Podcast appearances and mentions of Alan Weisman

In recent months, climate and environmental work have been under threat in the U.S., with the Trump administration dismantling climate legislation, freezing funds and intimidating universities, states and nonprofits. Despite the chaos, there's still a place for hope, says award-winning environmental journalist Alan Weisman, author of the new book Hope Dies Last. The book profiles scientists, engineers, activists and environmentalists in the U.S. and around the world who are doing extraordinary work to repair our planet's most devastated ecosystems and prevent climate disaster. Weisman spoke on the Beat Check podcast about how we can persevere despite all odds, how to pass on hope to our children and which four world emergencies need visionary ideas. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

With books like the bestselling “The World Without Us,” a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and translated into thirty-four languages, and “Countdown,” winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, environmental journalist Alan Weisman has established himself as one of the most prophetic voices on humanity's relationship to the Earth. For his […] Read full article: Episode 147: Alan Weisman On His New Book “Hope Dies Last”

Kako sploh razmišljati o koncu sveta? Ali to pomeni konec civilizacije ali konec planeta? Bo to velik bum in potem nič več? Ali se bomo počasi, brez možnosti ročne zavore, kotalili proti prepadu? Človeška domišljija je v knjigah, filmih, radijskih igrah in vseh drugih možnih oblikah pričarala že toliko različnih koncev sveta, da je seznam skoraj neskončen. A vseeno - nekateri scenariji so precej bolj verjetni od drugih. To področje proučuje znanost o katastrofičnih tveganjih, ki ob ugotavljanju verjetnosti nekega scenarija išče tudi možnosti za njegovo preprečitev. Pogovorimo se z raziskovalcem potencialnih koncev sveta, pa tudi z dvema sogovornikoma, ki raziskujeta, kaj bi se zgodilo z naravo in ostanki civilizacije, če bi človeška vrsta nenadoma izginila. Gosti: Giuseppe Del Pra, Odyssean Institute (povezava do raziskave) Sören Faurby, Univerza v Göteborgu Alan Weisman, novinar in pisatelj, avtor knjige Svet brez nas

In this episode with award-winning author and journalist Alan Weisman, we discuss his 2013 book Countdown: Our Last, Best Hope for a Future on Earth? capturing his journey to over 20 countries over five continents to ask what experts agreed were probably the most important questions on Earth, and also the hardest. ‘How many humans can the planet hold without capsizing?' This wide-ranging and immensely stimulating interview captures how growth-biased cultures, religions, nationalities, tribes, and political systems are collectively undermining our ability to live within planetary limits, and also offers inspiring examples of people finding ways of better balancing our needs with those of the planet's and humanity's future - examples which could provide ways of imagining how we might better get through this bottleneck century. We discuss the intended and unintended consequences of the Green Revolution which pushed us grossly beyond Earth's carrying capacity, while causing irreparable harm to natural ecosystems. Weisman unpacks the ethnic, religious, and political complexities and history of the Israel-Palestine conflict and how pronatalism and ecological overshoot factor into it. We also chat about some of the most successful family planning programs across the world, such as in Iran, Thailand, and Costa Rica, as well as outliers with the worst programs, including in China and India. The controversial role of the Catholic Church in pushing for large families not just across the West, but also in Africa, as well as in shunning the population conversation in environmental conferences, is also highlighted. See episode website for show notes, links, and transcript: https://www.populationbalance.org/podcast/alan-weisman   ABOUT US The Overpopulation Podcast features enlightening conversations between Population Balance executive director Nandita Bajaj, researcher Alan Ware, and expert guests. We cover a broad variety of topics that explore the impacts of our expanding human footprint on human rights, animal protection, and environmental restoration, as well as individual and collective solutions. Learn more here: https://www.populationbalance.org/ 

After many years writing short stories and essays, Debbie Urbanski has published her first novel, After World, about AI at the end of humanity's physical presence on earth. Show notes: Debbie Urbanski (https://debbieurbanski.com) After World (https://debbieurbanski.com/after-world/) Alan Weisman, The World Without Us (https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250834003/theworldwithoutus) M.R. Caray, The Girl With All the Gifts (https://store.orbit-books.co.uk/products/the-girl-with-all-the-gifts) Marlen Haushofer, The Wall (https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/448511/the-wall-by-haushofer-marlen/9781784878030) How Daydreaming Can Enhance Creativity for Fiction Writers (https://www.literatureandlatte.com/blog/how-daydreaming-can-enhance-creativity-for-fiction-writers) "The first Scrivener file containing 4 years of work on my novel" (https://www.instagram.com/reel/CkmedePgF2h) Use Dialogue Focus and Linguistic Focus to Revise and Edit Your Writing in Scrivener (https://www.literatureandlatte.com/blog/use-dialog-focus-and-linguistic-focus-to-revise-and-edit-your-writing-in-scrivener) Dawn King, The Trials (https://www.dawn-king.com/#the-trials) Learn more about Scrivener (https://www.literatureandlatte.com/scrivener/overview), and check out the ebook Take Control of Scrivener (https://www.literatureandlatte.com/store). If you like the podcast, please follow it in Apple Podcasts (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/write-now-with-scrivener/id1568550068) or your favorite podcast app. Leave a rating or review, and tell your friends. And check out past episodes of Write Now with Scrivener (https://podcast.scrivenerapp.com).

Om människan försvann skulle civilisationen begravas under ett grönt täcke där djurlivet breder ut sig. Dan Jönsson reflekterar över en dystopi som vissa betraktar som en utopi. Lyssna på alla avsnitt i Sveriges Radio Play. ESSÄ: Detta är en text där skribenten reflekterar över ett ämne eller ett verk. Åsikter som uttrycks är skribentens egna. Essän sändes första gången 2017.Civilisationen är en bräcklig skapelse. All denna fantastiska infrastruktur vi omger oss med, alla intrikata system för kommunikation och energiförsörjning, dessa vidsträckta stadslandskap som från hög höjd liknar en sorts komplexa organismer med ett eget liv, är i själva verket helt beroende av ständig, oavbruten tillsyn. Utan den skulle trafiken stanna, elsystemen krascha, panik och kravaller bryta ut. Vi vet det egentligen mycket väl men föredrar att inte tänka på det eftersom det, ungefär som tanken på döden, skapar en sorts tomhetssvindel när vi inser hur nära avgrunden vi faktiskt befinner oss och vilka blinda, obevekliga processer som står redo att ta över efter oss så snart vi släpper taget.Och fort skulle det gå. Om människorna försvann skulle det omedelbart bli kolmörkt på nätterna, mycket snart skulle kraftverksdammar brista, tunnlar svämma över, redan första vintern skulle frostsprängningen bryta upp fasader och vägbeläggningar och i sprickorna skulle träd och buskar spränga fram. Fåglar och rovdjur skulle fylla gatorna, efter några hundra år skulle till och med den största stad vara svår att få syn på under de gröna kullarna som täcker rasmassorna, och när väl nästa istid drar in, om så där femton tusen år, skulle den radera i stort sett alla synliga spår. Sätt det i relation till att människor har funnits i någon form i sådär två, tre miljoner år, och liv på jorden i nästan fyra miljarder år. För framtidens geologer – vilken skepnad de nu kommer att ha: intelligenta fåglar kanske, eller landlevande delfiner? – kommer vår civilisation att synas på sin höjd som ett avvikande, aningen mörkare sedimentlager i berggrunden. Femton tusen år, det är en fis i vinden.Året som gick var som bekant än en gång ett av det varmaste som någonsin uppmätts. Vi börjar vänja oss vid larmsignalerna. Världsmedeltemperaturen stiger, polarisarna fortsätter smälta i katastrofal takt. Det är förstås oroande. Samtidigt har jag alltid tyckt att klimatlarmen har något överdrivet apokalyptiskt över sig. Att temperaturförändringarna, som det brukar påstås, skulle utgöra ett hot mot planetens framtid är förstås dumheter, eller för att säga det rent ut: antropocentriskt hyckleri. Nej: det som hotas av klimatförändringarna är knappast planeten Jorden, utan förutsättningarna för den mänskliga civilisationen som vi känner den. Kanske förutsättningarna för mänskligt liv överhuvudtaget. Planeten däremot skulle anpassa sig. Det har den gjort förut. Klimatet skulle förändras, men livet skulle med all säkerhet bestå. Om tvåhundrafemtio miljoner år skulle den snabba massdöden under människans epok, antropocen, kanske rentav framstå som en nödvändig föryngring.Säkert är i alla fall att om, eller när, vi människor försvinner kommer det omedelbart att sätta stopp för den omfattande utrotning vi gjort oss skyldiga till med rovjakt och miljöförstöring, trafikanläggningar och byggprojekt – ja helt enkelt genom vår blotta utbredning. När ekosystemen hunnit repa sig skulle det kanske se ut som i den ett par år gamla science fiction- filmen ”After Earth”, där ett rymdskepp kraschar på Jordens yta tusen år efter att människorna tvingats evakuera planeten. Rymdskeppets kapten, som spelas av Will Smith, har blivit dödligt sårad och för att hämta hjälp tvingas hans son ut på en livsfarlig expedition genom en fientlig djungelvärld befolkad av väldiga buffelhjordar och aggressiva babianflockar där den mänskliga civilisationens ruiner står kvar som förfallna, obegripliga kulisser. Som den amerikanske miljöjournalisten Alan Weisman konstaterar i sin bok ”The World Without Us” från 2007 är det antagligen vad som skulle hända: fåglarna skulle slippa krocka med våra flygplan och fönsterfasader, haven skulle på nytt fyllas med stora fiskar och på land skulle rovdjuren breda ut sig på våra tamdjurs bekostnad. Än en gång: det är inte miljön utan civilisationen som är hotad.Alan Weisman konstaterar att det där förstås också beror på hur mycket vi människor hinner ställa till med innan vi försvinner. Även om till och med de största städerna på några tusen år lär förvandlas till grönskande åsar i landskapet så kommer material som rostfritt stål och plast att ta betydligt längre tid för naturen att ta hand om. I östra Stilla Havet, mellan Hawaii och Kalifornien, utbreder sig över ett enormt område en drivande, skvalpande soppa av finfördelat plastavfall. Den kommer att bestå tills någon finurlig mikroorganism muterar och lär sig hur den ska bryta ner de långa polymermolekylerna, vilket kan ta några hundratusen år. Gifter som dioxiner kommer också de att finnas kvar i naturen under lång tid, för att inte tala om avfallet från våra kärnkraftverk, som när människorna försvinner kommer att drabbas av härdsmälta eller explodera och släppa ut uranisotoper med halveringstider på miljontals år.Och ändå – på riktigt lång sikt, och för planeten och biosfären som helhet, har det här ingen större betydelse. Livsmiljöerna har en fantastisk förmåga att självläka. Faktum är att sådana processer redan nu pågår i de områden som av olika skäl har lämnats öde under lång tid: som den demilitariserade zonen mellan Nord- och Sydkorea, där utrotningshotade fåglar och rovdjur har hittat en nisch att överleva i. Liksom förstås i det evakuerade området runt Tjernobyl i Ukraina, där naturen efter trettio år är på god väg att ta över efter människan. Visst ger den radioaktiva smittan upphov till genetiska skador och mutationer, men även om de skadar fortplantningsförmågan hos en del arter och individer lär de på sikt ändå leda till att den på något vis anpassar sig. Det är så naturen fungerar.Frågan är vad vi ska göra med den kunskapen. Som Walter Benjamin skrev har varje historisk epok på sitt sätt tyckt sig stå vid randen av en avgrund. Vår tids antihumanistiska undergångsvisioner utgör dagdrömmarna hos en melankolisk kultur som inte längre har några radikala svar på sina egna utmaningar. Samtidigt blir konsekvenserna ofrånkomligt revolutionerande. Ska vi kanske dra slutsatsen att det vore en bra sak för miljön och planeten om vi människor försvann, och därför se till att skynda på det? Det finns de som tycker det: från Oregon i USA förespråkar den så kallade Voluntary Human Extinction Movement till exempel människans frivilliga självutplåning – inte genom kollektivt självmord, utan helt enkelt genom att vi slutar föröka oss. ”Må vi leva länge och dö ut”, proklamerar rörelsen på sin hemsida. Snabbt och smärtfritt skulle det lyfta civilisationens tryck på biosfären och leda till en, rent objektivt, bättre värld. Månn det. För oss andra, oss oförbätterligt antropocentriska människor som inte riktigt kan förlika oss med, och än mindre ta konsekvenserna av de där objektiva, geologiska perspektiven handlar det snarare om att inse att, om vi verkligen vill att vår ömtåliga civilisation ska överleva, krävs det just radikala beslut för att leda in den på en annan väg. Innan den förgör sig själv.Dan Jönsson, författare och kulturjournalist * Alan Weismans "The World Without Us" (Picador) kom på svenska 2008 med titeln "Vad händer med världen utan oss?" (Prisma) i översättning av Patrik Hammarsten.

Nerdette Book Club is back to discuss our November selection, ‘Land of Milk and Honey' by C Pam Zhang! It's a novel about survival, privilege, and seeking pleasure at the end of the world. Our readers this month are Aliza Abarbanel, co-founder and co-editor of ‘Cake Zine,' an independent print publication exploring society through sweets, and co-host of the podcast ‘This is TASTE,' and Miriam Kramer, news editor at WPLN in Nashville. We do get into spoilers in the conversation! If you're not ready to find out what happens yet, listen to our spoiler-free conversation with author C Pam Zhang in the feed first. P.S. We have an exciting announcement in the credits! Listen if you want to get started on your 2024 reading list!***Recommendations: ‘The Menu'‘Triangle of Sadness'‘The World Without Us' by Alan Weisman‘How Much of These Hills Is Gold' by C Pam Zhang‘Gold Fame Citrus' by Claire Vaye Watkins‘Breasts and Eggs' by Mieko Kawakami]]>

Since our last conversation, check out the reviews that have come in about Home on an Unruly Planet from past guests of this podcast:“With deep, compassionate reporting and elegant prose … Ostrander finds creativity, vital hope, and a sense of home that outlasts any address.”—Michelle Nijhuis, author of Beloved Beasts: Fighting for Life in an Age of Extinction“As each new climate calamity obliterates, incinerates, or engulfs entire communities, we shudder to think our own could be next. Gently but purposefully, Ostrander guides us into places that have known this nightmare, not to shock but to show that the meaning of home is so powerful that people will make surprising, imaginative, even transcendent leaps to hold on to theirs. By her book's end, you realize that maybe you could, too.” —Alan Weisman, author of The World Without Us and Countdown“What does it mean to maintain a sense of place in an age of climate change? In At Home on an Unruly Planet, Madeline Ostrander explores this question with searching intelligence and uncommon empathy.” —Elizabeth Kolbert, Pulitzer-prize-winning author of Under a White Sky: The Nature of the FutureThe book comes out in paperback today (As I wrote in part 1, I don't get a commission, I just couldn't stop reading the book).In today's conversation, we talk more about what people are doing in the communities she spent time with. I may not have conveyed enough in the notes to part 1 that she spent years with these communities. She didn't just drop in on them. She created enduring relationships. She shares more from behind the scenes and her personal relationships with people who start with creating gardens and bike programs. They don't stop there. They organize to find ways to move oil refineries out of their neighborhoods.I brought up how Chevron doesn't buy its products. We all do. What they do, when we fill our gas tanks, buy airplane tickets, buy things shipped around the world, buy disposable diapers and other plastic, we fund their efforts. In my view, we have to change those patterns, not wait for them even if we say it's their responsibility. So Madeline and I talk about that view a bit too: individualism, capitalism, profit, and sustainability. Also, the way out: fun, community, gardens, persistence, and taking responsibility.Madeline's Home Page, featuring her book At Home on an Unruly PlanetAll her published articles and essaysHer stories at The Nation Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Five thought leaders break the silence on the role of human overpopulation in ecological overshoot –with an informed, engaging conversation about the subject. This is what intelligent discourse sounds like. For thirty years, many people – some well-intentioned – have been trying to silence discourse about human overpopulation. One of our goals on the GrowthBusters podcast is to break that silence, and this episode does that well by bringing together three great thinkers – actually five, educators and crusaders on the subject. The occasion was a visit to Colorado by Nandita Bajaj, executive director of Population Balance and co-host of The Overpopulation Podcast. Nandita designed & teaches the first graduate course on Pronatalism & Overpopulation: The Personal, Cultural, and Global Implications of Having a Child at the Institute for Humane Education at Antioch University. As a bonus, we were joined by her hosts from the University of Denver, Paul Sutton and Sarah Bexell. Sarah leads DU's Center for Sustainability and teaches at the Institute for Humane Education. Paul is Professor in the Department. of Geography & the Environment, and teaches geographic statistics, population geography, and ecological economics. The conversation covers a lot of ground – pronatalism, animal rights, human rights, and collaboration. LINKS: Pronatalism & Overpopulation: The Personal, Cultural, and Global Implications of Having a Child -Nandita's course at Antioch University https://www.populationbalance.org/pronatalism-and-overpopulation-course Abortion Bans Are a Natural Outgrowth of Coercive Pronatalism – by Nandita Bajaj, in Ms. magazine https://msmagazine.com/2022/06/07/abortion-bans-coercive-pronatalism-forced-birth/ Dismissal of “Population Alarmism” is Rooted in Pronatalist Ideology – by Nandita Bajaj https://www.indepthnews.net/index.php/opinion/5709-dismissal-of-population-alarmism-is-rooted-in-pronatalist-ideology Challenging Pronatalism Is Key to Advancing Reproductive Rights and a Sustainable Population – by Nandita Bajaj and Kirsten Stade https://www.whp-journals.co.uk/JPS/article/view/819 Coercive Pro-Birth Policies Have Devastating Impacts on People and the Planet  – in Newsweek, by Nandita Bajaj and Kirsten Stade https://www.newsweek.com/too-much-good-thing-pronatalism-killing-earth-opinion-1784197 Population Balance https://www.populationbalance.org/ The Overpopulation Podcast https://www.populationbalance.org/podcasts Countdown - by Alan Weisman https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17332183-countdown Mechai Viraveidya https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mechai_Viravaidya Overpopulation Facts - The Problem No One Will Discuss - Alexandra Paul's TedX talk https://youtu.be/fNxctzyNxC0 Population Media Center https://www.populationmedia.org/ The Green Growth Delusion – 1st installment of new series, Green Tinted Glasses – by Christopher Ketcham https://www.truthdig.com/dig/green-tinted-glasses/ MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:   Join the GrowthBusters online community https://growthbusters.groups.io/ GrowthBusters: Hooked on Growth – free on YouTube https://youtu.be/_w0LiBsVFBo Give Us Feedback: Record a voice message for us to play on the podcast: 719-402-1400 Send an email to podcast at growthbusters.org The GrowthBusters theme song was written and produced by Jake Fader and sung by Carlos Jones. https://www.fadermusicandsound.com/ https://carlosjones.com/ On the GrowthBusters podcast, we come to terms with the limits to growth, explore the joy of sustainable living, and provide a recovery program from our society's growth addiction (economic/consumption and population). This podcast is part of the GrowthBusters project to raise awareness of overshoot and end our culture's obsession with, and pursuit of, growth. Dave Gardner directed the documentary GrowthBusters: Hooked on Growth, which Stanford Biologist Paul Ehrlich declared “could be the most important film ever made.” Co-host, and self-described "energy nerd," Stephanie Gardner has degrees in Environmental Studies and Environmental Law & Policy. Join the conversation on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/GrowthBustersPodcast/ Make a donation to support this non-profit project. https://www.growthbusters.org/donate/ Archive of GrowthBusters podcast episodes http://www.growthbusters.org/podcast/ Subscribe to GrowthBusters email updates https://lp.constantcontact.com/su/umptf6w/signup Explore the issues at http://www.growthbusters.org View the GrowthBusters channel on YouTube Follow the podcast so you don't miss an episode:  

Ein halb versunkenes Kirchendach ragt aus wucherndem Gestrüpp hervor, ein verlassenes Geisterhaus am Ende der Straße versprüht eine unheimliche Atmosphäre und in einem fast vergessenen, leerstehenden Krankenhaus auf einem verwaisten Gelände liegt der Staub von Jahrzehnten auf den liegengelassenen Akten. Dazu in Fetzen herunterhängende Tapeten und schummriges Licht, das durch zerbrochene Fenster ins Innere scheint – so sieht der Arbeitsplatz der beiden Urban Explorer Marco und Till aus. Die beiden Filmemacher und YouTuber von “Broken Window Theory” erkunden Geisterstädte, Ruinen und verlassene Orte auf der ganzen Welt. Seit Jahren sind sie abseits der touristischen Wege unterwegs, um vergessene Orte aufzuspüren. Was sie daran so reizt, welch kuriose und auch gefährliche Situationen sie auf ihren Touren schon erlebt haben, wie sie zu “Urbexern” wurden und wo die Magie im Erkunden verlassener Orte für sie liegt – davon berichten sie in dieser Episode. In der Episode erwähnte Videos der “Broken Window Theory”: Versunkene italienische Kirche: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3iJYwRljsU4&ab_channel=BrokenWindowTheoryCrago, das italienische Geisterdorf: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vSkezcWInOA&ab_channel=BrokenWindowTheory NATO-Bunkeranlage: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pbDC56sukc0&ab_channel=BrokenWindowTheory Außerdem der Buchtipp: “Die Welt ohne uns: Reise über eine unbevölkerte Erde” von Alan Weisman.Redaktion: Janna OlsonUnterstütze unsere Show mit einer Mitgliedschaft im Supporters Club und erhalte Zugriff auf werbefreie und – je nach Paket – exklusive Bonusfolgen. Alle Informationen findest du hier: https://weltwach.de/supporters-club/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

How would the world look without humans? Humans have impacted Earth in many drastic ways post-Industrial Revolution. Today's guest Alan Weisman will help us explore the idea of what our planet would look like if humans didn't inhabit it. Alan is an award-winning journalist whose reports have appeared in Harper's, The New York Times Magazine, The Atlantic Monthly, Discover, and on NPR, among others. His essay "Earth Without People", on which The World Without Us expands, was selected for Best American Science Writing 2006.Guest:Alan's WebsiteWe hope that you enjoy and get value from each episode! Let us know your thoughts.Green Pursuit newsletter: https://mailchi.mp/7241db6441f7/signupKickstart your sustainable brand (i.e. logo creation, website creation/design, content strategy): https://pastelvalley.comSocial: https://linktr.ee/greenpursuit

025 - The hosts reflect on podcast episode 216 - “Staying Close to Home.” Seph addresses Travis' assertions about humanity in relation to Alan Weisman's book The World Without Us. Travis discusses our natural inclinations to fear the unknown and gravitate toward the familiar.

Om människan försvann skulle civilisationen begravas under ett grönt täcke där djurlivet breder ut sig. Dan Jönsson reflekterar över en dystopi som vissa betraktar som en utopi. ESSÄ: Detta är en text där skribenten reflekterar över ett ämne eller ett verk. Åsikter som uttrycks är skribentens egna. Essän sändes första gången 2017.Civilisationen är en bräcklig skapelse. All denna fantastiska infrastruktur vi omger oss med, alla intrikata system för kommunikation och energiförsörjning, dessa vidsträckta stadslandskap som från hög höjd liknar en sorts komplexa organismer med ett eget liv, är i själva verket helt beroende av ständig, oavbruten tillsyn. Utan den skulle trafiken stanna, elsystemen krascha, panik och kravaller bryta ut. Vi vet det egentligen mycket väl men föredrar att inte tänka på det eftersom det, ungefär som tanken på döden, skapar en sorts tomhetssvindel när vi inser hur nära avgrunden vi faktiskt befinner oss och vilka blinda, obevekliga processer som står redo att ta över efter oss så snart vi släpper taget.Och fort skulle det gå. Om människorna försvann skulle det omedelbart bli kolmörkt på nätterna, mycket snart skulle kraftverksdammar brista, tunnlar svämma över, redan första vintern skulle frostsprängningen bryta upp fasader och vägbeläggningar och i sprickorna skulle träd och buskar spränga fram. Fåglar och rovdjur skulle fylla gatorna, efter några hundra år skulle till och med den största stad vara svår att få syn på under de gröna kullarna som täcker rasmassorna, och när väl nästa istid drar in, om så där femton tusen år, skulle den radera i stort sett alla synliga spår. Sätt det i relation till att människor har funnits i någon form i sådär två, tre miljoner år, och liv på jorden i nästan fyra miljarder år. För framtidens geologer vilken skepnad de nu kommer att ha: intelligenta fåglar kanske, eller landlevande delfiner? kommer vår civilisation att synas på sin höjd som ett avvikande, aningen mörkare sedimentlager i berggrunden. Femton tusen år, det är en fis i vinden.Året som gick var som bekant än en gång ett av det varmaste som någonsin uppmätts. Vi börjar vänja oss vid larmsignalerna. Världsmedeltemperaturen stiger, polarisarna fortsätter smälta i katastrofal takt. Det är förstås oroande. Samtidigt har jag alltid tyckt att klimatlarmen har något överdrivet apokalyptiskt över sig. Att temperaturförändringarna, som det brukar påstås, skulle utgöra ett hot mot planetens framtid är förstås dumheter, eller för att säga det rent ut: antropocentriskt hyckleri. Nej: det som hotas av klimatförändringarna är knappast planeten Jorden, utan förutsättningarna för den mänskliga civilisationen som vi känner den. Kanske förutsättningarna för mänskligt liv överhuvudtaget. Planeten däremot skulle anpassa sig. Det har den gjort förut. Klimatet skulle förändras, men livet skulle med all säkerhet bestå. Om tvåhundrafemtio miljoner år skulle den snabba massdöden under människans epok, antropocen, kanske rentav framstå som en nödvändig föryngring.Säkert är i alla fall att om, eller när, vi människor försvinner kommer det omedelbart att sätta stopp för den omfattande utrotning vi gjort oss skyldiga till med rovjakt och miljöförstöring, trafikanläggningar och byggprojekt ja helt enkelt genom vår blotta utbredning. När ekosystemen hunnit repa sig skulle det kanske se ut som i den ett par år gamla science fiction- filmen After Earth, där ett rymdskepp kraschar på Jordens yta tusen år efter att människorna tvingats evakuera planeten. Rymdskeppets kapten, som spelas av Will Smith, har blivit dödligt sårad och för att hämta hjälp tvingas hans son ut på en livsfarlig expedition genom en fientlig djungelvärld befolkad av väldiga buffelhjordar och aggressiva babianflockar där den mänskliga civilisationens ruiner står kvar som förfallna, obegripliga kulisser. Som den amerikanske miljöjournalisten Alan Weisman konstaterar i sin bok The World Without Us från 2007 är det antagligen vad som skulle hända: fåglarna skulle slippa krocka med våra flygplan och fönsterfasader, haven skulle på nytt fyllas med stora fiskar och på land skulle rovdjuren breda ut sig på våra tamdjurs bekostnad. Än en gång: det är inte miljön utan civilisationen som är hotad.Alan Weisman konstaterar att det där förstås också beror på hur mycket vi människor hinner ställa till med innan vi försvinner. Även om till och med de största städerna på några tusen år lär förvandlas till grönskande åsar i landskapet så kommer material som rostfritt stål och plast att ta betydligt längre tid för naturen att ta hand om. I östra Stilla Havet, mellan Hawaii och Kalifornien, utbreder sig över ett enormt område en drivande, skvalpande soppa av finfördelat plastavfall. Den kommer att bestå tills någon finurlig mikroorganism muterar och lär sig hur den ska bryta ner de långa polymermolekylerna, vilket kan ta några hundratusen år. Gifter som dioxiner kommer också de att finnas kvar i naturen under lång tid, för att inte tala om avfallet från våra kärnkraftverk, som när människorna försvinner kommer att drabbas av härdsmälta eller explodera och släppa ut uranisotoper med halveringstider på miljontals år.Och ändå på riktigt lång sikt, och för planeten och biosfären som helhet, har det här ingen större betydelse. Livsmiljöerna har en fantastisk förmåga att självläka. Faktum är att sådana processer redan nu pågår i de områden som av olika skäl har lämnats öde under lång tid: som den demilitariserade zonen mellan Nord- och Sydkorea, där utrotningshotade fåglar och rovdjur har hittat en nisch att överleva i. Liksom förstås i det evakuerade området runt Tjernobyl i Ukraina, där naturen efter trettio år är på god väg att ta över efter människan. Visst ger den radioaktiva smittan upphov till genetiska skador och mutationer, men även om de skadar fortplantningsförmågan hos en del arter och individer lär de på sikt ändå leda till att den på något vis anpassar sig. Det är så naturen fungerar.Frågan är vad vi ska göra med den kunskapen. Som Walter Benjamin skrev har varje historisk epok på sitt sätt tyckt sig stå vid randen av en avgrund. Vår tids antihumanistiska undergångsvisioner utgör dagdrömmarna hos en melankolisk kultur som inte längre har några radikala svar på sina egna utmaningar. Samtidigt blir konsekvenserna ofrånkomligt revolutionerande. Ska vi kanske dra slutsatsen att det vore en bra sak för miljön och planeten om vi människor försvann, och därför se till att skynda på det? Det finns de som tycker det: från Oregon i USA förespråkar den så kallade Voluntary Human Extinction Movement till exempel människans frivilliga självutplåning inte genom kollektivt självmord, utan helt enkelt genom att vi slutar föröka oss. Må vi leva länge och dö ut, proklamerar rörelsen på sin hemsida. Snabbt och smärtfritt skulle det lyfta civilisationens tryck på biosfären och leda till en, rent objektivt, bättre värld. Månn det. För oss andra, oss oförbätterligt antropocentriska människor som inte riktigt kan förlika oss med, och än mindre ta konsekvenserna av de där objektiva, geologiska perspektiven handlar det snarare om att inse att, om vi verkligen vill att vår ömtåliga civilisation ska överleva, krävs det just radikala beslut för att leda in den på en annan väg. Innan den förgör sig själv.Dan Jönsson, författare och kulturjournalist * Alan Weismans "The World Without Us" (Picador) kom på svenska 2008 med titeln "Vad händer med världen utan oss?" (Prisma) i översättning av Patrik Hammarsten.

In this episode we discuss A World Without Us by by Alan Weisman.

We can dance around our environmental problems all we want. Understand them enough and we eventually reach overconsumption and overpopulation. These overshoots contribute to everything.We at least talk about overconsumption, even if few are acting. Decades ago, the public talked about population, but didn't act. Today we don't talk about it. All the numbers I see suggest the Earth can sustain two or three billion people with roughly western European consumption levels. I'd love to live in a world with two billion people, like what produced Mozart and Einstein.Karen has been working on helping society face our problem of too many people being alive at once longer than I have. I've only been able to talk about it since learning from (TSL guest) Alan Weisman's Countdown about (TSL guest) Mechai Viravaidya helping solve the problem. She's been treating it a lot longer. She also knows I think all the podcast guests I talked to about population. She also knows many environmentalists who never acted on population.Karen shares her decades of working on (over)population. The U.S. doesn't talk about it publicly these days, but Karen shows how to talk about it. As I recognized that our overpopulation contributes to every environmental problems, I realized we had at least to talk about it. Karen does this.Karen's page: Moving Upstream... Where Possibilities Come to RoostMove Upstream: A Call to Solve OverpopulationChange Our Stories, Change Our World See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

I consider Mechai Viravaidya my top role model for sustainability leadership. As I described in a recent episode, We Can Dance Around Environmental Problems All We Want. We Eventually Reach Overpopulation and Overconsumption. Before learning of Mechai Viravaidya, I knew only of China's One Child Policy and eugenics. I couldn't talk about population when I thought the cure was worse than the disease.Learning of Mechai changed everything. As his biography's back cover, states.In Thailand, a condom is called a "Mechai". Mechai Viravaidya, Thailand's condom King, has used this most anatomically suggestive contraceptive device to turn the conventional family planning establishment on its head. First came condom-blowing contests, then T-shirts with condom shrouded anthropomorphic penises. Then condom key rings followed by a Cabbages and Condoms restaurant, When it comes to condoms, no one has been more creative than the Condom King.To equate Mechai with condoms or family planning alone underestimates the man and fails to capture his essence. Mechai Viravaidya is engaged in a relentless pursuit to improve the well-being of the poor by giving them the tools to lead a fruitful and productive life. His achievements in family planning, AIDS prevention, and rural development are a means to an end - the alleviation of poverty in Thailand.Mechai's journey From Condoms To Cabbages - from his roots in family planning to his goal of poverty alleviation - has spanned 34 years. Along the way, he has been labeled a visionary iconoclast and cheerful revolutionary. He is also an ordinary man from modest origins.He made the cure more fun than the disease, along with peers in other nations, including Costa Rica, South Korea, Iran, Mexico, and other nations.You may hear my tongue-tied in this conversation because of the reverence I hold for him. I cover him at length in the manuscript for my next book. When I host Oprah, I expect I'll do fine in comparison.I could write more about him, but I recommend learning more of him from all the resources below.The Mechai Viravaidya FoundationMechai Viravaidya's TEDx talkHis biographyHis Wikipedia pageHis NGO, Population and Community Development Association's Wikipedia pageThe Leadership and the Environment episode that mentioned himMechai's team sent me these links too:Education“All Hail the Condom King”, written by Bill Gates about Mechai ViravaidyaPBS News hour: Combating Hardship in Rural Thailand (2012)PBS News Hour – Mechai Bamboo School: How this Thai Educational Movement Empowers Rural Students (2019)Comprehensive presentation describing the Mechai Bamboo School and the Partnership Schools ProjectNHK Direct Talk: Take No as a Question – Mechai Viravaidya (2017)Thai documentary about the Bamboo School with English Subtitles (2017) รายการกาวเกนิ พอ เริ ิ องโรงเริ ยนมิ ชยพฒนาFamily PlanningThe Cheerful Revolution (1979)A documentary on our early efforts at family planning in Thailand, “Two is Enough”: Part 1 and Part 2HIV and AIDSA documentary narrated by Brad Pitt for PBS on our campaign to combat HIV/AIDS: “Rx for Survival“Social EnterprisePBS: Social Entrepreneur – Mechai Viravaidya (2012)Development ProjectsThe Village Development PartnershipWall Street Journal: Slumping Fertility Rates in Developing Countries Spark Labor WorriesMoreI learned of Mechai through podcast guest Alan Weisman‘s book Countdown: Our Last, Best Hope for a Future on Earth?, which profiles him. I highly recommend the book.Search the web for more on Mechai and you'll find it. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Episode 43 A Conversation with Pamela Z Music in the Time of Pandemic   Playlist TIMES3 (TIMES X TIMES X TIMES), commissioned by The Prototype Project (2021). Composer Pamela Z and theatre artist Geoff Sobelle collaborate on a site-specific sonic journey through Times Square – past, present and imagined… What was this place? Composed by Pamela Z; written by Geoff Sobelle; instrumentalists, Tom Dambly, Crystal Pascucci, Todd Reynolds; vocals, Pamela Z; voices sampled from Eric Sanderson, Alan Weisman, Robyn Orlin, Lisa McGinn, Stefanie Sobelle, Craig Dykers, Erick Gregory, Colleen Jennings-Roggensack, Jack Tchen, Adrienne Brown, Pamela Z, and Geoff Sobelle. Background music used during this episode (exceprts): Pamela Z, "Quatre Couches" in a solo concert as part of VoxLab Vårfest at Vega Scene in Oslo, Norway, on April 11, 2019. Pamela Z, electronics and voice processing using MAX MSP gesture-controlled MIDI instruments. Pamela Z, “Three Vertical Kilns (Carbon Song Cycle)” Live at BAM/PFA (April 12, 2013). Excerpt from the complete performance of Carbon Song Cycle, a work for chamber ensemble and expanded cinema by composer Pamela Z and video artist Christina McPhee. Ink: commissioned and presented by VOLTI (2021); artistic director Robert Geary; executive producer Barbara Heroux; performed by VOLTI. Music and video by Pamela Z. TIMES3 (TIMES X TIMES X TIMES), commissioned by The Prototype Project (2021). Composer Pamela Z and theatre artist Geoff Sobelle collaborate on a site-specific sonic journey through Times Square – past, present and imagined… What was this place? Pamela Z, “Badagada”from A Delay Is Better (2004 Starkland). Composed by, recorded by, performer, producer, liner notes, Pamela Z. Additional works and links for Pamela Z: Website for Pamela Z TIMES3 (TIMES X TIMES X TIMES), commissioned by The Prototype Project (2021). Composer Pamela Z and theatre artist Geoff Sobelle collaborate on a site-specific sonic journey through Times Square – past, present and imagined… What was this place? Ink: commissioned and presented by VOLTI (2021); artistic director Robert Geary; executive producer Barbara Heroux; performed by VOLTI. Music and video by Pamela Z. Opening and closing sequences voiced by Anne Benkovitz. Additional opening, closing, and other incidental music by Thom Holmes. For additional notes, please see my blog Noise and Notations.  

Magazine cultural radiofónico dirigido por Roser Ribas con la compañía de Paco Atero. Emisión desde los estudios de Bellvei Ràdio con la producción de David Canto. Contenido del programa dedicado a EL CAMBIO CLIMÁTICO: • ACTUALIDAD CULTURAL - [CIENCIA] El futuro que le espera a España si no frena el cambio climático, - [CIENCIA] La alerta triple de la ONU. - [CIENCIA] Un estudio de más de 20 años sobre el impacto de la contaminación muestra que la polución afecta al peso del recién nacido y al desarrollo pulmonar y cognitivo. • CINE Y SERIES EN STREAMING - [DOCUMENTAL] RETURN (2018, Filmin). Dirección: Javier Ríos. - [PELÍCULA] LA CARRETERA (2009, Filmin). Dirección: John Hillcoat. • ENTREVISTA - Hablamos con Ricardo, miembro del Grupo Ecologista del Vendrell i el Baix Penedés (GEVEN), cuyo proyecto principal es preservar Las Madrigueras, una zona de playa situada en Sant Salvador, Tarragona, tratándose del único espacio del litoral del Baix Penedés que no ha sido urbanizado. https://geven.cat/inici/qui-som/les-madrigueres/ • PÍLDORA CULTURAL: Tiempo de cambios. - A cargo de Diego Manzanares. • PERSONAJE DE LA SEMANA - Greta Thunberg. • RECOMENDACIÓN LITERARIA - El mundo sin nosotros (Alan Weisman). A cargo de Román Romeral. • DESPEDIDA - Avance del próximo programa. Suscribiros a nuestro canal para recibir de la manera más cómoda todos nuestros podcasts. Nos podéis escuchar en Ivoox, Apple Podcast, Spotify, Podimo y en nuestra sección de Podcast en negraymortal.com Os invitamos a dejar vuestros comentarios tanto en nuestras cuentas en RRSS como enviando un correo electrónico a: cultura2@negraymortal.com ¡Gracias por vuestras escuchas!

Thirteen years ago, acclaimed journalist Alan Weisman both envisioned and researched the idea of a worldwide disease that would decimate our species - and change the course of our impacts on all other Earthly life. What was he thinking?           Today, like so many of our kind, Weisman is sequestered in one place, envisioning work he was planning to do - on a new book about hope for all this - while sitting out 2020, in the company of his fellow humans. Alan Weisman's first guest stop with KDHX Earthworms celebrated his 1998 report on sustainable technology in a remote Brazilian burg: Gaviotas, A Village to Change the World. In 2013 his book Countdown: Our Last Beast Home for Future on Earth and KDHX Earthworms were both honored with Global Media Awards by the Population Media Center. On our goes-around-comes-around planet, this conversation explores our pandemic present,through a spirit of common perseverance.   THANKS to Andy Heaslet, Earthworms engineer, with assistance from Jon Valley and Andy Coco. Related Earthworms Conversations: An Ecologist's Journey to Make Peace with the Anthropocene (Nov 2019) Storytelling, Deep Listening: Antidotes to Toxic Public Discourse (July 2019) Renewal - Andres Edwards on our Connection to Nature (May 2019)

The hard-hitting questions we ask on the Hey Lesson podcast, a show about science, history, videogames, and earth.

Want to hear this week’s news from the outdoors? Watch how Rob nearly falls off his chair laughing about a burglary that went wrong, how a present to his ex-wife nearly lead to Rob not being allowed home, how a scientific discovery reinforces the role Mother Nature plays, why Norwegian law allows you to camp for free and why Alan Weisman got it right! We also reveal why We Get Outdoors Tribe member, Darrin Porter, won ‘Pic of the Week’.   If you want to watch this live then join the We Get Outdoors Tribe https://www.facebook.com/groups/wegetoutdoors/ #wegetoutdoors #outdoors #nature #outdoor #outdoorlife #outdooradventures #outdoorfun #burglarly #coronavirus #kayaking #hiking #himalayas   Antifreeze from nature to help concrete https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/05/200527123400.htm   The World Without Us - Alan Weisman - if humans disappeared https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/06/01/after-covid-19-will-nature-take-over   15 off-the-beaten-track places in the USA you didn’t know existed https://passportsymphony.com/15-hidden-gems-in-usa/?fbclid=IwAR1mKxjCwh1ecxRNh58rAao4oYblra3qxtu4Vw0UHhlS2S_CHUsyeS6uagg   10 books to read about mountains https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2020/may/26/10-of-the-best-books-about-mountains-for-a-virtual-climb   After burglarizing a Bainbridge home, man makes getaway in kayak https://www.kitsapsun.com/story/news/2020/06/01/after-burglarizing-bainbridge-home-man-makes-getaway-kayak/5312918002/   To be able to watch this podcast live then join the We Get Outdoors Tribe https://www.facebook.com/groups/wegetoutdoors/   Don’t forget if you want to get outdoors when in lockdown then watch over 35 hours of the best outdoor videos by visiting - https://www.freevideos.wegetoutdoors.co   Don’t miss out on future episodes and cool content join our free groups here Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/wegetoutdoors/ Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/wegetoutdoorstribe/ Twitter - https://twitter.com/WeGetOutdoors1 iTunes - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/we-get-outdoors-podcast/id1502258018 Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/51l9jW0oK963nzZyWrNrKU Telegram - https://t.me/wegetoutdoorspodcast We Get Outdoors is the fastest growing tribe of outdoor enthusiasts on planet earth!  Join the tribe for free and gain outdoor news, live guest interviews, ask the experts your questions, our famous almost outdoor pub quiz and much much more.  Join HERE https://www.facebook.com/groups/wegetoutdoors/

In 2007, journalist Alan Weisman published The World Without Us. It was an international bestseller. The book tries to answer what is ultimately a simple question: What happens to the Earth if human beings disappear? Here's how Weisman puts it in the book: "Say a Homo sapiens-specific virus -- natural or diabolically nano-engineered -- picks us off but leaves everything else intact." Then what? And over these last few months, we've gotten maybe a fraction of a percentage point there. Temporarily. Maybe not directly because of coronavirus, but indirectly because of our absence and scarceness due to stay-at-home orders and the like. And so... then what? Well, goats "took over" a town in Wales. Wild boar "invaded" a town near Barcelona. Salamanders "own the road" in Maine. And the air got cleaner and the night sky got clearer. And so it follows: Now what? GUESTS: Beth Gardiner - Author of Choked: Life and Breath in the Age of Air Pollution Brandon Keim - A freelance journalist specializing in animals, nature, and science Alan Weisman - The author of six books including The World Without Us Join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter. Colin McEnroe and Cat Pastor contributed to this show.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

If COVID-19 has made anything obvious to everyone, it might be how the very small can force the transformation of the very large. Disrupt the right place in a network and exponential changes ripple outward: a virus causes a disease that leads to economic shocks and other social impacts that, in turn, re-open urban spaces to nonhuman animals and change the course of evolution.Adapting to these changes will require a different kind of understanding: one of nonlinear dynamics, feedback loops, extended selves, and the tiered and interwoven ecological and economic systems of our planet. By studying the processes and structures that this change exposes, we’re offered a new way of seeing individuality-in-context…and, perhaps, new mechanisms for aligning individual and public good, the human and the wild.Welcome to COMPLEXITY, the official podcast of the Santa Fe Institute. I’m your host, Michael Garfield, and each week we’ll bring you with us for far-ranging conversations with our worldwide network of rigorous researchers developing new frameworks to explain the deepest mysteries of the universe.In Transmission, SFI’s new essay series on COVID-19, our community of scientists shares a myriad of complex systems insights on this unprecedented situation. This special supplementary mini-series with SFI President David Krakauer finds the links between these articles—on everything from evolutionary theory to economics, epistemology to epidemiology—to trace the patterns of a deeper order that, until this year, was largely hidden in plain sight.If you value our research and communication efforts, please consider making a one-time or recurring monthly donation at santafe.edu/podcastgive … and/or consider rating and reviewing us at Apple Podcasts. Thank you for listening!Further Reading:Chris Kempes and Geoffrey West on understanding cities to respond to pandemicsEric Maskin on mechanism design for the marketPamela Yeh and Ian MacGregor-Fors on studying wildlife in empty citiesSidney Redner on exponential growth processesDavid Wolpert on SARS-CoV-2 and Landauer's boundWhat is an individual? Information Theory may provide an answerVisit our website for more information or to support our science and communication efforts.Join our Facebook discussion group to meet like minds and talk about each episode.Podcast Theme Music by Mitch Mignano.Follow us on social media:Twitter • YouTube • Facebook • Instagram • LinkedInMentioned in this episode:David Wolpert, Alan Turing, Rolf Landauer, Timothy Morton, Buckminster Fuller, Sidney Redner, Chris Kempes, Geoffrey West, Bill Gates, Ann Pendleton-Jullian, Luis Bettencourt, Cris Moore, Eric Maskin, Wendy Carlin, Sam Bowles, Kenneth Arrow, John Von Neumann, Eric Morgenstern, John Nash, Pamela Yeh, Ian MacGregor-Fors, Alan Weisman, Doug Erwin

Humanity in lockdown. Wildlife creeps back into cities around the world. We look at the pandemic from the animal kingdom's point of view. David Baron, Niamh Quinn and Alan Weisman join Meghna Chakrabarti.

Science journalist Alan Weisman’s prescient 2007 book "The World Without Us" described what would happen to nature if humans suddenly ceased to exist. To find answers, he traveled to Chernobyl, Micronesia's coral reefs, and far beyond. For this special Earth Day 2020 episode, he explains what humans need to do to make sure we don't disappear. Listen along as Weisman connects the dots between food supplies, zoonotic diseases, global warming, and maybe a brighter future. Special thanks to our listeners for supporting us during this unpredictable time, that squirrel that borrowed some of our questions, and Connor Button, theme music creator. Follow us on Twitter @interruptshow, and rate, review, and subscribe on Apple, or wherever you get your podcasts, por favor.Alan Weisman: el amigo de los Homo sapiensEl profético libro de 2007 del periodista científico Alan Weisman "El mundo sin nosotros" describió lo que sucedería con la naturaleza si los humanos de repente dejasen de existir. Para encontrar respuestas, viajó a Chernobyl, los arrecifes de coral de Micronesia y más allá. En este episodio especial del Día de la Tierra 2020, Weisman nos cuenta lo que debemos de hacer los humanos para garantizar que no desapareceremos. Escucha cómo nos descubre la conexión entre los suministros de alimentos, las enfermedades de los animales, el calentamiento global y, tal vez, un futuro más prometedor. Mandamos un agradecimiento especial a nuestros oyentes por apoyarnos durante este tiempo impredecible, a la ardilla que tomó prestadas algunas de nuestras preguntas, y a Connor Button, creador de la sintonía del programa. Síguenos en Twitter @interruptshow, y califica, critica y suscríbete en Apple, o donde quiera que obtengas tus podcasts, por favor. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

What is Earth's carrying capacity? Why is it important?Many ask how we will feed 10 billion people. Mathematician way of asking is if we can feed so many and if so how. Maybe we can't.First, don't want to know. While it depends on many assumptions that aren't hard or measurable numbers, like standard of living, distribution of resources, and technology, we can say it's maximum misery per person.How do we narrow it down? Could ask resources per person and how much resources Earth can provide. Limits to Growth projects how much planet would sustain from a systems perspective including history and how we live our values.I prefer a historical perspective I learned from Alan Weisman based on the Haber-Bosch process, which enabled artificial fertilizer. Before artificial fertilizer, limitations on fixing nitrogen to grow food suggest Earth could sustain about 2 billion, enough to create Einstein and Mozart. Want people like Jesus, Buddha, Laozi, and Aristotle? We needed only a few hundred million to create them.If we're over the planet's carrying capacity, especially by factor of 3 or 4, strategy isn't to ask how to feed 10 billion but if we can lower the population before processes like famine, disease, loss of critical resources, war, and so on do it for us.I couldn't answer except in ways where the cure was worse than the disease, but the history of Thailand's Mechai Viravaidya's leading a nation-scale cultural shift from 7 babies per woman to 1.5, voluntarily, peacefully, leading to abundance, prosperity, and stability changed everything for me.Mechai's success makes lowering the population plausible and fun. The limitations of growing food without artificial fertilizer make it necessary to avoid famine and other natural disasters. These two factors clarify our priority, it seems to me.Mechai Viravaidya's TEDx talkMy episode 279: Role model and global leader Mechai Viravaidya See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Alan Weisman's book Countdown changed my strategy to the environment. It ranks among the top most influential works I've read, watched, or come across, up there with Limits to Growth.Why? Because when you look at environmental issues enough, and it shouldn't take too long these days, population always rises to the top as one of the top issues. Many people today hear about projections that the population will level off around 10 billion. Actually, the ones I see project that the population will keep growing exponentially then, just slower than now.If you only look at one issue---only climate, only deforestation, or only extinctions---they seem possibly solvable, but they're all linked. Solving several at once---say meeting power needs while the economy falls apart and food becomes scarce---looks impossible.Also, since nothing deliberate limits population growth, we're lucky if it levels off. We aren't choosing where to level it off and 10 billion looks three to five times what the Earth can sustain. Cultural changes could promote more growth. Many populations are promoting maximum growth today---very powerful religions and autocratic rulers for example.I don't want to rely on luck for our species' survival. Besides, my research into what Earth can sustain says that we're over the limit. If we're heading toward a cliff, simply maintaining our speed and not accelerating doesn't stop us. We have to decelerate.Despite the convergence of all these issues, for years I held back from talking about population. People don't like others meddling in their personal lives. I don't want the government in my bedroom. People overwhelmingly associate population talk with China's one child policy, eugenics, and Nazis. I did too. I didn't see how I could improve a situation by suggesting to avoid misery later through misery now.Still, I knew some cultures---island nations that lived centuries or longer, for example, or the bushmen in southern Africa whose archeological record went back hundreds of thousands of years---kept their populations level, so they must have developed some mechanism.In some past episode of this podcast, with Jared Angaza, for example, I pondered aloud how to find out how they did it, though it may have come up when I was a guest on his podcast. I could only wonder what worked but couldn't promote what I didn't know.Countdown changed all that. Alan found and reported on numerous examples in today's world of cultures lowering their birth rates without coercion, without top-down government authority, voluntarily, desired by all participants, leading to abundance, prosperity, peace, and stability, the opposite of where overpopulation takes us.Countdown tells stories of 21 places, some promoting growth and results aren't pretty and some where they've lowered birth rates and they're remarkably pleasant, even prosperous and stable. He talks about the top ones in this episode.We have tough times ahead of us. One change simplifies everything---a smaller population achieved voluntarily, peacefully, joyfully. Alan has researched firsthand more than almost anyone. He has more than enough reason to despair if he wanted to. If he's not, I conclude that everything he's found nets out to say we can do this.Family planning, education, and contraception seem technologies and practices that can work more than carbon sequestration, solar planes, and everything else. They're cheap, they're available, they make sex more fun, they've overcome cultural resistance outside the gates of the Vatican!Read his books and Limits to Growth.I'll do my best to bring him back.Past episodes I based on Alan's books258: The World Without Us, by Alan Weisman251: Let's make overpopulation only a finance issue250: Why talk about birthrate and population so much?248: Countdown, a book I recommend by Alan Weisman See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Here are the notes I read from for this episodeI've said we don't have many role models. Well I found one. I was wrong. I'm going to tell you about a man I briefly mentioned in one of my episodes on Alan Weisman's book Countdown.He exposes the absolute self-pitying lie that what one person do doesn't matter. Also the lie that government has to act first, or corporations. On the contrary, the fastest, most effective way for them to act is for people to act first. Yes you, here and now can make a difference.This guy made enormous nation-size headway in the face of government lethargy and complacency on one of the most challenging issues. Most people won't even talk about population and most people enough to realize how it underlies every other environmental issue.Then most people can't stop their knee-jerk reactions to the same misconceptions. They associate it withChina's one child policyEugenicsForced sterilization and abortionsDespite most fears and misconceptions, this man made enormous progress. He's not the only one, but I'm starting with him.From his biography's back cover:In Thailand, a condom is called a "Mechai". Mechai Viravaidya, Thailand's condom King, has used this most anatomically suggestive contraceptive device to turn the conventional family planning establishment on its head. First came condom-blowing contests, then T-shirts with condom shrouded anthropomorphic penises. Then condom key rings followed by a Cabbages and Condoms restaurant, When it comes to condoms, no one has been more creative than the Condom King.To equate Mechai with condoms or family planning alone underestimates the man and fails to capture his essence. Mechai Viravaidya is engaged in a relentless pursuit to improve the well-being of the poor by giving them the tools to lead a fruitful and productive life. His achievements in family planning, AIDS prevention, and rural development are a means to an end - the alleviation of poverty in Thailand.Mechai's journey From Condoms To Cabbages - from his roots in family planning to his goal of poverty alleviation - has spanned 34 years. Along the way, he has been labeled a visionary iconoclast and cheerful revolutionary. He is also an ordinary man from modest origins.From Wikipedia on Mechai:Mechai Viravaidya is a former politician and activist in Thailand who promoted condoms, family planning and AIDS awareness in Thailand. Since the 1970s, Mechai has been affectionately known as "Mr. Condom", and condoms are often referred as "mechais" in Thailand. From the time that he began his work, the average number of children in Thai families has decreased from 7 to 1.5.in 1966 started to work in family planning, emphasizing the use of condoms. In 1973, he left the civil service and founded a non-profit service organization, the Population and Community Development Association (PDA), to continue his efforts to improve the lives of the rural poor He used such events as holding condom blowing contests for school children, encouraging taxi drivers to hand out condoms to their customers, and founding a restaurant chain called Cabbages and Condoms, where condoms are given to customers with the bill.On PDA:The Population and Community Development Association (PDA) is a non-governmental organization in Thailand. Its goal is to reduce poverty through both development initiatives and family planning programs. Originally called the Community-Based Family Planning Service, it was founded by Mechai Viravaidya in 1974. In the early 1970s, Viravaidya was the Minister of Industry but became frustrated with the government's inability to implement a national family planning policy. In his work with the government, he identified a direct correlation between Thailand's poverty and population growth. His immediate concern was the high population growth rate of 3.2%, which equated to approximately seven children per family.Initially, the PDA sought to reduce population growth by focusing on efforts both to combat child mortality and to encourage family planning. Viravaidya deduced that family planning would not be widely adopted in Thailand if children did not survive. Therefore, his solution to controlling population growth, which was at 3.3%, was to target maternal and child healthcare. At the same time, the PDA made various methods of birth control accessible to rural populations. The PDA discovered that birth control pills were used by only 20% of the population because getting them required access to medical personnel. To target the remaining 80% of the country, the PDA invested in multiple initiatives - including the popularization of free condoms, increased access to birth control, incentives for women to not become pregnant, and slogans to encourage smaller families.The Thai family planning programs met notable success. By 2015, total fertility had dropped to 1.5 children per woman. Following on the drop in unwanted fertility, the poverty rate dropped sharply; from 32.4% in 2003 10.9% in 2013.The Population and Community Development Association has used many different strategies to promote its programs. Often the strategies are considered unique or creative. Some of these strategies include:Efforts to make condoms more accessible & remove the stigma associated with them, likeHolding condom balloon blowing competitionsCreating a Captain Condom mascotMaking condoms available at associated Cabbages & Condoms restaurants in lieu of mintsEducating children in schoolHaving Buddhist monks sprinkle holy water on condomsOverseeing a "Condom is the Girl's Best Friend" campaignHaving police officers distribute condoms in a "Cops and Rubbers" programEncouraging vasectomies byMaking donations into a community fund for every vasectomy performedHolding a vasectomy lunch for Americans in ThailandIncreasing the availability of birth control pillsBy utilizing floating markets to provide contraceptives/birth control pillBy training of local shopkeepers to prescribe birth control pillEducating the population about HIV/AIDSBy using of military radio stationsEncouraging developmentBy making micro-loans available to general villagers at relatively low interest rates, especially for villages that use contraceptivesBy creating village banks operated by (mostly) women within the village communityLinks:The Mechai Viravaidya FoundationMechai Viravaidya's TEDx talkHis biographyHis Wikipedia pageHis NGO, Population and Community Development Association's Wikipedia pageThe Leadership and the Environment episode that mentioned him See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

I've read and thought about animals going extinct. My friend and guest Lorna Davis in her TED talk talks about her love for rhinos and passion to save them.I reviewed Poached by Rachel Nuwer and I've spoken to her about poaching. I see poaching as horrific and hope it ends.But I read about how we lose wildlife. Some poaching, but even if we ended it, another greater force will keep destroying them until we deliberately act on it globally.Threat to wildlife is a little poachers, but mainly farms.History seems to treat civilization as pitting peaceful agrarian parts of humanity against violent fighting ones. But our rules and hierarchies grow more and threaten more.War and violence aren't separate from agriculture. Agriculture has led to growth and systems of ownership, rights, and organizing people to keep growing in number and using land, water, and resources.Our armies serve our expansion, creating war when we expand into other people's territory. Our colonies expand into new territories. We junk them too.People ask why I don't live in the country. I don't want to augment the pattern we've done for millennia:People find an area overcrowdedThey move to get away from it allThey become a beacon for others, effectively becoming a colonistWe pave over what was once beautifulNecessarily to protect species, we have to lower our population. Not settle to a higher number like 10 billion when we're already over capacity.We have to lower our population, meaning, if we don't want nature to do it for us with famine, disease, and other ways involving suffering, lowering our birth rate.I couldn't talk about lowering birth rate before learning about nations doing it successfully, as I described in my episodes on Alan Weisman's books (episodes 248, 250, 251, and 258), especially Countdown.These nations lowered their populations not with coercion or forced abortion like China's one child policy, nor racism like eugenics, but voluntarily, producing prosperity and stability.Rhinoceroses, great barrier reefs, and maybe a million other species may lose numbers for proximal reasons like poaching or sea temperature, but ultimately human overpopulation does it.With rhinos, we use the land they would live on. They aren't on a given plot the moment we fence it off, but they lose land they need to live offArtificial fertilizer and other technologies enable us to fence off more and more land.I love the farm my CSA vegetables come from and the food I buy directly from farmers at farmers markets I shopped at when I crossed the country last fall in LA, Ventura, Houston, and almost Atlanta.I consider them the best way to shop for food.But we have to see unchecked farming and the laws, militaries, colonial practices, finance, and growth unchecked agriculture produces as the source of extinctions.I'm not saying stop farming. I'm saying not to look at agriculture as a system as peaceful and agrarian.I'll come back more and more to lowering our population. It's not just poaching. We can't farm more without causing more extinctions. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

After recording three episodes (248, 250, and 251) on Alan Weisman's Countdown, I read his earlier book, The World Without Us, which I found equally tremendous. In it, he considers what would happen to the Earth if humans suddenly disappeared. How isn't the point, but what the difference between a world without us from that world with us tells us about ourselves.The book and author won many awards and became a New York Times bestseller about a decade ago when it came out. I remember when it came out but not why I took so long to read it.His writing I found a joy to read. He researched people, animals, plants, places, and so on beyond what you'd expect. You can tell he loves reporting what he's learned and making it useful.The book emerged from his Discovery Magazine article World Without People.There are many videos featuring him. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Readers and listeners have commented on my writing and posting lately about population and birth rates. Why do I talk about them? Isn't America below replacement level?I recently finished reading Countdown by Alan Weisman, which I recommend. I read passages and commented on them in episode 248: Countdown, a book I recommend by Alan Weisman. It looked at population around the world, illustrating and describing research finding that we've overshot the carrying capacity, which will lead to population collapse.That book put the issue top of mind, as does listening to the Growthbusters podcast.This episode describes why I see value in discussion population. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

I just finished an eye-opening book, Countdown, by Alan Weisman. It covers population.Weisman traveled to and reported on about a dozen places' views and practices on population and family planning.In this episode, I read a few passages that I found shocking. I barely scratch the book's surface, but I believe you'll find the sections equally noteworthy. I recommend reading the rest to understand this integral part of our world. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

В епизод #7 ни гостува Благой Стоянов от VAS Pro. Той и брат му управляват семейната компания, която баща им създава в началото на 90-те. В откровения ни разговор с Благо ще чуете какво кара един млад човек да избере България пред САЩ, как се управлява компания с роднини въпреки различията и и как успяваш да задържиш служителите си 20 години. Приятно слушане! Книгите, които нашият гост чете в момента и последно са му направили силно впечатление: Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand Стопанката на Господ, Розмари Де Мео Shantaram, Gregory David Roberts The world without us, Alan Weisman    Ще се радваме на обратна връзка: Кои са хората, които бихте искали да чуете в подкаста? - изпратете ни съобщение или оставете коментар с имената им. Хареса ли ли ви този епизод? - вашето мнение е ценно за нас, ще се радваме да споделите какво според вас трябва да подобрим.   Свържете се с нас: Facebook LinkedIn Instagram Twitter Всички епизоди на шоуто и други интерeсни подробности може да откриете на нашия сайт: Beyond Numbers.

Today I am thrilled to talk with Alan Weisman. He is an author who’s worked on seven continents and more than 50 countries. He’s written six books and the book that I talked to him most about is The World Without Us. It’s a book he published about a decade ago. It began as a … Continue reading "Alan Weisman: The World Without Us"

Low Tech Podcast, No. 17 – 17 Feb 2017 A review of The World Without Us by Alan Weisman. Vice's Island of Garbage video part I, part II, and part III. https://lowtechinstitute.wordpress.com/ Subscribe on iTunes, Google Play, TuneIn Radio, Stitcher, and/or SoundCloud. … More Low Tech Podcast, No. 17 — The World Without Us

Low Tech Podcast, No. 17 – 17 Feb 2017 A review of The World Without Us by Alan Weisman. Vice's Island of Garbage video part I, part II, and part III. https://lowtechinstitute.wordpress.com/ Subscribe on iTunes, Google Play, TuneIn Radio, Stitcher, and/or SoundCloud. … More Low Tech Podcast, No. 17 — The World Without Us

After being disappointed with the options available for non-traditional burial Katrina Spade sought out ways to lay your loved ones to rest without wasting burial materials or contaminating the soil. With a background in architecture and anthropology she came up with the idea for The Urban Death Project for which she has received an Echoing Green Fellowship.   Longstanding Habits Jogging, to increase clarity Cultivating New Habits Downtime with friends and family Environmental Resource Yestermorrow Design/Build School offers hands-on workshops in sustainable design, construction, woodworking, and architectural craft. Sustainable Mindset Book The World Without Us by Alan Weisman

Amy Banzaert reads from Gaviotas: A Village to Reinvent the Word by Alan Weisman, published by Chelsea Green Publishing. "People who dare to build a utopia use the same materials available to anyone, but they find surprising ways to combine them...In a dream you aren't limited by what is assumed to be permissible or possible."

Tara Sutphen will interview Alan Weisman - Author. His latest book is Countdown: Our Last, Best Hope for a Future on Earth?, published in 2013 by Little, Brown & Co, winner of the 2014 Los Angeles Times Book Prize, the 2013 Paris Book Festival Prize for Nonfiction, the 2014 Nautilus Gold Book Award, and a finalist for the Orion Prize and the Books for a Better Life Award. His last book, The World Without Us (Thomas Dunne Books/St. Martin's Press) was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, for the Orion Prize, for the Rachel Carson Award, and for the J. Anthony Lukas Book Prize. It was named the Best Nonfiction Book of 2007 by Time Magazine, Entertainment Weekly, and the National Post (Canada); a Best of 2007 Media Pick by Mother Jones Magazine; the #1 Nonfiction Audiobook of 2007 by iTunes; one of the top five nonfiction books for 2007 by Salon, Barnes and Noble's Best Politics & Current Affairs Book of 2007, and winner of the Wenjin Book Prize of the National Library of China. Alan Weisman has many other books and he's been published in 34 languages. His articles have appeared in Harper's, The New York Times Magazine, The Atlantic Monthly, The Los Angeles Times Magazine, Orion, Vanity Fair, Wilson Quarterly, Audubon, Mother Jones, Discover, Condé Nast Traveler, and in many anthologies, including Best American Science Writing and Best Buddhist Writing. A senior editor and producer for Homelands Productions, his reports have been heard on National Public Radio, Public Radio International, and American Public Media.Weisman has been a Fulbright Senior Scholar (in Colombia), the John Farrar Fellow in Nonfiction at the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference, and a contributing editor to the Los Angeles Times Magazine. Among his radio awards shared with his Homelands colleagues are a Robert F. Kennedy Citation, the Harry Chapin/World Hunger Year Award, and Brazil's Prèmio Nacional de Jornalismo Radiofônico. He also received a Four Corners Award for Best Nonfiction Book for La Frontera, a Los Angeles Press Club Award for Best Feature Story, and a Best of the West Award in Journalism. His book Gaviotas was awarded the 1998 Social Inventions Award from the London-based Global Ideas Bank. He has taught writing and journalism at Prescott College, Williams College, and at the University of Arizona. He and his wife, sculptor Beckie Kravetz, live in western Massachusetts.

Alan Weisman on population Jasmine Moore JOCO Sustainability Program The post Population & Sustainability appeared first on KKFI.

With a million more of us every 4½ days on a planet that's not getting any bigger, prospects for a sustainable human future seem ever more in doubt. Alan Weisman traveled to more than 20 countries to ask what experts agreed were the probably the most important questions on Earth-and also the hardest: How many humans can the planet hold without capsizing? How robust must the Earth's ecosystem be to assure our continued existence? Can we know which other species are essential to our survival? And, how might we actually arrive at a stable, optimum population, and design an economy to allow genuine prosperity without endless growth? Tune in as we talk with Alan about what he encountered on his global search for answers.

With a million more of us every 4½ days on a planet that's not getting any bigger, prospects for a sustainable human future seem ever more in doubt. Alan Weisman traveled to more than 20 countries to ask what experts agreed were the probably the most important questions on Earth-and also the hardest: How many humans can the planet hold without capsizing? How robust must the Earth's ecosystem be to assure our continued existence? Can we know which other species are essential to our survival? And, how might we actually arrive at a stable, optimum population, and design an economy to allow genuine prosperity without endless growth? Tune in as we talk with Alan about what he encountered on his global search for answers.

With a million more of us every 4½ days on a planet that's not getting any bigger, prospects for a sustainable human future seem ever more in doubt. Alan Weisman traveled to more than 20 countries to ask what experts agreed were the probably the most important questions on Earth-and also the hardest: How many humans can the planet hold without capsizing? How robust must the Earth's ecosystem be to assure our continued existence? Can we know which other species are essential to our survival? And, how might we actually arrive at a stable, optimum population, and design an economy to allow genuine prosperity without endless growth? Tune in as we talk with Alan about what he encountered on his global search for answers.

Breathing, eating and consuming, an individual human being produces tons of carbon every year – population may be the key to curbing greenhouse gas emissions. Populations are expected to skyrocket in developing areas like sub-saharan Africa, generating even more carbon pollution. Reducing population growth could also help fight climate change, but in the wake of India’s forced sterilizations in the 1970s and China's mandatory one-child policy, nationwide family planning has a stigma. Malcolm Potts, a professor of family planning at UC Berkeley, believes talking about condoms should be as natural as talking about cabbages. “They're not a medical thing. They are choices, they should be available. Like cabbages, they should be where your vegetables are.” Alan Weisman’s most recent book Countdown: Our Last, Best Hope for a Future on Earth addresses the question of the world’s teeming masses head on. Weisman and Potts recently sat down at The Commonwealth Club to tackle the sensitive topic of our growing population and its part in straining the earth’s resources. Both Weisman and Potts emphasized that education is key to reducing growth rates, and in particular, the education of girls. And the reverse is true as well. “People in developing countries want fewer children,” says Potts, “because they all know the power of education and they all know if you have a smaller family, your kids are more likely to get educated. But if we remove the barriers between family planning, the knowledge and means to do it, then even illiterate people will have fewer children.” Equating the world’s bourgeoning population with climate change, says Weisman, is a no-brainer. “We’ve jet propelled society. We can do all these incredible things. We have electricity but we also have these waste products and they float up into the atmosphere. And the more of us demanding this stuff, the more carbon dioxide is up there. There's more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere right now than there has been in 3 million years.” Solving our climate problem could be simpler – and less expensive – than we think. “Carbon-free energy, we don't know how to do that really well yet, but even if we did, it would be really expensive.” Weisman says. But birth control? “This doesn't involve any technological leaps. To make contraception universally available, it's been calculated that it would cost about a little over $8 billion per year.” “For 200,000 years, there was not a population explosion. We were roughly in balance with our environment” says Potts. “We've done wonderful things to reduce infant mortality. And we're being blind and stupid and curious about not offering people family planning at the same time.” Alan Weisman, Senior Radio Producer, Homelands Productions; Author, Countdown: Our Last, Best Hope for a Future on Earth? (Little, Brown & Company, 2013) Malcolm Potts, Fred H. Bixby Endowed Chair in Population and Family Planning, School of Public Health, UC Berkeley This program was recorded in front of a live audience at The Commonwealth Club of California on February 25, 2014

The team considers noteworthy science on the last day of 2013. What's worth mentioning? Too many people, too much carbon, and way too much fun in astronomy! Biology and Health (start time 00:56). This year marked the passing of long-time Boulder resident, Al Bartlett. Bartlett was one of the world's most eloquent voices calling for population control. He will be missed. One of the champions picking up the torch is New York Times bestselling author, Alan Weisman. Weisman offers exciting solutions to population growth in Countdown:  Our Last, Best Hope for a Future on Earth. How on Earth's Shelley Schlender reports that this is a hard book to read, because it's long, and thorough, and urgency of the need for population reduction worldwide is often not a happy topic. She admits that sometimes, she even switched to a detective novel before reading more of Countdown. But she kept at it because Countdown provides some exciting solutions to population growth. One of the most compelling is to provide women with education and access to birth control. It turns out these two offerings are often a key to women deciding, voluntarily, to limit their families to two children, and sometimes, fewer. Co-host Shelley Schlender hosts this interview with Weisman about perhaps the greatest problem facing humanity--too many people.   Physics and Astronomy (start time 08:56). Co-host Jim Pullen couldn't decide on the best physics and astronomy story of 2013, so he dipped into the rich happenings of the year, taken from all over the world: superbolides skipping over Russia, bitumen dripping in Ireland, Voyager 1 long-ranging somewhere in the galaxy, and Icecube spying far-flung neutrinos down at the bottom of the world (and beyond). We'll learn that the news of 2013 owes much to 2012, 1977, 1944 and even 1927. And that leaves WIMPS, dark matter, LUX, two-dimensional graphene, trapped quantum states, quantum computers, and so much more for 2014!     Environment (start time 16:44). What a year it's been! We shot past 400 ppm of CO2 in the ever-warming blanket of air skinned over the planet. And disasters! Mighty and perilous Super Typhoon Haiyan, with the fastest winds ever recorded, crashed into the Philipines in November. More locally, in September here on the Northern Front Range, a flood of historic proportion. Co-hosts Susan Moran and Tom Yulsman look at the perils of 2013 and portents.     Happy 2014 to you, our KGNU and How On Earth family! Hosts: Shelley Schlender, Jim Pullen, Susan Moran Producer: Jim Pullen Engineer: Jim Pullen Executive Producer: Beth Bartel

Aired: 12/8/13 What do you think are the biggest solvable problems facing humanity? Justice and inequality? Violence and war? Climate change and pollution? Today we're going to focus on one that I believe underlies all of those: Population. The last book from today's guest, ALAN WEISMAN, was thought-provoking, award-winning, and best-selling. THE WORLD WITHOUT US, which was made into a powerful documentary, imagined what would happen to planet earth if humans disappeared. Our massive infrastructure would collapse and vanish without human presence, and nature would swiftly begin to heal without our daily pressures. But, Weisman, would rather Imagine a successful world with us, and that led to his newest book, COUNTDOWN: OUR LAST, BEST HOPE FOR A FUTURE ON EARTH. For this one, he traveled to 21 countries asking politicians, scientists, family planning specialists, doctors, and religious leaders, crucial questions about how we can successfully deal with the size of human population.

The population of the world continues to grow, but can the earth sustain it? On this program, Alan Weisman discussed sustainable population growth.

Guest Alan Weisman speaks with Diane Horn about his most recent book, "Countdown: Our Last, Best Hope for a Future on Earth?"

WSIU's Jennifer Fuller interviews author Alan Weisman about his new book, "Countdown."

Author Alan Weisman shares insights from his latest book, Countdown: Our Last, Best Hope for a Future on Earth? Can we feed a human population headed toward 11 billion, and still leave enough for other species on which our own survival may depend? Will technological leaps like genetically enhanced photosynthesis or lab-grown meat actually help us avert disaster? In his latest book, Countdown: Our Last, Best Hope for a Future on Earth?, author Alan Weisman considers whether and how people can sustainably thrive without crashing the global ecosystem. Traveling to 21 countries for insights from a broad swath of cultures, ecosystems, scientists, food specialists, and religious leaders, Weisman pursues the concept of a future balance between us and the world. Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in the podcasts on nyas.org are those of the speaker(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of the New York Academy of Sciences.

This week, Chris Mooney talks to environmental journalist Alan Weisman, who explains why, following on his 2007 New York Times bestseller The World Without Us, he decided to centrally take on the issue of human population.For his just-published book Countdown: Our Last, Best Hope for a Future on Earth?, Weisman traveled to 21 countries—from Israel to Mexico, and from Pakistan to Niger—to report on how different cultures are responding to booming populations and the strain this is putting on their governments and resources.Importantly, Weisman is no supporter of coercive population control measures such as China's infamous one-child policy. Rather, he makes a powerful case that the best way to manage the global population is by empowering women, through both education and access to contraception.This episode of Inquiring Minds also features a discussion of the latest myths circulating on global warming, and the brave new world of gene therapy that we're entering—where being rich might be your key ticket to the finest health care.Subscribe:itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/inquiring-minds/id711675943feeds.feedburner.com/inquiring-minds

Journalist Weisman traveled the world to investigate what happens when humans stop occupying an area. How long do our artifacts last? How does nature recover? What does that say about the human impact on the world? What would be the actual sequence of events if all of humanity suddenly disappeared? The exercise provides inspiration and techniques for humans to occupy Earth more lightly and therefore more durably.

In "The World Without Us," Alan Weisman asks the question: What would happen, to the planet and to human structures and other creations, if human beings suddenly disappeared? (Program-length interview.)   The post Puzzling Evidence – March 13, 2009 at 3:00am appeared first on KPFA.

Alan Weisman, Author of "The World Without Us" Alan Weisman's reports from around the world have appeared in Harper's, The New York Times Magazine, The Atlantic Monthly, The Los Angeles Times Magazine, Orion, Wilson Quarterly, Vanity Fair, Mother Jones, Discover, Audubon, Condé Nast Traveler, and in many anthologies, including Best American Science Writing 2006. In this far-reaching narrative, Weisman explains how our massive infrastructure would collapse and finally vanish without human presence; what of our everyday stuff may become immortalized as fossils; how copper pipes and wiring would be crushed into mere seams of reddish rock; why some of our earliest buildings might be the last architecture left; and how plastic, bronze sculpture, radio waves, and some man-made molecules may be our most lasting gifts to the universe.

In the final podcast of this series, presented by Bristol Festival of Ideas and sponsored by the Philosopher's Magazine, George Miller looks back at some of the highlights of the 2008 Bristol Festival of Ideas. Alan Weisman looks to the future to discover what the world might be like, and how it would change if humans disappeared right now for good. In the current age of anxiety over our impact on the earth's climate and environment, he offers an intriguing glimpse of what the real legacy of our time on the planet may be. New York University psychologist Gary Marcus argues that the mind is not an elegantly designed organ but a 'kluge', a clumsy, cobbled-together contraption. He unveils a fundamentally new way of looking at the human mind, arguing against a whole tradition that praises our human minds as the most perfect result of evolution. Andrew Kelly, Director of the Bristol Festival of Ideas talks about some of this year's events and looks forward to 2009.

Was geschähe mit der Erde, wenn der Mensch von einer Sekunde auf die nächste von ihr verschwände? Ein Artikel von Alan Weisman schaut in eine mögliche Zukunft. Außerdem berichten wir über den sechsten Sinn der Haie. Und über die Zukunft: Michael Springer meint, sie bringt´s nicht.

In this episode, journalist Alan Weisman continues his discussion (started on the June 27th podcast) about his bestselling book "The World Without Us," a massive thought experiment about the aftermath of humanity's sudden disappearance. And Scientific American editor-in-chief John Rennie discusses what's up at the magazine. Plus we'll test your knowledge of some recent science in the news.

In this episode, journalist Alan Weisman, Laureate Associate Professor in Journalism and Latin American Studies at the University of Arizona, discusses his new book "The World Without Us," a massive thought experiment about the aftermath of humanity's sudden disappearance. Plus we'll test your knowledge of some recent science in the news. For info on and articles by Alan Weisman, go to www.homelands.org/producers/weisman.html

In this episode, the Wildlife Conservation Society's Stephen Sautner and John Delaney talk about the appearance of a beaver in New York City for the first time in 200 years and journalist and author Alan Weisman talks about our reaction to the event and other similar stories. Elaine McSherry, winner of the AccesScience '07 competition, explains why it's good to be explain science. Plus we'll test your knowledge about some recent science in the news.