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Roar Bjonnes

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

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…
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…
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…
“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…
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…
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 …
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…
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…
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…
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…

Podcasts

Musings on Systems Change
Musings on Systems Change
Beyond Green Capitalism: Economic Systems Change for the Next Seven Generations
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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.
It’s Time for Economic Democracy
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.
Eight Design Principles for a Local Economy
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.
Beyond Green Capitalism: Economic Systems Change for the Next Seven Generations
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.
Beyond Green Capitalism
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.
The Triple Bottom Line: Green Capitalism
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.
Green Gone Wrong
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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