Here is an excerpt from a compelling piece about the urgent need for #degrowth…
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Climate solutions most often cited include renewable energy, nuclear power, fusion power, negative emissions technologies, and solar geoengineering. None of these is poised to make enough of a difference as long as humanity continues its pursuit of economic growth.

Preventing more warming will require changing the conversation humanity is currently having about climate change. More people will need to understand what is at stake, and that our survival requires ditching not just fossil fuels, but also economic growth, global inequality, and consumerism.

Renewable energy technology could enable humanity to maintain some of the most essential services involving communication and information processing without fossil fuels. It could provide efficient lighting, heating, and cooling.

But those benefits would need to be weighed against its ecological and human costs; only in the context of overall economic degrowth would renewable energy’s short-term benefits outweigh long-term drawbacks. If energy and materials demand were sharply declining, society could approach a sustainable steady state; during the transition, solar and wind power could maintain some of the life-sustaining services currently provided by fossil fuels.

Of course, degrowth will itself have costs. As economies shrink, we must prioritize equity. Otherwise, economic contraction will most likely trigger a winner-take-all race for the world’s dwindling wealth. In fact, all aspects of the polycrisis (including inequality, resource depletion, and declining biodiversity) will have to be addressed at once.
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FULL ESSAY -- https://www.resilience.org/stories/2024-05-29/navigating-climate-catastrophe-part-2-the-response/

#Science #Environment #Climate #ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis #ClimateEmergency