Thank you Rach. You have defined for me the debate in terms of a moral-political response to biophysical facts of overshoot. This includes the political facts of egregious abuse of power at the expense of collective interest. Let power itself be the big issue for public debate, as it is for practitioners of the critical arts.
As student geologist in the late 1960s I learnt that the great advances in science of paleoclimatology were a direct product of the development of "petroleum geology". This field of knowledge underwrote the great petroleum age. It was this science, already very advanced in the boom times of the 1960s, that James Hansen turned to when he transferred his expertise in the atmospheric physics of Venus to our home planet Earth..
The morally unhinged abuse of power is at issue now we know they knew.
Knowledge is power. So the abuse of knowledge and communicative action is central to the consolidation and dangerous abuse of power today.
The story of petroleum geology and its offspring, paleoclimatology, could blow the battleships of bullshit out of the rising water!
Ecocide is the newest and greatest Crime Against Peace, including War Crime, Genocide, Crimes Against Humanity.. The Ecocide is a matter for a special general assembly of the United Nations. Very soon. The distribution of moral culpability must have consequences.
I find great value in P: C and am so glad my tip has apparently been of interest to you. I wrote such a long reply on my phone then poof! It bloody vanished. I'm not a digital native but would love to contribute. I live alone in a rented tiny house in a sheep paddock in N.Z. with only radio and this little smartfone to connect beyond my paddock.Will try to upgrade my ICT and hopefully be better placed to support P: C
The link between the petroleum industry and climatology involves the story of heroic problem solving by technology and the ecocidal "dark triad" of the "Masters of War" intoxicated by the "Ring of Power". The story of "the social responsibility of science" is relevant, from the founding of thd Royal Society to Oppenhrimer saying it was up to politicians how his bomb was used to James Hansen to your wonderful interviewees. Pro-Power culture and super-cults: Thats why your critical method is so productive at this watershed moment in history.
I know the mining industry and its culture as a participant observer. We have to crack it and the institution of war with which it has co-evolved.
I would suggest you talk with James Hansen at Columbia about the role of the petroleum industry in paleoclimatoligy. The PETM (Paleocene/Eocene Themsl Maximum) would have radicalized Hansen. Scary stuff, geological history.
Then there's "climate whiplash": in geological time global temperature has a fall after a rise and then equilibrium (thanks to the Gaia Effect ? ).
It scares me that what we achieve by way of degrowth by 2030 will determine the amplitude and time of the anthropogenic climate perturbation. One thousand to one million years, we yhe living are all terraformers now. Yours
the Greatest Generation now, because the 2020s is it. The next couple of years are of GEOLOGICAL consequence. Every enterprise needs to design for radical "cooperacy"!
..platform William Rees of B.C. Canada?
To be continued...
Arohanui from Ōtaki on the Kāpiti Coast of Āotearoa.
P.S. Hey Rachel- check out our own School Strike climate champion Councillor Sophie Handford (kcdc.govt.nz) and Prof Bronwyn Hayward of University of Canterbury Politicsl Science. Bron Hayward for Planet: Critical! Sophie leads an intergenerational panel of N.Z. climate experts, including Bronwyn.
you have invited Simon Michaux to Planet Critical where he argued that a transformation towards renewables needs way too much energy and materials than its (socially/ecologically) feasible.
Just came out Nafeez Ahmed’s paper* which challenges Michaux’s arguments, for example:
„the idea that renewables have a lower EROI than fossil fuels is a persistent misconception that has plagued numerous other studies that fail to make a full account of these technologies. These mistakes can be found in many places, not least in the famous feature documentary by Michael Moore, Planet of the Humans. More recently, the Geological Survey of Finland published [by Michaux] a paper repeating such errors, as did the journal Energies. ... Models that predict raw materials scarcity based on a one-for-one substitution of petrol vehicles with EVs are wrong.”
It could be interesting to untangle these issues either through a debate or just invite them separately...
Great. I had a few seconds face to face with JH after his time in 2011 on the stage with a panel in a Vic Uni of Wellington Symposium on Coal. His 2011 tour if NZ was organised by our late great green politics champion, my friend Jeanette Fitzsimons. Her younger parliamentary colleague has just done her hagiography
Back to my encounter with JH. I asked him about the political stress of degrowth. He mentioned Pearl Harbour and the collective "war footing" response to immanent existential threat. His public position was a Climate Tax with cash social dividend incentive. Being an Ametican and a NASA man he saw the belated climate response justified the technofix of Nuclear Power (I disagree). Search "Technofix".
You can get a Canadian view from the great William Rees (Uni of B.C), if you haven't already platformed him? Studying SIA in 2004 I read Rees on Tumbler Ridge - new coal Town by the Rockies. His definition of good governance was memorable: democratic, transparent, accountable, anticipatory, participatory, sensitive, responsive etc.
And say hello to Bronwhn Hayward. She is a very approachable acsdemic and a pro-youth communicator on climate snd the anthropocene. I recall she has standing in European Union including on intergenerational issues like youth "rebels without a cause" (Brixton riots?).
Rebellion - now there's an issue. For theory of Collective Political Violence see The Rebellious Century by Tilley, Tilley & Tilley (1975). I dont know if this great author is still available for interview:
While we follow the money as part of the critical method with social organisation, we step carefully around the partisan pitfall of cynicism. The critical method is not complete without compassion. The Earth Charter needs platforming.
Thank you Rach. You have defined for me the debate in terms of a moral-political response to biophysical facts of overshoot. This includes the political facts of egregious abuse of power at the expense of collective interest. Let power itself be the big issue for public debate, as it is for practitioners of the critical arts.
As student geologist in the late 1960s I learnt that the great advances in science of paleoclimatology were a direct product of the development of "petroleum geology". This field of knowledge underwrote the great petroleum age. It was this science, already very advanced in the boom times of the 1960s, that James Hansen turned to when he transferred his expertise in the atmospheric physics of Venus to our home planet Earth..
The morally unhinged abuse of power is at issue now we know they knew.
Knowledge is power. So the abuse of knowledge and communicative action is central to the consolidation and dangerous abuse of power today.
The story of petroleum geology and its offspring, paleoclimatology, could blow the battleships of bullshit out of the rising water!
Ecocide is the newest and greatest Crime Against Peace, including War Crime, Genocide, Crimes Against Humanity.. The Ecocide is a matter for a special general assembly of the United Nations. Very soon. The distribution of moral culpability must have consequences.
Thank you kindly, Alistair. I'm so glad you're finding value in Planet: Critical.
Is there a book/resource you could point me towards where I could learn more about the story of petroleum geology and paleoclimatology?
I find great value in P: C and am so glad my tip has apparently been of interest to you. I wrote such a long reply on my phone then poof! It bloody vanished. I'm not a digital native but would love to contribute. I live alone in a rented tiny house in a sheep paddock in N.Z. with only radio and this little smartfone to connect beyond my paddock.Will try to upgrade my ICT and hopefully be better placed to support P: C
The link between the petroleum industry and climatology involves the story of heroic problem solving by technology and the ecocidal "dark triad" of the "Masters of War" intoxicated by the "Ring of Power". The story of "the social responsibility of science" is relevant, from the founding of thd Royal Society to Oppenhrimer saying it was up to politicians how his bomb was used to James Hansen to your wonderful interviewees. Pro-Power culture and super-cults: Thats why your critical method is so productive at this watershed moment in history.
I know the mining industry and its culture as a participant observer. We have to crack it and the institution of war with which it has co-evolved.
I would suggest you talk with James Hansen at Columbia about the role of the petroleum industry in paleoclimatoligy. The PETM (Paleocene/Eocene Themsl Maximum) would have radicalized Hansen. Scary stuff, geological history.
Then there's "climate whiplash": in geological time global temperature has a fall after a rise and then equilibrium (thanks to the Gaia Effect ? ).
It scares me that what we achieve by way of degrowth by 2030 will determine the amplitude and time of the anthropogenic climate perturbation. One thousand to one million years, we yhe living are all terraformers now. Yours
the Greatest Generation now, because the 2020s is it. The next couple of years are of GEOLOGICAL consequence. Every enterprise needs to design for radical "cooperacy"!
..platform William Rees of B.C. Canada?
To be continued...
Arohanui from Ōtaki on the Kāpiti Coast of Āotearoa.
P.S. Hey Rachel- check out our own School Strike climate champion Councillor Sophie Handford (kcdc.govt.nz) and Prof Bronwyn Hayward of University of Canterbury Politicsl Science. Bron Hayward for Planet: Critical! Sophie leads an intergenerational panel of N.Z. climate experts, including Bronwyn.
Wonderful, thank you so much for taking the time!! I'll get Sophie Handford and James Hansen on my list, too.
Sláinte. Rachael. Platform Bronwyn Hayward. She is a peer of Mike Joy. She occasionally pops up in the news here. Look at today's:
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/474153/local-body-elections-boosting-the-youth-vote-and-a-councillor-s-baptism-of-fire
Hi Rachel,
you have invited Simon Michaux to Planet Critical where he argued that a transformation towards renewables needs way too much energy and materials than its (socially/ecologically) feasible.
Just came out Nafeez Ahmed’s paper* which challenges Michaux’s arguments, for example:
„the idea that renewables have a lower EROI than fossil fuels is a persistent misconception that has plagued numerous other studies that fail to make a full account of these technologies. These mistakes can be found in many places, not least in the famous feature documentary by Michael Moore, Planet of the Humans. More recently, the Geological Survey of Finland published [by Michaux] a paper repeating such errors, as did the journal Energies. ... Models that predict raw materials scarcity based on a one-for-one substitution of petrol vehicles with EVs are wrong.”
It could be interesting to untangle these issues either through a debate or just invite them separately...
Best,
Tamas
* https://clubofrome.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Earth4All_Deep_Dive_Ahmed.pdf
Great. I had a few seconds face to face with JH after his time in 2011 on the stage with a panel in a Vic Uni of Wellington Symposium on Coal. His 2011 tour if NZ was organised by our late great green politics champion, my friend Jeanette Fitzsimons. Her younger parliamentary colleague has just done her hagiography
https://i.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/books/300604953/book-review-a-gentle-radical-by-gareth-hughes
Back to my encounter with JH. I asked him about the political stress of degrowth. He mentioned Pearl Harbour and the collective "war footing" response to immanent existential threat. His public position was a Climate Tax with cash social dividend incentive. Being an Ametican and a NASA man he saw the belated climate response justified the technofix of Nuclear Power (I disagree). Search "Technofix".
You can get a Canadian view from the great William Rees (Uni of B.C), if you haven't already platformed him? Studying SIA in 2004 I read Rees on Tumbler Ridge - new coal Town by the Rockies. His definition of good governance was memorable: democratic, transparent, accountable, anticipatory, participatory, sensitive, responsive etc.
And say hello to Bronwhn Hayward. She is a very approachable acsdemic and a pro-youth communicator on climate snd the anthropocene. I recall she has standing in European Union including on intergenerational issues like youth "rebels without a cause" (Brixton riots?).
Rebellion - now there's an issue. For theory of Collective Political Violence see The Rebellious Century by Tilley, Tilley & Tilley (1975). I dont know if this great author is still available for interview:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louise_A._Tilly
While we follow the money as part of the critical method with social organisation, we step carefully around the partisan pitfall of cynicism. The critical method is not complete without compassion. The Earth Charter needs platforming.