limits to growth

Meet Jack Welch, celebrated wrecker of real jobs and leading light of Wall Street wankers. Please share this episode with your friends and start a conversation.

For an entertaining deep dive into the theme of season five (Phalse Prophets), read the definitive peer-reviewed taxonomic analysis from our very own Jason Bradford, PhD. 

Sources/Links/Notes:

• David Gelles, The Man Who Broke Capitalism: How Jack Welch Gutted the Heartland and Crushed the Soul of America—and How to Undo His Legacy (2022).
• David Gelles, "How Jack Welch’s Reign at G.E. Gave Us Elon Musk’s Twitter Feed," New York Times (2022).
• Malcolm Gladwell, "Was Jack Welch the Greatest C.E.O. of His Day--Or the Worst?," The New Yorker (2022).
• Geoff Colvin, "The Ultimate Manager," Fortune (1999).
• Matthew J. Belvedere, "Jack Welch says Obama’s ‘wacky’ climate-change agenda hurts the US economy," CNBC (2016).
• "Jack Welch Fast Facts," CNN (2020).
• Scott Tong, "This is how shareholders got to be first in line for profits," Business Insider (2016).
• James B. Stewart, "Did the Jack Welch Model Sow Seeds of G.E.’s Decline?," New York Times (2017). 
• Jack & Suzy Welch Winning (2005).
• Geoff Gloeckler, "Jack Welch Launches Online MBA," Bloomberg Businessweek (2009).
• Della Bradshaw, "Jack Welch on the executive MBA he created in his own image," Financial Times (2014).
• Jack Welch Management Institute .
• Oxfam "Top 1% grab twice as much new wealth as everyone else combined".
• Economic Policy Institute “CEO pay has skyrocketed".  

Meet Ray Kurzweil, who combines Moore’s Law with nanobots in a faux recipe to cheat death. Please share this episode with your friends and start a conversation.

For an entertaining deep dive into the theme of season five (Phalse Prophets), read the definitive peer-reviewed taxonomic analysis from our very own Jason Bradford, PhD. 

Sources/Links/Notes:

• Ray Kurzweil's 2005 book checks in at 672 pages -- it's called The Singularity Is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology.
• Kurzweil's sequel from 2022 is called The Singularity Is Nearer.
• Brian O'Keefe, "The smartest (or the nuttiest) futurist on Earth," Fortune, May 2, 2007.
• David Hochman, "Reinvent Yourself," Playboy, April 19, 2016.
• Episode of Doug Henning's World of Magic, 1980.
• Society for Cryobiology
• Singularity University
• Sarah Begley, "The Future of Food: Experts Predict How Our Plates Will Change," Time, October 9, 2014.
• Alan Thompson, "Dr Ray Kurzweil: 2022-2023 Updates," LifeArchitect.ai
• Eric Brende wrote a book that counteracts some of Kurzweil's absurdities. It's called Better Off: Flipping the Switch on Technology.
• The Simplicity Collective is a good organization for exploring voluntary simplicity.

Meet Steven Pinker whose denial of limits increases the likelihood of his worst fear: the end of the Enlightenment. Please share this episode with your friends and start a conversation.

For an entertaining deep dive into the theme of season five (Phalse Prophets), read the definitive peer-reviewed taxonomic analysis from our very own Jason Bradford, PhD. 

Sources/Links/Notes:

• David Marchese, "Steven Pinker Thinks Your Sense of Imminent Doom Is Wrong" in The New York Times Magazine (2021).
• The Work that Reconnects Network
• Good Grief Network
• Three relevant past episodes of Crazy Town are episode 39 on the myth of progress, episode 35 on self-domestication, and episode 34 on terror management theory.
• "Steven Pinker: The Mind Reader" in The Guardian (1999).
• Robert Wright, "The 2004 Time 100" in Time Magazine (2004).
• Nick Gillespie, "Steven Pinker Loves the Enlightenment" in Reason Magazine (2018).
• David A. Bell, "Waiting for Steven Pinker’s enlightenment" in The Nation (2018).
• Emile Torres, "Steven Pinker’s fake enlightenment" in Salon (2019).
• Robert Epstein, "Book Review: The Better Angels of Our Nature" in Scientific American (2011).
• Tyler Cowen, "Steven Pinker on Language, Reason, and the Future of Violence," Mercatus Center (2016).
• Mike Freiheit and Lyta Gold, "Comic: Steven Pinker--Certified Grief Counselor" in Current Affairs 2018). 
• George Monbiot, "Contrary to Reason" in The Guardian (2018).
• Alex Blasdel, "Pinker's progress: the celebrity scientist at the centre of the culture wars" in The Guardian (2021).

Meet the unelected leaders of Crazy Town, who keep our collective heads in the sand while the planet burns. Please share this episode to your friends and start a conversation.

For an entertaining deep dive into the theme of season five (Phalse Prophets), read the definitive peer-reviewed taxonomic analysis from our very own Jason Bradford, PhD. 

Sources/Links/Notes:

• "Bundyville: The Remnant" -- long-form article and podcast by Leah Sottile.
• Five topic categories of the Phalse Prophets season: progress myth, neoliberalism, ecomodernism, effective altruism, and doomerism.
• Story of Bruce's Beach.
• Yes! Magazine article on land justice.  

Stuart McMillen is a systems thinker disguised as a cartoonist. His long-form comics condense important academic topics into understandable and entertaining works of art. Stuart tackles topics in the fields of ecology, economics, psychology, and sociology. With original drawings, thought-provoking narration, and expertly paced storytelling, he introduces readers to critical ideas that are often under-reported and underappreciated, including energy slaves, property rights, peak oil, and the war on drugs. Go behind the scenes with Stuart to learn how he crafts his comics, from his philosophy to the nitty gritty of how he makes a living. And be sure to explore his work at stuartmcmillen.com. 

Bob Jensen has written a book with Wes Jackson titled An Inconvenient Apocalypse: Environmental Collapse, Climate Crisis, and the Fate of Humanity. With a title like that, Jason and Bob have lots of heavy ground to cover, including overshoot, the limits to growth, and the cascading environmental and social crises of our times. They conclude that there are no easy answers or silver-bullet solutions, but by focusing on sustainable size of the human population, appropriate scale of social organization, optimal scope of human competence for managing high-energy modernity, and required speed of taking action to avoid catastrophe, they home in on some strategic responses to the crises. 

To understand humanity's relationship with energy and power, and to get a handle on why we're experiencing a polycrisis of climate change, social inequality, and loss of biodiversity, you have to go back to the beginning – all the way back to the origins of life on Earth. Explore how power functions in nature, including predator/prey relationships, self-balancing mechanisms in organisms and ecosystems, and the maximum power principle. Along the way, you'll tour exotic locations like the Grand Canyon and volcanic vents at the bottom of the sea, as well as more humble destinations like a neighborhood pond and a root cellar – places that will help you appreciate how power in nature drives evolution and determines biological success. For more information, please visit our website.

Learn more at power.postcarbon.org

Taylor Brorby has written one hell of a memoir. It covers many critical topics that come up in Crazy Town, from fracking to civil disobedience to that most inept of policies: aiming for infinite economic growth on a finite planet. Taylor shares both thought-provoking ideas (e.g., the intimidating width of prairies versus the intimidating height of mountains) and lessons learned from growing up gay within the construct of an extractive economy. Two "bonus" topics in this episode: writing and wrestling! But don't worry, the "Macho Man" Randy Savage impersonations remain mercifully brief. For episode notes and more information, please visit our website.

Free trade, private property, and limited government – these policies might seem well-intentioned and even benign. But when a couple of colluding, power-tripping, wealthy blockheads packaged them into a political system that would become known as neoliberalism, it was like putting capitalist exploitation on steroids. Pollution and other environmental problems? Just a minor cost of doing business. Inequality and lack of opportunities for workers? Just wait for all the surplus to trickle down from the upper crust. Concerned about government overreach? Just hand over operations to Halliburton, Philip Morris, and all the other "trustworthy" corporations. Sheesh! It's time for something entirely different to replace neoliberalism – maybe "paleoprogressivism?" Calling all wordsmiths! For episode notes and more information, please visit our website.

Skyscrapers have sprouted like mushrooms in our urban landscapes. But in an environmentally depleted, energy-pinched era, we need to take a closer look at the downsides of movin' on up to the sky. We especially need to pay attention to embodied energy and all the features required to keep skyscrapers standing: uninterrupted supplies of electricity, reliable water treatment systems, functional waste removal, and mechanized transport. It’s time to question the quixotic quest to build ever higher, consider alternatives for sustainable landscapes, and take precautions to prevent tragic instances of accidental self defenestration. For episode notes and more information, please visit our website.

Jenny Price has written an environmental manifesto that's angry, funny, and short. In it she asks, "Why should I give a frick about Exxon's LEED-certified building?" And goes on to explain that we need to care about what they're doing inside that building. Jenny and Rob rant about green consumerism, the lack of systems thinking, and "regulatory capture" in the environmental movement, and they conclude that no one over 40  should be allowed to make climate policy.

Sylvia Earle is a legend in ocean exploration and conservation. She comes ashore in Crazy Town to discuss some of her experiences in the depths, the state of the world's oceans and marine biodiversity, the limits to growth, the wonders and disappointments of technology, and her belief in the accumulation of knowledge as a pathway for change. Sylvia's new book is called Ocean: A Global Odyssey.

Society has become so complex that all the complexity begets more complexity. And if that’s not complex enough for you, jobs have become so specialized that hardly anyone knows how anything is made or works. Join Jason, Rob, and Asher as they contemplate how to make a microphone from scratch, break down the tertiary jobs in a pirate economy (parrot tenders and eyepatch makers), and explain the Lloyd Dobler hypothesis. They also explore a conundrum: even though the industrialized economy is bumping into the limits to growth and risking environmental meltdown, most people remain locked into their specialized jobs and continue to propagate the unsustainable economy. The Do-the-Opposite segment features a healthy dose of simplification and a fascinating interview with Marcin Jakubowski, the founder of Open Source Ecology and the Global Village Construction Set.

Self domestication, the process by which humans became a more cooperative and less aggressive species, paradoxically contributes to humanity's overshoot predicament. While trying to wrap their heads around that nugget, Asher, Jason, and Rob geek out on evolutionary biology, 80s professional wrestling characters, and a certain comedic song about foxes. Don't miss Jason's entertaining pronunciations of the names of Russian scientists and politicians as he tells the story of a groundbreaking experiment that took place in the hinterlands of Siberia. In the Do-the-Opposite segment, we struggle with the conundrum of how to maintain the benefits of cooperative behavior and avoid violence during economic relocalization, all while trying to figure out what the hell a fief is.

The Lindisfarne Tapes are selected recordings of presentations and conversations at the Lindisfarne Fellows’ meetings. In March of 2013 William Thompson granted permission to the Schumacher Center for a New Economics to transfer the talks from the old reel-to-reel tapes to digital format so that they could be posted online and shared freely. In 2021, the Schumacher Center used the digital audio to create the Lindisfarne Tapes Podcast. Reposting should include acknowledgment of williamirwinthompson.org. Learn more about the Lindisfarne Tapes here.

Meadows delivered this lecture in 1976 at the Lindisfarne Fellows Conference, "Economics and the Moral Order."

The dampening of demand for fossil fuels, stimulated by the fight against climate change,  accelerated by the pandemic, is disrupting the energy sector in a major way. While the periodic upswing in price has produced massive profits for shareholders, it is injurious to consumers and the social and economic systems in many developing countries. In addition, the ecological impacts of fossil fuels are well documented as this sector is responsible for the lion’s share of greenhouse gas emissions that have resulted in global temperature rise and led to climate change

Hydrocarbons are not only an important source of fuel but also inputs into a host of other processes and materials. Energy, economy, and environment are inextricably linked. While fossil fuels will continue to be relevant, there is growing demand for alternatives: renewables, to satisfy the need for clean energy and energy security. 

But have we found the “killer app” to replace the functionality provided by fossil fuels? 

How do we wean ourselves from this volatile yet lucrative fossil fuel economy? 

How do we reorganize our economic and industrial systems, our consumption patterns to decarbonizing energy systems? 

What does this mean for future society and economy? 

Energy consultant Nneka Matthews and Host Derval Barzey discuss the link between energy and economics and the influence of increased pressure for sustainability. We examine the evolving energy systems and the changing social contract.  Its tricky with GDP being so closely tied with energy consumption. Can we sustain economic activity as we encounter limits to growth and push the earth into ecological overshoot? Have we exhausted the existing business models? 

The wheels of change have started turning. All we have are a best guess of the outcomes. As dynamic and exciting as the energy sector is, this transition will be nothing less exhilarating. It’s fascinating to see how businesses and economies respond to the compelling case for decarbonization.  Will they be first movers or late adopters?

So many issues to unpack. No simple answers 

Stay tuned for part 2 of the discussion.

Get in touch with Nneka:

LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/nneka-matthews/


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Thank you for listening!

In which I use a global biomass census and Predator vs. ET simulations (among other things!) to explore what it takes to sustain large, vibrant cities without killing the world.

Resources:

• Edenicity Reference Design.
• Yinon M. Bar-On, Rob Phillips, and Ron Milo, The biomass distribution on Earth, PNAS June 19, 2018 115 (25) 6506-6511; first published May 21, 2018.
• Kayler, Z.; Janowiak, M.; Swanston, C. 2017. Global Carbon. (June, 2017). U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Climate Change Resource Center. 
• UNEP GEAS, One Planet, How Many People? A Review of Earth’s Carrying Capacity, June, 2012.
• Worldometer: World Population by Year, 2020.
• Randy Olson, Percentage of Bachelor’s degrees conferred to women, by major (1970-2012), June 14, 2014.
• Juan Forero, Brazil's Falling Birth Rate: A 'New Way Of Thinking', NPR, January 15, 2012.
• Neil Howe, Nations Labor To Raise Their Birthrates, Forbes, Mar 29, 2019

As we continue heading toward planetary disaster, like the Titanic steaming toward its rendezvous with a big freakin' iceberg, we might want to figure out how to prepare and manage our lifeboats. In environmentalism’s seedy past, a famous ecologist used the metaphor of lifeboats getting swamped to argue for a "screw the poor and non-whites" strategy to deal with the limits to growth. In search of better ideas and better leadership, Asher, Rob, and Jason discuss how we can reinvent lifeboat ethics and find prosocial ways to manage humanity's shared crises. Bonus: find out what to do if you should find that the soles of your feet have fallen off. For episode notes and more information, please visit our website and sign up for our newsletter.

We've seen a frightening rise in recent years of violence and violent rhetoric by so-called ecofascists, who use environmental and resource limits arguments to justify hateful views around immigration and population. But does that mean those of us who are concerned about ecological limits should keep our mouths shut? Rob, Jason, and Asher explore why squelching discussions about limits might actually backfire and fuel ecofascist views instead, while wrestling with some of the skeletons in the environmental movement's closet. Speaking of skeletons, wait until you hear our "theories" about Rachel Carson and Aldo Leopold. For episode notes and more information, please visit our website and sign up for our newsletter.

Did you know that we can lose half our food supply and it won’t matter? That’s because agriculture is only 3% of GDP, so there’s no need to worry about the effects of climate change on farming. Or so says the latest genius to win the Nobel Prize in economics. This “logic” is pretty darn disturbing on its own, but what happens when such muddled thinking comes to infest climate models? Besides causing Jason, Asher, and Rob to lose their minds (and their cool), it can lead to unrealistic optimism surrounding the Green New Deal and other worthwhile policies for dealing with climate change. Well, maybe we can use cryptocurrencies to purchase information about food for our virtual bellies when we run into problems on the farm. For episode notes and more information, please visit our website.