ABSTRACT
As mainstream solutions to the climate and biodiversity crises are increasingly deemed insufficient and leading scientists continue to identify economic growth as a key driver of these crises, it seems plausible that society may reconsider prioritizing economic growth. However, there remains substantial social and political resistance to the notion that growth is harmful. Economic growth as something desirable and “good” for society has been normalized to the degree that many people cannot imagine a world with different priorities. The economy is generally defined as the production, distribution, and consumption of resources—or the use of material resources to satisfy human needs or values. For thousands of years economies existed without continual accumulation of wealth and material goods, yet for the past 200 years the global economy has been increasingly geared toward growing levels of accumulation.
