The imaginary of Degrowth as the paradigm of true sustainability
Álvaro J. de Regil
The idea of degrowth is the only truly sustainable imaginary of social coexistence for it revolves around the sustainability of the planet and not of its antithesis, the market, as it is today. If we consume more than the capacity of replenishment of our planet, as it occurs in the market, then we have an unsustainable system. Hence true sustainability must be assessed solely in terms of the planet's capacity to sustain the replacement of natural resources vital for life and energy in the same proportion as our species consumes them and not in terms of increments in the production of goods and services.
For all these reasons Jus Semper deems essential to open a space devoted to the promotion and development of the Degrowth imaginary, specifically to strive to prompt, through its dissemination, awareness about the plight of Mother Earth as a direct consequence of the human activity, which takes place in a structural and systemic way in the marketocracy paradigm. This is an endeavour through which we hope that increasingly more people will come to see the enormous need for everyone to start taking responsibility for our own ecological footprint and strive to modify it to live in harmony with nature. In this sense, the idea of Degrowth proposes the best vision to move from the current market paradigm of infinite consumption to the paradigm in pursuit of the sustainable Welfare of People and the Planet, of the responsibly restrained consumption, and NOT of market welfare.
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