We have had several crises in recent years. Firstly, the economic crisis that had devastating and global effects in 2008, of which we have not yet recovered 15 years later. Then came a crisis as a result of a serious global pandemic and, finally, we are in a new crisis of prices and inflation, supposedly caused by a war in Europe. However, nobody escapes that behind all these “conjunctural” crises there is something that goes beyond the simple problems that may arise in the laws of demand and supply of market operation.

The scientific community has announced that humanity, in its dynamics of eternal growth, is clashing against the borders of the planet. Growth based on capitalist metabolism exploits natural resources until depletion. It must be taken into account that the Earth acts as a closed system, being one of the few energies exchanging with the outside the energy coming from the sun. The amount of matter on Earth is virtually constant, so before or after we find the limits of what can be extracted and used.

Scientists have defined nine critical limits in the cycles of planet Earth that could be about to be overcome or already overcome. The latter are very evident, among other things, in the conflicts studied by the Subai Foundation in Navarre: the loss of biodiversity due to the death of birds in wind forests, the case of agriculture and industrial livestock that leads to overflows of nitrogen and phosphorus cycles, changes in land use, which reduce natural spaces, as in the case of mines (magnesitas in Erdizen or climate change). In addition to these limitations that have a strong impact on life, we should add the limited amount of minerals and fossil energies that we can extract from the ground.

Thus, the crises we are experiencing today have their origin in the hegemonic system of production and consumption having overcome all these limitations. Therefore, the health, military, economic, cultural and social crises we suffer are behind this serious ecological and resource crisis in which we are immersed. In the face of these facts, the only possible solution on a planet as limited as ours is the reduction in the use of natural resources and services offered by the Earth. The cut is going to happen and it doesn't want, or it's already happening.

In the face of this situation, we can act in two ways: in the countries of the North World we can try to maintain a way of life similar to the present, but limiting ourselves to fewer and fewer people and allowing the rest of people to live in this way (eofascist capitalism), or trying to adapt in a democratic and equitable way to the planetary borders, taking into account all the inhabitants of the planet. The latter would be based on a planned deceleration of the use of the economy and ecosystems of the Global North, with the aim of achieving a standard of living appropriate to the limits of planets for all mankind.

Faced with both options, the power structures that govern us, both political and economic, propose solutions more similar to the first option. They try to maintain an economic system like the present one, but based on the exploitation of renewable energies on a large scale. Once again, they continue to disregard the limits of the planet.

As we pointed out in the report entitled the new boom in renewable energy in Navarre, the response based solely on the dissemination of renewable energy has many problems. Production is periodic and difficult to maintain. Mineral extraction should increase considerably for the deployment of renewable energies. And they wouldn't be enough to maintain our current energy consumption. For this reason, the large-scale extension of renewable energies would allow maintaining or increasing the colonialism of the territories of the Global South and destroying natural spaces to maintain the consumption of metropolises.

First of all, from the Subai Erakuntza Foundation we have often made proposals for changing the socio-economic system that would lead us towards a positively planned decline. In this regard, in the coming months we will try to develop these ideas in a more comprehensive and precise document. Some lines of work synthetically oriented towards this approach are:

1. It is essential to extend and socialize the borders of the planet and the need for changes that adapt to the problems and the new realities of overcoming them. The issue must be conveyed positively, as the changes will be beneficial towards a more egalitarian, inclusive and sustainable society.

2. Future social and economic changes will test society’s resilience. We need a well-cohesive society, and to do so we must establish measures that promote partnership, volunteering and mutual aid, in the face of a capitalist model in which individualism, egoism, exploitation and profit prevail at all costs, which we must overcome.

3. In the Global North we must reduce the consumption of raw materials and energy on a voluntary and organised basis. This will involve changes in techniques and products as well as in social behaviors and habits.

4th. Today, transport and travel are largely dependent on fossil fuels. That is why we will have to reduce the movement of products and people, and we will go to a more localised society. It involves changes in urbanism, economic activities and social organization.

5. Product sharing should be encouraged to make it less expensive. And they will be built in such a way that products are easily repairable, reusable and recyclable.

6. Prioritise the primary sector and local food production and reduce dependence on fossil fuels. The diet will change with a more rational consumption of products of animal origin. The use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides will also be reduced.

7. Cultural and leisure activities will become local and based on lower energy and material consumption.

8. The trend towards relocation will lead to a progressive change in government structures. Local administrations will take over more competent local administrations and greater citizen participation than state and supra-state.

9. To keep society within the limits of the planet, control of human activities will have to be progressively increased. But this control must be established by decisions democratically taken by the citizens. And for all this to be established in a rational way, companies offering products and services must be public.

10. Thus, human civilization must go through the current capitalist and proactive system, with major impacts on the biosphere and the welfare of mankind, towards a very different system. And this new system will be based on the equitable distribution of raw materials generated by Mother Earth, within a socioeconomic system capable of maintaining it with the energies and materials that Earth can regenerate through natural cycles. This system will not be based on sustained growth and will therefore tend towards a stable economy.

Mikel Saralegi Otsakar, Jule Goñi Montero and Martín Zelaia García, members of the Subai Erakuntza Foundation.