On Monday, I'll be participating in the annual Sustainability Forum in the Chancellory in Berlin. We were offered to submit a 1-sentence, 250-character statement. This is what I submitted: "The guiding vision of a life in dignity for all, within planetary boundaries, requires not just efficiency and a circular economy, but also contributions from sufficiency to achieve the necessary limitations of material flows that are harmful to ecology or health."

@W_Lucht

Looks good, but may I ask, what are "contributions of sufficiency"? Could that be a spontaneous consumer self-restraint in realizing we've had too much for too long?

@teledyn
It's deliberate governance of society's social metabolism (i.e. of the material exchange flows required with the environment to maintain their functions) - all the planetary boundaries are linked to these flows. And within these boundaries, injustices in use are an issue. "Sustainable development" promises solutions through "green growth". But that hits hard limitations. Sufficiency as a "Strategy of the Enough" addresses more fundamentally the challenge of "Ecological Civilization".
@W_Lucht @teledyn I think it’s important to also use the word #degrowth, though it may not have a good German translation. This will contribute to shifting the Overton window.
@jknodlseder @teledyn
I think it's good to differentiate - we need growth in renewables, awareness, organic farming etc - but not in harmful material flows (those need to degrow), GDP as a measure of welfare, or social & financial institutions that structurally depend on growth. Growth is central to ecology, but embedded in negative feedbacks. We humans create positive feedbacks (i.a. to alleviate the brutality of neg. feedbacks). But yes, let's read Matthias Schmelzer! https://www.researchgate.net/publication/362762776_The_Future_Is_Degrowth_A_Guide_to_a_World_beyond_Capitalism/link/62fe2a06eb7b135a0e430bf5/download

@W_Lucht @jknodlseder @teledyn

Then let's coin a term we can put on protest signs as demand.
Degrowth is a term everyone knows. And usually, everyone understands what it means, which things do need to degrow.

Everyone who isn't deliberately mis-interpreting the term.

But what it stands for does need a gripping expression.
So, I think, you either come with a replacement term, and fast,
or consider to stop nit-picking Selbstverständlichkeiten.

Degrowth is the phase of controlled reduction in material and energy use. Think Churchill's England, their 15 years of itemised rations and resrouce allocations only for select companies is also a good number to work with.

It is followed by a post-growth economic system that is designed and implemented during the Degrowth phase. It will guarantee that just and safe planetary boundaries aren't ever breeched again.

@anlomedad @W_Lucht @jknodlseder @teledyn

I don't like the word 'De-Growth'.

People are conditioned (wrongly) that growth is good, so it is a negative for many.

A new word or phrase could give a better 'on- point' message.

I like 'Sufficiency', 'Nature', so how about...

"Natural and Sufficient Growth"

@PeterF @anlomedad @W_Lucht @teledyn That’s exactly the point: people are conditioned, and this needs to change. That’s why words are very important, and therefore I deliberately use the word #degrowth.

@jknodlseder @PeterF @W_Lucht @teledyn

Also, in capitalist economics, the growth paradigm is unqualified, apart from monetary profits.

Degrowth alludes to the many disruptive changes that need to happen in how society and her systems are organised around these unqualified profits.
Think retirement funds and how Blackrock's AI Aladin invests the money of these funds purely based on prospective dividends. If Aladin were trained to suddenly remove that money from fossil fuel companies or aviation industry, as is necessary, it creates turmoil in all sorts of societal areas.

Controlled degrowth forces Aladin to do the necessary, or rather: shuts down Aladin and Blackrock altogether, while foreseeing and cushioning the blows to society during this disruptive but necessary change.

Or think rating companies like #Moody who de-valued states in 2020 DUE to the #pandemic-induced expected economic downturn.
So these states had to borrow money at higher interest rates than before the pandemic, at a time when they urgently needed a safety net = money from "investors" like #Blackrock.

Think #IMF and #Worldbank, and how they had the audacity to impose new austerity measures in Argentina and elsewhere, also in 2020, also in light of the expected economic downturn.

This is how our societies are organised. And it has to change. Lest each climate-related blow to a society will add to its brittleness, aided and abetted by Blackrock, Moody, and IMF.

The term sufficiency can't describe these system-level, top-down operations on the very heart of the organism.
Sufficiency is the perspective of the "consumer", bottom-up.
In part, the term is therefore perpetuating the atomistic philosophy of neoliberalism.

The term, for its bottom-up perspective, can't encompass the required changes in the "multi-organ" setup.

For the described reasons, among others, I prefer #Degrowth .
But I can put my protest sign next to someone with one saying #StrategyOfSufficiency . No questions asked.

@jknodlseder @PeterF @W_Lucht @teledyn

#Degrowth therefore also implies that poorer states must be included in the phase of systemic changes.
Both, as objects to be considered in planning, and as actors and planners who sort things out at their end.

I don't like communicating degrowth as a 2-phase approach where rich nations begin and poor nations catch up when they can.

A #StrategyOfSufficiency is the same. It can't start in rich nations only, and poor nations catch up 20 years later.

If we end fast fashion, as is necessary, and part of sufficiency, Bangladesh families and the government will experience a blow to their income. (And Moody's and Blackrock will react as in 2020 described above, the pandemic. And #IMF and #Worldbank impose austerity measures.)

A project plan therefor foresees and cushions such blows to remote societies, rich or poor. We, our tech civilisation, depends on Bangladesh, Brazil, Belize and Bejing staying stable at least during the transformation phase to CO2zero.

@jknodlseder @PeterF @W_Lucht @teledyn

The moon wobble in the mid 2030s makes this all the more urgent.
Top-down things must be up and running by 2030. In order to have some time left for polishing before the troubles begin in earnest.

After the monster monsoon flooded 1/3 of Pakistan, it took 6 months for a group of VOLUNTARY donors to meet the first time.
Up to then, Germany had sent emergency aid in the equivalent of 1 can of tomato soup per affected person.

Voluntary... 6 months... 1 can of tomato soup..
Pakistan's climate minister rightly called out in despair "To countries in Global North: you're next. You're sleepwalking into annihilation."

Don't know for sure but wouldn't be surprised if Moody's had rated Pakistan lower in reaction to the flood, and IMF and Worldbank impose austerity measures. And Blackrock removed money from previous investments, if there were any to begin with.

The flood came when famine alert was already high for 4mio due to COVID. After the flood, it was 10mio and growing.

If Pakistan falls, so does India. And Bangladesh. And us.

That's why controlled #Degrowth is necessary, deep changes to how our tech civilisation is organised. Urgently.