Cary Neeper's Blog: Reviewing World-changing Nonfiction - Posts Tagged "overuse"

Degrowth in the Suburbs: A Radical Urban Imagery by Samuel Alexander and Branden Gleeson, Singapore, Palgrave Macmillan, 2019.

In order to face the consequences of global warming and to find a secure, orderly future, we need to find a way for everyone (not just scientists or academicians) to understand and act on our real options. Therefore, I recommend this book, beyond page 16, as a thorough review of the causes, many of the options, and the changes needed to prevent the most tragic consequences we now face. In my lay-readers’ view, the introduction and first pages of this book were not helpful, overloaded with curt generalizations and jargon that provide no information and require careful interpretation. The rest of the book is quite readable, valuable in its urgency and thorough treatment of our current dilemma.

The reader will find the bulk of recommendations and conclusions very similar to those published by Herman Daly in the 1970’s, developed over the years, and currently presented in short articles published on steadystate.org by Brian Czech and others. Degrowth in the Suburbs provides helpful confirmation of steadystate theory and its practice, as portrayed in my series, The Archives of Varok, but Daly’s work is not cited in the long references cited at the end of each chapter.

One question arose in the first chapter. The word “neoliberal” was not defined other than relating it to neglecting “…the centrality or urbanization to the creation of value.” At the end of the book another reference was made to the “…neoliberal falacies like the ‘liveable city.’” The authors don’t provide details, but I assume they are referring to the neoliberal (?) idea that energy use per capita is or can be much smaller in large cities simply because the distance between people is less. Thus, centralized food distribution and public transport requires less energy. The authors don’t address the fact that cities are still growing and, in any case, will need to increase efficiency until they can disperse to “degrowth in the suburbs.” The authors don’t address how that major puzzle cold be solved.

Nothing else is neglected in this book’s thorough descriptions of how we can degrow and use less energy--the two major themes in the book. In chapter 2 on the “Energy Descent Future” the authors remind us why nuclear and renewable sources of energy will probably not be enough. They summarize the rise of hi-energy use in industry and agriculture, discuss the concept of Peak Oil, and suggest that it is too late for carbon sequestering. A book published in 2011 (“Life Without Oil: Why We Must Shift to a New Energy Future” by Steve Hallett and John Wright, New York, Prometheus Books) agrees.

Chapter 3 provides a nice summary of nuclear energy problems, and presents a good case that “techno-optimism is misguided.” Wind and solar energy will help, but both have storage problems, and nothing will solve our “private car addiction.” We need public transport powered by renewables and lower mobility, while transcending the “growth paradigm.” A redoing of banking is in order to ”…disconnect economic growth from energy consumption” with “…planned economic contractions, increased localization, broader distribution of wealth and judicious deindustrialization…” (Chapter 4)

The authors declare that such changes won’t be done by governments. They must be done in the “social-cultural sphere.” The authors suggest that we look at the Transition Towns Movement and the Eco-Village Movement. Chapter 5 continues by suggesting voluntary simplicity, low-impact practices, reduction of energy demand, use of solar ovens (which my daughter finds delightful in Indianapolis). Don’t fly. Don’t eat meat or dairy. Transition Initiatives mean eating local food, permaculture, and giving up cars. “Consumerism does not satisfy the human craving for meaning.”

Chapter 6 gives us a view of what 2038 could look like, given these suggestions. Water capture, waste composted and used, with food grown our your own plot would mean the end of corporations and obesity. Farming jobs would increase, as would the fix-it-yourself paradigm. Reuse and sharing would increase and local coins would be reinvented and used. Voluntary simplicity would “defeat capitalism.”

Governing policies are discussed in Chapter 7. “Principles of justice, self-limitations and ecological democracy” call for degrowth. GDP is known to be a poor measure. The use of resources would need to be limited. This should also reduce labor hours. Government should provide public transportation and health care. Forests would be revived. Banks would be regulated again. Wealth and estate taxes could provide local housing for those in need. A basic income or negative income tax of 3% could level the playing field for the poor.

If you have fretted, as I have, about how we are to make the transition to a more stable future from our current habits of energy overuse and population overgrowth, do read this book. The ideas are not new, but they echo with splendid detail the work done since the 1970s. Herman Daly and many authors, of both ficiton and non-fiction, have seen the dangers coming and now agree on many of the basics, regardless of political positions once held.

New York, W.W.Norton and Company, 2011
Do re-read this book. It’s 200 pages filled with data --all confirmed and expanded by recent events--erratic weather extremes, water loss, expanding deserts, rising temperatures, refugees and failed states.

The Earth Policy Institutes “Plan B” is simple--its conclusions all too obvious: “…we need to build an economy…powered [by] wind, solar and geothermal--one that has a diversified transparent system that reuses and recycles everything.

Changing our current economy requires “full-cost pricing.” Economists must calculate indirect costs and restructure taxes. Cutting income taxes while increasing gasoline taxes would provide “rapid economic growth.” Taxing carbon emissions is an obvious need-- being honest about costs of “…burning gasoline or coal…deforestation…over pumping aquifers and …overfishing.” We need to recognize the “sustainable yield limits of natural systems.”

In 2007 a Florida coal plant license was refused because “…the utility proposing it could not prove that building the plant would be cheaper than investing in conservation, efficiency, or renewable energy sources.”

The obvious quick fixes are “…eliminating fossil fuel subsidies…build[ing] together” instead of spending so much on the military, and “taxing each tree cut” and cutting only mature trees.

The extreme storms had already begun when this book was written. Surely Lester Brown’s Plan B makes a lot more sense than blindly assuming we must grow the economy, regardless. See Lester Brown

"Uncommon Sense--Shortcomings of the Human Mind for Handling Big-Picture, Long-Term Challenges" by Peter Seidel, Steady State Press, Arlington, VA, 2020.

I received this book from CASSE, the Center for the Advancement of the Steady State Economy, . It focuses directly on the "root causes of our problems"--climate change, overcrowding of Earth with people, products, and pollutants, and biodiversity loss. The author blames our human inability to deal with the "big Picture"--Earth's "long-term problems."

The author argues that "positive thinking" is not necessary. We need to focus on what we can do to fix the planet we are using up and destroying. He asks why this is so hard?

Seidel suggests that we must realize that we are a part of nature. Where does our food, water, and clothing come from? And how? Earth would need to be 2.8 larger for everyone to live like Europeans. Why is "questioning economic growth taboo? "Continuous population increase and economic growth on a finite planet is impossible." That should be an obvious truism."

We are seeing the beginning in tragic population shifts going on now. The collapse of the Mayan and Easter Island civilizations are early examples of what is beginning on the entire Earth now. We are "losing species 10 to 100 times faster than the average rate of extinction over the last million years, and "that rate is accelerating."

The author helps us focus on specific problems and solutions, like our dependence on electricity. For specific "to dos" please study this small 100 page book.Peter Seidel