Less Is More

Creo que este libro hace un buen resumen del trabajo de mucha gente, haciendo una buena labor de divulgación, accesible, hilando cosas y dándoles un orden, así que muy recomendable para que lo lea todo el mundo. Ya estoy pensando en personas a las que se lo puedo regalar.

Como puntos negativos, me hubiera gustado que tuviera más peso en las explicaciones el punto de vista de las mujeres. Por ejemplo nombra a Silvia Federici y se apoya en su trabajo de "caliban y la bruja", pero no he notado que haya permeado mucho el mensaje feminista, y me da pena que esa parte no la haya incluido tan bien como otras. Además, pone mucho peso del libro en la parte de generación de urgencia, para conseguir explicar un cambio de punto de vista a partir del cual se precipitan rápidamente una serie de soluciones, que son detalladas, pero en las que me gustaría profundizar aún más (mi expectativa). La consecuencia de esto es que si algunas partes ya te suenan, pensarás que no entra al chichote hasta muy avanzada la lectura.

Pero todo esto no le quita un ápice de importancia al libro. Las soluciones son claras, tangibles, y buenos primeros pasos fundamentados. Me llevo nombres de estudios, autoras y autores con los que profundizar.

Really readable introduction to degrowth. Covers the current state of climate change (which is, inevitably, pretty grim, but nowhere near Wallace-Wells), mentions the Anthropocene but then makes it clear that the term is misleading as it suggests we're all equally to blame. This segues into a history of capitalism through enclosure and colonialism which I found much more understandable than my previous attempts to read up on this. There's so much great stuff in here -- not necessarily new, but just well written -- about artificial scarcity and the growth imperative and the failings of GDP and so on. Also a nice discussion of ontology and the shift from animism to dualism, and how that makes exploiting the natural world seem, well, natural. The chapter on technology includes a disquieting explanation of BECCS and how that's the basis for so many mitigation plans, and also covers the problems of just greening growth by, say, extracting huge amounts of lithium for all the batteries we'd need.

The book turns much more positive/hopeful towards the end, as it points out how little value growth, past a certain point, provides for well-being. Really, it all becomes a matter of distribution and public services at that point, and that's what's missing under neoliberalism.

It's perhaps indicative of my experience of reading this book that I borrowed the ebook from the library and then realised that I'd highlighted about half the text! That might just be a failing in my highlighting technique, but I prefer to think that it's because I kept reading paragraphs and thinking "yes! that's it!".

Anyway, highly, highly recommended.

“We are not the defenders of the river. We are the river.”
— Fisherman, Magdalena River, Colombia

Core idea of capitalism: one not only has to always profit but also do it in an accelerating way. When one does not grow enough, it's an economic crisis. The movement of degrowth raises the arguments against this social imaginary. Always growing is irrational, with no basis, but more importantly it is fatally dangerous. Earth is a balanced system; humanity is one of the cogs and by massively exploiting the Earth's resources the balance is no more and the system collapses.Degrowth is about scaling down world production, as it's the only way to prevent the aforementioned environmental collapse. There are several pathways:1. End planned obsolescence. The lightbulb's life is the most famous example.2. Advertising. Manipulating people to make irrational purchases does increase the GDP yet it doesn't improve our well-being.3. Usership. Not every house needs a lawn mower every day.4. End food waste. 30%-50% of all the food that's being produced is wasted.5. Scale down eco-destructive industries. E.g. fossil fuel and beef.Undoubtedly, these pathways require massive economic and social restructuring. Countless problems, expected and unexpected, will arise. The author provides answers and solutions to many, yet, of course it could never be enough. Alas, it seems it's the only way to mitigate the sixth extinction.Looking back millions of years into the Earth system’s history there have been five mass extinction events. It looks like the sixth one has began.

“Recent figures show that around 85% of global fish stocks are now depleted or facing collapse. Haddock have fallen to 1% of their former volume; halibut, those magnificent giants of the sea, to one-fifth of 1%. Fish catches are beginning to decline around the world, for the first time in recorded history. In the Asia-Pacific, fishery yields are on track to hit zero by 2048.

Most of this is due to aggressive overfishing: just as with agriculture, corporations have turned fishing into an act of warfare, using industrial megatrawlers to scrape the seafloor in their hunt for increasingly scarce fish, hauling up hundreds of species in order to catch the few that have ‘market value’, turning coral gardens and colourful ecosystems into lifeless plains in the process. Whole ocean landscapes have been decimated in the scramble for profit.”

— Excerpt from chapter: Welcome to the Anthropocene

The book begins with a very succinct state of affairs on the Earth system. Hopelessness overtakes one's mind as the amount of suffering and death humanity has caused during the last 500 years is immeasurable. In exchange for what? Inequality in survival potential — caused by the few at the top. But, Jason's other book is a much more complete case for this argument: [b:The Divide: A Brief Guide to Global Inequality and its Solutions|32603498|The Divide A Brief Guide to Global Inequality and its Solutions|Jason Hickel|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1496341783l/32603498.SY75.jpg|53184514]When a constituent of a system does not play its role then the system’s collapse is inevitable. This is what happened a few thousand years ago, during the Austronesian expansion, when humans left mainland Asia and settled in the islands of south-east Pacific Ocean. Being accustomed to the huge ecosystem of mainland Asia, they didn’t consider that those small islands have a much more delicate life balance. Their rate of tree cutting and animal hunting were unsustainable, which lead to whole islands collapsing and being abandoned. However, the settlers learned from their mistakes. They understood how the ecosystem worked and did, subsequently, achieve a balance that allowed all organisms of the ecosystem to live.This is the challenge we are facing, only this time on a planet level rather than on a small island. Odds are against us. It will require global collaboration in an unprecedented level. It's one of the greatest collective challenges of all time. If one is looking for something to work on, this is a considerably attractive choice.The author says this is a book about hope. It’s difficult to apprehend that, especially in the beginning of the book. As it progresses, potential solutions are offered but their application and success do not seem likely.In the end, after having the whole picture together, one can finally understand. True optimism is not blind optimism. And true hope is not one without knowing the bleakness of reality. One has to know; and still venture into this high-stakes undertaking — not because they fear death, but because they are excited about life. This is why this book is about hope.---Also published on my blog: sirodoht.com/blog/book-less-is-more-by-jason-hickel/