I always feel a little less relevant here in Europe. The basics underlying every conversation are a couple degrees more sane. And so my outrageousnesses are a little more commonplace.
The President of Finland came to the meeting today. It was a joy–and depressing–to see her excitement in response to one of the morning’s talks, by Marina Fischer-Kowalski. A social ecologist, and using a variety of indices, MFK argued that society needs to move toward a ‘degrowth’ model, both in terms of carbon, and economics overall. She asked: a 3% growth rate is a doubling rate of 20 years. Who here needs twice as much stuff?’ The President jumped up, and asked the first question, and got her business card afterward….
I do my little dog and pony show tomorrow.