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Capitalism has allowed us to throw a two-century party – We trashed the place, drank the booze, burned the furniture — It’s time to wake up, act like adults, and behave responsibly. —

Nate Hagens

“Here in America when bad shit happens, we immediately perceive it as an injustice — it’s not fair or right – and then we logically have to blame someone or something. …. If capitalism is to blame, what is capitalism? Here’s a definition from the IMF [International Monetary Fund]. ‘Capitalism. is an economic system in which private actors own and control property in accord with their interests and supply freely set prices in markets in a way that can serve the best interests of society. The essential feature of capitalism in the motive to make a profit.’…. Capitalism, on the backs of fossil armies, brought billions of people out of poverty, allowed hundreds of millions of humans to live like kings and queens, and enabled billions of people to be born and live lives on earth by turbo-charging the food supply. It is too weighty and complex of an issue to label as simply ‘bad’ or ‘good. In some ways, complaining about capitalism is a luxury enabled by capitalism. Capitalism itself isn’t bad – the effects are bad. Many of the bad effects aren’t about wealth itself, but wealth inequality, which has ebbed and flowed over thousands of years, but naturally will spike during the highest surplus or monetary surplus representations. …. Any ‘ism’ linked to a culture that extracts carbon 10 million times faster than it was sequestered by nature us going to have disastrous long-term effects. Relative to other ‘isms’, capitalism did it faster…

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Seeing the Big Picture: Nate Hagens

December 12, 2021

Seeing the Big Picture: Nate Hagens

Seeing the Big Picture | Nate Hagens

November 28, 2021

Seeing the Big Picture | Nate Hagens

Understanding the critical connections between our values, our economy and our world

Welcome to the era of generalists, of the big picture thinkers who translate concepts into action. These are the people who join the dots to get a better sense of how our world fits together—and how we impact each other.

Nate Hagens is one of the most acclaimed big picture thinkers tackling the sustainability question. He joins me to explain that creating a sustainable future demands tackling social and economic inequalities, and ultimately creating a new system of values.

Listen here or catch it on Apple or Spotify.

Nate currently teaches a systems synthesis Honors seminar at the University of Minnesota ‘Reality 101 – A Survey of the Human Predicament’ Nate is on the Boards of Post Carbon Institute, Bottleneck Foundation, IIER and Institute for the Study of Energy and the Future.

The prolific, inimitable Nate Hagens strikes again: This time with a new book on the human predicament

July 27, 2021

The prolific, inimitable Nate Hagens strikes again: This time with a new book on the human predicament

“This will be the century which tests the human potential for mediocrity against the human potential for greatness.” —

…

“Earth’s currently most successful large creature is now in a predicament; a predicament brought about by a compelling combination of human traits and its (relatively) recent discovery of vast stores of fossil flammable fuel. … This “Carbon Pulse” is a brief period of human history in which much of the carbon sequestered as these substances over hundreds of millions of years is expended in just a few centuries. The resulting impacts on wealth, economies, and ecologies are earth-shattering. Humans are reaching the end of the carbon pulse. Now we face a time of change that requires a quality of “systems thinking” and future planning never before required of our species. … In the following pages, we will give short overviews of scientific themes central to our thesis that humans are in a predicament and why, and how we can change. It is hoped that our work will give you a greater grasp of the complex challenges facing humanity this century, as well as inspiration on how to live meaningful, effective and enjoyable lives.” Nathan J. Hagens, DJ White

The above passage is excerpted from the Introduction to a new, 345-page book, “Reality Blind: Vol. 1: Integrating the Systems Science Underpinning Our Collective Futures”, co-authored by Nate Hagens and DJ White. (You can purchase a copy here: https://read.realityblind.world/view/975731937/i/. To download a free PDF copy, go to the black border at the bottom of your open window, below the book, and click on the download icon to the right of the printer icon.)

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Myth #22: Nate Hagens discredits claim “We Can Always Get More Resources If We Have More Money”

July 13, 2021

Myth #22: Nate Hagens discredits claim “We Can Always Get More Resources If We Have More Money”

“We can create money, but we cannot create energy, only extract what exists — FASTER.”

“We can create money, but we cannot create energy, only extract what exists — FASTER. And importantly, when money is created the interest is not. This creates a growth imperative for our economy to be able to pay interest in the future. Whenever we’ve encountered resource or energy limits – for example, the 1970s – we started to use the social construct of credit to overcome the near-term economic pain. In every single year since 1965, the United States and the world have grown their total debt more than they’ve grown their economies.” —Nate Hagens, from his Myth #22

My transcript of this repost focuses on Nate’s 2:55-minute crash course in economics – a valiant attempt to explain to the untutored (like myself) the relationship between money and resources. Without fully understanding his explanation, I’ll just accept at face value that he effectively discredits Myth #22: “We Can Always Get More Resources If We Have More Money.” Myth #22 is one of 33 myths Nate covered in his May 21st Earth Day talk titled, Earth and Humanity: Myth and Reality. The beauty of his 2hr, 52min long, information-rich Earth Day talk is that it is more of an indexed reference tool for recurrent consultation than a lecture meant to be assimilated in one sitting.

At the bottom of this post is a complete time-stamped list of the titles of all of Hagens’ 33 myths, plus his opening Introduction and closing Interventions (and Wild Ideas). The myths can be watched in any order — but, as Hagens mentions, the order decided on seems logical.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Myth #19: Nate Hagens dismisses the insistence we can achieve Net Zero!! (by 2050 or any date)

July 3, 2021

Myth #19: Nate Hagens dismisses the insistence we can achieve Net Zero!! (by 2050 or any date)

“When people use the term “Net Zero” it’s mostly shorthand for maintaining economic growth while doing some magical technological salvation in the future.” —

“There is an increasingly popular theme in climate change media called “Net Zero emissions.” The idea that by 2050 – or any date – we can both swap out our fossil fuel energy base for renewables, and, additionally, use complicated and yet-to-be developed technology to remove carbon from the atmosphere – together resulting in humanity reducing the current emissions of our 17 terawatt economic system to zero, in less that 3 decades…. The waste from our current population and consumption levels is a dire problem. But thinking we can continue to consume at anything close to today’s levels, and magically whisk away the waste products from a carbon-based economic system, is a myth. In a 17 terawatt economy, 80% powered by fossil fuels, Net Zero emissions is biophysically delusional; however, accepting this biophysical reality will [also] be politically delusional, so maybe we can meet in the middle.” —Nate Hagens, from his Myth #19

My transcript of this repost focuses on Nate’s concise 5-minute review of the evidence that effectively refutes Myth #19: “We can achieve Net Zero (by 2050 or any date!!” Myth #19 is one of 33 myths Nate delivered in his May 21st Earth Day talk titled, Earth and Humanity: Myth and Reality. The beauty of his 2hr, 52min long, information-rich Earth Day talk is that it is more of an indexed reference tool for recurrent consultation than a lecture meant to be assimilated in one sitting.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Is the National Observer intentionally ignoring reports by/about leading climate scientists?

June 26, 2021

Is the National Observer intentionally ignoring reports by/about leading climate scientists?

Why has Observer reporter not responded to my email promoting work of Dr. Nate Hagens?

On May 31, I sent a polite email to National Observer reporter Chris Hatch in response to his open invitation to readers to share “comments or suggestions” related to his efforts as climate correspondent to sort through “the kaleidoscope of news, ideas, politics and culture to figure out what’s working in the race against climate change.”

A copy of my email to Mr. Hatch is reposted below. But first, I want to point out that my letter to Hatch was not the first time I had contacted the National Observer to express my concerns re its absence of any coverage of the work of leading climate scientists and experts in related fields. In fact, last year, because of this failure, I did not renew my subscription and shared my reason with the paper.

Here is a slightly abridged copy of my letter to Mr. Hatch. Coincidentally, not only has he failed to reply to my request for feedback, he did not have the common courtesy to acknowledge receipt of my email.

Dear Chris Hatch

Frank White, here, of Windsor Ontario. Thank you for your invitation to share “comments or suggestions” related to your efforts as climate correspondent to sort through “the kaleidoscope of news, ideas, politics and culture to figure out what’s working in the race against climate change.”

Before sharing my thoughts with you, here’s a bit of relevant, personal background information. For the past 11 years I have been editing a blog, Citizen Action Monitor, that focuses primarily on major contemporary global and Canadian-specific issues, including climate change. I offer my readership a news and information filtering service that involves monitoring, selecting, and reposting articles from authoritative online sources…

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

More Myths – This Time With Some Reality

June 19, 2021

More Myths – This Time With Some Reality

Nate Hagens recently produced a new video here regarding myths and reality and it is very well done. The video goes into precise detail about many core myths and beliefs, and I have the video queued up to the part about the myth of “technology solving it” for anyone who still thinks solar panels and wind turbines help reduce emissions in any way (spoiler alert; they actually INCREASE emissions). Once you’ve seen this part, I recommend going to the beginning and watching the entire video from the start.

The entire video is excellent with regard to eliminating commonly held false beliefs generally encouraged by industry and governments in an effort to continue BAU (Business As Usual) and industrial civilization as long as possible.

I actually wrote out a detailed critique of the video in the groups I manage, but think that this video deserves a much wider audience, which is why I wrote this post. The video is excellent in explaining why technology can not and will not save us nor will it solve climate change, and it correctly dispels the overwhelming nonsense (such as “green” or “clean” or “renewable” energy, net-zero PR marketing, EVs and other transportation ideas based on electric motors, “smart” grids, etc.) which is constantly hyped about climate change, ecological overshoot, and energy and resource decline.

The Myth #1 that Nate has listed; the “We Are Doomed” one actually ISN’T a myth. This is an existential FACT. ALL species go extinct sooner or later and we are no exception to this rule. So, from this angle, Hagens is simply suffering from denial of reality (no big surprise there, as MOST of society is suffering from this as well; and increasingly so).

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Earth and Humanity

May 22, 2021

Earth and Humanity

Every year, Nate Hagens produces a video for Earth Day. Nate is someone I cannot admire enough. These videos normally last about an hour, but this year one of his University colleagues told him it was about time he stopped pussy footing around and tell it like is. So this year’s effort runs for almost three hours…… and it’s Nate’s tour de force…! You probably won’t learn much if you’ve been lurking on this blog long enough, but you won’t be disappointed, and you should certainly share the hell out of it, because it’s fast becoming urgent for the ignorant masses to find out the truth….

“In my analysis, I think we’re headed for a financial recalibration.” — Nate Hagens

February 23, 2021

“In my analysis, I think we’re headed for a financial recalibration.” — Nate Hagens

We need to plan for a smaller economy, but decision makers see growing the economy as the solution. —

BACKGROUND

1/ In my February 19, 2021 piece, I reposted a report co-authored by 17 scientists that documents, in considerable detail, the evidence of humanity’s existential plight. My repost is titled: Just how bad will future environmental conditions get? In a word, “ghastly!”. The title of the report that I reposted is “Underestimating the Challenges of Avoiding a Ghastly Future”, by Frontiers in Conservation Science, January 13, 2021.

2/ Included at the bottom of my February 19 repost is a link to a 90-minute video titled OMEGA – Underestimating the Challenges of Avoiding a Ghastly Future . This 90-minute video brings together six experts, including two commentators, Bill Rees and Nate Hagens, for a ZOOM discussion of the January 13 report co-authored by the 17 scientists.

3/ Although the hosts of the 90-minute video refer to the event as a “discussion,” I found the format of the proceedings was more along the lines of a Q & A directed at the participants and the two commentators, Bill Rees and Nate Hagens, with very little discussion among the respondents.

4/ Below is my transcript of Nate’s response to the January 13 report, “Underestimating the Challenges of Avoiding a Ghastly Future”.

5/ At the bottom of this post is the 90-minute embedded video of the full ZOOM discussion where you can watch Nate’s opening ten-minute response.

*****

Those who are unfamiliar with Nate Hagen’s work, may, in places, find his choice of words, his phrasing, and his explanations in the transcript conceptually and cognitively challenging. I suggest you skim those and move on to the many passages that are illuminating, thought-provoking and worthy of contemplation.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

No Matter Who Wins

November 6, 2020

NO MATTER WHO WINS

Modern elections—despite their social and political importance—have become more like sporting events than referendums around ideas. We so intensely identify with our partisan tribe, that we focus on the slogans, the rooting against the ‘other guy’ and other us-vs-them dynamics, and often lose sight of the issues, the context, and how ‘winning’ for our country (and world) might actually be influenced by our choices.

We are inherently tribal, after all. Of all of our inherited ancestral heuristics, defending our (historically small) tribe and ostracizing/rooting against the other tribe is one of the strongest human universals. In fact, perhaps humans’ best quality – cooperation and collaboration – was a byproduct of the strong unity born out of common threats, accessing surplus, and tribal warfare. We cooperate – for the good of our group – and for tens/hundreds of thousands of years, this meant survival.

Fast forward to November 2020, USA and the four year inflection point where half the country is rooting for Joe Biden and the other half (roughly) for Donald Trump – in our minds we know this is an important guidepost for our collective future, but we approach this week with similar temperament and behavior as a Packer/Viking pre-game tailgate.

We are now in the liminal space between our nation’s long history and future. Facts and expertise matter less by the day. Emotions and tribal affiliations focus our attention on the ‘cars’ instead of looking at the road ahead of us. Later this week 50% of our population will be elated and the other 50% will be angry. And most of both camps will be variously: righteous, anxious and uncertain, and perhaps violent.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

What can we do?

December 18, 2018

What can we do?

At the University of Minnesota Dr. Nate Hagens teaches an honours course called “Reality 101: A Survey of the Human Predicament.” Hagens operated his own hedge fund on Wall Street until he glimpsed, “a serious disconnect between capitalism, growth, and the natural world. Money did not appear to bring wealthy clients more well being.” Hagens became editor of The Oil Drum, and now sits on the Board of the Post Carbon Institute and the Institute for Integrated Economic Research.

Reality 101 addresses humanity’s toughest challenges: economic decline, inequality, pollution, biodiversity loss, and war. Students learn about systems ecology, neuroscience, and economics. “We ask hard questions,” says Hagens. “What is wealth? What are the limits to growth? We attempt to face our crises head on.”

Some students feel inspired to action, and some report finding the material “depressing.” One student shared the course material with a family member, who asked, “So what can I do?” The student struggled to answer this question, and the listener chastised her: “why did you explain all this to me, if you can’t tell me what to do?!”

A fair question. One that, as environmentalists, we often get asked. At the request of Dr Hagens, here is my list:

What can we do?

I have been asking this question all of my adult life. As I’ve witnessed the crisis intensify, I’ve experienced feelings of panic, anger, and helplessness. Nevertheless, I also feel at peace. I love my family and friends, I enjoy life in my community, and love my time in the natural world. Here are some of the ways I believe we can deal with anxiety about the world and take action:

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Energy, Money and Technology–From the Lens of the Superorganism

January 26, 2018

Energy, Money and Technology–From the Lens of the Superorganism

During Nate Hagens’ #WEP2018 keynote, he discussed how all of our lives will be influenced by how we react to the coming era of harder to extract and more costly fossil fuels that will be combined with cleaner but more stochastic energy types.

Ed. note: The video starts in the middle of the presentation. You will need to adjust the player to go back to the beginning of the talk.

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