Sustainability & Postgrowth Research
At the Convocation of the United Negro** College Fund in 1959, John F. Kennedy referred to the Chinese word for “crisis” being made up of two symbols, one denoting “danger” (wēi), and the other denoting “opportunity” (jī). Today, many decision makers in politics and the economy use this phrase addressing the slowly retreating economic and financial crisis.… Read more
In the discussions on the future of economic growth, business as usual is not an option. That alone can be regarded as good news. When the modern narrative of growth is evoked in policy debates, it is always green growth that is summoned. Green growth is sought to be resource-efficient, low-carbon and socially inclusive. Green growth is the key strategy to battle climate change, bring eco-friendly development to emerging countries, renew economic structures in industrialized nations and produce robust jobs for a changing world.… Read more
I was just reading an article in the newly established Ecological Economics Review on economic growth, written by Peter A. Victor. In this article, Victor is revisiting Kenneth Boulding‘s remarks on the economy of the coming spaceship Earth, focusing on economic growth and environmental impact.
He defines the concept of green growth as an economic state in which the rate of reduction of environmental impact per unit GDP exceeds the rate of increase in GDP.… Read more
Recently, German environmental minister, Norbert Röttgen, made some interesting remarks on the remaining operationg time of Germany’s nuclear power plants. After the Schröder-Fischer government neogiated a fade-out of nuclear power until 2022, the newly elected center-right government of Merkel-Westerwelle proposed an extension for nuclear industry between 10 and 20 years beyond that date. The argument was, that renewables needed that extra time to become a susbstantial part of German energy supply. Röttgen now made it clear, that nuclear energy’s time will be up when renewables will reach about a share of 40% in Germany’s energy supply.… Read more