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

Aluminum Produced in Norway Has the World’s Lowest Carbon Footprint

03/03/2222

Deep inside the Lysefjord, on the Norwegian southwestern coast, heavy rain is the main energy source in producing clean energy. Waterfalls cuts into the mountains. The fjord’s wide gorge has steep, partly overhanging rock walls on both sides. In t…

Carbon Capture and Beyond

01/02/2222

The story of how we got to climate change is familiar to most of us: our extractive human habits, free market economies, and short-sighted use of new inventions gave us coal-fired power plants, industrial farming, and gas guzzling automobiles. These …

Consumption: The Cause and the Solution to Environmental Destruction

02/12/2121

In American consumer culture there is an apt saying: “Shop, shop until you drop.” Not surprisingly, American household consumption amounts to about 70 percent of Gross National Product (GDP). On average, most countries spend between 50-80 percent of …

Beyond Carrying Capacity: Developing a Wellbeing Economy

23/11/2121

William E. Rees, in his essay ”A blot on the land“ (Nature 421, 898; 2003), uses the ecological-footprint concept to argue that the “carrying capacity” of the Earth has been exceeded because of technological and economic growth, and to counter s…

IPCC Climate Report: Capitalism is Unsustainable

10/11/2121

With COP26 still underway in Glasgow, Scotland, a leaked report from the IPCC (The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) states that the only way to avoid climate collapse is to end capitalism’s perpetual economic growth model. …

COP26 — Real Change or Just Another Blah Blah Summit for the Rich and the Powerful?

02/11/2121

At the COP26 summit in Glasgow, more than 100 world leaders representing over 85% of the planet's forests have committed to ending deforestation and land degradation by 2030, a British government statement says. Among the nations taking part are C…

The Invisible Hand: Capitalism’s Biggest and Most Destructive Myth

19/10/2121

Adam Smith’s most famous and most quoted idea is that of the invisible hand--the notion that if you work for your own selfish goals, the result would still be the same as if you worked to serve society as a whole. In economic terms this means that…

The Future of the Electric Car: A Systems Change Perspective

15/09/2121

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…

Nine Ways to Create a Local, Regenerative Economy

30/07/2121

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…

Economic Degrowth: The Solution to Climate Breakdown

21/07/2121

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 …

E.F. Schumacher and the Limitations of Green Capitalism

23/06/2121

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…

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

22/06/2121

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…

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Podcasts

Musings on Systems Change

Eight Design Principles for a Local Economy

00:00 / 00:17:30

Roar Bjonnes
November 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.

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.

Listen »

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

Aluminum Produced in Norway Has the World’s Lowest Carbon Footprint

Carbon Capture and Beyond

Consumption: The Cause and the Solution to Environmental Destruction

Beyond Carrying Capacity: Developing a Wellbeing Economy

IPCC Climate Report: Capitalism is Unsustainable

COP26 — Real Change or Just Another Blah Blah Summit for the Rich and the Powerful?

The Invisible Hand: Capitalism’s Biggest and Most Destructive Myth

The Future of the Electric Car: A Systems Change Perspective

Nine Ways to Create a Local, Regenerative Economy

Economic Degrowth: The Solution to Climate Breakdown

E.F. Schumacher and the Limitations of Green Capitalism

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

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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