Society

Indigenous lands now reported key to mitigating climate change in Brazil

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In April, Brazil’s president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva recognized an additional two Indigenous territories, including one 32,000-hectare (more than 79,000-acre) territory belonging to the Karajá peoples in Mato Grosso. According to a new study published in the journal Perspectives in Ecology and Conservation, this act alone could quite possibly be the best investment not just for Indigenous rights, but for securing the future climate stability of the state.

Stubborn Expectations

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The major development underpinning the prospect for an early-century peak in human population and even earlier peak in civilizational power is a rapid and seemingly unexpected decline in fertility rates across the world. All regions except Africa are now below the replacement rate, and still falling.

The Addiction Afflicting Billions—A Conversation with Chellis Glendinning on Ecopsychology and Addiction Recovery

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Post Carbon Institute Senior Fellow and author Richard Heinberg interviews Chellis Glendinning, activist, social critic, and author of My Name Is Chellis and I’m in Recovery from Western Civilization, as well as eight other books. Chellis shares with Richard what we can learn from events in our planet’s history – particularly the rapid global temperature increase of about 7ºC roughly 56 million years ago – to better understand and prepare for a rapidly unraveling climate system.

Getting Off the Sidelines: Climate Activism and Civil Disobedience with Peter Kalmus

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Climate scientist and activist Peter Kalmus sits for an interview with Post Carbon Institute’s program director, Rob Dietz. Peter covers how his scientific understanding has changed his life, explores the difference between climate anxiety and climate grief, discusses the ins and outs of civil disobedience and getting arrested, and describes a hopeful pathway for responding to the climate emergency.

Alexandre Tannous: “Sound Thinking: Using Music, Resonance, and Harmonics for Human Wellbeing”

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Music has been an integral part of the human experience for thousands of years, and continues to embody a unique aspect of culture across the world today – yet most people hold only a preliminary understanding of the full range of benefits that sound, resonance, and harmonics can provide. Today, Nate is joined by ethnomusicologist Alexandre Tannous for a deep dive on the evolution of the human relationship with sound and how music could be used as a tool to facilitate personal resilience and healing.

Brace for Peak Impact

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Now that I have a demographic tool, I can ask questions relating to when we might hit peak power as a civilization. I use power (rate of energy use) as a proxy for all manner of resource dependencies, as energy usage correlates strongly with materials use and ecological impact. Plus, it is a readily-available measure.