We promised last time to do a pre-election episode. It turned out to become a post-election analysis, where we focus on the short-sightedness of modern politics as a key reason why long-term sustainability issues seem to fall out of focus again and again.

Alex argues for more government control as a way of making politicians care more, while Mats calls for action on the issues where there is in fact broad consensus.

Link to Sam Harris' podcast as mentioned: https://samharris.org/podcast/

Link to the essay in the Economist about liberalism: https://www.economist.com/essay/2018/09/13/the-economist-at-175

This year Sweden was hit by the worst drought ever experienced in modern time. Farmers lost forests I wild fires, animals due to lack of feed and income due to low crop yields. The cost of climate change is here, a lot earlier than anyone thought. But, the warmer weather also makes it possible to grow more than ever before, if there is water. Sweden has to learn how to store and buffer water in its agricultural landscape. Maybe we could learn from Australia? Does this mean that it is too late to mitigate climate change? Do we just give up and try our best to adapt?

We have found the solution to the climate crisis! It’s called biochar and it’s a really simple stuff. But Mats, as usual, puts a spanner in the simple quick-fix that Alexander has found. But Mats is also very excited about biochar since it is produced using pyrolysis, one of his favourites in the unit-operation world.

We talk about land-use issues, are we going to see large amounts of land being put to short-rotation coppice to produce biochar instead of food? We talk about incentives and drivers to produce this carbon sink that biochar is.

There is a recent trend among policymakers. They seem unusually trigger happy in slapping bans on stuff with bad consequences, like plastic bags or cars in inner cities. Is this a good stragety as opposed to putting up tax incentives to encourage good and discourage bad stuff? And what is it that makes bans unusually popular right now?

Finally, join us as we play the blockbuster game "Ban or Tax?"

Alexander argues that we have lost a great deal of what it means to be human when we outsourced so many services, like food production and care of our elders, to specialist. If the global economy would collapse, then not knowing how to produce our food will make us a very vulnerable population. Further he argues that physical labour is important to us and beautiful because it is part of being a human being. If specialists take over too much of the necessities in life, then we lose part of what it is to be a human. Mats counters his argument by pointing out that specialisation is the very reason we have high-tech stuff like space rockets and the Internet.

 

Alexander thinks that he can see the trend that people are fed up with the economic transactions that govern our world and want real social interaction without money involved.

 

We also have time towards the end to talk a little about the World Economic Forum in Davos, where Mats was attending some very interesting seminars.

We conclude the year (or begin the next one, however you want to see it) with the final episode on Sapiens, a book that holds the promise to change more than just one of one's perspectives about the world, while being highly entertaining.

This time: How come we started to believe so firmly that things would become better in the future all of a sudden? Why didn't we believe that earlier and what does this fundamental belief – upon which a large part of our economy relies – mean for sustainability?

We are in Mats new apartment among empty walls and squeaking doors, but the discussion is on! This book gives us a lot of food for thought. Why is it that heroes all through history have been fighting the overtake of large empires? The Roman Empire collapsed but the Latin languages are still spoken all over the world. We enjoy the infrastructure and economic benefit of empires but we give up our independence, this is the conundrum that is the heart of this episode.

 

Why did the Europeans explore and conquer the world? What drove early explorers to excavate long forgotten cities and decipher old scriptures? Where did this curiosity come from?

 

We then move on to discussing the largest religion in the world, humanism.

For those of us not devoting our careers to study history, the history of humankind may seem too complex to grasp. In Sapiens, Yuval Noah Harari brings remarkable clarity and logic to some of our most formative moments in history as a species.

Mats & Alexander have read, and will now discuss the book which is not only profoundly educating and entertaining, but also – they believe – can say a lot about our modern struggle of prosperity vs. sustainability.

This is the first of (an estimated) three episode discussing the book.

Yet again there is a meeting on climate change. What has happened since Paris? Is USA really going to pull out?

We get into the details of the global politics on climate change and try to cover some of the topics present on the coming COP 23 in Bonn. We also talk about the USA administration and how they might act during the meeting.

It appears unfair that so many tropical storms hit a small – and often unprotected area in the world. But why is this? And what is the connection to climate change people are so passionate debating? 

In this episode we try to iron that out.