{"id":38630,"date":"2018-10-03T08:20:42","date_gmt":"2018-10-03T13:20:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=38630"},"modified":"2018-10-03T08:20:42","modified_gmt":"2018-10-03T13:20:42","slug":"til-sustainability-do-you-part-arranging-a-marriage-between-degrowth-and-the-circular-economy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=38630","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Til Sustainability Do You Part: Arranging a Marriage Between Degrowth and the Circular Economy"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\u2018Til Sustainability Do You Part: Arranging a Marriage Between Degrowth and the Circular Economy<\/a><\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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By now, most environmentalists have come across the term circular economy<\/a><\/u>. It\u2019s sexy, it\u2019s cool, and it makes us feel like we can have our cake and eat it too\u2014as long as the cake is made of sustainably grown ingredients, cooked and transported with renewable energy, and any leftover cake is composted to enable the making of future cakes.<\/p>\n

But advocates of the circular economy rarely grapple with a central truth: the circular economy depends on a significant and sustained period of economic degrowth<\/a><\/u>.<\/em> Instead they tend to focus on innovations that deliver efficiencies and unlock new economic opportunities<\/a><\/u>.<\/p>\n

But the global data reveal this isn\u2019t enough. According to the ecological footprint, we\u2019re using the resources of 1.6 planets<\/a><\/u>. This is undermining Earth\u2019s systems and the ability of humans (and countless other species) to survive and thrive. To get back within planetary limits, we will need to shrink the global economy by at least 37 percent\u2013and realistically by more if we expect to start healing the decades\u2019 worth of damage our overconsumption has wreaked on the planet.<\/p>\n

Degrowth acknowledges this, but circular economy advocates and designers tend to ignore or deny this reality. But shrinking material and energy demand is a prerequisite<\/a><\/u> for a circular economy that functions within Earth\u2019s limits.<\/p>\n

There are at least three reasons for this. First, if production levels rise as a result of circular innovations, environmental savings are negated by new production\u2013a phenomenon called the rebound effect<\/a><\/u>. Second, the circular economy\u2019s increased reliance on bio-based materials<\/a><\/u>would utilize already overtaxed agricultural and ecological capacity. Third, energy is never free<\/a><\/u>. Even renewable energy brings with it significant ecological impacts. Until we right-size the global economy, we\u2019re going to need a prolonged period of degrowth.<\/p>\n

\u2026click on the above link to read the rest of the article\u2026<\/p>\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u2018Til Sustainability Do You Part: Arranging a Marriage Between Degrowth and the Circular Economy By now, most environmentalists have come across the term circular economy. It\u2019s sexy, it\u2019s cool, and it makes us feel like we can have our cake and eat it too\u2014as long as the cake is made of sustainably grown ingredients, cooked […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,7],"tags":[2791,203,16162,22081,6665,769],"class_list":["post-38630","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-economics","category-survival-2","tag-circular-economy","tag-degrowth","tag-erik-assadourian","tag-john-mulrow","tag-resilience-org","tag-sustainability"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38630","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=38630"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38630\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38631,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38630\/revisions\/38631"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=38630"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=38630"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=38630"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}