I wrote some articles about degrowth ( here , here , here and here ). I always meant to write more but I also have another project called Climate/Housing and instead I wrote a series of articles there about extreme weather events . Then I got distracted by other things, like getting repairs done on my house. Now I'm back and here's what may or may not be the final post in my degrowth series. Back when I started writing about degrowth I observed that the idea makes perfect sense, but that its advocates don't seem able to outline a political pathway towards it. This is not to say that they are naive or disengaged - far from it. It is just such a fringe political idea at the moment that most people in politics and business (heavily intertwined in most societies including ours) simply ignore it. I don't want to be a hypocrite and write a pithy series of posts that are similarly impractical. I mean, at least Jason Hickel and Kohei ...
Catholics around the world, and many who are not Catholic, are mourning the death of Jorge Mario Bergoglio, Pope Francis, following his death on Easter Sunday. Pope Francis was responsible for many firsts. He was the first Pope from the Americas, and from the Southern Hemisphere. He was also the first Pope to take the name Francis, after Francis of Assisi, famous for his devotion to the poor and his teaching that God's love encompasses the whole of Creation. During his 12-year reign as Pope he tried to live out this example - living simply in the Vatican guest-house rather than the Papal Palace, washing the feet of prisoners on Palm Sunday, visiting and shining a light on what he called 'marginal places' where people struggled with poverty and oppression. Much of his teaching reflected this priority. No one person can rule an institution with a billion members, not even one as hierarchical as the Catholic Church. The church of which Francis took over l...