Just launched: Four girls. Two possible scenarios from Earth4All . How will their lives unfold? How do our decisions impact their future? A brand new interactive storybook brings to life the stories of four girls from across the world and explores how their lives might unfold under the two Earth4All scenarios. How will they grow up if we stay on our current path of business as usual? What do their futures hold if we take a Giant Leap? It includes a writing competition encouraging young people to share their future visions.
160 w
Resolving the growth paradox Growth is necessary. But eternal growth on a limited planet is impossible. Growth is a prerequisite for generating more and better jobs, eradicating poverty, creating smarter societies and making sure our children inherit the best of all possible worlds. But growth is also what is slowly killing us: destroying soils, acidifying the oceans, weirding earthโs climate and killing off wildlife at breakneck speed, creating a world which is far from the best there can be. So what should we do? Once, the climate thresholds were a world away. Not anymore. We, meaning those who participate in modern economic life, are staring into the abyss of irreversible climate change and are morally obliged to change our ways for future generationsโ sake, to do something. After all, it is our fault we have ended up here. So again, should we speed up or slow down the economy to avoid falling into the abyss? What do you do when you are headed for a cliff? The obvious answer is to slow down, right? Step on the brakes? We have already passed the safe planetary boundaries, some say, so growth and consumption must be cut as soon as possible and as much as possible to save what still can be saved. We might call this a โjust-say-noโ-approach; no to any and all kinds of growth. Step on the brakes, they say. There is no planet B, they say, which is true, and they focus on reducing, taxing, shutting down and regulating, which are all good policies and good practices. And yet there might be better ways. Psychologically, it creates a lot of resistance to be told โjust shut everything down, downscale and downgrade and stop focusing on creating new solutions which only will create new problems and acerbate the problems we already haveโ. To some, a ban on diesel cars and focus on degrowth will feel like a slippery slope which ends with all of us riding donkeys and the floods of invention dwindling down into a trickle. Ridiculous, of course, but let the person without such illogical psychological defense mechanisms throw the first stone. And even without such psychological resistance, even if we all would have accepted to focus on degrowth as the panacea with which we can turn things around and avert the worst ecological collapses, there might be a solution which is even more effective and better both in the short and long run both for us and nature. This solution is the right kind of growth: healthy growth. In healthy growth, we try to stimulate new solutions and initiatives that are good for the world. We accelerate and fertilize these as much as we can, even if they are not yet perfect, to make them grow as fast as possible. The thing is, we cannot turn back time. We cannot uninvent inventions. We cannot pretend we havenโt discovered how to make polluting machines and simple, cheap, useful plastic which is so durable that it fills the oceans. As the American systems theorist and futurist Buckminster Fuller put it: โYou never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.โ To avoid falling into the ecological abyss, we canโt rely solely on degrowth. Our brakes arenโt good enough. But we canโt solely speed up either, as our vehicle is on the wrong track. The answer, then, is to improve our vehicle โ in other words, continue to improve and innovate and grow, and speed up in a new direction. To change our mindset and escape the simplistic dichotomy of growth/degrowth, we must first become aware of what underlies our ideas about growth in the first place. What narratives frame our thinking? In which direction do we expect growth to go, and what properties will it take? These questions open up a new psychology of economic growth and differentiates between very different kinds of growths: โ Linear, exponential growth (More of the same!) is not the same as circular growth (More recycling!) or logistic growth with radical resource productivity (More with ever less!). They both feel different, use different metaphors and elicit different mindsets. If we are in the addictive grip of linear growth, more of the same in perpetuum, change is anathema. Just keep growing in the same direction forever! This has been the mindset of car companies, coal companies, and oil companies. This is also the mindset of investors who want nothing else than to grow their own assets way beyond any level they need to live. We can call this addictive, because it is: it becomes almost impossible to accept or even see other ways of growing, and the entire cycle is a constant hunt for new highs. Nothing is ever enough, and yet our old growth model becomes the only way forward, come hell or high water. And soon enough, the outer consequences of that inner addiction become visible: glaciers disappear, as do forests and pollinators. Soils degrade from chemical fertilizers, heavy metals and excessive tilling. All while the oceans rise and groundwater aquifers deplete. Luckily, there are better models of economic growth. There are better designs for capitalism than the one currently ripping apart societies by escalating inequalities and undermining democracies in pursuit of its one-sided goal. We donโt have to buy into the linear growth model. We donโt have to negate capitalism in order to save the world. Rather, we can rethink growth so that capitalism starts to serve society and nature, and us, rather than vice versa. We can, step by step, redesign and redirect our vehicle, our momentum, and so avoid going down into the deepest parts of the abyss. But such a swerve necessarily starts in our psyche. The images we hold of economic growth need to be reimagined along with what capitalism is all about. As American futurist Alex Steffen has observed: โItโs literally true that we canโt build what we canโt imagineโฆ The fact that we havenโt compellingly imagined a thriving, dynamic, sustainable world is a major reason we donโt already live in one.โ We are all to a greater or lesser extent prisoners of the linear growth mindset. More has always been good, โupโ is always better than โdownโ, hoarding and unimaginable wealth and bigger, more fancy and even more flashy cars and houses and watches are all good. But this is precisely the mindset which is slowly strangling the planet and all living creatures on it. This is the mindset which got us into this mess in the first place. And so we must change. We are morally obliged. But we cannot escape the unavoidable fact that to our minds, growth is good, and degrowth always, on some level, will sound like regression and a step back and not like progress at all. And in some important ways, thatโs true. We must grow. But we canโt grow like we have done so far. So instead of growing bigger, we should grow smarter and wiser. Instead of growing by exploiting and depleting, we should grow by regenerating, healing and nourishing. Linear growth ad infinitum is bad. It will destroy the planet. But to degrow is also bad, for the planet but also for us, psychologically. The best way forward, then, is neither, but to grow smarter. After all, it is the smartest thing to do.
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159 w
Green growth is a fantasy. Degrowth must happen to avoid a sixth mass extinction. Please read "Bright Green Lies" and watch the documentary based on the book. Stoknes lives in Norway which built up a huge sovereign wealth fund from profits selling fossil hydrocarbons and can afford to heavily subsidize electric cars and associated infrastructure. Is that "green growth?"
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160 w
Well said!
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160 w
Very Good ๐ I think this is the right way to handle the climate crisis and our future on the earth ๐
169 w
EU does plenty of good stuff on climate, but censorship of plantbased foods such as "oat-milk", "milk-free"etc - that's absurd. Sign the petition for Stop AM171 https://www.oatly.com/no/
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169 w
Signed!
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I'm sure it will inspire important conversations about sustainability and the choices we make for our planet's future.
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These are very frightening and inspiring stories, it really helps to visualize what the world (and our lives) will be if we don't act on the SDGs
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This type of storytelling has the potential to really change how we see the climate crisis. More people need to see it as something that is real and will impact lives. Great to see!