Matt Huber & Kohei Saito on Growth, Progress and Left Imaginaries

9 snips

Jan 19, 2025

Join Matt Huber, a geography professor and author focused on climate change and class struggles, and Kohei Saito, a Marx scholar advocating for degrowth communism. They dive into how Marx's ideas can reshape socialism amidst ecological crises. Expect discussions on the pitfalls of GDP, critiques of consumerism, and the necessity of ecological approaches to energy. They highlight the importance of collective action for justice, the redefinition of progress, and the search for joy in the fight against climate change and social inequality.

Ask episode

AI Snips

Chapters

Books

Transcript

Episode notes

INSIGHT

Limits to Growth vs. Social Power

Natural limits exist, but projecting fixed, impassable boundaries is Malthusian.
The focus should be on social and political power over production.

ANECDOTE

Peak Oil and Resource Depletion

Predictions of resource depletion like "peak oil" have been consistently wrong for over a century.
Capital is adept at finding new resources when prices rise, exemplified by fracking.

ANECDOTE

Nuclear Power and Decoupling

Nuclear power exemplifies decoupling impact from energy consumption.
One pound of uranium provides as much energy as 2.5 million pounds of coal, drastically reducing material extraction.

Get the Snipd Podcast app to discover more snips from this episode

Get the app

Marx and the Anthropocene

Kohei Saito

The Price is Wrong

Why Capitalism Won’t Save the Planet

Brett Christophers

Creative Construction

Democratic Planning in the 21st Century and Beyond

Jan Groß

Christoph Sorg

Enriching the Earth

Fritz Haber, Carl Bosch, and the Transformation of World Food Production

Vaclav Smil

In this book, Vaclav Smil discusses nitrogen's unique status in the biosphere, its role in crop production, and traditional means of supplying the nutrient. The core of the book is a detailed narrative of the discovery of ammonia synthesis by Fritz Haber—a discovery scientists had sought for over one hundred years—and its commercialization by Carl Bosch and the chemical company BASF. Smil examines the emergence of the large-scale nitrogen fertilizer industry, analyzes the extent of global dependence on the Haber-Bosch process, and discusses its biospheric consequences. The book also looks at the role of nitrogen in civilization and describes the lives of Fritz Haber and Carl Bosch after the discovery of ammonia synthesis.

Power Density

A Key to Understanding Energy Sources and Uses

Vaclav Smil

In this book, Vaclav Smil argues that power density is a key determinant of the nature and dynamics of energy systems. Power density—the rate of energy flux per unit of area—is an important but largely overlooked measure. Smil provides the first systematic, quantitative appraisal of power density, offering detailed reviews of the power densities of renewable energy flows, fossil fuels, thermal electricity generation, and all common energy uses. He shows that careful quantification, critical appraisals, and revealing comparisons of power densities make possible a deeper understanding of the ways we harness, convert, and use energies. Smil explains that modern civilization has evolved as a direct expression of the high power densities of fossil fuel extraction and argues that the move to new energy arrangements involving conversions of lower-density renewable energy sources will require a profound spatial restructuring of our energy system.

Climate Change as Class War

Building Socialism on a Warming Planet

Matt Huber

Matt Huber &amp; Kohei Saito on Growth, Progress and Left Imaginaries

Limits to Growth vs. Social Power

Peak Oil and Resource Depletion

Nuclear Power and Decoupling

Matt Huber & Kohei Saito on Growth, Progress and Left Imaginaries