These are the CASSE blog articles on economic growth.


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

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.


Dear Ecologist, Don’t Forget About the Economy

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,


No Steady State Economy with Global South in Debt Crisis

by Alix Underwood

This week marks the fourth annual International Conference on Financing for Development (FfD4). Leaders of governments, international organizations, and financial institutions meet in Seville, Spain, to “reform financing at all levels.” Global South countries and advocacy groups from across the world hoped this would be the moment for a UN Framework Convention on Sovereign Debt.

According to Didier Jacobs, Oxfam International’s Debt Relief Advocacy Lead,


Corporate Conservation Funding: A Contradictory Conundrum

by Kali Young

Apple, Cargill, Walmart, United Airlines, Chevron, BlackRock, Starbucks, Ford Motor Company, Amazon, McDonald’s, Sotheby’s…What do they all have in common? They are among many megacorporations that fund Conservation International, one of the most prominent conservation foundations in the world. World Wildlife Fund and the Conservation Fund, also conservation powerhouses, have similar though less expansive funder profiles.

Walmart and BlackRock are two of the world’s top deforestation perpetrators.


Economic Incentives for Genocide: The People Profiting from U.S. Military Aid to Israel

by Alix Underwood

Six months ago, a United Nations Special Committee found that Israel’s warfare methods in Gaza were consistent with genocide. The UN defines genocide as “acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial, or religious group.” The Special Committee pointed to the fact that Israel had dropped over 25,000 tonnes of explosives—equivalent to two nuclear bombs—on Gaza in just four months.


City Limits in the Hoosier State (Keeping Monroe County Great)

by Dave Rollo

Monroe County, Indiana, lies just an hour south of the state capital (Indianapolis), yet it retains a rural character. The gently rolling hills and farmland of the Mitchell Plain characterize the central and western portions of the county. Porous limestone bedrock (known as karst) imposed limits on municipal water resources until the late 20th century, when the Army Corps of Engineers created Monroe Reservoir.


Hacking the Business Growth Imperative

by Kali Young

“Despite its immensity, the Earth’s resources are not infinite, and it’s clear we’ve exceeded its limits. But it’s also resilient. We can save our planet if we commit to it.” – Yvon Chouinard, founder of Patagonia

In 2022, Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard took a bold step to make the Earth, in essence, the company’s only shareholder. Chouinard explained that he doesn’t respect the stock market and believes that companies become irresponsible after going public.


Saving Sledge Forest

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.


“Landman”: Hollywood Meets the Growth Dilemma

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,


Unlearning Growth: Reclaiming Higher Education for Sustainability

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,