We don’t much like the term “de-growth” - it feels counter-intuitive, in terms of humans’ ideas of themselves as developing creatures. But we do pay attention to those proposing measures that involve a contraction in the current toxifying economic models (while keeping a big ear out for positive alternatives).

We keep tabs on material from the de-growth advocate Jason Hickel, because his communications are both clear and well-researched (involving his own, mostly collaborative work). Hickel made a Twitter thread response this week to the US columnist Noah Smith’s Substack piece attacking degrowth - itself worth reading.

Smith’s key points are:

• The level of income in the North that degrowthers see as necessary to hit real zero carbon targets would be so low as to cause social revolt

• The level of central planning that degrowthers propose is simply not credible

• The extent of the sustainable infrastructure that we have to build to hit our targets is, in fact, economic growth

• "At its core, I feel like degrowth’s appeal comes from its implicit promise to recast genteel North European decline as some sort of grandiose world-saving moral quest."

We like the way that Twitter posts present their information, so we’ve (somewhat painstakingly) embedded Hickel’s thread below:

Your comments on Hickel and Smith’s pieces most welcome!