7 Thought Experiments for Earth Day | Frankly #62
The Great Simplification with Nate Hagens
Nate Hagens
4.8 • 552 Ratings
🗓️ 26 April 2024
⏱️ 15 minutes
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Summary
Recorded April 22 2024
Description
For this Earth Day in 2024 Frankly, Nate walks through 7 thought experiments geared towards imagining scenarios and outcomes for ourselves, society, and the planet. While not rooted in reality, thinking through hypotheticals can be a valuable way to reflect on our ethics, ideals, and future decision points. From the perceived quick-fix of solar panels to magic solutions for infrastructure and governance, how might human cultural values impact outcomes for the biosphere? How do humans and the climate shape each other, and what does that mean for the less stable climate we're headed towards? If they knew what we do today, could humans from hundreds of years ago have avoided the carbon pulse - and what opportunities do we have today, living in the future's past?
For Show Notes and More: https://www.thegreatsimplification.com/frankly-original/62-seven-thought-experiments-for-earth-day
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Greetings. |
| 0:02.0 | Welcome to this week's Frankly. |
| 0:07.0 | Frank, say hi to everyone. |
| 0:09.0 | Happy Earth Day, everyone! |
| 0:12.0 | Frank is one of Earth's creatures just the same as I. |
| 0:17.0 | But Frank, if you're going to be licking me the whole time, |
| 0:20.0 | I'm not going to be able to do |
| 0:21.1 | my little reflection on Earth Day. Today is Earth Day. This would be the 16th year in a row that I |
| 0:31.4 | have an Earth Day presentation, but I'm not ready. So I need a little bit more time because I have podcasts and presentations and other things. |
| 0:40.3 | But given that it's Earth Day and that Earth Day is almost as important as the solstices to me and way more important than Fourth of July or Halloween, I figured I would do a little reflection to make us think and reflect on the day and the time |
| 1:00.5 | that we're alive on this planet. |
| 1:02.7 | I'm going to come up with seven hypothetical thought experiments. |
| 1:08.8 | And when we do thought experiments, it allows us to maybe think about a problem |
| 1:14.4 | or an issue or a value or a circumstance differently. So today, seven thought experiments |
| 1:22.3 | roughly pertaining to Earth Day. First thought experiment, and I've mentioned this in the past, what if solar panels were free? |
| 1:35.3 | What would that change about our planetary circumstances? |
| 1:39.3 | My belief is not much. |
| 1:41.3 | First of all, solar panels themselves, at least in the United States, are around |
| 1:46.8 | 10% of the cost of putting up a solar installation, at least for a house. There's labor, there's |
| 1:55.4 | permitting, there's regulations, there's transmission, and all kinds of other things. |
| 2:04.2 | But when we ask the question, what if solar panels are free, what do we really mean by free? |
| 2:09.6 | They mean dollar cost, energy cost, ecological costs. |
... |
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