Governance Archives – Page 2 of 7 – Center for the Advancement of the Steady State Economy

Steady-State Talking Points for Democrats and Republicans

June 22, 2023/2 Comments/in Brian Czech, Economic Growth, Environment, Governance, Politics, Steady State Economy, Steady State Herald /by Gary Gardner

by Brian Czech

Limits to growth are all around us. Global heating, resource shortages, and biodiversity collapse are linked at the hip with stagnating productivity, inflation, and crippling debt. Little by little, citizens and politicians are waking up to ecological limits and the economic linkages.

The awakening is painfully slow for those who have long lamented society’s obsession with growth. After all, economic growth entails a growing human population and ecological footprint,

A Primer on Economic Growth and Biodiversity Conservation for COP15

December 1, 2022/4 Comments/in Animal Welfare, Biodiversity, Brian Czech, Economic Growth, Endangered Species, Environment, Governance, Steady State Economy, Steady State Herald, Sustainability /by Brian Czech

by Brian Czech

With COP15 coming up, it’s time to don the old conservation biologist hat and proffer a primer on the relationship between economic growth and biodiversity conservation. The last thing we want is a COP15 devoid of discussion about the fundamental conflict between growing the economy and conserving biodiversity. In fact, the 800-pound gorilla—GDP growth—ought to be front and center.

For the uninitiated, COP15 is the UN Biodiversity Conference,

Prospects for 负增长 Toward a Steady State Economy in China

September 1, 2022/10 Comments/in Climate Change, Degrowth, Economic Growth, Economic Policy, Environment, Governance, Politics, Poverty, Steady State Economy, Steady State Herald, Sustainability /by Brian Czech

by Yiran Cheng

China, as the world’s second-largest economy and a rising superpower, is an integral part of the discussion if a steady state economy is ever to be achieved at a global scale. China’s environmental impact grows by the day, yet serious consideration about intentionally slowing economic growth has seldom occurred, let alone the possibility of a sustained 负增长, the Mandarin translation of “degrowth”.

This is not to say China is oblivious to its environmental toll.

West Virginia v. EPA: A Setback for the Steady State Economy

July 14, 2022/8 Comments/in Climate Change, Corruption, Economic Growth, Economic Policy, Energy, Environment, Governance, Politics, Steady State Economy, Steady State Herald, Sustainability /by Brian Czech

by Sydney Lyman

Throughout the month of June, many Americans frantically refreshed the Supreme Court’s website each morning, as immensely important cases appeared on the docket in rapid succession. It turned out to be a disorienting month. The freedom to get an abortion was stripped from 40 million people of reproductive age, gun control efforts were stymied, and the separation of church and state in public schools was weakened.

The NRA’s Kuznets Curve: Deadliest Mind Game on Earth?

June 9, 2022/5 Comments/in Brian Czech, Governance, Politics, Steady State Herald /by Brian Czech

by Brian Czech

Herald readers were reminded last week of a concept called the “Kuznets curve,” named after the late Simon Kuznets (1901-1985) for his analysis of the distribution of wealth. Kuznets (rhymes with “whose nets”) found, more or less, that the maldistribution of wealth had worsened in the decades preceding the 1920s, and lessened afterward. He famously linked both trends to economic growth, noting different effects of growth before and after the 20s.

Morality in the Womb: More than Meets the Mass’s Eye

May 12, 2022/7 Comments/in Economic Policy, Environment, Governance, Politics, Population, Poverty, Religion, Steady State Economy, Steady State Herald, Sustainability /by Brian Czech

by Max Kummerow

With the recent leaking of the draft decision by the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn Roe v. Wade, the heated controversy over a woman’s right to abort—or voluntarily terminate—a pregnancy is again at the forefront of democratic discourse. At the heart of this debate are issues of morality and theology. Self-identified Christians make up 63 percent of the U.S. population, with Evangelical Protestants and Catholics representing an overwhelming portion of the “pro-life” camp.

Icebreakers in the Arctic: An Overlooked Environmental Concern

April 14, 2022/4 Comments/in Climate Change, Economic Growth, Economic Policy, Environment, Governance, Politics, Steady State Economy, Steady State Herald, Sustainability, Technology /by Brian Czech

by Johanna Cohn

Global heating has a greater impact on the Arctic than the rest of the planet. In fact, the Arctic is warming at a rate almost twice the global average. This is due to Arctic ice’s high albedo, meaning the ice reflects a tremendous amount of sunlight into the atmosphere. As the ice melts, the sea water absorbs more sunlight than it reflects. The resulting water subsequently warms and evaporates,

A Perfect Storm for Inflation: COVID, Loose Money, and Putin

March 10, 2022/6 Comments/in Brian Czech, Consumption, Economic Growth, Economic Policy, Energy, Food and Agriculture, Governance, Inflation, Jobs and Employment, Monetary Policy, Politics, Population, Poverty, Steady State Economy, Steady State Herald, Technology /by Brian Czech

by Brian Czech

The current bout of inflation should be no surprise to steady staters. We have national and global ecosystems pushed to the limits by population and economic growth. At the same time, we have monetary authorities and heads of state—neoclassically oblivious to limits—eager to stimulate the economy with loose money. It’s a recipe for inflation.

We tweeted all the way back in March 2020 that inflation was coming.

Ukraine: Putin’s Lebensraum

February 25, 2022/27 Comments/in Brian Czech, Consumption, Corruption, Economic Growth, Environment, Food and Agriculture, Governance, Inflation, Politics, Steady State Economy, Steady State Herald /by Brian Czech

by Brian Czech

People tend to think of Russia as a wide-open country with plenty of space for economic growth. While it may take days to ride the trans-Siberian railway, any notion of an empty Russia is as antiquated as Dr. Zhivago. European Russia, especially, has been cultivated, harvested, logged, mined, fished, and “developed” to the gills with roads, bridges, railways, power lines, pipelines, grids, towers, cables, dams, and canals connecting every industry under the sun to thousands of towns and cities plus tens of thousands of villages.

It’s Not Grain Putin Wants – It’s Water

February 17, 2022/15 Comments/in Consumption, Environment, Food and Agriculture, Governance, Politics, Steady State Herald /by Brian Czech

by Andrey Beregovskiy

For several weeks now, the world has been following the movement of troops on the Russia-Ukraine border with a question: What does Putin want? While the Kremlin cites potential Ukrainian membership in NATO as a casus belli, experts have been proposing alternative reasons for why Vladimir Putin wants to invade Ukraine. In a recent post, Brian Czech suggests that the most overlooked reason is the extremely fertile agricultural lands comprising much of Ukraine.