In the past year, we have launched a survey worldwide for mapping degrowth realities in the world. 114 organisations answered to the call, with nearly 3,000 active people engaged, mostly located in Europe but also in North and South America, Philippines, Tunisia, Turkey, etc. On August 20th 2018, some members from each of them met for the first time in Freetown Christiania (Copenhagen, Denmark). We exchanged good practices around ecological sustainability and social equity, discussed about the future of the planet, and initiated several international working groups (activists and practitioners; researchers; politics; artists; collective actions; communication; education; etc.) that later met throughout the 6th international degrowth conference, which took place in Malmo, Sweden (August 21-25). Since then, such groups have been working in order to provide opportunities for many people in the world to engage in the degrowth movement locally as well as to diffuse degrowth (theoretically and practically) in their own habitats. As an example, on the 1st June 2019 will be launched the “Global Degrowth Day - Good Life for All”, with multiple actions all over the world (further information will be available soon). Everyone is welcome to join and animate such groups (you can find attached the call for activism and research groups)! You can find the map of the first degrowth realities in the world here. In the future the map will be automated. Until then, if your organisation wants to be mapped, please fill the survey. At the same time, you can find an index to get in contact with the groups, as well as a set of tools for communication and collaboration on https://degrowth.net/. For further information about how to get involved, please visit https://degrowth.net/act or write to activism@groups.degrowth.net The Support Group of the international degrowth conferences (pro tempore facilitator of this process)
In a recent article for Forbes, Corbin K Barthold makes several allegations against the idea of degrowth without having a clear understanding of the concept. He also includes some quotations - originally reported in a different article (by Aaron Timms) - from a vibrant classroom discussion which took place at the 2019 Degrowth Summer School hosted by the Institute of Environmental Scienc...
There’s lots of talk recently about the wealth of Jeff Bezos. There are maps comparing his wealth to entire countries, a “You are Jeff Bezos” game where you can spend his money on different things - like paying their fair-share of taxes, and a graphic that puts his wealth in perspective. A recurring point is that most people simply cannot fathom the amount of money he has. The number is $150...
Green growth advocates praise resource efficiency for its potential to incentivize the economy and lower its ecological impact. On the other hand, the Jevons Paradox, describes multiple situations (or rebound effects) in which increased efficiency leads to further consumption (either direct or indirect) which offsets the initial ecological benefits achieved. In this piece, I join this discussio...
