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Why Growth Is Driving the Collapse We Need

7 min readMar 19, 2025

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Photo by Greg Rakozy on Unsplash

Life is a gift we seem intent on f*cking up. We tend to take it for granted because life on Earth is the only reality we’ve ever experienced. But it’s completely bonkers that we’re experiencing life. Incomprehensible then that we seem intent on destroying the conditions we need to sustain life, for ourselves, anyway. Our propensity to self-destruct is made so much worse when contrasted against the vastness of the universe.

Imagine picking up a grain of sand. One grain out of 7.5 sextillion (a trillion trillion) grains of sand on Earth. Based on estimates for the number of planets in the universe, that single grain of sand represents one billion planets.

A single grain of sand represents a billion planets in the universe. Photo by Matteo Di Iorio on Unsplash

A universe made up of trillions upon trillions upon trillions of planets. And only one Earth. From the perspective of the universe, the Earth is so meaningless it doesn’t exist. From our perspective, it is the only thing that matters. That’s what makes our current plight so utterly…

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The New Climate.
The New Climate.

Published in The New Climate.

The only publication for climate action, covering the environment, biodiversity, net zero, renewable energy and regenerative approaches. It’s time for The New Climate.

Paul Abela, MSc
Paul Abela, MSc

Written by Paul Abela, MSc

Writer and systems thinker | Place a lens on the social, economic and political causes of the climate crisis | Visit my website and blog at transformatise.com

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