As a manager for "Bios funeral directors", Dr. phil. Haimo Schulz Meinen, ex-journalist, teacher and writer, talks about the steps that were necessary to relieve the planet from the human objective of growth. In fact, "Bios Funeral" appears to be a very profitable start up and worthy of investment. After a short moment of surprise we finally published the interview for the Stream towards Degrowth.
First of all, their calendars were counting upward. All of them. Stupid. As if time was something that could be amounted, numbered or summarized. In the year christians called 2015 a movement starting in Germany implemented an oppositional calendar. We count from 50 downwards. Now we are in the year 35, meaning we have another 35 summers and winters to 0. The same applied to the muslim, jewish, hindu, or buddhist calendar. These imaginations of progress have been turned upside down. (490 characters)
The alliance of rich, wealthy and less wealthy but still commanding were the major problem. All of them knew that their privileged positions, access to fresh water, heat, and to artificially produced alimentation was basically depending on their corruption, their alignment to the crusade against the independently naturally grown. Although there always were some heretics calling themselves „degrowth“ activists, the vast majority was and kept aligned. (454 characters)
„Bios intelligent decline“, a branch of „Bios Bestattungen“/ „Bios funeral directors“, was the first to sell letters of indulgence. Following the example of the roman-catholic church in medieval times “Bios intelligent decline” confronted everybody with his or her personal balance of crimes against animals, nature, and the poor. Possible death penalty in view, a growing number of people decided voluntarily to buy such a letter of indulgence. With the money, ground and its defense was financed. (498 characters)
Well-being means that no species is held captive or gets tortured. No species has exclusive first-choice rights or “possesses” a certain area, ground, or region. No species is entitled to populate all five continents. Nobody should burn fossil coal, gas or oil just to make a living in cold latitudes. Dismantling the historically given masses of industry, infrastructure, and population step by step in the end will enable a well-being for few humans with no possession, scattered in warm regions. (497 characters)
The organization “Rewilding Europe” (NL) pointed to areas in Europe where the retreat already had started. The first managed areas were Western Iberia, Eastern Carpathians, Danube Delta, Southern Carpathians, Velebit (Croatia) and Central Apennines. In Argentina and Chile other areas had been secured against industrial growth and exploitation greed, similarly in other continents. For the first time in 200 years of industrialization history, some of the reaching ranges began to shrink. (490 characters)
For the third year in a row, the Degrowth Summer School is being held on the Climate Camp in the Rhineland. It runs from the 18th to 23rd of August. Just 10 days before the start of the Summer School the foundation „Stiftung Umwelt und Entwicklung Nordrhein-Westfalen“ has cancelled our funding. The reason they‘ve given us: The Summer School takes place too close to actions of civil disobedience...
It is great to see an attempt to put degrowth ideas into a straightforward form that can be taken into political debate. However, the selection of points is critical and I am not convinced that this is the right selection. I'll just take issue with two: 1. Zero bank-debts “No bank should lend more than its deposits. Banks cannot be allowed to create money out of thin air, while all the ...
The Degrowth Summer School 2015 took place at the climate camp in the Rhineland. The Rhineland is one of the biggest lignite mining regions, the biggest source of CO2 in Europe. To protest against climate-damaging industry and resource extraction, different movements which have a lot in common and share ambitions get together and work on alternatives and a social transformation. A video by Raut...