Asher Miller (PCI Executive Director) speaks with Paul Gilding (PCI Climate & Business Fellow) on the subject of Paul’s thesis in "Victory at Hand for the Climate Movement?" In this far ranging discussion, Paul and Asher discuss the importance of the psychology of winning within the climate movement and the evidence Paul sees — in the debate of ideas, in the renewable energy market, in the fear of investors — that the fossil fuel industry is on the cusp of becoming a dying industry.
Victory at Hand for the Climate Movement? – Paul Gilding in Conversation with Asher Miller
By Paul Gilding, originally published by Post Carbon Institute
August 28, 2013
Paul Gilding
Paul Gilding has spent 35 years trying to change the world, doing everything he can think of that might help. He’s served in the Australian military, chased nuclear armed aircraft carriers in small inflatable boats, plugged up industrial waste discharge pipes, been global CEO of Greenpeace, taught at Cambridge University, started two successful companies and advised the CEOs of some the world’s largest companies.
Despite the clear lack of progress on the issues he’s focused on, the unstoppable and flexible optimist is now an author and advocate, writing his widely acclaimed book “The Great Disruption” which prompted Tom Friedman to write in the NYT “Ignore Gilding at your peril”. He now travels the world alerting people to the global economic and ecological crisis now unfolding around us, as the world economy reaches and passes the limits to growth.
He is confident we can get through what’s coming and in fact thinks we will rise to the occasion, with change on a scale and at a speed incomprehensible today. He tells us to get prepared for The Great Disruption and “the end of shopping”, as we reinvent the global economy and our model of social progress.
He lives on a farm in southern Tasmania with his wife, where they grow blueberries and raise chickens, sheep and their children.
His blog, The Cockatoo Chronicles, can be found at www.paulgilding.com
Tags: climate change, Culture & Behavior, Fossil Fuels, Renewable Energy
Related Articles
Traditional models still ‘outperform AI’ for extreme weather forecasts
By Ayesha Tandon, Carbon Brief
Computer models that use artificial intelligence (AI) cannot forecast record-breaking weather as well as traditional climate models, according to a new study.
May 18, 2026
Debates on degrowth: What drives us to keep growing?
By Margarita Mediavilla, Degrowth UK
Economic growth does not increase our well-being. It drives environmental damage and will inevitably slow as we hit resource limits. Yet many countries, companies, and individuals remain fiercely attached to growth. This article uses systemic analysis and System Dynamics diagrams to explore why we keep pursuing more, despite what we know.
May 18, 2026
Congress is about to legalize the liquidation of America’s national forests
By Jim Pattiz, The Climate According to Life
Through the Fix Our Forests Act, Senate Democrats are about to hand the Trump administration permanent statutory authority to log America’s national forests at landscape scale.
May 15, 2026





