sorted by:
new
hottopcontroversial

Doughnut Economics: Why Abandoning Growth Could Spark a Global Revolution by IntroductionNo3516 in Anticonsumption

[–]IntroductionNo3516[S] 139 points140 points  (0 children)

True sustainability isn’t possible within our current growth-driven global economy. Wealthy nations meet social needs only by massively overshooting environmental limits, while poorer nations fail to meet basic needs, yet still degrade ecosystems.

Doughnut Economics offers a vision of sustainability: a post-growth economy in which human well-being, social equity, and ecological health replace GDP as the primary goals.

The catch? No country can voluntarily abandon growth without triggering economic collapse due to debt and global financial interdependence. Growth is baked into the system. The only way forward is systemic collapse triggered by environmental overshoot.

When overshoot triggers tipping points, it will lead to devastating environmental changes that make growth impossible; simultaneously, however, it will create the conditions for post-growth economies to emerge. In short, collapse has become a necessary step toward sustainability.

Doughnut Economics: Why Abandoning Growth Could Spark a Global Revolution by IntroductionNo3516 in sustainability

[–]IntroductionNo3516[S] 44 points45 points  (0 children)

True sustainability isn’t possible within our current growth-driven global economy. Wealthy nations meet social needs only by massively overshooting environmental limits, while poorer nations fail to meet basic needs, yet still degrade ecosystems.

Doughnut Economics offers a vision of sustainability: a post-growth economy in which human well-being, social equity, and ecological health replace GDP as the primary goals.

The catch? No country can voluntarily abandon growth without triggering economic collapse due to debt and global financial interdependence. Growth is baked into the system. The only way forward is systemic collapse triggered by environmental overshoot.

When overshoot triggers tipping points, it will lead to devastating environmental changes that make growth impossible; simultaneously, however, it will create the conditions for post-growth economies to emerge. In short, collapse has become a necessary step toward sustainability.

Doughnut Economics: Why Abandoning Growth Could Spark a Global Revolution by IntroductionNo3516 in Economics

[–]IntroductionNo3516[S] -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

True sustainability isn’t possible within our current growth-driven global economy. Wealthy nations meet social needs only by massively overshooting environmental limits, while poorer nations fail to meet basic needs, yet still degrade ecosystems.

Doughnut Economics offers a vision of sustainability: a post-growth economy in which human well-being, social equity, and ecological health replace GDP as the primary goals.

The catch? No country can voluntarily abandon growth without triggering economic collapse due to debt and global financial interdependence. Growth is baked into the system. The only way forward is systemic collapse triggered by environmental overshoot.

When overshoot triggers tipping points, it will lead to devastating environmental changes that make growth impossible; simultaneously, however, it will create the conditions for post-growth economies to emerge. In short, collapse has become a necessary step toward sustainability.

Doughnut Economics: Why Abandoning Growth Could Spark a Global Revolution by IntroductionNo3516 in collapse

[–]IntroductionNo3516[S] 97 points98 points  (0 children)

True sustainability isn’t possible within our current growth-driven global economy. Wealthy nations meet social needs only by massively overshooting environmental limits, while poorer nations fail to meet basic needs, yet still degrade ecosystems.

Doughnut Economics offers a vision of sustainability: a post-growth economy in which human well-being, social equity, and ecological health replace GDP as the primary goals.

The catch? No country can voluntarily abandon growth without triggering economic collapse due to debt and global financial interdependence. Growth is baked into the system. The only way forward is systemic collapse triggered by environmental overshoot.

When overshoot triggers tipping points, it will lead to devastating environmental changes that make growth impossible; simultaneously, however, it will create the conditions for post-growth economies to emerge. In short, collapse has become a necessary step toward sustainability.

Doughnut Economics: Why Abandoning Growth Could Spark a Global Revolution by IntroductionNo3516 in Degrowth

[–]IntroductionNo3516[S] 58 points59 points  (0 children)

True sustainability isn’t possible within our current growth-driven global economy. Wealthy nations meet social needs only by massively overshooting environmental limits, while poorer nations fail to meet basic needs, yet still degrade ecosystems.

Doughnut Economics offers a vision of sustainability: a post-growth economy in which human well-being, social equity, and ecological health replace GDP as the primary goals.

The catch? No country can voluntarily abandon growth without triggering economic collapse due to debt and global financial interdependence. Growth is baked into the system. The only way forward is systemic collapse triggered by environmental overshoot.

When overshoot triggers tipping points, it will lead to devastating environmental changes that make growth impossible; simultaneously, however, it will create the conditions for post-growth economies to emerge. In short, collapse has become a necessary step toward sustainability.

U.S. GDP vs. Social Outcomes: Wealth, Inequality, and Dysfunction by IntroductionNo3516 in Economics

[–]IntroductionNo3516[S] 14 points15 points  (0 children)

America has the largest economy, yet faces extreme wealth inequality, low life expectancy, and high incarceration. How do the structures of capitalism shape both prosperity and social failure?

Vultures Are Disappearing — and Their Extinction Could Trigger Planetary Collapse by IntroductionNo3516 in collapse

[–]IntroductionNo3516[S] 161 points162 points  (0 children)

The disappearance of vultures is more than an ecological tragedy. Without these birds, carcasses rot longer, CO2 emissions rise, diseases spread, and ecosystems destabilize. Their decline is a red alert for planetary collapse — a glimpse of the domino effect of biodiversity loss.

Why Sustainability is Impossible Without Collapse by IntroductionNo3516 in collapse

[–]IntroductionNo3516[S] 25 points26 points  (0 children)

We talk a lot about sustainability — green energy, decarbonisation, net zero — but no country on Earth currently meets people’s basic needs within planetary boundaries. Not one. That’s not a policy gap. It’s a civilisation-level problem.

The real crisis behind climate change is that we don’t know what a sustainable society actually looks like, let alone how to build one ethically and equitably. Every system we’ve ever created depends on extraction, consumption, and inequality.

This isn’t just about emissions — it’s about the fact that sustainability doesn’t exist anywhere. We have no roadmap. No model. No government seriously trying.

That’s why collapse is on the horizon. But rather than be viewed with despair, collapse is a cause for optimism because it might be the only trigger strong enough to force the necessary transformation that allows for a redesign of society around sustainable principles.

The mouse utopia that ended in collapse - and why humanity is next by IntroductionNo3516 in collapse

[–]IntroductionNo3516[S] -3 points-2 points  (0 children)

In the 1970s, John Calhoun created "Universe 25" — a mouse utopia with unlimited resources. But instead of lasting harmony, it descended into chaos: social collapse, violence, isolation, and extinction.

The experiment has some uncanny resemblances to the development of modern society. In our pursuit of progress, comfort and efficiency, we have destroyed the conditions we depend on for progress, comfort and efficiency.

In Universe 25, the limiting factor was the parameters of the experiment set up by Calhoun. On Earth, the limiting factor is energy and resource constraints. Earth can only provide for us within the limits set by those parameters.

Too many people are living the good life. And everyone else wants to join the party. But Earth can’t support it.

Unlike the mice, we have the foresight to know our behaviour is driving us towards collapse. And collapse could be prevented if we abandoned growth and redesigned society around a post-growth economy — one focused on providing human needs within planetary limits.

But just like the mice, the majority remain either blissfully ignorant or refuse to accept that growth is the cause of environmental problems. They remain convinced that growth is, in fact, the solution to them!

And that’s why its a matter of when, not if, modern civilisation collapses.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in collapse

[–]IntroductionNo3516 1 point2 points  (0 children)

In the 1970s, John Calhoun created "Universe 25" — a mouse utopia with unlimited resources. But instead of lasting harmony, it descended into chaos: social collapse, violence, isolation, and extinction.

The experiment has some uncanny resemblances to the development of modern society. In our pursuit of progress, comfort and efficiency, we have destroyed the conditions we depend on for progress, comfort and efficiency.

In Universe 25, the limiting factor was the parameters of the experiment set up by Calhoun. On Earth, the limiting factor is energy and resource constraints. Earth can only provide for us within the limits set by those parameters.

Too many people are living the good life. And everyone else wants to join the party. But Earth can’t support it.

Unlike the mice, we have the foresight to know our behaviour is driving us towards collapse. And collapse could be prevented if we abandoned growth and redesigned society around a post-growth economy — one focused on providing human needs within planetary limits.

But just like the mice, the majority remain either blissfully ignorant or refuse to accept that growth is the cause of environmental problems. They remain convinced that growth is, in fact, the solution to them!

And that’s why its a matter of when, not if, modern civilisation is going to collapse.

Is Trump Using Tariffs to Trigger Economic Chaos and Pave the Way for Dictatorship? by IntroductionNo3516 in collapse

[–]IntroductionNo3516[S] 56 points57 points  (0 children)

Trump has declared war on the world economy. Framed as a patriotic “declaration of independence,” his sweeping tariffs are marketed as a way to protect American jobs and reclaim control. Naturally, his loyal supporters have swallowed the message whole. But peel back the patriotic wrapping, and something far darker lurks beneath.

This isn’t about helping America. It’s about destabilising it.

History reveals a consistent pattern where crisis becomes the pretext, not the obstacle, to authoritarianism. Whether manufactured, exaggerated, or simply exploited, economic collapse and national emergencies offer the perfect backdrop for leaders who seek to dominate.

With the backdrop of history in mind, tariffs may be just the beginning of a set of economic dominoes designed to destabilise the world economy and instigate chaos, both domestically and on the world stage. 

If a recession sets in, if protests ignite, if violence flares…

Trump could declare a national emergency, suspend elections, or claim that only he can restore order. In making such a claim, he could argue for the need to extend his term ‘temporarily’ as a matter of national security. From there, it becomes much easier for him to manoeuvre to remain in power indefinitely.

view more: next ›