We’re bringing together leading economists, writers and activists to unpick a number of the best questions of our times. How will we regenerate our economies, what would a future without fossil fuels seem like, and the way will we localise our supply chains to fairly distribute wealth?
The SMALL IS THE FUTURE event is going down on Saturday, 17 June 2023 on the Paintworks, Bristol. Buy tickets here. If you desire to attend the event but cannot afford a ticket email brendan@theecologist.org.
We do understand that these questions are enormous, ridden with complexities, and that there are not any overnight solutions, actually not ones that will probably be solved within the short space of a day event. And yet we hope that SMALL IS THE FUTURE will probably be a reference point, a way of navigating our way through the chaos of climate breakdown.
We’re proud to host a distinguished panel of economists, including Ann Pettifor, renowned economist and creator of the influential book The Case for a Green Latest Deal; James Meadway, economist and co-author of The Cost of Living Crisis (and learn how to get out of it); and Satish Kumar, the editor emeritus of Resurgence & Ecologist magazine, and a founding father of Schumacher College.
Salt
In the course of the cost-of-living crisis, global energy giants have been raking in soaring profits. Shell reported record-breaking earnings of virtually US$40 billion for the complete yr of 2022, almost double those of 2021. If that isn’t enough salt within the wound, Exxon Mobil reported US$56 billion in annual profit, a record for the corporate.
We live in times of unprecedented economic inequality, driven by the greed of a number of – accumulating wealth at the associated fee of all living systems on the planet.
It has been calculated that 47.8 per cent of worldwide household wealth is within the hands of just 1.2 per cent of the world’s population, based on a latest Credit Suisse report. I could keep throwing statistics around, but I believe all of us get the purpose.
It was the identical point E.F. Schumacher had made back within the Nineteen Seventies, when the concept of ‘small is gorgeous’ worked as an antidote to the capitalistic philosophy of ‘big is best’.
Schumacher looked towards a future powered by renewable energy, localised supply chains and an economy that is predicated on nature’s regenerative ways, which Schumacher coined as ‘economy of permanence’. That’s, the state of lasting, of being a viable solution to sustain life on earth for generations to return.
Radical
It’s no surprise that young people, particularly those in the worldwide south, recognise the climate emergency and feel fearful concerning the future.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change emphasises that by 2040, climate breakdown will result in quite a few risks to natural and human systems if we proceed on a path towards a worldwide temperature rise of 1.5 degrees Celsius.
But what would a just transition away from fossil fuels seem like? Is the Green Latest Deal radical enough to create the elemental change that we’d like? As activists in these current times, do we have now the talents, knowledge and drive to assist us navigate the unprecedented human and ecological catastrophe.
It’s clear that whilst we’re in a position to discover the issues, it’s harder to provide you with solutions. We hope SMALL IS THE FUTURE will probably be a place to begin. We welcome all who’re curious to learn concerning the ways during which the present destructive financial system may very well be turned on its head to learn all.
We hope to see you on Saturday, 17 June 2023 on the Paintworks – where we’ll be discussing what a smaller future might seem like, and the way we’re going to get there.
This Writer
Yasmin Dahnoun is assistant editor at The Ecologist. Buy tickets here. The SMALL IS THE FUTURE event is going down on Saturday, 17 June 2023 on the Paintworks, Bristol. Speakers include Dr Ann Pettifor, Charlie Hertzog Young, Satish Kumar, Professor Herbert Girardet and Gareth Dale. Buy tickets here. If you desire to attend the event but cannot afford a ticket email brendan@theecologist.org.
