Restart Radio: Climate anxiety and deep adaptation

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We talk about the climate crisis and the concept of deep adaptation – the idea that we will need to radically change our lives in the face of global changes.

From worker rights to Norway’s right to repair

First, we discuss some news. Female workers at South Korean semiconductor plants are at much higher risks of leukemia and other cancers than their male counterparts. This research examined 201,057 current and former workers at six semiconductor companies, including Samsung Electronics. We also comment on the story of a Samsung LCD worker who has finally received “work accident” recognition 15 years after developing a brain tumour.

On more positive news, we discuss plans from France to ban unsold electronics and clothes from being destroyed, as part of a new circular economy law. While we welcome this initiative we do wonder: what will happen to these products when destruction is banned?

Lastly, we talk about latest right to repair news from Norway, where professional repairer Henrik Huseby met Apple in court for a second time, after Apple appealed losing in its lawsuit last year. Like Huseby, many repairers face barriers to get spare parts and have to use refurbished screens which Apple absurdly claims are ‘counterfeit’.

The climate zeitgeist

A climate emergency has been all over the news in the UK recently. From Sir David Attenborough taking a big stand on the climate, to Greta Thunberg’s visit to Parliament, to Extinction Rebellion’s protests. Different target dates have been set for net zero emissions, by different groups in the UK. (Since we recorded this episode, the UK became the first country to set a netzero target by law.)

We explore this current climate crisis and then talk about the concept of “Deep Adaptation” – the idea that we will need to radically change our lives in the face of global changes. What will our life, and that of future generations, look like in 10 years?

Then, we play a clip from Restart Party goers sharing their views on the latest climate science. These include a fear that we will not have the resources to maintain our way of living, and suggest that we will need to extend the lifespan of the products and materials that we buy. They also point to the sometimes confusing balance between where responsibility should lie: is it about focusing on the micro-actions or about pushing governments for high-level change?

Inspired by Mary Heglar’s essay on sustainability and personal action, we talk about the power in magnifying our individual acts, and escalating our everyday frustrations to seek change.

And while we must work urgently to avoid run-away climate change, we conclude that we also need to start envisioning what a radically changed world will look like, and what we will lose. (We ran out of time and didn’t do the topic of “Deep Adaptation” justice at all. But we’ve added some more links below that go into greater depth on the topic.)

Links:

• Restart: Radio survey
• Restart: Taking care of resources in fair, net-zero economy
• Hankyoreh: Female workers at semiconductor plants face greater risk of leukemia and death
• Hankyoreh: Samsung LCD worker receives industrial accident recognition 15 years after developing brain tumor
• The Telegraph: France ban unsold clothes electronics destroyed world first
• VICE: Apple is still trying to sue the owner of an independent repair shop
• Louis Rossmann: Witness in Norway trial
• Vox: Mary Heglar on the environmental movement and personal action
• Jem Bendell’s website, focusing on “Deep Adaptation”
• Restart: How to Restart the World with Lewis Dartnell

[Featured imaged by David Holt is licensed under CC-BY 2.0.]

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