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1. whats_+(OP)[view] [source] 2023-09-03 18:30:24
Ah I think we agree, then! My association with "de-growth" is that it means stopping or reversing GDP growth in order to reduce research consumption. Some degrowth people think that we can continue to increase quality of life in ways that the GDP metric doesn't capture, while others think that quality of life needs to be reduced to preserve the environment.

I think we agree then about "alternative growth" or "eco-growth" where GDP and resource consumption are decoupled, where GDP continues to increase while environmental impact simultaneously falls. Most wealthy countries are already actually at that point already - CO2 emissions are falling while they still grow (adjusted for offshore emissions). It's an important point to me because the degrowth people I've encountered are kinda defeatist and I don't think will be able to grow a coalition, but decoupling the environment from growth is eminently doable.

Noah Smith is my main influence on this topic: https://www.noahpinion.blog/p/people-are-realizing-that-degr... https://www.noahpinion.blog/p/degrowth-we-cant-let-it-happen...

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