Overcoming our climate crisis means accepting that the predicament we’re in is complex; it cannot be addressed by reformist measures such as carbon taxes and/or trading, renewable energy technologies, or ‘greening’ capitalism alone, or, indeed, together.
In order to address a predicament one must first understand its root causes. In this case, the answer is unpalatable to many and certainly politically unappealing. We are going to have to fundamentally change our way of life, and alter the very purpose of our global economy. If growth is what’s responsible for climate change, then growth has to go.
Here’s why, and how…
The following is adapted from SHIFT editor Kari McGregor’s presentation at this year’s Australian Climate Action Summit.Part 1:
My mission is far more difficult than the selling of spurious solutions that only require you to open your wallet or shuffle your cash around. My mission is to get to the root of the climate crisis, as only when we address the root cause of our crisis do we stand any chance at all of dealing with it. Anything that doesn’t tackle the root of the crisis is just window dressing.
But to tackle the root cause of the climate crisis means I have to slay a couple of sacred cows. Or at least maim them. Depending on your mood I may only succeed in stunning them. We’ll see.
Those sacred cows I’d like to maim – in the gentlest possible manner, of course are:
- Economic growth – sacred to all in the industrially developed world
- Renewable energy – sacred to the mainstream climate movement
Part 2:
Although it may appear to some that our climate crisis is the result of the evil machinations of profit-motivated corporations and Wall Street Bankers, the inconvenient truth is that even these beneficiaries of climate chaos are powerless to yank the reins on its cause: economic growth.
We’ve scaled a debt mountain in order to achieve our current level of civilizational complexity, and it’s thanks to the burning of copious amounts of fossil fuels that we’ve come so far. Much as we may not wish to give up the way of life such reckless plunder of the biosphere has awarded us, we frankly have no choice but to move away from this growth paradigm. ‘Green Growth’ is simply a reassuring lie peddled by pro-growth prophets who promise you can have your cake and eat it.
Part 3:
The pro-renewable energy fervor of the mainstream climate movement is appealing for its promise of a technologically advanced fantasy future in which we can go on commodifying the Earth’s resources forever without having to worry about the environment. Once we’ve cut carbon emissions from the electricity sector we’re good, right? It is frustrating indeed that the mainstream climate movement approaches the issue with such linear vision. We ignore the root of the climate crisis to our own detriment, going about adding renewables to our energy mix rather than using them to replace fossil fuelled energy so that we can continue to grow our economy.
With renewable energy posing a spurious solution to the climate crisis it is necessary to give attention to the root cause of the climate crisis: economic growth.
Part 4:
The climate crisis, correctly diagnosed, is the overshoot of one of the nine planetary boundaries that safeguard the health of the biosphere that supports the human enterprise. The cause of this overshoot is correctly identified as the extraction and processing of natural resources and dumping of waste at a rate beyond our planet’s natural rate of renewal and recycling – all in pursuit of endless economic growth.
With the root cause of the crisis identified as our relentless pursuit of infinite growth on our inconveniently finite planet, it makes sense for the climate movement to engage with the concept of degrowth in order to properly address our complex predicament.