AlexCool cover, sobering #book. Excerpts to follow #books #bookstodon #BookCommunity #bookLover #bookCollection
Lithium production for electric-car (and other types of) batteries is very environmentally destructive but its effects are most felt in the global periphery. #books #bookstodon #BookCommunity #bookLover #bookCollection
Interview with the author where among other things he talks about how Japan’s decline in GDP rankings doesn’t reflect any decline in its actual quality of life. Oh no, Japan is number 4, time to move to Germany because it’s number 3 🙄 #book #books #bookstodon #bookLove #booksToRead #bookCollection #BookCommunity. https://www.currentaffairs.org/news/2024/03/why-we-need-degrowth
If there’s anyone alive in 100 years, they’ll by and large think it was weird how we monomaniacally focused on emissions reduction—and specifically on using the same equivalent amount of energy, just as long as it came from a non-fossil source—at the expense of every other environmental concern.
It’s super-ironic that neoliberals, who despise Karl Marx, are the last people on earth who still regard history as a straight march toward progress—a view that Marx helped mainstream if not invent, especially in _The Communist Manifesto_. But he actually abandoned this stance later: There’s no inevitable communist liberation on the horizon. #book #books #bookCollection #Bookstodon #fedibooks #bookcommunity
Important points here about how cobalt and lithium are finite resources and green technologies generally aren’t profitable #book #books #bookCollection #Bookstodon #fedibooks #bookcommunity
Whenever someone says something like “we just need to build MORE STUFF, we need ABUNDANCE, and that would solve everything,” they often just mean tweaking the current setup, e.g. by swapping out fossil fuels for solar and wind. This won’t work because it relies on having to constantly increase scarcity and deplete public wealth, while destroying the environment along the way. But hey at least GDP went up! #book #books #bookstoread #BookCommunity #bookCollection #bookstodan #bookstodon
This dilemma applies to renewable energy, too: the current trajectory points toward deserts chock full of privatized or semi-privatized (authoritarian-owned) solar panels that need to be replaced all the time. Little or no thought is ever given to, like, winding down the advertising or consulting industries so we don’t need as much power in the first place. #book #books #bookstoread #BookCommunity #bookCollection #bookstodan #bookstodon
ocdtrekkie@eARCwelder Yeah I think there's a lot to be said for deciding reusing and repairing more things, traveling less when pointless (to sit in a cubicle), and being content with less stuff. Being poor helps, when you can afford it, more new things is a heck of a drug.