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what does degrowth look like? (hexbear.net)

submitted 5 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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as an aside in the latest Trillbillies episode Terrence said that we need degrowth communism and it got me wondering what that means to everyone. to hopefully stifle any silly debates i'll clarify that i'm talking about the West, not underdeveloped/overexploited nations in the Global South.

an end to oil drilling, gas extraction, and coal mining will obviously be necessary to stop climate change. how much modern technology can we replicate without relying on those things or other ecologically violent resource extraction? what does an agriculture system that doesn't rely on petrochem-derived fertilizers and herbicides look like? how do we repair the immense damage that's already been done?

i'd really appreciate some book recommendations on this topic as well as everyone's thoughts

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago (1 children)

What about floating solar and desert solar? The Saharan biosphere is mostly dead and empty and has constant sun. Same with a large portion of the Southwestern US and Australia. Also boat only travel for overseas transport of people and perishables seems impractical.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 months ago (1 children)

boat only travel for overseas transport of people and perishables seems impractical

Can you expand on what you mean by impractical?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Slow and needing more logistics for food for the trip. I also didn't know if we have low carbon boat technology yet as a lot of these boats are diesel powered.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Trips will take longer although satellite internet continues to improve, so working remotely on the ship is viable for jobs where that is possible. Despite their terrible emissions ocean freight is still far, far more carbon efficient than any other form of transport, even rail.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Is satellite internet a priority? It's very expensive and difficult to make, the supply chains are very long and launches produce millions of tons of CO2. I wonder if more efficient jet (or even propeller) travel would be better in the long run.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

For carbon emissions, every space launch ever done in history completely pales in comparison to the 10s of thousands of aircraft crossing the globe every moment of every day. It is just not anywhere near the same order of magnitude. A single cross country flight for a single person emits more carbon emissions than citizens of many countries do in an entire year.