This is the final episode in this miniseries. It covers the following points. 1. A tipping point has been reached in the climate crisis past the 1.5 degree centigrade threshold and the planet is now in a stage of unpredictable runaway effects. 2. Climate defiance is in the ascendant and there is crisis, confusion. and perhaps despair in the Green ranks. The Green agenda will, however, make a come-back as the true damaging costs of fossil fuel dependency hammer home. 3. The climate crisis has to be gone through – quick fixes are not possible. It is useful to view this whole period as a rite of ..read more

The green climate agenda is going backwards. Fifteen examples from across the world are given. Preparing for survival on a degraded planet should be a policy with the status of a national emergency. Just focussing on one component of this crisis - rising seas levels - practical policy responses are put forward ..read more

The climate crisis and the ecological catastrophe are an existential threat to Homo sapiens especially when combined with other crises of the 21st century. This is of immense evolutionary and even metaphysical significance. As our species gained in technological power the exploitation of nature became more extensive and under business civilization this has become a world wide phenomenon. The competitive state of the world economic and political system prevents adequate international cooperation on climate matters. Psychiatry and psychoanalysis have provided diagnostic terms that are useful whe ..read more

The COP commitments are critically scrutinised.  Even if all its  pledges were kept on GHG emissions, the tripling of renewable capacity, and energy efficiency  improvements - and that is a tall order - the world is heading for an increase in emissions (by around 10%) by 2030, instead of the 43% reduction required to keep global warming under the 1.5 degree threshold. Following further research post Cop28 I see no reason to change my central warning: prepare for survival on a degraded planet. A new attitude on the global scene is noted - Climate Defiance. Arguments for climate d ..read more

This is the final epsiode in this miniseries on the ecological catastrophe of our age. The GHG emissions targets are not being reached on time. We need to prepare for survival in a degraded world. There needs to be a spiritual vision to give us insight into the climate and other crises of our age. This spiritual vision should also provide guidance.   ..read more

Climate crisis is only one of the planetary thresholds that we are crossing after which we are in unpredictable territory. Other thresholds include: biodiversity loss, chemical pollution, particle pollution of the atmosphere, deforestation and land use, freshwater unsustainability, the phosphorous and nitrogen cycle .The episode ends with an exploration of the Romantic poet Shelley and his poem Ode to the West Wind ..read more

There are now some changes to the structure and timing of these podcasts. Firstly, the Spanish language podcasts, which have explored the life and work of Carl Jung, have now ended. For the forseeable future there will only be the English speaking podcasts. Secondly, I am moving the podcast release dates to the first of the month - an easier date to remember rather than the mid-month timing. Hence S2 Ep89 will be released on October 1st 2023 with subsequent podcasts on November 1st, December 1st etc. The overall theme of the podcasts remains - the quest for vision in an age of crises. The curr ..read more

Este es el episodio final de nuestra serie de podcasts sobre la vida y obra de Carl Jung. Este ha sido un proyecto conjunto entre el Instituto Venezolano de Psicología Analítica (representado por María Leonor de Planchart y Beatrice Rojas) y el Quest (representado por Alan Mulhern). Terminamos, como deberíamos. con las propias visiones y pensamientos de Jung al final de su vida, tal como se cuentan en los capítulos finales de Recuerdos, Sueños, Pensamientos. Estos incluyen: su experiencia cercana a la muerte; su posterior convicción de que la vida en esta tierra era como una caja tridimensiona ..read more

Life has always been dependent on and deeply interlinked with climate. The earth passes through great cycles of glacial and warming conditions with enormous consequences for the promotion or restriction and even extinction of life. Hominins, our ancestors, adapted to changing habitats and climatic environments. The genus Homo, of which Homo sapiens is but one species among others, had an even greater capacity to adapt. Nevertheless many of them succumbed to extreme climate change. Homo sapiens with its higher level brain power, symbolic thought and language, wider social and trading networks ..read more

This is the start of a mini-series on the ecological catastrophe of the Anthropocene. In the first episode the emphasis is on climate but subsequent ones will explore other components of this crisis, for example the great destruction of  bio-diversity, otherwise known as the sixth extinction event. Can the attack upon nature be characterised as evil since it is a prime example of the destruction of Life and the Good? Can something of the magnitude of Business Civilization,  the first example of a truly global civilization, reform itself to the extent required to avoid catastrophe? Ca ..read more