Degrowth is an academic and social movement critical of the concept of growth in gross domestic product as a measure of human and economic development . The idea of degrowth is based on ideas and research from economic anthropology , ecological economics , environmental sciences , and development studies . It argues that modern capitalism's unitary focus on growth causes widespread ecological damage and is unnecessary for the further increase of human living standards . Degrowth theory has been met with both academic acclaim and considerable criticism.
140-598: Degrowth's main argument is that an infinite expansion of the economy is fundamentally contradictory to the finiteness of material resources on Earth. It argues that economic growth measured by GDP should be abandoned as a policy objective. Policy should instead focus on economic and social metrics such as life expectancy , health , education , housing , and ecologically sustainable work as indicators of both ecosystems and human well-being. Degrowth theorists posit that this would increase human living standards and ecological preservation even as GDP growth slows. Degrowth theory
280-549: A North American requires 12.5 gHa. Each inhabitant of North America uses 22.3 times as much land as a Bangladeshi. According to the same report, the average number of global hectares per person was 2.1, while current consumption levels have reached 2.7 hectares per person. For the world's population to attain the living standards typical of European countries, the resources of between three and eight planet Earths would be required with current levels of efficiency and means of production. For world economic equality to be achieved with
420-476: A living wage , maximum income caps, declining caps on resource use and emissions , not-for-profit cooperatives , holding deliberative forums , reclaiming the commons , establishing ecovillages , and housing cooperatives . To address the common criticism that such policies are not realistically financeable, economic anthropologist Jason Hickel sees an opportunity to learn from modern monetary theory , which argues that monetary sovereign states can issue
560-413: A 2-1 margin. This positive margin may be attributed to the consistently falling price of renewable energy production. Renewable energy sources hold assertive advantages over fossil fuels because they exist as technologies, not fuels. As time proceeds, renewable energy becomes inevitably more efficient as technology adapts. Technologies for extracting fuels may change, but the fuels remain as constants. Both
700-483: A June 2020 paper published in Nature Communications , a group of scientists argue that "green growth" or " sustainable growth " is a myth: "we have to get away from our obsession with economic growth—we really need to start managing our economies in a way that protects our climate and natural resources, even if this means less, no or even negative growth." They conclude that a change in economic paradigms
840-674: A complete rejection of the growth paradigm and a move to a degrowth paradigm. There are also fundamental limits to technological solutions in the pursuit of degrowth, as all engagements with technology increase the cumulative matter-energy throughput . However, the convergence of digital commons of knowledge and design with distributed manufacturing technologies may arguably hold potential for building degrowth future scenarios. Scientists report that degrowth scenarios, where economic output either "declines" or declines in terms of contemporary economic metrics such as current GDP , have been neglected in considerations of 1.5 °C scenarios reported by
980-521: A consensus of measurement units of nature's services. Minerals are needed to provide food, clothing, and housing. A United States Geological Survey (USGS) study found a significant long-term trend over the 20th century for non-renewable resources such as minerals to supply a greater proportion of the raw material inputs to the non-fuel, non-food sector of the economy; an example is the greater consumption of crushed stone, sand, and gravel used in construction. Large-scale exploitation of minerals began in
1120-624: A continued shift toward green consumption. According to the Annual Review of Environmental Resources, "the focus of policy makers, businesses, and researchers has mostly been on the latter (consuming differently), with relatively little attention paid to consuming less". A review of how to encourage sustainable consumption from the University of Surrey shows that, "Government policies send important signals to consumers about institutional goals and national priorities." Governments can pull
1260-417: A cycle of reduced resource availability, increased demand and higher prices due to scarcity, and lower economic growth. Overfishing can lead to habitat and biodiversity loss, through specifically habitat degradation, which has an immense impact on marine/aquatic ecosystems. Habitat loss refers to when a natural habitat cannot sustain/support the species that live in it, and biodiversity loss refers to when there
1400-456: A finite and ecologically strained context is deemed intrinsically unsustainable. Development based on growth in a finite, environmentally stressed world is viewed as inherently unsustainable. Critics of degrowth argue that a slowing of economic growth would result in increased unemployment , increased poverty , and decreased income per capita. Many who believe in negative environmental consequences of growth still advocate for economic growth in
1540-438: A finite world leads to disasters of all kinds, ecological salvation lies in the stationary state. ... The crucial error consists in not seeing that not only growth, but also a zero-growth state, nay, even a declining state that does not converge toward annihilation, cannot exist forever in a finite environment. ... [T]he important, yet unnoticed point [is] that the necessary conclusion of the arguments in favor of that vision [of
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#17327657112201680-422: A goal of creating a solar capability that can stand as a cheaper alternative to coal-fueled power plants by 2025. In capitalist markets , solar energy has the very real potential of becoming a direct competitor to coal plants in less than a decade. One of the most daunting barriers to the transition to an eco-capitalist system is the systemic barrier that can be created by former models. Dimitri Zenghelis explores
1820-703: A huge effect on ecosystems on the surface. When the most easily recoverable fresh groundwater is removed this leaves a residual with inferior water quality. This is in part from induced leakage from the land surface, confining layers or adjacent aquifers that contain saline or contaminated water. Worldwide the magnitude of groundwater depletion from storage may be so large as to constitute a measurable contributor to sea-level rise. Currently, societies respond to water-resource depletion by shifting management objectives from location and developing new supplies to augmenting conserving and reallocation of existing supplies. There are two different perspectives to groundwater depletion,
1960-415: A leap year). World biocapacity refers to the total amount of natural resources that Earth can regenerate in a year. World ecological footprint refers to the total amount of resource that society consumes in a year, including things like energy, food, water, agricultural land, forest land, etc. Earth Overshoot Day can be calculated for Earth as a whole, but also for each country individually. For example, in
2100-537: A market-based approach that allows polluting entities to purchase or be allocated permits, began being researched in the late 1960s. International emissions trading was significantly popularized in the 1990s when the United Nations adopted the Kyoto Protocol in 1997. The ideology of eco-capitalism was adopted to satisfy two competing needs: Under the doctrine of eco-capitalism, businesses commodify
2240-591: A middle income country like Morocco, their 2023 country specific overshoot day was December 22, compared to a high income country like the United States of America which consumes a lot more resources, their 2023 country specific overshoot day was March 14. The goal is to push Earth Overshoot Day back far enough to where humanity would be living within Earth's ecological means and not surpassing what it can sustainably provide each year. According to The World Counts,
2380-516: A million years ago which is not renewable on human timescales. Of the groundwater used for agriculture, 16–33% is non-renewable. It is estimated that since the 1960s groundwater extraction has more than doubled, which has increased groundwater depletion. Due to this increase in depletion, in some of the most depleted areas use of groundwater for irrigation has become impossible or cost prohibitive. Overusing groundwater, old or young, can lower subsurface water levels and dry up streams, which could have
2520-477: A neutralizing effect. If a wetland is in between an agricultural zone and a freshwater ecosystem , fertilizer runoff will be absorbed by the wetland and used to fuel the slow processes that occur happen, by the time the water reaches the freshwater ecosystem there will not be enough fertilizer to cause destructive algal blooms that poison freshwater ecosystems. To preserve the resources extracted from wetlands, current strategies are to rank wetlands and prioritize
2660-427: A nonrenewable resource on a human timescale and in some environments cannot ever be renewed. Recent studies indicate that global loss of wetlands could be as high as 87% since 1700 AD, with 64% of wetland loss occurring since 1900. Some loss of wetlands resulted from natural causes such as erosion, sedimentation , subsidence , and a rise in the sea level. Wetlands provide environmental services for: Some of
2800-554: A peaceful distribution of scarcity. Another approach to resource depletion is a combined process of de-resourcification and resourcification. Where one strives to put an end to the social processes of turning unsustainable things into resources, for example, non-renewable natural resources, and the other strives to instead develop processes of turning sustainable things into resources, for example, renewable human resources. Eco-capitalism Eco-capitalism , also known as environmental capitalism or (sometimes ) green capitalism ,
2940-450: A plea for resource reallocation, aiming to halt unsustainable practices of transforming certain entities into resources, such as non-renewable natural resources. Instead, the focus shifts towards identifying and utilizing alternative resources, such as renewable human capabilities. The ecological footprint measures human demand on the Earth's ecosystems by comparing human demand with the Earth's ecological capacity to regenerate. It represents
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#17327657112203080-421: A provision of human needs through disaccumulation, de-enclosure, and decommodification. It also reconciles with social movements and seeks to recognize the ecological debt to achieve the catch-up , which is postulated as impossible without decolonization. In practice, decolonial practices close to degrowth are observed, such as the movement of Buen vivir or sumak kawsay by various indigenous peoples. There
3220-597: A reduction of energy consumption. It describes (chapters 4–5) degrowth toward a steady state economy as possible and probably positive. The study ends with the words: "The case for a transition to a steady-state economy with low throughput and low emissions, initially in the high-income economies and then in rapidly growing economies, needs more serious attention and international cooperation. Technologies designed to reduce resource use and improve efficiency are often touted as sustainable or green solutions. Degrowth literature, however, warns about these technological advances due to
3360-407: A source which collects data from a number of organizations, research institutes, and news services, and produces statistical countdown clocks that illustrate the negative trends related to the environment and other global challenges, humanity is in trouble if current consumption patterns continue. At society's current consumption rate, approximately 1.8 Earths are needed in order to provide resources in
3500-412: A stationary state] is that the most desirable state is not a stationary, but a declining one. Undoubtedly, the current growth must cease, nay, be reversed. [Emphasis in original] When reading this particular passage of the text, Grinevald realised that no professional economist of any orientation had ever reasoned like this before. Grinevald also realised the congruence of Georgescu-Roegen's viewpoint and
3640-479: A suitable unit of account, deciding how to deal with the "collective" nature of a complete ecosystem, delineating the borderline of the ecosystem, and defining the extent of possible duplication when the resource interacts in more than one ecosystem. Some economists want to include measurement of the benefits arising from public goods provided by nature, but currently there are no market indicators of value. Globally, environmental economics has not been able to provide
3780-471: A sustainable capacity, and there is just under 26 years until resources are depleted to a point where Earth's capacity to support life may collapse. It is also estimated that approximately 29% of all species on Earth are currently at risk of extinction. As well, 25 billion tons of resources have been extracted this year alone, this includes but is not limited to natural resources like fish, wood, metals, minerals, water, and energy. The World Counts shows that there
3920-411: A variety of levers to signal this including product, trading, building, media, and marketing standards. Creating perhaps the first major eco-capitalist endorsement, many political and economic institutions support a system of pollution credits. Such a system, which assigns property rights to emissions, is considered to be the most "efficient and effective" way for regulating greenhouse gas emissions in
4060-438: A well, oil field , or geographic area. The Hubbert peak theory makes predictions of production rates based on prior discovery rates and anticipated production rates. Hubbert curves predict that the production curves of non-renewing resources approximate a bell curve . Thus, according to this theory, when the peak of production is passed, production rates enter an irreversible decline. Deforestation or forest clearance
4200-465: Is 15 years until Earth is exhausted of freshwater, and 23 years until there are no more fish in the oceans. They also estimate that 15 billion trees are cut down every year, while only 2 billion trees are planted every year, and that there is only 75 years until rainforests are completely gone. Researchers who produced an update of the Club of Rome 's Limits to Growth report find that many people deny
4340-434: Is 22.6 million cubic kilometers of groundwater available; of this, only 0.35 million of that is renewable. Groundwater is considered to be a non-renewable resource because less than six percent of the water around the world is replenished and renewed on a human timescale of 50 years. People are already using non-renewable water that is thousands of years old, in areas like Egypt they are using water that may have been renewed
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4480-434: Is a concept that has been promoted by the degrowth community when envisioning an alternative set of social relations and economic organization. It builds upon the political philosophies of localism and is based on values such as diversity, ecologies of knowledge, and openness. Open localism does not look to create an enclosed community but rather to circulate production locally in an open and integrative manner. Open localism
4620-483: Is a danger to the environment. Approximately 36% of Americans are deeply concerned about climate issues. Proponents of eco-capitalism typically favor political environmentalism , which emphasizes negative incentives like regulation and taxes to encourage the conservation of resources and prevent environmental harm. Political theorist Antonio Gramsci cites theories of common sense , which suggests that, in general, free market capitalism absent of environmental reform,
4760-863: Is a decrease in the population of a species in a specific area and/or the extinction of a species. Habitat degradation is caused by the depletion of resources, in which human activities are the primary driving force. One major impact that the depletion of fish stocks causes is a dynamic change and erosion to marine food webs, which can ultimately lead to ecosystem collapse because of the imbalance created for other marine species. Overfishing also causes instability in marine ecosystems because these ecosystems are less biodiverse and more fragile. This occurs mainly because, due to overfishing, many fish species are unable to naturally sustain their populations in these damaged ecosystems. Most common causes of overfishing: Wetlands are ecosystems that are often saturated by enough surface or groundwater to sustain vegetation that
4900-509: Is a direct challenge to the acts of closure regarding identitarian politics. By producing and consuming as much as possible locally, community members enhance their relationships with one another and the surrounding environment. Degrowth's ideas around open localism share similarities with ideas around the commons while also having clear differences. On the one hand, open localism promotes localized, common production in cooperative-like styles similar to some versions of how commons are organized. On
5040-426: Is a wide range of policy proposals associated with degrowth. In 2022, Nick Fitzpatrick, Timothée Parrique and Inês Cosme conducted a comprehensive survey of degrowth literature from 2005 to 2020 and found 530 specific policy proposals with "50 goals, 100 objectives, 380 instruments". The survey found that the ten most frequently cited proposals were: universal basic incomes , work-time reductions, job guarantees with
5180-414: Is absurd as a goal of economic activity and development. Instead, under what he refers to as Buddhist economics , we should aim to maximize well-being while minimizing consumption. In January 1972, Edward Goldsmith and Robert Prescott-Allen—editors of The Ecologist —published A Blueprint for Survival , which called for a radical programme of decentralisation and deindustrialization to prevent what
5320-636: Is agriculture by far. More than 80% of deforestation was attributed to agriculture in 2018. Forests are being converted to plantations for coffee , palm oil , rubber and various other popular products. Livestock grazing also drives deforestation. Further drivers are the wood industry ( logging ), urbanization and mining . The effects of climate change are another cause via the increased risk of wildfires (see deforestation and climate change ). Deforestation results in habitat destruction which in turn leads to biodiversity loss . Deforestation also leads to extinction of animals and plants, changes to
5460-439: Is also important for the agricultural sector. The reason for this linkage is because the effects of climate change on agriculture pose new risks to global food systems . Overfishing refers to the overconsumption and/or depletion of fish populations which occurs when fish are caught at a rate that exceeds their ability to breed and replenish their population naturally. Regions particularly susceptible to overfishing include
5600-415: Is concentrated on the non-renewable resources that play the most important role in meeting needs, the most essential element for the realisation of human rights is an adequate and equitable allocation of scarcity. Inequality , taken to its extreme, causes intense discontent, which can lead to social unrest and even armed conflict. Many experts believe that ensuring equitable development is the only sure way to
5740-495: Is considered to be resource depletion. The value of a resource is a direct result of its availability in nature and the cost of extracting the resource. The more a resource is depleted the more the value of the resource increases. There are several types of resource depletion, including but not limited to: mining for fossil fuels and minerals, deforestation, pollution or contamination of resources, wetland and ecosystem degradation, soil erosion, overconsumption, aquifer depletion , and
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5880-547: Is evident in the case of caviar production in the Caspian Sea . Supporters of degrowth contend that reducing demand is the sole permanent solution to bridging the demand gap. To sustain renewable resources, both demand and production must be regulated to levels that avert depletion and ensure environmental sustainability. Transitioning to a society less reliant on oil is crucial for averting societal collapse as non-renewable resources dwindle. Degrowth can also be interpreted as
6020-480: Is highly critical of free market capitalism , and it highlights the importance of extensive public services , care work , self-organization , commons , relational goods , community , and work sharing . Degrowth theory partly orients itself as a critique of green capitalism or as a radical alternative to the market-based, sustainable development goal (SDG) model of addressing ecological overshoot and environmental collapse. A 2024 review of degrowth studies over
6160-404: Is imperative to prevent environmental destruction , and suggest a range of ideas from the reformist to the radical, with the latter consisting of degrowth, eco-socialism and eco-anarchism . In June 2020, the official site of one of the organizations promoting degrowth published an article by Vijay Kolinjivadi, an expert in political ecology, arguing that the emergence of COVID-19 is linked to
6300-419: Is ingrained in the minds of its members as the only viable and successful form of economic organization through cultural hegemony . Therefore, the proposal of any alternate economic system, like eco-capitalism, must overcome the predominant common sense and economic status quo in order to develop opposing theories. Nonetheless, movements in the United States and abroad have continued to push for reforms to protect
6440-451: Is largely responsible for the decline of the fossil fuel industry . The overwhelming scientific consensus of climate change's reality and its potential catastrophic effects have caused a large part of the world's population to respond with panic and immediate action. While the world's response has been strong, environmentalists and climate scientists do not believe the response has been strong enough to counter climate change's effects, and that
6580-493: Is seemingly an overabundance of these resources. This belief has caused people to not question resource depletion and ecosystem collapse when it occurred, and continues to prompt society to simply find these resources in areas which have not yet been depleted. In an effort to offset the depletion of resources, theorists have come up with the concept of depletion accounting. Related to green accounting , depletion accounting aims to account for nature's value on an equal footing with
6720-514: Is seen in the adoption of a system for carbon trading . In a system like this people are forced to factor the pollution cost into their expenses. This system as well as other systems of internalization function on large and small scales (oftentimes both are tightly connected). On a corporate scale, the government can regulate carbon emissions and other polluting factors in business practices forcing companies to either reduce their pollution levels, externalize these costs onto their consumers by raising
6860-441: Is supported by several other studies which state that absolute decoupling is highly unlikely to be achieved fast enough to prevent global warming over 1.5 °C or 2 °C, even under optimistic policy conditions. Major criticism of this view points out that Degrowth is politically unpalatable, defaulting towards the more free market green growth orthodoxy as a set of solutions that is more politically tenable. The problems with
7000-399: Is the removal and destruction of a forest or stand of trees from land that is then converted to non-forest use. Deforestation can involve conversion of forest land to farms , ranches , or urban use. About 31% of Earth's land surface is covered by forests at present. This is one-third less than the forest cover before the expansion of agriculture, with half of that loss occurring in
7140-704: Is the view that capital exists in nature as " natural capital " ( ecosystems that have ecological yield ) on which all wealth depends. Therefore, governments should use market-based policy-instruments (such as a carbon tax ) to resolve environmental problems . The term " Blue Greens " is often applied to those who espouse eco-capitalism. Eco-capitalism can be thought of as the right-wing equivalent to Red Greens . Critics of eco-capitalism, such as eco-socialists , view continued economic growth and commodification of nature as an inevitability in capitalism , and thus criticize bright-green environmentalism . The roots of eco-capitalism can be traced back to
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#17327657112207280-424: Is there no empirical evidence supporting the existence of a decoupling of economic growth from environmental pressures on anywhere near the scale needed to deal with environmental breakdown", and that reported cases of existing eco-economic decouplings either depict relative decoupling and/or are observed only temporarily and/or only on a local scale, arguing that alternatives to eco-economic decoupling are needed. This
7420-428: Is therefore slow to respond to rapid increases in demand. Minerals projected by some to enter production decline during the next 20 years: Minerals projected by some to enter production decline during the present century: Such projections may change, as new discoveries are made and typically misinterpret available data on Mineral Resources and Mineral Reserves. Oil depletion is the decline in oil production of
7560-463: Is usually adapted to saturated soil conditions, such as cattails , bulrushes , red maples , wild rice , blackberries , cranberries , and peat moss . Because some varieties of wetlands are rich in minerals and nutrients and provide many of the advantages of both land and water environments, they contain diverse species and provide a distinct basis for the food chain . Wetland habitats contribute to environmental health and biodiversity. Wetlands are
7700-508: The Arts and Crafts movement (1819–1900), in the United States by Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862), and in Russia by Leo Tolstoy (1828–1910). Degrowth movements draw on the values of humanism , enlightenment , anthropology and human rights . The world's leaders are correctly fixated on economic growth as the answer to virtually all problems, but they're pushing it with all their might in
7840-770: The European Parliament : the Post-Growth 2018 Conference and the Beyond Growth 2023 Conference, both held in the European Parliament in Brussels. Resource depletion Resource depletion is the consumption of a resource faster than it can be replenished. Natural resources are commonly divided between renewable resources and non-renewable resources . The use of either of these forms of resources beyond their rate of replacement
7980-566: The IPCC and the IPBES "suggest that degrowth policies should be considered in the fight against climate breakdown and biodiversity loss, respectively". The movement has included international conferences promoted by the network Research & Degrowth (R&D). The First International Conference on Economic Degrowth for Ecological Sustainability and Social Equity in Paris (2008) was a discussion about
8120-569: The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), finding that investigated degrowth scenarios "minimize many key risks for feasibility and sustainability compared to technology-driven pathways" with a core problem of such being feasibility in the context of contemporary decision-making of politics and globalized rebound- and relocation-effects. However, structurally realigning 'economic growth' and socioeconomic activity determination-structures may not be widely debated in both
8260-436: The commodification of by-products like carbon emissions, and emphasize positive incentives to maintain resources through free-market competition and entrepreneurship. Proponents of eco-capitalism view environmental reform like pollution credits as a more transformative and progressive system. According to these proponents, since free market capitalism as inherently expansionist in tendency, ignoring environmental responsibility
8400-459: The gross domestic product (GDP) as an indicator of welfare is criticized for being inaccurate. An alternative to GDP, the genuine progress indicator compensates for the shortcomings of the GDP as a welfare indicator by accounting for environmental harms as well as other factors that affect consumption, such as crime and income inequality . A fundamental criticism of the eco-capitalist idea rests on
8540-449: The renewable energy industry . Concurrently, various global efforts fight against fossil fuel production and use. The demand for renewable energy sources has skyrocketed in the last 15 years, while fossil fuels have drastically fallen in demand (in capitalist societies). The worldwide concern of climate change (also known as global warming) is notably the largest contributor to the green energy industry's rapid acceleration, just as it
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#17327657112208680-434: The " rebound effect ", also known as Jevons paradox . This concept is based on observations that when a less resource-exhaustive technology is introduced, behavior surrounding the use of that technology may change, and consumption of that technology could increase or even offset any potential resource savings. In light of the rebound effect, proponents of degrowth hold that the only effective "sustainable" solutions must involve
8820-505: The "main theoretical source of degrowth". Likewise, Italian degrowth theorist Mauro Bonaiuti considered Georgescu-Roegen's work to be "one of the analytical cornerstones of the degrowth perspective". E. F. Schumacher 's 1973 book Small Is Beautiful predates a unified degrowth movement but nonetheless serves as an important basis for degrowth ideas. In this book he critiques the neo-liberal model of economic development, arguing that an increasing "standard of living", based on consumption
8960-528: The American Military Industrial Complex and other national arms producers could shift to producing solar panels , wind turbines and other environmental products in an eco-capitalist system. Tom Randall, a correspondent specializing in renewable energy for Bloomberg , calls to attention that wind and solar energy are "outperforming" fossil fuels . In terms of investments, clean energy outperforms both gas and coal by
9100-767: The Arctic , coastal east Africa , the Coral Triangle (located between the Pacific and Indian oceans), Central and Latin America , and the Caribbean . The depletion of fish stocks can lead to long-term negative consequences for marine ecosystems, economies, and food security. The depletion of resources hinders economic growth because growing economies leads to increased demand for natural, renewable resources like fish. Thus, when resources are depleted, it initiates
9240-593: The CT ("Comprehensive Technology") scenario, predicting exceptional technological development and gradual decline, were found to align most closely with data observed as of 2019. In September 2022, the Club of Rome released updated predictive models and policy recommendations in a general-audiences book titled Earth for all – A survival guide to humanity. The degrowth movement recognises Romanian American mathematician , statistician and economist Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen as
9380-598: The Commons, founded the Political Economy Research Center (now called the Property and Environment Research Center ) in 1982. As one of the first eco-capitalist organizations created, PERC's ongoing mission is "improving environmental quality through property rights and markets". The most popular eco-capitalist idea was emissions trading , or more commonly, cap and trade. Emissions trading,
9520-533: The Decline: Entropy – Ecology – Economy'). Georgescu-Roegen, who spoke French fluently, approved the use of the term décroissance in the title of the French translation. The book gained influence in French intellectual and academic circles from the outset. Later, the book was expanded and republished in 1995 and once again in 2006; however, the word Demain ('tomorrow') was removed from the book's title in
9660-493: The French debates occurring at the time; this resemblance was captured in the title of the French edition. The translation of Georgescu-Roegen's work into French both fed on and gave further impetus to the concept of décroissance in France—and everywhere else in the francophone world—thereby creating something of an intellectual feedback loop. By the 2000s, when décroissance was to be translated from French back into English as
9800-563: The Industrial Revolution around 1760 in England and has grown rapidly ever since. Technological improvements have allowed humans to dig deeper and access lower grades and different types of ore over that time. Virtually all basic industrial metals ( copper , iron , bauxite , etc.), as well as rare earth minerals , face production output limitations from time to time, because supply involves large up-front investments and
9940-467: The Meadows Reports) are not strictly the founding texts of the degrowth movement, as these reports only advise zero growth , and have also been used to support the sustainable development movement. Still, they are considered the first studies explicitly presenting economic growth as a key reason for the increase in global environmental problems such as pollution, shortage of raw materials, and
10080-861: The SDG process are political rather than technical, Ezra Klein of the New York Times claims in summary of these criticisms, and degrowth has less plausibility than green growth as a democratic political platform. However, in a recent review of efforts toward Sustain Development Goals by the Council of Foreign Relations in 2023 it was found that progress toward 50% of the minimum viable SDG's have stalled and 30% of these verticals have reversed (or are getting worse, rather than better). Thus, while it may be true that Degrowth will be 'a difficult sell' (per Ezra Klein) to introduce via democratic voluntarism,
10220-585: The Second International Conference on degrowth, discussions encompassed concepts like implementing a maximum wage and promoting open borders. Degrowth advocates an ethical shift that challenges the notion that high-resource consumption lifestyles are desirable. Additionally, alternative perspectives on degrowth include addressing perceived historical injustices perpetrated by the global North through centuries of colonization and exploitation, advocating for wealth redistribution. Determining
10360-590: The South to become more self-sufficient and would end the overconsumption and exploitation of Southern resources by the North. Supporters of degrowth view it as a potential method to shield ecosystems from human exploitation. Within this concept, there is an emphasis on communal stewardship of the environment, fostering a symbiotic relationship between humans and nature. Degrowth recognizes ecosystems as valuable entities beyond their utility as mere sources of resources. During
10500-472: The South, even if not in the North. Slowing economic growth would fail to deliver the benefits of degrowth — self-sufficiency and material responsibility — and would indeed lead to decreased employment. Rather, degrowth proponents advocate the complete abandonment of the current (growth) economic model, suggesting that relocalizing and abandoning the global economy in the Global South would allow people of
10640-514: The act of addressing environmental issues. The following are common principles in the transition to eco-capitalism. A central part of eco-capitalism is to correct for the market failure seen in the externalization of pollution . By treating the issue of pollution as an externality it has allowed the market to minimize the degree of accountability. To correct for this market failure eco-capitalism would have to internalize this cost. A prime example of this shift towards internalizing externalities
10780-477: The amount of biologically productive land and sea area required to regenerate the resources a human population consumes and to absorb and render harmless the corresponding waste . According to a 2005 Global Footprint Network report, inhabitants of high-income countries live off of 6.4 global hectares (gHa), while those from low-income countries live off of a single gHa. For example, while each inhabitant of Bangladesh lives off of what they produce from 0.56 gHa,
10920-540: The appropriate scale of action remains a focal point of debate within degrowth movements. Some researchers believe that the world is poised to experience a Great Transformation, either by disastrous events or intentional design. They maintain that ecological economics must incorporate Postdevelopment theories , Buen vivir , and degrowth to affect the change necessary to avoid these potentially catastrophic events. A 2022 paper by Mark Diesendorf found that limiting global warming to 1,5 degrees with no overshoot would require
11060-575: The authors referred to as "the breakdown of society and the irreversible disruption of the life-support systems on this planet". In 2019, a summary for policymakers of the largest, most comprehensive study to date of biodiversity and ecosystem services was published by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services . The report was finalised in Paris. The main conclusions: In
11200-406: The basis of the triple bottom line, which is best summarized as "people, planet, and profit". As a concept of corporate social responsibility, full cost accounting not only considers social and economic costs and benefits but also the environmental implications of specific corporate actions. While there has been progress in measuring the cost of harm to the health of individuals and the environment,
11340-418: The catchy banner for the new social movement, the original term "decline" was deemed inappropriate and misdirected for the purpose: "Decline" usually refers to an unexpected, unwelcome, and temporary economic recession , something to be avoided or quickly overcome. Instead, the neologism "degrowth" was coined to signify a deliberate political action to downscale the economy on a permanent, conscious basis—as in
11480-648: The consequences of the productivism and consumerism associated with industrial societies (whether capitalist or socialist ) including: A 2017 review of the research literature on degrowth, found that it focused on three main goals: (1) reduction of environmental degradation ; (2) redistribution of income and wealth locally and globally; (3) promotion of a social transition from economic materialism to participatory culture . The concept of decoupling denotes decoupling economic growth, usually measured in GDP growth , GDP per capita growth or GNI per capita growth from
11620-401: The conservation of wetlands with more environmental services, create more efficient irrigation for wetlands being used for agriculture, and restricting access to wetlands by tourists. Water is an essential resource needed for survival. Water access has a profound influence on a society's prosperity and success. Groundwater is water that is in saturated zones underground, the upper surface of
11760-480: The cost of their goods/services, and/or a combination of the two. These kinds of systems can also be effective in indirectly creating a more environmentally conscious consumer base. As the companies who are creating the most pollution face falling profit levels and rising prices their consumers and investors are inclined to take their business elsewhere. This migration of investment and revenue would then be expected to make its way to business who have already incorporated
11900-488: The critique of SDG's and decoupling against green capitalism leveled by Degrowth theorists appear to have predictive power. Degrowth proponents argue that economic expansion must be met with a corresponding increase in resource consumption. Non-renewable resources, like petroleum, have a limited supply and can eventually be exhausted. Similarly, renewable resources can also be depleted if they are harvested at unsustainable rates for prolonged periods. An example of this depletion
12040-461: The critique of socialist feminists like Silvia Federici and Nancy Fraser claiming that capitalist growth builds on the exploitation of women's work. Instead of devaluing it, degrowth centers the economy around care, proposing that care work should be organized as a commons . Centering care goes hand in hand with changing society's time regimes. Degrowth scholars propose a working time reduction. As this does not necessarily lead to gender justice,
12180-443: The current neoliberal global economy. Especially in the case of tradable pollution credits, the resulting market-based system of emissions regulation is believed to motivate businesses to invest in technology that reduce greenhouse gas emissions using positive reinforcement (i.e. ability to trade unused credits) and punishment (i.e. the need to buy more credits). Environmental full-cost accounting explains corporate actions on
12320-682: The currently available resources, proponents say rich countries would have to reduce their standard of living through degrowth. The constraints on resources would eventually lead to a forced reduction in consumption. A controlled reduction of consumption would reduce the trauma of this change, assuming no technological changes increase the planet's carrying capacity . Multiple studies now demonstrate that in many affluent countries per-capita energy consumption could be decreased substantially and quality living standards still be maintained. Degrowth ideology opposes all manifestations of productivism, which advocates that economic productivity and growth should be
12460-598: The degrowth community and in degrowth research which may largely focus on reducing economic growth either more generally or without structural alternative but with e.g. nonsystemic political interventions. Similarly, many green growth advocates suggest that contemporary socioeconomic mechanisms and metrics – including for economic growth – can be continued with forms of nonstructural "energy-GDP decoupling". A study concluded that public services are associated with higher human need satisfaction and lower energy requirements while contemporary forms of economic growth are linked with
12600-405: The demand for the resource. Resource extraction industries make up a large part of the economic activity in developing countries . This, in turn, leads to higher levels of resource depletion and environmental degradation in developing countries. Theorists argue that the implementation of resource depletion accounting is necessary in developing countries. Depletion accounting also seeks to measure
12740-570: The destruction of ecosystems . The Limits to Growth: The 30-Year Update was published in 2004, and in 2012, a 40-year forecast from Jørgen Randers , one of the book's original authors, was published as 2052: A Global Forecast for the Next Forty Years . In 2021, Club of Rome committee member Gaya Herrington published an article comparing the proposed models' predictions against empirical data trends. The BAU2 ("Business as Usual 2") scenario, predicting "collapse through pollution", as well as
12880-499: The eaves of colonialism and extractivism , perpetuating asymmetric power relationships between territories. Colonialism is understood as the appropriation of common goods , resources, and labor, which is antagonistic to degrowth principles. Through colonial domination, capital depresses the prices of inputs and colonial cheapening occurs to the detriment of the oppressed countries. Degrowth criticizes these appropriation mechanisms and enclosure of one territory over another and proposes
13020-431: The ecological crisis. The 2019 World Scientists' Warning of a Climate Emergency and its 2021 update have asserted that economic growth is a primary driver of the overexploitation of ecosystems, and to preserve the biosphere and mitigate climate change civilization must, in addition to other fundamental changes including stabilizing population growth and adopting largely plant-based diets , "shift from GDP growth and
13160-451: The environment in current capitalistic systems. Another political theorist, Daniel Tanuro, explains in his book, Green Capitalism: Why it Can't Work , that for green capitalism to be successful, it would have to replace current mainstream capitalism with eco-socialist methods, while defying corporate interests: If by "green capitalism" we understand a system in which the qualitative, social and ecological parameters are taken in account by
13300-415: The excessive or unnecessary use of resources. Resource depletion is most commonly used in reference to farming , fishing , mining , water usage, and the consumption of fossil fuels . Depletion of wildlife populations is called defaunation . Resource depletion also brings up topics regarding its history, specifically its roots in colonialism and the Industrial Revolution, depletion accounting , and
13440-425: The existence of the problem of scarcity , including many leading scientists and politicians. This may be due, for example, to an unwillingness to change one's own consumption patterns or to share scarce natural resources more equally, or to a psychological defence mechanism. The scarcity of resources raises a central moral problem concerning the distribution and allocation of natural resources. Competition means that
13580-575: The exploitation of women and nature in growth-based societies and proposes a subsistence perspective conceptualized by Maria Mies and Ariel Salleh . Synergies and opportunities for cross-fertilization between degrowth and feminism were proposed in 2022, through networks including the Feminisms and Degrowth Alliance (FaDA). FaDA argued that the 2023 launch of Degrowth Journal created "a convivial space for generating and exploring knowledge and practice from diverse perspectives". A relevant concept within
13720-426: The financial drawbacks of switching to renewable resources in light of the depleting resources. Depletion accounting is complex to implement as nature is not as quantifiable as cars, houses, or bread. For depletion accounting to work, appropriate units of natural resources must be established so that natural resources can be viable in the market economy. The main issues that arise when trying to do so are, determining
13860-665: The financial, social, cultural, demographic, and environmental crisis caused by the deficiencies of capitalism and an explanation of the main principles of degrowth. Further conferences were in Barcelona (2010), Montreal (2012), Venice (2012), Leipzig (2014), Budapest (2016), Malmö (2018), and Zagreb (2023). The 10th International Degrowth Conference will be held in Pontevedra in June 2024. Separately, two conferences have been organised as cross-party initiatives of Members of
14000-660: The first is that depletion is considered literally and simply as a reduction in the volume of water in the saturated zone, regardless of water quality considerations. A second perspective views depletion as a reduction in the usable volume of fresh groundwater in storage. Augmenting supplies can mean improving water quality or increasing water quantity. Depletion due to quality considerations can be overcome by treatment, whereas large volume metric depletion can only be alleviated by decreasing discharge or increasing recharge. Artificial recharge of storm flow and treated municipal wastewater, has successfully reversed groundwater declines. In
14140-458: The future as Earth's finite stock of mineral resources is presently being extracted and put to use; and consequently, that the world economy as a whole is heading towards an inevitable future collapse. Georgescu-Roegen's intellectual inspiration to degrowth dates back to the 1970s. When Georgescu-Roegen delivered a lecture at the University of Geneva in 1974, he made a lasting impression on
14280-517: The future improved infiltration and recharge technologies will be more widely used to maximize the capture of runoff and treated wastewater. Earth Overshoot Day (EOD) is the date when humanity's demand for ecological resources exceeds Earth's ability to regenerate these resources in a given year. EOD is calculated by the Global Footprint Network, and organization that develops annual impact reports, based on data bout resource use in
14420-456: The idea of path dependence and the how continuing to build infrastructure without foresight seriously impedes the implementation and benefits of future innovations. Zenghelis uses the term "locked-in" to describe situations where the full implementation of a new innovation cannot be seen because an earlier infrastructure prevents it from functioning well. This barrier is exemplified in older cities like Los Angeles, San Francisco and New York where
14560-587: The idea that the commodification of nature and environmental services plus the principles of growth economics and sustainability cannot (easily) coexist. A majority of the criticisms from traditionally unregulated capitalism is due to eco-capitalism's increased regulation . Pollution credits (as a means for regulating greenhouse gas emissions) is traditionally at odds with economically laissez-faire ideologies. Elements of unregulated capitalism prefer environmental issues to be addressed by individuals who may allocate their own income and wealth, oppose
14700-436: The ideas of The Limits to Growth and Herman Daly 's steady-state economy in his article, "Energy and Economic Myths", delivered as a series of lectures from 1972, but not published before 1975. In the article, Georgescu-Roegen stated the following: [Authors who] were set exclusively on proving the impossibility of growth ... were easily deluded by a simple, now widespread, but false syllogism : Since exponential growth in
14840-564: The interaction of environmental, social, and health effects makes measurement difficult. Measurement attempts can be broadly categorized as either behavioral in nature, like hedonic pricing , or dose-response which looks at indirect effects. A standardized measurement of these costs has yet to emerge. This should not be confused with the full-cost method used by organizations searching for oil and gas that "does not differentiate between operating expenses associated with successful and unsuccessful exploration projects". The current standard of using
14980-543: The last century. Between 15 million to 18 million hectares of forest, an area the size of Bangladesh , are destroyed every year. On average 2,400 trees are cut down each minute. Estimates vary widely as to the extent of deforestation in the tropics . In 2019, nearly a third of the overall tree cover loss, or 3.8 million hectares, occurred within humid tropical primary forests . These are areas of mature rainforest that are especially important for biodiversity and carbon storage . The direct cause of most deforestation
15120-463: The late 1960s. The " Tragedy of the Commons ", an essay published in 1968 in Science by Garrett Hardin , claimed the inevitability of malthusian catastrophe due to liberal or democratic government's policies to leave family size matters to the family, and enabling the welfare state to willingly care for potential human overpopulation . Hardin argued that if families were given freedom of choice in
15260-483: The local climate, and displacement of indigenous people who live in forests. Deforested regions often also suffer from other environmental problems such as desertification and soil erosion . Another problem is that deforestation reduces the uptake of carbon dioxide ( carbon sequestration ) from the atmosphere. This reduces the potential of forests to assist with climate change mitigation . The role of forests in capturing and storing carbon and mitigating climate change
15400-506: The main intellectual figure inspiring the movement. In his 1971 work, The Entropy Law and the Economic Process , Georgescu-Roegen argues that economic scarcity is rooted in physical reality; that all natural resources are irreversibly degraded when put to use in economic activity; that the carrying capacity of Earth—that is, Earth's capacity to sustain human populations and consumption levels—is bound to decrease sometime in
15540-433: The market economy. Resource depletion accounting uses data provided by countries to estimate the adjustments needed due to their use and depletion of the natural capital available to them. Natural capital refers to natural resources such as mineral deposits or timber stocks. Depletion accounting factors in several different influences such as the number of years until resource exhaustion, the cost of resource extraction, and
15680-404: The matter, but were removed from a welfare state, parents choosing to overbear would not have the resources to provide for their "litter", thus solving the problem of overpopulation. This represents an early argument made from an eco-capitalist standpoint: overpopulation would technically be solved by a free market . John Baden , a collaborator with Garrett Hardin on other works including Managing
15820-472: The minimization of pollution into their business model thus allowing them to provide lower prices and higher profit margins attracting the migrating consumers and investors. At the conception of the ideology, major theorists of eco-capitalism, Paul Hawken, Lester Brown, and Francis Cairncross, saw an opportunity to establish a different approach to environmentalism in a capitalist society. These theorists posited that consumers as well as producers could shoulder
15960-525: The money needed to pay for anything available in the national economy without the need to first tax their citizens for the requisite funds. Taxation, credit regulations and price controls could be used to mitigate the inflation this may generate, while also reducing consumption. The contemporary degrowth movement can trace its roots back to the anti-industrialist trends of the 19th century, developed in Great Britain by John Ruskin , William Morris and
16100-471: The most advanced get the most resources, which often means the developed West. The problem here is that the West has developed partly through colonial slave labour and violence, and partly through protectionist policies, which together have left many other, non-Western countries underdeveloped. In the future, international cooperation in sharing scarce resources will become increasingly important. Where scarcity
16240-638: The numerous competing capitals, that is to say even within economic activity as an endogenous mechanism, then we are completely deluded. In fact, we would be talking about a form of capitalism in which the law of value was no longer in operation, which is a contradiction in terms However, Tanuro adds that social and economical change to the current capitalist systems is necessary, because technology will invariably increase emissions as manufacturing processes and distribution systems progress. Tanuro argues for changes in three areas: Despite this argument, critics still claim that green consumption, sustainable behavior on
16380-621: The nutrient rich vegetation. Wetlands in Southern America also prove a fruitful resource for poachers , as animals with valuable hides such a jaguars , maned wolves , caimans , and snakes are drawn to wetlands. The effect of the removal of large predators is still unknown in South African wetlands. Humans benefit from wetlands in indirect ways as well. Wetlands act as natural water filters, when runoff from either natural or man-made processes pass through, wetlands can have
16520-629: The opposite, with the contemporary economic system being fundamentally misaligned with the twin goals of meeting human needs and ensuring ecological sustainability , suggesting that prioritizing human well-being and ecological sustainability would be preferable to overgrowth in current metrics of economic growth. The word 'degrowth' was mentioned 28 times in the United Nations IPCC Sixth Assessment Report by Working Group III published in April 2022. Open localism
16660-495: The other hand, open localism does not impose any set of rules or regulations creating a defined boundary, rather it favours a cosmopolitan approach. The degrowth movement builds on feminist economics that has criticized measures of economic growth like the GDP as it excludes work mainly done by women such as unpaid care work (the work performed to fulfill people's needs) and reproductive work (the work sustaining life), first argued by Marilyn Waring . Further, degrowth draws on
16800-740: The part of the consumer, is not enough to be instituted as a socio-environmental solution. In accordance with hegemony , capitalism agrees that the government has little control over market and buyers, sellers, and consumers ultimately drive the market. In contrast, in green capitalism, the government would have more control therefore; consumers do not have direct power over the market, and should not be held accountable. Environmental scholar Bill McKibben proposes "full scale climate mobilization" to address environmental decay. During World War II, vehicle manufacturers and general goods manufacturers shifted to producing weapons, military vehicles and war time goods. McKibben argues that, to combat environmental change,
16940-476: The past 10 years showed that most were of poor quality: almost 90% were opinions rather than analysis, few used quantitative or qualitative data, and even fewer ones used formal modelling; the latter used small samples or a focus on non-representative cases. Also most studies offered subjective policy advice, but lacked policy evaluation and integration with insights from the literature on environmental/climate policies. The "degrowth" movement arose from concerns over
17080-436: The prevailing French usage of the term—something good to be welcomed and maintained, or so followers believe. When the first international degrowth conference was held in Paris in 2008, the participants honoured Georgescu-Roegen and his work. In his manifesto on Petit traité de la décroissance sereine ("Farewell to Growth"), the leading French champion of the degrowth movement, Serge Latouche , credited Georgescu-Roegen as
17220-441: The previous year. EOD is announced each year on June 5, which is World Environment Day, and continues to get earlier each year. For example, Earth Overshoot Day 2023 was August 2, compared to in 2010 where it fell on August 10 and in 2000 where it fell on September 17. The Global Footprint Network calculates Earth Overshoot Day by dividing world biocapacity by world ecological footprint and multiplying that by 365 days (366 days during
17360-483: The primary objectives of human organization. Consequently, it stands in opposition to the prevailing model of sustainable development . While the concept of sustainability aligns with some aspects of degrowth philosophy, sustainable development, as conventionally understood, is based on mainstream development principles focused on augmenting economic growth and consumption. Degrowth views sustainable development as contradictory because any development reliant on growth within
17500-623: The pursuit of affluence toward sustaining ecosystems and improving human well-being by prioritizing basic needs and reducing inequality." In an opinion piece published in Al Jazeera , Jason Hickel states that this paper, which has more than 11,000 scientist cosigners, demonstrates that there is a "strong scientific consensus" towards abandoning "GDP as a measure of progress." In a 2022 comment published in Nature , Hickel, Giorgos Kallis , Juliet Schor , Julia Steinberger and others say that both
17640-401: The redistribution of care work has to be equally pushed. A concrete proposal by Frigga Haug is the 4-in-1 perspective that proposes 4 hours of wage work per day, freeing time for 4 hours of care work, 4 hours of political activities in a direct democracy , and 4 hours of personal development through learning. Furthermore, degrowth draws on materialist ecofeminisms that state the parallel of
17780-434: The report, consumers have more brand loyalty and are willing to pay higher prices for a product that is perceived as being sustainable. This is especially true among Millennials and Generation Z . These generations currently make up 48% of the global marketplace and still have not hit their peak spending levels. As these generations' preferences continue to shape how businesses operate and market themselves, they could drive
17920-469: The saturated zone is called the water table. Groundwater is held in the pores and fractures of underground materials like sand, gravel and other rock, these rock materials are called aquifers. Groundwater can either flow naturally out of rock materials or can be pumped out. Groundwater supplies wells and aquifers for private, agricultural, and public use and is used by more than a third of the world's population every day for their drinking water. Globally there
18060-414: The second and third editions. By the time Grinevald suggested the term décroissance to form part of the title of the French translation of Georgescu-Roegen's work, the term had already permeated French intellectual circles since the early 1970s to signify a deliberate political action to downscale the economy on a permanent and voluntary basis. Simultaneously, but independently, Georgescu-Roegen criticised
18200-495: The social responsibility of environmental restoration if "green technology, green taxes, green labeling, and eco-conscious shopping" existed. The resulting "shopping our way to sustainability" mentality encouraged the development of organic farming , renewable energy, green certifications as well as other eco-friendly practices. A 2015 report from the Nielsen Corporation lends credence to this theory. According to
18340-682: The social value of natural resources and ecosystems . Measurement of social value is sought through ecosystem services , which are defined as the benefits of nature to households, communities and economies. There are many different groups interested in depletion accounting. Environmentalists are interested in depletion accounting as a way to track the use of natural resources over time, hold governments accountable, or compare their environmental conditions to those of another country. Economists want to measure resource depletion to understand how financially reliant countries or corporations are on non-renewable resources, whether this use can be sustained and
18480-654: The socioeconomic impacts of resource depletion, as well as the morality of resource consumption, how humanity will be impacted and what the future will look like if resource depletion continues at the current rate, Earth Overshoot Day , and when specific resources will be completely exhausted. The depletion of resources has been an issue since the beginning of the 19th century amidst the First Industrial Revolution . The extraction of both renewable and non-renewable resources increased drastically, much further than thought possible pre-industrialization, due to
18620-508: The solar and wind industries have proven growth over time: Over the last 15 years, the solar industry has doubled seven times and the wind industry has doubled four times. In contrast, the fossil fuel industry has declined over the last 15 years. America's coal industry has lost 75 percent of its value within the past few years. Renewable energy sources also gain advantages over the fossil fuel industry through international governmental support . Globally, governments implement subsidies to boost
18760-490: The technological advancements and economic development that lead to an increased demand for natural resources. Although resource depletion has roots in both colonialism and the Industrial Revolution, it has only been of major concern since the 1970s. Before this, many people believed in the "myth of inexhaustibility", which also has roots in colonialism. This can be explained as the belief that both renewable and non-renewable natural resources cannot be exhausted because there
18900-487: The theory of degrowth is decolonialism , which refers to putting an end to the perpetuation of political, social, economic, religious, racial, gender, and epistemological relations of power, domination, and hierarchy of the global north over the global south. The foundation of this relationship lies in the claim that the imminent socio-ecological collapse is caused by capitalism , which is sustained by economic growth . This economic growth in turn can only be maintained under
19040-654: The transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources is moving far too slowly. The global efforts and concerns of both governments and individuals to take action regarding implementing and transforming a society's energy sources from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources show the enormous potential of the green energy market. This potential is seen in the countless renewable energy projects under way. Currently, there are over 4,000 major solar projects being implemented. These, and all renewable energy projects, set goals of long-term economic benefit. The Global Apollo Programme , set up by both economists and scientists, has
19180-550: The use of natural resources and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Absolute decoupling refers to GDP growth coinciding with a reduction in natural resource use and GHG emissions, while relative decoupling describes an increase in resource use and GHG emissions lower than the increase in GDP growth. The degrowth movement heavily critiques this idea and argues that absolute decoupling is only possible for short periods, specific locations, or with small mitigation rates. In 2021 NGO European Environmental Bureau called stated that "not only
19320-445: The world's most successful agricultural areas are wetlands that have been drained and converted to farmland for large-scale agriculture. Large-scale draining of wetlands also occurs for real estate development and urbanization . In contrast, in some cases wetlands are also flooded to be converted to recreational lakes or hydropower generation. In some countries ranchers have also moved their property onto wetlands for grazing due to
19460-590: The wrong direction. In 1968, the Club of Rome , a think tank headquartered in Winterthur , Switzerland , asked researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for a report on the limits of our world system and the constraints it puts on human numbers and activity. The report, called The Limits to Growth , published in 1972, became the first significant study to model the consequences of economic growth. The reports (also known as
19600-480: The young, newly graduated French historian and philosopher, Jacques Grinevald , who had earlier been introduced to Georgescu-Roegen's works by an academic advisor. Georgescu-Roegen and Grinevald became friends, and Grinevald devoted his research to a closer study of Georgescu-Roegen's work. As a result, in 1979, Grinevald published a French translation of a selection of Georgescu-Roegen's articles entitled Demain la décroissance: Entropie – Écologie – Économie ('Tomorrow,
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