Photo caption: Greens celebrate consensus on divisive outreach plan. Left to right: Matthew Hutchinson, Bryan Lamble, Don Fitz, Morningstar, Kerry McMullen. Photo by James Grow.
The rain was pouring down as we drove from St. Louis to Columbia in the center of Missouri. I had a flash that years ago I would have thanked the rain for washing off the bugs from the windshield. But there were no bugs to wash off. Not one.
Evil incarnate
Degrowth is an absolute necessity for the continued existence of humans and millions of other species known and unknown by humans. But there are major barriers to accepting the obvious. In the US in particular, there is a quasi-religious obsession with economic growth which perceives degrowthers as the anti-Christ incarnate.
Second, for centuries progressives have struggled to overcome the fact that working people are often deprived of necessities of life, rendering it highly difficult to do what appears as a 180º turn by advocating that less be produced.
The other major barrier is the self-inflicted wound by degrowthers who portray it as “doing without” – without cars, without airplanes, without the latest software platform. A sermon preaching the virtue of self-flagellation wins few converts.
Stan Cox presents perhaps the best alternative to viewing degrowth as self-denial in his 2026 book Anthropause: The Beauty of Degrowth. The book celebrates how life can improve with the creation of less junk.
Instead of reading about degrowth as isolated individuals, what about sharing our thoughts with a group? This was one of our activities at the annual meeting of Missouri Greens. I kicked it off with an example from Cox: “Without bright light pollution, you could look up in a city and see something people have not seen for years – a city sky filled with stars.” Then, since our meeting room was chilly during the August summer: “Without over-air-conditioned buildings, you would not have to bring a sweater on a hot day to keep from being too cold.”
My final example turned to bugs: “Most folks drove here from St. Louis or Kansas City. If you were like me, you did not have to stop to clean bugs off your windshield. You would have had to do that 40 or 50 years ago. Why would stopping to clean your windshield actually be good?” Multiple people commented on the problem of declining insect populations. Matthew added that he remembered doing it only 15 years ago (rather than 50).
Water and war
Issues of water and war comprised a majority of contributions. Susan summarized very specific concerns about water: “The Earth has a finite supply of water, which is made available to us through the natural water cycle. Given enough time, water cleans itself through natural processes that we mimic. However, the various demands we place on water—including irrigation, sanitation, human consumption, cooling data centers, chemical manufacturing, and industrial processes—determine the length of time needed for reclamation to reuse water. Consistently demanding more water for growth from a finite global supply will inevitably result in decreased water quality due to rushed reclamation times.”
Morningstar added similar thoughts: “We need to heal water and land by reorienting economies to farming that meets the growing global need for healthy food and water, with attention to indigenous species, ecological diversity, and soil health.”
Barbara included water among multiple improvements: “Life would improve with a degrowth economy due to: less time spent shopping and purchasing stuff; less waste ending up in landfills; less energy used to produce things we don’t need; cleaner air and water due to reduced production; less time spent working to purchase things we don’t need; more time available for pursuing interests and for spending time with friends and loved ones; and, when it comes time to move, far less debris in the basement!”
Bryan focused on the Missouri’s geology: “Water wars in the U.S. will inevitably end in Missouri, due to the state’s copious volume of natural spring water (as a consequence of abundant subsurface limestone deposits).”
Sue linked water and war: “While past and current wars were fought over oil, future wars will be fought over water. We need to buy food grown locally and in season. Big corporate factory farms are using contaminated water on crops – someone eating a taco should not become infected with parasites.”
Rita also saw a connection between water and war: “As the cold war wound down people dreamed of how the ‘peace dividend’ could be spent; the Peace Economy Project came into being; Princess Dianna tried to rid the world of land mines. In the end, the ‘peace dividend’ was spent on low intensity warfare. We need to focus on climate change. We need to work with the ecosystem. We need to work with the beavers to repair waterways.”
digger noted the urgency to address militarism: “USA spending on the military and its use of petroleum is growing exponentially. To achieve degrowth, the military needs to be drastically downsized or eliminated altogether.”
Courtney also emphasized war: “We need a planned economy with an environment centered approach. For folks with jobs that need to go (ie, the war economy) they will need to be provided retraining, then given jobs in sectors that will help heal the environment and benefit society.”
Many concerns
Helen was one of several with a unique concern. “The center I go to charges $20-$50 just to donate a TV for recycling. I was amazed at how many flat screen TVs are dumped off there. There is a massive amount of printers that are not very old. And a few computers. Precious metals and wires are extracted from them. Plastic parts go to Ghana and Nigeria. We don’t see all the trash that is generated. This means more extraction. Reducing production would go a long way toward reducing war.”
Meghan drew attention to creativity. “Creativity is often seen as unproductive under capitalism, but humans are creative by nature. Degrowth would give people the time to think creatively/create, which would lead to more innovative ideas.”
Cris drew attention to human voices. “Degrowth would allow for human voices instead of ridiculous computer voices/menus when people want information or are calling to set up appointments for medical visits/procedures.”
Elston looked at plastic waste. “I suggest that we have a ‘Save the Environment Approach,’ by addressing reusable bags when we go grocery shopping and receive a 1% to 10% discount for reducing the price stores use to purchase plastic bags.”
Paul voiced what was on many minds: “The quality of all lives, animals, humans, and plants, would increase dramatically if chemical pesticides/herbicides were barred from use on crops, in gardens, and on yards and in parks and all public places. Native plants, flowers, flowering weeds, shrubs, insects, bees, pollinators, and trees, etc. are sickened and are dying in a cumulative way with year after year of applications. Humans and pets are getting cancers and other health problems from exposure and inhalation of the chemicals as they volatilize in the mists of the morning or day and float around to lie down when the mists dissipate only to rise again in the evening or next day.”
“These chemicals can stimulate allergies and sap people’s energy levels and can cause abdominal problems as these chemicals are designed to kill life when absorbed into plants through the leaves or when inhaled into human and animal lungs and/or ingested into the digestive system (killing the gut flora) through the mouth in food.”
New to degrowth
The session ended with a statement of mine that I have never seen in degrowth literature. “In a degrowing western society, caretakers would select the language spoken in a poor country that their child would begin learning by six months of age. This would mean, that when the child reached 14, 15 or 16 years of age, they could spend a year in a poor country where that language is spoken and live where oppressed people live. This would help them understand the need to transfer wealth to where it is truly needed. Few people in the rich world will grasp this need by reading about it in a book or seeing it on TV or social media. When Cuban doctors help those in poor countries while traveling on missions, they live where the poor live, smell the smells of poverty, and hear the agony of needless death. Living international solidarity would be the most fulfilling experience that rich world adolescents would have. It would be life-saving for billions in the poor world.”
Clearly, degrowth means many things to different people. The topics we addressed barely scratched the surface of degrowth. Some in attendance are avid students of degrowth; many are beginning to learn about it; and most silently listened to an idea new to them. But none said “I can’t advocate degrowth because the people I work with wouldn’t like it.”
Openly discussing degrowth can be a great activity both for those who think about it a lot as well as those who never imagined that life can improve with less stuff. Our group examination proved a great way to let a thousand flowers bloom in people’s minds.
Removing the ills of the old society is critical for survival but will come to nothing without provoking a cascade of ideas for building a new one.