Décroissance, how much does it cost?

A collection of climate stories mostly

Photo by LSE Library on Unsplash

I noticed that this week’s Word of the Week in The Economist was décroissance or de-growth, if you prefer. I wonder if I start liberally populating my increasingly frequent conversations about climate change with have you considered décroissance, whether friends, there aren’t many, think I’m being more bombastic than usual or I’m clearly onto something.

It caught my attention for two reasons. One, I’ve started to explore de-growth as a valid alternative to armageddon and two, learning the French language, a very long term project of mine has had a recent rude awakening.

I’d been impressed with Babbel, my language provider of choice and how they’ve been supporting Ukrainians, learn a second language, typically English, German or Polish for free.

To add my own support, I signed up for one of their language deals, which I expect was probably the idea. Now I have to decide whether I want to continue for another year, at the end of this month.

Even though a typical week no longer includes the word work, I’m pleased to say, I struggle to fit everything in, especially now I’m writing a book. This is the most timid of creatures and even though I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the few dedicated hours I’ve been writing it, it scares easily when the debate in my head tries to organise priorities.

The French waned because je déteste the live classes, which seemed to consume a lot more of my time than the billed one hour sessions. I need extra time now of course, because I’m writing a book. Have I mentioned that?

The new burst of French energy is entirely down to Duolingo, a free language app, which you only pay for when the ads become too irritating and my immediate challengers and competitors, three of our children plus boyfriends, who have made it quite addictive.

Duolingo are experts at gamification. They’ve made learning French fun because they’ve tapped into my competitive nature. If I’m not trying to score more points than my family on a daily basis, I’m trying to top a current table of strangers. Only 7 gain promotion from a weekly league and there are still 9 hours to go. Time for another push to make sure my current third spot is secure and I leave the Sapphire League behind.

There is another good reason not to give up. Mrs H attends a weekly Saturday morning class at the Institut Francais, where the grown-ups go to learn.

The Economist article mentioned, was about a three-day, Beyond Growth conference held at the European Parliament in Brussels recently. It was filled with thousands of young, committed individuals who want to see change. They apparently filled the vast semicircular hall of political business, unlike a similar conference five years earlier, which had been confined to some pokey committee rooms.

The journalist was sceptical, citing the much bigger European issues which should take precedent over any theoretical de-growth strategies. For instance, how can Europe continue to fund the Ukraine against continued Russian aggression? How will the welfare state be financed as society ages and how can the best ideas to decarbonise the economy be turned into reality?

There was also a reminder that utopia may have arrived in Italy, if de-growth is the answer. Some regions are scarcely any bigger than they were 20 years ago.

I’d argue that many parts of the UK are in a similar predicament. The problem is, this isn’t some controlled de-growth policy where a fully employed population is reduced to a 4-day working week on the same healthy living wage, with scaled back output. These are areas shrinking because of lack of opportunity, caused by low to no investment and a government that doesn’t care, beyond the attention of an odd soundbite.

I spoke to my daughter, Iona recently, who has just finished studying in Baltimore. One of her courses was climate change. Her lecturer asked them to suggest topics which would be covered briefly during the semester.

She was surprised and slightly shocked by the lack of knowledge amongst her US cohort, when her suggestion of fast fashion was presented. Most had absolutely no idea what it was, that certain brands were responsible, or that 10% of global carbon emissions are attributable to fashion.

Now finished, she is spending a month exploring the US before her visa expires. Ideally, she wanted to use buses to save money and perhaps a car to explore locally, when they arrived somewhere.

With her older sister, Martha, they had successfully used an overnight bus service to get to New Orleans from Austin, Texas last summer. But the timetables are limited, not always direct and car hire has proved to be more expensive than flying. The cheapest way to get around, with limited time and budget, is to fly. This explains why she’s flown to Boston, will be going back to Texas in search of music before onto Atlanta and then back to Baltimore.

It’s a similar story to when she was at the university. The campus is a good 25 minute drive from Baltimore on a freeway. If you wanted to shop at the local mall, you either walked or waited for an infrequent, not particularly reliable bus service. Judging by the copious car parking at an impressively modern campus, many students, or more accurately their parents, had already dismissed public transport as a viable option. The only people taking the buses were foreigners and those who couldn’t afford a car.

Being more familiar with a European culture, it makes sense to me why décroissance is at least up for discussion. There is an awareness with a level of understanding that reducing emissions might well have to include consuming less. A post fossil fuel driven world in the industrialised west, will have to get comfortable with this, just as the rest of the world has always done.

That’s easy to say and impossible to imagine when you consider the culture and attitudes of Americans. Just consider their two party politics and what they purport to believe in. De-growth, where can I buy some?