1.
Hive Session I
Amber Huff and Andrea Brock
University of Sussex
6th February 2019
Systems, change and growth

2.
Today’s crises
• Climate catastrophe
• Acidification of the oceans
• 6th mass extinction
• Land degradation
75% of global land
areas degraded
2

3.
4

4.
5

5.
Welcome to the Anthropocene

6.
Crossing planetary boundaries?
7

7.
Who is “We”?
What is the problem
with this narrative?

8.
Five interconnected trends
and feedbacks:
• Population growth
• Industrial and capital
growth
• Land/food availability
• Depletion of non-
renewable resources
• Deterioration of the
environment/pollution
(1972)

9.
‘Scarcity’
The Limits to Growth (1972)
Environmental economics
Ecological economics
The Sustainable Development
Paradigm
Scarcity, conflict and
security concerns
Substantivist,
institutionalist and
entitlements approaches

10.
12
Accumulation and re-
deployment of capital is the
engine that powers growth
(i.e. accumulation).
This cycle depends on
‘growth’ in the exploitation of
both human labour and
nature.
How is this ‘logic’ related to
crises?

11.
13

12.
What of ‘limits’?
14
More of the same
Same of the same
Less of the same
Something different

13.
2. Ecological footprints
https://footprint.wwf.org.uk/questionnaire
You?
UK:
Quatar:
China:
Haiti:
Average world:
9.7
35
4.5
0.21
4.9

14.
The global picture
• 70 percent of global emissions come from just
100 companies
16

15.
(Rockström, 2011)
Growth and transgressing boundaries