SERIES 5 WARDROBE CRISIS SHARE THE PODCAST MIC. YOUR GUEST HOST THIS WEEK IS NINA GBOR, AND SHE’S IN CONVERSATION WITH JASON HICKEL.

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ABOUT YOUR HOST: NINA GBOR is a Melbourne-based “eco-stylist”, sustainable fashion advocate and public speaker. 

EPISODE 135 FEATURES JASON HICKEL

Everybody's talking about degrowth. Does this mean we’ve finally woken up to the reality of climate breakdown and ecological collapse? Are we ready to challenge capitalism’s obsession with GDP and  perpetual expansion? If so, what’s the alternative? And how can we apply this to fashion, beyond simply "buy less"? How might we reimagine the whole system, and rethink how we measure success?

This week's guest is Jason Hickel author of Less is More - How Degrowth Will Save the World.

Jason is a rockstar economist (no grey suits here) focused on global inequality, political economy, post-development, and ecological economics. He teaches at Goldsmiths, University of London and serves on the Statistical Advisory Panel for the UN Human Development Report 2020, the advisory board of the Green New Deal for Europe and on the Harvard-Lancet Commission on Reparations and Redistributive Justice.

NOTES

JASON’S LATEST BOOK is Less is More, How Degrowth Will Save the World. From good bookstores or borrow from your local library.

The Kingdom of ESWATINI is a landlocked country in southern Africa. country Formerly known as Swaziland, it changed its name in 2018.

DEFINING KEY TERMS. From what is de-growth anyway to understanding GDP, here are the basics, plus further reading. To be distinguished from recession, DEGROWTH means a phase of planned and equitable economic contraction in the richest nations, eventually reaching a steady state that operates within Earth’s biophysical limits. Via The Conversation.

GDP is Gross Domestic Product. GDP growth is the goal of most nations, but crucially, it does not measure well-being. It’s the monetary value of all the stuff we produce and consume each year. The costs of economic growth are left off, such as the cost of losing environmental diversity. Some countries are introducing other indices that so measure well-being, such as Bhutan’s happiness index. 

PLANETARY BOUNDARIES are much buzzed about in sustainability circles, thanks in large part to the work of the Stockholm Resilience Centre. There are 9 Planetary Boundaries, including climate change, chemical pollution and ocean acidification. The system marks the safe zone of certain phenomena including biodiversity loss and the nitrogen cycle, both of which have already been crossed. 

EARTH OVERSHOOT DAY marks the date when humanity has exhausted nature’s budget for the year. For the rest of the year, we are maintaining our ecological deficit by drawing down local resource stocks and accumulating carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. While there’s a global metric, the data allows us to see where in the calendar the overshoot falls in different countries - no surprises that in the US, UK, and Australia, it’s much earlier than in Eswatini… If you dare, you can calculate your personal overshoot date here.

The WORLD BANK and IMF both came out of the post WWII peace keeping efforts. The World Bank works with developing countries to reduce poverty, while the International Monetary Fund acts as a monitor of the world’s currencies and as a money lender. 

G8 refers to the Group of 8, that is, eight highly industrialized countries comprised of France, Germany, Italy, the UK, Japan, the US, Canada, and Russia. They hold an annual meeting to discuss the world’s greatest issues. Russia was removed from the G8 in 2014, leaving the G7. 

“COLONIALISM, AS SUCH, MAY HAVE ENDED A HALF A CENTURY AGO, BUT THOSE OLD PATTERNS OF PLUNDER CONTINUE TO THIS DAY, WITH RUINOUS CONSEQUENCES. TO THE EXTENT THAT DEGROWTH IN HIGH-INCOME NATIONS RELEASES GLOBAL SOUTH COMMUNITIES FROM THE GRIP OF EXTRACTIVISM, IT REPRESENTS DECOLONISATION IN THE TRUEST SENSE OF THE TERM.” - JASON HICKEL

PLANNED OBSOLESCENCE is why consumer products need to be replaced frequently. Like, when that new toaster you buy to replace the one you had for a decade breaks in a few months. That’s done on purpose. It sucks, obvs.

NEOCOLONIALISM is the practice of using economics, globalisation, cultural imperialism and conditional aid to influence a country instead of the previous methods of direct military or political control.

MOVE OVER OLD BLOKES. We are witnessing the rise of women economists with big, modern ideas. KATE RAWORTH is a British economist and the author of Doughnut Economics, Seven Ways to Think Like A 21st Century Economist. She says: “to ensure that no one falls short on life’s essentials (from food and housing to healthcare and political voice), while ensuring that collectively we do not overshoot our pressure on Earth’s life-supporting systems, on which we fundamentally depend – such as a stable climate, fertile soils, and a protective ozone layer. The Doughnut of social and planetary boundaries is a playfully serious approach to framing that challenge, and it acts as a compass for human progress this century.” In 2020, Raworth’s theories became practice - implemented in Amsterdam.

MARIANA MAZZUCATO’s field is the Economics of Innovation and Public Value. She is on the UN Committee for Development Policy. The New Republic calls her one of the “three most important thinkers about innovation.” Find her here.

American STEPHANIE KELTON served as an adviser on Bernie Sanders’ 2016 presidential campaign. More here.

Beyond GDP. Talking of women thinking differently…New Zealand’s Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern (please, can we move there) along with PM of Iceland Katrin Jakobsdottir, and Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon have all added "well-being" to the metrics that measure their countries’ success.

To learn more about the circular economy, check out episodes 59, 90, and 91.

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Love, Clare & the team xx