You're listening to The Great Simplification with Nate Higgins.

That's me.

On this show, we try to explore and simplify what's happening with energy, the economy, the environment, and our society.

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.

Over the years, I've read many books by Mass Extinction expert and University of Washington

biology professor Peter Ward, which is easy to do because he's written 20.

Eventually I reached out to him and we have become friends over the last five or six years.

I lean on his knowledge about upcoming risks and probabilities regarding the biosphere

in the natural world, especially the oceans.

Today, and what I expect will be the first of numerous appearances of Peter on this podcast,

we discussed the slowing currents in the Atlantic Ocean due to warming.

We catalog the various risks to Earth's oceans from the current human extraction of fossils.

And we discuss how a reduction in elephant poaching is leading to destruction of coral reefs.

I hope you enjoy this conversation with Peter Ward.

Music with Peter Ward. Good morning, Peter, Peter.

Good morning, Nate.

How are you?

I am good.

There's a lot we could talk about, my friend.

I have long been a fan of your work, of your, I think, 15 books.

I have five of them here.

And as you know, I talk about the economic superorganism, which is humans and energy and money and growth and emissions are downstream of what we do as a global

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