For the authors, the achievability of degrowth depends on a balance between policy-oriented top-down proposals (for example, the reduction of working hours or maximum income) and bottom-up, small-scale alternatives and self-organised projects that function without or even against the state. This conclusion is particularly relevant for political ecology, as it would propose a way forward regarding a transformational strategy that can bring together green NGOs, citizens, and political parties. The future is degrowth Andrea: That is exactly what capitalism does for 500 years, the function of capitalism feeds on exploitation of unpaid subsistence work (see works of Rosa Luxemburg etc.). That is why we have to build commons federations and intelligent interfaces with capitalist and bureaucratic systems. I think the patterns of commoning (see Helfrich/Bollier 2020) can help a lot here. The recent volume Pluriverse: A Post-Development Dictionary seeks to do just that by bringing together ideas and concepts advanced by struggles around the world, such as Ubuntu (Southern Africa), Sumak Kawsay (Latin America), Swaraj (South Asia), and Democratic Confederalism (Kurdistan). Framed as an alternative to elite non-solutions such as smart cities, ecomodernism, and geoengineering, this invaluable book will guide the reader through the wealth of alternatives already on offer. And it situates degrowth within a much larger set of ‘alternatives to development’, many of which criticize capitalist growth from the perspective of the global South. Andrea: We need both exactly because of the urgency of the crisis. It is rather unlikely that we can change the big state, but we should try nonetheless. In the meantime, it is very important to start here and now with bottom-up building. It is even thinkable with the world heading for 3+ degrees that our international state system and maybe even the states in the centre of world economy will not survive for more than a few decades from now on (and we already see a lot of failed states now at the periphery). Then the survival of people will depend on those alternative common infrastructures we start building now.

Ashish Kothari, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta, Pluriverse: A Post-Development Dictionary (Tulika Books, 2019) Degrowth radically questions the fossil-fuel powered way of life, and with that its central institutions and infrastructures. It makes visible how, through democratic and planned reduction of production and consumption in the global North, global ecological justice can be achieved and a pluriverse of interdependent ways of living can emerge. As a critique of neoclassical economics, it is of course inspired by heterodox approaches to economics—from ecological economics to Neo-Keynesianism. However, as we argue in our book The Future is Degrowth, degrowth is also fundamentally about social power and hierarchies . In celebration of Earth Day, we decided we would highlight five books that are key inspirations for degrowth, which are critical of power structures and offer viable alternatives. We use the notion of a “mosaic” to highlights the vision of building a plural world, rooted in multiple struggles and with many different strategies – composed of different forms of economies, living worlds, and cultures, pollinating, interacting, and collaborating with each other. To differentiate it from the one-way future of capitalism and economic growth, the various alternatives to economic growth have recently been termed the “pluriverse” by a group of scholar-activists from various continents. We should combine different strategies to build this pluriverse - and hopefully degrowth can play a role in this. The book will also be relevant for those interested in topics beyond degrowth. As you say we do (very briefly) discuss non-human ethics and so on. There are some important sections, for example, on queer ecology, ecological humanism, ecomodernism, and technology. This is because we argue that degrowth’s strength is precisely in its holistic, intersectional approach to complex issues. In that sense it may be valuable for anyone new to environmental thought, or anyone trying to work toward social change. for an explicitly anticapitalist – and one could add, intersectional – vision of degrowth, one “that sees systems of domination such as patriarchy, colonialism, imperialism, racism, and capitalism as the central structural problems facing us today” (p. 16).Aaron: The book is essentially a textbook on degrowth. In that sense it is introductory. But if you try to lay out these quite in-depth debates adequately you will have to get quite precise with language. This means that the book can sometimes feel heavily laden with many concepts and terms that a lot of readers will not be familiar with. We have tried our best to define each essential term when we use it, while not sacrificing precision. The joint consideration of these critiques is essential both to ensure an effective response to multiple crises but also, as the authors warn, to avoid (extreme) right-wing appropriation of degrowth and its ideas. For while the political right mostly supports a growth-oriented policy, there is also a reactionary critique of growth on parts of the ethnonationalist right. This faction argues that, as the availability of resources falls, overall consumption must fall but their people must have continued access. Clearly, this line must be rejected by those supporting degrowth as it is conceived in this book. The degrowth alternative Aaron: In the book we also discuss how, quite practically, degrowth could become relevant in moments of crisis. This is not to say that we have to wait for crises to do anything, but rather to say that there is a realistic possibility that moments of crisis open the door to new possibilities which we can take advantage of. It is in the midst of crisis—the collapse of an energy grid, a recession, or a global pandemic—that we can implement far-reaching change. During the pandemic we saw policies put in place that would have been unimaginable months before such as basic income. Following the energy crisis triggered by Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Germany made public transit nearly free. Again, this doesn't mean that we need to wait for a crisis: we can start laying the groundwork now. For example, without developing Nowtopias now, those in the midst of an unexpected revolution may not have a prototype for what they might want a new social structure to look like. We can try out degrowth policies now, they can educate our desire for more and help inform a new imaginary, and in moments of tremendous change, they can become universalized.

Matthias: As the climate crisis escalates much faster than most of us had thought, even than the science said, we also need to escalate our strategies. There is now more and more discussion of the real possibility of mass death and extinction. Scientists are calling for more research on the possible extinction of humans… so yes, the process needs to be much faster. And it cannot depend on alliances with and support of broad factions of capital, as neoliberalism did, or transformation from above. Rather, it will likely depend on action from below and social tipping points. We’ve wasted decades by hoping that the alternative strategy of green growth would lead to rapid mitigation. Finally, in the energy transition, it's not an either or: we need both a rapid, publicly financed roll out of renewables, Green New Deal-style, and drastic demand side reductions.

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D'Alisa, G., Demaria, F., and Kallis, G.: Degrowth: A Vocabulary for a New Era, Routledge, Abingdon, Oxon, ISBN 9781138000773, 2015.