Book Review
Title: Slow Down: The Degrowth Manifesto by Kohei Saito
Genre: Non-Fiction, Science, Politics
Rating: 3.25 Stars
From the introduction it seems that Slow Down is looking at both capitalism and global warming. Saito makes the claim that capitalism is the true cause of global warming and a lot of the issues we find in modern society. He also claims that capitalism is creating an ever widening gap between the social classes which was seen clearly for the first time during the covid-19 pandemic with a lot of people losing their jobs and not being able to find more work in the current market. While my own personal views on global warming are in direct opposition to the author’s, I did want to see his views on capitalism. I will be honest in this review but I won’t let my personal opinions and research taint my review.
Saito follows his train of logic regarding capitalism by discussing William Nordhaus, a Nobel prize winner for economics. Nordhaus believed that we had to strike a balance between economic growth and carbon dioxide emissions but Saito explains that balance would not stop the force of climate change since it leans too far towards economic growth. He explains in some depth how the capitalist system means the favour will always go to economic growth since it is a short term cash flow. However, this is detrimental in the long run since the blame and responsibility is displaced often on those that are suffering the most because of these decisions.
The global North uses the global south to produce the materials of the capitalist system in vast quantities in a short amount of time to support the ever growing demand without thinking of the consequences or making plans to implement long term change. For example, the health industry has pushed avocados as a health food leading to a rise in demand for them. Avocados require a lot of water and nutrients alongside a hotter climate meaning they can only be mass grown in the global south. Due to this a lot of money and effort goes into growing them at the expense of their own people. In these countries there have been droughts leading to poor harvests for many leaving people starving but their governments push for more produce even when it isn’t viable because it is the only source of income for these places, making it an unsustainable system.
Saito believes that adopting a more communist set of values alongside truly dealing with the core of climate change would turn the tide but it means doing away with the current capitalist system. While I don’t agree with Saito’s views on climate change I do see the value in removing the capitalist system and creating a world with a more just system that doesn’t favour money over people and the environment. In the next chapter, Saito begins to touch on relative and absolute decoupling which is the process of separating the economy from the environment. While in theory this sounds good as it would theoretically slow the economic growth with absolutely reducing emissions but he doesn’t talk about the others issues. For example, he champions the widespread adoption of electric cars but this technology is still plagued by a lot of issues such as poor performance, not being usable in harsh weather like heavy rain or snowy weather which is common in countries like the UK. EVs are also prone to catching fire due to the lithium batteries which can’t be extinguished through conventional methods and this might part bigger risks than existing technologies despite the higher emissions. EV batteries also require finite resources in order to create which would add to the problem before it helps.
The point is made that decoupling is an illusion and can’t be achieved because even in the global North where emissions are supposedly decreasing the global average is still rising due to emerging countries using older technology in their economic growth. That leaves with the question of what can we do if decoupling won’t work and pushing green technology is only going to make the situation worse because of the growth and productivity traps. Saito explains that in order to save the planet we must abandon economic growth since we can’t support both at the same time, however the Jevons Paradox actually causes another problem. According to this paradox if the price of one resource like oil increases while another decreases then the demand and consumption of the cheaper resource will increase this not making a difference in the emissions produced. Saito goes on to point out the although the emissions from the global south are rising, this is directly because of demand for produce that is consumed primarily in the global North. He expands on this by explaining that almost half of the total emissions come from the richest people in society, specifically the top 10-20% and these people need to be targeted specifically for emissions reduction but it is impossible to make happen in a capitalist society that prices itself on economic growth and productivity.
Saito digs further into this by looking at Negative Emissions Technologies or NETs one example of which is Bio-Energy with Carbon Capture and Storage (BECCs). All technologies associated with BECCs have issues of their own and actually cause more problems further down the line once again highlighting the issue of displacement. This point is furthered when we understand that the current culture of climate change is nothing more than greenwashing, but this poses the question is there anything we can actually do to improve the situation. In this instance, Saito champions a system of degrowth under capitalism in order to deal with the problems that we are currently facing and the problems that will naturally arise from switching to a more sustainable system. The capitalist system needs to be overhauled and replaced in order to create a society where there is true equality and just distribution of resources effectively. The biggest opposition to this is the rich themselves since they want to protect and increase their wealth even at the detriment of the rest of society. This in recent years has led to an ever widening gap between the rich and poor as well as a sense of growing dissatisfaction among the younger generation. Saito proposes a degrowth system, degrowth is a way of thinking that essentially value quality over quantity and it is a mindset we can all relate to.
In chapter 4, Saito looks at combining degrowth with a form of Marxism or communism which might seem counterintuitive at first but I’m sure he has some logical arguments for this. Saito brings in the idea of the commons which is an almost halfway point between neoliberalism and nationalisation. This idea proposes that things like water, food, educating and health care are public goods and should be treated democratically without market norms and national regulations while allowing some private wealth to not go as far as the Soviet Union’s nationalism. The Marxist ideas that Saito discussed aren’t well known because they were created towards the end of Marx’s life. He takes this further explaining that Marx’s beliefs towards the end of his life were in direct opposition to those he laid out in The Communist Manifesto and Capital. What Marx wanted to achieve was a steady state economy that respected the ecological boundaries and he actually found real world examples in Germanic and Russian communes where the land was owned by everyone and farmed in a way that didn’t deplete the soil or encourage overproduction. The goods grown in these places we also not permitted for sale outside of the commune keeping demand for the items low. This is what Saito calls degrowth communism and it is what we should be aiming for as it respects the ecological boundaries and do away with the capitalist system.
In chapter 5, Saito looks at accelerationism in the capitalist system and how this has broken the flow from conception to execution. What he means by this is that artisans can conceive an idea and have the skills to bring it into reality but in a capitalist system this method of production is hard to control. Instead they have broken the creative process down into its most basic parts and assigned a worker to each part. While this allows for faster and larger production scales it separates conception and execution. On a larger scale this means we have lost the skills to self-sufficient that our ancestors had. Without our capitalist system and commodities we are unable to meet our basic needs such as shelter, food and water because we no longer have the skills to meet these needs in our modern age.
Throughout the rest of the book, Saito continues to provide evidence against the current system and in favour of his own. While I didn’t necessarily agree with all of Saito’s points and evidence I am firm believer of looking into theories and evidence alternative to your own in order to see the bigger pictures and different viewpoints. Due to this, I did find the book very in interesting to read and I did find myself agreeing with certain points that look at degrowth and degrowth communism. However, I didn’t agree with his views on climate change and environmental science when these theories have already been debunked for several years.
Buy it here:
Paperback/Hardcover: amazon.co.uk amazon.com
Kindle Edition: amazon.co.uk amazon.com
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