By: The Posts Author | Posted on: 2 Nov 21
Over 100 world leaders have pledged to end, and even reverse, deforestation by 2030 at the COP26 UN climate summit. And over 30 of the world’s biggest financial companies have promised to end investment linked to deforestation. But in 2014, a similar ‘landmark’ agreement was reached – and this didn’t slow deforestation at all. Part of the problem is that decision-makers are locked into trying to solve problems within the framework of the incumbent paradigm. But this paradigm is about to be dramatically transformed, opening up entirely new ways of thinking about forests. Far from focusing purely on ‘band aid’
Over 100 world leaders have pledged to end, and even reverse, deforestation by 2030 at the COP26 UN climate summit. And over 30 of the world’s biggest financial companies have promised to end investment linked to deforestation. But in 2014, a similar ‘landmark’ agreement was reached – and this didn’t slow deforestation at all. Part of the problem is that
By: The Posts Author | Posted on: 30 Oct 21
Maybe this is what Silicon Valley’s demigods have been dreaming about since the beginning. A profound reversal of the relationship between human beings and technology, a flipping of the real and virtual. I’m speaking of the project Mark Zuckerberg launched on Thursday. It was the metaverse, he said, and also announced that his company’s name had changed, to Meta, from Facebook. When I clicked on the link to Zuckerberg’s video announcement, I thought it was a joke at first, maybe a “deep fake.” Someone seemed to have modeled Zuckerberg’s face and gestures pretty well, but the guy in the video was so robotic, surely
Maybe this is what Silicon Valley’s demigods have been dreaming about since the beginning. A profound reversal of the relationship between human beings and technology, a flipping of the real and virtual. I’m speaking of the project Mark Zuckerberg launched on Thursday. It was the metaverse, he said, and also announced that his company’s name had changed, to Meta, from Facebook. When
By: The Posts Author | Posted on: 27 Oct 21
Technology disruptions already underway in the energy, transportation, and food sectors have extraordinary implications for climate change. These three disruptions alone, driven by just eight technologies, can directly eliminate over 90% of net greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions worldwide within 15 years. Our previous research has shown that these disruptions are inevitable. Solar, wind, and batteries (SWB) will disrupt coal, oil, and gas. Autonomous electric vehicles (A-EVs) providing transportation-as-a-service (TaaS) will disrupt internal combustion engines and private vehicle ownership. And precision fermentation and cellular agriculture (PFCA) will disrupt meat, milk, and other animal products. The three disruptions are already unfolding simultaneously,
Technology disruptions already underway in the energy, transportation, and food sectors have extraordinary implications for climate change. These three disruptions alone, driven by just eight technologies, can directly eliminate over 90% of net greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions worldwide within 15 years. Our previous research has shown that these disruptions are inevitable. Solar, wind, and batteries (SWB) will disrupt coal, oil,
By: The Posts Author | Posted on: 26 Oct 21
Despite all of the doom and gloom that surrounds climate change today, there has never been greater cause for optimism about the future of the environment. The reason why is that we already have the tools we need to meet this formidable challenge. But some tools are better than others, and if we get distracted by the wrong ones we could lose trillions while failing to solve the problem, so it is crucial that we stay focused and use the right tools for the job. Climate change represents a genuine existential threat to our civilization that is rivaled in magnitude
Despite all of the doom and gloom that surrounds climate change today, there has never been greater cause for optimism about the future of the environment. The reason why is that we already have the tools we need to meet this formidable challenge. But some tools are better than others, and if we get distracted by the wrong ones we
By: The Posts Author | Posted on: 21 Oct 21
The United Nations Climate Change Conference, or COP26, is bringing together world leaders to discuss the world’s future action on climate change. At present, the world’s biggest polluters are China, the United States, and India – three enormous countries with large populations and extensive infrastructure built on fossil fuels. In these, and all, countries, it’s often assumed that decarbonization requires painful sacrifices that could damage prosperity. But in reality, it’s the opposite. Greenhouse gas (GHG) mitigation actually offers an unprecedented opportunity for new forms of economic prosperity that regenerate the earth. This is not just an opportunity that every country
The United Nations Climate Change Conference, or COP26, is bringing together world leaders to discuss the world’s future action on climate change. At present, the world’s biggest polluters are China, the United States, and India – three enormous countries with large populations and extensive infrastructure built on fossil fuels. In these, and all, countries, it’s often assumed that decarbonization requires
By: The Posts Author | Posted on: 13 Oct 21
Garbage Day journalist and host of the Content Mines Podcast Ryan Broderick brings us up to date on the current state of meme play. You can view Broderick’s talk, The Internet is Magic, from The Meme in the Moment Festival, on YouTube. In his monologue, Rushkoff explores how the World Wide Web flattened a meta-community of digital nomads. You can read a written version of Rushkoff’s monologue, Did the Homepage Kill the Internet?, on Medium. Team Human is made possible thanks to the generous support of our listeners on Patreon. You can listen to Team Human here. The post Team
Garbage Day journalist and host of the Content Mines Podcast Ryan Broderick brings us up to date on the current state of meme play. You can view Broderick’s talk, The Internet is Magic, from The Meme in the Moment Festival, on YouTube. In his monologue, Rushkoff explores how the World Wide Web flattened a meta-community of digital nomads. You can
By: The Posts Author | Posted on: 6 Oct 21
It’s often thought that clean energy represents a transition from cheap, abundant fossil fuels to expensive, scarce renewables. In this analysis, we will explore how this fear has it exactly backwards: in reality, the clean energy disruption will usher in a fundamental transformation in the way we produce energy, one that can revolutionalize the specific energy and labour relations that have historically generated episodes of resource scarcity under fossil fuels. In part 1, we saw how the fear that mineral shortages will derail the clean energy disruption is largely unfounded, and that while the risk exists, it can be mitigated
It’s often thought that clean energy represents a transition from cheap, abundant fossil fuels to expensive, scarce renewables. In this analysis, we will explore how this fear has it exactly backwards: in reality, the clean energy disruption will usher in a fundamental transformation in the way we produce energy, one that can revolutionalize the specific energy and labour relations that
By: The Posts Author | Posted on: 4 Oct 21
It’s often believed that the clean energy disruption could be fundamentally constrained by resource scarcity in the form of insurmountable raw materials and mineral bottlenecks. Increasingly, some argue that it entails a net decrease in the energy available to societies, and therefore warn of an unavoidable decline in material prosperity in coming decades. In the following two-part series, we will address some of the most notable perspectives that uphold this mythology. Doing so, we will show that if societies make the right choices – and that’s a big ‘if’ – the clean energy disruption can represent a fundamental break with
It’s often believed that the clean energy disruption could be fundamentally constrained by resource scarcity in the form of insurmountable raw materials and mineral bottlenecks. Increasingly, some argue that it entails a net decrease in the energy available to societies, and therefore warn of an unavoidable decline in material prosperity in coming decades. In the following two-part series, we will
By: The Posts Author | Posted on: 29 Sep 21
New media artist, curator, writer, and creator of, Noor: A Brain Opera, the world’s first immersive interactive brain opera, Ellen Pearlman brings us where no machine can go: Into the last soft, squishy recesses of human experience still inaccessible to our robot overlords. In his monologue, Rushkoff reminds us about the importance of reducing our exposure to the global information onslaught. You can read the written version of Rushkoff’s monologue, “Turning off the “News“” on Medium. You can listen to Team Human here. The post Team Human ep. 192: Ellen Pearlman appeared first on Rushkoff.
New media artist, curator, writer, and creator of, Noor: A Brain Opera, the world’s first immersive interactive brain opera, Ellen Pearlman brings us where no machine can go: Into the last soft, squishy recesses of human experience still inaccessible to our robot overlords. In his monologue, Rushkoff reminds us about the importance of reducing our exposure to the global information
By: The Posts Author | Posted on: 20 Sep 21
As our world leaders prepare to gather at the UN climate conference (COP26) this fall to discuss future action on climate change, there is one major question on the table. Will we as a global society come together to take control of the situation and prevent catastrophic climate change, or are we too far gone? At RethinkX, we believe the former. The report presents three scenarios for how societal choices would determine future pathways for global carbon emissions: the Core Disruption Scenario (‘Be Sensible’), the Accelerated Disruption Scenario (‘Get Serious’), and the Delayed Disruption Scenario (‘Get Stuck’). This blog presents
As our world leaders prepare to gather at the UN climate conference (COP26) this fall to discuss future action on climate change, there is one major question on the table. Will we as a global society come together to take control of the situation and prevent catastrophic climate change, or are we too far gone? At RethinkX, we believe the