There have been a few thinkers that played a critical role during the development of my understanding of the predicament that our world faces. Today, I am honored to have a conversation with one of these people, Patrick Ophuls - who - under the name of William Ophuls - wrote such books as influential as ‘Ecology and the Politics of Scarcity’, ‘Plato's Revenge’, and ‘Immoderate Greatness: Why Civilizations Fail’. Patrick joins me to discuss his new book, ‘The Tragedy of Industrial Civilization and The Future of Politics’.
Dr. Patrick Ophuls is an American political scientist, ecologist, scholar, and author. Patrick has a PhD in political science from Yale University and has been a prominent voice in the environmental movement since the 1970s. His award winning book in “Ecology and the Politics of Scarcity in1977 is on the bookshelves of most people I know in ecology/systems circles (and many prominent hedge fund people, like Jeremy Grantham and Kiril Sokoloff).
Continuing the themes from his writing almost 50 years ago, Patrick unpacks how energy, ecology and our political arrangements leave us in ‘double-bind’ with no simple solutions. It is my belief - for those who want to listen and participate - we need to understand the enormity of the biophysical challenges we will have to face - in order to face them creatively and with courage. This is an incisive, relevant (and somewhat daunting!) conversation. Please listen and share:
In Case You Missed It…
This past Thursday was Thanksgiving, and while we all think of the things we are grateful for, one oft overlooked but critical one is energy. In this brief video, I reflect on all the things which abundant and cheap energy provide for us, especially in the United States, that we so frequently take for granted.
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