welcome to ontgroei, the dutch degrowth platform

Where’s the problem? The market-capitalist mode of production and consumption is caught in a double bind: its expansion disrupts natural systems and fails to curb growing inequalities, while slowdown destabilises the inner workings of the economic system itself. Some conveniently put population growth forward as the core of the problem, but this merely distracts us from the more uncomfortable necessity of examining our economic system.  Others continue to hope against hope that economic growth can and will  be decoupled from its ecological impact and will bring wealth to all.  However, their solutions are often merely symptomatic and obfuscate the fundamental contradictions between the goals of economic profitability, environmental  sustainability and poverty alleviation. To persist in denying these  contradictions will result in a process of involuntary and uncontrolled economic decline or collapse, with serious social and ecological costs. We assert that the current way of life based on on-going economic growth is utopian.

Read more on what degrowth is and why we need it on our 'about degrowth' page

photo credit: Klimacamp Leipziger Land | CC BY-NC-SA 2.0