143. Degrowth
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Highlight: Capitalism and the environment
Marx explained that a natural consequence of capitalism is the destruction of the environment
John Bellamy Foster uses the term metabolic rift to describe our capitalistic treatment of the earth
Nature has processes crucial to its survival (e.g. soil replenishment) that takes time to circle around
However, capitalism demands more and more of us that leads to the disruption of natural cycles
Even solutions, like fertilizers that aids our agriculture, have negative consequences for the environment since they rely on fossil fuels
More on capitalism and the environment:
“Natural Capitalism vs the Environment” by Victoria Porubaeva
“We need capitalism 2.0 to fix the environment” by Michael Huang
“Jason Mark on Climate Reparations and the Environment” by Cocktails & Capitalism
Thank you for listening to another week of the Overthink podcast!
As a long-time dabbler of philosophy, I am combing through your entire catalog now. Very excited!
Degrowth as a concept feels woefully unexplored. The issue with how degrowth has been presented is that it either feels so diluted as to be mundane (as opposed being revolutionary), or it is so fantastical that it cannot be implemented (a la the solarpunk genre/ideals). I would love to see a roadmap to legitimate structural reform that we can follow as a society.
I am excited to read slow down to see if it has the level of nuance I would like. Ezra-Kline’s Abundance has been recently touted as the degrowth bible, but I’ve heard inklings that it misses the mark.