Degrowther

A “degrowther” is someone who believes in “degrowth”—that there are too many factories, too many cars, too much urban sprawl, and so on, and that these things must be reduced. A “degrowther” may also be an “environmentalist” or a “green,” but the degrowther’s main point is that humanity’s global footprint is too large. The term “degrowther” has been cited in print since at least 2010.
 
Conservative radio talk show hostMark Levin has criticized degrowthers as anti-capitalists on his radio show and in his book, Plunder and Deceit (2015).
   
 
Wikipedia: Degrowth
Degrowth (in French: décroissance, in Spanish: decrecimiento, in Italian: decrescita) is a political, economic, and social movement based on ecological economics and anti-consumerist and anti-capitalist ideas. It is also considered an essential economic strategy responding to the limits-to-growth dilemma (see The Path to Degrowth in Overdeveloped Countries and Post growth). Degrowth thinkers and activists advocate for the downscaling of production and consumption—the contraction of economies—arguing that overconsumption lies at the root of long term environmental issues and social inequalities. Key to the concept of degrowth is that reducing consumption does not require individual martyring or a decrease in well-being. Rather, ‘degrowthists’ aim to maximize happiness and well-being through non-consumptive means—sharing work, consuming less, while devoting more time to art, music, family, culture and community.
 
Oxfam—From Poverty to tPower
Degrowth – is it useful or feasible?
By Duncan Green
January 19, 2010
Thought I’d check out what this ‘degrowth’ idea is about so went to a public meeting organized by a couple of new economics thinktanks (CEECEC and nef). It was a combination of seriously old school (standing room only; two and a half hours of speeches) and new (the bar was open throughout the event; death by powerpoint).
 
‘Degrowth’ is the clunky translation of ‘decroissance’, a movement founded by French economist Serge Latouche, whose name was invoked in reverential tones all night. It’s big in France, Italy and Spain (its second major international conference takes place in Barcelona in March) but has yet to catch on in the UK.
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COMMENTS
Saamah Abdallah says:
February 18, 2010 at 8:50 pm
Duncan seems a little disappointed by the ‘degrowthers’ at the Rethinking Economic Growth event in the Hub. Neither myself nor some of the speakers at the event may actually self-identify as degrowthers, but nevertheless here is my response at the nef triple crunch blog: http://neftriplecrunch.wordpress.com/2010/02/18/policies-for-a-zero-growth-economy/
 
Twitter
Don Richardson
‏@Omnibudsman
DeGrowthers - A new social movement?  http://cli.gs/8DJsqP -via @sampsa #degrowth #EcoEcon
4:20 PM - 9 Apr 2010
 
Facebook
CBC Radio
December 16, 2013 ·
Degrowthers believe we need a more modest and sane alternative to the constant pressures of expansion that are destroying the ecological basis of our existence.
Author and essayist Richard Swift explores the degrowth alternative, in theory and in practice on Ideas.
   
Google Books
Groundswell:
The Case for Fracking
By Ezra Levant
Toronto, ON: McClelland & Stewart
2014
Pg. ?:
But degrowthers don’t just talk about peak oil: they talk about peak “everything.” They say we’ve hit a wall: thatthe earth can’t sustain any more humanity. We’re at maximum food production, maximum energy production, maximum mineral usage, maximum urban sprawl, maximum everything.
 
Google Books
Degrowth:
A Vocabulary for a New Era
Edited by Giacomo D’Alisa, Federico Demaria and Giorgos Kallis
New York, NY: Routledge
2014
Pg. ?:
For may degrowthers, degrowth is not an adaptation to inevitable limits, but a desirable project to be pursued for its own sake in the search for autonomy.
 
CounterPunch
APRIL 13, 2015
Degrowthers Challenge Supremacy of Economic Growth
by MARK HAND
The widespread embrace of economic growth and development, even among environmental activists, is the primary cause of the current socio-ecological crisis facing the world, according to a new book that espouses the philosophy of “degrowth” and whose editors believe more comprehensive “counter-hegemonic narratives” are necessary to create new forms of living that are not dependent on equating growth with progress.
 
The degrowth philosophy has attracted a relatively large following in Europe, especially in France where it is known as décroissance.
   
Independent Sentinel
Mark Levin: The Reds Are ‘Saving’ Us From Capitalism
by S. Noble • July 23, 2015
If you don’t know anything about the Degrowthers, you need to. They are the New Reds and they have taken over the climate movement which could easily take over the U.S. The Reds have always been behind the climate change movement but they now have a new approach to selling it called “Degrowth.”
 
The Degrowther movement is a very popular movement in Europe, especially in France. The ideology promotes the notion that prosperity can be achieved without economic growth. They are intimately tied to the climate change movement.
 
Twitter
Dennis Stephens
‏@Dennis1Stephens
“The degrowthers seek to eliminate carbon sources of energy
and redistribute wealth according to terms they consider
equitable.” Levin
7:36 AM - 10 Aug 2015
 
Google Books
Plunder and Deceit
By Mark R. Levin
New York, NY: Simon & Schuster
2015
Pg. ?:
The degrowthers would deindustrialize advanced economies, destroy modernity, and turn plenty into scarcity.