Read the full version of the open letter here
The current economic downturn is not Degrowth, even if some people misleadingly call it that. Degrowth means ensuring everybody's basic needs are met by transforming our societies. With policies in place to do that, we could shut down much of the economy for months and everyone would still have enough food, shelter, and healthcare. In a Degrowth society, with relocalized economies, a pandemic like COVID-19 would be less likely, would spread less, and would cause less suffering. The economic crisis triggered by the pandemic is related to our dependence on growth. All interested individuals and organizations are invited to engage in an open debate to re-envision economy and society in the wake of the corona crisis. From May 29 to June 1, the (now online) international conference “Degrowth Vienna 2020: Strategies for a Social Ecological Transformation” will be held, and the Global Degrowth Day on June 6th.Catalan Croatian Danish Dutch French German Greek Hungarian Italian Korean Mandarin Portuguese Russian Slovenian Spanish Swedish Turkish
More than a year ago the 4th International Degrowth Conference for Ecological Sustainability and Social Equity took place in Leipzig. Now the jubilee video "Metamorphoses" is available with english subtitles: Metamorphosen [Metamorphoses] from Marc Menningmann on Vimeo. At the opening of the Degrowth Conference 2014 the sound-artist Pablo Paolo Kilian preformed his piece of music "Metamo...
By Lasse Thiele Is degrowth only conceivable in the context of “oversaturated” industrial societies while the global “South” remains dependent on growth? In two installments, this article questions such assumptions. In this first part it introduces positions critical of development which refuse to adopt the Western model of prosperity; the second part will focus on the analysis of these positi...
By Giorgos Kallis The ecomodernist manifesto is the latest and most visionary document under the auspices of the ‘post-environmentalist’ think-tank the Breakthrough Institute. I first heard the Institute’s founders Ted Nordhaus and Michael Shellenberger speak at Berkeley some eight years ago, presenting their case for the “death of environmentalism” (hence the ‘post’ prefix). For half of the p...