Epochal turns: Uncomfortable insights, uncertain outlooks

The perfect storm of converging political, security, environmental and social crises enforces an epochal turn. Necessarily increasing defensive expenditures for health and climate damage compensation combine with climate adaptation and increased security spending to drive already sluggish economic g...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inSustainable development (Bradford, West Yorkshire, England) Vol. 31; no. 4; pp. 2347 - 2362
Main Authors Spangenberg, Joachim H., Kurz, Rudi
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Chichester, UK John Wiley & Sons, Inc 01.08.2023
Wiley Periodicals Inc
Subjects
Climate
Climate adaptation
climate crisis
Compensation
Crises
degrowth
Economic development
Economic growth
Environmental degradation
epochal turn
Expenditures
Health care expenditures
Metals
new metal age
peak wealth
Security
Sustainable development
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Summary:The perfect storm of converging political, security, environmental and social crises enforces an epochal turn. Necessarily increasing defensive expenditures for health and climate damage compensation combine with climate adaptation and increased security spending to drive already sluggish economic growth rates into negative territory. The result will by accelerating degrowth, an end to just‐in‐time production concepts, higher resource cost, new dependencies on metal exporters (some of them as nasty as Putin's Russia), and decreasing median incomes. Without significant U‐turns on tax and distribution policies, funds will be lacking to address the challenges. Rather than promising easy ways out of the crises, stopping the drivers, focussing on well‐being instead of growth, and exploring ways to a dignified life within the crises need to be political priorities.
ISSN:0968-0802
1099-1719
DOI:10.1002/sd.2512