Peter Brannen: What You Need to Know About the Five Mass Extinctions (to Understand the Sixth Extinction) | #36

12/11/24 • 112 min

What are the most extreme extinction events in Earth's history? And what should we learn from them to avoid a similar fate? Today's guest, Peter Brannen, is an expert in these extinctions, having written one of the key books on the topic, The Ends of the World.

It’s an invigorating read, in part because you really confront the raw power and volatility of this planet—and because you can then more thoroughly appreciate the blissful window of relative stability that humanity has evolved within. You then must confront the fact that techno-industrial civilization is undertaking many of the same processes that brought about past mass extinctions...

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My guest this week is Peter Brannen.

Peter Brannen is a science journalist and contributing writer at The Atlantic. His work has also appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The New Yorker, and The Guardian among other publications. His book, The Ends of the World, about the five major mass extinctions in Earth's history, was published in 2017 by Ecco. He was most recently a visiting scholar at the Kluge Center at the Library of Congress, and is an affiliate at the Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research at the University of Colorado-Boulder.

CREDITS: This podcast is edited and produced by Adam Labrie and me, Jesse Damiani. Adam Labrie also directed, shot, and edited the video version of the podcast, which is available on YouTube. The podcast is presented by Reality Studies. If you appreciate the work I’m doing, please subscribe and share it with someone you think would enjoy it.

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My guest this week is Peter Brannen.

Find video episodes of Urgent Futures at: youtube.com/@UrgentFutures.

Get full access to Reality Studies at www.realitystudies.co/subscribe

Previous Episode

Phoebe Barnard: The Human Behavioral Crisis is the Coordination Problem Underlying Overshoot and Climate Crisis | #35

Humanity is in a state of ecological overshoot—put simply: we use more than the Earth can support. In many ways, this is the primary problem of modern human civilization. But driving this problem is a fundamental 'human behavioral crisis.' Understanding this is critical—and Phoebe Barnard, today's guest, can explain why.

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Internationally awarded global change and biodiversity scientist, filmmaker, public policy and communications strategist, mentor and professor to young professionals across Africa and the world, Phoebe Barnard has a fire in her belly for profoundly transformative sustainability change.

She convenes leaders from cultures around the world to collaborate in establishing a future kinder, wiser, humbler and much more sustainable civilization.

Member of the Club of Rome’s Planetary Emergency Partnership, and author or coauthor of seven of the world scientists’ warnings on the state of the climate, planet and society, Phoebe is also impatient to convert warnings into social change action on the ground.

She is: founding CEO of Stable Planet Alliance, co-founder and convenor of the Global Restoration Collaborative, affiliate full professor of environmental futures and conservation science at the University of Washington, honorary research associate of climate, biodiversity and development at the University of Cape Town, South Africa, and co-producer of the forthcoming documentary series The Climate Restorers and other movies on aspects of civilizational shift.

It’s easy to get caught up in the abstractions inherent in talking about systems, but what distinguishes Phoebe’s practice is her commitment to social justice and feminist approaches to change. She doesn’t lose sight of the fact that its people at the center of these issues. As monumental as these challenges may feel, they are ultimately coordination problems—ones we might solve if we can reframe our understanding and responses to them. Her latest work on the documentary series The Climate Restorers is the latest such example, which shares the stories of climate and ecosystem restoration efforts to return the climate to a state in which all life can thrive.

Find video episodes of Urgent Futures at: youtube.com/@UrgentFutures.

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Next Episode

Art Berman: Oil, How the Economics of Energy Impacts Global Populism, & the Huge Problem We Must Address | #37

Oil defines our lives, but we actually understand so little about it—and moreover, so little about its role in driving what we call “progress.” The flip side of that, of course, is that we don’t grasp how utterly dependent modern civilization is on oil. Without it, everything we take for granted about energy, the economy, technology, agriculture, and medicine would change. We are, as this week's guest would say (along with his colleague Nate Hagens of The Great Simplification), “energy blind.”

And that's a big, big problem for understanding coming realities, and figuring out what to do.

My guest this week is Art Berman.

With 46 years of expertise in petroleum geology and a unique background in Middle Eastern history, Art Berman combines academic rigor with market insight to navigate the complexities of energy.

A realist who bridges fossil fuels and renewables, he integrates energy, the economy, the environment, and human behavior into actionable insights. Trusted by investors and global corporations alike, Art is a leading voice in the energy sector, known for data-driven truth and no-nonsense analysis.

A seasoned keynote speaker, he has authored more than 60 posts in 2024 alone, covering energy, geopolitics, earth systems, the environment, climate change, economics, and human behavior. He engages daily with a large audience through his website, 42,000+ followers on Twitter/X (@aeberman12), and thousands more on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Substack.

Find more episodes of Urgent Futures at: youtube.com/@UrgentFutures.

Get full access to Reality Studies at www.realitystudies.co/subscribe