Roar Bjonnes, Author at Systems Change Alliance

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

Green Gone Wrong

Musings on Systems Change

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?…

10/08/2020

Why We Changed Our Name from Future Planet to Systems Change Alliance

SCA News

Since Future Planet is such a great name and concept, you probably wonder: why change? After much reflection, deliberation, creative brainstorming and deep consideration, we decided upon a new name that we think better reflects what we stand for—name…

24/07/2020

Green Capitalism: An Oxymoron

Musings on Systems Change

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

29/06/2020

Why Green Capitalism Will Never Be Green Enough

Why is capitalism unsustainable? Why is our economy causing mass extinction of species, mass poverty and growing inequality? And why is it that green capitalism and The Green New Deal will never be green or sustainable enough? Let’s blame it all…

24/06/2020

Time for Rebellion: Let Disposable Plastic Become Extinct!

Environment

Our love-hate relationship with plastic started with the invention of a simple shopping bag. In 1965, Scandinavian shoppers discovered they no longer needed to bring their own canvas bags to the store. Thanks to the ingenious invention of engineer St…

13/06/2020

A Brief History of EU

Economy

After World War II ended in 1945, Europe was a divided continent. In 1946 the European Union of Federalists formed to campaign for a United States of Europe. In September of that same year, Churchill called for a United States of Europe centered arou…

13/06/2020

Challenging the EU’s Free Market System

Economy

The European Union (EU) was formally created in 1993 as a result of the Maastricht Treaty. The EU is an economic and political union of 28 member states operating through a system of supranational institutions and intergovernmental negotiated decisio…

13/06/2020

A Short Summary of EUs Four Freedoms

Economy

Free Movement of Goods Article 30 of the Maastricht Treaty prohibits EU member states from imposing customs duties and any other charges having the same effect as customs duties on any goods moving between countries. In addition, article 110 prohi…

13/06/2020

Why Norway Refused to Join the EU

Economy

In 1972, the streets of Norway were filled with protests against the EU when by referendum a majority of Norwegian voters rejected EU membership. The same situation repeated itself in 1994. Throughout the years, opposition against the EU has been dom…

13/06/2020

Toward New European Trade Policies

Economy

While the EU has maintained a common market, it has also pushed other countries to adapt free trade policies and not to impose tariffs on exports from the EU. If countries would impose tariffs on EU exports, it would make those goods more costly and …

13/06/2020

Why is the EU Disintegrating and How to Stop It?

Economy

The unity of a nation or the international unity amongst many nations, such as within the EU, are generally built around certain sentiments, whether religious, linguistic, or cultural. The vast continent of the Soviet Union was united based on an ant…

13/06/2020

Beyond the EU: Toward a New Union

Economy

Both the EU and, in a broader context, the financial institutions that have shaped economic policy during the latter part of the 20th century as well as into the 21st, were based on the idea that prosperity for all will promote peace and stability. I…

13/06/2020

The EU’s Four Freedoms, the Environment, and the Local Economy

In theory, we have few reservations regarding free trade. Given optimum conditions, free trade as set forth in the EUs Four Freedoms, can have great cultural and economic benefits. But free trade can also be detrimental to the local areas within …

13/06/2020

The Problems with the Euro Zone

Economy

While the four freedoms created the foundation for a free market and removed many tools of national governments to control the economic development of their countries, there still remained one obstacle to a fully open market. That was the exchang…

13/06/2020

Uneasy Progress: Increased Inequality and Mobility in the EU

The EUs social charter, as envisioned by Jacques Delors, one of the original architects behind the EU, is based on a fundamental vision of basic economic and social security for all Europeans. According to the New Internationalist, however, “This…

13/06/2020

Do We Want System Change or Systems Change?

At first glance, these two concepts may seem almost identical, one word is singular, the other plural. Two words with basically the same meaning. Or so I thought. Until I read the excellent book “The Story of More: How We Got to Climate Change and Wh…

Roar Bjonnes

Corporate Giants to Soak Up Global Water Supply?

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

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

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

Beyond Carbon Offsets: We Need Real Carbon Neutral Solutions

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

It’s Time for Economic Democracy

Why Free Trade is not Always Free

Eight Design Principles for a Local Economy

The Failures of Modern Economic Theories

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

It’s Time to Pay our Debts to Nature

The Natural Resource Crisis: Humanity’s Toughest Challenge

Beyond Green Capitalism

The Triple Bottom Line: Green Capitalism

Going Local: Self-sufficiency Through Decentralization

The Six Most Serious Environmental Threats Facing Our Planet

Growth or Degrowth?

Beyond Climate Change: A New Vision of Resource Utilization

The Next Economy: Understanding the Problem, Envisioning Solutions IV

Environmental Ignorance and Wisdom

Green Gone Wrong

Why We Changed Our Name from Future Planet to Systems Change Alliance

Green Capitalism: An Oxymoron

Why Green Capitalism Will Never Be Green Enough

Time for Rebellion: Let Disposable Plastic Become Extinct!

A Brief History of EU

Challenging the EU’s Free Market System

A Short Summary of EUs Four Freedoms

Why Norway Refused to Join the EU

Toward New European Trade Policies

Why is the EU Disintegrating and How to Stop It?

Beyond the EU: Toward a New Union

The EU’s Four Freedoms, the Environment, and the Local Economy

The Problems with the Euro Zone

Do We Want System Change or Systems Change?

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