Resilient local economies
This website has blogposts covering the issue of life after overshoot of planetary boundaries. Climate change is just one of these. How do we prepare our local communities to be resilient in the face of these megacrises? What happens to the economy? Why do we have a money system that builds in a growth imperative? Can we have planned degrowth?
Net migration for New Zealand in the year ending July 2023 was 96,000. Many of these were skilled workers. The OECD countries are apparently all competing for skilled immigrants and between them account for two-thirds of skilled worker migrants globally.
But why? Is it something to do with the increasing complexity of industrial civilisation? Add the poverty gap between the North and the South? How does the increasing complexity of civilisation fit with degrowther’s demand for declining energy and material throughput? And what other factors are at play?
Continue reading “The skilled worker struggle will worsen without degrowth”
If the National Party gets into power we will have urban sprawl on steroids. First, Luxon says he will not make median density intensification rules compulsory; councils could choose. Then they will demand council rezone land for 30 years of housing. Think about that! A terrible recipe for sprawl. Continue reading “Urban sprawl on steroids –National’s disastrous housing plan”
Another End of the World is Possible by Pablo Servigne, Raphael Stevens and Gauthier Chappelle 2018
How Everything Can Collapse by Pablo Servigne and Raphael Stevens 2021
The More Beautiful World our Hearts Know is Possible by Charles Eisenstein 2013
Power – Limits and Prospects for Human Survival by Richard Heinberg 2021
Upheaval – How Nations Cope with Crisis and Change by Jared Diamond 2019
The End of Growth – adapting to our new economic reality by Richard Heinberg 2011 (The last chapter is called Managing Contraction, Redefining Progress)
The Limits to Growth, the 30-Year Update by Donella Meadows, Jorgen Randers, Dennis Meadows 2004
The Great Disruption – Why the Climate Crisis Will Bring on the End of Shopping and the Birth of a New World by Paul Gilding 2011
Governments must assist farmers transition away from animal agriculture to more plant-based future.
This blogpost outlines what has happened recently in China’s economy and the consequences for the NZ dairy industry. And, because we are so ridiculously dependent on our dairy exports, for the NZ economy.
So are we going to get degrowth by disaster and not by design? Possibly. The price farmers get for their milk is dropping fast. Farmers are really worried, especially those with a lot of debt.
In this blogpost I will argue that extreme climate events like floods, fires and storms are causing both central and local government financial challenges. This will only increase with global warming. For councils the problem is worse. As we found out during Covid-19, the Reserve Bank can create new money but councils can’t. Continue reading “A Surprising Solution for Unsustainable Property Buyouts”
After a year or so watching YouTube and reading books like How Everything Can Collapse, I realised in January 2022 there was one more possibility. So with two others I started a new nonprofit called Degrowth Aotearoa New Zealand.
It wasn’t long before we had a keen group talking to each other. In mid 2022 our energetic secretary started a Facebook group. That now has over 1400 members, many from other countries. We have a rapidly growing and highly motivated tribe.
Continue reading “It’s time to give up on growth – is degrowth the key?”
The degrowth movement is a global movement that advocates for a transition to a less consumerist and more sustainable way of life. One of the key tenets of the degrowth movement is opposition to planned obsolescence.
Continue reading “Planned obsolescence legislation should be an easy win for the degrowth movement”
Preparing for life after overshoot in cities and towns means preparing for floods, sea level rise, hurricanes, heat waves, fires or earthquakes. Not easy, but essential. This describes 7 examples of sponge cities, seawalls, and cool roofs. Continue reading “7 examples of Sponge Cities, Seawalls, Cool Roofs”
Local resilience is in the news. Nobody who keeps up with world news will have missed the devastation of the Lahaina, Maui fire. We received on our televisions graphic pictures of mudslides in Southern California and fires in Greece.
All very interesting to watch. But not so good if it happens to you. Those in Hawkes Bay will be wondering if there was anything else they could have done to prepare for Cyclone Gabrielle which turned them upside down.
Continue reading “Strengthening Local Resilience in a World of Floods, Fires and Storms”