Do Less, Live More

By: M. Gilchrist

What is degrowth and how can it help save our planet?

Degrowth is a concept created by economists saying that decreasing our economy and production will help us live better lifestyles and improve the environment. But how can this happen and why might it be our only option for the continuation of civilization? Researchers from MIT predicted that our hunger for everlasting industrial growth would lead to the destruction of civilization. 
Many economists believe that economic growth is both vital and good for the world, but degrowth is the concept of decreasing. Degrowth is a radical economic idea which includes shrinking economies instead of expanding them, to use less of the world’s limited resources. It was first proposed by André Gorz in 1972, a French philosopher. The idea is driven by trying to help us live more sustainable lives. Instead of focusing on expanding the economy, degrowth focuses on making people happier and healthier. 

Experts believe that GDP (gross domestic product) is key for measuring a country's advancement and progress, however other economists think that a country's progress shouldn’t be measured by its rate of production. What would we have to change to achieve this method of diminishing our economy? Firstly, we would have to focus on overall equality. This means instead of having extremely rich people and extremely poor people with a large gap of income, we would share what we have instead of extracting more precious materials from the planet. To do this we would have to create a universal basic income, a shorter working week and job guarantees. It suggests countries with a larger income to stop economic production and growth, while countries with a smaller income to continue growing, until both reach a meeting point. Furthermore, it would include the countries producing necessary things that will help improve people’s lifestyles. Instead of producing automobiles, producing public transport and the expansion of renewable energy sources. 
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Can degrowth have a negative instead of a positive impact on the world?
Economists have argued that the pandemic showed the real outcome of degrowth in action. In the pandemic many shops and businesses had to close due to COVID-19, for world health and protection, which meant that people were buying less. This made the economy unintentionally deflate, and caused the biggest economic downturn since the Great Depression in the 1930s. This made the world economy decrease by 4.3%. However, degrowth economists argue that it was quite different from the concept as it was a unplanned event and even stated that the cause of the economic downturn was because of our dependence on economic improvement. COVID caused unemployment and increased poverty, and economists refuse to believe that is how degrowth would impact our world. Degrowth is not the concept of removing individuals' income, but proportioning it throughout the population equally. 

Greta Thumberg, a Swedish climate activist, said, “we are in the beginning of a mass extinction, and all you can talk about is money and fairytales of eternal growth” at the UN climate summit in New York in September of 2019. It has been researched that many people believe that one of the biggest problems in their country is climate change. To keep global temperatures below 1.5 degrees celsius we would have to completely stop carbon emissions by 2050, which would mean a great change in our daily lifestyles. During the pandemic there was the biggest decrease in carbon emissions on record. It increased hopes on the possibility of having a possible low carbon emission lifestyle. The UN has created policies to help decrease carbon emissions and invest in renewable energy sources as: solar panels and wind turbines, focusing on green growth instead of degrowth. 
The world is slowly trying to improve and help the environment, but it is still important that we share and spread how climate change is impacting our planet. Degrowth is only one of the many ideas of trying to create a green and sustainable lifestyle for everyone.