Eco-economic Decoupling
Eco-nomics ... Environmental protection ... The Commons &
- 'Smart Growth', Bringing Together Eco-Economics, Justice & Ecology
GreenPolicy360 Siterunner: In 1995/96, as a principal figure in the formation of the US Green Party, I proposed a strategic plan at the 1995 national Green gathering in New Mexico and this led to my work over the next five years as a Green platform chair. The drafting of the founding platform included these words I wrote and I'll recall them here, KV #10 and especially "Quality of Life" from the Key Values and 'Call to Action' introduction to the platform.
The intent was to move the Green Platform beyond traditional orthodox economics. In the 1970s, at the New School in New York and with Congressman George E. Brown, I had begun to address environmental economics, the threats of climate and environmental disruption. In the presidential debate and campaign of 1992, when your GreenPolicy siterunner worked as a senior advisor for Gov. Jerry Brown, the Democratic party was at a crossroads as we advanced our Brown platform in contrast to the neo-liberal economic proposals of the Clinton campaign.
As I've described elsewhere, I carried over progressive economic ideas from the Brown campaign, and many other sources, to add depth and breadth to the new Green platform. The following platform language is, in effect, the beginning of addressing a new "Eco-nomics" and how a social-economic vision could become a reality. Going beyond GNP/GDP, going to environmental/worker/civil and human rights and standards, a 'quality of life' vision, was the goal. Here is how I first put the ideas for in the founding GREEN PARTY PLATFORM 2000 Green Platform of the US, a document that now resides with the Federal Election Commission and served as a go-forward statement proposed also as a model to advance an international 'Green Charter' to represent nearly 100 national Green parties.
10. FUTURE FOCUS AND SUSTAINABILITY
Our actions and policies should be motivated by long-term goals. We seek to protect valuable natural resources, safely disposing of or “unmaking” all waste we create, while developing a sustainable economics that does not depend on continual expansion for survival. We must counterbalance the drive for short-term profits by assuring that economic development, new technologies, and fiscal policies are responsible to future generations who will inherit the results of our actions.
QUALITY OF LIFE Our overall goal is not merely to survive, but to share lives that are truly worth living. We believe the quality of our individual lives is enriched by the quality of all of our lives. We encourage everyone to see the dignity and intrinsic worth in all of life, and to take the time to understand and appreciate themselves, their community and the magnificent beauty of this world.
Over the past two plus decades, this debate has ripened and dealing with the limitations and excesses (externalities) of traditional, orthodox economics has become literally a question of survival. The debate over future economic systems is here and now. Business-as-usual with it adverse impacts on quality of life and sustainability of life bring the question of economic growth and costs to all political parties.
The Greens were 'out in front', as it is said, but now the reality checks that Green politics brought forward are recognized widely.
Growth is linked, "coupled", to environmental destruction.
Signals, warnings, data and science are demonstrating clear and present danger.
The time for strategies and actions to protect Quality of Life are here and now.
More discussion of 'de-coupling' and demand for environmental protection enabling sustainable eco-nomic growth --
Jevons Paradox
“Well-known and widely studied phenomena such as Jevons’ paradox...”
In economics, the Jevons paradox (sometimes called the Jevons effect) occurs when technological progress or government policy increases the efficiency with which a resource is used (reducing the amount necessary for any one use), but the rate of consumption of that resource rises due to increasing demand. The Jevons paradox is perhaps the most widely known paradox in environmental economics. However, governments and environmentalists generally assume that efficiency gains will lower resource consumption, ignoring the possibility of the paradox arising.
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Paths to 'Eco-nomics as a BIOS Strategy'
The big, long picture is quite unequivocal. Global use of material resources has increased tenfold from 1900 to present, from less than 10 Gigatonnes (Gt) per year to roughly 88.6 Gt in 2017. In the decades since 1970, the rate of growth has actually accelerated, not slowed, as consumption has more than tripled.
Meanwhile, only 9–12 percent of materials are recycled, and about half of all resource use is used to provide energy in a broad sense. The other half is used for infrastructure such as buildings, transport, machines and consumer goods.
The BIOS authors find that there are certainly clear cases, limited to specific economic sectors or particular geographical regions, where we can find evidence of resource use seeming to diminish while GDP grows. But this is always linked to deepening of resource use elsewhere. The problem is that there is “no evidence of ongoing, global absolute resource decoupling.”
The situation is serious. The scientists attempt to identify what genuine decoupling needs to look like, and then seek to discover whether there is any evidence that it is happening. They conclude that there is simply no viable scenario for decoupling:
“For absolute resource decoupling to make sense as a global goal, we would need a scenario where, in ca. 30 years (ca. indicates Circa – and signifies "approximately"), the economy produces 2.6 times more GDP out of every ton of material used, under conditions where material use diminishes ca. 40 percent globally. Currently, no trends corresponding to this scenario are observable and, to our knowledge, no concrete proposals with such a level of decoupling have been presented.”
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Environmental Science & Policy
- Decoupling for ecological sustainability: A categorisation and review of research
T.Vadéna V.LähdeaA.MajavaaP.JärvensivuabT.ToivanenacE.HakalaadJ.T.Eronenae
Highlights
"We reviewed 179 articles on decoupling published between 1990–2019" • The papers present evidence of impact decoupling, mainly between CO2 and GDP. • No evidence of economy-wide, national/international resource decoupling. • No evidence of the kind of decoupling needed for ecological sustainability.
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Eco-nomics, Greening the Economy
Eco-nomics Key Takeaway
As Jason Hickel of the London School of Economics has written:
“Over and over again, empirical data shows that it is possible to achieve high levels of human welfare without high levels of GDP with significantly less pressure on the planet. How? By sharing income more fairly and investing in universal health care, education, and other public goods. The evidence is clear: When it comes to delivering long, healthy, flourishing lives for all, this is what counts — this is what progress looks like.”
What wrong with 'Degrowth'? Problems beginning with the name itself
GreenPolicy360: As Jason Hickel and others push a campaign for what is sometimes called "Degrowth", the notion of Degrowth brings political baggage. To de-grow is a non-concept. What doesn't grow? How and why should growing be stopped? Or, to be more cognizant of what is seemingly being said with this 'degrowth' phrase, shouldn't a more reality-based term be put forward with which to organize do-able economic development. Wouldn't a 'smart economics' be more appropriate, more realistic, more do-able?
Think about it, but GreenPolicy360 cannot sign on to a 'Degrowth' or 'De-growth' campaign.... we are visionary, we are about 'living earth' systems, growing is part of living... and smart development, intelligent decision-making policy is one of the core concepts of 'Eco-nomics', a school of thought that we have been debating for decades, beginning with the 'Limits to Growth' discussions and debates of the early 1970s. 'Overconsumption', 'Planetary Boundaries', 'Ecological Economics', a 'New Economy Movement' and multiple other ideas/concepts/schools of thought/taglines are now in play and in our opinion, 'Degrowth' is an outlier in this evolving attempt to chart a course that resonates and is realistic in finding viable support among political groups, cultures and nations.
Jason Hickel
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Eco-economics | Eco-nomics
References
Eco-Economic Policies, Proposals, Campaigns, Ideas
Keywords for Creative Economics
Affluenza; Compulsive buying; Consumerism; eCooperative Economics; Ecological Economics; Eco-nomics; 'Freedom Dividend'; 'Human-centered Capitalism'; Limits-to-Growth; Quality of Life; UBI/Universal Basic Income
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Flexible work-schedules / Four-day work week
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Universal Basic Income
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eCooperative Economics
Moving toward Co-operations instead of corporations ...
Corporations, as we have learned over decades, too often have top-down decision-making structures and imperatives to choose profit over all choices. Executive decisions are bound, executives hands are tied by legal obligations and terms like ‘fiduciary responsibility’ to shareholders, owners, to ‘maximize profit’. But profit is only one of a number of responsibilities of a smart eco-nomics. Decisions have to also take into account other shareholders – the workers who make the business possible, the sustainability of the business, the health of the community. It’s a connected world we know. We need a new eCO-Cooperative Economics and the Bread and Roses Party is here to talk about the future, now.
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@GreenPolicy360
'Eco-nomics', a paradigm in development
Beyond GDP to GDP+ Quality of Life
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Developing 'eCooperative Economics'
Visiting with John De Graaf
Bread & Roses 2020 Campaign
July 2, 2020
WE COMPETE FOR WAGES, WHEN WE SHOULD RESTRUCTURING THE ECONOMY TO PROVIDE THE BASICS MORE EFFICIENTLY TO EVERYONE. These articles are of course revealing, but much more important is to understand the costs of a modest home, healthy food, education, mobility, healthcare and retirement insurance...The goal should be to provide these basics with a decreasing amount of labor time so that people can live simply and modest lives without having to work themselves to death. Limiting costs of basics is more important than raising salaries (an exception at the bottom of course) because the salary increases often propel higher prices. It is of course, shocking, that there is such disparity in pay and that many of the most essential jobs--in service, caring for children and elders, etc. pay little while software jobs, whose goal is often simply to market stuff more effectively and profitably, earn so much. We need a discussion on what matters and how to insure a modest but secure life for everyone. And as St. Augustine put it long ago, we need a maximum income as much or more than we need a minimum wage.
Of course, many of us already knew these things but this is such an important article--sadly it will probably not be read by Republicans and defenders of the status quo. My only addition is that even the more egalitarian European lifestyles are not sustainable over time because of their environmental costs--so we need to both improve equity and reduce consumption in rich countries. Reliable science suggests the earth could support a 1960 American lifestyle for all humans given the current population and technology. Having lived at that time I can attest that most Americans felt richer then than they do now--I know I did. Material consumption is not the key to a happy life.
Reading for eCooperative Economics
References from John De Graaf
- https://www.resilience.org/stories/2018-10-11/we-need-an-ecological-civilization-before-its-too-late
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Degrowth ... Smart Growth Strategies
Also known as Post-growth, Decroissance, Postwachstum, Zero-cost Politics, Doughnut Economics
Compulsive Buying / Rampant Consumerism
Affluenza
Degrowth ... Smart Growth 101
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An emerging 'Doughnut' economic model is looking to shift focus from constant growth to balance, well being, and quality of life
A 'true-price' initiative rolls out in Amsterdam
Could the Doughnut model become the compass we need for creating a safe and just 21st century?
What's going on in the Netherlands? Doughnuts !!
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