Roar Bjonnes

Roar Bjonnes is the co-founder of Systems Change Alliance, a long-time environmental activist and a writer on ecology and alternative economics, which he terms eco-economics.

Articles

COP29: Activists From Developing Countries are Demanding Economic Systems Change

25/11/2424

Report by the Systems Change Alliance Team At COP29 in Azerbaijan, Harjeet Singh, global engagement director for the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty, emphasized to the New Hour at Democracy Now that climate finance remains a critical issue, w…

Appalachian Apocalypse: Reflections on a Climate Catastrophe

07/10/2424

Here, where I live, in the heart of the Southern Appalachian Mountains, the impending arrival of Hurricane Helene transformed the serene landscape of Asheville and surrounding areas into a battleground against nature’s fury. As heavy rains poured dow…

Post-Capitalist Compatibility: Degrowth, Indigenous Wisdom, and Prout

30/09/2424

As the climate crisis intensifies and global inequality deepens, thinkers and activists are increasingly calling for alternatives to capitalism. Three perspectives offering compelling visions for a post-capitalist world are the Progressive Utilizatio…

EU’s Nature Restoration Law Faces Setback Amidst Farmer Protests

28/03/2424

Environmental ministers in the European Union issued warnings about the bloc's credibility in addressing global biodiversity and climate crises following the decision to shelve the Nature Restoration Law. The law, aimed at restoring habitats and prot…

How “Weeds” Can Seed Ecosystems of Interspecies Activity

09/02/2424

In the article The Future is Feral—And Climate Resilient in Yes! Magazine, Irene Lyla Lee suggests that it is time to change our attitude towards feral plants. They are not just weeds; they are an integral part of the environment we live in. …

Cooperative Economics: Promises and Challenges

31/01/2424

The contemporary corporation is primarily driven by the pursuit of short-term profits for its shareholders. In contrast, cooperative companies tend to adopt a more holistic perspective on business operations. Numerous studies have demonstrated that c…

Economic Inequality: What Can We Do About It?

21/11/2323

According to the Gini Index, in every major region of the world outside of Europe, extreme wealth is becoming concentrated in just a handful of people. “In 2021, the richest 1% of Americans owned 34.9% of the country’s we…

The Myth of Externalities and Carbon Credits

01/11/2323

In today’s economy, if an industrial plant upriver creates water pollution, and a community downriver is forced to cover the cost of the cleanup, it is considered an externality for the company causing the pollution. These types of external…

Understanding Systems to Change the World

02/11/2222

The Urgent Need for Planetary Systems Change In February, 2022, the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) issued “a stark warning about the impact of climate change on people and the planet, saying that ecosystem co…

The Upset about Carbon Offsets

26/05/2222

What is carbon offsetting? If you are concerned about global warming and you are the CEO of a corporation in Europe or the US, and your company’s production plants pollute the air and water with various chemicals, then you’d naturally want to do s…

To Reduce Our Carbon Footprint, We Need Another Kind of Extinction Rebellion

13/05/2222

“The world's richest ten percent are responsible for an estimated 47 percent share of global CO2 emissions,” writes Florian Zandt at Statista. This is the result of a recent study published in the journal Nature Sustainability. The st…

Five Ways Food Production Can Reduce Our Carbon Footprint

04/04/2222

1. Plant-Centered Diet Photo by Anna Pelzer on Unsplash The Western diet is increasingly meat-centered and raising livestock accounts for nearly 15% of global greenhouse gasses. If livestock were a nation of their own, it would be the third gre…

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Podcasts

Musings on Systems Change

It's Time for Economic Democracy

00:00 / 00:09:57

Roar Bjonnes
December 15, 2020

The best selling French economist Thomas Piketty has documented in well researched detail how inequality is increasing in the world today. His solution? A global wealth tax on the rich. But is that enough to create a more just and equitable economy? In this podcast, Roar Bjonnes suggests that tax reforms are not enough and that what we need instead is economic systems change through economic democracy.

It’s Time for Economic Democracy

Dec 15, 2020

The best selling French economist Thomas Piketty has documented in well researched detail how inequality is increasing in the world today. His solution? A global wealth tax on the rich. But is that enough to create a more just and equitable economy? In this podcast, Roar Bjonnes suggests that tax reforms are not enough and that what we need instead is economic systems change through economic democracy.

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Eight Design Principles for a Local Economy

Nov 12, 2020

Shopping locally, growing some of our own fruits and vegetables, these are all very important habits to cultivate if we want to create deeper systems change. But individual changes are not enough in order to stem the tide of economic destruction against nature and the local economy. In this podcast, Roar Bjonnes outlines the eight design principles we need to implement a truly local economy.

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Beyond Green Capitalism: Economic Systems Change for the Next Seven Generations

Oct 27, 2020

Corporate capitalism is addicted to making money and therefore has a very short planning cycle--hardly longer than its next quarterly profit fix. A truly green, regenerative economy will have to plan long term. To do that, we need deeper economic changes. In this episode, Roar Bjonnes talks about the two most important systems changes needed to create an eco-economy of the future.

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Beyond Green Capitalism

Oct 09, 2020

Green capitalism is overlooking a fundamental issue in economics; an issue that we need to overcome through systemic restructuring in order to create a sustainable economy. In this episode of Musings on Systems Change, Roar Bjonnes talks about what this fundamental issue is and how to overcome and go beyond the limits of green capitalism.

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The Triple Bottom Line: Green Capitalism

Sep 25, 2020

In this new Musings on Systems Change podcast, Roar Bjonnes asks if the popular Triple Bottom Line slogan of green capitalism--Profit, People, Planet--which has been adopted by companies such as Shell, is really enough in creating systems change in economics.

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Environmental Ignorance and Wisdom

Aug 20, 2020

Learning from human history. Not all peoples and cultures from the past were environmentalists. What can we learn from their mistakes?

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Green Gone Wrong

Aug 13, 2020

Is sustainable capitalism just another green mean machine or does it hold the promise of a new economy? Can we solve our environmental problems by producing and buying green products?

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Green Capitalism: An Oxymoron

Jul 24, 2020

Is making capitalism more green a practical strategy? How can an economy built on greed create global economic justice and ecological balance?

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Roar Bjonnes

Articles

COP29: Activists From Developing Countries are Demanding Economic Systems Change

Appalachian Apocalypse: Reflections on a Climate Catastrophe

Post-Capitalist Compatibility: Degrowth, Indigenous Wisdom, and Prout

EU’s Nature Restoration Law Faces Setback Amidst Farmer Protests

How “Weeds” Can Seed Ecosystems of Interspecies Activity

Cooperative Economics: Promises and Challenges

Economic Inequality: What Can We Do About It?

The Myth of Externalities and Carbon Credits

Understanding Systems to Change the World

The Upset about Carbon Offsets

To Reduce Our Carbon Footprint, We Need Another Kind of Extinction Rebellion

Five Ways Food Production Can Reduce Our Carbon Footprint

Podcasts

It’s Time for Economic Democracy

Eight Design Principles for a Local Economy

Beyond Green Capitalism: Economic Systems Change for the Next Seven Generations

Beyond Green Capitalism

The Triple Bottom Line: Green Capitalism

Environmental Ignorance and Wisdom

Green Gone Wrong

Green Capitalism: An Oxymoron

Our Chapters

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