Planet: Critical

Which animal consumes more energy producing food than it does eating that food? None, except industrialised humans. You don't need to be a scientist to know that's bad news. Jason Bradford is a biologist and farmer working on how to transform food systems to make them more rural, sustainable, and to provide a net-positive energy consumption. He explains the failings of our current food production and encourages everyone to learn to farm as soon as possible. Planet: Critical is a resource for a world in crisis, supported by people like you. Join the community by becoming a subscriber today.But beyond that, Jason provides a beacon of hope for the future, revealing the positive changes in his life and his community's since they began their own food production. Without over-simplifying "the great simplification", he thinks it could be a positive transformation. Listen to discover why veganism isn't the answer and why everyone needs to upskill their practical abilities in the next decade. Listen here, catch it on on Apple or Spotify, or watch on Youtube.Discover Jason’s work, or learn to farm on his Youtube channel.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 This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit planetcritical.substack.com

“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 This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit planetcritical.substack.com

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 This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit planetcritical.substack.com

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 This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit planetcritical.substack.com

According to the laws of physics, the economy can only sustain itself by growing. So how bound are we by the laws of thermodynamics?Professor Tim Garrett, atmosphere scientist at the University of Utah, argues we’re completely bound by those laws. He has modelled how the behaviour of snowflakes and clouds can be used to predict energy consumption and GDP, bridging the gap between economic theory and 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.Tim’s research is nothing short of fascinating; this is a mind-bending hour you won’t regret. Listen to the episode here or catch it on Apple or Spotify.Read more of Tim’s 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 This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit planetcritical.substack.com

Welcome to this special episode of Planet: Critical where we journey from the podcast’s humble beginnings to what it is today, and what I hope it will evolve into.None of this would be possible without you all and so I thank you endlessly for your support and encouragement. It’s wonderful to witness a community coalesce around the podcast and the information my incredible guests provide us, and I’m so looking forward to what we will continue learning, and where it will take us. Knowledge is the only renewable fuel we have and I’m humbled to play a small part in spreading it as far and wide as possible. I wouldn’t be getting very far without you all, especially given how terrible I am at promoting the show. So to those of you who spread the word every week, and to the others who chose a paid subscription—thank you, I’m touched you find value in my work.I hope you all enjoy whatever plans you have for this December 31st, and here’s to a 2022 filled with critical thinking and vision.Cheers,RachelPlanet: Critical is a resource for a world in crisis, supported by people like you. Join the community by becoming a subscriber today. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit planetcritical.substack.com

Did you know that four years of studying mainstream economics at university has such a profound impact on students that their value systems change? And not for the better.Economic theory affects the very fabric of human society, and the dominant neoliberal model is at the root of many of the crises we face. Assuming human nature is fundamentally selfish has created a terrible feedback loop of individualism, precarity and abuse. Ecological economists are fighting back with new models, models they believe are more in line with humankind’s long history of collaboration.Planet: Critical is a resource for a world in crisis, supported by people like you. Join the community by becoming a subscriber today.Joshua Farley is a Professor of Ecological Economics at the University of Vermont. His research focuses on designing an economy capable of balancing what is biophysically possible with what is socially, psychologically and ethically desirable. This episode is a big picture conversation about the roots of the climate and social crises. We discuss human values—and common sense—and how to reimagine an economics which will allow the best of human nature to triumph. Listen to the episode here or catch it on Apple or Spotify.Read more of Joshua’s 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 This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit planetcritical.substack.com

What’s theoretical physics got to do with trees? Everything.Life on this planet is in grave danger. While life does what it can to self-regulate (breaking the second law of thermodynamics to do so), when environments become disturbed beyond repair, the “biota” breaks down exponentially. To physicist Anastassia Makarieva, this is the reality of climate change.Planet: Critical is a resource for a world in crisis, supported by people like you. Join the community by becoming a subscriber today.Anastassia has dedicated her life to understanding the biota and, more specifically, how the world’s forests regulate not just themselves but the water system of the entire planet. Alongside her colleagues, Anastassia is desperately trying to raise awareness of the dangers of disturbing the world’s forest, especially the Boreal forest, which despite being the largest on the planet is often forgotten about. She says stopping logging overnight would have the biggest impact on reducing climate change. So why isn’t anyone listening? Listen to the episode here or catch it on Apple or Spotify.Read more of Anastassia’s work here and 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 This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit planetcritical.substack.com

Tackling climate obesity will take a very strict diet—and it’s not a one size fits all solution. We’ve got to make big changes, and fast. But who is “we” and what are these changes?Journalist and author Paul Greenberg joins me this week to break down some of the radical solutions individuals can make to fix their climate diet (that’s the fish part). We then go on to discuss renewables vs nuclear (fusion), before tackling the big problem bringing international negotiations to a grinding halt: Who’s to blame, and how do we make them change?There’s a lot to learn in this episode. Listen here or catch it on Apple or Spotify.Tuck into Paul’s fantastic range of books.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 This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit planetcritical.substack.com

Welcome to the era of generalists, of the big picture thinkers who translate concepts into action. These are the people who join the dots to get a better sense of how our world fits together—and how we impact each other.Planet: Critical is a resource for a world in crisis, supported by people like you. Join the community by becoming a subscriber today.Nate Hagens is one of the most acclaimed big picture thinkers tackling the sustainability question. He joins me to explain that creating a sustainable future demands tackling social and economic inequalities, and ultimately creating a new system of values. Listen here or catch it on Apple or Spotify.Nate currently teaches a systems synthesis Honors seminar at the University of Minnesota ‘Reality 101 – A Survey of the Human Predicament’. Nate is on the Boards of Bottleneck Foundation, IIER and Institute for the Study of Energy and the Future.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 This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit planetcritical.substack.com