Let’s Check

Activity 5. Now that you've understood Hickel's concept of de-development. You require to
explain the following ideas of the essential knowledge part of this unit.

1. What is the primary objective or purpose of the Sustainable Development Goals

of the United Nations?
The United Nations established the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs),
also known as the Global Goals, in 2015 as a global call to action to eradicate
poverty, preserve the environment, and guarantee that by 2030, all people enjoy
peace and prosperity.

2. What is the standardized unit that measures resource use and waste?
The global hectare is a standardized unit for measuring resource use and waste.

3. What is the standard response to eradicate poverty?

Priority poverty-eradication measures include: increasing access to sustainable

livelihoods, entrepreneurial possibilities, and productive resources; ensuring universal
access to essential social services. Increasing worldwide collaboration to eradicate
poverty. However, one of the more amusing "standard responses" is "Give 'em more
money!”” as stated by various international and national leaders. It's common, yet it
never works. Welfare causes more poverty than it alleviates.

4. What is the threshold of the Earth for adequately sustaining life?

The Earth's yearly threshold for adequately supporting life is 1.9 global hectares.
Even with such a high level of consumption, people and individuals may reach a high
level of life expectancy and satisfaction.

5. According to the majority of middle-and high-income countries, what puts the

planet and society at risk?
According to current consumer research, 70% of individuals in middle- and high-
income nations feel excessive consumption endangers our world and society. A
comparable majority believes that we should try to purchase and possess less, and that
doing so would not jeopardize our pleasure.

6. How many hectares should each of us consume annually based on the

resources available on the planet?
Currently, our planet has only enough resources for each of us to consume 1.8
“global hectares” per year – a standardised unit that measures resource use and waste.
 7. In this article, what are the two items about the quality of life?

8. Poverty.

9. Environment.

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10. What crisis on the planet would force us to slow down if we do not do so
voluntarily?

A long-term shift in global or regional climate patterns is referred to as climate

change. Climate change is frequently used to refer to the rise in global temperatures
from the mid-20th century to the present. If we do not take voluntary action to address
the global climate change issue, we will be forced to slow down and finally become
extinct. The melting of the polar ice caps was caused by global warming. As a result,
sea levels would increase, inundating low-lying islands.

11. According to Dr. Jason Hickel, what must be done instead of urging developing
countries to 'catch up" with rich ones?
According to Hickel, we should be thinking of ways to get rich countries to “catch
down” to more appropriate levels of development. This is called the framework of de-
developing. The framework for de-development of rich nations is all about de-
development of rich countries rather than encouraging poor countries to catch up with
emerging countries. Because, according to the statistics they obtained, 70% of
individuals in middle- and high-income countries are endangering the globe.

12. How would the different areas of the world react to the idea of dedevelopment?
The concept of de-development will probably perceive by other countries as an
agenda that discourages productivity. All I can imagine the enormous wave of negatve
reactions if this concept is impose.

Let’s Analyze

Activity 5. In this part, you are once again required to explain your answer thoroughly
on the questions below:

1. Why must we change our Paradigm of Growth and consumption to that of" de-
development?
To create a globally sustainable economy, we must shift our growth and consumption
paradigms to "de-development." According to experts, our population is rapidly
expanding. It is becoming increasingly likely that our planet and its resources will not be
able to sustain us in the coming years.

2. Why are the terms, de-development, de-growth, and zero seemingly unacceptable to
the common framework of human progress?
It is unacceptable because it implies a limit to growth or no growth/learning at all,
it is an insult to someone who you will characterize as de-growth and zero growth.

3. How has the notion of growth enframed us?

Because of progress and development in the sphere of advancement, we are
framed by the concept of growth in the world of science. For example, a country's
economic progress is today evaluated by technological advancements and how they
benefit its citizens.

4. How do we improve our lives and yet reduce our consumption?

Rather than having to buy everything, try growing at least some of your own food
and making things. Donate more money. Spend your time and money to help make the
world a better place. Turn off the advertisements (or at least mute them). We would be
able to enhance our lives while reducing consumption by determining our requirements
and not focusing so much on our desires, and finding needs that would last a long time
in our hands; acquiring quality items would also be beneficial when we need to minimize
our consumption.

5. What are the similarities and differences between Heidegger’s The Question
Concerning Technology and Hickel’s article?
We might assume that one of the differences is that modern technology is based
on modern physics. Heidegger quickly disproves this objection: the development of
the physical sciences has been so dependent on the technological development of
devices for testing, measuring, and so on that science cannot be viewed as a "cause"
or "origin" of technology. The distinction is found elsewhere, in the way contemporary
technology perceives the world. The way of disclosing used by modern technology is
not poeisis. The unveiling of laws in contemporary technology is a difficult
[Herausfordern], which places an excessive demand on nature to produce energy
that can be taken and stored as such. The next pages of Heidegger's argument may
feel fairly familiar. In some ways, it's an ecological argument. Heidegger sees a
distinction between older forms of technology (for example, the windmill, which draws
its energy from the wind but does not extract and store that energy) and modern
technology, which exploits and exhausts—or, as Heidegger puts it, "challenges"—our
 planet's resources. Another example demonstrates the distinction between
"challenging forward" in technology and "revealing" in poetry. Heidegger utilizes the
Rhine River, a powerful emblem in German national identity, to demonstrate how
technology changes our perspective on the world. It would be useful to recall
Heidegger's own lyrical depiction of things being "on their way into arriving" at this
stage. When the silversmith's labor takes the silver chalice "out of concealment," it
"arrives." Previously, it was just theoretically a cup; via the smith's skill, that
potentiality is fulfilled, and the chalice is "unveiled." Heidegger has stated that modern
technology also discloses. Its unveiling, however, differs from that of the earlier crafts.
Heidegger proposes the concept of the "standing reserve" to further clarify this
distinction. "Standing reserve" is strongly connected to the essay's opening concept
of "instrumentality." The utilitarian orientation of technology to the world converts the
world into "standing reserve." We may say that in the realm of technology, nothing is
"excellent" in and of itself, but only "good for" anything. Things no longer "arrive" in
the grip of technology. The airplane, for example, has no significance or worth in and
of itself; it is just a mode of transportation, and its value to mankind is entirely
dependent on its availability to humanity. However, because humanity is in the
"driver's seat" of technological advancements, humanity will never be reduced to the
status of raw material. Nature and nature's mode of revealing, by the same token, are
never completely under human control. Even if mankind now has the ability to
completely destroy nature (Heidegger makes no mention of atomic energy), the
natural world presents itself to humans on its own terms. Humanity cannot directly
influence the development of coal deposits or the buildup of nitrogen in the soil; we
can only influence how we position ourselves, our thoughts, and our actions in
respect to such resources.

In a Nutshell

Activity 5.
Clearly, Hickel from his article showed us how progress and development are
equated with growth and higher consumption, which could be the development
indicator. In this portion of the unit, you require again to give your synthesis,
conclusions, or arguments relevant to the topic presented. I will supply the first item,
and you will continue the rest.
1. De-development or reducing the use of resources for impoverished country to catch
up would be the right paradigm shift, especially when it limits climate change. But,
there might be no stopping or shifting by rich countries since growth is always be
the strategy for economic rise.

2. Constant progress may result in acute hunger, poverty, and resource depletion. All of these
impacts may contribute to climate change. Climate change and sustainable development are
inextricably linked. Poor and emerging nations, particularly the least developed, will be among
the most impacted and least able to cope with the expected shocks to their social, economic,
and environmental systems.