Less is More
REVIEW BY RICHARD PRICE: part two of two
In the first part of my review, I related how much of a revelation the book was for me, and in here I will discuss how the revelations kept on coming.
In the chapter ‘Capitalism: a creation story’ Hickel describes the dominant growth-based system. How did it come about that growth is seen as so beneficial? Why are governments so fearful of moving from a system that is literally killing humanity’s chances of having a future? Governments’ addiction to growth is delivering us both ecological and climate catastrophe. Why do they cling onto it? The book’s explanation of the history of capitalism is very different from the version I learnt in school. ‘Capitalism rose on the back of organised violence, mass impoverishment, and the systematic destruction of self-sufficient subsistence economies’ writes Hickel. The penny dropped for the second time and along with it my model of the world.
The realisation that we do not need growth frees the mind to ‘think much more rationally about how to respond to the crisis we face.’ Scientists have been informing politicians that the only way to ‘reverse ecological breakdown and keep global warming under 1.5 degrees Celsius, or even 2 degrees Celsius, is for high income countries to actively slow down the mad pace of extraction, production and waste.’ This can be achieved whilst reducing inequality and improving people’s access to the resources they need in order to live long, healthy, flourishing lives.
THE GREEN NEW DEAL DOES NOT WORK
Hickel adds that ‘nearly every government is now focused on GDP growth for its own sake which is justified by saying that GDP growth is the only way to reduce poverty, create jobs, and improve people’s lives’, and says GDP is more an indicator of the welfare of capitalism, than of social welfare. Long before we reach the limits of growth, we will plunge into ecological collapse. To survive we need to reorganise our economies so that they maintain the Earth’s life-support systems. We must limit growth. The IPCC came to the same conclusion, in their 2022 report.
Hickel argues that it is extremely unlikely that technology will save us. Additionally, we should not rely on the idea that ‘green’ growth will, if we do then we will suddenly find that it is too late. Hickel describes how the Green New Deal (GND) does not work because we need to ‘pump public investment into building renewable energy infrastructure at a historically unprecedented rate.’ The problem is that the GND has been repackaged by media pundits, who say that the GND means that the economy can keep expanding and that capitalism will be liberated from ecological concerns. This cannot be done in time, and the belief in perpetual-growth remains in place, resulting in twice as much extraction, consumption and production forecast by 2050.
ECOLOGICAL BENEFITS TO INVESTING IN PUBLIC SERVICES
Part Two of the book explains how degrowth could save the world, but we need to stop believing that ‘growth is responsible for the extraordinary improvements in welfare and life expectancy that we’ve witnessed over the past few centuries.’ Hickel debunks this ideology: ‘what matters is how income is distributed’ and ‘the extent to which it is invested in public services.’ One measure Hickel suggests is to invest in high quality universal healthcare and education which is inexpensive, ‘universal public services are more cost effective to run than their private counterparts’ and there are ecological benefits to ‘investing in public services’.
Hickel writes that there needs to be ‘justice in the South.’ The Global South can achieve strong economic growth but growthism hampers them. Hickel and his colleagues analysed data for over 150 nations and found that countries in the Global South ‘can achieve strong outcomes on every human development indicator by focusing on improving people’s lives.’ They can organise ‘the economy around the needs of humans and ecology, rather than the other way round.’ Currently, they are unable to do so because of debt. They need to be freed from structural debt adjustment.
Another powerful narrative that Hickel tackles is ‘that growth isn’t just necessary for human progress, it’s also necessary for technological progress.’ He argues that we don’t need growth to dismantle the fossil fuel infrastructure and replace it with renewables. The type of projects required will need public investment so as to switch from fossil fuel subsidies (costing $5.2 trillion) and military expenditure ($1.8 trillion), and move to solar panels, batteries and wind turbines. Public bodies funded many of the most important innovations of the modern era.
EVERYTHING IS CONNECTED
Hickel writes that we need new indicators of progress to replace GDP, and various alternatives are discussed in the book, and he describes two key principles for a steady-state economy: never extract more than ecosystems can regenerate and never waste or pollute more than ecosystems can safely absorb. The main critique of these two points has been that ‘people will see them as irrational’ however, he argues ‘it is exactly the kind of policy that people want.’ Hickel cites a 2014 Harvard Yale study showing that within a democratic system, one in which ‘the few cannot sabotage or collect to future for their own private gain’, people like to sustain resources for future generations. To navigate to a post-capitalist world we need democratic reform, as our ‘democracies are not actually very democratic at all.’
The final penny dropped when I read the last chapter, ‘Everything is Connected’, which describes how many indigenous peoples see the world quite differently to people living in the Western world. Some don’t actually have a word for the natural world or nature. They don’t see it as a separate entity. Many indigenous peoples also see the plants and animals as their friends and family. Of course, they have to eat, so they kill to feed themselves, but when they do there are rituals of respect. This is so different from the mindset introduced by Francis Bacon and Descartes, which are also described in the book. It is so much healthier for life on Earth. It is a powerful message and offers a way forward.
On the last page, Hickel describes an enormous 500-year-old chestnut tree that he looks upon whilst he writes. He wonders what the giant tree has witnessed during its lifetime and what it will see during the lifetime of future generations. ‘How will the rest of the story unfold? It is within our power to write a different future, if we can summon up the courage to do so. We have everything to lose and a world to gain.’
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