And now, for our season finale… Our story of Being Human on Planet Earth needs one last thing.  How do we use it to plot a new course into the future?  What can young activists start doing now that will add up to a future they want?  What opportunities do young people have that they can take advantage of?   ACT I Scene 1 How is the story of Being Human on Planet Earth supposed to end?   There’s only one way that story can end, and we don’t want that.  That’s what Extinction Rebellion is rebelling against.   As…

The environmental crisis, and the destruction it’s bringing, are part of life now.  How do we adapt to that?  Where do we find role models for adapting?   We’ve all seen heroes in movies.  What qualities do they have that help them succeed at their goals, and that we admire?  What can we learn from them that we can use in our own lives?    ACT I Scene 1 [112 bpm] The environmental crisis is part of life now.  Carbon dioxide has risen to levels it’s only reached a few times in the history of our planet, and that it’s…

Classical economics treats money as if it’s the foundation of economic systems.  But that doesn’t explain why people want things in life that money can’t buy.   Environmental economics is the study of how organisms try to get energy and resources they need to live and that they can use to grow and reproduce.  Human economics is a subset of environmental economics, where we all try to get the things we need to live and prosper.  Money is a very complex social development that’s built up around a simple technological development.  The real value of money comes from an interaction…

(Here’s the missing Episode 26.) The principles of modern theatre let actors create realistic human behavior onstage consistently.  That means all human behavior.   The economics of the theatre industry have led the business managers of theatre companies to choose plays that will bring in the most money.  That means plays that appeal the most to wealthy old White people, the traditional base of theatre patrons.  That means plays that are mostly by White playwrights, about White characters.. That has a number of negative effects on Artists Of Color.  It makes it harder for Playwrights Of Color to get their…

Science today depends on the same five steps of observation, self consistency, universality, reproducibility, and debate as it did 500 years ago.  But how has the role of science in society changed since then because of other developments?  When you say the word science today, what are you talking about?   How has that affected scientists?  How has the world changed in the 50 years since the environmental crisis was discovered?  How are leaders in science today hanging onto obsolete ideas from before the environmental crisis was discovered? ACT I Scene 1 [108 bpm] What does it mean in the…

Why are some environmental activists opposed to science?   We can use the Web of Human Behavior as a map to follow people’s motivations.  Why do people become environmental activists?  And how do those motivations lead many activists toward environmental science, but lead others away from it?   ACT I Scene 1 [104 bpm] We know about the religious, economic, and political opposition to climate science and environmental activism.   But there are a couple others that I’ve encountered in my years of activism, which no one seems to want to talk about much.   One is anti-science attitudes among…

We naturally perceive some parts about how the environment works better than we perceive other parts of it.  Those are the things we have to learn about to understand.  Our most profound sensory illusion is a misunderstanding of how energy moves through the environment versus how it moves through the universe as a whole.  But if we can understand that illusion, we can understand all the others. ACT I Scene 1 [104 bpm] How far back in our past did the environmental crisis begin?   At what point did people start misinterpreting how the environment works and making the decisions…

The environmental crisis is caused by limitations in our perceptions.  We think about things we want much more than we think about things we don’t want.   When you buy anything at the store, you think about what you’re going to use it for much more than you think about how much pollution was generated in creating it.   Our religions, political systems, and economic system are built on that misperception.  Our ancient and modern beliefs about what’s supposed to happen,  what we should do, and what it means to be in control of our lives, are based mainly on…

Patriarchy is an ongoing political system of men assuming they’re supposed to get what they want from women, and expecting women to go along with it.  How does it start?  And what keeps it going?   Men’s and women’s different reproductive instincts give us different ideas of common sense and good decisions.  Some of the patriarchy of today is the result of old traditions that favor men.  But other parts are the result of all of us acting on our feelings without understanding completely why we feel that way or how the other side feels.   By understanding the origins…

Men and women have many different feelings about relationships.  Relationships both partners are happy with always have some important things in common.  If men keep those in mind, it’s much easier for them to get on a path to finding and keeping good relationships.  If women keep those things in mind, it’s easier to explain them to men.   ACT I  Scene 1 [108 bpm] For the past 5 episodes we’ve been talking about many different ways men’s and women’s reproductive instincts affect how we think.  That can lead to a lot of misunderstandings and disagreements.  But if we use…