Topic: Work

[ Episode #57 // Permaculture Convergence ]

Despite the massive destruction our species has wrought on the earth, we've also learned a tremendous amount about ecological systems in the process. As our old narrative of domination crumbles, an understanding of how to work with nature is emerging. Can we apply the ideas of permaculture to society when facing energy depletion, climate change and social breakdown? Will our future society be able to regenerate the planet?

In Extraenvironmentalist #57 we hear from the many speakers at the 2012 Northwest Permaculture Convergence as recorded by our editor Kevin.  We hear segments from the dozens of conference session sessions themed around permaculture approaches to global challenges, the social aspects of permaculture and ideas on the built environment. Kevin explains some of what he learned about permaculture from attending the conference and we briefly discuss a few signs that our economic reality is quickly changing. 

Note: On our next episode we'll be bringing you a bit more coverage from the Pacific NW Permaculture Convergence.

// Extended Clips (in order of appearance)

[Break] - 1h10m

Max Keiser - Soviet era of empty shelves dawns
Michael Hudson via Renegade Economists on 3cr
Bailout terms shock Cypriots

[End]

John Liu - Green Gold

// Music (in order of Appearance)

Bibio - A tout a l'heure via Tell All Your Friends
Formidable Vegetable - Yield via Soundcloud
Formidable Vegtable - No Such Thing as Waste via Soundcloud
Led Zeppelin - Babe I'm Gonna Leave You (Free n Losh Remix) via Salacious Sound

Learn more about the speakers along with full time-coded show notes here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1_8WqD40M5Z0kbMWeIS8dlLsoRLSP__Jkdd-S88X3168/edit?usp=sharing

// Speakers in Order of Appearance

Learn more about the speakers along with full time-coded show notes here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1_8WqD40M5Z0kbMWeIS8dlLsoRLSP__Jkdd-S88X3168/edit?usp=sharing

[Permaculture Approach to Challenges] - 3m46s

Mark Robinowitz
Mike Maki
Jan Spencer
Andrew Millison
Sharon Ferguson
Marisha Auerbach
Jenny Pell
Maurice Robinette
Rick Valley
Michael Pilarski
Pat Rasmussen
Forest Shomer

[Social Aspects of Permaculture] - 45m55s

Willie-the-Wind
Judith Alexander
Maurice Robinette
Sharon Ferguson
Jenny Pell
Mighk Simpson
Mark Lakeman
Forest Shomer
Mike Maki
Afia Menke
Marisha Auerbach
Melanie Rios
Jan Spencer
Mark Robinowitz

[Permaculture Approaches to the Built Environment] - 1h20m05s

Afia Menke (reading from an unsourced book)
Mark Lakeman
Andrew Millison
Joel Lee
Marisha Auerbach
Jan Spencer
Rick Valley
Mark Robinowitz
Sharon Ferguson

// Production Credits

Kevin via Sustainable Guidance Youtube Channel

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[ Episode #55 // Degrowth ]

Decades of material growth have left us with a limited imagination for alternatives. Now that we've hit the point of diminishing returns for additional economic growth, can we decolonize our mind? In the developed world, is it possible to improve our quality of life while decreasing our standard of living? Could it be possible to degrow our economies in a way that creates a happier and healthier society while creating a true alternative for the undeveloped world?

In this epic length episode #55 of The Extraenvironmentalist we cover the Montreal Degrowth Conference from May 2013. We hear from a number of degrowth academics and activists about the ideas in the movement. Through more than twelve interviews we speak with Peter Brown, Michael M'Gonigle, Josh Farley, David Suzuki, Bill Rees, Mary Evelyn Tucker, Janice Harvey, Charles Hall, Gail Tverberg, Juliet Schor, Joan Martinez-Alier and Erik Assadourian. Then, we recap 2012 by hearing from Gregor MacDonald about the IEA's headline grabbing scenario for a United States that produces more oil than Saudi Arabia and Jeremy Grantham's recent eyebrow raising report on resource scarcity. We close out with a preview of our 2013 interviews.

// Index

Peter Brown on degrowth - 6m
Michael M'Gonigle on education - 17m
Josh Farley on money and alternatives to GDP  - 26m
David Suzuki on localism - 43m
Bill Rees on denial - 53m
Mary Evelyn Tucker on a new narrative - 1h06m
Janice Harvey on culture change  - 1h12m
Charlie Hall on energy return - 1h27m
Gail Tverberg on peak oil  - 1h43m
Juliet Schor on working less  - 1h5om
Joan Martinez-Alier on ecological economics - 2h6m
Erik Assadourian on degrowth - 2h15m
Gregor Macdonald on the IEA, claims about US oil production and Jeremy Grantham - 2h38m

You can find the individual degrowth interviews on our video page at http://vimeo.com/extraenvironmentalist

// Music (in order of appearance)

Tor - Glass and Stonevia Earmilk
Electric Guest - Awake (Dennis Rivera Remix) via Soundisstyle
Marvin Gaye vs. Pryda - Too Busy Thinking About Leja via Soundcloud
Marvin Gaye - Anger (Jeremy Sole edit) via Soundcloud
American Authors - Believer via Youtube
Adele - Skyfall (Dorsh Remix) via Indieshuffle
Plastic Plates - Things I didn't Know I loved (Bufi Remix) via Et Musique Pour Tous
Young-Wonder - To You via The Music Ninja
Emancipator - Minor Cause via Earmilk

 

Special thanks to Nathan at Southern Energy and Resilience for transcribing this episode!

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[ Episode #42 // Green Illusions ]

We've imagined for several decades that in an ideal energy future we'll have solar panels on every building and wind turbines accompanying the corn on rural farmland. Yet, is our energy context ready for photovoltaic modules and wind generated electricity? Who doesn't love the idea of harvesting solar energy that would just hit the planet whether we use it or not? Will renewable energy technologies replace our oil infrastructure or will environmentalists need to tackle many other issues before we should even start talking about renewable energy?

In Extraenvironmentalist #42 we hear from Ozzie Zehner about his new book Green Illusions which discusses the ecological impacts of manufacturing a renewable energy future. Ozzie tells us about his research into the stories of renewable energy technologies such as solar photovoltaics and wind turbines. Are solar panels on a rapidly decreasing cost curve? Do wind turbines reduce carbon emissions of electricity generation? We also ask Ozzie what environmentalists should advocate for if they aren't pushing for renewable energy.


 

// Music (in order of appearance)
Princeton - Grand Rapids (RAC Remix)  via RAC Soundcloud Page
Elliot Yamin - Let's Get to What's Real via ThatEricAlper Soundcloud Page
Joe Bataan - Es Tu Costa (It's Your Thing) via Funky16Corners
Bodies of Water - Like a Stranger via Icarus & Occident
Dolly Parton - House of The Rising Sun (Apollo Zero's Dolly House of Remix) via Apollo Zero

// Extended Clips (in order of appearance)
[1st Break] - 34m
Obama on Renewable Energy
Rep. Inslee floor statement on American optimism and renewable energy jobs
Mark Jacobson - Renewable Energy is Now
Alan Grais on Renewable Energy from the Montreal Degrowth Conference on an upcoming Vimeo video
Windfall Trailer
T. Boone Pickens
Obama on Winning the Future - Renewable Energy

[2nd Break] - 1h05m
Juliet Schor on working less from the Montreal Degrowth Conference

[End]
Jiddu Krishnamurti on Technology

//Production Credits
Production Assistance  | Kevin at the Sustainable Guidance Youtube Channel

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[ Episode #36 // Art Into Action ]

With an educational system that trains artists to develop their talents into commercial skills, our culture is missing out on the ability for art to disrupt normalcy. Why should we hope for systemic reform when the vast majority of water cooler conversations turn to American Idol and the fashion at awards shows? Will concerted efforts from artists allow us to breach difficult topics and address the economic elephant in the room? Can we use art to support behavior change, moving deeper than simply building awareness?

In Extraenvironmentalist #36 we discuss art and activism with Steve Lambert. Steve describes how his work as an artist has allowed him to create temporary utopias that prompt people to question the fundamental assumptions of society. We ask Steve how his varied work experience has helped him understand our education system and barriers to reform. What if the people around us aren't lazy and are just optimizing where their agency can have an effect?

Give Steve a follow on Twitter to keep track of his thoughts... and jokes.


 

// Music (in order of appearance)
Active Child - Johnny Belinda (White Arrows Remix) via Tell All Your Friends
Django Django - Storm via Music That Isn't Bad
Talking Heads - Road to Nowhere (Rosebuds Cover)  via The Rosebuds Bandcamp
Ra Ra Riot - Oh, La (Submarines Remix) via The Burning Ear
Bonobo - The Keeper (Banks Remix) via The Music Ninja

// Extended Clips (in order of appearance)
[First Break]
Cuts and Chaos - Desperation Drives Greek Clashes
Occupy the Dream - From Wall Street to Congress
US Economic Collapse - Dmitry Orlov + Max Keiser
[Second Break]
The Secret World of Shoplifting
Bill Moyers Interview with David Stockman
[End]
Meeting an awakened person - Thomas Hübl

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[ Episode #26 // The Four Horsemen ]

Is capitalism failing or is it producing an intended outcome? There are a group of people privy to the internal mechanisms of our global economic rationale who are willing to share a vision of how the system really works. Though their original intent was to serve what appeared to be a beautiful machinery of supply and demand, they soon realized how greatly the assumptions of our economy are disconnected from reality. Is economics labeled as the dismal science only because of the way we currently practice it?

In Extraenvironmentalist #26 we speak with Ross Ashcroft about his upcoming film The Four Horsemen which explains how the world really works through interviews with 23 of our planet's leading alternative economists, Wall Street insiders and economic thinkers. Ross describes how his desire to become a farmer led him to understand the problems of international finance and how a career in the film industry provided the catalyst to create a documentary about the global economic system. Ross talks about what he learned from interviewing such a well accomplished group of economic experts and what it was like to be in the same room, talking one-on-one with Noam Chomsky. Will our economy collapse because it is being orchestrated to do so or will finance fall apart because it is based on junk science?


 

// Music (in order of appearance)
TV Girl - Benny and the Jets via Break on a Cloud
Penguin Prison - Don't Fuck With My Money via Hard Candy
Charles Bradley - The World (Is Going Up in Flames) via Quit Mumbling
Shotgun Radio - A Bad Place ft. Mimi Page (Minnesota Remix) via Big Green Beats
Lana Del Rey - Blue Jeans (PatrickReza Dubstep Remix) via Movements and Nonsense

// Extended Clips
Tarek El Diwany on Financial Fallout via Renegade Economist
US Jobless Epidemic Masked by Statistical Shenanigans via RT
USA Might Face a Potentially Violent Revolution via RT
Elizabeth Warren on Fair Taxation via American Spectator

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[ Episode #24 // Redesigning Business ]

Are we truly free or has our search for freedom led to entrapment by dysfunctional organizations? As the global monetary paradigm fails, it takes the internationl business structure along with it. This dynamic allows for the application of design principles to the foundations of the new organizations replacing corporations in meeting our human needs. How much power truly rests at the top of the megalithic corporations around us and how much is dictated by the demands of fiat currency and compounding interest? In this new age of austerity, can even the lowest on the societal hierarchy spark the change needed for a new society?

In Extraenvironmentalist #24 we speak with reformed lawyer, business thinker and blogger Patrick Andrews about how the failure of business to understand our ecological reality presents an opportunity to introduce new business structures that can prevent groupthink and allow responsible stewardship.  We discuss how businesses that seek only profit are failing to actualize the power that business transactions have to transform our world. Can the failure of our economy allow us to reimagine business?

 

// Music (in order of appearance)
Active Child - Hanging On via Gorilla vs. Bear
Phaeleh - Afterglow feat. Soundmouse viaIndieShuffle
Young the Giant - Islands (Polaris at Noon Remix) via SoundCloud
Figure - Wonderwall (Finger Drumstep Edit) via Club Tunes

// Extended Clips
David McNally - Global Slump and the Age of Austerity on WORT
The Coming Collapse: We Can Buy Time, We Can't Change the Outcome via Yahoo Finance
Godfrey Bloom: Euro Christmas Fail via RT

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[ Episode #22 // Picking Battles ]

Formerly abundant raw materials which enabled the creation of capitalist economies are falling short of allowing the system to grow any further. With this historic moment, the opportunity to re-imagine the nature of work and the structure of society arises. Maintaining a balance between the steps necessary for self preservation in a depleting culture while decoupling from the system and pursuing more meaningful work is a key challenge to thriving in the near future. If the status quo is being blatantly exposed as a fiction, what role can we play in writing the new society? Out of the 168 hours in any give week, what can be done outside of the 40 given to our employers to create the new world we envision?

In Extraenvironmentalist #22 we speak with writer, thinker and podcaster Doug Lain about his outlook on life in the time of Late Capitalism which is the primary topic of his recent non-fiction book Pick Your Battle.  We discuss the need to manage expectations around work at what feels like the end of history and how to avoid cynicism about social change while being surround by so many catastrophes. As we produce our lives, how much of living is a fiction? What role do dystopian and utopian writers have in forming a vision of the world ahead? Can we use creative acts to derail the capitalist system before it derails us while creating abundant cities for all?


 

// Music (in order of appearance)
Juj - My Room via SoundCloud
The Drums - Money (Craft Spells Remix) via Neighborhood Brains
Kermit the Frog - It's Not Easy Being Green (Andrew Bird Cover) via You Ain't No Picasso
Moloko - Sing It Back (Can 7 1390's Remix) via IndieShuffle
Frenic - New World via The Chuckness
Minnesota - Breathe via The Breakbeat Depot

// Extended Clips
Unwelcome Guests #565 - The World Crisis and the Wholeness of Life
The Delusion of Green Capitalism
All Watched Over By Machines of Loving Grace
Nature Does Not Exist

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[ Episode #4 // Technological Inefficiency ]

Oil is more efficient than coal; coal is more efficient than wood. We've been using more efficient energy sources throughout the timeline of modern industrial society yet our ecological footprint has continued to grow. If our technology has been making us more efficient all along, why do we continue to grow our ecological footprint? Could changes to the way humans make decisions within an economic system do more good for degraded ecosystems than shiny new technologies? What if we just all participated in the extractive economy less?

In Extraenvironmentalist #4 Justin talks with Conrad Schmidt who is among many other things, founder of the British Columbia Work Less Party and author of Alternatives to Growth: Efficiency Shifting. We talk about ways some macroeconomic level solutions could improve the economic situation, some alternative explanations to why the economic collapse of 2008 began and how an SUV might be more ecological beneficial than a bike. We've interspersed clips of Conrad's documentary films in with the interview so be sure to visit Conrad's website for his videos and books!

Also in this episode, we get our first voicemail (and what a good one it is!)

Join us on this fortuitous journey into the realm of a little considered alternative to economic growth!

 

// Media Links
Video | Conrad Schmidt via Workers of the World Relax: The Jevons Paradox
Audio | A diatribe on green via Mad Decent Radio #62
Video | Conrad Schmidt via Workers of the World Relax: The World Wide Financial Crisis

// Music (in order of appearance)
The Naked and the Famous - Young Blood via IndieShuffle
Sea Oleena - Little Army via The Music Ninja
Ima Robot - Ruthless via IndieShuffle
Sea Wolf - Wicked Blood via The Music Ninja
Gauntlet Hair - I Was Thinking via IndieShuffle

// Corrections and Blunders

- Please do call or email us with corrections if you find something we've said to be factually inaccurate -

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