Check out Gwynne Dyer’s CBC podcast Climate Wars. There are three parts and the first, posted here, is the most gripping. Roll over and hit play in the Snapshot, or 2click to download.
Highlights
15:55: Uncertainty about climate change does not refer to whether it is happening but how fast.
21:50: So, how did climate change become ideological? People don’t take up ideological positions on the cause of earthquakes, for example, so, why on climate science? Dyer argues that the division of climate change into right/left is an American phenomenon. Dyer provides very interesting evidence that climate change in America became a cultural conflict about values: values, and not evidence determine acceptable responses to climate change.
32:00: The significance of feedback effects, for example, the methane stored and released by melting permafrost.
37:15: To the extent that climate change is a result of human activities, 2C is a tipping point for feedback effects at which point we are likely to lose control over our ability to control greenhouse gases. In other words, human efforts to reduce emissions will have no effect.
42:15: The possibility of international cooperation is hampered by nationalism and patriotism: see interviews with Russian politicians responsible for planting the Russian flag at the bottom of the Arctic.
49:50: Civilizations always grow populations up to carrying capacity for food, and have never been able to restrict growth so as to sustain themselves. We are just another example.
differently. But, instead, news media and the population at large continue to proclaim unquestioningly the idea of economic growth as the single most important goal and value. Indeed, the question is posed, when are things going to get back to normal? It is my view that the idea of growth as we knew it in the twentieth century is probably the most dangerous idea currently held. I might argue that twentieth century ideas of economic growth are more dangerous than religious extremism: one, there is little to no serious opposition to growth in any of its forms; two, growth is the only major idea to which human beings all over the world proclaim adherence; three, growth is unquestioningly equated with liberal individual well-being and conservative family values. I will add a fourth reason: economic growth is not considered a belief or value at all, but a necessary and universal condition for the well-being of any human being. To witness the power of the idea of economic growth, try to denounce it to a friend, family member, or, better yet, a mere acquaintance and watch what happens to you: a mild look askance at most. No one is going to take you seriously and that is a trait of a deeply embedded idea. I cannot think of a more embedded and dangerous idea than twentieth century versions of economic growth. Anyway, I’m sure this guy will be thoroughly and publicly castigated for his doomsday views.
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