Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
In today’s discussion, Nate is joined by Peter Strack, a French researcher and author, to explore the concept of 2000-Watt Societies—innovative models that aim to balance reduced energy consumption with the well-being of the people who live there.
Celebrity investor Kevin “Mr. Wonderful” O’Leary recently hyped the $70 billion AI data center proposal to be powered by “200 trillion cubic feet of sweet natural gas.” Less than two months after O’Leary launched what he called “Canada’s biggest-ever real estate deal” and “the world’s largest AI data centre industrial park,” the wheels appear to be falling off on several fronts.
“We share how lives are being lost, communities are being destroyed and big oil is making a trillion dollars a year and getting 20 billion dollars in tax breaks and subsidies. It’s all so crazy.”
The best way to sell the low-carbon heating transition is locally, where the kinds of attachments and allegiances to heat that we have uncovered are best appreciated and understood. Local authorities are typically best placed to do that.
It may seem like a mug’s game to take on Trump’s thuggish power with economics, physics, music, art, and justice. But perhaps they still hold some force in this world—we shall see.
Today, Nate is joined by environmental health researchers Leo Trasande and Linda Birnbaum, as well as environmental policy advocate Christina Dixon, to discuss the harmful effects of plastic on human health and the ongoing global policy efforts to regulate the plastic and petrochemical industries.
Increasing energy prices will also realign the balance between the urban and the rural to some degree and will most certainly pose a big challenge to megacities of thirty million people in areas without food production.
As all us fans of sports cliches know, the best defense is a good offense. Time to start setting the fossil fuel industry back on its heels a bit!
Today, Nate is joined by energy and technology historian Jean-Baptiste Fressoz for a lesson on the importance of understanding the historical trajectory of energy use for realistically navigating the unprecedented challenges humanity faces today – including the dominant narrative of a modern-day “energy transition.”
By expanding the prevalence of IUI programs, and making sure the specifics of these programs are tailored to the benefit of working people, it is possible to effectively tackle both the climate crisis and affordability crisis at once.
Trump, as promised, signed dozens of executive orders on Day 1. Included in the batch was the order Unleashing American Energy (EO). By energy is meant coal, oil, and gas. It’s telling that when this administration and too many Republican members of Congress talk about an “all of the above” strategy, they somehow leave out renewables, including efficiency.
In this Frankly, Nate explores seven potential macro-risks associated with AI, from the amplification of wealth inequality to the (literal) existential threat of superintelligence. Through the lens of ‘obligatory technology’ and Jevons paradox, he examines how AI could turbocharge the economic superorganism – accelerating its impact on resource extraction, ecosystem degradation, and human meaning – all while fragmenting our shared reality and concentrating power in dangerous ways.
