De-growing for survival

by Almudena Serpis

A Spanish activist.

Quick. Fast. Effective. These are becoming core values in the fast-paced race to fulfill necessities of people all around the planet to reach the zenith of wellbeing. But these future plans are crumbling in many ways, what is the hope for resistance?

Dennis Bushnell, chief scientist of NASA’s Langley Research Center said this month that bearing in mind this rapid growth, if we want to survive “we’re going to need three more planets.”

We live to consume, and we have made it very difficult to live without consuming, A LOT. Our goods in the developed countries are being manufactured in poorer nations, where people are exploited and nature resources whipped out under the hands of big multinationals. And there endless examples of this:

• Indonesia’s forest are disappearing to keep up the demand for palm oil, as half of the world’s palm oil comes from there. In 2008 Indonesia was named as the country with the fastest rate of deforestation by the Guinness Book of Records. This puts in danger the lives of animals such as the Sumatran tiger or the orangutan.
• In the Ivory coast, where 40% of cacao is extracted to make our delicious chocolate, children are being employed in child labour, as was shown by a BBC documentary.
• NGO’s all around the globe have condemned the infra-humane working conditions of people working non stop in factories in China, India and Bangladesh to cater for the fashion industry.

In an article by Indian eco-feminist Vandana Shiva tittled ‘ How economic growth has become anti-life’, she describes the most crude downsides of this steep growth hill. “when Coca-Cola sets up a plant, mines the water and fills plastic bottles with it, the economy grows. But this growth is based on creating poverty – both for nature and local communities,” she writes.

It is a grim picture but there are measures one can take to put a foot on the break to this wild consumerism under the concept of de-growth. The Slow Food movement for instance, which was founded in 1986, offers and alternative to eat local and consume within frontiers, promote local business and encourage community networks. The movement has now over 100,000 members in 150 countries.

Sharing this information and making people conscious about the fact that consuming can be a political act, can indeed have an impact. For this, there is a need to get together and initiate projects with others, connecting through the same desire to help build up a sustainable future.

A case in point in the town of Marinaleda, in the South of Spain. Whilst Spain is still immersed in the crisis Marinaleda is run under the principles of mutual support and direct action. There is a mayor in the town but decisions are taken collectively, even concerning minor crimes. They run fields that feed them and have strong community bonds. They are an auto-sufficient paradise living amongst a capitalist nightmare.

When I traveled to Mumbai, I was compelled by the poverty I saw around me, but breath-taken by the huge electronic gadgets people carried on trains. Immersed inside their own worlds, people all over the world stare at their screens, creating a world of their own, leaving aside face to face communication, unaware of the struggles around them.

Technology is a powerful weapon which, if used in excess, can lead to isolation and prevent bonding from real life experiences that make community projects prosper. And let us not forget about those who are left behind, unable to keep up. There is a obvious need for de-growth because it’s at the basis where we can all relate as equals and move together, merging with the nature that surrounds us.