Economic Growth and Societal Collapse: Beyond Green Growth and Degrowth Fairy Tales

✍ Scribed by Wim Naudé

• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Year: 2023
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 199
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

It has been said that, in the light of ecological overshoot, that human civilization faces two future possibilities: a Great Decoupling or a Great Collapse. In this book, two distinct positions to achieve the Great Decoupling are critically evaluated: Green Growth and Degrowth. It is concluded that neither Green Growth nor Degrowth will be able to achieve the Great Decoupling. The possibility for society to collapse is then raised, with the potential for a civilizational rebound pondered. Whether collapse may be a feature, and not a bug, of the long-run evolution of complex civilization is discussed.

This book offers a thought provoking and unique perspective on the economic and ecological challenges faced by modern societies. It will be relevant to students, researchers, and policymakers interested in environmental economics and economic policy.

✦ Table of Contents

Preface
Contents
About the Author
Abbreviations
List of Figures
List of Tables
Chapter 1: Introduction
1.1 Introduction
1.2 Thin and Precious
1.3 Complex and Fragile
1.4 The Most Important Century?
1.5 Key Concepts
1.5.1 Gross Domestic Product
1.5.2 Economic Growth
1.5.3 Ecological Overshoot
1.6 Structure of the Book
References
Chapter 2: The Malthusians and the Cornucopians
2.1 Introduction
2.2 The (Neo) Malthusians
2.3 The Cornucopians
2.3.1 The Great Acceleration
2.3.2 The Power of Ideas
2.3.3 Solve Intelligence and Use It to Solve Everything Else
2.4 Concluding Remarks
References
Chapter 3: What to Do About the Detritovores?
3.1 Introduction
3.2 Ecological Overshoot
3.2.1 Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Climate Change
3.2.2 Ecological Footprint and Earth System Boundaries
3.2.3 Ecological Doom-Loops: Tipping Points and Existential Risks
3.3 The Carbon Pulse
3.3.1 Dark Satanic Mills
3.3.2 The Detritovores
3.3.3 Peak Oil
3.3.4 EROI: Energy Return to Energy Invested
3.4 The Dataome
3.5 Concluding Remarks
References
Chapter 4: Green Growth
4.1 Introduction
4.2 Defining Green Growth
4.3 Eco-Innovation
4.4 Critical Analysis: Can Green Growth Decouple GDP?
4.5 Doomsday Bunkers
4.5.1 Davos Man and the Rise of Technofeudalism
4.5.2 Embedded Growth Obligations
4.5.3 The Silicon Valley Mindset
4.5.4 The New Ethics of Plunder?
4.6 Concluding Remarks
References
Chapter 5: The Degrowth Movement
5.1 Introduction
5.2 What Is Degrowth?
5.3 Deconstructing Degrowth
5.3.1 Degrowth May Be De-effective
5.3.2 Degrowth May Be Dirty
5.3.3 Degrowth May Be Expensive and Worsen Global Inequality
5.4 Concluding Remarks
References
Chapter 6: Living in a Degrowth World
6.1 Introduction
6.2 Can Economic Growth Continue Forever?
6.3 The Great Decline
6.3.1 Entrepreneurship
6.3.2 Innovation and Science
6.3.3 Research Productivity
6.4 The Zero-Sum Society
6.5 The Degrowth Movement as the Outcome of Degrowth
6.6 Concluding Remarks
References
Chapter 7: Collapse, Unraveling, or Great Simplification?
7.1 Introduction
7.2 Trajectories of Civilization
7.3 Collapse as the End of the World?
7.4 Collapse as the Beginning of a New World?
7.5 Homeostatic Awakening
7.5.1 The Eerie Silence
7.5.2 The Great Filter
7.5.3 Asymptotic Burnout
7.6 Concluding Remarks
References
Chapter 8: Toward a Humpty Dumpty Economics
8.1 Summary
8.2 Humpty Dumpty Economics
8.3 Conclusion: Don’t Cry for Humpty
References
References
Index