I found much of this talk compelling. However, there were a couple of points around climate change with which I'd take issue.
The first is the idea that we've found ourselves in this situation because of the growth imperative, industrialisation etc. and that it's no one's fault. If you read Naomi Oreskes' 'Merchants of Doubt' https://www.merchantsofdoubt.org/ , there has been a deliberate and ongoing campaign to 'Manufacture doubt' about climate science since the 1990's, with the fossil fuel industry playing out the same copy book that was used by Tobacco and DDT before that. I'm sure you know this, but I think it's worth re-iterating.
The other point is about the climate achieving some sort of equilibrium and humans reorganising around non-agricultural societies. Looking at the temperature records, it's only been 2 degrees C above pre-industrial once since homo-sapiens have been around, and never 4 degrees C above over the past 2 million years, in the timeframe when our human ancestors have been detected. Is there any good reason to believe that humans could survive say 6 degrees above. The rate of change we, and the rest of the natural world are going through seems unprecedented, in the blinking of an eye from a geological perspective.
I completely agree with what John Gowdy says about music. It seems to me to be one of our highest achievements.
I found much of this talk compelling. However, there were a couple of points around climate change with which I'd take issue.
The first is the idea that we've found ourselves in this situation because of the growth imperative, industrialisation etc. and that it's no one's fault. If you read Naomi Oreskes' 'Merchants of Doubt' https://www.merchantsofdoubt.org/ , there has been a deliberate and ongoing campaign to 'Manufacture doubt' about climate science since the 1990's, with the fossil fuel industry playing out the same copy book that was used by Tobacco and DDT before that. I'm sure you know this, but I think it's worth re-iterating.
The other point is about the climate achieving some sort of equilibrium and humans reorganising around non-agricultural societies. Looking at the temperature records, it's only been 2 degrees C above pre-industrial once since homo-sapiens have been around, and never 4 degrees C above over the past 2 million years, in the timeframe when our human ancestors have been detected. Is there any good reason to believe that humans could survive say 6 degrees above. The rate of change we, and the rest of the natural world are going through seems unprecedented, in the blinking of an eye from a geological perspective.
I completely agree with what John Gowdy says about music. It seems to me to be one of our highest achievements.
I want to listen to John Gowdy podcast. How do I do that?