Dave Vetter Profile picture
Nov 2 17 tweets 8 min read
On Monday, we [the MSEE cohort at @TheSmithSchool, @UniofOxford] met visionary systems thinker @KateRaworth and spoke with her about reimagining what and who the economy is for. Yet you won't hear her thesis in a mainstream economics lecture. 🧵 1/16
In her 2017 book #DoughnutEconomics, Raworth showed that mainstream economic thinking is based on a set of flimsy conceits and assumptions, in particular about GDP growth. These conceits have helped enable and accelerate global ecological and climate breakdown. 2/
Raworth notes that nowhere do the mainstream neoclassical or neoliberal economic thinkers include *the planet we live on* in their calculations. Their focus is fixed almost solely on growth. At any and all costs, the line must go up - forever. 3/
It turns out, however, that the planet we all depend on for our survival has physical limits. Raworth suggests that -just maybe- we ought to include in our economic equations the wellbeing of the planet and its inhabitants. And not simply "line go up". 4/ science.org/doi/10.1126/sc…
If you want to learn more about this, you need to check out the book or visit doughnuteconomics.org. But at the end of the talk, Raworth and others brought up something that hit home hard ... 5/
They revealed that, in spite of the #doughnut model being taken up by multiple cities and municipalities around the globe - from Melbourne to Amsterdam - this and other alternative econ theses *aren't even mentioned* in many, perhaps most, mainstream econ classes. 6/
One student said that they recently completed a (highly prestigious) economics and development degree in which the environment - indeed the Earth - *wasn't even mentioned*. Other economics students concurred: the planet and its physical boundaries didn't enter the discussion. 7/
This means economics students are being indoctrinated with something akin to a defunct religious ideology. One that discounts the planetary system(s) on which we all depend. Such students make broadly the same calculations that have been around since the time of Kuznets. 8/
Much like the internal combustion engine, which has remained largely the same since the Ford Model T, it's an idea that must be retired, yet persists. And while its functional utility might have got us here, "here" is turning out to not be such a great place. 9/
Economics students are still trained to view themselves as Rational Economic Man, and never invited to question the quasi-religious worldview that the 20th century's men in suits imposed upon their forbears in stuffy classrooms, devoid of planetary context. 10/
If you're taught to believe that everyone is self-serving and driven only by base instincts, you will likely see *and create* a world that only rewards selfishness. Our political leaders, many of whom took PPE classes at top institutions, epitomize this indoctrination. 11/
Again, these students, some of whom go on to become powerful figures, aren't even offered alternatives to accepted doctrine. Little wonder that studies suggest students of economics are more selfish than others. 12/
psychologytoday.com/us/blog/give-a…
So what will it take to force the Old Boys' Priesthood of Neoclassical Economics to learn a new tune? As we concluded on Monday, they're unlikely to reject the thesis that got them a space atop their ivory tower. 13/
Perhaps all we can do is wait. Perhaps, to paraphrase Max Planck, economics progresses one funeral at a time. But, as UNEP notes, we don't have much time. 14/
Just perhaps, if we stopped listening to the 20th century's great white patriarchs, eyes forever facing down, and paid more attention to reality-based systems thinkers like Mariana Mazzucato, Amartya Sen, Robin Wall Kimmerer, Herman Daly, 15/
Dana Meadows, Janine Benyus, Ha-Joon Chang, @StephanieKelton and @JKSteinberger, we might perceive a way to live equitably within the boundaries of our little blue planet. After all - if the rule we followed led us to this, of what use was the rule?
16/16
*I feel like I should say the names above are a tiny fraction of a sliver of a morsel of the huge number of thinkers and writers I admire who are doing incredible work on this most wicked of problems. It's not meant to be exhaustive!

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More from @davidrvetter

Nov 4
Toby Young acolyte and hapless pseudoscience grifter Chris Morrison has asked me to promote his latest squirt of science-illiterate climate denial. Sure, why not? Image
Morrison has breathlessly claimed on his blog that two scientists have "revealed" that satellite data show 50% less warming over 50 years across the eastern US. To prove this he's provided 1x link to the extremely normal blog of Roy Spencer.
And before you ask: yes, _that_ Roy Spencer, the fundamentalist Christian who promotes Intelligent Design and is employed by fossil fuel lobby group the Heartland Institute. The other scientist cited, John Christy, is also regularly employed by Heartland.
heartland.org/about-us/who-w…
Read 8 tweets
Oct 23
Being a conservative guy is all about telling strangers on the internet how completely terrified you are of nice places that have really good bagels.
Whom amongst us dare steppeth foot in Brooklyn Towne Image
A scene of terrifying carnage and squalor at Prospect Park Image
Read 4 tweets
Oct 6
"Global warming has largely stopped in its tracks"! Everyone's favourite pseudoscience promoter was back at it again today - except this time, Toby Young deleted his post along with said claim. But why? Join me on a journey into the mists of ... Thursday morning. 🧵 1/
The post linked a Daily Sceptic article by Chris Morrison titled "Sensational New Data Show Decade-Long Cooling Across Europe, Asia and Africa". Huge if true! Ok, that piece was deleted too, but it's available via Wayback Machine 2/
web.archive.org/web/2022100608…
With no preamble, Morrison gets straight into it: a German site called worlddata.info has put up some BOMBSHELL graphs using data from Deutscher Wetterdienst. What a scoop! 3/
Read 14 tweets
Oct 3
Update: Pseudoscience blogger Toby Young and colleagues misrepresented the work of Japanese scientists in an attempt to claim that anthropogenic climate change is "fiction". Report author Dr Shinji Matsumura has emailed me, flatly rejecting Young and co's claim. 1/
In a post on pseudoscience blog Daily Sceptic, Chris Morrison wrote that Matsumura et al's findings in Greenland "play havoc with the simplistic ‘settled’ science notion" of anthropogenic global warming. 2/
Dr Matsumura, of Japan's National Research Institute for Earth Science and Disaster Resilience, told me:
"Although I do not read the blog, I do not agree that [our findings] "play havoc with" the view that human-emitted CO2 is a main driver of global warming." 3/
Read 7 tweets
Sep 23
This is deeply concerning: the head of one of Britain's largest unions has branded climate action "bourgeois environmentalism". Here's what this tells me and what I think should be done. 🧵 1/
That a union official can wrongly portray efforts to mitigate and adapt to climate change as some sort of middle class affectation indicates that we -climate communicators and researchers- have _absolutely failed_ to do the right work in the right places. 2/
Specifically, we have failed to highlight and promote the overwhelming evidence that decarbonisation of the economy provides more and better jobs, lower bills, warmer homes and cleaner, safer cities for _all people_. 3/
Read 12 tweets
Sep 22
"ExxonMobil has done more damage to the world than any other company" - Lord Deben speaking right now at the Oxford World Forum on Enterprise & the Environment #wfee
On net zero: "The private sector doesn't have the luxury of prevaricating on our commitments" - Abyd Karmali, Managing Director of Climate Finance for Bank of America speaking at World Forum on Enterprise & the Environment
#wfee
On renewable energy: Amory Lovins, Adjunct Professor of Civil & Environmental Engineering @Stanford shows that choreographing renewable energy generation means "there is no need for bulk energy storage [batteries] lasting months." #wfee
Read 4 tweets

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