Developing Programs and Policy to Put Us On Course to a Bright Future

A conversation with Joseph Merz of the Overshoot Behavior Lab and the Future Behavior Lab

How can we help ourselves and everyone in the country make the dramatic changes needed to get our nation out of ecological overshoot and on a path to a bright future? Getting out of ecological overshoot – and doing it before the damage of overshoot is irreversible – will require a World War II level of effort. All of us – citizens, businesses, scientists and policymakers – will work together to completely reinvent our society, so that we give our kids not a dead planet, but a bright future.

We’ve begun to sketch this out on the Dave the Planet campaign website. Here’s a quick link to The Bright Future Project there: https://brightfutureproject.us. It’s far from complete, however. In this episode, presidential candidate Dave Gardner sought valuable perspective and advice to help us plan that project. Joseph Merz is one of the people he would invite to serve on the “President’s Council on The Bright Future.”

Merz was lead author of World Scientists’ Warning: The Behavioural Crisis Driving Ecological Overshoot https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/00368504231201372

Merz is:

• Founder and Chairman of the Merz Institute https://merzinstitute.org/
• on the Executive Committee of the Stable Planet Alliance
• Senior Fellow of the Global EverGreening Alliance

The Merz Institute’s Overshoot Behavior Lab and Future Behavior Lab are doing work at a high level that we think would inform The Bright Future Project.

Follow this podcast for a ringside seat to Dave Gardner’s adventures running for U.S. President. If elected, Dave will declare an ecological overshoot emergency and launch a national project to get the nation out of overshoot. Podcast guests don't necessarily endorse Dave for president. We’ve got a planet to save, and the U.S. should do its part. Learn more, subscribe to campaign updates, volunteer, or donate to the campaign at https://davetheplanet2024.com

It’s critical we set the record straight on the uninformed fearmongering about a baby bust. The latest round comes from a Wall Street Journal story and a segment on the CNN show, Smerconish. Presidential candidate Dave Gardner shines a little light on the subject in this episode.

Far too few of us are aware we have a human overpopulation crisis. For the past thirty years, too many have run for cover when the subject comes up. There is a fear of being labeled (usually falsely) racist, classist, or misogynist if one acknowledges overpopulation – or even worse – suggests we do something about it.

Yet today, growth boosters – and the journalists and commentators who carry water for them – shout from the rooftops about an alarming baby bust. They are the ones who should be ashamed and embarrassed, for reducing human beings to economic pawns. No child should be brought into this world in order to bolster the supply of labor, beef up the supply of taxpayers, restock an oversupply of consumers (customers), or provide some built-in, unpaid elder care.

Gardner shares how we know that we’re in a state of overpopulation today, and therefore should welcome falling birth rates. Smaller family decisions are a gift that will keep on giving – to generations to come.

MENIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

Why are Global and U.S. Fertility Rates Plummeting? – Smerconish on CNN

https://www.cnn.com/videos/health/2024/05/25/smr-fertility-rate-plummeting.cnn

Suddenly There Aren’t Enough Babies. The Whole World Is Alarmed – Wall Street Journal

https://www.wsj.com/world/birthrates-global-decline-cause-ddaf8be2

Follow this podcast for a ringside seat to Dave Gardner’s adventures running for U.S. President. If elected, Dave will declare an ecological overshoot emergency and launch a national project to get the nation out of overshoot. We’ve got a planet to save, and the U.S. should do its part. Learn more, subscribe to campaign updates, volunteer, or donate to the campaign at https://davetheplanet2024.com

Some voters are seriously concerned about our environmental meta-crisis, as we find out in this virtual town hall. Dave isn’t burning gas (and cash) roaming the country to meet with voters, so to have a dialogue he took to Zoom. Much of the conversation focused on answering these key questions:

• How can we be effective but also quick in alerting the public to the ecological overshoot emergency, and leading the country to action?
• Is there a role for alarmism, or not?
• And if facts don’t persuade, what will, and how quickly?

Also discussed: How best to educate the public about overpopulation, in the face of growing baby bust alarmism.

Thanks to those who joined in this conversation!

Recorded May 11, 2024

See the video of this town hall: https://youtu.be/iIE7-gEwn0E

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

The Bright Future Project

https://brightfutureproject.com

This Sustainable Life – podcast hosted by Joshua Spodek, and more

https://joshuaspodek.com/

The Limits to Growth

https://www.clubofrome.org/publication/the-limits-to-growth/

We Asked 380 Top Climate Scientists What They Felt About the Future

They are terrified, but determined to keep fighting. Here’s what they said

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/ng-interactive/2024/may/08/hopeless-and-broken-why-the-worlds-top-climate-scientists-are-in-despair

Dave the Planet on Substack: https://davetheplanet.substack.com

Donate to the Dave the Planet campaign: https://davetheplanet2024.com/donate

Volunteer for the campaign: https://davetheplanet2024.com/volunteer

Contact the campaign: https://davetheplanet2024.com/contact.html

Follow this podcast for a ringside seat to Dave Gardner’s adventures running for U.S. President. If elected, Dave will declare an ecological overshoot emergency and launch a national project to get the nation out of overshoot. Podcast guests don't necessarily endorse Dave for president. We’ve got a planet to save, and the U.S. should do its part. Learn more, subscribe to campaign updates, volunteer, or donate to the campaign at https://davetheplanet2024.com

Baby Bust Alarmism or Depopulation Panic are misplaced. We’ve outgrown the planet and are in ecological overshoot. So population contraction is not a disaster; it should be celebrated. Professor Scott Galloway often gets things right, but on this topic, he needs to hit the books.

[DAVE THE PLANET VIRTUAL TOWN HALL – May 11 at 10 Pacific/11 Mountain/Noon Central – Register Here: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZUrdO6oqT0jGN3K6fTrJdj7P9sTVJzWHIxT]

This episode was inspired by remarks made by Galloway on HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher on April 26, 2024. The professor was lamenting how gen z are not conceiving children because the American Dream (Dave Gardner's words) isn’t working out for them. In this episode, you'll hear Galloway characterize the population contraction Japan and Italy are experiencing as “the way we go out of business.”

You can’t talk our young people into being optimistic. They see what we’re doing to the planet. And you can’t restore their faith and optimism with bigger paychecks and affordable housing, because one finite planet just can’t support the antiquated American dream of ever-increasing wealth.

This is very relevant to Dave Gardner’s campaign for U.S. President, because a key part of his platform, The Bright Future Project to get out of overshoot, includes contracting our nations’s population (ethically and voluntarily) and ending our love affair with increasing wealth, economic growth and material consumption.

If you’re Scott Galloway and want to brush up on limits to growth, planetary boundaries and ecological overshoot, here are a few recommendations:

The Most Dangerous Secret – will point you to four good podcast episodes about overshoot

https://davetheplanet.substack.com/p/the-most-dangerous-secret

For an excellent summary of our situation, plus links to some of the most important reading you can do:

Polycrisis, Unraveling, Simplification, or Collapse: Coming Soon to a Planet Near You? – by Richard Heinberg, Senior Fellow at Post-Carbon Institute

https://www.resilience.org/stories/2023-06-15/polycrisis-unraveling-simplification-or-collapse-coming-soon-to-a-planet-near-you/

Follow this podcast for a ringside seat to Dave Gardner’s adventures running for U.S. President. If elected, Dave will declare an ecological overshoot emergency and launch a national project to get the nation out of overshoot. Podcast guests don't necessarily endorse Dave for president. We’ve got a planet to save, and the U.S. should do its part. Learn more, subscribe to campaign updates, volunteer, or donate to the campaign at https://davetheplanet2024.com

President Biden couldn't tell us the full truth in his State of the Union address last week. So independent presidential candidate Dave Gardner recorded this State of the Planet address, to provide a more accurate assessment of how things are going. We need the full truth about threats that – if ignored – could mean a dead planet for our children. In this address, Dave outlines how we can acknowledge those threats and come together to give our kids a bright future, instead.

Dave Gardner is the one candidate for U.S. President in 2024 who has that bright future agenda. Learn more about the candidate and his platform at https://davetheplanet2024.com

Get more detail about Dave’s National Project to Get the U.S. Out of Ecological Overshoot at https://davetheplanet2024.com/natlonalproject.html

Full transcript and more about this subject: https://davetheplanet.substack.com/p/state-of-the-planet-address

Follow this podcast for a ringside seat to Dave Gardner’s adventures running for U.S. President. If elected, Dave will declare an ecological overshoot emergency and launch a national project to get the nation out of overshoot. We’ve got a planet to save, and the U.S. should do its part. Learn more, subscribe to campaign updates, volunteer, or donate to the campaign at https://davetheplanet2024.com

These are lines from a speech written by Matt Orsagh, a speech we need to hear from our leaders, but so far we’re only hearing it from one political candidate – Dave Gardner, independent candidate for U.S. President in 2024.

Read the speech we're discussing here:

https://degrowthistheanswer.substack.com/p/the-speech-we-need-to-hear-from-our

The speech is so truthful, accurate and poignant, that we convened a few members of the Dave the Planet campaign team to review it. We’re faced with the decision of a lifetime: inconvenience ourselves and do what’s right for future generations, or opt for comfort and leave our kids a dead planet.

The speech continues:

Thank you to finance guru Matt Orsagh, who wrote this speech and published it on his Substack column, Degrowth is the Answer, in January of 2024. It was stunning to read the speech Dave Gardner could have delivered - such syncronicity. We interviewed Matt in our last episode; be sure to listen. Find that podcast in the links below. Here is one more, very relevant excerpt:

We also share some campaign news in this episode:

Endorsements – our campaign website now includes endorsements from notable people, plus supporters like you. Add your endorsement.

Flyers – download these graphics and leave them wherever you go to help spread the word.

Dave the Planet on Substack – campaign updates and notes about the issues are now being published on Substack. If you’re not already getting thes, be sure to subscribe here: https://davetheplanet.substack.com

Fundraising – this national campaign has so far not met even the $10,000 milestone. Please support this campaign so we can alert, educate and inspire more people. We promise not to be a spoiler.

Recorded January 24, 2024.

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

The Speech We Need to Hear from Our Leaders – by Matt Orsagh

I encourage our leaders to steal this speech.

https://degrowthistheanswer.substack.com/p/the-speech-we-need-to-hear-from-our

Degrowth is the Answer on Substack

If things were going well, there’d be no reason to question our current system that puts so much faith in economic growth. But things aren’t going well. Common sense and system dynamics models tell us we cannot grow economic throughput forever. It’s making our world more and more unlivable.

An array of evidence suggests continued pursuit of growth will leave our kids a Mad Max future, at best, and very possibly a dead planet. Finance professional Matt Orsagh explains why we need to change our economic paradigm, put human outcomes above economic, and embrace degrowth. He also explains the concept. Matt writes the Substack column, Degrowth is the Answer.

Americans, on average, are engaged in 5-planet living. We need to scale back in order to avoid leaving our children a dead planet — instead giving them a bright future. Contracting our economy back to a sustainable level is a major part of Dave Gardner’s agenda as a presidential candidate.

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

Degrowth is the Answer on Substack

https://degrowthistheanswer.substack.com/

The Economics of Biodiversity

https://www.cam.ac.uk/stories/dasguptareview

Degrowth Resources – recommended by Matt Orsagh

https://degrowthistheanswer.substack.com/p/degrowth-resources

Planetary Boundaries

https://www.stockholmresilience.org/research/planetary-boundaries.html

Doughnut Economics – Kate Raworth

https://doughnuteconomics.org/

The Speech We Need to Hear from Our Leaders

https://degrowthistheanswer.substack.com/p/the-speech-we-need-to-hear-from-our

Thanks to Michael Kerbow for permission to use his painting, The Oil Age.

https://www.michaelkerbow.com/

Follow this podcast for a ringside seat to Dave Gardner’s adventures running for U.S. President. If elected, Dave will declare an ecological overshoot emergency and launch a national project to get the nation out of overshoot. Podcast guests don't necessarily endorse Dave for president. We’ve got a planet to save, and the U.S. should do its part. Learn more, subscribe to campaign updates, volunteer, or donate to the campaign at https://davetheplanet2024.com

Don’t Let Trump Near the White House

No one was surprised at Donald Trump’s victory in the Iowa Caucus, but here’s why we cannot allow him anywhere near the White House. In this short bonus episode, presidential candidate Dave Gardner shares why anti-Trumpers are so adamant. We hear briefly from John Heilemann (speaking on MSNBC’s Morning Joe) about how unimpressive 51% is for the Donald.

Read Dave’s full Iowa Caucus response here: https://davetheplanet.substack.com/p/dave-gardner-statement-on-the-iowa

View his abbreviated response here: https://youtu.be/mCmznRC77x4?si=dXcuVzp41Omk3_ie

Follow this podcast for a ringside seat to Dave Gardner’s adventures running for U.S. President. If elected, Dave will declare an ecological overshoot emergency and launch a national project to get the nation out of overshoot. We’ve got a planet to save, and the U.S. should do its part. Learn more, subscribe to campaign updates, volunteer, or donate to the campaign at https://davetheplanet2024.com