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

Unsafe at Top Speed: “SAFE” Summit Shoots Off the Rails

April 10, 2025/1 Comment/in Brian Czech, Climate Change, Energy, Fossil Fuels, Ideology, Limits to Growth, Politics, Steady State Herald, Sustainability, Technology /by Alix Underwood

by Brian Czech

The 2025 SAFE Summit in Washington, DC, was anything but. Sure, the hallways of the Walter E. Washington Convention Center were free of hooligans, and the attentive staff kept the floors cleared of banana peels. Yet if your idea of safety is big-picture, long-term—as expected at an energy-security conference—you could have left the summit fearing for your children’s future.

The three main themes percolating on stage were “energy dominance,” “all of the above” (as in all forms of energy),

Peruvian Gold: Producers, Consumers, Lands, and Livelihoods

April 3, 2025/3 Comments/in Alix Underwood, Consumption, Degrowth, Environment, Jobs and Employment, Limits to Growth, Materials use, Pollution, Steady State Economy, Steady State Herald /by Alix Underwood

by Alix Underwood

When I say “gold mining,” what comes to mind? Perhaps you think of the 19th-century gold rush, with prospectors in suspenders swinging pickaxes and panning for gold in rivers. Maybe you envision industrialized mining, with terraced pits and heavy machinery. A visit to the Peruvian Amazon, where gold mining has surged in recent decades, transformed my perception of gold mining and miners.

I have the privilege of advising a team of Notre Dame master’s students—diverse in origins and expertise—as they work alongside a Peruvian NGO,

Saving Sledge Forest

March 27, 2025/7 Comments/in Conservation, Dave Rollo, Economic Growth, Governance, Limits to Growth, Population, Steady State Herald, Sustainability /by Alix Underwood

by Dave Rollo

Like many coastal communities, the county of New Hanover, North Carolina, is rich in habitat diversity. Its coastal plain is dominated by estuaries, marshes, and swamp forests and is considered a global biodiversity hotspot. The county is home to a number of threatened and endangered species, with mounting human pressures of a growing population and economy.

The county’s growth has accelerated over the past twenty years.

Introducing the Sustainable Taxes Act

March 20, 2025/5 Comments/in Economic Policy, Inequality, Money and Investments, Politics, Steady State Economy, Steady State Herald, Sustainability, Wealth /by Alix Underwood

by David Shreve

In a world where GDP exceeds our planet’s biocapacity, we badly need new economic policy. In particular, we need to halt the process of unsustainable growth and move toward a steady state economy. The critical question is how to do this while ensuring sufficient economic opportunities, employment, and income for all.

Technological changes are insufficient, despite holding some promise. Neither the agricultural “Green Revolution” nor energy use efficiencies have markedly changed the ongoing overshoot.

Introducing the Sustainable Budgets Act (Steady-State Style)

March 5, 2025/5 Comments/in Brian Czech, Democracy, Economic Policy, Governance, Money and Investments, Politics, Steady State Economy, Steady State Herald, Sustainability /by Alix Underwood

by Brian Czech

Let’s forget about the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and its questionably qualified quant for a moment. Regardless of their recklessness, getting to a sustainable budget is long overdue. Deficit spending adds to the public debt, a threat to the solvency of the United States. That’s why steady staters have long advocated for balanced budgets.

Furthermore, more spending requires a heavier ecological footprint.

“Landman”: Hollywood Meets the Growth Dilemma

February 27, 2025/1 Comment/in Climate Change, Economic Growth, Energy, Fossil Fuels, Steady State Economy, Steady State Herald, Sustainability /by Alix Underwood

by Owen Cortner

The new TV series, Landman, offers a window into the rugged world of the oil industry in West Texas. Billy Bob Thornton plays Tommy Norris, a “fixer” for an oil company, who roams the high-stakes territory of “The Patch,” a.k.a. the Permian Basin. Norris navigates shady deals and dangerous gambles, most of them highly cinematic (if occasionally thinly written). Packed with tension and drama,

Energy and Wildlife Conservation: A Two-Pronged Approach

February 20, 2025/8 Comments/in Alix Underwood, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Conservation, Consumption, Endangered Species, Energy, Environment, Fossil Fuels, Steady State Herald /by Alix Underwood

by Alix Underwood

At the 2024 conference of The Wildlife Society (TWS) in Baltimore, I was struck by the prevalence of one topic: low-carbon energy development. There were eight sessions with “renewable energy,” “solar,” or “wind” in their titles, and issues related to these energy sources permeated many other sessions. At a policy priorities meeting, low-carbon energy dominated the discussion, with professionals and academics from across the country sharing their unique concerns.

Winds of Change in Lincoln County

February 13, 2025/7 Comments/in Climate Change, Dave Rollo, Energy, Steady State Economy, Steady State Herald, Technology /by Alix Underwood

by Dave Rollo

Rolling hills and wide-open plains typify eastern Oklahoma. Gulf Coast and Canadian air masses converge over these plains, creating a near-constant pressure gradient called the low-level jet (LLJ). The result is perpetual air currents in the central U.S. “wind corridor,” which make the region ideal for wind energy projects.

The United States’ top five wind-energy producers—Texas, Iowa, Oklahoma, Kansas, and Illinois—form a southwest to northeast diagonal through the center of the country.

Unlearning Growth: Reclaiming Higher Education for Sustainability

February 6, 2025/1 Comment/in Corporate Reform, Economic Growth, GDP, Governance, Jobs and Employment, Limits to Growth, Postgrowth, Steady State Economy, Steady State Herald, Sustainability /by Alix Underwood

by Zachary Czuprynski

At the bottom of McGill University’s coat of arms, beneath the red shield, a scroll reads Grandescunt Aucta Labore— “By work, all things increase and grow.” Historically, mottos of higher education institutions (HEIs) symbolize the cultivation of virtues and moral excellence, often rooted in religion. Over time, however, this idea of growth in personal and moral development became tainted by the paradigm of economic growth.

Today,

At CASSE, Two Decades of Advancing the Steady State Economy

January 30, 2025/1 Comment/in Brian Czech, Steady State Economy, Steady State Herald /by Alix Underwood

by Brian Czech

Penning a 20th anniversary tribute for CASSE, the Center for the Advancement of the Steady State Economy, makes me at once proud, humble, and motivated. When you couple our iconoclastic mission with the fact that non-profits tend to fail within a few years, achieving the 20-year milestone is a proper matter of pride. Yet I am humbled by the immensity of the challenges before us and,