Greece and France. In a similar spirit, European Central Bank President Mario Draghi is now calling for a “growth pact” to replace the “fiscal pact” demanded by Angela Merkel’s government in Germany. What Europe’s voters and its central bank are coming to recognize is that unremitting fiscal austerity measures are the wrong prescription for what ails the European … [Read more...]

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What do triple digit oil prices mean for growth?

By January 11, 2012
gas station sign

Can we still expect to see sustained economic recoveries when oil, the world’s principal source of energy, is trading in triple digit range? As I argued several years ago in my book, Why Your World Is About To Get A Whole Lot Smaller, triple digit oil prices will redefine our notion of an economic recovery because as soon as the global economy picks up, oil prices will quickly soar to levels that challenge growth. Last year was a case in point. In the second full year of recovery from … [Read more...]

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Transitioners debate how to engage Occupy movement

By November 14, 2011
Berlin OWS event with Guy Fawkes mask

"The Transition Towns movement teaches us that peak oil and climate change are a threat to democracy and economic justice all by themselves," writes a blogger for the Organic Consumers Association. "No amount of democratic reforms or economic regulations will save us, if we don't also transition from fossil fuels to more resilient, lower carbon systems." Yet, the post continues, the Occupy movement reminds Transitioners that we can't adequately address peak oil and climate change without … [Read more...]

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America isn’t broke just yet

By November 10, 2011

Peak oil, which will bring the end of economic growth, may bankrupt the United States sooner than anybody thinks. But in the meantime, when our problems are more about finance than energy, there still seems to be plenty of money to go around if you can get your hands on it. Rich people have always been first at the line for government handouts, but ever since Ronald Reagan, America's top 1% has developed grabbiness into a fine art, pulling down tax rates for themselves through capital gains … [Read more...]

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