The Problem With Optimizing Climate, Equity, and Growth

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Until we change the inner tech in our minds on how we get our basket of evolutionary neurotransmitters, maximum power is going to have a big say on sustainability. I don't want to stop for two hours and charge my electric car even though that would be saving energy and being better for the environment. We're already kind of well past what the sustainable stable levels could be. A lot of people within and between countries, the economic system is not working for them. They are squeezed out and yet we need the economy to function to allow goods and services and stability. Any carbon additional admissions is counting against our carbon budget.

In Part 2 of this Frankly Series, Nate breaks down why energy - and specifically oil - is currently the central foundation of our entire modern economic system. There are ecological and energetic laws that apply to all life, including humans and our economies. By accessing a huge surplus of dense carbon energy in the form of fossil sunlight, we’ve effectively turbo-boosted our economies, populations, and material wealth - but what happens if this fossil abundance were to go away? What are the systemic implications of an economy tethered to growth, tethered to carbon? Is it even possible for us to choose to stop using oil? How do these complex constraints on our global systems affect the options - and most likely outcomes - in a future with declining oil availability and rising climate insecurity?

For Show Notes and More: https://www.thegreatsimplification.com/frankly-original/39-just-stop-oil-part-2-oil-is-the-economy

To Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/-585aVUNz68