Rapidly accelerating climate change is uniquely modern — but climate change is not. The planet has warmed and cooled in the past, even during mankind’s time. What can we learn from those events that might help us cope with the extremes that are our present and future? Can indigenous people who understand nature differently than most of us teach us how to cope with today’s terrifying challenges?

Our guest on this week’s New Thinking for a New World podcast, Tero Mustonen, is a climate scholar who combines indigenous knowledge with academic research. He is also a leader of the SnowChange Cooperative that works with indigenous people and climate issues throughout the Arctic, and currently the head of his town of Selkie in North Karelia, Finland.

Listen to his insights on how to promote positive change on a damaged planet.

This episode was originally published on September 23, 2021.

We live in a world of converging crises. War in Europe, food and energy insecurity, historic flooding in Pakistan and historical drought in the US, COVID shutdowns in China, American and European sanctions that disrupt supply chains…the list goes on. The good old days probably were not as good as we now like to remember, but they certainly were more predictable.

We can forget about that new normal thing we hoped would emerge as the pandemic receded: No normal is the new normal.

But life goes on. We need to make decisions about a future that is blurry at best. Imagine that you're a CEO of a big company. How do you cope with a world that seems to be spinning off its axis? How do you find workers when you need them, decide where to open new plants, assure a reliable supply chain. And what do you do about climate change?

Our guests on the New Thinking for a New World podcast are in the business of thinking about converging crises and trying to help corporate executives cope with them. Tom Armstrong is president of Madison River Group, which specializes in advising on climate change and Earth systems outcomes. Diane Osgood is a sustainability strategist with deep practical experience in the real world. How do they help corporate leaders not only peer around the corner, but formulate strategies that make sense in our changing world?

As the Russian invasion of Ukraine ebbs and flows, the whole world is watching—and wondering. What does Putin want? How far will he go in his efforts to subjugate Ukraine? Does he have limits? Has he, as Angela Merkel said a few years ago, lost touch with reality? If so, then what?

By the time historians can answer those questions, it will be too late, certainly for thousands of Ukrainians and Russians, and conceivably for the rest of us. Meanwhile, one of the best places to find answers might be in a recently published biography, simply entitled PUTIN by Philip Short.

Short is a British journalist with a long career as a foreign correspondent in Moscow, Beijing and Washington for the BBC, The Economist and The Times of London. He is also an accomplished author, having written biographies of Mao, Pol Pot and Francois Mitterand.

Short recently joined the New Thinking for a New World podcast to discuss how Putin looks at the world, what turned him away from a partnership with the West, and the risk that his war could go nuclear.

What do you think?

We live in an era of accelerating, disruptive climate change. This isn’t about the random bad storm, but about systemic, dramatic shifts in climate that manifest as extreme weather of all sorts: wet bulb temperatures that threaten life, droughts destroying crops, floods of Biblical proportions, shrinking ice caps, etc. Change is everywhere, with catastrophic consequences that every credible forecast says will worsen.

But how can we understand the reality of those changes? What’s actually happening in the Arctic and in the boreal forests, in the Amazon and in Africa? How do changes in those disparate ecosystems relate to each other and to places where most of us live? What’s likely to happen next, and what can we do about it?

To look for answers we recently organized a conversation among Ugandan veterinarian Gladys Kalema-Zikusoka, Colombian Amazon expert and a friend of its indigenous people Francisco Hildebrand, and Finnish fisherman, scientist and village head man Tero Mustonen. All are deeply knowledgeable about the realities of their ecosystems, and even more deeply committed to finding solutions to the challenges thrown up by the changing climate. Our discussion was moderated by Maarten Koets, and hosted by Vamvakou Revival and the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF).

This episode was originally published on May 26, 2022,

Winston Churchill famously described the Soviet Union as "A riddle wrapped in an enigma, inside a mystery.” That seems equally to apply to modern day Mexico.

On the one hand, the country is chronically beset by drug cartels, violence, femicide, corruption, poverty, and political shenanigans. The US State Department says that tourists should absolutely not travel to six of Mexico's 32 states and another seven that are almost as violent and crime ridden. The Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean says Mexico is the fifth poorest country in the Americas. During the past twelve months, a record 2.3 million people will have been arrested trying to cross the country’s northern border into the United States, including many Mexicans fleeing poverty and violence or simply looking for better lives.

On the other hand, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, Mexico’s president, commands approval ratings of around 60% which are the envy of almost every other democratically elected president. AMLO’s party—really more of a social movement he created—is far and away the dominant force in Mexican politics, well positioned to win the presidency for his successor in 2024. Almost half of all Mexicans say their country is on the right path—by comparison, in the United States, only about a quarter think the same about their country.

And more than two-thirds of Mexicans expect life to be better for them and their children five years from now. Mexicans, not known for being optimists, apparently are optimistic. Why?

Jorge Castañeda is as well positioned as anyone to solve the riddle. Castañeda is a leading Mexican academic and author, as well as a former foreign minister and an expert on foreign policy; indeed, he is one of his country’s best known, most incisive commentators on all things political. He thinks Mexico is in trouble. What do you think?

We live in a complicated, conflicted world. Russia's unprovoked war in Ukraine. US and European efforts to punish Russian aggression in ways that challenge the basic rules of financial and commercial globalization. China's growing geopolitical and military assertiveness, highlighted by increasing threats to repatriate Taiwan. Even Japan and Germany, long advocates of soft power, have announced they will re-arm in the face of rising global threats.

What about India? Today it's the world's sixth largest economy and famously, the world's largest democracy. But it aims higher. Prime Minister Modi recently declared that the country must accelerate its growth and development; by 2050 only China and the US are likely to have larger economies.

However, rapid economic growth might be the easy part compared to figuring out how to live with an expansionist, aggressive China. When Chinese leaders intone their mantra of “Asia for the Asians” they don’t seem to be offering co-leadership to Delhi or anyone else.

Indeed, India shares a border of more than 2000 miles with China and has fought the Chinese repeatedly, as recently as 2020. It seems inevitable that India and China will butt heads again—perhaps repeatedly—as both countries become stronger. And to add a twist, Russia, China's declared best friend forever is India's largest arms supplier.

C Raja Mohan, senior fellow at the Asia Society Policy Institute in Delhi, has a deep understanding of India’s foreign policy challenges. Listen as he explains how India can cope with a dangerous world and a dangerous neighbor.

What do you think?

At a time when autocrats are rampaging and our democracies are weakening, the need for citizens to defend their rights has never been greater. But, does speaking truth to power matter in the real world? While we celebrate the bravery and eloquence of those who stand up to injustice and overweening authority, too often the bad guys seem to win. What would it take to change that outcome?

The Tällberg Foundation recently organized a conversation among three of the good “guys:” Kenyan poet Sitawa Namwalie, Bangladeshi photographer and activist Shahidul Alam, and American human rights lawyer Jared Genser. Their discussion was hosted in Vamvakou, Greece by the Vamvakou Revival and SNF (the Stavros Niarchos Foundation).

Listen as they discuss the reality in the trenches of the fight for human rights.

This episode was originally published on May 19, 2022.

“For the first time in human history, we face a planetary emergency.” Those words were written by Johan Rockström, Director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research. Scientists tend to be sober, measured in their assessments and with a preference for others to draw the big picture conclusions. So, when an earth scientist as distinguished and accomplished as Rockström writes that “Human pressures on earth have reached dangerously high levels” which could imperil humanity’s survival, we should listen.

Are you listening? If so, what do you think? And, more importantly, what are you going to do?

This episode was originally published on June 23, 2022

At least one in nine of the almost eight billion people who live on earth are undernourished. As the 18th century economist Robert Malthus forecast, we seem on a path where the planet can’t produce enough food for the projected 10 billion people who will be alive in 2050. Climate change and wars will only make the global food situation more precarious.

Is large scale famine inevitable?

David Kaplan, a global leader in the new field of cellular agriculture, doesn’t think so. He believes the steaks and fish fillets that he and other scientists are literally growing in their labs can eventually feed a hungry world. What do you think?

One of the ironies of the 21st century is that even though, everyone on the planet seems to have a cell phone and to be actively connected to social media, too many people seem voiceless or, at least, don’t think their voices are heard by those whose decisions shape their lives. The result is a huge gap between citizens and their putative leaders almost everywhere that breeds corrosive anger, frustration and distrust.

What’s going on? Who is voiceless, and why? Is the problem that too many are voiceless or that too many are not listening? Is the solution to speak louder, to scream perhaps, or do we need to think differently about how we engage people in the important conversations that define their reality?

Maybe unanswerable, but we asked some people to try. Please listen to the conversation among Baiqu Gonkar, a Tibetan activist working at the intersection of technology, art and social good; Francis Hildebrand, a Colombian environmentalist working to sustain the Amazon; and Mike Niconchuk, an applied neuroscientist working with conflict-affected populations particularly in the Middle East. Diane Osgood, social impact strategist, moderated the discussion, which was hosted by Vamvakou Revival and the Stavros Niarchos Foundation.

What do you think?

This episode was originally published on June 2, 2022