A Degrowth Manifesto i: overstepping planetary boundaries
In the year 2000, when I was born, the amount of atmospheric carbon dioxide had reached 370 parts per million (ppm), up from pre-industrial levels of around 280ppm. Humans had known about anthropogenic climate change for several decades. The threats posed by increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide - including sea level rise, food insecurity and desertification - had been identified decades before. Given that danger, you might have thought that by 2021, I would live in a world that had averted environmental crisis. You would be wrong: the situation has only worsened. Last March, when I turned 20, atmospheric carbon hovered around 415ppm. Understanding how we arrived at this point requires us to look back in time: to the industrial revolution, when human activity on this planet dramatically shifted. Industrialisation set in motion the conditions for unprecedented levels of affluence, mobility and personal freedoms. To fuel such growth required energy, and lots of it. Humanity found this energy in the form of fossil fuels. Since then, the extraordinar y growth in our society’s economic wealth
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by ellie stephenson
has been powered by unrestrained exploitation of the natural world. Our economies are leveraged on the promise of fossil fuels extraction. We show no sign of reigning in our appetite for emitting greenhouse gases: Australia’s most lucrative exports are fossil fuels. This trates
brief history a confronting
illustruth:
our way of life and our prosperity is built on overstepping planetary boundaries. Planetary boundaries measure environmental limits beyond which humans cannot thrive - when we overstep the Earth’s ability to adapt to environmental change, we increase the risk of crisis for humanity. We cannot have infinite economic growth on a finite planet. Our best option is degrowth: a controlled slowing and shrinking of developed economies.
ii: facing disaster
The consequences of climate change are already beginning to unfold. Recent years have seen raging bushfires, storms and heatwaves. We know that extreme weather patterns will only worsen. Global heating will worsen the spread of tropical diseases and wipe out many habitats. Oceans will acidify, decimating ocean biodiversity and the communities that depend on it. We know that these effects will be worse for the most disadvantaged communities. The Global South that will be most vulnerable to the destruction caused by the Global North. Countries which are already facing
food security pressures will face catastrophic droughts and crop failure. Two thirds of Bangladesh’s land area lies below 5m above sea level, making it highly susceptible to sea level rise; the same issue threatens many Pacific Islands. Worst of all, climate change could reach a tipping point, after which feedback loops are activated and the climate crisis worsens beyond our ability to reverse it. This means we need to act now, and radically. With the imperative to act established, why is degrowth the only option for change?
Attempts to decouple growth from emissions are doomed to fail for a number of reasons. First, increases in efficiency often encourage people to use more resources, as it is cheaper to do so. This is known as the rebound effect, where the gains created by better efficiency are lost when people consume more carelessly. Secondly, regardless of the efficiency of production, its massive scale means we still pollute at unacceptable levels. Data from the International Energy Agency shows that consumers are consistently choosing larger vehicles, houses with bigger floor plans, and more electronic devices, out-
