Saving the World From Bad Ideas

Episode summary 
In this episode of Saving the World from Bad Ideas, host Mark Lynas is joined by Roger Hallam, climate campaigner and co-founder of Extinction Rebellion, to discuss his evolution in climate activism and the case for mass civil resistance. Roger reflects on the successes and failures of Extinction Rebellion, his various arrests and time in prison, and his subsequent international campaigns. Mark and Roger discuss Roger’s most recent and controversial “4 Billion Dead” campaign, discussing the role of science communication about climate impacts at high levels of global heating. Roger argues that our political systems are failing to respond at the scale and speed required, and advocates for civil resistance, citizens’ assemblies and even solar geoengineering as possible responses to the planet’s escalating climate crisis.
“As a general rule, 99% of humans find courage through the community of collective action,” says Roger Hallam. “Then they radicalise through that experience and that can happen very quickly. As a general rule, if 3% of a population occupies a capital city for anything from 10 to 20 days, then you're rolling a dice on whether you get regime change or structural change in the regime. And we know that's what's necessary to slash carbon emissions at the present time.”
Join ‘4 Billion Dead’ for monthly campaigning and organizing Zoom calls at this link → 4billiondead.org

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, spotlight better ones, and make the case for a more abundant, resilient and hopeful future.
 
Join the Conversation
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Episode summary 
In this episode of Saving the World from Bad Ideas, host Mark Lynas is joined by Quico Toro, Director of Climate Repair at the Anthropocene Institute, to discuss his research on ocean-based carbon dioxide removal via phytoplankton. Quico challenges the idea that photosynthesis must only occur on land via reforestation, when 70% of our planet is ocean. He also discusses working with stakeholders in the South Pacific, like the Kingdom of Tonga, in collaborating with knowledge keepers and local ocean ecosystem experts to address concerns about carbon removal and approach the practice thoughtfully, scientifically and responsibly.
“To me, the obvious answer to carbon removal is photosynthesis. The forestry people had it right in the first place: photosynthesis is great. It's had a billion and a half years to develop through research and development and evolution. Oceanographers have been thinking for many years that a logical way to approach this problem would be to increase carbon dioxide removal by increasing phytoplankton concentrations in the center of the ocean.”

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, 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
Instagram: @weplanetinternational
X: @weplanetintl 
LinkedIn: WePlanet

Episode summary 
In this inaugural episode of Saving the World from Bad Ideas Season 4, host Mark Lynas is joined by scientist Joshua Elliott, director of Advanced Research for Climate Emergencies (ARC) and chief scientist at Renaissance Philanthropy, to discuss Earth's tipping points and rapidly changing climate systems — and how human intervention, via approaches like climate stabilization, is a fast becoming a moral imperative to combat the worst projections of climate breakdown. 
“We have been geoengineering this planet since we first developed agriculture,” says Joshua Elliott. “The tacit belief that accidental geoengineering is somehow okay, but that thoughtful, science-driven, purposeful, researched and scaled geoengineering or stabilization is somehow a horrible moral hazard. I mean, to me, that just completely defies logic.”

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, 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
Instagram: @weplanetinternational
X: @weplanetintl 
LinkedIn: WePlanet

Finally a new season is launching, and Mark is ready to tell us what season 04 of Saving the world from BAD IDEAS is going to be about.

In this season-ending episode of Saving the World from Bad Ideas, host Mark Lynas is joined by environmental journalist and author George Monbiot to explore a new framework for understanding environmentalism. George argues that what is often treated as a single movement actually contains three distinct and frequently conflicting philosophies: Green Liberationism, Green Pragmatism, and Green Social Nostalgia. The conversation traces the historical roots of each tradition, from anti-colonial activism and technocratic climate policy to rural revivalism and its relationship with fascism. Along the way, Mark and George discuss population debates, food systems, ecomodernism, the influence of religion on environmental thought, and the growing challenge of far-right infiltration into parts of the green movement. It's a wide-ranging examination of the ideas and tensions that shape environmentalism.

🧠 Topics Discussed
🌱 Why environmentalism may be better understood as three competing philosophies rather than a single movement
✊ What George calls "Green Liberationism" and how it draws on civil rights, anti-colonial struggles, feminism, and social justice movements
⚙️ What "Green Pragmatism" looks like in practice, from clean energy deployment to technocratic climate governance
🌾 What George means by "Green Social Nostalgia" and why he sees it as a powerful but problematic force within environmentalism
📜 Why George argues that rural revivalism became a foundational component of twentieth-century fascist movements
🌳 How post-war environmentalism inherited ideas from both progressive and deeply conservative traditions
🍽️ Why George believes many nostalgic visions of agriculture struggle to answer basic questions about feeding large populations
👶 How population anxiety became embedded in parts of environmental thought and why George sees it as politically unhelpful
⛪ How Christian traditions, pastoral imagery, and millenarian thinking continue to shape environmental narratives
🧘 How wellness culture, alternative health movements, and environmental politics can become vulnerable to far-right influence
🌍 What figures like RFK Jr., Vandana Shiva, and other controversial environmental voices reveal about ideological drift within green movements
🍔 How precision fermentation, microbial protein, and cultivated foods could transform debates about meat, land use, and sustainability
🤝 Why successful environmental politics requires combining technological innovation with democratic participation and social legitimacy
🚨 Why the environmental movement may be underestimating the challenge posed by far-right actors adopting green rhetoric

👤 Guest Bio
George Monbiot is an environmental journalist, author, and campaigner known for his work on ecology, politics, land use, food systems, and climate change. A longtime columnist and public intellectual, he has written extensively on environmental justice, rewilding, democracy, and the social forces shaping ecological crises.

📚 Recommended Reading & Resources
📖 Feral — George Monbiot
📖 Regenesis — George Monbiot
📖 The Anatomy of Fascism by Robert Paxton
📖 Works by Wendell Berry
📖 Writings and debates surrounding Paul Kingsnorth and the Dark Mountain Project

💬 Quote Highlights
💬 “You can have rural revivalism without fascism, but you can’t have fascism without rural revivalism.”
— George Monbiot
💬 “Power and politics don't disappear when you push people out of the way.”
— George Monbiot
💬 “You needed the technologies in order to realise the more political liberationist vision.”
— George Monbiot
💬 “We’ve been far too unprepared for the takeover of aspects of our movement by the far right.”
— George Monbiot

🌐 About WePlanet
WePlanet is an international movement campaigning for science-based solutions to the climate, nature and development crises.

📥 Join the Conversation
💬 ⁠podcast@weplanet.org⁠
📩 ⁠https://weplanet.org/podcast⁠
👁️⁠ https://twitter.com/weplanetint⁠