Ironic that just after listening to Prof Keen's dire warnings, I saw the announcement from Blackrock.  The financial community is just now acknowledging the gravity of climate change?  It's a case of too little, too late.

Prof. Keen has been talking facts and figures for a long time.  Why don't folks listen?  Can't deny what's happening in front of our eyes.

It would be prudent to truly DEcomisson Nuclear energy plants. Many such closed reactors sit near the coasts. Water rise could increase likelyhood of radioactive contamination. Nuclear energy may be clean, but the ability for it to be deadly to life (and the ecosystems nuclear plants inhabit), is too high a risk. We need to work WITH nature, not against it. NO NUKES. SHUT DOWN AND CEASE Nuclear reactors! Wind- (not just bird-killing windmills) Solar power, Batteries, Earth's natural magnetism, ocean waves, river flows... there are MANY natural sources of energy that do not HARM ecosystems, but work in concert WITH them. Frankly, this podcast scared the crap out of me. THERE IS NO TIME TO WAIT!

Chomsky found an early Trump team report predicting 7* C. higher ave. global temperature by 2100 CE. I found several reports indicating that sea-level will be nearly 20 meters (60 feet) higher by 2050. So, due to rapidly accelerating release of methane (CH4) & nitrous oxide (NO), coastal & low-altitude infrastructure will be under water by 2030 to 2040. So, where will we put it and 70% of us who now live in coastal disaster zones? Also, about 30% of our 450 nuke-power plants are already in danger of catastrophic flooding, like what destroyed the Fukushima Daichi plant. Yet, not moving all that fuel & waste before 2025 would probably create the worst, omnicidal mass-extinction level event in Earth's long history. So, I suggest doing an ecotopian NGO that can sponsor an Ecotopian Community Credit System serving a global International Ecotopian Culture Alliance. In other words, let's not expect insanely corrupt national politicians to do what needs to be done ASAP.

BTW, CO2 level is beyond 416 ppm & rising. CH4 level quadrupled in 2019 & it's 22 to 25 times worse than CO2. The level of NO is rising fast & it's 300 times worse than CO2. The post-ice-age era is here & ice melt will keep accelerating. My semi-EWAG is that ice-free before 2100.

If you thought you understood the urgency of climate change, our guest, Professor Steve Keen, will shatter those illusions. We’ll be straight with you, this is not an easy episode to hear - but you need to listen anyway. How can we deal with the effects of climate change if we don’t understand the urgency? Professor Keen won’t sugar coat it but he can back up every statement with facts, figures, and astute analysis.  

Throughout the interview, he refers to - and debunks - the work of William Nordhaus, who won the Nobel Prize for Economics in 2018 “for integrating climate change into long-run macroeconomic analysis.”  

From Left Foot Forward:  

"When future generations ask why humanity delayed taking action against climate change for so long, Nordhaus’s model will be one of the prime suspects. The model, known as DICE – Dynamic Integrated model of Climate and the Economy – is a dangerous gamble for humanity’s future. Nordhaus’s transgressions are immense. His ‘damage function’ which he uses to estimate global warming damage is incorrect and uses data that has nothing to do with climate change. Despite this, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) uses his model to advise governments about the economic impact of global warming."

Nordhaus’s sins trace back to his attacks on 1972’s “Limits to Growth” study. The predecessors to our contemporary climate deniers dismissed its findings, yet it has been proven remarkably accurate. In this interview, Professor Keen compellingly compares facts to fancy. As his home country of Australia is ablaze, he explains why this was predictable. What you learn in this episode will enrage and probably depress you. We can’t afford to ignore it; ignorance is not an option. 

Professor Keen is a Distinguished Research Fellow at UCL, the author of Debunking Economics (2011) and Can We Avoid Another Financial Crisis? (2017), and one of the few economists to anticipate the Global Financial Crisis of 2008, for which he received the Revere Award from the Real World Economics Review. His main research interests are developing the complex systems approach to macroeconomics and the economics of climate change. 

@ProfSteveKeen on Twitter 

https://www.patreon.com/ProfSteveKeen

Event Horizon: A Climate In Crisis with Steve Keen

Macroeconomics has never been so ... delish!  Macro and Cheese explores the progressive movement through the lens of Modern Monetary Theory, with hot and irreverent political takes, spotlights in activism, and the razor sharp musings of Real Progressives Founder and host Steve Grumbine.  The cheese will flow as experts come in for a full, four course deep dive into the hot queso. 

Comfort Food for Thought!

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