"The unfortunate fact is, degrowth is inevitable. This is because it’s a basic fact of physics—“common sense,” as Smil puts it—that GDP cannot grow infinitely on planet Earth. There’s no form of economic activity that can be completely divorced from the finite materials provided by the Earth, regardless of who governs it: wealth is intrinsically tied to material resources. Some economic activities are more obviously dependent on materials. Agricultural production, for instance, is very obviously bound by material limits. There’s only so much arable land area, only so much ammonium nitrate, and only so many hands to till the land. Heavy manufacturing also has very clear physical limits: there are only so many minerals, only so much iron, copper, lithium, cobalt, and aluminum."
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https://www.currentaffairs.org/2019/...3NTdkBNLTJwU2M