Saving the World From Bad Ideas

WePlanet
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The world is shaped by ideas—some good, some bad, and some that seemed good at the time. This is a podcast about rethinking the things we take for granted, challenging sacred cows, and admitting when we’ve been wrong. With your host, awarded environmental author and activist Mark Lynas, we take a deep dive into the environmental, political, and social debates shaping our future—without the outrage, tribalism, or easy answers. Help us save the world from bad ideas. Because the future depends on us getting it right.

  1. Bad Idea #52 "Attenborough’s films ignore human impacts” with Colin Butfield

    2D AGO

    Bad Idea #52 "Attenborough’s films ignore human impacts” with Colin Butfield

    “Attenborough’s films ignore human impacts.” In this episode of Saving the World from Bad Ideas, Mark Lynas speaks with filmmaker and environmental storyteller Colin Butfield, co-founder of Open Planet Studios and a long-time collaborator of David Attenborough. They discuss how Attenborough’s work has evolved from classic nature spectacle toward a much more explicit confrontation with ecological destruction, restoration, and humanity’s role in shaping the living world. Through the making of Ocean with David Attenborough, they explore the shocking reality of bottom trawling and Antarctic krill fishing, the changing grammar of nature documentaries in the Anthropocene, and why stories of damage now have to sit alongside stories of recovery. It is a rich conversation about storytelling, responsibility, and the power of film to show that human impacts can no longer be ignored. 🧠 Topics Discussed: 🎥 What it is like working with David Attenborough over nearly two decades 🗣️ How Attenborough delivers those iconic pieces to camera 🌍 How nature documentaries shifted from pristine spectacle to ecological reality 🌊 Why Ocean with David Attenborough was made as an urgent film about human impacts 🐟 How bottom trawling devastates marine ecosystems on an industrial scale 🛑 Why bottom trawling is still allowed in many marine protected areas 🐋 How Antarctic krill fishing competes directly with whales and destabilises the Southern Ocean food web 🧾 Why “sustainable” seafood labels often deserve much more scrutiny 📚 How films can remain true to documentary storytelling while still driving real-world campaigns 🎬 Why Open Planet gives footage away for education and advocacy 🌱 What ecological recovery can look like when people choose restoration and protection 🤝 Why humans are not inherently destructive and can become a force for good 🐻 What it takes to film extraordinary wildlife and wild places around the world 🚀 Why “we can always go and live on Mars” is its own terrible environmental fantasy 👩‍🏫 Guest Bio:Colin Butfield is co-founder and director of Open Planet Studios. As a filmmaker, writer and environmental storyteller, he has worked on major productions including A Life on Our Planet, Breaking Boundaries, Our Planet, and Ocean with David Attenborough. He has also co-written Ocean with David Attenborough and works at the intersection of documentary storytelling, conservation, and public engagement. 📚 Recommended Reading & Resources Ocean by David Attenborough and Colin Butfield Ocean with David Attenborough Open Planet Campaigns and research on bottom trawling in marine protected areas Work on marine protection, krill fisheries, and ocean restoration Sea Shepherd footage and reporting on the Southern Ocean krill fishery 💬 Quote Highlights💬 “This is what we’ve chosen to do as a society or chosen to allow.”Colin Butfield 💬 “I can absolutely sympathize with a community casting nets, even bottom trawling though I hope we can get away from that to feed their families, feed their communities, and earn a living. That’s a million miles away from going all the way down to Antarctica, hauling up krill for pet food and supplements.”Colin Butfield 💬 “You just got to a point where it felt very strange... not to mention humanity or talk about the changes that are happening in them.”Colin Butfield 💬 “It was unavoidable. You just can’t ignore this. It’s crazy to ignore it.”Colin Butfield 💬 “I don’t think humans are inherently bad.”Colin Butfield 🌐 About WePlanetWePlanet is an international movement campaigning for science-based solutions to the climate, nature and development crises. Through conversations like this one, we challenge bad ideas, spotlight better ones, and make the case for a more abundant, resilient and hopeful future. 📥 Join the Conversation💬 podcast@weplanet.org 📩 https://weplanet.org/podcast 👁️ https://twitter.com/weplanetint

    1 hr
  2. Bad Idea #51 "plenty of krill in the ocean" with Claire Christian

    MAY 7

    Bad Idea #51 "plenty of krill in the ocean" with Claire Christian

    Antarctica is the least disturbed continent on Earth — and for some of the world's most powerful fishing nations, that's not a reason to protect it. It's a reason to go there next. Claire Christian, Executive Director of the Antarctic and Southern Ocean Coalition, joins Mark Lynas to make the case that the bad idea is to look at the antarctica regian as a pantry, plenty of krill in the ocean, right? That idea still persists, debated in closed rooms in Hobart, and dressed up in sustainability labels. Christian traces the arc from industrial whaling and penguin-boiling in the early 1900s — one of the first modern wildlife protection campaigns — through the Cold War-era Antarctic Treaty miracle, to today's battleground: krill. The Southern Ocean krill fishery is small by global standards but growing fast, dominated by Norwegian vessels, eyed hungrily by China, and certified "sustainable" by the Marine Stewardship Council despite trawlers threading directly through the feeding grounds of recovering whale populations. What emerges is a picture of governance under pressure. CAMLR — the commission governing the Southern Ocean fishery — operates by consensus, meaning Russia and China can block marine protected area proposals indefinitely while simultaneously pushing to expand catch limits. Two MPAs exist (the Ross Sea and the South Orkneys). More are on the table, extensively researched, scientifically rigorous — and stalled. The Antarctic Peninsula, one of the fastest-warming places on the planet, still has no formal protection. Christian also unpacks the krill industry's favourite talking point: that the catch is less than 1% of total biomass. The problem isn't total biomass — it's where the fishing happens. Krill concentrate in a few small areas. So do the penguins, seals and recovering whale populations that depend on them. The wildlife can't go elsewhere. The ships could. So far, CAMLR hasn't required it. The meta bad idea, in Christian's own words: that the burden of proof should rest on nature rather than on us. 🧠 Topics Discussed: 🐧 The original sin: industrial whaling, seal hunting, and boiling penguins for oil — and the early 1900s campaign that became one of the first modern wildlife protection efforts 🐳 The recovery miracle: humpback whales possibly back to 80% of pre-whaling numbers — and the extraordinary discovery that more whales actually means more krill 🦐 Krill 101: why almost everything in the Southern Ocean either eats krill or eats something that eats krill — and why a 50-armed predatory starfish is just as important as a penguin 📜 The Antarctic Treaty system: how Cold War geopolitics accidentally produced one of the most forward-looking conservation treaties in history 🎣 How krill fishing started: the Soviet Union, the El Dorado effect, and the logic of "the whales are gone, so there must be more krill for us" 🏷️ The MSC certification problem: how a "sustainable" label on suppresses pressure on CAMLR to actually improve management 🌡️ Climate change as wild card: sea ice loss, shifting krill distributions, and why uncertainty is an argument for more precaution, not less 🗳️ CAMLR's consensus trap: how Russia and China demand more science before protecting — but not before fishing ⚖️ The burden of proof argument: who should have to prove harm — industry or nature? 👤 Guest Bio: Claire Christian is the Executive Director of ASOC, the Antarctic and Southern Ocean Coalition — a global network of NGOs dedicated to the protection of Antarctica and the Southern Ocean. She has been an observer at CAMLR negotiations and has written extensively on marine conservation governance, MSC certification, and Southern Ocean fisheries management. 📚 Recommended Reading & Resources: ASOC — Antarctic and Southern Ocean Coalition CAMLR — Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources The Antarctic Treaty Secretariat High Seas Treaty (BBNJ Agreement) — IUCN overview

    53 min
  3. Bad Idea #50 "clean energy is too expensive for Africa" with Daan Walter

    APR 30

    Bad Idea #50 "clean energy is too expensive for Africa" with Daan Walter

    Clean energy won't work in the global south... right? At a moment when the fossil fueled economy is cracking under geopolitical pressure, Daan Walter of EMBER brings the data that reframes everything: clean energy is moving ahead, in developing countries — it's already winning. Walter unpacks EMBER's latest electricity review findings: for the first time, wind and solar absorbed nearly all global electricity demand growth in 2024, causing fossil fuel generation to actually fall. And unlike the economic shocks of 2020 or 2013, this is structural. The episode covers the ElectroTech revolution's three core drivers — none of which are explicitly about climate. Walter explains why emerging economies, far from lagging, are leapfrogging the West: over 50% of CVF nations now out-solar the United States. The Strait of Hormuz crisis is accelerating everything. Pakistan's bottom-up solar revolution — millions buying off Alibaba, DIY-installing, disconnecting from failing utilities — is the preview of what comes next everywhere. Nuclear gets a candid assessment too, the question is how it can play nice with solar dominating the grid. Walter closes with a refreshingly honest admission: we don't know yet how to solve the last 5-10% of the grid cleanly — but that's fine. The right move is to sprint the 90% we can solve and invest in R&D for the rest, rather than let perfect be the enemy of transformational. 🧠 Topics Discussed: ⚡ ElectroTech defined: why wind, solar, batteries, EVs, and heat pumps all cluster around electricity as their magnetic center 📉 Bad idea autopsied: "clean energy is too expensive for developing countries" — true five years ago, dangerously wrong today 🌍 CVF nations leapfrogging: 50%+ of the world's most climate-vulnerable countries out-solar the US 💸 Capex parity moment: upfront costs of EVs and solar panels now matching fossil alternatives — the game-changer for capital-constrained economies 🌞 Solar as baseload: 80-90% uptime solar + battery achievable at ~$100-120/MWh; UAE Masdar project hit 99.5% uptime below $70/MWh 🛢️ Hormuz crisis as accelerant: biggest energy shock since the 1970s, turbocharging electrotech exports from China globally 👨‍💼 Guest Bio: Daan Walter is a Principal at EMBER, where he leads global energy strategy research. His CV spans Rocky Mountain Institute (batteries, efficiency, mineral demand), McKinsey, and two graduate degrees from the University of Cambridge — one in nuclear energy, one in theoretical physics. He's one of the sharpest analysts tracking the real-time pace of the ElectroTech revolution. 💬 Quote Highlights: "The answer is not 'you're wrong.' The answer is: you were right five years ago." — Daan Walter "The poorest countries in the world and the poorest families within countries are adopting ElectroTech because it's the cheapest option now, not the most expensive." — Daan Walter "We identify three key drivers of the ElectroTech revolution across the world. None of those three are explicitly climate." — Daan Walter "Every country in the world has a small Saudi Arabia worth of energy falling from the skies on them every year. All they need to do is put a panel up and capture it." — Daan Walter "By 2040, we might be in a very highly electrified, very low-carbon economy — in the same way that by 2040, we might be in an economy that largely runs on AI white-collar work." — Daan Walter 🌐 About WePlanet:WePlanet is a global citizen and science movement challenging bad ideas and championing evidence-based solutions for climate, nature, and human progress. Learn more at weplanet.org 📥 Join the Conversation💬 Email: podcast@weplanet.org📩 Subscribe: weplanet.org/podcast👁️ Follow: @weplanetint

    1h 8m
  4. Bad Idea #49 "We can stop worrying about the climate" with Zeke Hausfather

    APR 23

    Bad Idea #49 "We can stop worrying about the climate" with Zeke Hausfather

    “We can stop worrying about the climate.” In this episode of Saving the World from Bad Ideas, Mark Lynas speaks with climate scientist Zeke Hausfather about a dangerously complacent idea: we can stop worrying about the climate. As recent years have broken temperature records and warming appears to be accelerating, they explore why that conclusion is badly mistaken. The conversation unpacks the hidden role of aerosols in masking warming, what recent spikes in temperature do and do not mean, whether net zero really stops further warming, and how seriously we should take tipping points, geoengineering, and carbon removal. The result is a clear-eyed discussion that pushes back against both panic and complacency, and argues for staying focused on the scale and complexity of the climate challenge. 🧠 Topics Discussed 🌡️ Why the rate of global warming appears to be increasing ☁️ How aerosols have masked part of the warming caused by greenhouse gases 🚢 Why shipping pollution controls became part of the climate conversation 🧮 What happens if sulfur dioxide emissions fall even further ♻️ Why reaching net zero means temperatures likely stabilise rather than keep rising 📈 What explains the exceptional warmth of 2023 and 2024 🌍 Whether the world has actually passed 1.5°C yet 🔥 Why climate complacency is just as misleading as climate fatalism 🧊 How to think clearly about tipping points, from permafrost to ice sheets 🌊 What we know, and do not know, about AMOC slowdown and Arctic feedbacks 🛠️ Why solar radiation management remains controversial, risky, and unresolved 💨 Why geoengineering cannot replace emissions cuts 🪨 Which carbon removal pathways seem most promising today 💸 Why carbon removal is likely to matter, even if it stays expensive ⚡ Why solving climate change will require many tools rather than one master fix 👩‍🏫 Guest Bio Zeke Hausfather is a climate scientist and climate research lead at Stripe. He writes for Carbon Brief, publishes the The Climate Brink Substack, and has served as a lead author for the IPCC. His work focuses on observed warming, climate model performance, carbon removal, and the intersection of climate science and policy. 📚 Recommended Reading & Resources The Climate Brink by Zeke Hausfather Zeke Hausfather’s work for Carbon Brief IPCC reports on 1.5°C, mitigation, and carbon removal Frontier and Stripe’s work on carbon dioxide removal Research on aerosols, shipping emissions, and recent warming trends Research on solar radiation management and carbon removal technologies 💬 Quote Highlights 💬 “Our best estimate removing sort of natural variability is that the current rate of warming due to human activity is somewhere in the order of 0.27C.” — Zeke Hausfather 💬 “If you were to get rid of sulfur dioxide emissions completely... you would end up at about two degrees of warming rather than the 1.5 or 1.4 we’re at today.” — Zeke Hausfather 💬 “Getting to net zero emissions of all greenhouse gases and aerosols would lead to roughly flat temperatures.” — Zeke Hausfather 💬 “All of these geoengineering approaches we’re talking about... are literally that.” — Zeke Hausfather 💬 “There’s no silver bullet, but there’s silver buckshot when it comes to climate change.” — Zeke Hausfather 🌐 About WePlanet WePlanet is an international movement campaigning for science-based solutions to the climate, nature and development crises. Through conversations like this one, we challenge bad ideas, test assumptions, and make the case for a more abundant, resilient and hopeful future. 📥 Join the Conversation 💬 Email: podcast@weplanet.org 📩 Subscribe: weplanet.org/podcast 👁️ Follow: @weplanetint

    1h 13m
  5. Bad Idea #48 "Vaccines are overrated" with Seth Berkley

    APR 16

    Bad Idea #48 "Vaccines are overrated" with Seth Berkley

    Are vaccines overrated? In this episode of Saving the World from Bad Ideas, Mark Lynas speaks with Dr Seth Berkley, infectious disease epidemiologist, former CEO of Gavi, and co-founder of COVAX, about what the world got right and wrong during COVID-19.  They discuss vaccine equity, pandemic preparedness, the politicisation of public health, and why the world remains dangerously vulnerable to future outbreaks. From the rapid development of mRNA vaccines to the rise of vaccine disinformation and the growing threat of H5N1 bird flu, this conversation is a sobering reminder that pandemics do not end just because societies stop wanting to talk about them. 🧠 Topics Discussed 🦠 Why societies so quickly try to forget pandemics, even when the threat has not fully passed 🔬 Whether the origin of COVID matters for future policy and lab safety 💉 How quickly the world developed COVID vaccines, and why that scientific achievement was extraordinary 🌍 Why COVAX was created, how it worked, and what it achieved 📦 The scale of vaccine nationalism and the human cost of hoarding ⚗️ How mRNA vaccines changed the speed and future of vaccine development 🧬 Why HIV remains one of the hardest viruses to vaccinate against 🐦 The pandemic potential of H5N1 bird flu and why it deserves more attention 📱 How social media, political polarisation, and public-health messaging failures fuelled vaccine hesitancy 🏛️ Why attacks on institutions such as WHO, CDC, and public science undermine future pandemic response 🚨 Why measles is resurging in countries that had once controlled it 🤝 Why global cooperation, advance funding, and trusted scientific institutions remain essential 👩‍🏫 Guest Bio Dr Seth Berkley is an infectious disease epidemiologist and Adjunct Professor at the Pandemic Center at Brown University. He served as CEO of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, from 2011 to 2023, and was one of the co-founders of COVAX, the global effort to ensure equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines. He previously led the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative and has spent decades working at the intersection of global health, vaccine access, and epidemic preparedness. He is the author of Fair Doses: An Insider’s Story of the Pandemic and the Global Fight for Vaccine Equity. 📚 Recommended Reading & Resources Fair Doses: An Insider’s Story of the Pandemic and the Global Fight for Vaccine Equity by Dr Seth Berkley Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance COVAX CEPI (Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations) WHO Pandemic Accord / pandemic treaty process IAVI (International AIDS Vaccine Initiative) 💬 Quote Highlights 💬 “Vaccines are the most powerful public health technology [and] have led to the 40 year increase in life expectancy.” — Dr Seth Berkley 💬 “COVID isn’t over. We could have worse strains… and we need to learn the lessons from the previous one so we’re better prepared for the future one.” — Dr Seth Berkley 💬 “H5N1 is a really scary virus.” — Dr Seth Berkley 💬 “Outbreaks are inevitable, but pandemics are optional.” — Larry Brilliant, quoted by Dr Seth Berkley 💬 “The only thing that can protect us in a pandemic is science.” — Dr Seth Berkley 🌐 About WePlanet WePlanet is a growing international movement campaigning for science-based solutions to the climate, nature and development crises. Through this podcast and beyond, we challenge bad ideas that stand in the way of progress, and make the case for a more abundant, resilient and hopeful future. What lessons should the world have learned from COVID-19, and are we any better prepared for the next pandemic? Let us know what you think, and share this episode with someone interested in vaccines, global health, and the future of pandemic preparedness. Follow Saving the World from Bad Ideas for more conversations with scientists, writers and thinkers challenging the dogmas holding us back. 📥 Join the Conversation 💬 Email: podcast@weplanet.org📩 Subscribe: weplanet.org/podcast👁️ Follow: @weplanetint

    46 min
  6. Bad Idea #47 "Geothermal energy is niche" with Terra Rogers

    APR 8

    Bad Idea #47 "Geothermal energy is niche" with Terra Rogers

    Geothermal energy isn't niche—it's everywhere.  In this conversation, Mark Lynas speaks with Terra Rogers—program director for Superhot Rock Geothermal at Clean Air Task Force—about how next-generation geothermal technology could deliver 24/7 carbon-free baseload power anywhere on Earth. For a century, geothermal meant hunting for rare pockets where heat, water, and permeable rock aligned naturally—volcanic zones like Iceland, Japan, New Zealand. But it's hot everywhere. At 5 kilometers depth in the US West, temperatures hit 150-200°C. Go deeper—eventually to 10-15 kilometers—and you reach 400°C supercritical phase, where water acts simultaneously as liquid and gas, delivering 5-10 times more energy per well. Borrowing from the shale gas revolution, next-gen geothermal creates artificial reservoirs by fracturing hot rock and cycling water through it—two straws in a sponge. No natural water pockets needed. Just drill, fracture, inject, extract steam, generate power, repeat. The technology exists. Forge in Utah cut drilling time from 60 days to 15 days and reduced costs 50% in three years. Fervo just sold 500 megawatts to California. Japan targets four 100-megawatt supercritical projects. 🧠 Topics Discussed: 🌋 Conventional geothermal: 100+ years in Iceland/Japan/New Zealand, hunting natural water pockets 🔥 Superhot breakthrough: 400°C supercritical phase = 5-10x more energy, works anywhere 🛢️ Shale revolution parallel: fracture hard rock, create artificial reservoirs, cycle your own water ⚙️ Engineering gaps: high-temp instruments, thermal-resistant cement, casing expansion management 📉 Cost trajectory: Forge cut time 60→15 days, 50% cost reduction; targeting $20-40/MWh at scale ⚡ Scale potential: 500 MW (Fervo), gigawatt plants possible, high school campus footprint 🏭 Industrial heat cascading: Iceland model—power → pharmaceuticals → fish → melt streets 🌍 Geographic expansion: UK (Cornwall), Germany, France all viable with deeper drilling 🔬 Next-gen drilling: plasma/laser tech to penetrate hard rock, reaching 15-20 km eventually 💰 Investment gap: $1B invested, need institutional money for wells 1-5 (each $5-20M) 🛢️ Oil & gas pivot: trained workforce, rig assets critical for climate-relevant timeline 🗾 Japan commitment: 4x 100 MW supercritical projects, desperate for firm power 📊 Jobs & transition: existing oil/gas/power workforce ready to deploy 👨‍🏫 Guest Bio: Terra Rogers is program director for Superhot Rock Geothermal at Clean Air Task Force, where she advances policy, investment, and research to commercialize next-generation geothermal energy. Her work focuses on enabling firm, carbon-free baseload power by creating artificial geothermal reservoirs in superhot rock accessible anywhere on Earth. 📚 Recommended Reading: ● Clean Air Task Force geothermal resources ● FORGE (Frontier Observatory for Research in Geothermal Energy) Utah data ● Fervo Energy commercial deployments ● Japan supercritical geothermal initiatives 💬 Quote Highlights: (01:08) "We are both blessed and cursed with 100+ years of operating data. The world has heard of geothermal and concluded it's not for them because they don't have it." — Terra Rogers (03:09) "It is really truly hot everywhere. It's now just a matter of can we access it with drilling technologies we have." — Terra Rogers (51:26) "The geothermal industry can do this without the oil and gas industry. It's just if we want to do it in a timeline that matters for climate, we need to do it with their assets." — Terra Rogers 🌐 About WePlanet: WePlanet is a global citizen and science movement challenging bad ideas and championing evidence-based solutions for climate, nature, and human progress. Learn more at weplanet.org 📥 Join the Conversation 💬 Email: podcast@weplanet.org  📩 Subscribe: weplanet.org/podcast  👁️ Follow: @weplanetint

    56 min
  7. Bad Idea #46 "Conspiracy Theories" with Calum Matheson

    APR 1

    Bad Idea #46 "Conspiracy Theories" with Calum Matheson

    Conspiracy theories are psychologically reassuring closed systems that are corroding democracy. In this conversation, Mark Lynas speaks with Calum Matheson—associate professor and chair of Communication at the University of Pittsburgh—about why conspiracy thinking is more dangerous than ever. The appeal is simple: know the conspiracy, and everything makes sense. You're exceptional because you see the truth while others are "sheep." Every event fits the pattern. And there's always a kernel of truth—the Epstein files validate QAnon, Purdue Pharma's opioid conspiracy fuels anti-vax narratives. Real conspiracies exist, making fake ones nearly impossible to debunk. The problem? Conspiracy theorists use the same language we do—claiming we ignore evidence and suffer cognitive bias. Worse, conspiracy thinking now runs governments: RFK Jr. heads Health and Human Services, transvestigators claim all celebrities are secretly transgender, and deplatforming backfires. Matheson's prescription: stop trying to demolish conspiracies with facts. Instead, teach probabilistic thinking. Science isn't absolute certainty; it's extremely high probability. We must learn to live with uncertainty and accept that expertise means "more likely to be correct," not "infallible." The goal isn't eradicating conspiracy thinking—it's mitigating its democratic corrosion. 🧠 Topics Discussed: ☢️ Nuclear weapons psychology: why people fantasize about post-apocalypse instead of engaging policy 🛖 Survivalism: impractical prep rituals, post-collapse fantasies of rebuilding society 🌀 Conspiracy appeal: closed systems, psychological reassurance, certainty in chaos 🔍 Evidence misinterpretation: conspiracists use same language as debunkers (cognitive bias, cherry-picking) 🚬 Real conspiracies: tobacco, fossil fuels, Purdue Pharma—kernel of truth validates broader theories 🦎 Wild theories: David Icke's lizard people, transvestigators, chemtrails, QAnon 🏛️ Democratic erosion: RFK Jr., MAGA conspiracism, January 6th, anti-immigrant narratives 📱 Social media: algorithm-driven radicalization, deplatforming backfires 📊 Probabilistic thinking: science = high probability, not absolute certainty; tobacco industry exploited doubt 🎓 Expertise failure: media/philosophy professors deny Sandy Hook—credentials ≠ immunity 👨‍🏫 Guest Bio: Dr. Calum Matheson is associate professor and chair of the Department of Communication at the University of Pittsburgh and faculty at the Pittsburgh Psychoanalytic Center. His work examines nuclear weapons psychology, conspiracy theories, and extremist movements. Author of Desiring the Bomb: Communication, Psychoanalysis and the Atomic Age, his latest research explores conspiracy communities including Sandy Hook deniers and transvestigators. 📚 Recommended Reading: ● Desiring the Bomb — Calum Matheson ● University of California tobacco industry document archive ● Merchants of Doubt — Naomi Oreskes ● Research on conspiracy theory psychology and social contagion 💬 Quote Highlights: (29:13) "The issue is that conspiracists are misinterpreting evidence, not ignoring it. Their protocols for understanding are incorrect. They believe they have evidence for things they don't actually have evidence for." — Calum Matheson (01:01:33) "The world is probabilistic. A scientific discovery is not uncovering fundamental truth with absolute certainty. It's developing a hypothesis the evidence confirms is very likely to be true. Absolutes aren't appropriate for belief." — Calum Matheson 🌐 About WePlanet: WePlanet is a global citizen and science movement challenging bad ideas and championing evidence-based solutions for climate, nature, and human progress. Learn more at weplanet.org 📥 Join the Conversation 💬 Email: podcast@weplanet.org  📩 Subscribe: weplanet.org/podcast 👁️ Follow: @weplanetint

    1h 4m
  8. Bad Idea #45 "Eating wildlife is more sustainable’" with Sylvia Earle

    MAR 25

    Bad Idea #45 "Eating wildlife is more sustainable’" with Sylvia Earle

    At 90 years old, Sylvia Earle has witnessed more ocean change than perhaps anyone alive. In this conversation, the legendary oceanographer delivers an urgent message: we're destroying the very systems that keep us alive, and we're running out of time to stop. Earle dismantles the illusion that wild-caught seafood is sustainable. Since the 1950s, we've removed roughly half the ocean's wildlife. Ninety percent of big predators like tuna and swordfish are gone. Half the phytoplankton—the ocean's oxygen generators and carbon capturers—have disappeared. We're now killing whales not by hunting them, but by taking their food: industrial krill fishing in Antarctic waters strips food from penguins, seals, and the recovering whale populations that migrate thousands of miles to feed there. But there's hope. When commercial whaling stopped in 1986, populations began recovering. The technology exists: cell-cultured fish is already on menus in Singapore and the US. The knowledge is here, the choice is ours. 🧠 Topics Discussed: 🌊 Sixth mass extinction: first caused by one species (us) in geological time 🐋 Whale recovery: populations increasing since 1986 commercial whaling ban, but now threatened by food depletion 🦐 Krill crisis: taking Antarctic krill = killing whales, seals, penguins by removing their groceries 📉 Ocean wildlife collapse: 50% gone since 1950s, 90% of big predators disappeared 🫁 Phytoplankton loss: ~50% decline since 1950—ocean's oxygen generators vanishing 🎣 Wild fish economics: 30-year-old lobsters, 50-year-old orange roughy, 400-year-old sharks taken at zero cost 🐟 Salmon farming absurdity: chose carnivore requiring 3-4 years, fed wild fish—should farm plant-eaters 🧬 Cell-cultured seafood: already available in Singapore/US, chicken/fish grown from cells without killing 🏴‍☠️ High seas tragedy: half the planet's ocean = global commons raided by few countries/companies 🌡️ Ocean life support: 97% of biosphere, generates most oxygen, captures carbon, maintains habitable temps 🤿 Technology revolution: scuba (1940s), submersibles reaching 11km depth, exploring last wilderness 📊 Shifting baselines: each generation accepts degraded normal (passenger pigeons darkening skies → gone) 🎯 Mission Blue: 168+ Hope Spots globally, champions protecting ocean places from where they are to better 👨‍🏫 Guest Bio: Dr. Sylvia Earle is a legendary oceanographer, explorer, author, and lecturer who has led over 100 expeditions logging 7,000+ hours underwater. She was the first female chief scientist of NOAA, has been a National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence since 1998, and founded Mission Blue to inspire ocean protection. At 90, she remains one of the world's most powerful voices for ocean conservation. 📚 Recommended Reading: ● Mission Blue: Hope Spots network (mission-blue.org)  ● Sylvia Earle's books and documentaries  ● Studies on whale recovery post-whaling  ● Research on ocean wildlife collapse since 1950s 💬 Quote Highlights: (03:23) "We've removed roughly half of the wild animals in the ocean since the 1950s. The sixth mass extinction is caused by one species—us." — Sylvia Earle (24:20) "About 90% of big predators—tuna, swordfish—are gone. We treat them like chickens. They're like lions and tigers, and they're disappearing fast." — Sylvia Earle (01:06:39) "All of us have a vested interest in the high seas, the global commons. Those who extract from it are taking from you, from all of us. Why do we let this happen?" — Sylvia Earle (01:29:06) "When the buying stops, the killing can too. Every fish you choose not to eat could be swimming out there. The ocean says thank you. The kids say thank you." — Sylvia Earle 🌐 About WePlanet: WePlanet is a global citizen and science movement challenging bad ideas and championing evidence-based solutions for climate, nature, and human progress. Learn more at weplanet.org 📥 Join the Conversation 💬 Email: podcast@weplanet.org  📩 Subscribe: weplanet.org/podcast  👁️ Follow: @weplanetint

    1h 48m
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The world is shaped by ideas—some good, some bad, and some that seemed good at the time. This is a podcast about rethinking the things we take for granted, challenging sacred cows, and admitting when we’ve been wrong. With your host, awarded environmental author and activist Mark Lynas, we take a deep dive into the environmental, political, and social debates shaping our future—without the outrage, tribalism, or easy answers. Help us save the world from bad ideas. Because the future depends on us getting it right.

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