February General Meeting: Living Well in the Postgrowth Era

Please join us at our February meeting which will feature a presentation by leaders from Ohio’s Miami Group of Sierra Club about "Degrowth", a framework that explores how we might stop our addiction to endless growth at all costs, reduce the material size of the global economy, and align our human activities so that they remain within ecological limits while prioritizing social and ecological well-being.

Every habitat has a carrying capacity for the species that occupy it. Carrying capacity refers to the maximum number of individuals that an environment can support without depleting its physical resources like food, water, oxygen, and the ability to handle and process wastes and pollution. When the size and demands of a population exceed carrying capacity, there can be resource shortages, decreased health, and other challenges; it may lead to a decline in the size of the population – a “correction.” The more carrying capacity is exceeded, the more dramatic the correction.

The Earth is a finite ecosystem. We humans nowadays exceed Earth's carrying capacity with the size of our huge population, our excessive use of resources and our abundant pollutions and wastes. All these are features of our culture’s quest for never-ending growth.

Most things Sierra Club and other environmentalists are concerned about are the results of exceeding Earth’s carrying capacity: climate change, pollution, habitat loss, species extinctions, dwindling wild and green spaces, etc. Many social justice problems also result from exceeding Earth’s carrying capacity, including food insecurity, high cost of living, and immigration. We usually focus on these symptoms individually. Can we focus on and try to solve the root problems? Can we do it in a way that improves our quality of life?

This meeting will be held in the Covington Library's Truist Meeting Room which is on the main level, on the right side just past the circulation desk. We reserved the room from 6 to 8:30 so feel welcome to arrive early and stay late.