The 20 Control Knobs for a Post-Growth Future | Frankly 64
Jun 28, 2024
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Explore the 20 control knobs for a post-growth future, ranging from a hotter planet to shifting towards deeper community connections. Discover how to move from despair to awe and wonder by embracing reality and redirecting focus away from unrealistic tech solutions.
Embracing reality and deeper interconnection with community can help shift towards a post-growth future.
Focusing on turning 'control knobs' in our lives, rather than relying on unrealistic tech solutions, can lead to positive transformations.
Deep dives
Climate Change Impacts
The future is projected to witness a significant increase in global temperatures, leading to major consequences such as mass migrations and extreme weather events. With the temperature rising, the likelihood of a two to three degrees Celsius increase is probable, causing adverse effects on societies worldwide. This trend, largely out of human control, is anticipated to shape living conditions and prompt substantial population shifts.
Shift Towards Constrained Societies
A transition from freedom to constraints is envisaged, as societies move towards more regulatory environments due to factors like carbon emissions and resource limitations. The era of open societies and democratic freedoms may give way to increasing rationing, taxation, and regulatory frameworks. This shift signifies a reversal from the previously experienced high levels of individual freedom to a more regulated social landscape.
Economic Changes and Resource Scarcity
The global economic landscape is expected to undergo significant transformations, marked by reduced borrowing capacities, escalating debts, and shifting financial dynamics. The prevalent reliance on cheap borrowing for consumption purposes is projected to dwindle, with interest rates rising and credit access becoming more stringent. This economic evolution, driven by resource constraints and unsustainable practices, indicates a shift towards greater financial prudence and reduced reliance on borrowed funds.
In this week’s Frankly, Nate shares twenty different things to expect in the future, some which will be extremely difficult to influence but others which are in our control to change. From the forecast of an increasingly hotter planet due to the Superorganism’s insatiable appetite for fossil-carbon energy to a world of growing conflict and inequality, our tendencies are to despair and feel a loss of control.
Will moving from a world of consumption and power defined by money and social status and away from apathy and isolation be possible? What if we purposefully turn the ‘control knobs’ in our own lives to shift how we approach a post-growth future by embracing reality - instead of unrealistic tech solutions - redirecting our focus towards deeper interconnection with community and local systems? Which control knobs might we turn to fill our hearts and lives with goodness, awe and wonder?