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Our constant focus on growth and consumption is inevitably leading us towards an ecological catastrophe. Niko Paech, probably the best-known critic of growth in the German-speaking world, teaches plural economics at the University of Siegen. He is convinced that even green growth will not save us. Only a reduction strategy will help. We must change our expectations. But how is that supposed to work? According to sustainability researcher Niko Paech, our psychological resilience has not grown in line with prosperity. This is why the quality of life in affluent societies has hardly increased; instead, many skills have atrophied, while pressure to perform and sensory overload are increasing. We know this today as surely as we know that we are ruining the planet through our consumer behavior. In Paech's eyes, the worst thing about this is the belief that we cannot change anything because we can only change the big picture. But the rejection of individual responsibility is the main error. "The freedom to commit collective suicide is celebrated like an achievement," complains Paech, and not least contrasts this with his own lifestyle: he lives what he preaches. His alternative to the growth economy is more frugal, but also more ecologically compatible. Local self-sufficiency, which has recently become increasingly important again under the impact of the war in Ukraine, would relieve the burden on many people who are already feeling dizzy in the hamster wheel of material self-realization. Is the current crisis ultimately our great opportunity?