Life on Earth is being decisively affected by climate crises such as
have shown numerous research (Grubb et al., 2022; López, 2023; Navarro,
2023; Readfearn, 2020).
The ecological crisis and climate change put life on the planet at risk. He
Degrowth is seen as the most effective option to avoid a possible collapse
ecological and learn to live more simply, so that others can simply
to live. No one, from a scientific point of view (not even in their right mind) can any longer harbor
There is no doubt that the capitalist system has caused, and continues to cause
causing a huge ecological crisis that threatens to destabilize all
basic balances of the ecosystems in which human life develops. Crisis
climate, contamination of aquifers and natural spaces, accelerated decrease of
biodiversity, daily coexistence of human populations with toxic substances
and pollutants, expansion of an urban fabric that is socially and ecologically unsustainable…
These are events that lead us to the need for an imminent radical readjustment between
human economic activity and complex natural processes and balances
manifest everywhere and introduce a sense of desperate urgency into the best
minds of our time.
Degrowth advocates reducing the global consumption of rich countries by replacing individualistic consumerism
Through strict regulation of production and emissions (with measures such as shorter working weeks, the right to repair and localisation of supply chains). Similarly, it advocates technological assistance as a means of Post-colonial reparations to the poorest countries (less responsible for climate change and more vulnerable to it) so that they can develop without having to resort to fossil fuels.
Degrowth is the deliberate choice to adopt a new lifestyle whose focus is on humanistic and environmental values.
Degrowth, therefore, is the deliberate choice for a new lifestyle,
individual and collective, which places humanistic values at the center: social justice,
close relationships, cooperation, economic redistribution, participation
democratic, solidarity, critical education, the cultivation of the arts, etc. The
Degrowth implies betting on new ways of life, where the common good prevails
for the individual good of a few.
360-degree turn and conflicts to mediate
Getting people to change our vision of the world in which we have been
socialized will not be easy and much less that the managers of capital accept
reduce their profits for the common good of all humanity.
Degrowth implies a change of perspective on reality and the International Trade and build new forms of socialization that prioritize people and not economic profitability. Education has to face this problem of individual capitalism and fight for the common good so that the world is fairer, more democratic, more sustainable and habitable. It is a great task that must begin in school so that in the future they have opinions and are not governed by the dictatorships of powers that do not respect diversity or democratic citizenship (Díez, 2024).
There are a series of questions whose answers trigger a series of conflicts where mediation in the different areas has a lot to say:
- How will we live? in a context where environmental resources are being reduced
- drastically by human action?
- Why do we need to decrease?
- Is it possible to have “quality of life living with less”?
- Is there a possibility of regenerating the socio-economic and environmental model?
- through alternative energies?
- Why, despite the fact that we know that they are unsustainable for the planet, are they still being used?
- implementing the private jet trips or cruises?
- Will we be able to replacing our attitudes towards the use of private motor vehicles and
- start using public transport more often?
- Can we? live without the continued use of social media, immediate access to
- Internet and streaming platforms?
- Why the Happiness is currently linked to materialism consumerist?
- Are we willing to decrease in order to continue subsisting as a species?
Without a doubt, the answers and positions with which these questions are resolved themselves
They themselves are generators of conflicts, which are addressable to a greater or lesser extent.
from a mediating process. What is certain is that the economic system and
consumerist system in which we currently live is, scientifically proven, unviable and
is leading us to extinction as a species.
There are studies (Komatsu et al., 2022) that argue the urgent need for a
progressive and gradual decline of current economic standards, which is not
leads inexorably to a long-term decline in subjective well-being, as
can analyze the way of life existing in societies such as the Japanese.
