Upside readers are calling for a shift to a sustainable economy. So what would that look like?

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

Another week, another report lamenting the decimation of wildlife and the threat of natural collapse.

The UN tome was so gloomy it needed 1,800 pages to spell out the message: 1 million species face extinction if we carry on like this.

So what is to be done? The OECD has suggested that punitive taxes are the only way to discourage a rapacious approach to natural resources.

But Upside readers have also been in touch advocating a shift of course away from growth at all costs and towards something more sustainable.

Maria Smith suggested it was time to explore in greater depth whether we could escape the pursuit of endless economic growth.

We are all familiar with the damaging impact that the pursuit of financial wealth has on society, culture and the environment. We need no reminding of this planet’s dangerous rate of warming or its peoples’ divide between those with too much and those without enough. Yet the supremacy of economic growth as an indicator of progress is still sought after by governments all over the world. As climate change has now begun to bite, the link between economic growth and environmental decline needs to be more thoroughly understood and accepted.

With this in mind, it would be great to hear from you: do we have to expand our economies indefinitely? How would we wean ourselves off growth? Are there models for how this would work? What would be the pitfalls, and how to mitigate them? Email us at theupside@theguardian.com

Elsewhere, it was a week of medical exploration in the sunlit Up(side)lands:

• Wim Hof reckons breathing techniques and cold water swimming can improve your mental health. Photojournalist Jonny Weeks gave it a go.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Wim and Jonny take a cold dip Photograph: Jonny Weeks/The Guardian



• A world-first deployment of a genetically modified virus to kill off a bacterial infection saved a British teenager – and held out promise for new drugs that could be useful if antibiotic resistance continues to grow.

• And researchers concluded that teenage use of social media has a fairly negligible effect on life satisfaction.

Lucky numbers

Remarkably, Britain went an entire week without using coal power – for the first time in almost 140 years. The country is generating solar power at record levels. EU carbon emissions fell 2.5% in 2018 compared with 2017, according to Eurostat.

What we liked

The Irish Times piece about schoolgirls designing an app and a boardgame to help Syrian refugees settle in their new home.

Also, this Vox article about a Canadian doctor who prescribes people money to help them get better. Clever.

What we heard

I am convinced cold water swimming is beneficial. I’ve been swimming in the sea off Hove for over a year and have not had a cold or infection in that time. I turn 65 in a couple of weeks and suggest, if you haven’t already done so, you consider researching the benefits of strength training for all ages.

John Nugent, via email

I really enjoyed Jonny Weeks’ article & I thought you might be interested in how cold-water swimming has been instrumental in the recovery from severe depression of my swimming friend, Katie Maggs. A short award winning documentary has been made about Katie’s recovery – https://youtu.be/lvViuv0vIKU – & she has since been on a mission to help others who might now be suffering as she was.

Mike Conboye, via email

I have been publishing theoretical papers in regular scientific journals on the possible role of thermal cycling and thermal gradients in biology since 1983. (Search “Muller thermosynthesis” to explore further – many of those papers are free-access.) In one of my papers, I describe a model for the emergence of the brain during evolution based on thermal gradients near the ventricles of the brain. But in order to do experiments, you need funding, and in order to obtain funding, you need to convince granting agencies who pay lip service to being open for new ideas but in practice only give attention to the regular paradigm.

Anthonie Muller, in the comment section under the Wim Hof article

Where was the Upside?

In Afghanistan, where book clubs are booming.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Bookish

Photograph: Mohammad Ismail/Reuters

Also in Amsterdam, where an ingenious new bioprocess to turn agricultural waste into a sugar substitute won the annual Chivas Ventures award.

Do you like? If you haven’t already, sign up here to get this email in your inbox every Friday afternoon. Then get in touch with us at theupside@theguardian.com with ideas, tips and suggestions for coverage. Don’t forget – homework this week: how do we wean ourselves off eternal growth?