Roar Bjonnes, Author at Systems Change Alliance

15/09/2121

The Future of the Electric Car: A Systems Change Perspective

Albert Einstein supposedly said that “We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.” This statement, made a long time before global warming, is acutely relevant today, not only in solving chronic health problems bu…

30/07/2121

Nine Ways to Create a Local, Regenerative Economy

Summary of Workshop by Roar Bjonnes The slogan “Think Globally, Act Locally” has been around for some years now. Only a few decades ago, vibrant local economies were indeed more prevalent: people grew food in their own backyards, local agriculture…

21/07/2121

Economic Degrowth: The Solution to Climate Breakdown

We hear a lot about the damaging effect global warming has, and will increasingly have, on the global economy. We are at a crucial environmental tipping point. Many scientists point out that now is the time to act—tomorrow will be too late. But very …

23/06/2121

E.F. Schumacher and the Limitations of Green Capitalism

The German-British economist, E. F. Schumacher, was the first modern economist to highlight the need for a green economy. What Adam Smith did for classical economics and Marx did for socialism, Schumacher has done for green capitalism. In his path br…

22/06/2121

Restoring Broken Boundaries: Scientist Johan Rockstrom’s Message for Dark Times

Scientist Johan Rockstrom has become a rock star climate activist. He can be seen all over the internet these days, in TED talks and among world leaders, sharing disturbing predictions backed up by hard scientific data. In the recent Netflix film Bre…

21/04/2121

Corporate Giants to Soak Up Global Water Supply?

The French corporate giant Veolia plans to dominate the global water market in a $15 billion merger with its main competitor, Suez. Critics warn that this will create a dangerous global monopoly and further erode public control of precious water reso…

02/04/2121

Seaspiracy: New Documentary About the Fishy Side of the Sea Food Industry

If you ever thought that eating more sea fish is much more sustainable than, let’s say, eating beef, then you ought to think again. If you ever want to know why, then watch Seaspiracy, a shockingly effective expose of the dark secrets of the fishing …

10/03/2121

Karl Polanyi: The Economic Prophet Who Predicted Why the Market Would Fail Us

Karl Polanyi, the Hungarian economist, was an intellectual giant of his time and prophetic in his vision of the failure of market economics. Long before it was fashionable to be an environmentalist or critical of the capitalist growth economy, he pre…

28/01/2121

The Water Crisis: A Clear Sign We Are Living Beyond Our Means

Short of the air we breathe, water is the most vital component in our life. Unfortunately, there are alarming signs we are running out of this precious liquid. Water scarcity is already looming, and the increasing demands for this “blue gold” in grow…

13/01/2121

Beyond Carbon Offsets: We Need Real Carbon Neutral Solutions

Environment

According to Rajendra Pachauri, the chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the financial markets are humanity’s only hope in reducing global warming. He said this in late September 2013, when he, presented the most air-tigh…

04/01/2121

Beyond Collapse: The Prophetic Voices of Umair Haque, Ravi Batra, Peter Turchin, and H. T. Odum

In the title track to Leonard Cohen's 1992 album The Future, the legendary folk singer croons in his raspy baritone: "I've seen the future, baby: It is murder." Cohen is not the only self-proclaimed prophet who has seen the future in recent year…

Musings on Systems Change with Roar Bjonnes

15/12/2020

It’s Time for Economic Democracy

Economy

Musings on Systems Change

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?…

10/12/2020

Why Free Trade is not Always Free

Economy

The common myth today is that free trade is good and that protectionism is bad. But it all depends. The prevailing views expressed by the World Trade Organization and others involved in negotiating free trade agreements, is that free trade helps ever…

12/11/2020

Eight Design Principles for a Local Economy

Musings on Systems Change

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 agai…

10/11/2020

The Failures of Modern Economic Theories

Economy

“Free markets will save the world.” We have heard that slogan for many years now. Yet free markets have not saved the world. To the contrary, finance crises, climate change, growing inequality and wars fought over oil and other resources, modern econ…

27/10/2020

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

Musings on Systems Change

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 cha…

22/10/2020

It’s Time to Pay our Debts to Nature

Economy

In Nature, all debts are paid and no one is too big to fail.H. T. Odum While financial debts are human-made problems that can be managed with solution-oriented policies, natural resources have external limits placed on us by the natural environmen…

15/10/2020

The Natural Resource Crisis: Humanity’s Toughest Challenge

Of all the crises facing the world today, the one with the potential for having the most profound impact on human life is the environmental crisis. The global financial crisis that began in 2008 as well as the economic crisis we are experiencing now …

09/10/2020

Beyond Green Capitalism

Musings on Systems Change

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 t…

25/09/2020

The Triple Bottom Line: Green Capitalism

Musings on Systems Change

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 e…

18/09/2020

Going Local: Self-sufficiency Through Decentralization

Economy

In the past few decades, globalization and corporate capitalism have wreaked havoc on both the economy and the environment in many areas of the planet. As a countermeasure, many individuals and organizations work towards developing a more localized e…

11/09/2020

The Six Most Serious Environmental Threats Facing Our Planet

Environment

The most serious threat facing our planet today is not the commonly conceived causes of global warming, water shortages, or pollution—these are simply the symptoms of an unsustainable economic system and culture. The main threat, and thus the main ca…

04/09/2020

Growth or Degrowth?

Economy

Our needs are few, but our wants are many. Therefore the basic goal of an economy is to take care of our basic needs. What are those basic needs? Housing, medical care, employment, education and food. We must learn to fulfill these needs without lead…

04/09/2020

Beyond Climate Change: A New Vision of Resource Utilization

No doubt, the climate crisis is one of the most serious problems we face. It is a symptom of a deeper problem: the plunder of nature in the name of profit and consumption. But rather than seriously responding to climate change, rich and corrupt gover…

04/09/2020

The Next Economy: Understanding the Problem, Envisioning Solutions IV

Economy

George Catlin interviews Roar Bjonnes, coauthor of Growing a New Economy A Four-Part Interview Series on the Next Economy Part Four Catlin: And that leads me to the next question I’d like to ask. It’s not like the economy is working for…

20/08/2020

Environmental Ignorance and Wisdom

Musings on Systems Change

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

13/08/2020