Politics Archives – Page 3 of 7 – Center for the Advancement of the Steady State Economy

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.

Signs of LIFE: Assessing the European LIFE Programme

February 4, 2022/1 Comment/in Biodiversity, Climate Change, Consumption, Economic Growth, Economic Policy, Energy, Environment, Governance, Politics, Steady State Economy, Steady State Herald, Sustainability /by Brian Czech

by Adel Ramdani

In November 2021, the European Commission approved an investment package of €290 million to support 132 new environmental projects through L’Instrument Financier pour l’Environnement, or the “LIFE” programme. LIFE is designed to help reach the environmental goals outlined in the EU Green Deal, and it’s the only EU funding programme entirely dedicated to environmental, climate, and clean energy objectives. With certain adjustments, it could be more aligned with steady-state principles.

Putin the Practical Wants Ukraine Grain

January 27, 2022/19 Comments/in Brian Czech, Climate Change, Environment, Food and Agriculture, Governance, Inflation, Politics, Steady State Herald /by Brian Czech

by Brian Czech

Pundits, think tanks, and politicians are asking, “What does Putin want with Ukraine?” If you’re familiar with Ukraine’s flag—especially the bottom half—you’re halfway to the answer.

But let’s start with the conventional wisdom. Yes, Putin wants to pressure the West into preventing Ukraine from joining NATO, thereby keeping the alliance off Russia’s doorstep. Russia’s natural gas transmission to Europe would be a lot more profitable if they didn’t have to pipe the gas through tariff-charging Ukraine,

True Conservation: A 21st Century Vision for the Next Director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

January 13, 2022/4 Comments/in Animal Welfare, Biodiversity, Brian Czech, Climate Change, Economic Growth, Economic Policy, Endangered Species, Energy, Environment, Governance, Jobs and Employment, Politics, Steady State Economy, Steady State Herald, Sustainability /by Brian Czech

by Brian Czech

The 21st century challenges to wildlife conservation are unprecedented. The ecological integrity of the nation and planet is unravelling before our eyes. Species and ecosystems are disappearing, if not immediately off the face of the planet, then via slow, dead-end emigrations as they respond to climate change.

It’s not as if climate change was needed to imperil fish and wildlife. Climate change is actually the fourth major crisis in the past 150 years.

A Place for a Steady State in the EU Green Deal

January 6, 2022/2 Comments/in Biodiversity, Climate Change, Consumption, Degrowth, Economic Growth, Economic Policy, Energy, Environment, Governance, Jobs and Employment, Politics, Population, Steady State Economy, Steady State Herald, Sustainability /by Brian Czech

by Adel Ramdani

The European Green Deal, the EU’s flagship environmental program, aims to profoundly transform the EU’s 27 member states into low-carbon economies. The deal was rolled out in December 2019 by Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission. It’s supposed to be a roadmap toward a “fair and prosperous society” with an economy that is modern, resource-efficient, and competitive. So far, so good? Let’s take a deeper dive.

Biden’s Black Swan: New Oil Leasing is Bound to End in Disaster

December 9, 2021/2 Comments/in Animal Welfare, Climate Change, Economic Growth, Economic Policy, Energy, Environment, Governance, Politics, Steady State Economy, Steady State Herald, Sustainability /by Brian Czech

by Taylor Lange

The USA is well acquainted with disastrous crude oil accidents. Eleven years ago an explosion on the Deepwater Horizon oil platform killed 11 workers, injured 17 more, and discharged roughly 4.6 million barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico. The incident cost BP more than $65 billion to clean up, destroyed thousands of acres of ocean reefs, and killed thousands of marine animals. Just over two decades prior,

Resisting the Temptation of Growth at the County Level

November 19, 2021/1 Comment/in Economic Growth, Economic Policy, Environment, Food and Agriculture, Governance, Jobs and Employment, Monetary Policy, Politics, Population, Steady State Economy, Steady State Herald, Sustainability /by Brian Czech

by Daniel Giles

Across the USA, a battle for the souls of rural counties is being waged. The battle is fought not in major news outlets, but in local government meetings and the opinion columns of local newspapers. Despite the lack of national coverage, the cumulative outcome of these localized conflicts will change the American landscape for generations to come.

This monumental battle is between those fighting for growth—or “development” as some use interchangeably—and those who strive to conserve the current character of counties.

Pope Francis and the Steady State Economy

October 28, 2021/4 Comments/in Consumption, Economic Growth, Economic Policy, Environment, Governance, Politics, Poverty, Religion, Steady State Economy, Steady State Herald, Sustainability /by Brian Czech

by Brian Snyder

Let’s play a game of “who said it.” I’ll give you quotes from either For the Common Good (by Herman Daly and John Cobb), or Let Us Dream (by Pope Francis). You guess who wrote it:

“…in the wealthier parts of the world, the fixation with constant economic growth has become destabilizing, producing vast inequalities and putting the natural world out of balance.”
“Then ‘God’ became redundant and disappeared.

Facebook and Its Religion of Growth

October 22, 2021/5 Comments/in Consumption, Corporate Reform, Corruption, Economic Policy, Governance, Politics, Religion, Steady State Herald, Technology /by Brian Czech

by Taylor Lange

There was a time when I dreamt of working at Facebook. I was less intrigued by the software development side than with studying the exchange of information and the cultural evolution occurring through online social networks. One of my research interests is how individuals learn to act cooperatively and acquire new preferences. What better place is there to do that than at the largest online social media platform?

Since joining Facebook in 2009,