Planet: Critical Folgen

“Follow the science!” This value-neutral field with its objective logic and cold reasoning is our beacon of hope in an ecological crisis. But should we celebrate its lack of values, or is it time to shift our scientific paradigm?That’s the argument of this week’s guest, ecologist Dan Fiscus, who says the very nature of science as value-neutral is a driving force in the climate crisis. He argues science will never be able to tackle the scale of the problem posed by the climate crisis until we infuse the field with ethics. Planet: Critical is a resource for a world in crisis, supported by people like you. Join the community by becoming a subscriber today.It’s a fascinating proposition. Dan explains how the modern paradigm is ROAM: Reductionist, Objectivist, Analytic and Mechanistic. He describes its failures to understand and treat the environment as inseparable from Life, and proposes a new paradigm for the future. I’m thrilled to release this the week after Carl Safina took us on a journey back to Ancient Greece, to argue the climate crisis has its roots in Plato’s concept of profanity. I’d highly recommend listening to them back-to-back. Listen here or catch it on on Apple or Spotify.Discover Dan’s work.You can also follow Planet: Critical on Youtube and support the project on Patreon where I upload a bonus video every Saturday.© 2022 Rachel Donald Get full access to Planet: Critical at www.planetcritical.com/subscribe

What’s Plato got to do with the environmental crisis? Everything, according to Carl Safina, ecologist, author, fellow, and winner of the MacArthur genius grant. Carl joins me this week to discuss his new book which examines culture’s across the world, and their relationship to the planet. He argues that Plato’s concept of profanity engendered the Judeo-Christian monotheistic religions which view the world, and man, as sinful, in turn creating a Western culture which has no respect nor care for the natural world. Planet: Critical is a resource for a world in crisis, supported by people like you. Join the community by becoming a subscriber today.He explains how this culture exported its ideology across the world and argues solutions will be found by examining and learning from Indigenous cultures which celebrate their role as within a wider ecosystem. Carl’s fierce intellect and deep love for the natural world shine through this incredible interview. Listen here on catch it on on Apple or Spotify.Discover Carl’s books and work here.You can also follow Planet: Critical on Youtube and support the project on Patreon where I upload a bonus video every Saturday.© 2022 Rachel Donald Get full access to Planet: Critical at www.planetcritical.com/subscribe

A post-carbon world could be our opportunity to do better—and make the difficult transition much easier to swallow. That’s the message of Alice Friedemann on this week’s episode, author of When Trucks Stop Running: Energy and the Future of Transportation. The transition is coming, perhaps collapse is coming, and if the world as we know it is going to change we might as well make the most of it. She worries we won’t be given the opportunity due to all the misinformation flying around, and gives a cutting analysis of how the climate change conversation is distracting from many other dangerous, concurrent such as biodiversity loss and water scarcity.Planet: Critical is a resource for a world in crisis, supported by people like you. Join the community by becoming a subscriber today.For Alice, the big problem is the energy crisis. She explains how oil prices can precipitate nation state collapse, with high oil prices driving 11 of the past 12 recessions.This is a phenomenally interesting interview, which also manages to be a lot of fun, despite the topics! Listen here on catch it on on Apple or Spotify.Visit Alice’s website Energy Skeptic and get your hands on a copy of When Trucks Stop Running: Energy and the Future of Transportation.You can also follow Planet: Critical on Youtube and support the project on Patreon where I upload a bonus video every Saturday.© 2022 Rachel Donald Get full access to Planet: Critical at www.planetcritical.com/subscribe