Conversation Earth

How can policymakers be persuaded to abandon the most widespread public policy goal on Earth? In our last episode, Brian Czech explained that economic growth cannot be sustained perpetually on a finite planet. This episode continues that conversation with the conservation biologist and economics expert. Here, he explains why pro-growth economists proliferate, and offers his prescription for making the shift to a steady state economy.

Brian Czech is founder and president of the Center for the Advancement of the Steady State Economy, and author of Shoveling Fuel for a Runaway Train and Supply Shock: Economic Growth at the Crossroads and the Steady State Solution.

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Economic growth is the number one public policy goal around the world, yet our pursuit of growth is “pulling out the rug from our own kids’ and grandkids’ future,” according to Brian Czech, founder and president of the Center for the Advancement of the Steady State Economy. He wants us to understand economic growth is physically impossible to sustain on a finite planet, it’s depleting nonrenewable natural resources and degrading or eliminating crucial habitat for other species.

Czech authored Shoveling Fuel for a Runaway Train in response to his analysis of the conflict between economic growth and sound environmental stewardship. The conservation biologist taught ecological economics for over a decade at Virginia Tech, and in 2013 penned Supply Shock: Economic Growth at the Crossroads and the Steady State Solution.

In part one of a two-part conversation (recorded in 2007 but just as relevant today), Brian explains our obsession with GDP growth, its failure to eliminate poverty and increase happiness, and why it’s failings are not commonly acknowledged.

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Was globalization a temporary state that has run its course? That’s the case made by Jerry Mander, who believes there is plenty of evidence that the promises of capitalism, consumerism, individual wealth and never-ending growth are coming up empty. He’s founder of the International Forum on Globalization and author of The Case Against the Global Economy and for a Turn Toward the Local. He also wrote The Capitalism Papers: Fatal Flaws of an Obsolete System in 2012.

Jerry Mander is in a unique position to understand the power of advertising to move us to act against our best interests. After earning bachelor’s and master’s degrees in economics, he ended up in the advertising business, eventually as a partner at a San Francisco ad agency. He managed several early ad campaigns for the Sierra Club, working with famed environmentalist David Brower. In 1971 he founded the first non-profit advertising agency in the United States, Public Interest Communications.

Mander grew to realize the power of advertising was being used to preserve an unsustainable system that requires ever-increasing amounts of consumption. In response, he authored Four Arguments for the Elimination of Television in 1978. He founded the International Forum on Globalization in 1994 and continues to serve as a Distinguished Fellow.

Hollywood director Tom Shadyac traded a mansion and private jets for a mobile home and a bicycle. He had found the traditional trappings of success were not the key to happiness. After a successful Hollywood comedy career and a near-death bicycle accident, Tom eagerly shares his discoveries about life and happiness.

In part two of a two-episode conversation, Shadyac discusses technology, morality, competition, success and politics.

Learn more & subscribe (free) to our newsletter at http://www.conversationearth.org Photo Credit: Ron Hall, Pepperdine University

Tom Shadyac is a successful Hollywood comedy director who found the traditional trappings of success were not the key to happiness. He traded a mansion and private jets for a mobile home and a bicycle. After a bicycle accident nearly killed him, he decided it was time to tell a different kind of story.

In part one of this two-episode conversation, Shadyac discusses human nature, the definition of success, and our cultural story, with a few references to Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump along the way.

Tom Shadyac Films:

Ace Ventura: Pet Detective

The Nutty Professor

Liar, Liar

Patch Adams

Bruce Almighty

Evan Almighty

I Am

While world leaders wring their hands over forecasts of timid GDP growth, a growing list of visionaries around the world are collaborating to redefine economic objectives in a more meaningful and sustainable way. Former White House advisor Gus Speth has been at the forefront of new economic thought for decades. His prescription for change is not a bunch of economic mumbo-jumbo for boards and bankers. His ideas reach deep into the way we conduct our personal lives.

Architect Sarah Susanka observed that houses in the U.S. were getting larger – but some rooms were seldom occupied, and often not even furnished. She found clients frequently did not get the immense satisfaction they expected from living in their “dream house.” How this relates to the way we inhabit our lives, and even the planet, is the subject of this conversation.

Sarah Susanka’s observations of Americans’ dissatisfaction with their “starter castles” sparked her to write Not so Big House, about how making a house bigger doesn’t necessarily make it better. The book was a major success, leading to appearances on major network morning shows and Oprah. More observation and reflection led Sarah to pen, several years later, The Not So Big Life: Making Room for What Really Matters. It was a landmark book, important for its perspective on quality vs. quantity, and its encouragement to reflect on what we want “more” of.

“Our computer-generated scenarios all showed this growth stopping in the early decades of the 21st century, and, I must say, looking back now, it seems that we're right on schedule.”

Dennis Meadows led the team at MIT whose computer simulations led to the publication of the top-selling environmental book of all time – The Limits to Growth. In this interview, Meadows recounts how the study came about, how it was received, and what he has learned from that. The interview is followed by a brief conversation with another team member, Jørgen Randers, offering observations on the 40th anniversary of the landmark report in 2012.

Learn more at http://www.conversationearth.org/limits-to-growth/

Photo Credit: Fabian Fiechter

From November 30 to December 11 the world’s attention is riveted on COP 21, the 2015 Paris Climate Conference. Bill McKibben has played a major role in public awareness and discussion about climate change. His 1989 book, The End of Nature, was likely the first book for a general audience about climate change. He’s one of the founders of the planet-wide, grassroots climate change movement, 350.org, he spearheaded resistance to the Keystone Pipeline, and launched the fossil fuel divestment movement.

Relocalization may be the most important strategy for minimizing climate change. According to Bill McKibben, “working as communities is the most important thing that we can be doing right now.” In this wide-ranging conversation about the sustainability of our civilization, McKibben shares his thinking about much more than climate change, including the fact that having “more” is not necessarily the key to our happiness.

Local food, small farms, suburban isolation, more leisure and less stuff, community connections, and greater satisfaction all come up for discussion. Dave Gardner sat down with McKibben in 2007, shortly after publication of his book, Deep Economy: The Wealth of Communities and the Durable Future, the year before he co-founded 350.org, for this macro-level look at climate change, human behavior and happiness, and public policy.

Learn more at http://www.conversationearth.org/durable-future-bill-mckibben-115/

Photo Credit: Steve Liptay

Do we behave rationally? You might be surprised how often our decision-making deviates from what is in our best interest. Behavioral economist Dan Ariely studies human behavior and decision-making. His experiments have led him to startling conclusions.

“We repeatedly and predictably make the wrong decisions in many aspects of our lives.”

We may be rats in a maze for scientific study, but Dan Ariely puts a refreshingly human face on the scientific study of why we do the things we do.

Particularly interesting is his explanation of why worldviews prevent Republicans and Democrats in the U.S. from agreeing on FACTS:

“When we have an initial belief, reality doesn’t matter as much as we think. We have an illusion that we’re actually observing reality, but it’s filtered dramatically by what we’re experiencing in our brains, and our expectations.”

He had this to say about climate change: “If you were starting from scratch, and you said, ‘Let me create a problem that people would not care about,’ it would look very much like global warming.” Listen to this conversation to find out why!

This fun and fascinating conversation explores the decoy effect, inter-temporal choice, hedonic treadmill, identifiable victim effect, behavior substitution, the happiness conundrum, keeping up with the Joneses, and even being choosy about who you compare yourself too. It’s a fascinating journey into the human psyche.

Learn more at http://www.conversationearth.org/predictably-irrational/