Effects of growth/degrowth in short term and long term
What you call “economic growth” I would call it “consumption growth and resources degrowth”. The consumption growth has a positive effect in the short term while the resources depletion and ecosystems degradation have a negative effect in the long term. Therefore, I prefer to talk about growth/degrowth as both consumption growth (GDP) and resources degrowth goes together.
Recent consumption growth rate is correlated with many good things, as you show in several charts. But this short-term improvement based on huge material and energy consumption is reducing drastically the opportunities for future beings. If we would plot the evolution of minerals, energy resources and ecosystems available for future generations what we would see is a rapid degrowth in the last decades.
In my mind the focus of the 4 person-year research about growth should be on how to replace GDP as a misleading KPI by other KPIs which take into account the future. My only concern is whether 4 people will really add something, as the UN report they already have >100 people working in a concept https://seea.un.org/ecosystem-accounting
Effects of growth/degrowth in short term and long term
What you call “economic growth” I would call it “consumption growth and resources degrowth”. The consumption growth has a positive effect in the short term while the resources depletion and ecosystems degradation have a negative effect in the long term. Therefore, I prefer to talk about growth/degrowth as both consumption growth (GDP) and resources degrowth goes together.
Recent consumption growth rate is correlated with many good things, as you show in several charts. But this short-term improvement based on huge material and energy consumption is reducing drastically the opportunities for future beings. If we would plot the evolution of minerals, energy resources and ecosystems available for future generations what we would see is a rapid degrowth in the last decades.
In my mind the focus of the 4 person-year research about growth should be on how to replace GDP as a misleading KPI by other KPIs which take into account the future. My only concern is whether 4 people will really add something, as the UN report they already have >100 people working in a concept https://seea.un.org/ecosystem-accounting