Title: About a year ago I stumbled upon the degrowth concept and subsequently picked up the book &quot;Degrowth: Less is More&quot; by Jason Hickel. For those unfamiliar with the term: &quot;an infinite expansion of the economy is fundamentally contradictory to finite planetary boundaries&quot;.[1]<p>There&#x27;s been some of HN posts mentioning degrowth in the past but they were heavily criticized[2][3]. I get some degrowthist literature might seem too apocalyptic, but they make some good points:<p>- Criticism of &quot;decoupling&quot;: there&#x27;s no way of our GDP keeps growing indefinitely <i>while</i> reducing our ecological footprint. In fact, despite all the advancements made in renewables during the past decades global CO2 emissions are at an all-time high.<p>- Very few people know how to build&#x2F;grow anything end to end. Consumerism appears to be the only way to live in the West right now (with it, a shared feeling of powerlessness).<p>At the same time, I stumble upon articles from time to time that are indirectly aligned with the same ideas although from an entirely different perspective. These couple of HN posts come to mind:<p>- &quot;The super-rich &#x27;preppers&#x27; planning to save themselves&quot; [4]<p>- &quot;I, Pencil (1958)&quot; [5]<p>- &quot;CO2 emissions are being &#x27;outsourced&#x27; by rich countries to rising economies&quot;[6] (The Guardian, not HN)<p>I gotta admit, this has me pretty worried. However I also have hope (and with hope, it comes action). Questions that I&#x27;d like to get input on from the HN community:<p>1. Am I overly paranoid for believing this? (degrowth <i>seems</i> like our only way out)<p>2. Is believing technology will save us from climate collapse really that, a <i>belief</i>? Believing this would mean society should keep doing its thing for a tiny tiny chance of getting a free &quot;get out of jail&quot; card (i.e. decoupling is not a fable after all).<p>3. On the other hand, if we <i>know</i> it&#x27;s a belief: why aren&#x27;t our so-called leaders doing anything <i>real</i> about it (albeit at the cost of GDP), are they just trying to prevent widespread panic? I see how this might sound a bit &quot;conspiranoic&quot; but i can&#x27;t just find better words for it...<p>4. Regardless of the answer to the question above on #2, why aren&#x27;t people actively building resilient hyperlocal communities and actively ignore what brought us here in the first place? I.e. globalization and widespread consumerism<p>4.1. Low-tech, no-tech initiatives seem pretty plausible to me (provided we leave aside our current individualistic values as a society)<p>[1]: https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Degrowth<p>[2]: https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=32416815<p>[3]: https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=20058894<p>[4]: https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=32711413<p>[5]: https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=13016980<p>[6]: https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.theguardian.com&#x2F;environment&#x2F;2014&#x2F;jan&#x2F;19&#x2F;co2-emissions-outsourced-rich-nations-rising-economies
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