May 29, 2019

Pop quiz! A friend of yours has just had an unfortunate chainsaw accident and cut a femoral artery: do you (a) make a tourniquet with your t-shirt, or (b) stick a Band-Aid on the wound? If you picked (b), congratulations! You’ve followed the instruction manual for humanity’s pathetic response to climate change. In this final episode of season 1, Asher, Rob, and Jason consider the psychology behind both inaction and effective action in these times of crisis. And for the very practical-minded, they also cover when to prescribe tobacco poultices and whiskey shots — good fun for the whole family.

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Show Notes

• This episode refers back to Crazy Town episode 1, Orangutans, Santa Suits, and Airplanes on Fire.
• Corvallis Climate Action Advisory Board
• Rob’s book, Enough Is Enough: Building a Sustainable Economy in a World of Finite Resources
• Pop-culture reference: the 2016 movie, Captain Fantastic
• The excellent documentary, The Reluctant Radical, that features climate activist Ken Ward
• Overton Window
• Milton Friedman’s quote from the preface to his book, Capitalism and Freedom (1962): “Only a crisis – actual or perceived – produces real change. When that crisis occurs, the actions that are taken depend on the ideas that are lying around. That, I believe, is our basic function: to develop alternatives to existing policies, to keep them alive and available until the politically impossible becomes the politically inevitable.”
• Extinction Rebellion
• Greta Thunberg’s powerfully blunt speech at the United Nations COP24 conference
• Greta Thunberg nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize
• Comprehensive article in Harper’s Magazine about the Green New Deal and Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, including lessons from history