In issue #7, we were introduced to the concept of degrowth (which is actually the translation of the French “décroissance”). Economic growth is the often unstated (though equally often stated) presumptive goal of almost all policy in the globally dominant society. Does it need to be? Can you envision a more steady-state world? Global population is forecast to peak this century. If human population stops growing, do we still need the economy to grow? Why or why not?
I like to stay away from the news cycle, for the most part, but COVID-19 is proving to be a systemic departure from all things “normal,” so I’d like to use it to ask another question as well. I want to be clear — COVID-19 is not good for the climate and it’s not good for humanity. But perhaps there are some lessons we can learn, and some lessons specifically related to the concepts discussed in the degrowth newsletter. So I’ll put this out there: do you think there are lessons we can learn from this cascading systemic disruption of our global society? What changes can we make to our financial and economic systems to make them more resilient to unpredictable and non-linear disruptions like this one — that will, unfortunately, only become more frequent due to climate change and ecological degradation?
I'd like to hope that in the face of this epidemic, perhaps we can slow down and notice that we don't need as much as we think we need. That we can be far less consumptive, far less destructive to the earth by doing less. And be fine.
As my home (British Columbia, Canada) fails to take significant action in the face of COVID-19, I've been thinking about another question raised by this moment in history. Today, Prime Minister Trudeau closed the Canadian border to everyone -- except US citizens. Throughout the speech, he stressed that the government was basing its decisions on recommendations from scientists and public health officials. A reporter asked him, "What scientific and public health recommendations are you basing your decision to keep the US border open on?" To which he replied, "We recognize that the level of integration of our two economies."
(Note -- I'm not trying to pass judgement on whether or not Canada should close the US border here, but I found his answer to that question illuminating).
We have blueprints for a successful COVID-19 mitigation strategy -- Singapore, Taiwan, Japan, and South Korea have mounted efforts that have, in the popular terminology, "flattened the curve." These are all (to varying degrees) democratic nations. Hong Kong and China have also more or less succeeded (though, of course, the situation is on-going). Why haven't the world's western neoliberal democracies been able to replicate this? And, is it plausible that the answers to that question are the same as the answers to why we are failing act on climate change?
I'd like to hope that in the face of this epidemic, perhaps we can slow down and notice that we don't need as much as we think we need. That we can be far less consumptive, far less destructive to the earth by doing less. And be fine.
As my home (British Columbia, Canada) fails to take significant action in the face of COVID-19, I've been thinking about another question raised by this moment in history. Today, Prime Minister Trudeau closed the Canadian border to everyone -- except US citizens. Throughout the speech, he stressed that the government was basing its decisions on recommendations from scientists and public health officials. A reporter asked him, "What scientific and public health recommendations are you basing your decision to keep the US border open on?" To which he replied, "We recognize that the level of integration of our two economies."
(Note -- I'm not trying to pass judgement on whether or not Canada should close the US border here, but I found his answer to that question illuminating).
We have blueprints for a successful COVID-19 mitigation strategy -- Singapore, Taiwan, Japan, and South Korea have mounted efforts that have, in the popular terminology, "flattened the curve." These are all (to varying degrees) democratic nations. Hong Kong and China have also more or less succeeded (though, of course, the situation is on-going). Why haven't the world's western neoliberal democracies been able to replicate this? And, is it plausible that the answers to that question are the same as the answers to why we are failing act on climate change?