The Degrowth Movement: How a Smaller Economy Could Protect Our Planet and Make Us Happier
Infinite growth on a finite planet. It doesn’t seem to make much sense when it’s laid out so explicitly. Still, this principle is the basis for most of the world’s economies, societies and policies. The U.S. certainly subscribes to this model of unchecked expansion of all sectors, so any pause in this continual growth causes us to teeter toward a recession. But this relentless expansion across the last few decades directly correlates with environmental impact. The more we consume, the more resources we need to match that consumption. The planet has struggled to keep up with our resource hunger, so what will we do when we inevitably reach a point of scarcity? Some argue that we should steer away from that point altogether and adopt an alternative to this infinite growth paradigm, one that looks beyond the consumption-hungry current reality.
In 1968 the Club of Rome, a prominent think tank located in Switzerland, asked a group of researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to prepare a report on the main factors that determine human potential for growth on Earth. The subsequent 1972 report, “The Limits to Growth,” was the first significant study published about the downsides of growth, as it linked economic expansion as a key factor in environmental degradation. This discovery is the basis for what is known today as the degrowth movement. Improving our economy is supposed to improve our lives, and it does up to a point, but degrowth advocates are now showing that it's doing more harm than good. Despite the concept being around for half a century, many people are unaware of the idea, possibly because mainstream Politics rarely addresses it. While foregoing economic growth for the sake of our planet seems far from feasible right now, the degrowth community sees it as a vital tool in our efforts to become sustainable.
The idea is simple: purposefully contract our economy until it reaches a level that functions within planetary boundaries, and then stay there. This moreso targets wealthy developed nations that currently over-consume resources and leave developing nations little room to grow to appropriate standards of living. Samuel Alexander, one of the leading experts on degrowth and steady-state economics, summarizes degrowth as, “a phase of planned and equitable economic contraction in the richest nations, eventually reaching a steady state that operates within Earth’s biophysical limits”. But how would we even begin to lift our foot off the growth gas pedal? If our society relies on economic gain for stability, would we face anarchy and chaos without it? Giuseppe Feola, a professor at the Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development at Utrecht University, the Netherlands, argues that, “for a fundamental transformation beyond capitalism, which degrowth represents, there is virtually no comparable historical precedent”. By questioning growth we venture into uncharted territory.
Degrowth means gradually moving to a smaller economy, but it differs from a recession because it is intentional, and involves systematic changes in society and policy. For example, the degrowth movement aims to create an entirely different metric by which to measure economic success,shedding the current reliance on growth domestic product, or GDP. Under modern scrutiny, the amount of goods and services produced in a year is a poor indicator for general welfare of a population. Abolishing the time, energy and money put into increasing GDP could then be distributed elsewhere, focusing on increasing equity and reducing environmental impact. Some examples of this already happening today are Bhutan’s establishment of the Gross National Happiness index and the United Nations Development Programme’s creation of the Human Development Index.
Degrowth encompasses more than just a change to the economy though, it also calls for changes to consumption patterns and societal structure. Tim Jackson, a prominent figure and expert in the degrowth movement, in his widely cited book, “Prosperity Without Growth,” begged the question: “might it not be better to halt the relentless pursuit of growth in the advanced economies and concentrate instead on sharing out the available resources more equitably?” Increasing equity and sustainability sound ideal, yet it's hard to picture a life without growth since it's the only model we've ever known.
The transition to a post-growth world involves fundamentally changing the structure of our lives, which in some ways are alleviating and in other ways potentially quite challenging. The most visible change under the degrowth movement would be the localization of society. This would include the agriculture system, economy, transportation, goods and services. Degrowthers advocate for communities to become more self-sufficient by producing most of what they need themselves, and becoming better able to repair what they already have. In an effort to curb scarcity, the degrowth movement involves the adoption of a sharing economy that would minimize the need for production of new goods.
This movement additionally includes a shift to renewable energy with an emphasis on first reducing energy demand overall to better accommodate the transition away from fossil fuels. Implementing a reduction in our average working hours in exchange for leisure time and higher self-sufficiency is also part of the process of lowering environmental impact and economic size. Some degrowth advocates believe universal income or government guaranteed jobs may be effective in combating the loss of work that accompanies decreased production needs. The transition to a post-growth world would entail a grassroots push to create urban farms, encouraging people to grow some of their own food, and increasing the availability of local markets. The degrowth movement aims to revive public transportation and wean us off of individually owned vehicles, further feeding into this concept of a shared system.
In becoming a more localized society, there is opportunity to become better connected with the community. Working together on projects like gardens, composting or swap meets would increase a feeling of belonging that many people miss in our lonely digital society. Today, involvement with the local community seems to be the exception, not the norm. In a post-growth world, people would be working alongside their neighbors and building a sense of inclusion. Providing an opportunity to decrease isolation in our globalized world is one of the upsides to letting go of growth. Things like spending time with family and friends and feeling connected to the local community could outweigh the desire for an unsustainable growth driven life.
The push for these changes will ultimately have to start at a grassroots level. The report, “The Deep Green Alternative,” by Jonathan Rutherford and Samuel Alexander of the Simplicity Institute, argues that the transition to degrowth must happen first at the local and community level, which will then influence the government to roll out reform to further support the movement. This bottom-to-top initiative means the transition can start anytime, anywhere. Transition towns, community projects that work on self-sufficiency and sustainability, are sprouting up across the world and are good examples of how the transition to degrowth could be realized. The degrowth movement likely won’t be something that swoops in and happens all at once, but rather slowly takes hold at the community level and builds.
The main argument in support of the contemporary growth system suggests that as technology improves and we move toward renewable energy, we will be able to “decouple” economic growth from environmental impact. Decoupling involves relying on efficiency gains in order to have both economic growth and environmental conservation. You can have your cake and eat it too, according to this economic reasoning. The problem is that efficiency gains are used to increase production, rather than reducing impact. Even if a product is made more efficiently and uses less resources, if production continues to grow then so will environmental impact.
In order for economic activity to remain within ecological limits, absolute decoupling must occur. This is where ecological resource use declines in absolute terms over time, which is necessary if the argument for green growth is to hold true. However, the trouble is that there is currently little evidence of any country having accomplished this absolute decoupling feat. The few countries that have been able to stabilize resource usage have increasingly moved away from domestic manufacturing in favor of importing goods. This just moves the environmental impact from one place to another without actually reducing it overall. This has been called the “Achilles’ heel” of green growth and is the basis for pro-degrowth arguments.
It is entirely possible that new technologies created over the next few decades could make absolute decoupling, and thus green growth, feasible. At the same time it is incredibly risky to wait and see if that will happen, all the while continuing to damage our invaluable ecosystem. Those advocating for a transition to degrowth are erring on the side of caution by offering a path to sustainability now, rather than hedging our bets on a future solution. The core of the degrowth ideal questions why we pursue endless growth and if it actually benefits us. Degrowthers are trying to find an alternative to the current system that is able to protect the environment while still allowing us to live satisfying lives. It's a delicate line to walk, but it’s important to acknowledge the need for such an alternative. It's unclear whether this movement will take hold in countries like the U.S. anytime soon, but it's explicit that our current trajectory is not infinitely sustainable. How much longer will we continue to roll the dice on environmental health for the sake of economic gains?
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