Patrick Ophuls: "Energy, Politics, and The Future"
The Great Simplification with Nate Hagens
Nate Hagens
4.8 • 555 Ratings
🗓️ 30 November 2022
⏱️ 70 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Today, ecologist, political scientist, and author Patrick Ophuls joins Nate to discuss his new book, The Tragedy of Industrial Civilization and The Future of Politics. As he's been doing for his lifetime of scholarship, Patrick unpacks how energy, ecology and our political arrangements leave us in a predicament with no simple solutions. Before we can even begin to plan for the future, we need to understand the enormity of the biophysical challenges we will have to face - Patrick Ophuls helps us do just that.
About Patrick Ophuls:
Dr. Patrick Ophuls (who writes under the pen name William Ophuls) is an American political scientist, ecologist, independent scholar, and author. Patrick has a PhD in political science from Yale University and has been a prominent voice in the environmental movement since the 1970s. His award winning book in 1977 is on the bookshelves of most people I know. He has written 10 books including 'Ecology and the Politics of Scarcity', 'Plato's Revenge', 'Politics in the Age of Ecology', and 'Immoderate Greatness: Why Civilizations Fail'.
For Show Notes and More visit: https://www.thegreatsimplification.com/episode/47-patrick-ophuls
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | You're listening to The Great Simplification with Nate Higgins. |
| 0:06.0 | That's me. |
| 0:07.7 | On this show, we try to explore and simplify what's happening with energy, the economy, the environment, and our society. |
| 0:17.3 | Together with scientists, experts, and leaders, this show is about understanding the bird's-eye view of how everything fits together, where we go from here and what we can do about it as a society and as individuals. |
| 0:33.2 | Dr. Patrick Ophels, who writes under the pen name William Ophels, is an American political |
| 0:40.4 | scientist, ecologist, independent scholar, author, and my friend. |
| 0:48.1 | Patrick has a PhD in political science from Yale University, and he has been a prominent |
| 0:54.1 | voice in the environmental |
| 0:55.4 | movement since the 1970s. |
| 0:57.5 | His award-winning book in 1977, ecology and the politics of scarcity is on the bookshelves |
| 1:05.4 | of most of my inner circle in this movement. |
| 1:09.2 | He has written 10 books, also including Plato's Revenge, |
| 1:14.6 | Politics in the Age of Ecology, and Immoderate Greatness, Why Civilizations Fail. I talk to Patrick |
| 1:22.9 | today about his new book, The Future of Politics. This was an intense, scholarly, and at times |
| 1:31.9 | grim conversation. But as he's been doing his whole life, Patrick is speaking the truth about |
| 1:40.9 | energy, ecology, and our political arrangements. |
| 1:45.2 | Please welcome Patrick Ophels. |
| 2:00.2 | Hello, Patrick Ophels. Hello, how are you? I'm good, Patrick. |
| 2:02.1 | Hello. How are you? |
| 2:04.2 | I'm good, sir. How are you? |
| 2:06.2 | It's getting hot here, but otherwise fine. |
| 2:08.7 | Well, we have probably a 60-degree temperature differential between California and Wisconsin today. |
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