Thank you for writing this posit. I think the degrowth perspective is quite needed in the EA community, which I often feel tends to be too optimistic about the prospects of technological progress improving wellbeing in the medium-run and the negative impacts of climate change on wellbeing and overall societal stability in the medium-run. Facing these challenges, targeted degrowth of certain sectors in developed economies seems like the best response. Especially since a Haber Bosch-style breakthrough doesn't seem likely, or hoping that one does happen seems unreasonable given the stakes.
However, I agree that degrowth doesn't is probably not very tractable. A massive shift in developed countries' political power structures would be required to implement the reductions in profit and redistribution of economic resources that degrowth implies.
Thank you for writing this posit. I think the degrowth perspective is quite needed in the EA community, which I often feel tends to be too optimistic about the prospects of technological progress improving wellbeing in the medium-run and the negative impacts of climate change on wellbeing and overall societal stability in the medium-run. Facing these challenges, targeted degrowth of certain sectors in developed economies seems like the best response. Especially since a Haber Bosch-style breakthrough doesn't seem likely, or hoping that one does happen seems unreasonable given the stakes.
However, I agree that degrowth doesn't is probably not very tractable. A massive shift in developed countries' political power structures would be required to implement the reductions in profit and redistribution of economic resources that degrowth implies.