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> European Union members have signed off on a report that warns focusing on unchecked economic growth is contributing to the destruction of global biodiversity

> European Union members have signed off on a report that warns focusing on unchecked economic growth is contributing to the destruction of global biodiversity It would be good to know which members of the EU are currently experiencing unchecked economic growth.

boringg 8mo ago
They already destroyed all of their forest natural resources a long time ago. Maybe they are trying to warn north america of their own mistakes.
- tonyedgecombe 8mo ago
  https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/tree-cover-loss https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/tree-cover-loss
  - boringg 8mo ago
    Are you trying to argue that Europe hasn't decimated their forests?
    - pfdietz 8mo ago
      Europe's tree cover is increasing. https://joint-research-centre.ec.europa.eu/jrc-news-and-updates/how-have-european-forests-evolved-over-past-30-years-2021-01-14_en https://joint-research-centre.ec.europa.eu/jrc-news-and-upda...
      - boringg 8mo ago
        Tree cover != forests. That is movement in the right direction though!
        pfdietz 8mo ago
        Ah, the No True Scotch Pine argument.
- selectodude 8mo ago
  We stopped deforesting the US in 1920. We have more forest here than we did 100 years ago.
  - Arubis 8mo ago
    We do in terms of acreage. A lot of that is reclaimed farmland. Old-growth hardwoods are still down overall, and will remain so; that can take multiple hundreds of years to recover, since cleared forests regrow in phases.
    - h2zizzle 8mo ago
      Right. And tree coverage is not the be-all-end-all. My family visited the plantation where a few of our ancestors were enslaved; it had been turned into a state-run forest preserve (partly as a bid for the prior owners to hide the extent of the operation). Unfortunately, the farming practices employed back then have scarred the land; near where one of the slave cabins had stood, we were shown a large anthropogenic ravine that had been created by farming-related soil erosion. These places aren't quite the same forests as they were before European settling. There's also the case of the near-loss of the American Chestnut.
  - gnerd00 8mo ago
    Actual facts on the ground do not fit neatly into a one-liner, especially stable forests; this sentence is meant as a one-liner to win bar arguments. source: current graduate research papers in forestry
    - 0xffff2 8mo ago
      Could you maybe give us the 4-5 liner version then?
- s_dev 8mo ago
  This breaks my heart about Ireland. I concede it's not possible to reforest the entire Ireland and have a competitive dairy and beef industry but restoring some of our wetlands and forests should be a goal that's taken seriously. We're at the point of getting 'cheap' talk from politicians. Ireland has the climate to support the entire island covered in Atlantic rain-forests. People already agree Ireland is a pretty country, can you imagine how glorious it would be to have rolling hills covered in trees.
- Arubis 8mo ago
  Certainly that's not how the Europeans started out interacting with north America's natural resource. Mostly they treated it like the US does oil deposits now. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broad_Arrow_Policy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broad_Arrow_Policy
- 1718627440 8mo ago
  Didn't that already happen in the middle ages?
- carlosjobim 8mo ago
  Northern Europe has been completely reforested, and has a forest cover which is larger than ever before. Because of the switch from wood heating to electric heating. Forest products remain one of the largest exports. As for central Europe, yes they need to reforest their own countries before they go flying all around the world screaming about the Amazon, while drinking the finest champagne.
eliaspro 8mo ago
It's not so much about which countries actually grow that much right now, but which mindset underpins the political and medial discourse, trying to get those countries "back on track for continuous growth" or whether there's some realization, that infinite growth as fundamental principle just isn't what we all should be aiming for anymore.
- numitus 8mo ago
  [dead]
DemocracyFTW2 8mo ago
Sparing no expense to slam the EU for 'lagging behind' whenever possible, right? The quoted phrase does not say Europe or parts of it are experiencing unchecked economic growth, it "warns [that] [a focus on] unchecked economic growth" is problematic, wherever it is the case.
anon84873628 8mo ago
GDP or net trade won't tell the important part of the story here. Does the EU import any soy, sugar, coffee, cacao, beef, minerals, etc? Then it is at least contributing to the development pressure on sensitive ecosystems. To be fair, the EUDR is at least an attempt to begin addressing this problem, though it was poorly executed and has been delayed.
ZenoArrow 8mo ago
> It would be good to know which members of the EU are currently experiencing unchecked economic growth. All of them. You can see recent stats (from 2025) on GDP growth here, all the handful of countries with negative growth are outside the EU: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_real_GDP_growth_rate https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_real_GDP_... You may be confusing fast growth with unchecked growth. If you see sustained YoY growth of a couple of percent this can quickly accelerate over many years. For example, 2% growth means doubling the size in 35 years. This has a notable impact on the natural world, as the economic system is linked to our material reality.
- _2d30 8mo ago
  If you're going to quibble about OP's implied definition of "unchecked economic growth", then you should at least provide a better one that isn't just "economic growth".
  - ZenoArrow 8mo ago
    The "unchecked" in unchecked economic growth just refers to the fact that no one is applying the brakes to this growth, i.e. it's being allowed to continue uninterrupted. This is only a problem when you understand the downsides of continuing with business as usual (mainly linked to the damage to the natural world).
    - pas 8mo ago
      growth especially in the EU pretty much decoupled from environmental load
      - ZenoArrow 8mo ago
        That's not true. I'm sure you're referring to outsourcing manufacturing to other countries, but that's not enough to decouple from environmental load. For example, growth in tourism is not decoupled from environmental load.
awongh 8mo ago
The lie of Europe is that they get to launder their environmental and humanitarian responsibility through other countries. If not for their amazing growth then for the maintenance of their current lifestyles. Sometimes just through simply getting raw materials and finished goods from the third world or china in the open market, then still claim to be "green". Or also directly from neighbors; Looking the other way when buying Russian natural gas, or Germany buying nuclear energy from France, etc. Or the worst, paying Libya to sweep their refugee problems under the rug.
- 627467 8mo ago
  You forgot to mention the part where EU model is to export demographic deficit which is "purchased" by the young generations of other countries stiffling their growth and displacing the dwindling younger european generations. "Dont buy cheap tshirts from bangladesh just bring its youth in" is apparently morally superior model

boringg 8mo ago

They already destroyed all of their forest natural resources a long time ago. Maybe they are trying to warn north america of their own mistakes.

tonyedgecombe 8mo ago
https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/tree-cover-loss https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/tree-cover-loss
- boringg 8mo ago
  Are you trying to argue that Europe hasn't decimated their forests?
  - pfdietz 8mo ago
    Europe's tree cover is increasing. https://joint-research-centre.ec.europa.eu/jrc-news-and-updates/how-have-european-forests-evolved-over-past-30-years-2021-01-14_en https://joint-research-centre.ec.europa.eu/jrc-news-and-upda...
    - boringg 8mo ago
      Tree cover != forests. That is movement in the right direction though!
      - pfdietz 8mo ago
        Ah, the No True Scotch Pine argument.
selectodude 8mo ago
We stopped deforesting the US in 1920. We have more forest here than we did 100 years ago.
- Arubis 8mo ago
  We do in terms of acreage. A lot of that is reclaimed farmland. Old-growth hardwoods are still down overall, and will remain so; that can take multiple hundreds of years to recover, since cleared forests regrow in phases.
  - h2zizzle 8mo ago
    Right. And tree coverage is not the be-all-end-all. My family visited the plantation where a few of our ancestors were enslaved; it had been turned into a state-run forest preserve (partly as a bid for the prior owners to hide the extent of the operation). Unfortunately, the farming practices employed back then have scarred the land; near where one of the slave cabins had stood, we were shown a large anthropogenic ravine that had been created by farming-related soil erosion. These places aren't quite the same forests as they were before European settling. There's also the case of the near-loss of the American Chestnut.
- gnerd00 8mo ago
  Actual facts on the ground do not fit neatly into a one-liner, especially stable forests; this sentence is meant as a one-liner to win bar arguments. source: current graduate research papers in forestry
  - 0xffff2 8mo ago
    Could you maybe give us the 4-5 liner version then?
s_dev 8mo ago
This breaks my heart about Ireland. I concede it's not possible to reforest the entire Ireland and have a competitive dairy and beef industry but restoring some of our wetlands and forests should be a goal that's taken seriously. We're at the point of getting 'cheap' talk from politicians. Ireland has the climate to support the entire island covered in Atlantic rain-forests. People already agree Ireland is a pretty country, can you imagine how glorious it would be to have rolling hills covered in trees.
Arubis 8mo ago
Certainly that's not how the Europeans started out interacting with north America's natural resource. Mostly they treated it like the US does oil deposits now. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broad_Arrow_Policy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broad_Arrow_Policy
1718627440 8mo ago
Didn't that already happen in the middle ages?
carlosjobim 8mo ago
Northern Europe has been completely reforested, and has a forest cover which is larger than ever before. Because of the switch from wood heating to electric heating. Forest products remain one of the largest exports. As for central Europe, yes they need to reforest their own countries before they go flying all around the world screaming about the Amazon, while drinking the finest champagne.

eliaspro 8mo ago

It's not so much about which countries actually grow that much right now, but which mindset underpins the political and medial discourse, trying to get those countries "back on track for continuous growth" or whether there's some realization, that infinite growth as fundamental principle just isn't what we all should be aiming for anymore.

numitus 8mo ago
[dead]

DemocracyFTW2 8mo ago

Sparing no expense to slam the EU for 'lagging behind' whenever possible, right? The quoted phrase does not say Europe or parts of it are experiencing unchecked economic growth, it "warns [that] [a focus on] unchecked economic growth" is problematic, wherever it is the case.

anon84873628 8mo ago

GDP or net trade won't tell the important part of the story here. Does the EU import any soy, sugar, coffee, cacao, beef, minerals, etc? Then it is at least contributing to the development pressure on sensitive ecosystems. To be fair, the EUDR is at least an attempt to begin addressing this problem, though it was poorly executed and has been delayed.

ZenoArrow 8mo ago

> It would be good to know which members of the EU are currently experiencing unchecked economic growth. All of them. You can see recent stats (from 2025) on GDP growth here, all the handful of countries with negative growth are outside the EU: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_real_GDP_growth_rate https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_real_GDP_... You may be confusing fast growth with unchecked growth. If you see sustained YoY growth of a couple of percent this can quickly accelerate over many years. For example, 2% growth means doubling the size in 35 years. This has a notable impact on the natural world, as the economic system is linked to our material reality.

_2d30 8mo ago
If you're going to quibble about OP's implied definition of "unchecked economic growth", then you should at least provide a better one that isn't just "economic growth".
- ZenoArrow 8mo ago
  The "unchecked" in unchecked economic growth just refers to the fact that no one is applying the brakes to this growth, i.e. it's being allowed to continue uninterrupted. This is only a problem when you understand the downsides of continuing with business as usual (mainly linked to the damage to the natural world).
  - pas 8mo ago
    growth especially in the EU pretty much decoupled from environmental load
    - ZenoArrow 8mo ago
      That's not true. I'm sure you're referring to outsourcing manufacturing to other countries, but that's not enough to decouple from environmental load. For example, growth in tourism is not decoupled from environmental load.

awongh 8mo ago

The lie of Europe is that they get to launder their environmental and humanitarian responsibility through other countries. If not for their amazing growth then for the maintenance of their current lifestyles. Sometimes just through simply getting raw materials and finished goods from the third world or china in the open market, then still claim to be "green". Or also directly from neighbors; Looking the other way when buying Russian natural gas, or Germany buying nuclear energy from France, etc. Or the worst, paying Libya to sweep their refugee problems under the rug.

627467 8mo ago
You forgot to mention the part where EU model is to export demographic deficit which is "purchased" by the young generations of other countries stiffling their growth and displacing the dwindling younger european generations. "Dont buy cheap tshirts from bangladesh just bring its youth in" is apparently morally superior model