Less Is More: How Degrowth Will Save the World

“For decades we’ve been told that we need growth in order to improve lives. But it turns out this isn’t actually true,” writes economic anthropologist Hickel (The Divide) in this impassioned treatise. Capitalism is fundamentally dependent on growth, and that growth is destroying the planet, Hickel posits. Degrowth, meanwhile, is “a planned reduction of excess energy and resource use to bring the economy back into balance with the living world in a safe, just and equitable way.” Hickel shows what this would look like in practice, imagining 30-hour workweeks, products made to last, longer life expectancies, and more time for leisure and care. He convincingly makes a case that Western societies believe capitalism to be “natural” and ingrained in human nature, and, on the flipside, he surveys countries that are granting nature legal personhood the way corporations have been: New Zealand, India, and Colombia, for example, have granted legal personhood to several sites, and anyone who “harms” the site can be prosecuted accordingly. Hickel effectively avoids doom-and-gloom, and his hope is inspiring: “We have everything to lose, and a world to gain.” Climate-minded readers will find this worth returning to. (Nov.)