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We've spoken to alot of degrowthers on this show, all coming from slightly different angles on the problems facing the planet. This week we are heading to Japan, to hear from one of the most prominent thinkers on Marx, to see how marxism and degrowth are really singing on the same hymn sheet. 

This week on the show Ads and Andrew are joined by Philosopher Kohei Saito to discuss Degrowth Communism. 

Kohei Saito is an associate professor of philosophy at the University of Tokyo, and the best selling author of "Capital in the Anthropocene" (which sold over 500,00 copies in Japan), Marx in the Anthropocene and his new book "Slow Down: The degrowth Communist Manifesto".

Topics discussed
The popularity of Kohei's books on Marx in Japan

Marx on nature and the metabolic rift

Historical Materialism

How Degrowth is an extension of Marx's own work.

How to get move on from "Capitalist common sense" to abundance.

The Japanese Left.

How do we start putting these ideas into practice.

Links
You can get a copy of Kohei's latest book "Slow Down: The Degrowth Communist Manifesto" at the link below.
https://www.waterstones.com/book/slow-down/kohei-saito/9781399612975

shout out
 
 Kohei's  kids for inspiring him to keep fighting for a better world. 
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50% of all new cars are SUV's, which may come as a surprise to you, considering the various noises around the world about moves to green transport. Is this just people with more disposable income wanting bigger cars, is it for the prestige? Or do car companies need you to buy bigger?

This week on the show Lucy and Andrew are joined by political economist Dr Tom Haines-Doran, to discuss his recent paper " The financialisation of car consumption". They discuss how the car industry is slowly destroying itself through over production, why fiance and debt companies want you to own a bigger car,  why the majority of cars are pretty much the same and the fall out of the the botched Low Traffic Neighbourhood scheme in Levenshulme. 

Links

Read Tom's paper "The financialisation of car consumption" Here
https://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/204987/

Read " The political economy of car dependence: A systems of provision approach" Here
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2214629620300633

Shout out
Streets for People-  @s4plb
Walk Ride GM-  @WalkRideGM


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When people think about environmentalists, the next words they probably say are, "Oh, like Extinction Rebellion?" The impact of XR on the the climate movement probably can't be over stated. From ubiquitous association to the effects on organising practice, Extinction Rebellion has been at the forefront of climate action for the last five years.  In the U.K many campaigns and activist are holding their breath, waiting for the Labour Party to take the reins of government, so the question is: what next for XR?

This week Ads and Andrew are joined by XR and Just Stop Oil co-founder Roger Hallam.  They discuss how the efffects of climate change spurred Roger into working on building a climate movement, how XR was built, its successes and shortcomings, why revolution is the only answer now as we head past 1.5 degrees and why citzens assemblies can be the mechanism for the revolution. 

Check out Roger's "The Work We Need to Do" here
https://drive.google.com/file/d/13UFxnwIEb4afjEzRdZQ72WUtLvvPB0PM/view?ref=rogerhallam.com

Roger's Website
https://rogerhallam.com/

Shout out
You can check out Rogers humanity project and get involved here. 
https://rogerhallam.com/humanity/
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 This week on the show we are joined by the Deputy Leader of the Green Party of England and Wales, Zack Polanski. We discuss how Zack ended up in the Green Party, what makes the party different from Labour, what would a Green Party in Government mean for British industry and how Zack sees personal choices versus systemic change.


Shout Out 
United voices of the world
https://www.uvwunion.org.uk/en/ 
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If there is any one word that is synonymous with tackling climate change it is “electrification”. Yes, getting off fossil fuels and taking the majority of CO2 out of our economy are the goals of many working on the climate, but if there was one silver bullet for the climate movement its generating more clean electricity.  

Renewable forms of energy have sharply decreased in price over the last twenty years, and battery storage solutions are coming on in leaps and bounds, but most of the world is still tied to oil and gas for their electricity use. So our question today is: Why aren't we moving faster on the green energy transition?  luckily we've found a guy who might know. 

Our guest today is Brett Christophers, Brett is a political economist and economic geographer, and has just published his new book “The Price is Wrong “Why capitalism won’t save the Planet “  on Verso books.  Andrew and Lucy discuss with Brett why the energy sector is so complex, how it favors fossil fuel based energy production , why isn't investment pouring into green energy and how china and India's energy needs should be a focus for the years to come. 
Links
Pick up a copy of Brett's book here
https://www.versobooks.com/en-gb/products/3069-the-price-is-wrong


Shout out
https://heatmap.news/
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It's our yearly stock take, where are we now in the fight to save the planet, and what do we need to do, to make progress faster?  Friend of the show Professor Kevin Anderson joins us to cut through the crap and get the heart of the matter.
 
 Kevin is the chair of  energy and climate change at the School of Mechanical, Aerospace and Civil Engineering (MACE) at the University of Manchester and works at the Tyndall center for climate change research. Ad's and Andrew discuss how much more carbon has been emitted since last year,  Why there is political cowardice at the top of the UK's politics, why inequality and climate change are intrinsically linked and how the framing around "Net Zero" has done more damage than good.   

This episode was recorded before the Labour Party dropped their £28bn a year pledge on green investment. Thanks lads.

Shout out
Rena Jones- Notts and Derbyshire councils and all the climate officers at local authorities fighting hard for change with no resources. 
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