#thelimitstogrowth — Public Fediverse posts

Non-Fiction Trilogy of sorts - "#TheLimitsToGrowth; #PowerLimitsAndProspectsForHumanSurvival; and #EarthForAllASurvivalGuideForHumanity.

So, my copy of "The Limits To Growth" is a first edition from 1972, which I bought in a used book store in 1980. Whoever owned it before ("Denison") highlighted a bunch of stuff (the old school highlighters that don't fade), and put zig-zag lines around this paragraph: "In any finite system there must be constraints that can act to stop exponential growth. These constraints are negative feedback loops. The negative loops become stronger and stronger as growth approches the ultimate limit, or carrying capacity, of the system's environment. Finally, the negative loops balance or dominate the positive ones, and growth comes to an end. In the world system the negative feedback loops involve such processes as pollution of the environment, depletion of nonrenewable resources, and famine."

Fast forward to 2021, where one of the Limits To Growth authors, #DennisMeadows, describes #RichardHeinberg's "Power - Limits And Prospects for Human Survival" as "a powerful new way of understanding the historic rise and probable fall of our species. It is an impressive, sweeping, and thought-provoking narrative." Heinberg talks about how we got to where we are today (lots of history), but also offers solutions (like #Agroecology and #Degrowth).

Finally, "#EarthForAll - A Survival Guide For Humanity" -- which was a report to the #ClubOfRome, and a 50 year follow-up to Limits To Growth. This book is where I learned about the #GiantLeapScenario that we so need to survive as a species on a viable planet.

Limits To Growth influenced my thinking at a young age. "Power" explains how we went wrong, and "Earth For All" gives me hope for the future.

#Bookstodon #AmReading #History #DeGrowth #PowerStructures #ABetterWorldIsPossible #SolarPunkSunday #Earth4All #GiantLeap

Excerpt from "What is #Solarpunk Everything you need to know about solarpunk, how it connects to #ClimateJustice and how to get involved with the movement" by Andrew Sage, published January 16, 2023:

How does solarpunk relate to #degrowth?

"The overlap between solarpunk and the degrowth movement can be found in the understanding that #capitalism’s built-in imperative to grow, expand, exploit, and profit endlessly cannot continue in the context of a #FinitePlanet.

"The degrowth movement is about rejecting the #GlobalCapitalist system’s pursuit of endless growth and advocating for a world based in care, solidarity, and autonomy in which our social and ecological well-being are at the forefront.

"Degrowth means #ClimateJustice and a good life for all within #PlanetaryBoundaries.

"Although aspects of solarpunk and degrowth may benefit from particular government policies, these movements cannot rely on the state. The state is structurally unsuited to ecological restoration, and can even potentially operate as an obstacle.

"The inherently violent and ecocidal character that has marked states from their earliest inception and up to their present incarnations does not lend itself to our liberation. Top-down approaches have consistently failed where local approaches to #rewilding have succeeded.

"The solarpunk movement emphasises local power, local organising, and local #autonomy because the world we envision cannot be imposed from above.

"A forest is more than its trees; ecological restoration requires intimate knowledge with the local nuances of the land, the water cycle, and the network of microorganisms, fungi, plants, and animals that sustain it.

"Our planet will be healed on the #grassroots level. We will need to circumvent the impositions of those in power through direct action to bring a solarpunk world into being."

https://shado-mag.com/all/what-is-solarpunk/
#AntiCapitalism #Degrowth #TheLimitsToGrowth #Sustainability #Ecosystem #NatureBasedLearning #NatureObservations #SharingEconomy