Eat the Earth

The Earth is a finite system no matter how you look at it. And everything we do – refining and wielding energy, collecting and combining materials, pursuing our dreams – all of it requires us to claim some part of that finite system for ourselves.

We tend to think of fossil fuels as “extractive” because they come from a finite pool of resources stored physically in the Earth. But capturing the sun with photovoltaic panels and wind turbines is no less extractive, it’s just that the scale is currently different.

It's possible to eat up the Earth from two different directions. While we scale back one, let’s not go crazy with the other.

Further Reading:

• Mulrow, J. (2025, June). Has the Economy Outgrown the Planet? Degrowth Institute. https://www.degrowthinstitute.org/challenge-growth01