Samuel Alexander Simplicity Institute

 How much is enough?  Enough for what?  In what does the ‘good life’ consist?  How can we flourish within safe planetary limits without impoverishing others?  Wellbeing  Sustainability  Social justice  What is to be done?  How is one to be?  ‘The inner crisis of our civilisation must be resolved if the outer civilisation is to be effectively met’. – Lewis Mumford  ‘This time, like all times, is a very good one, if we but know what to do with it’ R.W. Emerson

 CRITIQUE OF EXISTING SYSTEM  The growth model of progress and consumer culture  Limits to growth  Can technology save us?  ENVISIONING ALTERNATIVES WAY TO LIVE  Degrowth to a steady state economy  What would life be like in a degrowth economy?  A simpler way  TRANSITION STRATEGIES  How to get from where we are to where we’d like to be?  Wurruk’an

 Ecological overshoot, climate, and biodiversity loss  Poverty amidst plenty  Overpopulation  Almost every individual seems to want more  Every nation seems to want growth  But the health of the planet is in decline  Is ‘more’ a legitimate goal for the richest nations?  What would happen if we globalised affluence?  On our one and only planet – how much is ‘enough’?  How much is too much?

 I = Ecological impact  P = Population  A = Affluence (or per capita income)  T = Technology (or efficiency)  We could add B = behaviour (I = BPAT)  Modern environmentalism seems to put all its faith it technology (T). Why?  Reducing population is taboo  Reducing affluence is unpopular  Behaviour change is inconvenient and challenging  But don’t worry, technology will save us!

 What happens if we actually get what we are aiming for in terms of growth?  ‘The greatest shortcoming of the human race is our inability to understand the exponential function’  Al Bartlett

 Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is a measure of the total monetary value of all goods and services produced within a nation over a given period. But it doesn’t distinguish between production and consumption that contributes to social or environmental wellbeing and that which does not. “GDP measures everything except that which makes life worthwhile” – Robert Kennedy We are living in an age of ‘uneconomic growth’.

 Prehistory – the original affluent society?  Buddha  Diogenes  The Stoics  John Ruskin  William Morris  Henry Thoreau  Gandhi  Counter-cultures  Voluntary simplicity, ecovillages, permaculture, etc.  Growth scepticism (steady state economics, degrowth, etc)

 Degrowth means ‘planned economic contraction’ of the energy and resource demands of developed or overdeveloped nations.  Degrowth, being planned contraction, is to be distinguished from recession, which is unplanned contraction.  The poorest nations may need to develop their economic capacities in some form to attain a dignified material standard of living, but eventually they too will need to move to a steady state.  Degrowth needs to be driven primarily ‘from below’ at the grassroots and community levels  We need to embrace degrowth for:  Environmental and energy reasons  We should embrace degrowth for:  Social justice reasons  We should want to embrace degrowth for:  Personal and social wellbeing

Decarbonisation means localisation of economy, more cycling, walking, public transport Renewable energy means energy descent Energy descent means less production and consumption Reduced work in formal economy Increased self-sufficiency (food, water, DIY, etc.) Increased sharing, barter, gift economy Home becomes place of sustainable production, not unsustainable consumption Reskill (sewing, preserving, construction, etc.) Appropriate technology Retrofit the suburbs on permaculture principles Frugality and moderation in material living standards A more humble aesthetic of sustainability Participatory democracy

Degrowth will need to be driven ‘from below’ at the grassroots and community level (at least at first) Personal lifestyles of voluntary simplicity Community action based on transition towns, permaculture, etc. But we must also acknowledge the social and structural constrains that make it very hard to live lives of sustainable consumption We can’t just focus on personal and household action – we also need to restructure society and monetary system When/if the social movement is strong enough, top down revolutionary reform could assist greatly… but culture is not yet ready for what is required Also, perhaps the change will arrive through crisis rather than design. The challenge will be to make the best of our crises.

No, limitless growth on a finite planet is utopian! But we do need a vision of what an appropriate response to global challenges would look like There is not degrowth economy yet, but fragments of a degrowth economy are bubbling under the surface Degrowth is in our interests, so no need to rely on altruistic saints