I invited Richard Tibbetts, Communications Specialist for the Center for the Advancement of the Steady State Economy (CASSE), to write a guest post because I was impressed with CASSE’s steadystate.org Website, and saw writer David Orr on the Executive Board. It seems CASSE Mission’s second point of “promoting the steady state economy as a desirable alternative to economic growth” is nearly impossible, but I like what Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Fridtjof Nansen, known for helping hundreds of thousands of refugees, said to a group at the 1925 League of Nations, “the impossible is that which takes a little longer.” I respect CASSE’s vision, team, and work, and, in a related matter, I chose Manfred Max-Neef as the top economist in my Updated Best Practices for Climate Crisis. Please visit CASSE’s podcast The Steady Stater, and share on social media, to help speed inevitable change global governments will make, or be forced to make, at a greater loss of biodiversity than necessary.
For the Sake of Our Only Planet: A Nonprofit’s Fight Against Economic Growth by Richard Tibbetts
What do most economic publications, forums, and scholars
have in common? A fixation with endless GDP growth. Mainstream, neoclassical
economics posits that an economy can grow infinitely and that this growth is
always desirable. In other words, the higher the GDP, the better off society
becomes.
Unfortunately, proponents of this view ignore the reality
that all economies are undergirded by a finite ecological base. As an economy
expands, it requires evermore natural resources — such as timber, soil, water,
oil, metals, plants, and animals — to sustain its growing size. This ecological
structure guarantees that the more an economy grows, the more damage it
inflicts on the environment.
Leading the fight against GDP growth is the Center for the
Advancement of the Steady State Economy (CASSE), a small non-profit in
Arlington, Virginia. Environmental protection is at the core of CASSE’s
educational mission. However, instead of leading with a message of recycling or
clean energy, CASSE advocates for a steady state economy with stabilized
population and consumption, not just in some vague manner but as an explicit
policy goal.
In 2003, CASSE founder and current Executive Director Brian
Czech created the nonprofit to counter the fallacious and dangerous rhetoric
that “there is no conflict between growing the economy and protecting the
environment.” The “win-win rhetoric,” as
Czech calls it, was prominent in American politics and even within the U.S.
government. Czech was serving in the headquarters of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service and had been prohibited from speaking on the conflict between growth
and wildlife conservation. This prohibition was the impetus for the
establishment of CASSE.
Czech’s efforts are rooted in the growing field of
ecological economics, which recognizes that economic activity is inextricably
linked to — and limited by — the natural world. He asserts, “Mainstream
economists with no background in the environmental sciences continue to promote
the fallacy of perpetual GDP growth. It’s about time that fallacy is
challenged.” In recent years, a sizeable number of CASSE advocates — better
known as “steady staters” — have formed in countries around the world, but
Czech still faces an uphill battle convincing those in power to adopt his line
of thinking. “Pro-growth rhetoric is the status quo in economics, business, and
politics,” says Czech.
CASSE seeks to disrupt the status quo by creating a
groundswell of public support for a steady state economy through multiple
educational outlets. For example, the nonprofit posts high-quality weekly
articles to its blog, The Steady StateHerald, publishes books out of its inhouse publishing company, Steady State Press, and shares daily
steady-state content on its social media pages.
Most recently, CASSE added a new public education tactic to
its arsenal: The Steady Stater
podcast, hosted by Czech and produced by CASSE Communications Specialist Rick
Tibbetts. The podcast covers a range of topics, including limits to GDP growth,
the implications of a steady state economy, salient current events, sustainable
solutions, and the burgeoning degrowth movement. Most episodes feature guest
appearances from prominent steady staters, like the current Secretary of State
of Wisconsin Doug LaFollette and CEO of the Global Footprint Network Laurel
Hanscom. New episodes air Mondays at 8 a.m. Eastern Standard Time (EST) and are
available for streaming on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, iHeart
Radio, and the CASSE website.
You can help make CASSE’s vision a reality by following the The Steady Stater, signing its online
position statement, and becoming a member. Structural change does not come
easily, but with your support, CASSE can achieve a smarter, fully sustainable
economy for the betterment of our planet — and the people who have no other
planet to occupy.
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