CIVILIANISM PODCAST

What’s coming in the future and will capitalism play a part? Soon people will be concerned with bigger problems than economic models, such as environmental migration and shortages, but money will play a part. The survival of civilization depends on our imagination, creativity, on our sense of identity and community and how willing we are to share and live together. Some great thinkers and futurists gather in this audio to think of how we can survive for the sake of all humanity.

This was originally titled A Possibility of Hope, from the makers of the movie, Children of Men.

Humans have an instinct not just for survival, but of realizing all humans should benefit from the attempts at our survival in the future.

These are ideas on the future from philosophers, historians, cultural critics, futurists, a sociologist, a human geographer, and an economy expert.

The broad topics covered in this episode are Reality, Fear, Walls, Fever, (global warming) and Hope. . . .
You can download this episode here.

Speakers: Naomi Klein, James Lovelock, John Gray, Saskia Sassen, Tzvetan Todorov, Slavoj Zizek, Fabrizio Eva

This morning there was a very interesting event called the National Clean Energy Project Conference–Building the New Economy–Wired for Progress and I have all of the audio from it. This is part I, and part II is coming soon.

This conference was mainly about transmission of the smart grid that is to come, creating thousands of new jobs, and the low carbon economy that is being developed. This new low carbon emphasis will play a big part in moving America in the right direction, at last, and it’s also reworking our economy in the process, something that badly needs to be done. When climate and jobs are being realistically dealt within the U.S. we are going to have ourselves a different economy.

This is an episode of Futurism Now, and it includes a little news and then the conference. Speakers in part I of this include Harry Reid, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Al Gore (who will show up again in Part II) former President Bill Clinton, T. Boone Pickens, Van Jones, Byron Dorgan, and Ken Salazar and more.

“To allow a climate crisis to proceed unchecked will directly harm people’s lives and the prosperity of the global economy. Global warming presents the threat of lost agricultural productivity, drought and reduced supplies of fresh drinking water, the migration of environmental refugees (creating new global conflicts), and substantial economic damages and lost property for coastal communities. At the same time, our nation’s growing reliance on oil is a major national security concern. During the 1973 oil embargo orchestrated by the Organization of Oil Exporting Countries, the United States imported less than a third of its oil needs, yet constraints on supply at the time created economic, social, and foreign policy disruptions. Today, we import nearly 70 percent of our oil—at a cost of $478 billion dollars in 2008 alone—representing a major contribution to our national trade imbalance.”

And about the grid:

“An integrated, IT-enabled, national electrical grid is essential for improving security
and reliability, but it is especially critical for bringing higher percentages of renewable
electricity into our energy mix due to the variable nature of many of
these resources. New information technology like advanced metering
infrastructure is also key to bringing advanced home appliances and
end-use technologies on line to capture new efficiencies.”

There is quite a bit of information on the website for this event, including maps and pdfs and things to read, which you can download here: http://nationalcleanenergyproject.org/

and at American Progress

The event was moderated by former U.S. Senator and UN Foundation President Timothy Wirth.

Part II will be found only on FuturismNow.com. It will include Secretary of Energy Steven Chu, Robert Kennedy Jr., Owens-Corning CEO Michael Thaman, more of Al Gore and Bill Clinton, and more. Bill Clinton discusses decoupling and even Slumdog Millionaire in part II.

You can download this episode here or visit the original website for this podcast, Futurism Now Radio.

To Civilianism listeners, please pardon the interruption.

I am introducing Futurism Now.

This is the introductory episode of a new podcast. My interests have been moving in this direction for a long time. Futurism Now is a completely new, separate podcast that I am promoting here at Civilianism.

You can subscribe to Futurism Now at the Futurism Now podcast website. What is it? Futurism now is about climate change, energy, science, politics and legislation to get us moving on climate change, and more. Articles and the daily blog can be found here.

The introduction asks the question: Is there a consensus on climate change among climate scientists? Yes, there is. We are past debate. It’s time for action.

Support Action on Climate Change! Call your Congressmen and Senators and tell them you support their action on climate change and that they need to increase their support for clean energy — wind and solar, not the non-existent “clean coal” or natural gas, which is another fossil fuel.

Audio is played from new Energy Secretary Steven Chu from last summer, speaking at UC Berkeley, and from NASA climate scientist James Hansen on climate change and what has to be done.

James Hansen audio courtesy of RadioEcoshock podcast, at Ecoshock.org

You can download this episide here or subscribe at Futurism Now.