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The Break Down
Добавлен 29 апр 2024
The Break Down is dedicated to examining how capitalism has both shaped, and is being reshaped by, accelerating climate and ecological crisis. Launched in May 2024, we publish long-form interviews, original essays and resources that break down complex questions about how we got here, what the future might look like, and how we can build the power to change it.
The Break Down is a not-for-profit project, hosted in partnership with Common Wealth.
If you have any questions or comments for us, please write to info@common-wealth.org and a member of our team will be in touch with you.
The Break Down is a not-for-profit project, hosted in partnership with Common Wealth.
If you have any questions or comments for us, please write to info@common-wealth.org and a member of our team will be in touch with you.
Climate Change as Class War w/ Matt Huber
In the wake of the US election, hot takes and autopsies of the Democrats’ fairly spectacular loss are a dime a dozen. Amid the swirl of diagnoses there has also been real fear about what a Trump presidency means for the climate - an issue that felt almost entirely absent from either campaign, despite its significant role in Biden’s policy platform.
How should we understand what just happened? What comes next for climate policy, both in the US and, through its huge influence, in countries around the world. And crucially, in a moment where it feels so politically sidelined, how can we build a broad base of popular support for action on climate?
Joining us on The Break Down to work through th...
How should we understand what just happened? What comes next for climate policy, both in the US and, through its huge influence, in countries around the world. And crucially, in a moment where it feels so politically sidelined, how can we build a broad base of popular support for action on climate?
Joining us on The Break Down to work through th...
Просмотров: 901
Видео
US Election Special w/ Kate Aronoff and Waleed Shahid
Просмотров 35621 день назад
Amid the threat of “Project 2025”, ongoing genocide in Gaza, and a nation-wide battle over reproductive rights, to name a few major issues, the climate crisis has been considerably sidelined in the US election taking place on November 5th. But even if it’s not grabbing headlines, what the United States does - or does not do - on climate has profound implications for the entire world. So where d...
Keeping the Oil in the Soil w/ Andrés Arauz
Просмотров 243Месяц назад
In a 2023 referendum, the people of Ecuador voted 59% to 41% to stop exploiting oil in the Yasuní region, one of the most biodiverse places on earth, with more tree species in one single hectare than in all of the landmass of Canada and the US combined. It was a massive break with the global status quo, in a year when fossil fuel use around the world reached record highs and profits soared. How...
How to feed the world w/ Sonali McDermid
Просмотров 435Месяц назад
We have become incredibly good at producing food, and in doing so we have transformed our planet. Often, this is invisible to us: when we go to the supermarket or eat at a restaurant, the supply chains, labour and environmental impacts that went into producing our food are all but invisible. But those impacts are huge: Today, humans and livestock make up 96% of all mammals. Agriculture consumes...
Utopia and Crisis with Kim Stanley Robinson
Просмотров 1,5 тыс.Месяц назад
In a 2004 essay for the New Left Review, theorist and literary critic Fredric Jameson wrote: “Utopias are non-fictional, even though they are also non-existent. Utopias in fact come to us as barely audible messages from a future that may never come into being.” Today's episode of The Break Down explores the idea and the power of utopian fiction with guest Kim Stanley Robinson, the acclaimed sci...
Freeing Energy From the Market w/ Chris Hayes & Melanie Brusseler
Просмотров 4502 месяца назад
Followers of The Break Down may remember our very first episode, in which Adrienne spoke to the brilliant Brett Christophers about the many and varied reasons why - despite all the hype about how cheap renewables have become - the transition to renewable energy cannot be left to the market and the profit motive. What that interview didn't leave us with, however, was an answer to the obvious que...
The End of Liberalism w/ Chris Shaw
Просмотров 5382 месяца назад
If you follow The Break Down, chances are you’re living in a political system that could be defined as “liberal”. But what does “liberalism” really mean? Is it about democracy? Free markets? The protection of individual freedom? Ask ten different people, and you’re likely to get ten different answers. According to Chris Shaw, liberalism can boiled down to a system oriented around the “bourgeois...
Politics In a World On Fire w/Geoff Mann
Просмотров 2,4 тыс.3 месяца назад
“To the question how shall we ever be able to extricate ourselves from the obvious insanity of this position, there is no answer.,” These words were written fifty years ago by philosopher Hannah Arendt, but are just as relevant to the present moment, in which our political leaders and systems continue to fail to grapple with climate and ecological crisis at the scale or urgency they demand. The...
The Hidden Climate Impact of Military Power w/ Khem Rogaly
Просмотров 4464 месяца назад
Many of us are familiar with the global target of "net zero emissions" by 2050 enshrined in the Paris Agreement. You’re likely also familiar with how far off track we are from meeting it. As it turns out: we're even more off track than these topline figures suggest, because global militaries are excluded from governments' tallies of their emissions, despite being some of the world’s foremost co...
The Invisible Code of Capitalism w/ Katharina Pistor
Просмотров 1,9 тыс.4 месяца назад
The Invisible Code of Capitalism w/ Katharina Pistor
What Economics Gets Wrong About Climate Change w/ Ha-Joon Chang
Просмотров 3,7 тыс.4 месяца назад
What Economics Gets Wrong About Climate Change w/ Ha-Joon Chang
In Pursuit of Climate Justice w/ Fredi Otto
Просмотров 4765 месяцев назад
In Pursuit of Climate Justice w/ Fredi Otto
Palestine and the future of the planet
Просмотров 1,6 тыс.5 месяцев назад
Palestine and the future of the planet
A World Made of Oil w/ Adam Hanieh
Просмотров 1,3 тыс.5 месяцев назад
A World Made of Oil w/ Adam Hanieh
Why capitalism won't solve the climate crisis w/ Brett Christophers
Просмотров 1,7 тыс.5 месяцев назад
Why capitalism won't solve the climate crisis w/ Brett Christophers
I did not at all expect to see my professor in my recommendations feed
Read the book " The Dawn of Everything " a New Story of Everything by two Davids. Lets not forget that Slavery was normal not so long ago. Where the Wage term came from anyway. From Industrial Age Slaves, free Slaves but still Slaves. A Slave is basicaly someone that cant say No to a system or one who cant have Autonomy from a System.
It took me a while to realise the whole point of Degrowth was to initiate a discussion about the semantics of growth. What does growth really mean, what should be growing, what shouldn't be etc. The term garners a lot of attention by being controversial, being a negation of an uncritically received wisdom. Otherwise, the debate would be lost in the noise, like many similar critiques of neoliberalism. Admittedly, it would help if they were more explicit about this.
Well the big issue is that many degrowth proponents, including academics, don't actually see it that way. There is a real danger that moralizing about consumption is taking up an outsized portion of left political energy (whatever is left of it), a move that fundamentally can serve no other purpose than further estranging working class people. It is too generous to say that the whole point of degrowth is to simply "start a discussion" when most of the academic articles are written in a prescriptive language. Yes, they do often attach "That doesn't mean degrowing in the global South" but it mostly seems like an afterthought, ignoring the fact that this makes the whole idea moot since the global south is the majority of people. In my view degrowth is putting the cart in front of the horse. The point should be to create a more equal world, where eveyone has access to the same material goods, free time, security, education while preserving the conditions to sustain life (environment, climate, biodiversity, etc..). IF that means Western nations have to adopt a lower standard of consumption in certain areas then so be it but that is an unfortunate side effect of a clear and just purpose, not the actual end goal.
@@Jef_Laenen But leftists are not the only ones weighing into this debate. The problem is that we have a nexus of debate between three main groups. One is dynamic systems theory or complexity theorists and human ecologists, such as Joseph Tainter, The School of Rome, William R. Catton, whose' scientific analysis or theory measures things on a basis of trajectories and history of societies regardless of class. The other is left intellectual degrowthers, who advocate for degrowth but do not necessarily ignore class: Both Jason Hickel and Kohei Saito rely on the "Lauderdale Paradox" of James Maitland, stating that an increase of private wealth is accumulated at the expense of public wealth to generate artificial scarcity. Huber ignores this piece of their argument, for the most part, and is (understandably) more concerned about what impressions any degrowth narrative does ultimately make, and Huber and Leigh Phillips instead prefer emphasizing a narrative that will mobilize the working class, on account of which any degrowth as a rally must be quashed. On top of this, the neoliberal multi-state apparatus wields policy degrowth in their own, faulty bureaucratic ways, often penalizing the middle or lower class, such as ULEZ zones that restrict vehicles in London, and carbon taxes in France that lead to the Yelllow vest protests, while activists get involved and turn everyone off with their anti-oil protests. All of this gets thrown into the blender, and we have a war on the left where any complex degrowth narrative gets labeled as Malthusian, and any bright green growther gets labeled as a techno-optimist. It's really kind of a mess. At least narratively.
@@Jef_Laenen This sound like you're in agreement with most of what is being proposed by the degrowth crowd, but you have issues with the coms. Which is debatable, but fair. I have more issues with the left splitting hairs over things, instead of uniting around the vast majority of things we have in common.
@@FrankReif I actually don't so that's probably my bad for not communicating well. My main point is that talking about growth, pro or against is just besides the point. You can argue that maybe degrowth is actually not concerned with growth but that's beyond steelmanning the argument when you look at what advocates actually propose. All I'm saying is that growth is irrelevant when compared to equality. I'm not against it as a possible consequence but I don't find it useful as a guiding principle. Totally agree with needing more cohesion on the left, in that regard I think degrowth ideas are also more of a dividing force than a uniting one.
@@EvanWells1 I completely agree about the complete mess and lack of cohesion here. I think in many ways these differences are partly because of apples and oranges comparisons. Matt Huber and Leigh Phillips are largely unconcerned with morality because in their mind that has no strategic value (which I tend to agree with). And that completely goes against those remaining leftist currents that still have some political power (identity, inclusion) that seem almost exclusively concerned with morality as a driving principle. Pontificating about a "good" way to live (less greedy) instead of figuring out how to actually stop this truck from driving off a cliff. The academic post modern left will keep coming up with new answers for the problems in our world ("it's racism/ it's empire/ it's sexism/it's greed/it's totalitarianism") to avoid revisiting class. Jason Hickel is actually more nuanced sometimes but he will call it "economic democracy", I think that alone shows the moment we are in. We already have words for economic democracy but those have become complete poison. People like Saito answer to an imaginative need for a non-dystopian vision of the future while Huber and Phillips answer to a need for actual strategy and power.
every second is actually 8,000,000,000 seconds ... 253 years per second
This could have been interesting but her constant upwards inflection is like nails on a chalkboard to me.
Recycling, repurposing, battery portfolios, and the hydrogen economy all can bring premium cash streams. Cash in.
Been working solidly for 50 ish years #Neoliberalism
Our economy is selling hits of dopamine. It has no perception of physical limitations of reality. It’s clueless about the finite supply of energy and resources.
It is far cheaper, and easier to go with massless energy. Electricity is massless, so just go with massless inputs, such as wind, sunlight, gravity, heat (geothermal), and nuclear power, in concert.
Let's avoid the techno-feudal hellscape.
There's something in Melanie Brusseler's voice that makes paying attention impossible.
Robinson is almost 10 years older than I am, but his story about his orientation as a California boy in the 60s, and his relationship with the sci-fi giants of utopia and dystopia, are bizarrely identical to my own in the Midwest a decade later. Small, tide pool world. Great interview.
Thank you. This needs to be heard.
Utopianism vs Dystopianism
This guy seems dismissive of opposing views and the interviewer seems to have a political agenda. I think their stances are shallow. They appeal more to conspiracy theorists than rational realists. I suspect they take this stance in order to persuade children of the goodness of the left. A deception which they can then use to win office and pass legislation that is worthy of the worst tyrants and mass murderers. Kim Stanley Robinson isn’t a murderer. I think his way of thinking, his true “ministry of the future” would lead to the sabotage of social order. In a way that would turn out worse than he thinks possible of the opposing side. Then again that may be his hidden agenda.
Unfortunately, I get the impression that he ignore any consideration of imperialism and its role in the current world order. This was particularly apparent when discussing “petrol states”. That being said, I haven’t read his works and am unsure whether the themes are present there.
Great conversation. Pointed here by Damien Walter.
Pretty much all of us are ...
My own reservation is with an "idolatry" or simplistic positivism towards bureaucracy. I think bureaucracy is an organism of its own, and without proper boundaries and intentional design around a goal/mission/principles, can be manipulated or corrupted into either disfunction or counterproductivism (relative to its stated goal). Bureaucracy often develops by itself for its own purpose, like an invasive tree species trying to gather all the sunlight indifferently to other organisms in the ecosystem. Bureaucracy can be a powerful tool, but like technology can also run amok and become a problem. Same can be said about naive political and economic systems.
This dialogue between the “old left” and the “new left” is essential. I’m no where as far left as KSR but I am part of the statist coalition he discusses. Yes. We need to stop burning dinosaurs today. No. It’s not going to happen when parents in India and China need to metaphorically decide between starvation and throwing coal on the fire. How do we get from here to there? It’s not demonstrations or legislative demands for shutting down fracking. It’s a fifty year world view where all of the “cares” of the new left are weighed and pragmatically advanced through compromise. If we are committed to democratic progress, we need to be ready for democratic patience. Utopia now has always led to oppression. Utopia in 50 years has a chance.
Katharina Pistor, thank you so much for helping me to understand just how complicated our present circumstances are. I wish I had studied law when I was younger. I know in my heart that "profit = protecting and enriching the environment". In the 3rd grade, when we were taught that 'profit = income - expenses', it was very clear to me that this profit model makes no sense. There was a wall of widows in our classroom, and I pointed outside and said "all of our actual gains come from the environment. Money is only a permission slip that allows us to buy our actual gains". What I didn't know at that time is that the second part, "minus expenses", is our death knell. This means we maximize our so-called profit by minimizing as many expenses as possible. This means we must ignore the damages that we do to the environment, and we must also keep our labor expenses as low as possible. Our heartless reckless behavior model 'profit = income - expenses' is the reason that the earth is on fire and also the reason there is so much homelessness. Great legal minds, I implore you. Please make "profit = protecting and enriching the environment" our new norm so that we can repair our environment. All of our lives are depending on you. I've attempted to work out some of the details as to how the new economy might look. Here's what I can offer. "Profit = protecting and enriching the environment". Under this new behavior model, our only major expense is ignoring our obligation to protect and enrich our environment. The new profit model requires us to create millions of new jobs that will come under the heading "Caretakers of the Environment". Caretakers will have many specialized categories: 1. Collecting pollution that is already in the environment 2. Collecting pollution before it gets into the environment 3. Dealing with all of the waste in such ways that are good for the environment, and or good for the production of products 4. Designing new ways of producing products so that those products last for a long time and don't have to be replaced every two years 5. Thoughtful distribution of wealth 6. Economically incentivizing families with two or fewer children There will be many more types of Caretaker jobs. Every company and government will have Caretaker jobs, and everybody will be schooled, from elementary school through university about how to be caretakers of the environment. We will all be caretakers of the environment. What do you think about this idea? How can we transition from our present reckless economy to this entirely new economy that requires us to behave rationally and responsibly. It may already be too late to save our environment, but it is never too late to try.
RIP to the Goat Fredric Jameson
i like the topic and thoughts presented here. but i do have some reservation towards science as good. science it is a method but in modern form it is another thing and a producers of things an "progress". even if you use science in the best possible way it is waste of human and material resources(pollution) and to try to or have a chance of some improvement in the future. instead of just use the knowledge and technologies we already have to simplify life towards a sustainable society.
Science is a method of percieving better approximations of truths/reality. You are confusing science with technology. Please don't.
@@danielgarlock2074 the only thing science does is demonstrate behaviour in a system, please dont patronise others.
@@RD-fm2wk # grammar
@@RD-fm2wkhuh?
Science doesn't imply pollution . How can attempting a better understanding of our world (including the consequences of our actions) be a waste?
Really good points about cost of capital. But, the model used here is a Neoclassical model. It assumes the Government borrows. It’s really important that we talk about money creation (Govt fiat and bank created credit ). The choice to issue Govt bonds and the interest rate on the bonds is a separate policy decision. We call that debt even though a currency issuing can repay this at any time. The real issue is the growth in private debt from bank created credit. Also I question whether renewables are cheaper. When we consider end to end lifecycle costs including storage? And take away Govt incentives. However energy investment to transition should not be a price decision. Prices do not reflect all information and that we continue to follow this Neoclassical doctrine is frustrating. We know that the cost of carbon is understated. It only reflects the cost of extraction not that it is a limited resource. That said great discussion and Govt investment in the energy sector is fundamental to any attempt at reducing carbon emissions.
Another amazing interview. This channel is one of my favorites. No BS fear environmentalism. Talking about Markets and the incentives. A breath of fresh air. Don’t stop!
Thanks for this interview! Fantastic insights, and a few important challenges put forward by Chris Shaw to reframe how we look at social and environmental issues today.
Thanks for posting. Great interview with quite valuable information
Thank you for confirming what i already thought about anything in regards to climate * change). It is clearly a (neo) marxist push, usually derived by self hating middle class or upper class individuals who give out about the 'bourgeousi' and use 'common people' as fodder f their ideology.
I loved this presentation from Chris Shaw who takes such a different approach from the middle-class wankers who are generally on show. He really knows what he's talking about - and I'll certainly read his book "Liberalism and the challenge of Climate Change"
You talk rubbish. Liberalism is the idea that you can do what you like as long as you don't harm others, pretty basic stuff, but it has never been implemented. If it was it would bring capitalism to its knees, because the rich could not exploit workers. Nor could they get away with polluting the environment.
"We are betting the house on solar and wind". Well, if you continue that you sow the seeds of destruction. How about NOT doing that? Because it makes much more sense to try and balance energy w different sources. That way you can truely balance year on year without a shock factor. The renewable road is an unreliable one. IF climate change is a factor then making your system more vulnerable is exactly the wrong thing to do. Nothing is settled. Everything is in flux. Nothing in energy ever transits. We have used higher density units over time. We go backwards w unreliables. Is everybody looking forward to pre-industrial times? I don't think so.
You cannot talk about energy and transition at the same time. The point of departure in this talk is: we HAVE to. No we don't. We won't. The people will turn against it. It is based on a set of lies and misconceptions and we don't like fascists, green or otherwise.
Well, capitalism doesnt have to solve anything as there IS no climate crisis. There may be peak oil but that is debatable. There is NO energy transition and certaintly not one from higher density to lower density unit. Technology will improve but has limits. Everything has limits. We adjust, slowly, over time. We have to assess year by year what the right balance is. But the climate alarmists are pushing too hard and they will fail, for obvious reasons one of which is that their projections are not based on reality. We dont want cobstant fear mongering. We dont want a kind of green fascism. We like and need a level of liberty and will stop those who are power hungry.
Interesting discussion. Thank you.
Maoism is a bureaucratic authoritarian model, and as such not a path I would favor. Socialism has to be democratic to work. With the climate/environmental crisis it will even be more important to have people on board.
A "JUDAS" IS ONE, WHO SELLS OUT THE "WELL-BEING OF ANOTHER", FOR THE WORTH OF SOMETHING ELSE.... THAT'S CAPITALISM !
*The world is sick of **-Zios'-** criminality.* ✔
You climate people are fkn weird…completely blind to the uncompromised science
*The 🆄nited 🆂laves of 🅰ipac is morally bankrupt* ✅
🅵🆁🅴🅴 🅵🆁🅴🅴 🅿🅰🅻🅴🆂🆃🅸🅽🅴❗💯✌
*The 🆄nited 🆂laves of 🅰ipac!*
*The 🆄nited 🆂laves of 🅰ipac!*
#Podcast #Capitalism #ClimateCrisis #EcoCrisis #Breakdown / Adriene Buller
I believe the saying goes, "Good riddance to bad rubbish." (speaking of course, of unfair capitalism *fair capitalism is fine*) Or, "Render unto Caesar that which is Caesar's!" (speaking of course, ironically, of the working person)
Those in power are godless
The system may implode in a four stage process. Stage one: there is a massive famine from one or two bad years of global crop growing, due to climate damage. Stage two: because food is treated as a commodity, capitalists do not continue to invest in risky food growing schemes, and if governments step in to fund, they do so too late. Stage three: capitalist supply chains for complex products are relying on getting food to their workers for the final products to be made, and the workers cannot afford the food. Meaning those complex products are not made, or are made at a loss to pay the workers so they can eat. Government steps in: again, too late. Stage four: some complicated labour-saving devices cannot be made, that are supporting the global economy, plus food growing. Leading to implosion and collapse. Supporting ideas are the following. 1. Many complicated capitalist products are costly in the sense of too many moving parts involved. 2. Capitalist government steps in too late to fix market failure. 3. Food is treated as a commodity by a lot of the people growing and selling it so farming will lack capitalist investment as it starts to look risky in the face of floods and drought.
Harris and Walz have a plan to combat this. They've already seen it coming and are talking about solutions. Not today Satan! Vote Harris-Walz 2024!
Oh the corporate and evangelical fascists allied with the Trump cult are doing just fine
The greatest threat to the world is American agression and evil.
Having spent many years living amongst the indigenous Asmat people of West Papua, who famously consumed Michael Rockerfeller, I can assure you that there's at least one lesson that we could immediately put into practice which would go a long way towards ameliorating the planetary crisis.
Ok, that made me chuckle.
EAT THE RICH
How are societies built upon foundations of ecological destruction and imperialism supposed to continue to function without continued ecological destruction and imperialism. It’s very easy to sit in front of a camera and pronounce support for one side or another, but at the end of the day the existence of every human alive exists on one side or another of this dynamic. What is to replace imperialist/capitalist/anti-ecological regimes? And I don’t just refer to legal frameworks and high minded Utopianism, but also the very basic questions of: what do we do about food supplies and ways of life dependent on imperialism capitalism and ecologically destructive patterns? How is the average western citizen supposed to do anything about this without a lifetime of ivory tower education as the world burns underneath? When the average western citizen is too busy paying rent and buying over priced over industrialised food? When the clock runs out, water runs out, crops won’t grow, climate changes continues to fundamentally alter population structures and movements, how are most people on either side of the imperialist core or periphery supposed to focus on anything but basic survival? Our governments are owned and controlled by a small elite with enough protection to survive any future, in spite of us all. We can’t begin to consider any kind of change to any aspect of society without running into money in politics, we can’t talk about money in politics because the world is burning, we can’t fix the world burning because there is too much to change about our societies. So what do we do? Revolution? What replaces what comes after? A war may be brewing in the Middle East which isn’t going to help any kind of climate or political reform efforts. I am a nobody, but I am a nobody who believes he understands that capitalism won, and it will grab the world by the scalp and pull along until it reaches its logical conclusion . Sure we in the west could protest for withdrawal of Israel from Palestine, but people already did and nothing changed because the decision isn’t for normal people to make . The ugly imperialist reality is our societies depend on Israel and what the existence of this state means for West. On a similar vein, I don’t think we should be so keen to state western imperialism exists in a vacuum, an eastern alliance of Iran China Russia and North Korea with their affiliated state and clear they do not like the West and they actively sabotage us and are trying to destabilise our societies (more than we already do to ourselves). Israel has gone too far since the October 7th attacks, but also, this conflict feels like the us West vs them East. They are acting with the irrationality of a society that believes it could be on the brink of destruction, but isn’t that true? Does Iran say that they want to eliminate Israel? Doesn’t the news constantly tell us the planet is warming up too much for our societies? Aren’t our societies reaching such levels of inequality and indignity that young generations have no hope for a bright future? In the context of everything I - as a 24 year old nothing - don’t see the Israeli-Palestinian/Western-Eastern in the backdrop of economic ecological and geopolitical uncertainty, I see this war in the context of way may become the end of the world as I know it. And I don’t have a the time or money to sit around reading the history of this ridiculous region of the earth to « understand » why I am right or wrong. I have rent to pay and food to buy. This is all the game of elites with nothing better to do but inflate their net worths and egos.
Great interview. Energy is the economy. Green tech is typically not green and doesn’t solve the core issue of planetary overshoot. Markets rely on growth, corporations and states are acting in self interest.