Planet: Critical Folgen

Robbie Watt is a Lecturer in Politics at the University of Manchester, researching climate change politics, carbon markets, global governance, and critical theory. His article, The Fantasy of Carbon Offsetting, was runner-up for Environmental Politics journal's best article award 2021.Robbie joins me to discuss the moral economy of offsetting schemes, the politics of climate change, and how power depoliticises spaces to maintain control. This is an episode all about power dynamics—where they hide and how to reveal them.Join us as we blast through psychoanalysis, postmodernism and Marx to find the right words to describe the greatest problem humankind faces: Critical Climate Theory (you heard it here first).Planet: Critical investigates why the world is in crisis—and what to do about it.© Rachel Donald Get full access to Planet: Critical at www.planetcritical.com/subscribe

Trevor Hilder is an IT expert and cybernetics specialist who worked under Stafford Beer to develop the Viable System Model. Trevor joins me to explain how systems malfunction, why organisations crumble under complexity, and how to build resilient systems by infusing them with values. He explains the Viable System Model, walking us through the key components based on cybernetics and management theory.We discuss the universal laws of organising and how to apply the VSM to the climate crisis, politics and globalisation. Trevor also teaches the Viable System Model to organisations and individuals. If you’re interested in learning more, email him: trevor.hilder@webofwealth.org Planet: Critical investigates why the world is in crisis—and what to do about it.© Rachel Donald Get full access to Planet: Critical at www.planetcritical.com/subscribe

George Mobus is Professor Emeritus at University of Washington, Tacoma. His broad academic background saw him conduct research on artificial intelligence, cybernetics and systems science.George joins me to discuss how systems science is failing to grasp the polycrisis—that the field has been split into silos, leaving most systems scientists without the tools to model the complexity of the emergency we face.He also explains the neurological limits of individual human wisdom, suggesting the agricultural revolution affected our capacity for abstract thinking, before revealing how humans can work past those limits—collectively.Planet: Critical investigates why the world is in crisis—and what to do about it.© Rachel Donald Get full access to Planet: Critical at www.planetcritical.com/subscribe