One of the consequences of the recent and continuing economic crisis is the emerging or strengthening of alternative actions and views, although not necessarily new. Some of these voices to some extent complementary, derived mainly from research institutions and activist groups in Western Europe, expressed through a new concept of lifestyle, the one of degrowth. Degrowth is the (new) revolutionary theory which claim to alleviate the negative consequences of the current “economic” system and to create a new, sustainable and “friendly world”. Degrowth theory claims that as a development and growth causes political, economic and environmental crises, does not constitute as part of the solution for the global challenges but part of the problem. …show more content…
The degrowth thus is a shift from the logic of consumerism to a sustainable economic development, as individuals and as a whole, and to propose a society more environmentally sustainable and socially equitable, based to a different value system. The term is thus used more symbolically, in order to challenge and oppose the absurd view that not only we can, but must sustain economic growth to solve the multifaceted problems of society and the environment, which have possessed the minds of modern capitalist societies. (D’Alisa et all, …show more content…
Increased efficiency, which essentially suggest green technological innovations are of course welcome but something not enough. One of the main arguments for this is that green technologies although it can reduce the use of energy and materials per product, in a neoliberal capitalist system like the current one, the increased efficiency of these products leads to drops in prices and hence their overuse (rebound effect), resulting in the figures of absolute energy consumption and raw materials in the world today to be the largest in human history, and trends to remain upward. Equally beneficial to the environment could be and the transition to an economy of service. However, recent history is hardly encouraging that such a transition is possible, at least to the extent required, particularly in a system that demands the continuous growth in order not to collapse. The turn to a green rhetoric does not offer a solution. The point is to promote a different model of production in which the product is durable, it is sold without packaging, or might not even sold if it does not serve an essential need. The bet is not to create 1000 new "green" jobs to combat pollution (which own their existence to the degradation of the environment!) but the formation of social structures and investment in technologies that will stop pollution from the start.