What is degrowth
Reading time: 3 minutesTL;DR
Our world is hellbent on increasing GDP - the line must go up! Thatâs driving climate change.
However there are other ways to run a society, like monitoring our wellbeing instead of how much crap we sold.
Instead of endless expansion, a strategy known as degrowth is worth looking at.
Explanation
The world runs on increasing the GDP which only captures the value of goods sold. The people who came up with the GDP as a measure warned politicians and economists to never use it as a measure of how well humans are doing, but somehow it seems to be the only thing that matters.
Degrowth isnât tied to climate change action only, it is also an argument that the world doesnât have endless resources - how can we continue to expand forever. Thereâs only so many fossil fuels to find to dig up and burn, eventually weâll run out. Thereâs only so much land to live on, eventually weâll run out.
GDP doesnât include everything - many things that happen everyday in society that arenât captured because they have no dollar value. But that doesnât mean they arenât valuable to humans - such as the care a parent provides their child, or an adult provides to their elderly parent. It doesnât measure volunteer work. Importantly it doesnât measure things that are priceless.
These donât have a dollar value because by definition they are priceless. The environment isnât just a thing outside our houses, itâs the entire globe and it is priceless.
Measuring GDP relies on putting a dollar figure on everything. The current configuration of our economies doesnât really factor in pollution such as greenhouse gases. There are only a handful of carbon taxes. So we can burn fossil fuels freely - but it is impacting the environment greatly. Because itâs not captured in the GDP the money men donât give a shit.
Eventually it will impact the GDP - when the costs of storms and floods gets too much, and insurance can no longer pay out to rebuild your house. Then the GDP will go down. Finally the money men will pay attention but itâs likely weâve passed tipping points by then.
Degrowth is about looking at other measures - such as a human wellbeing index. If politicians were rewarded for increasing our wellbeing instead of GDP, how different would things be.
âCrucially, degrowth doesnât suggest sacrificing societal needs. On the contrary, it champions an economic model that meets everyoneâs fundamental necessities, all while honouring our planetâs ecological limitsâ (https://greenly.earth/en-gb/blog/company-guide/is-degrowth-the-solution-to-climate-change)
Climate activists often have âYou want us to go back to living in cavesâ thrown at us, like thatâs an actual thing we want. I think degrowth is the best way of retooling our world to be more focused on the society instead of the economy. Itâs the best chance of both worlds - some level of modern conveniences but a decarbonised world where weâve tackled climate change.
Further reading
Less is More: How Degrowth Will Save the World - Jason Hickel