Steady State Herald (CASSE Blog) – Center for the Advancement of the Steady State Economy

Has the Hunger-GDP Relationship Crossed a Threshold?

September 25, 2025/6 Comments/in Alix Underwood, Climate Change, Degrowth, Economic Growth, Food and Agriculture, GDP, Inequality, Limits to Growth, Poverty, Steady State Herald, Trophic Theory of Money, Wellbeing /by Alix Underwood

by Alix Underwood

The world looked poised to end hunger in the mid-2010s, after decades of decline in the percentage of the population that is undernourished. People often attribute progress in the late 20th century to the technological advances of the “Green Revolution.” However, the revolution’s costs and benefits, and their distribution, are hotly contested. Many experts instead point simply to economic growth as the primary factor responsible for poverty reduction and,

Introducing the Sustainable Population and Immigration Act

September 18, 2025/23 Comments/in Brian Czech, Economic Growth, Economic Policy, Governance, Immigration, Limits to Growth, Politics, Population, Steady State Economy, Steady State Economy Act, Steady State Herald /by Alix Underwood

by Brian Czech

A steady state economy requires, by definition, a stabilized population. If population is not stabilized, it won’t matter how much we try to conserve. Our consumption as individuals—“per capita consumption”—can only go so low before we hit the lower limits of mere survival.

Mere survival isn’t comfortable, much less fun. It precludes any political viability for keeping consumption at minimal levels. So, as a society concerned about sustainability,

Attempting a “SlowDown” in Stafford County

September 11, 2025/3 Comments/in Dave Rollo, Economic Policy, Governance, KEEP Our Counties Great, Politics, Population, Steady State Economy, Steady State Herald /by Alix Underwood

by Dave Rollo

Stafford County, Virginia, is one of the oldest counties in the United States. Unsustainable development threatens its agrarian culture and residents’ quality of life. Uniquely, the local government has tools to measure the negative impacts of growth. However, they continue to incentivize big-box commercial and retail development. They are changing zoning, extending infrastructure, and failing to increase impact fees. The county’s supervisors are serving developer interests, and a developer currently serves on the planning commission.

Remembering Peter Seidel: Philanthropist, Futurist, and Good Soul

September 4, 2025/10 Comments/in Brian Czech, Ideology, Limits to Growth, Steady State Economy, Steady State Herald /by Alix Underwood

by Brian Czech

On July 20, at the age of 98, a giant in steady-state philanthropy left the world he worked so hard to help. Frederick George Peter Seidel (1928–2025) played a huge part for small organizations like the Center for the Advancement of the Steady State Economy (CASSE). Peter was CASSE’s best friend, biggest benefactor, and broadest champion. His contributions ranged from academic and editorial to strategic and financial.

Without Peter,

Carbon and Canada’s Cars: “Business As Usual, Electrified”

August 28, 2025/3 Comments/in Climate Change, Economic Growth, Energy, Limits to Growth, Materials use, Steady State Herald /by Alix Underwood

by Bart Hawkins Kreps

Auto industry voices in Canada have made headlines recently by urging a longer timeline for the transition to electric cars. We should hope that Prime Minister Mark Carney does not give in to this demand.

Yet even if Canada’s federal government sticks to the current policy, and Canadian new car sales are 100 percent zero-emission by 2035, carbon emissions will decline much more slowly than the world needs.

Tucker County: “Yellowstone of the East” or Appalachia’s “Cancer Valley”?

August 21, 2025/9 Comments/in Biodiversity, Conservation, Corruption, Energy, Fossil Fuels, Governance, KEEP Our Counties Great, Pollution, Steady State Herald, Technology /by Alix Underwood

by Amelia Jaycen

In Tucker County, West Virginia, two towns with populations of about 600 each are nestled next to the largest high-elevation wetland valley east of the Mississippi. After a long history of coal mining and logging, these tiny mountain towns found a way to reinvent themselves by creating a thriving arts district and promoting the stunning local natural landscape.

Now, the area is at risk of backtracking into heavy pollution,

Dear Ecologist, Don’t Forget About the Economy

August 14, 2025/17 Comments/in Alix Underwood, Economic Growth, Environment, Steady State Economy, Steady State Herald, Trophic Theory of Money /by Alix Underwood

Opinion by Alix Underwood

The Ecological Society of America’s (ESA) Annual Meeting concludes today in Baltimore, Maryland. Of the dizzying multitude of topics on the agenda, the most prevalent were wildlife conservation, forest ecology, and climate change. Meeting sessions focused on niche aspects of these topics: threatened wader species on Sonadia Island, the effects of endemic mistletoes on forest-floor invertebrates, and the impacts of warming on interactions between plants and symbionts,

Greenwashing in the Amazon: Debunking False Green Solutions

August 7, 2025/14 Comments/in Climate Change, Corruption, Energy, Environment, Governance, Ideology, Inequality, Politics, Steady State Herald, Sustainability /by Alix Underwood

by Mauricio López

The concept of greenwashing has gained unfortunate relevance, especially regarding the energy transition. Greenwashing occurs when companies, governments, or institutions promote products, services, or projects as ecologically responsible, while minimizing or hiding their negative impacts. The inhabitants of the Amazon, particularly Indigenous peoples, are witnessing how greenwashing is not only problematic from an environmental perspective. It is also detrimental to human rights and social justice.

Renewable energies, such as solar,

Technocene Ground Zero: Counties Face Off with Data Centers

July 24, 2025/5 Comments/in Climate Change, Consumption, Energy, Fossil Fuels, Limits to Growth, Materials use, Steady State Herald, Technology, Water /by Alix Underwood

by Amelia Jaycen

In counties across the U.S.—rural and urban, democrat and republican—communities are living up close and personal with data centers. And the new neighbor is a real nightmare.

The number of data centers in the U.S., whether planned, under construction, or operating, is 3,897. This is by far the most anywhere in the world, and the number is increasing weekly.

We are hitting our heads on the ceiling of limits to growth.

Bottom-Up or Top-Down: How to Degrow the Economy

July 17, 2025/5 Comments/in Degrowth, Ideology, Steady State Economy, Steady State Herald /by Alix Underwood

by Vlad Bunea

To stop global warming, the 6th mass extinction, and ecological unravelling in general, humanity must degrow its ecological footprint very fast. We must degrow by 2–3 percent per year until our footprint falls under the planet’s biocapacity to regenerate itself. The only way to do this is to completely overhaul our growth-oriented, capitalist economic system.

There is a passionate ongoing debate in degrowthUK’s Prospects for Degrowth series about how to achieve this.