Jennifer Ellen Good, Associate Professor of Communication, Popular Culture and Film at Brock University had a piece recently published in The Conversation where she discussed the economic term ‘degrowth’ and how it may reduce the impacts of climate change.

She writes:

“There is something unprecedented and important in the recent Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC): degrowth. Two of the IPCC’s working groups — those focused on climate change impacts and on mitigation — use the economic term to discuss policies that are key to reducing the impacts of climate change. 

This is a profound inclusion. By pointing to degrowth, something Timothée Parrique, a social scientist and economist, refers to “as an opportunity to recentre our economies on what really matters,” the reports’ authors challenge the widely accepted story that endless economic growth — an increase in the quantity of goods and services — is essential to reducing poverty and improving the quality of life around the world.

Degrowth offers the world a new story, one that acknowledges the role economic growth has had in climate change and identifies alternatives. 

Stories are foundational to how we understand who we are and the world in which we live, and we should think of economics as a story. As English professor and Indigenous writer Thomas King succinctly offers, “The truth about stories is that’s all we are.”

Not only do the IPCC reports offer hope for mitigating climate change, they also afford hope for how we understand and celebrate the Earth.”

Continue reading the full article on The Conversation website.