The Myth of the Sustainable Society

Hello SOStainable People! With this small (and I hope compelling) post I want to leverage some of the key sustainability theories I've been learning throughout these two months of intensive courses to state the following: What we are doing is probably not enough to save our planet.

According to many proponents of the degrowth theory, there are two great myths behind the promise of sustainable growth.

The first myth coincide with the claim that we are in the midst of an energy transition.

It's true that renewable energies are being used more and more, and their cost has dropped in recent years. However, there is a small problem. Traditional energy sources, like oil and gas, are still dominant. In fact, we are not really replacing them, as we are just adding new sources to the mix, resulting in an overall increase in global energy consumption.

The second myth is the belief that energy efficiency will solve everything.

There are innovations that seem designed to reduce energy consumption. However, just 65 emails emit as much carbon dioxide as that produced by a car traveling one kilometer, due to the energy consumption of the entire chain, such as servers. There is what is called the rebound effect theory. When you improve the efficiency of a technology, you often end up using it more, increasing the overall associated consumption. For example, in the past, the introduction of more efficient steam engines led to greater coal consumption. The same is happening today in various sectors. LED light bulbs are indeed more efficient, but they are used much more. Therefore, in the economic world, some argue that green capitalism is a nice fairy tale. For them, the only way would be to reduce consumption, to change our habits, to somehow slow down, and thus degrow.

Do you think this theory makes sense or not? Feel free to leave a comment so that we can initiate a collective and stimulating discussion on this :)

Bibliography:

• Kennedy, 2024, Sustainable Degrowth, Asynchronous Session on Canvas

• Science Focus. (2020). The thought experiment: What is the carbon footprint of an email? BBC Science Focus. https://www.sciencefocus.com/planet-earth/the-thought-experiment-what-is-the-carbon-footprint-of-an-email