Deep Challenges: Oceans, Scarcity and Culture

The Great Simplification #65 with Antonio Turiel

This week…

On this episode, I am joined by physicist Antonio Turiel, whose work has long overlapped with mine in terms of energy, economics, and the environment. Despite this, today is the first time I’ve ever spoken with him - and it would be a ‘simplification’ to say we had a lot to discuss. This is a wide-ranging discussion from oceans and climate to energy and culture. In my opinion it’s also a ‘must listen’ podcast in its depth - and I hope to have Antonio join me again to take a deeper dive on what will be required in an energy transition

Antonio Turiel Martínez is a scientist and activist with a degree in Physics and Mathematics and a PhD in Theoretical Physics from the Autonomous University of Madrid. He works as a senior scientist at the Institute of Marine Sciences of the CSIC specializing in remote sensing, turbulence, sea surface salinity, water cycle, sea surface temperature, sea surface currents, and chlorophyll concentration. He has written more than 80 scientific articles, but he is better known as an online activist and editor of The Oil Crash blog, where he addresses sensitive issues about the depletion of conventional fossil fuel resources, such as the peak of oil and its possible implications on a world scale.

Oceans are one of the most important factors regulating the Earth’s climate, and yet they receive relatively little attention from the climate community. There are numerous critical risk factors to unpack regarding just the oceans alone - and still so much that we don’t know. This conversation also delves into the complexity of an economic system requiring continuous growth itself embedded in an Earth system that is already hitting its limits. What are the boundaries of our energy systems and what options do we have - and not have - for the future? Is the root of the critical issue we’re facing - not a technical problem - but a cultural problem?

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In case you missed it…

Last Friday, I reflected on the varying perspectives from which people perceive the meta-crisis relative to their own circumstances. But each of these is part of a wider systems lens that we should at least keep in mind and respect - even if it doesn’t feel like our own central cause. The challenging times ahead will have huge implications for the social progress of the last few centuries on local, national, and international levels. As we work on responses to these challenges, keeping in mind the scope and complexity of these issues might allow us to approach them from a place of empathy and compassion.

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