{"id":67329,"date":"2024-04-16T17:08:04","date_gmt":"2024-04-16T22:08:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=67329"},"modified":"2024-04-16T17:08:04","modified_gmt":"2024-04-16T22:08:04","slug":"degrowth-is-a-tough-sell","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=67329","title":{"rendered":"“Degrowth” is a tough sell"},"content":{"rendered":"
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“Degrowth” is a tough sell<\/a><\/h3>\n

We need positive language to work toward positive outcomes<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The seeds of Big-seeded Biscuitroot (Lomatium macrocarpum<\/em>), a traditional First Food of western North America. Photo taken in eastern Oregon, Aug. 15, 2022.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

March 14th<\/sup>\u00a0was\u00a0\u201cEarth Overshoot Day\u201d for the United States<\/a>. What that means is that, if every country in the world consumed at the rate of the US, the limit of the planet\u2019s annual regeneration of resources would run out on that date. (At this website<\/a>, you can see which countries overshoot and which don\u2019t.)<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t know how they calculate their dates, and I\u2019m sure folks could quibble over methodology, but we can be confident that it represents a legitimate warning about the status quo and its danger to people and planet. We need to use less. Far far less.<\/p>\n

Personally, I would argue the solution is about systemic change not individual choices. If each person had a share to work with\u2014that is, if the ownership of the resources of the planet were divvied up among everyone and our own decisions to forgo on any particular resource meant that resource would be preserved in place\u2014then it would be all about individual choices.<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s not.<\/p>\n

If an individual drives less, stops watering their lawn, or turns down the thermostat, then that water, fuel or power is not \u201csaved.\u201d Besides only being a drop in the bucket, it\u2019s a drop that\u2019s gobbled up by the machine some other way. There are other reasons to do these things, of course, such as getting more exercise, saving money on bills, and the value of being attentive to one\u2019s own life. In the big picture, though, what we need is a two-pronged systemic approach…<\/p>\n

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

“Degrowth” is a tough sell We need positive language to work toward positive outcomes The seeds of Big-seeded Biscuitroot (Lomatium macrocarpum), a traditional First Food of western North America. Photo taken in eastern Oregon, Aug. 15, 2022. March 14th\u00a0was\u00a0\u201cEarth Overshoot Day\u201d for the United States. What that means is that, if every country in the […]<\/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":[7],"tags":[203,19307,30990],"class_list":["post-67329","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-survival-2","tag-degrowth","tag-kollibri-terre-sonnenblume","tag-substack"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67329","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=67329"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67329\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":67330,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67329\/revisions\/67330"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=67329"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=67329"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=67329"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}