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Richard Douglas

@maitrereynard.bsky.social

130 followers 440 following 290 posts

Research Fellow, Centre for the Understanding of Sustainable Prosperity, University of Surrey. https://cusp.ac.uk/about/fellowship/r_douglas/

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Richard Douglas @maitrereynard.bsky.social · 18d

In my new book, The Meaning of Growth - published 30 September by @routledgebooks and featuring a foreword by @timjackson.org.uk - I investigate the roots of the political resistance to environmental science and policy, and suggest a new approach to overcoming it. www.routledge.com/The-Meaning-...

The Meaning of Growth: Anti-Environmentalist Rhetoric and the Defence of Modernity

Since the Limits to Growth report was published in 1972 it has been widely known that a commitment to endless growth was putting us on course for environmental disaster—so why have we failed to take d...

www.routledge.com

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Reposted by Richard Douglas

Costa Samaras @costasamaras.com · 1d

Picture how big the Hoover Dam is. An absolute unit. The Hoover Dam has a power capacity of 2 gigawatts (GW).

The solar farm that the Admin just cancelled could have produces 6.2 GW of power. That's more than 3 Hoover Dams.

jael holzman @jael.bsky.social · 1d

SCOOP: The Bureau of Land Management says the largest solar project in Nevada — the Esmeralda 7 mega-farm — has been canceled

The news was quietly dropped via a sudden website update with no public word from any of the companies involved or a statement from the agency

@heatmap.news

Esmeralda 7 Solar Project Has Been Canceled, BLM Says

It would have delivered a gargantuan 6.2 gigawatts of power.

heatmap.news

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Richard Douglas @maitrereynard.bsky.social · 1d

Unignorable, even

Richard Douglas @maitrereynard.bsky.social · 1d

But mostly: buy some tissues. For God’s sake.

Richard Douglas @maitrereynard.bsky.social · 1d

Sitting opposite someone on a train who’s clearly going to spend the next two hours sniffing and snorting away in the most ignorable way, and I’m thinking two things. Are tissues so expensive? And I shouldn’t be so sniffy about Sartre. Hell *is* other people.

Richard Douglas @maitrereynard.bsky.social · 8d

Huge amounts to unpack from this timely, clever, subtle and ultimately… hopeful? essay by @will-davies.bsky.social . In its understated way its conclusion is a manifesto for valuing the actual practice of thinking.

Will Davies @will-davies.bsky.social · 9d

My essay on stupidology (originally published in N+1) is in today's Guardian www.theguardian.com/news/2025/oc...

A critique of pure stupidity: understanding Trump 2.0

If the first term of Donald Trump provoked anxiety over the fate of objective knowledge, the second has led to claims we live in a world-historical age of stupid, accelerated by big tech. But might th...

www.theguardian.com

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Richard Douglas @maitrereynard.bsky.social · 8d

David! I keep hearing on your podcast that the UK is forging ahead on decarbonising its grid. And that’s not wrong! We have plenty of challenges and lots of irrational extremism in our politics, but it’s not all bad. (And Labour have been in power for just under half of the century so far.)

Reposted by Richard Douglas

Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan @london.gov.uk · 9d

For the first time ever, London has met legal limits for nitrogen dioxide.

When I became Mayor, we were told it would take 193 years. We did it 184 years earlier than expected.

Cleaner air means a healthier city and big savings for the NHS.

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Richard Douglas @maitrereynard.bsky.social · 10d

This is Sly Stallone playing “Secretary of War” isn’t it - “throw away all that Geneva and just go mano a mano”.

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 11d

Hegseth: "We unleash overwhelming and punishing violence on the enemy. We also don't fight with stupid rules of engagement. We untie the hands of our warfighters to intimidate, demoralize, hunt, and kill the enemies of our country. No more politically correct and overbearing rules of engagement."

Richard Douglas @maitrereynard.bsky.social · 10d

The @thetimes.com love affair with the far right is nauseating.

The Times & Sunday Times @thetimes.com · 11d

Nigel Farage: Labour rhetoric incites violence against Reform

Reform UK leader will claim in a speech today that Keir Starmer’s labelling of his migrant plan as ‘racist’ has endangered the safety of his candidates and activists ⬇️

Nigel Farage: Labour rhetoric incites violence against Reform

www.thetimes.com

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Richard Douglas @maitrereynard.bsky.social · 11d

Thank you!

Richard Douglas @maitrereynard.bsky.social · 11d

"Douglas shows how, beneath the reasoning, the rhetoric, and the rancour lie fundamentally theological questions... Freedom, power, death, eternity, and our cosmic destiny: this is what we are talking about when we are talking about ‘growth’."
@nickebs.bsky.social

Richard Douglas @maitrereynard.bsky.social · 11d

"Douglas astutely critiques the cultural faith in endless growth as a fundamentally flawed secularized religion. What is needed instead, he argues, is a shift toward accepting ‘the finitude of the finite’."
Professor Aaron M. McCright

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Richard Douglas @maitrereynard.bsky.social · 11d

"Ever get the feeling that the efforts you and so many other individuals and organisations are undertaking to shift economic priorities are not making a dent? This book explains why."
@katherinetrebeck.bsky.social

Richard Douglas @maitrereynard.bsky.social · 11d

"Advocates of environmental politics are often accused of unwittingly worshipping a religion of ‘Mother Nature,’ but Douglas deftly turns the tables, showing how resistance to ecological sustainability relies on a repressed and ultimately perverse theological impulse."
Professor Jason Blakely

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Richard Douglas @maitrereynard.bsky.social · 11d

"This rich analysis dissects the discourse of growthism and illuminates the reasons behind the failure of the limits thesis to gain political traction."
@drsophiah.bsky.social

Richard Douglas @maitrereynard.bsky.social · 11d

"Douglas offers a profound set of meditations on our collective failure to think ourselves out of ‘growthism’....The Meaning of Growth will be of interest to sociologists and moral philosophers, as much as to environmentalists and political economists."
@will-davies.bsky.social

Richard Douglas @maitrereynard.bsky.social · 11d

"A fascinating account of anti-environmental rhetoric and discourse, and of the ideology of technology at the heart of Silicon Valley.... Douglas shows that what seems the most materialist of outlooks rests on a fantastical ‘metaphysics’ of the market economy."
@profafinlayson.bsky.social

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Richard Douglas @maitrereynard.bsky.social · 11d

Extremely grateful for these endorsements from some seriously brilliant people…

"A fascinating account of anti-environmental rhetoric and discourse, and of the ideology of technology at the heart of Silicon Valley. Putting it into the history of struggles over theology and science, Douglas shows that what seems the most materialist of outlooks rests on a fantastical ‘metaphysics’ of the market economy."

Professor Alan Finlayson, University of East Anglia, UK

"Douglas offers a profound set of meditations on our collective failure to think ourselves out of ‘growthism’. By positioning our ecological crisis on the canvas of modernity itself, The Meaning of Growth will be of interest to sociologists and moral philosophers, as much as to environmentalists and political economists."

Professor Will Davies, Goldsmiths, University of London, UK

"This rich analysis dissects the discourse of growthism and illuminates the reasons behind the failure of the limits thesis to gain political traction. Through a multi-layered interpretive approach, Douglas unpacks the ontological and emotional dimensions of growthism and proposes a return to metaphysical questions as the starting point for effective political action."

Dr Sophia Hatzisavvidou, University of Bath, UK

"Advocates of environmental politics are often accused of unwittingly worshipping a religion of pantheism and ‘Mother Nature,’ but Douglas deftly turns the tables, showing how resistance to ecological sustainability relies on a repressed and ultimately perverse theological impulse."

Professor Jason Blakely, author of Lost in Ideology and We Built Reality

"Ever get the feeling that the efforts you and so many other individuals and organisations are undertaking to shift economic priorities are not making a dent? This book explains why. It pulls open the deep-seated and tightly held assumptions underpinning the growth agenda. Douglas crisply presents a critical layer in the growth-dependence puzzle that all of us, not just those in the post-growth movement, will need to grapple with. And the soone…

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Richard Douglas @maitrereynard.bsky.social · 11d

Thanks in particular to @timjackson.org.uk, @ianpchristie.bsky.social, @will-davies.bsky.social, and the whole @cusp.ac.uk family, who have inspired and supported me in developing my ideas and writing.

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Richard Douglas @maitrereynard.bsky.social · 11d

Out today! In The Meaning of Growth - published by @routledgebooks.bsky.social and featuring a foreword by
@timjackson.org.uk - I investigate the roots of the political resistance to environmental science and policy, and suggest a new approach to overcoming it. www.routledge.com/The-Meaning-...

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Richard Douglas @maitrereynard.bsky.social · 12d

I maintain the transition from Through The Night - the best programme on radio, thanks to its austere restraint - to the middle-brow banalities of 'Birdsong and Bach to banish those morning blues!' of Radio 3's breakfast programme is the worst moment in the daily unfolding of the BBC's entire output

Reposted by Richard Douglas

David Klemperer @dmk1793.bsky.social · 14d

Patrick is absolutely right that Labour lacks a sufficient intellectual culture - but instead of reading race-war Whatsapp essays from anonymous crackheads, Labour MPs should subscribe to @renewaljournal.bsky.social for serious and informed strategic analysis and argument

Stephen Bush @stephenkb.bsky.social · 14d

Come for the really good essay by Patrick Maguire, stay for the really bad one being shared (approvingly!!) by some Labour MPs: www.thetimes.com/comment/colu...

There’s a void at the heart of Labour: it needs a battle of ideas

A withering analysis shared among Keir Starmer’s MPs says his vague incrementalism and absence of critical thinking is steering the party to disaster

www.thetimes.com

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Richard Douglas @maitrereynard.bsky.social · 14d

WTF!

Reposted by Richard Douglas

Steven Fielding @polprofsteve2024.bsky.social · 14d

It’s stupid enough to be Glasman.

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Reposted by Richard Douglas

Sunder Katwala (sundersays) @sundersays.bsky.social · 14d

"Progressives need to pick some fights" says deputy prime minister David Lammy. "Our political opponents are picking fights every day" while Labour are doing so "about once a month". He says that Blair and Brown did this more

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