Limits to Growth Archives – Center for the Advancement of the Steady State Economy

A Wave of Inflation from the Trophic Base

June 25, 2026/2 Comments/in Alix Underwood, Food and Agriculture, Fossil Fuels, Inflation, Jobs and Employment, Limits to Growth, Steady State Economy, Steady State Herald, Sustainability, Trophic Theory of Money /by Alix Underwood

by Alix Underwood

The United States and Iran are engaged in peace talks, and the Strait of Hormuz is at the top of the agenda. Meanwhile, the United Nations maritime agency is promoting an alternative route through the Strait. Several tankers have already used the new route, despite threats from Iran, which relies on the Strait as its main source of leverage. Traffic is still far below pre-war levels, and stability in the Strait depends on Israel ceasing its attacks in Lebanon.

Surprising Assumptions When Estimating the Ecological Footprint

June 18, 2026/5 Comments/in Consumption, Food and Agriculture, Limits to Growth, Materials use, Steady State Economy, Steady State Herald, Sustainability /by Alix Underwood

by Peri Dworatzek

Ecological footprint and biocapacity are derived using an accounting framework that quantifies economic activity in relation to the environment. Researchers have described this accounting framework as the supply (biocapacity) and demand (ecological footprint) of the biosphere’s regenerative capacity.

Many people and organizations around the world use these metrics to communicate and measure impacts on the environment. Some governments include ecological footprint and biocapacity data in their climate and biodiversity strategies.

Special Report: Introducing the Sustainable Monetary Policy Act

June 11, 2026/3 Comments/in Banking, Brian Czech, Economic Growth, GDP, Governance, Inflation, Jobs and Employment, Limits to Growth, Monetary Policy, Money and Investments, Steady State Economy, Steady State Economy Act, Steady State Herald /by Alix Underwood

by Brian Czech

The Federal Reserve System has more influence over the rate of economic growth—certainly nationally and arguably globally—than any other institution. When it sets the federal funds rate, the Fed affects the decisions of producers and consumers far and wide. When it lowers the rate, producers borrow more, from Midwest farmers to Silicon Valley techs. Likewise, consumers borrow more for everything from cars and houses to laptops and smartphones.

Chemical Safety Sacrificed on the Road to GDP

June 4, 2026/0 Comments/in Corruption, Economic Growth, Food and Agriculture, GDP, Kirsten Stade, Limits to Growth, Politics, Pollution, Steady State Economy, Steady State Herald /by Alix Underwood

by Kirsten Stade

Trump’s second-term regulatory rollbacks have already undone decades of progress in protecting public health and the environment. Not surprisingly, the safety of agricultural chemicals is among the casualties of this deregulatory fervor.

The president’s single-minded pursuit of GDP growth has meant ordering the production of more herbicides. It has meant intervening to protect their manufacturers from lawsuits, when those downwind get cancer or lose their crops. It has meant stacking his administration with former chemical industry lobbyists.

Overlooked Steady Staters

May 21, 2026/4 Comments/in Conservation, David Shreve, Economic Policy, Governance, Inequality, Limits to Growth, Politics, Population, Steady State Economy, Steady State Herald /by Alix Underwood

by David Shreve

Herman Daly provided the key scaffolding for modern steady-state economic theory. But he built on the ideas of many before him, including Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen, Daly’s key advisor at Vanderbilt University. The term “steady state” is often used to describe an economy where capital stock is steady but growth may persist. But Daly was clear that his steady state was a homeostasis beyond growth,

Charleston County’s Greenbelt Success

April 30, 2026/3 Comments/in Conservation, Dave Rollo, Economic Growth, Governance, KEEP Our Counties Great, Limits to Growth, Politics, Steady State Economy, Steady State Herald /by Alix Underwood

By Dave Rollo

Counties facing growth challenges can use a variety of tools in their land-use planning to prevent sprawl. One tool is a “greenbelt” composed of a ring of natural and agricultural land that is conserved to hem in urbanization.

Greenbelts have long been a popular planning method in Europe. Researchers at Concordia University compared 30 European cities with greenbelts to 30 without. They found decreases in urban sprawl in almost all of the greenbelt cities.

Measuring Ecological Limits: The United States and the World

April 16, 2026/5 Comments/in Climate Change, Consumption, Economic Growth, Environment, Food and Agriculture, Inequality, Limits to Growth, Population, Steady State Herald, Trophic Theory of Money /by Alix Underwood

by Peri Dworatzek

The science is clear: Our rate of economic activity is having disastrous impacts on the environment, starting with the climate so crucial to our survival. Economic activities require the use of natural resources and systematically entail pollution. Resources eventually get used up, as does the capacity of the planet to assimilate waste. We are reminded of Herman Daly’s long-running emphasis that the economy is a subsystem of the environment,

Blinded by the Light: Techno-Optimism in Overshoot

April 9, 2026/7 Comments/in David Shreve, Economic Policy, Energy, Fossil Fuels, Ideology, Limits to Growth, Population, Steady State Herald, Sustainability, Technology /by Alix Underwood

by David Shreve

Lovers of technology tend to love quantitative analysis. But when it comes to the accounting of Earth’s biocapacity and our ecological footprint, these same technophiles are often happy to ignore simple arithmetic. While increasingly rigorous and reliable, the “overshoot” accounting they dismiss does include some difficult-to-measure variables. It will always be imperfect.

But for many nearsighted techno-optimists, this is beside the point. They argue that modern scientists have engineered such technological marvels that we should only expect more,

Nuclear Safety Now Optional Under Trump

April 2, 2026/4 Comments/in Economic Growth, Energy, Environment, Governance, Kirsten Stade, Limits to Growth, Steady State Economy, Steady State Herald, Technology /by Alix Underwood

by Kirsten Stade

At the beginning of his second term, President Trump pledged a regime of aggressive deregulation to stimulate economic growth. Unfortunately he has followed through on that promise, claiming 646 deregulatory actions over the past year. These have aided industries ranging from slaughterhouses to automakers no longer bound by emissions standards under the Obama-era Endangerment Finding, which has now been reversed.

The energy sector has been among the foremost beneficiaries.

Struggling Against Sprawl in Rutherford County

February 26, 2026/1 Comment/in Dave Rollo, Economic Growth, Governance, KEEP Our Counties Great, Limits to Growth, Politics, Population, Steady State Economy, Steady State Herald, Wellbeing /by Alix Underwood

By Dave Rollo

Rutherford County is located in the central Tennessee farm belt. Its county seat, Murfreesboro, is precisely in the state’s geographic center, and it briefly served as Tennessee’s capital. But, because of greater commerce and superior roads, the legislature chose Nashville as the seat of power only a few years after statehood was granted in 1796. Decades later, Murfreesboro became a grim center of the Civil War. It was the site of the Battle of Stones River—a pivotal Union victory bought at the cost of immense casualties.