
It was a great pleasure to give a lecture on the climate crises at the ETH last Wednesday. The timing could not have been better (or worse), as the European parliament declared a “climate and environmental emergency” the same day. Thanks to Thomas Schmid and the IEEE for organizing the event. Thanks also to everyone who attended the lecture and especially to those who gave me feedback. I promise to respond to the e-mails as soon as possible.
The presentation, a video recording, and a lot of information and sources can be found here: https://nordborg.ch/you-cant-have-your-planet-and-eat-it.
Actually there is already a country, which is implementing reduction of GDP thanks to negative demographics, it is Japan. But Japan is still relying on coal and oil for energy production, instead of moving aggressively on introduction of renewable energies, which from the technical and economic point of view is absolutely feasible in the next 20 years. If Japan succeeds with this energy transition, then it would become a leader into the era of anti capitalistic consumer averse society, based on circular economy. So the Japanese society should be specifically studied as a case for understanding what it takes to change the economic model based on profits and financial rewards now dominant in the West.