In my view degrowth is required, either we do it on our own or climate change will degrow for us. It’s necessary not only to combat climate change but also ecological destruction. Jason Hickel is maybe the most well-known author on the topic, though it’s a much broader field.
To be clear, degrowth is not a form of primitivism, it’s not genocidal or Malthusian. It’s simply the concept that especially/primarily in the global north/imperial core production and consumption must be curbed, we are simply using more resources than can be supported by the planet. Planned obsolescence and unchecked consumption cannot continue. Those living in areas with sufficient productive ability need to shift production towards things that are necessary to allow those in the global south the ability to achieve standards of living available in the global north.
I know it’s controversial among some communists, so I wanted to see what lemmygrad thinks about the concept.
Personally I don’t have an opinion on degrowth per se for two reasons: first, I haven’t done sufficient research; second, it seems like a lot of degrowthers have different ideas about what it means. I will say that at this point, we’ll probably have to do with less for several decades until we can sufficiently replace all ways of modern life with green alternatives. For example, green airplanes are decades off from being equivalent in price to carbon-emitting planes, so in the medium-term, prices will have to increase and flights will become less frequent. Is that degrowth?