Mother Pelican
A Journal of Solidarity and Sustainability

Vol. 21, No. 5, May 2025 Luis T. Gutiérrez, Editor

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Chaotic Transition from Growth to Post-Growth This month marks the 10th anniversary of the encyclical Laudato Si', on care of the planet and integral ecology. October will mark the 5th anniversary of the encyclical Fratelli Tutti on solidarity and integral human development. Given that in terms of energy and other natural resources we are running out of low hanging fruit, and given the long human history of land/resource wars, we would do well to reflect on what kind of transition, from growth to post-growth, we want to have. The future is unknown, but we do know that infinite population/consumption growth on a finite planet is a biophysical impossibility. Insatiable greed is not a promising option. Gratitude and cooperation would be wiser and much better than trying to control resources by brute force and neglecting cooperative mitigation initiatives to reduce human suffering as much as possible. Welcome to the chaotic transition from growth to de-growth to post-growth. This edition is dedicated to Pope Francis, + 21 April 2025, champion of the poor and the planet. 10th Anniversary of Laudato Si' on Care of the Planet and Integral Ecology 5th Anniversary of Fratelli Tutti on Solidarity and Integral Human Development Nature One Database Cycles of Gaia Ecological Calendar CONTENTS Significant Research and Forthcoming Events Future Sustainability: Ten Systemic Challenges Outlined Clifton Ware Rethinking Science, Reclaiming Wisdom Art Berman A Different "Abundance Agenda": Avoiding Delusions and Diversions Robert Jensen Collapse: What Would Grok Do? Ugo Bardi The Collapse of the American Empire Ugo Bardi Crapitalism: Psychoanalysis and the Profit Motive James K. Rowe Maximum Power Principle, Minimum Human Awareness Art Berman Pro-Growth Future Visions ~ Modernity's Pro-growth Influences, Ecomodernism, Green Growth, and Techno-Utopianism Clifton Ware De-Growth ~ Transitional Future Visions ~ Post-Capitalism, Eco-socialism, Simplicity, Prospective De-Growth Impacts Clifton Ware Appalachia, Country Music, and American Politics Brian Lloyd America First: Can It Be Squared With Proposed 'Annexation' of Greenland, Canada, and the Panama Canal? Kurt Cobb Trump, Tariffs, Canada, and the Politics of Discontent Andrew Nikiforuk The End of Big Solutions Richard Heinberg A Guide to the 4 Minerals Shaping the World's Energy Future Jake Bittle The Growing Inequality Among Countries and the Worsening Climate Crisis John Feffer Racing Toward Collapse: How Our Fear of Limits Drives Us Off A Cliff Daniel Netzl The Structure of Geopolitical Revolutions Art Berman Is 100 Years of Cheap Food Coming to an End? Gunnar Rundgren Peak and Fall: The Global Population Reversal Unfolds Ugo Bardi The Threat That Shall Not Be Named Erik Assadourian How People Get Ready ~ Building the Commons in Working-class Communities Is Key to Collapse Preparation Jem Bendell Guide to Becoming an Environmental Leader and Inspiring the Next Generation of Eco-Defenders Sam Davis The People's Network for Land and Liberation Is Building Alternatives to the Current 'War-and-Empire Global Economy' Damon Orion Significant Research and Forthcoming Events Democracy Index The 2024 Economist Intelligence Unit Democracy Index map. Full democracies   9.00–10.00   8.00–8.99 Flawed democracies   7.00–7.99   6.00–6.99 Hybrid regimes   5.00–5.99   4.00–4.99 Authoritarian regimes   3.00–3.99   2.00–2.99   1.00–1.99   0.00–0.99 No data  . Image credit: Dashing24, 28 February 2025, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons. Click on the image to enlarge. Visualization of the Global Techno-Industrial System This is a visualization of "Business As Usual" (BAU) in the current global economy. The animation conveys the chaotic agitation currently affecting economies worldwide. It is BAU in that the goal is still continued growth as cheap natural resources dwindle. But what about the eventual transition from growth to de-growth and post-growth? Click on any NODE to start, RESET to stop, REMIX to modify (click on "how to"). Move slider knob to the left for slower BAU, to the right for faster BAU. The slowest pace (tortoise) is lazy BAU. The fastest pace (rabbit) is chaotic BAU. The + signs mean that increase in one node induces increase in another node. The - signs mean that increase in one node induces decrease in another node. Created with Loopy, a tool for thinking in systems. Courtesy of Nicky Case. For time domain scenarios, see Simulations of Transition Dynamics. What Comes After the Polycrisis? Potential polycrisis interventions and their effects Erik Assadourian, Global Sustainability, 17 March 2025 "Founders Would Be Horrified": Renowned Historian Drops Truth-Bomb on American Revolution and Lessons for Today Lynn Parramore & Marc Egnal, Institute for New Economic Thinking, 15 April 2025 Economic Inequality Is Fueled by Population Scale, Land-limited Production, and Settlement Hierarchies Across the Archaeological Record Timothy Kohler et al, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 22 April 2025 2025 Edition of the National Ecological Footprint & Biocapacity Accounts York University & Global Footprint Network, 22 April 2025 'By Disaster or Design' How finance can evolve to avoid the worst of the ecological challenges we face and enable the transition to a better economic model Matt Orsagh, Anastasia Linn, Steve Rocco Arketa Institute for Post-Growth Finance 23 April 2025 ~ Link to the White Paper 18th Conference of the Society for Ecological Economics and 11th International Degrowth Conference University of Oslo, Norway ~ 24-27 June 2025 Beyond the Neoliberal Straitjacket: The Degrowth Pedagogy Framework (DPF) for Business Schools Carla Liuzzo, The International Journal of Management Education, July 2025 Leveraging Ecological Economics to Advance the Sustainability Transition University of Pisa, Italy ~ 7-12 July 2025 The 11th World Sustainability Forum ~ Sustainable and Resilient Cities World Sustainability Forum ~ 2–3 October 2025, Barcelona, Spain Cohabitability ~ Ecologies and Technologies of Living on Earth Czech Academy of Sciences ~ 8–10 October 2025, Prague, Czech Republic |Back to Outline| LINK TO THE CURRENT ISSUE          LINK TO THE HOME PAGE

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