“Degrowth is the planned reduction of energy and resource use designed to bring the economy back into balance with the living world in a way that reduces inequality and improves human wellbeing.”
It’s a mouthful. And full of pitfalls. There are plenty of books and podcasts out there explaining degrowth better than I could. Also academic papers, case studies like Bhutan measuring happiness index instead of GDP and associations like Degrowth Aotearoa.
What Degrowth seems: Regulations by government to change reliance on GDP, reward reductions of emissions & extraction, stimulate innovation.
What Degrowth really is: Self-realisation to become a contributing & fulfilled human, casting aside the personal economic output and $ worthiness, trendy, pillaging, self-serving NIMBY.
The Blue Zones are the places on earth where people live long and happy lives, much longer than the high achievers in the GDP charts. One of the patterns of these places is the community, every individual is embedded in the social fabric. People have no stress, found their purpose, and are giving back to the community.
How can we start to degrow from the ground up?
If you are reading this you are already on the way. You have taken the red pill and are going down the rabbit hole (towards a blue zone). And just like Alice you’ll come out changed.
Every business needs their accounts done and taxes filed. Profit & Loss plus Balance sheet and a few notes make up the Financial Statements.
Project Drawdown has calculated enormous future savings for different solutions on a global uptake to reverse climate change. A similar process should be part of a yearly accounting review, now that Chartered Accountants Associations and other peak bodies have joined climate charters. Let’s wait for some action in 2030 or so.
Just thinking about the increase in freight this year should make any business revisit the ordering and buying process as part of a long-term plan. And it needs to be big picture, not just swapping out parts or even greenwashing certain areas. Creating a healthy business to heal the world.
So this is how it begins, one person, one business at a time. Taking responsibility because the last 30 years we just partied. There are climate veterans out there who have been talking about this needed change for decades. Now it’s up to everyone. Throw more stones to create more ripples. Let’s start. Let’s create some better myths, ditch “the economy needs to grow” BS.
New Myths for Humanity from Alina Siegfried’s The Future Untold
Using stories to change human behaviour and create ten new myths:
From Me to We - we are all connected
From Tree to Me - what we do to nature we do to ourselves
From Sustainability to Regeneration - repair what we have harmed
From Stuff to Enough - being content with having enough
From Scarcity to Abundance - right systems to thrive
From Competition to Collaboration - working together for greater possibilities
From Human Doings to Human Beings - separate doing and non-doing
From West to the Rest - indigenous knowledge shows there are more ways of knowing
From Mankind to Humankind - ditch the patriarchal structures
From Now for Forevermore - Embracing very long term thinking