Here's a quick roundup of highlights from research we published in 2022, on capitalism, imperialism, degrowth and decolonization. It's all open-access, and free PDFs are available via the link at the end of the thread. 🧵

1) This one is really important to me. Growth in rich countries relies on a *massive* net appropriation of labour and resources from the global South, draining poorer countries of productive capacity that could be used instead for human development. www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S095937802200005X

2) Who is driving ecological breakdown? Rich countries are responsible for 74% of global excess resource use over the period 1970-2017. Stopping the ecological crisis will require that rich countries pursue transformative post-growth and degrowth policies. www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2542519622000444

3) "Green growth" scenarios are colonial in nature: they maintain energy excess in the global North, and reconcile this with the Paris goals by constraining energy use in the global South and appropriating Southern land for biofuels. It is wildly unjust. www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2542519622000924

4) Here is a short piece in Nature where we describe five key policies for a just degrowth transition, and explore some of the challenges that need to be overcome. www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-04412-x. And here we lay out the case for degrowth in more detail: collections.unu.edu/eserv/UNU:8832/UNUUNEP_Hickel_RHER.pdf

5) Did the rise of capitalism reduce extreme poverty? Apparently not. Empirical data shows capitalist expansion from the 16th c was associated with a decline in human welfare. Progress began around the 20th c, with the rise of radical social movements. www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0305750X22002169

6) Colonialism was the mechanism by which most of the South was integrated into the capitalist system, and it was brutal. New data shows India suffered a massive mortality crisis at the height of British rule, with around 100 million excess deaths. www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2022/12/2/how-british-colonial-policy-killed-100-million-indians

7) Two decades later, British colonizers imposed an intentional policy of income deflation on the Indian population, in order to appropriate resources for British military expansion. More than 3 million Indians died as a result. newint.org/features/2021/12/07/feature-how-british-colonizers-caused-bengal-famine

8) Here we report on research published earlier in the Lancet, showing that the countries of the global North are responsible for 92% of global emissions in excess of planetary boundary fair-shares. Climate change is playing out along colonial lines. www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2022/4/4/who-is-responsible-for-climate

9) To make matters worse, the health impacts of climate breakdown fall hardest on countries in the South—and vulnerable communities in the North—that have done nothing to cause this crisis. www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(22)02182-1/fulltext

10) Finally, a short piece on the human toll of neoliberal policy (and structural adjustment). We estimate that 16 million deaths due to malnutrition since 1990 could have been prevented with simple policies to ensure universal access to nutritious food. newint.org/features/2022/12/05/neoliberalism-16-million-and-counting-collateral-damage-capital

Thank you to my brilliant colleagues who contributed to or led on this research, and thanks to all of you who have shared the journey with us.

Free PDFs available here: www.jasonhickel.org/research