Episode 54 – Nature and spiritualism

 

We get spiritual in this episode, leaving the city and technology behind to immerse ourselves in nature. We both confess to being touched by the wilderness and we get something sentimental over us when talking about forest walks and mountain hikes.

 

It becomes a discussion about how environmental policy should be designed to accommodate for values that that cannot be measured in economic terms. We are probably far from creating a culture where every tree has a soul and a right to live, but we cannot deny the spiritual sensations that millions of people have when they immerse themselves in nature, whether its diving on the Great Barrier Reef or foraging mushrooms in the Swedish forests.

 

We talk about the precautionary principle. Maybe a forest owner should have to prove to us that there are no threat to endangered species before clear-cutting the forest? Or maybe it is a better way forward to start taking stewardship over the natural resources that we own and raise them like our children? As Mats points out, you don't just raise your children to get a good return on invenstmen…

 

Note:

The way to grow crops in swamps that Alexander is talking about is called Chinampa, if you want to read more about it.

We talk about bad ideas! We go through a few geo-engineering approaches to mitigating climate change. Reflecting sunlight back into space, ways to force carbon dioxide to sink into the deep oceans, and many more ideas that usually just don't make it in our quest to save the world!

What is this elusive thing called trust in a society? What makes high-trust societies, and low-trust societies? How does a society cultivate and maintein such a fragile thing – and can demand for transparency and accountability become too much?

Amazon has bought Whole Foods for 13.7 billion US dollar! What does that mean for organic food producers? Alexander has visited the northernmost commercial permaculture farm, a farm that claims to be the most profitable farm in Sweden at the moment. All this is synthesised in this podcast and how technology and organic food may go hand in hand.

 

Here is a link to a YouTube video where Richard Perkins presents the economy of his farm Ridgedale Permaculture:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-A0uNUN9UG0&t=495s

For the anniversary episode 50, Alex has gone back to our Alma Mater and listened to a dissertation about Biogas. We discuss its role in a renewable energy system, how the attitude towards it has changed, and what the alternative uses of organic wastes are. 

Somehow this discussion also leads us to challenge the "Reduce, Reuse, Recylce" paradigm, a hierarchy that has a tendency to drive perverse design and business decisions...

It has finally happened, the thing we knew was going to happen. The USA is pulling out of the climate agreement and will burn us all into a really warm future. Is Trump a terrorist? The more we talk about him, the crazier he seems to become. But Mats also has some good words to say about Trump, he likes the investments in infrastructure that Trump has announced to get the domestic economy going. Trump’s Black New Deal.

 

It sounds like Alexander is saying that the global CO2 emissions are 15 billion tons, 23:15 min into the talk, but he is actually saying 50 billion tons…

It's Alex's turn to give an update of what he's up to at the moment. 

Having moved from Sydney to Melbourne, Alex has set up a successful gardening business, despite – or maybe thanks to! – being entirely bike-borne! 

Alex talks about how it's actually possible to make this work, and how some guerilla permaculture is an outlet for creativity, much to the satisfaction of his clients. Mats is eager to talk about business models to scale the operation, and Alex introduces us to a new concept we're sure to hear more about: Bio-intensive agriculture.

Here is the link to the clip Alex mentions in the episode: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-e7rlo9zGOY

In this episode about the need for innovation to create a sustainable world, the boys seem to agree that research should be focused on disruptive technologies that can take us beyond just doing less harm. They also seem to agree that taxes should be raised to fund more innovation. Mats argues that researchers should get more freedom and not be forced to develop products that are close to market. This, he claims, could lead to the new type of leaps in innovation that takes us into the new industrial age, whatever it might be.

We have digged into some scientific results showing the seemingly obvious causal effect between independent electricity billing and reduced consumption. This triggers a discussion on how to use smart metering and monitoring software to make energy saving both  fun andmore efficient.

NOTE 1: For some reason, both Alex and Mats repeatedly failed to mention refrigerators and other white goods when talking about the biggest energy consumers in the households. For the sake of discussion, however, these are baseline comsumers in most households and would be less affected by behavioural change.

NOTE 2: The link to the PNAS study discussed: http://www.pnas.org/content/114/12/3091.full.pdf 

NOTE 3: Apologies for the poor sound quality from down under!

We are back! More food for thought:

 

Social unrest can be induced by climate change in several different ways. It can lead to drought and unemployment, it can lead to authoritarian governance reducing peoples liberties, it could lead to a revolution against the private ownership of fossil resources, or it could lead to a revolution against the capitalism system that has seemingly failed to prevent dangerous climate change. A democratic takeover of the fossil fuel resources or a revolution out of despair? Alexander argues that the choice is ours to make, and Mats brings in a counter-revolution from the so called alt-right movement who are denying climate change and are prone to act against ‘the elite who wants to impose legislation to limit our liberty’.

The discussion in centered around an article by Andreas Malm: http://www.rodarummet.org/web/2016/12/30/1686/#more-1686

or in English: http://socialistregister.com/index.php/srv/article/view/27131#.WL9QZxh7F3m