62 World Leaders COP Out

The climate pact achieved at COP26 was woefully inadequate. We could be in for over four degrees Fahrenheit of warming this century over pre-industrial temperatures, and some scenarios would put us closer to eight degrees. In this episode, Paul Sutton shares his observations from Glasgow, and we get assessments from a few other noted experts.

Policymakers are not willing to embrace any climate actions that give up economic growth, but economic growth virtually guarantees climate disaster. The bottom line: only drastic policy and behavior changes will avoid a very bleak future.

Sutton is a Professor in the Department of Geography & the Environment at the University of Denver. He served as an official delegate for the American Association of Geographers (AAG) at the COP26 UN Climate Summit in Glasgow in early November of 2021. He is not speaking for the AAG in this episode. One interesting class Paul teaches is Envisioning Utopia Through the Lens of a Wellbeing Economy.

Also: recommended reading, and the new movie, Ghostbusters: Afterlife.

The Titanic cartoon in this episode’s graphic was created for the GrowthBusters project by artist/writer Stephanie McMillan. https://stephaniemcmillan.org/

The GrowthBusters theme song was written and produced by Jake Fader and sung by Carlos Jones. https://www.fadermusicandsound.com/ https://carlosjones.com/

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

Running Out of Gas – Episode 26 of the GrowthBusters podcast, with Paul Sutton and James Ward
https://www.growthbusters.org/running-out-of-gas-podcast-episode-26/

GrowthBusters: Hooked on Growth – free on YouTube
https://youtu.be/_w0LiBsVFBo

The Limits to Growth
https://collections.dartmouth.edu/teitexts/meadows/diplomatic/meadows_ltg-diplomatic.html

Planet of the Humans documentary
https://planetofthehumans.com/

More Fun, Less Stuff – Episode 55 of the GrowthBusters podcast, with Mike Nickerson
https://www.growthbusters.org/more-fun-less-stuff/

COP26: If We Don't Know Where We’re Going, We Will End Up Someplace Else – by Paul Sutton
https://thehill.com/opinion/energy-environment/579095-cop26-if-we-dont-know-where-we-are-going-we-will-end-up-someplace?rl=1

Bankers Took Over the Climate Change Summit. That’s Bad for Democracy
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/25/opinion/cop26-gfanz-climate-change.html

Soylent Green – trailer; see the movie on YouTube, AppleTV, Vudu and elsewhere
https://youtu.be/N_jGOKYHxaQ

The Powell Memorandum
https://scholarlycommons.law.wlu.edu/powellmemo/

The Powell Memo and links to many essays about it
https://www.greenpeace.org/usa/democracy/the-lewis-powell-memo-a-corporate-blueprint-to-dominate-democracy/

The Powell Memo – a critical book excerpt about the memo
https://billmoyers.com/content/the-powell-memo-a-call-to-arms-for-corporations/

A Finer Future – by L. Hunter Lovins, Stewart Wallis, Anders Wijkman, and John Fullerton
https://ourfinerfuture.com/

Quick Take from Katharine Hayhoe of The Nature Conservancy
https://youtu.be/9wZz253lZwg

Planet in Crisis podcast from Scientists Warning Europe
https://www.scientistswarningeurope.org.uk/podcast

World Scientists’ Warnings into Action, Local to Global – New paper from Scientists Warning Europe
https://www.scientistswarningeurope.org.uk/signature

Shared Socioeconomic Pathways
https://www.carbonbrief.org/explainer-how-shared-socioeconomic-pathways-explore-future-climate-change

Prosperity Without Growth – by Tim Jackson
https://timjackson.org.uk/ecological-economics/pwg/

COP26 demonstrations – photos by Paul Sutton
https://urizenapw02-vlp.du.edu/~paul.sutton/COP26/

Rebelling Against Black Friday Consumerism – Episode 61 of the GrowthBusters podcast
https://www.growthbusters.org/non-material-holidays/

So Kind Gift Registry
https://sokindregistry.org/

Make a Year-End Gift to the GrowthBusters project
https://www.growthbusters.org/donate/

 

RECOMMENDED READING:

Insist that Public Policy Respects the Rights of Children and Women – by Dave Gardner
https://medium.com/ending-overshoot/insist-that-public-policy-respects-the-rights-of-children-and-women-d961478d36f5

Ending Overshoot – a publication on Medium edited by Dave Gardner and Jem Randles
https://medium.com/ending-overshoot

Welcome to Gilead: How Population Fears Drive Women's Rights Abuses – new report from Population Matters
https://populationmatters.org/news/2021/11/welcome-gilead-how-population-fears-drive-womens-rights-abuses

To Breed or Not to Breed – by Alex Williams in the New York Times
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/20/style/breed-children-climate-change.html

The End of Growth: Ten Years After – by Richard Heinberg
https://www.commondreams.org/views/2021/11/20/end-growth-ten-years-after

Climate Change with 8 Billion Humans - by Joseph Chamie
http://www.ipsnews.net/2021/11/climate-change-8-billion-humans/

Why Renewable Energy isn’t the Only Answer in our Climate Emergency - by Julie Peconi, also from Scientists Warning Europe
https://www.scientistswarningeurope.org.uk/discover/why-renewable-energy-isnt-the-only-answer-in-our-climate-emergency

On the GrowthBusters podcast, we come to terms with the limits to growth, explore the joy of sustainable living, and provide a recovery program from our society’s growth addiction (economic/consumption and population). This podcast is part of the GrowthBusters project to raise awareness of overshoot and end our culture’s obsession with, and pursuit of, growth.

Dave Gardner directed the documentary GrowthBusters: Hooked on Growth, which Stanford Biologist Paul Ehrlich declared “could be the most important film ever made.” Co-host, and self-described "energy nerd," Stephanie Gardner has degrees in Environmental Studies and Environmental Law & Policy.

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