The Case for Degrowth

[@dodieuwallaceb3263]

No matter what social, economic, political changes anyone wants to see happen, meeting our needs while minimizing environmental impact should be a goal. When it comes to meeting our energy needs, nuclear power really is the premier example of the phenomenon of ‘dematerialization’ in which we actually use less to produce more. The evidence all demonstrates that historically, nuclear power has been the fastest way to decarbonize, requires the least amount of raw materials and land, and results in the fewer deaths per unit of power produced.

[@winstonsolipsist1741]

They don't want more energy, they want less. According to those De-Growthers I have seen and read, more energy leads to more consumption just without the CO2 from energy production. They say the CO2 reduction from switching to 100% green energy isn't enough. They have decided that any growth is bad because it lets The Global North (rich countries) take resources from The Global South (alleged poor countries though China, for some reason, is considered in The Global South) so it isn't really about energy. Everyone, except the elites and academics, needs to make due with less. Of course elites and academics will still need private transportation and more resources because their work is more important than that of us serfs.

[@dodieuwallaceb3263]

@@winstonsolipsist1741 Yes I’m afraid that’s actually the goal. It’s not pro environment, it’s anti human. As a human I very much resent that.

[@AudioPervert1]

This is great lecture. Thank you. Kudos.

[@AudioPervert1]

Yet embracing the green new deal seems rather hoodwink

[@chapter4travels]

The Green New Deal requires degrowth to even come close to working. Actually, it requires selective poverty.

[@chapter4travels]

How does unlimited, cheap, reliable, clean energy factor into this degrowth theory?

[@winstonsolipsist1741]

It doesn't. It isn't about energy, it is about reducing ALL forms of consumption.

[@chapter4travels]

@@winstonsolipsist1741 Why? If the global population is shrinking and you can recycle everything, what's the point?

[@winstonsolipsist1741]

@@chapter4travels I don't know. These academics seem to think it is the only way to stop climate change.

[@fregwich]

what's the difference between degrowth and planned collapse? Speed?

[@zeamaiz945]

Yes, and how much of a floor there is to cushion our fall

[@winstonsolipsist1741]

@@zeamaiz945 What floor? The only way to reach pre-industrial emissions is to live a pre-industrial lifestyle. Get out you scythe!

[@zeamaiz945]

@@winstonsolipsist1741 i mostly meant as in localized, ecological food production and combined ecological restoration/assisted migration, but honestly what I said last year was insanely generalized and naive. Personally, my attempts at/efforts towards "building a floor" this past year has revolved around adapting tropical grain corn to more temperate environments (southern Ontario), given that they tend to be more resilient to disease, drought, and climate extremes, and growing those within larger agroecosystems that mimic the native ecosystems that corn, as a warm season grass, would grow in. For us, thats a grassland/shrubland/savannah ecosystem, so I'm also working on breeding native keystone species, mainly white oaks, native plums, and North American hazelnuts, and specifically creating interspecific hybrids between the myriad species belonging to each genus, seeing as how those perennials simultaneously sequester carbon, provide food for humans and animals, locally buffer climate extremes, and, probably most importantly, act as crucial larval hosts for native moth and butterfly species, which themselves are an insanely important source of food for native birds. Basically, the idea is to grow the corn in a combined intercropping/alley-cropping system, whereby the corn is interplanted with native prarie legumes (Desmodium Illinoense and both Lespedeza Capitata and L. Virginiana) that serve as the nitrogen input, mimicing the combination of those prarie legumes and native warm-season grasses that naturally occurs in healthy, mature grasslands/savannahs, with a row of the aforementioned shrubs/trees every 12 rows of tropical corn/prarie legume. I'm not sure how much of a "floor" this would actually provide or how scalable a system like this might be, but it seems like the best model for trying to adapt agriculture to the realities we ourselves have to adapt to. If anything, it's rewarding. Sorry for the how long that is, i just thought it necessary to clarify what what I said about a "floor" has meant to me since i said that last year, instead of relying on hypergeneralized terminology. All the best 👍

[@winstonsolipsist1741]

@@zeamaiz945 Wow! Very impressive! Thank you for the clarification. I thought you were referring to a financial "floor". I am serious about your work being impressive. Please keep it up! I am not a botanist so I may be wrong about your objective but if I am understanding what your doing, your idea of using crops to sequester carbon, inject nitrogen into the soil and provide food is really remarkable. I am a smallholding rancher with some subsistence gardening. Do you have a blog or website were we can follow your progress?

[@rickricky5626]

degrowth was a great idea....but we dont even have time for that now....31 tipping points have been crossed...climate and habitat is lost.....can NOT be stopped now...it will be a fun? ride down now.

[@imnotanalien7839]

I hope this works in Spain. Is there any other country that has implemented this socialist economy. So no military…. and nonprofit banks, community food banks and gardens and guaranteed income without working. Sounds wonderful. Good luck.

[@Dan5482]

Your mind is confused.

[@winstonsolipsist1741]

Beyond socialist. Notice all the Marx quotes. This is the way to impose actual communism. How many times did Giorgos say commune in 30 minutes?

[@maplenook]

I’m happy to live simply. But it’s a hard no on quarterly poison injections.

[@jamesruscheinski8602]

human choice decentralization; God focus centralization