OMNI CLIMATE MEMO MONDAYS, #148, OCTOBER 9, 2023

OMNI CLIMATE MEMO MONDAYS, #148, OCTOBER 9, 2023

A Retrospective Assessment of The Limits of Growth.

Monthly Review Vol. 74, No. 5 (October 2022)

“Notes from the Editors, October 2022” by The Editors.

https://monthlyreview.org/2022/10/01/mr-074-05-2022-09_0/

This year is the fiftieth anniversary of one of the most influential, and also controversial, environmental studies ever written: The Club of Rome’s report, The Limits to Growth (New York: Universe, 1972) by Donella H. Meadows, Dennis L. Meadows, Jørgen Randers, and William W. Behrens III. No other environmental work of the 1970s offered such a direct challenge to the underlying assumptions of capitalist neoclassical growth economics or was responded to so vehemently by establishment thinkers. . . .
Various criticisms can be leveled at The Limits to Growth report, not least of all its failure to address the realities of capitalism as a socioeconomic system. . . .While it dealt with the rapid buildup of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, it did not directly address concerns associated with climate change, something that was to be rectified in later studies (See Donella H. Meadows, Dennis L. Meadows, and Jørgen Randers, Beyond the Limits [White River Junction, VT: Chelsea Green, 1993]). Nevertheless, the general message of The Limits to Growth is not to be faulted, namely that humanity, if it is to save itself, must enter “a period of great transition,” the “transition from growth to…a desirable, sustainable state of global equilibrium” (24, 180). . . .  MORE https://monthlyreview.org/2022/10/01/mr-074-05-2022-09_0/

POPULATION CONNECTIONS to CLIMATE CHANGE
Of all the reproductive health organizations, PC most grapples with abortion and contraceptives within the contexts of population growth and climate change.  Note its statement of purpose: “Population Connection is the national grassroots population organization that educates young people and advocates progressive action to stabilize world population at a level that can be sustained by Earth’s resources.”  In its magazine’s June 2023 number, President John Seager discusses overpopulation and urges reversal of growth through stewardship; the editor recommends population reduction in all levels of income, and reduction of consumption by wealthy people; an article by Naomi Oreskes carries the title “Eight Billion People in the World Is a Crisis, Not an Achievement,” and another by Olivia Nater is titled “The Disappearing ‘Lungs of Africa’: Deforestation in the Congo.” 

Yellow Dot Studios announced its debut with a satirical commercial for "Big Money." 

The filmmaker-producer team behind Don't Look Up launched a new climate-focused, "anti-bullshit" media venture Tuesday with a spoof advertisement for "Big Money."  The satirical video is the first offering from Academy Award-winning writer-director-producer Adam McKay's new Yellow Dot Studios, a nonprofit devoted to counteracting decades of fossil fuel-funded misinformation about the climate emergency.

"The climate is changing much faster than large swathes of our media are telling us, and there is no time to waste," McKay said in a statement. "Oil companies' horrible and destructive disinformation created decades of delay in dealing with climate breakdown. Yellow Dot's goal is to push back, whether that's through in-house videos, or videos for climate orgs and activist groups, to help get people involved and activated at a rapid pace."   MORE   Click on title or  https://www.commondreams.org/news/new-studio-pushes-back-on-climate-disinformation