The (Real) Reason Why We Can’t Solve the Climate Crisis

Today, we will focus on the topic of societal lock-ins. While cities and countries are heavily investing in renewable energy and low-carbon technologies we fail to see an overall reduction of our emissions. Indeed, our current infrastructures are locking us into consuming more and more resources and emitting more and more pollution.

So how do we get out of this vicious circle ? And is it possible to use infrastructures to lock us into more just and desirable futures ?

To help us navigate these questions, I have with me today Professor Helmut Haberl. Helmut is a at BOKU university, in the Institute of Social Ecology. His research focuses on the relationship between our resource use, their associated infrastructures and the services they provide to society.

Welcome to the Circular Metabolism podcast, where we have in-depth discussions with researchers to better understand the metabolism of our societies and how to reduce their socio-ecological impact in a systemic, socially just and context-specific way.

🔷 CHAPTERS

• 0:00:00 Introduction

• 0:01:53 l What is socio-ecological metabolism ?

• 0:19:07 The relationship between stocks and flows

• 0:31:40 The saturation effect

• 0:44:44 The relationship between stocks and GDP

• 0:53:29 Is a sustainable state achievable ?

• 1:00:51 The dismantling issue

• 1:10:48 Which future topics to tackle ?

• 1:19:07 Conclusion

🔷 Links to the episode

👂 Spotify:

👂 Deezer: https://www.deezer.com/us/show/1001370451