Worth Repeating: Code Red: not for Earth, for Humanity?
New Thinking for a New World - a Tallberg Foundation Podcast
06/08/23
•36m
About
Comments
Featured In
Join us as we revisit our conversation with Johan Rockström, renowned earth scientist and Director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research. A year ago, he shed light on the gravity of our situation, stating that "for the first time in human history, we face a planetary emergency." Astonishingly, this remains an urgent reality even today. Recently, an article titled "Safe and just Earth system boundaries" was published in Nature on May 31, providing further insights. For the first time, scientists have meticulously evaluated and quantified not only the boundaries within which humanity can safely operate, but also those that ensure fairness and justice for all. In an era where scientists often present their findings in a measured and objective manner, Rockström's assertion that "Human pressures on earth have reached dangerously high levels" carries immense weight and demands our attention. Tune in to our podcast episode and listen to the thought-provoking perspectives of Johan Rockström, as we delve deeper into the critical issues surrounding the survival of our species.
Are you listening? If so, what do you think? And, more importantly, what are you going to do?
This podcast was first published on June 23, 2022.
Previous Episode
What’s Love Got to Do With It? Building a Different Middle East
June 1, 2023
•40m
Over the last several months, there have been a series of extraordinary developments in the Middle East that could have almost as big an impact on the shape of the new global order as Russia’s war on Ukraine. Consider even a partial list:
- China's engineering of rapprochement between supposedly implacable enemies Iran and Saudi Arabia;
- The Arab League celebrating the return of Syria's president Assad, still considered a war criminal in the West;
- Saudi Arabia's application to join the Shanghai Cooperation Organization while also moving towards membership in the BRICs;
- Countries from Morocco and Algeria to Saudi Arabia and Turkey moving away from political Islam;
- A growing web of diplomatic, economic, and financial ties among China, Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries, Iran, and Russia, that have intensified even as the West tries to enforce draconian sanctions against several of those countries.
The only thing that is clear is that a new Middle Eastern political order is under construction, one in which the United States and Europe are likely to have considerably less influence than they enjoyed over the past century.
Gilles Kepel, one of France's leading experts on the Middle East and a regular columnist for Al-Monitor, recently shared his thinking about these profound changes with New Thinking for a New World.
Listen and tell us what you think: Will the Middle East be more peaceful and prosperous without the United States playing a dominant political role?
Next Episode
Georgia on My Mind
June 15, 2023
•35m
Russia's invasion of Ukraine seems likely to be one of those seminal events that will divide our future histories: BI and AI. That's obviously true for the combatants, but for many others as well.
Consider the small country of Georgia, with less than 4 million people, located at the eastern end of the Black Sea, and sharing an almost 900-kilometer border with Russia. Like Ukraine, it is another part of the former Soviet Union as well as a country that Russia wants to control again. But, liberated by the collapse of the Soviet Union, a significant majority of the Georgian people have demonstrated a strong desire to escape their history and geography and to pursue a future integrated into Europe. Unfortunately for them, neither Putin's Russia—which several years ago seized and still holds 20% of Georgian territory—nor the governing political party, Georgian Dream, share that aspiration.
What happens next? Another hotspot that could lead to another war? Or a country that has the chance to lever Western support for Ukraine to secure its own future as a Western democracy?
Nino Evgenidze, executive director of the Economic Policy Research Center in Tbilisi, Georgia has strong views on what should happen and what the West should do. Listen to her discussion with New Thinking for a New World host Alan Stoga and tell us whether you agree that Europe and the United States ought to use sanctions and other tools to make Georgia safe for democracy on our website https://tallbergfoundation.org/podcasts/georgia-on-my-mind/
If you like this episode you’ll love
Promoted