Level 4

Jeremy Rifkin: “The Zero Marginal Cost Society”

Posted by Matt Beer - May 20, 2014 - Economics, Economics Level 4, Energy, Level 4, Sustainable Economy

In this talk at Google HQ, serial big picture author Jeremy Rifkin talks about how the internet is changing our society and our economy. More specifically, how the internet surrounding information communication has radically changed how our economy functions and how this will spread into a future “Internet of Things”, doing the same thing to the economy of physical goods. In other words, a fundamental driving force that will rebalance the foundations of capitalism, potentially making it unworkable and create a world that is hard to envisage today.

The term “marginal cost” refers to the cost of producing an additional unit of a product and capitalism is all about reducing those cost to maximise profits. Unfortunately when these costs are driven down to near zero, the product can them become free. Think of the internet. It doesn’t really matter if the website serves 100 people or a million, the (relatively) fixed costs of production remain the same and each additional person served costs virtually nothing. This is having a profound impact on people’s quality of live in two ways. 1) people are able to access that service for free or very little, in theory making their lives better. But it is also 2) causing many people who were traditionally employed in that industry to not have a job anymore. Near zero marginal costs combined with the ability to easily access the related service is wiping out middlemen and this phenomenon is set to continue as it spreads from industry to industry.

Here lies the fascination in this concept, just how will the world adapt to a new economic paradigm? Will it be a bumpy road or a smooth one? Will this make our quality of life richer or poorer? Will we need to foster the creation of government or co-op organisations to provide the more critical functions (such as journalism)? It is a very big idea and is one that is worth being aware of when trying to envisage the future.

Steve Keen – Hardtalk BBC 2011

Posted by Matt Beer - April 7, 2014 - Economics, Economics Level 4, Level 4

As one of the few to have predicted the 2008 financial crisis, Australian economist Steve Keen has something real to say about the un-sustainability of our current financial system. “Debt that can’t be paid off, won’t be paid off” is essentially the focus of this interview and he talks about how the financial system has allowed levels of debt to reach astronomical levels and in doing so the industry has become parasitic in nature. He argues that a modern debt jubilee (cancelling of debts) is a much more preferable outcome than 20 or so years of slowly paying off the debt in the usual fashion, and the economic stagnation that will accompany it. It will take a bold idea such as this to avoid living through another economic depression.

The Crisis of Civilization

Posted by Matt Beer - March 8, 2013 - Climate Destabilisation, Climate Level 4, Economics, Economics Level 4, Energy, Geo-politics, Level 4, Oil, Peak Oil Level 4

This 77 min pseudo documentary “The Crisis of Civilization” is based on the Book by Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed of the same name. It goes through multiple parts each exploring various elements of our interconnected world, namely Climate Catastrophe; Peak Energy; Peak Food; Economic Instability; International Terrorism; and the Militarization Tendency with some final thoughts on a Post Peak World. I have mixed feeling about this one and I still can’t figure out if I like it. For starters it really is just a long talk done in an interview style with some old stock footage and the occasional custom animations to provide some visual distraction. I don’t have a problem with this, but that is what the pseudo documentary refers to.

What it does do well is take a holistic view of the world and the many problems we are currently facing and pulls them together. I am in broad agreement of most the overall stuff that Nafeez talks about, especially highlighting the link between our current neo-classical economic model and energy use. But the scientific/academic side of me cringed a few times at some of the statements he made and I was inwardly saying “that’s not technically correct”. It just made me question his thinking when he said this and this and therefore that. There was certainty some cherry picking of data and some logical inconstancies that made his truth more obvious than it fact it likely is.

For example he talked about how the world oil production would peak (I agree), then he said that nuclear energy uses oil (yes) and therefore oil peaking would make uranium mining unviable (which I cannot agree with). Yeah sure it might not work under the exact market conditions of today, but if I was a head of state with an oil crisis on my hands I would sure as hell prioritise getting oil to critical economic functions like electricity generation. Lets not confuse peak oil with running out all together and there is a hell of a lot of waste in the system so making just a small saving in domestic transport will free up more than enough to make nuclear energy viable (or building renewables for that matter). There certainly is a risk of what Nafeez talks about coming true, but there is probably a bigger likelihood that collective human effort and technology will be directed into solving some of these energy problems. That side of things doesn’t really get a mention. I could go through another few examples but I won’t.

What I will say to you watch this to get an overview of our problems from holistic viewpoint. You should certainly be aware of the broad areas that this film covers and how they fit together. As for the details I would say don’t take them as the gospel truth even there is a lot of truth in there. This is still basically another opinion film and I generally always have a problem with pure opinion as broad statements can be made without the viewer knowing the truth behind them. This is why I will continue to stick to keeping data at the centre of any videos and articles that I make.

James Balog on Capturing our Disappearing Glaciers – Bill Moyers

Posted by Matt Beer - February 19, 2013 - Climate Destabilisation, Climate Level 4, Level 4

James Balog, one of the world’s premier nature photographers, joins Bill Moyers and explains how “the earth is having a fever.” At tremendous risk to his own safety, Balog has been documenting the erosion of glaciers in Switzerland, Greenland, Iceland, and Alaska. In this interview he shares his amazing photos, discoveries, and self-discoveries – including his transformation from climate change skeptic to true believer, and his mission to capture footage of these destructive environmental consequences before it’s too late. Balog’s film, Chasing Ice, is a breathtaking account of climate change in action (yeah, I copied and pasted most of that from the Bill Moyers website – lazy)

Click the links to see the official trailer for the film as well as the TED talk that covers a lot of the actual changes in these rapidly receding glaciers.

Ever Heard of Climate Change? Over 40% of the world says “no”

Posted by Matt Beer - February 9, 2013 - Climate Destabilisation, Climate Level 4, Communication+, Level 4

This presentation entitled “Climate Literacy in Global Perspective” by Anthony Leiserowitz, Ph.D. was recorded at a side NOAA/NASA/NSF event at COP 15 Climate Summit in Copenhagen on December 9, 2009. He reports on the results from a global study of public climate change awareness, knowledge, and support for climate policy conducted with the Gallup World Poll, an annual survey of 150-plus countries.

Global Warming’s Six Americas

Posted by Matt Beer - February 9, 2013 - Climate Destabilisation, Climate Level 4, Communication+, Level 4

Anthony Leiserowitz, director of the Yale Project on Climate Change Communication, discusses the divergent views of Americans over climate change.

Ending the Silence on Climate Change

Posted by Matt Beer - February 9, 2013 - Climate Destabilisation, Climate Level 4, Communication+, Level 4

In this truly excellent (46 min) interview Bill Moyers talks to climate change communication expert Anthony Leiserowitz (PhD) from the Yale Project on Climate Change Communication. He explains why climate change is largely ignored, and what we should do about it.

More specifically he talks about how “You almost couldn’t design a problem that is a worse fit with our underlying psychology.” Climate change is an almost invisible problem and our flight or flight instincts do not work with this slow burn threat. It involves abstract ideas and reasoned thought. As a result we all react to this problem in largely 6 different ways and for different reasons. He then goes on to talk about who these “Six Americas” are and how we need to speak to these groups in different ways.

This helps explain how the current political situation in the US has come to be. He also talks about how the lack of reporting from the media causes the issues to be “literally out of sight, out of mind” and how a highly organised disinformation campaign, similar to that of the tobacco industry, has further clouded the issue for the public. But broad support for climate action does not trump a smaller, but more dedicated group who is happy to make political waves. Until the public demands action little is going to change.

But given that only 6 out of 10 people in the world are aware of the concept of climate change and probably around 1 out of 10 understand it enough to be truly alarmed there is an awfully long way to go on the communication front. I see this as the principle hurdle that needs to be cleared if we are ever to get enough political momentum to make the huge changes to our economic system we desperately need and this is why i am doing what I am doing. I hope more of you will take up this mission of getting organised and communicating the message. For those of you who are “alarmed” this is mandatory viewing.

Anthony, I’m a big fan.

PBS Frontline – The Untouchables

Posted by Matt Beer - February 9, 2013 - Economics, Economics Level 4, Level 4

Frontline spends 54 minutes examining why no Wall Street execs have been prosecuted for any fraud related activities despite their clear knowledge of the toxicity of the bad mortgages contained within the complex financial products they were selling. There seems to be little political will to go to trial and win the tough to prove cases. Is it a case of “too big to jail?”

Watch The Untouchables on PBS. See more from FRONTLINE.

PBS Frontline – Climate of Doubt

Posted by Matt Beer - February 9, 2013 - Climate Destabilisation, Climate Level 4, Level 4

Frontline in this 54 minute expose, talks directly with the groups and individuals who have helped shift the climate change debate in the US. It shines the light on the strategy these climate change skeptics have used to leverage members of the Republican party to reject the science of climate change and who has funded this political engineering.

Feel free to watch this slightly more embed friendly version from youtube or direct from the source.

Watch Climate of Doubt on PBS. See more from FRONTLINE.

PBS Frontline – Money, Power & Wall Street Part 4

Posted by Matt Beer - February 9, 2013 - Economics, Economics Level 4, Level 4

In the final instalment of this four part PBS special the culture of Wall Street and investment banking is explored. It was a culture of making money and everyone was in on it. Bankers, really glorified salesman, were encouraged by management and a system of lucrative bonuses to sell derivatives to everyone, from municipal governments, countries trying to get into the EU, even nuns.

Ethical boundaries were deliberately crossed in the stampede to sell these complex products to unsuspecting customers. Hell, even the bankers themselves didn’t really understand what they were selling. It all looked good on the surface until the market changed in 2008 causing the subprime crisis in America to spread throughout the world.

People around the world felt the pain and the occupy movement rose up out of the millions of unemployed and disillusioned. But despite the resilience of this movement the banks and their lobbyists are still firmly in control and have successfully watered down any attempts to reform the system. So we are still where we are before the crash began. The big banks are still too big to fail and the risky derivative market is (mostly) hidden from regulatory oversight. It appears that the lessons have not been learned.

For me it is only a matter of time until another bubble pops. Again I think a spike in oil prices will prick this bubble just as it has the last several recessions. Add in climate change and the fact that a huge part of the global stock market value is based on fossil fuel reserves that cannot be extracted if we are to have a safe climate, the events of 2008 are just a taste of things to come.

Watch Money, Power and Wall Street: Part Four on PBS. See more from FRONTLINE.