Rex Weyler: “Crisis in the Ecology Movement”

Episode 11
March 23, 2022

(Conversation Recorded on February 1, 2022.)

On this episode, we meet with ecologist, writer, and Greenpeace cofounder, Rex Weyler.

Weyler explains how the ecology movement was hijacked by the environmental movement. How is climate change one of many issues that has a root cause of overshoot? 

Weyler also explores the dangers of relying on hope as a strategy.  Why must we be careful about virtual signalling in the environmental movement, and how can we “sharpen the sword” as individuals?

About Rex Weyler

Rex Weyler is a writer and ecologist. His books include Blood of the Land, a history of indigenous American nations, nominated for a Pulitzer Prize; Greenpeace: The Inside Story, a finalist for the BC Book Award and the Shaughnessy-Cohen Award for Political Writing; and The Jesus Sayings, a deconstruction of first century history, a finalist for the BC Book Award. 

In the 1970s, Weyler was a cofounder of Greenpeace International and editor of the Greenpeace Chronicles. He served on campaigns to preserve rivers and forests, and to stop whaling, sealing, and toxic dumping. 

He currently posts the “Deep Green” column at the Greenpeace International website. He lives on Cortes Island in British Columbia, with his wife, artist Lisa Gibbons.

Show Notes & Links to Learn More

00:40: Rex Weyler books, essays, photographs, Deep Green essays index, Greenpeace: The Inside Story, “What Can We Do?”, Greenpeace documentary

01:39 - Greenpeace

02:11 - Ecology

03:37 - Carrying Capacity

04:57 - Overshoot

06:16 - Homeostasis

06:44 - K-species

08:20 - Mass extinctions

08:48 - Oxygen mass extinction

09:17 - Cambrian explosion

09:32: Phyla collapse after cambrian explosion

11:30 - Shrew-like ancestors

11:55 - Current mass extinction

12:14 - 100x-1000x background extinction rate

12:40 - Importance of biodiversity

13:40 - Ecolate

14:42 - Greenpeace and the women’s movement

15:14 - Sierra Club

16:30 - Our system is based on growth

17:02 - Randy Hayes

18:38 - Quadrupled material consumption rate

18:55 - Increase in starvation

19:41 - Rachel Carson, Aldo Leopold

20:07 - Ecological roots in Taoism, Buddhism and Indigeous culture

20:15 - Ernst Haeckel

20:49 - Gregory Bateson

22:06 - Stephan Harding

22:50 - Gregory Bateson Mind and Nature

24:59 - Energy surplus

26:21 - In-group/out-group

27:2 - Exo-energy

30:54 - Upton Sinclair

34:46 - Bill Rees, Vaclav Smil

35:24 - Superorganism

35:35 - Market’s control of the system

38:55 - Social status of wanting

39:20 - Boundaries of wealth

41:39 - Dopamine

47:18 - Greenpeace whale campaign in 1975

49:30 - 1981 Oil tanker test in Puget Sound

53:41 - Bob Hunter - Mind bomb

54:09 - Storming of the mind

56:36 - Signal to noise barrier

58:44 - Extinction Rebellion

58:48 - Fridays for future

1:03:19 - Don’t Look Up

1:05:22 - Virtue Signaling

1:06:40 - Theodore Sturgeon

1:09:02 - We cannot just stop cold using fossil fuels and continue our economy as usual

1:10:47 - Renewable themselves are a fossil intensive idea

1:11:34 - We need to contract our economy

1:11:59 - GDP and materials are coupled

1:12:26 - Decoupling is a myth

1:13:18 - Women’s rights and working against overpopulation 

1:15:20 - 88 Million new humans per year

1:17:42 - Advance policy

1:22:16 - Militarism is a trillion dollar industry

1:23:02 - Schismogenesis

1:24:40 - Rex’s written recommendation to students

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Nora Bateson: “Complexity Between the Lines”