There is a line in your book where you talk about how western democracies, or in western democracies, will need to make palatable the likely sacrifices demanded of citizens. Is that still possible though? I mean, absente something really obvious, like, for example, a pandemic or a war, people will make sacrifices for a limited period. But what you're talking about, and i do want to bring in further, the transition to energy, to cleaner energy, is something quite fundamental and something quite disruptive. It's a lot arder than the sacrifices that were made during the pandemicand in some sense, that's a bit counter intuitive.
Helen Thompson is Professor of Political Economy at the University of Cambridge, a columnist for The New Statesman, and has been a regular contributor to the Talking Politics podcast. Her new book, Disorder: Hard Times in the 21st Century, looks at decades of geopolitical history that have fed into our current moment: one of war and conflict, nations competing for dwindling natural resources, and the climate emergency casting a long shadow. She joins journalist and author Andrew Mueller to discuss how we got here.
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