Philosophy And Climate Change. Filling in for Steve and Hava, Holli Ploog welcomes Matthew Goodwin, PhD to the show. Goodwin is a professor at Northern Arizona University, founder of Sedona Philosophy and an activist for addressing the climate crisis.
He begins by explaining that philosophy literally means love of wisdom. “It’s not the same thing as knowledge,” he says. “Wisdom is about what we do with our knowledge. It is something we spend our lifetime trying to achieve. And we never really know when we have achieved it.”
“That’s where I think global warming is a philosophical issue. We have quite a bit of knowledge about what we can do. But it’s not necessarily what we should do. We need to start thinking philosophically about what kinds of technologies we’re using…we’re relying on very old technology. And there’s a lot of current technology that we should be using more of. Science tells us that we have the technology available to replace all of our energy demands. So, renewables…mainly solar, wind and hydro are currently capable of replacing all of our fossil fuels. It doesn’t mean that it’s cheap. So, I’m not trying to say that it’s a free technology. It does require an investment. But it is a long-term investment that means in the long run we will be making cheap electricity. The difference is that the cost is up front. And that’s one of the big challenges.”
Goodwin goes on to discuss Sedona’s action plan to achieve 50 percent carbon reduction by 2030, the resistance to addressing climate change, misinformation, and more.
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