as an aside in the latest Trillbillies episode Terrence said that we need degrowth communism and it got me wondering what that means to everyone. to hopefully stifle any silly debates i’ll clarify that i’m talking about the West, not underdeveloped/overexploited nations in the Global South.
an end to oil drilling, gas extraction, and coal mining will obviously be necessary to stop climate change. how much modern technology can we replicate without relying on those things or other ecologically violent resource extraction? what does an agriculture system that doesn’t rely on petrochem-derived fertilizers and herbicides look like? how do we repair the immense damage that’s already been done?
i’d really appreciate some book recommendations on this topic as well as everyone’s thoughts
Regardless of whether the future economy is Marxist (owned by the workers) or capitalist (owned by moneyed interests), we need to consume less.
We need economic growth. Great, let’s develop the productive forces, I’m on board. But by the DPSIR model, economic growth will put pressures on natural systems. Now the quantity of pressure depends on population, amount of consumption, and the nature of technology used to feedclothhouse people. My point is, aside from the communism-capitalism debate, we need to have the high-impact-tech-vs-low-impact-tech debate.
Jason Hickel’s stuff is good. I was surprisingly disappointed with ER Schumacher’s Small Is Beautiful, which was highly recommended.
Jason Hickel’s name is so close to Jackson Hinckle. I get so confused sometimes. Jason Hickel is the good one, and he’s very good.