Betsy Taylor: “Finding Hope in Nature-Based Solutions”

Episode 43
November 2, 2022

(Conversation Recorded on October 5, 2022.)

In this episode, Nate is joined by environmental and social activist Betsy Taylor. She and Nate have a wide ranging conversation about climate, consumption, culture, nuclear war, agriculture and the future. How has the environmental movement evolved over the past couple decades and how has it interacted with other social change movements? Why is reconstructing our food system more important now than ever?

About Betsy Taylor

Betsy Taylor has long been an icon in the environmental and culture change fields. She founded the climate network 1Sky, which established the domestic base and ultimately merged with 350.org. She ran the Center for a New American Dream and more recently Breakthrough Strategies and Solutions. Recently, Betsy has moved to supporting the field of regenerative agriculture, promoting the potential of our lands to sequester carbon pollution while boosting food security and habitat protection.

Show Notes & Links to Learn More

PDF Transcript

00:38 - Betsy Taylor Info + Works

11:45 - Center for a New American Dream

14:52 - Tina Hobson + Education on saving energy and thoughtful consumption

15:39 - Behavior centered on the self is a product of energetic abundance

16:20 - Carbon Pulse

20:07 - Daughters for Earth

23:17 - Economic system is rooted in consumption and growth

23:45 - Rio Summit

23:55 - Bill Clinton’s task force on consumption and population

23:55 - Paul Hawken's book, Shumacher books

24:32 - How many young people think the system isn’t working, how many BIPOC

26:17 - 1Sky (the foundation for 350.org, which it eventually merged with)

28:06 - Fred Krupp

30:12 - Manchin + recent IRA

32:49 - Philip Stern

33:10 - Globalization and Wealth Consolidation

33:25 - Recent Supreme Court rulings

34:33 - Secretary of States penalizing banks that won’t loan to fossil fuel companies

34:56 - Divestment in Fossil Fuels over the past few decades

35:05 - In the interview it’s stated that 30% of energy use globally was renewable. The reality is it was 28% of ELECTRICITY in 2021. And of that 16% was hydro leaving 12% as 'other renewables' (solar, wind, biomass). However, electricity is only ~20% of global energy use, so e.g solar, wind is only around 3-4% of global energy use

35:58 - The entire system is based on fossil fuels

36:18 - 6% decline rate on global oil fields - equivalent to billions of people’s labor

38:25 - Renewables are growing faster than fossil fuel, but fossil fuels are still growing more, and the entire system is still growing just the same

39:17 - Economic growth is 99% tethered to energy

40:50 - Martin Scheringer TGS Episode

42:19 - IPCC reports, James Hansen and Michael Mann

45:36 - Paris Climate Accords

45:52 - We would need to bring down emission 40% by 2030 to stay below 2 degrees celsius

46:16 - ⅓ of people have symptoms of long covid

46:53 - James Hansen

47:48 - Trump tried to limit James Hansen’s agency

48:45 - Emission drop in 2020, with resurgence in 2021

51:20 - Range of estimates of carbon sequestration from rebooting natural ecosystem processes

52:49 - Protect our Winters

52:58 - Youth initiative out of made about getting urban kids out on the land

53:42 - Tree cover reducing urban heat

56:05 - Capturing food and animal waste to create compost would massively increase carbon sequestration

47:27 - Whendee Silver on compost increasing sequestration

58:20 - No-till, cover crops, benefits of planting legumes, crop rotations, benefits of perennial deep rooted crops, Land Institute

59:20 - Food grown in healthy soil is more nutritious

1:00:38 - Jason Bradford TGS Episode

1:02:13 - 400 million farms are <1 hectare

1:04:18 - As carbon in the atmosphere increases, there is more plant growth, but it is higher in carbohydrates and less in nutrients

1:05:05 - Large agroecology movement in parts of Africa, Latin America, and SE Asia

1:05:59 - 20 billion dollars towards regenerative agriculture promotion

1:06:55 - Bill Gates and agriculture

1:07:40 - Ayan Mahamoud TGS Podcast

1:08:35 - Resurgence of young people going into farming and agriculture

1:17:59 - Chuck Watson TGS Episode on nuclear war

1:18:39 - US modernizing nuclear arsenal

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Arthur Berman: “The Devil is in the Diesel”

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Daniel Schmachtenberger: “Bend not Break #4: Modeling the Drivers of the Metacrisis”