<
https://theconversation.com/critics-of-degrowth-economics-say-its-unworkable-but-from-an-ecologists-perspective-its-inevitable-211496>
"You may not have noticed, but earlier this month we passed Earth overshoot
day, when humanity’s demands for ecological resources and services exceeded
what our planet can regenerate annually.
Many economists criticising the developing degrowth movement fail to appreciate
this critical point of Earth’s biophysical limits.
Ecologists on the other hand see the human economy as a subset of the
biosphere. Their perspective highlights the urgency with which we need to
reduce our demands on the biosphere to avoid a disastrous ecological collapse,
with consequences for us and all other species.
Many degrowth scholars (as well as critics) focus on features of capitalism as
the cause of this ecological overshoot. But while capitalism may be
problematic, many civilisations destroyed ecosystems to the point of collapse
long before it became our dominant economic model.
Capitalism, powered by the availability of cheap and abundant fossil energy,
has indeed resulted in unprecedented and global biosphere disruption. But the
direct cause remains the excessive volume and speed with which resources are
extracted and wastes returned to the environment.
From an ecologist’s perspective, degrowth is inevitable on our current
trajectory."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
