Saving the World From Bad Ideas

In this season-ending episode of Saving the World from Bad Ideas, host Mark Lynas is joined by environmental journalist and author George Monbiot to explore a new framework for understanding environmentalism. George argues that what is often treated as a single movement actually contains three distinct and frequently conflicting philosophies: Green Liberationism, Green Pragmatism, and Green Social Nostalgia. The conversation traces the historical roots of each tradition, from anti-colonial activism and technocratic climate policy to rural revivalism and its relationship with fascism. Along the way, Mark and George discuss population debates, food systems, ecomodernism, the influence of religion on environmental thought, and the growing challenge of far-right infiltration into parts of the green movement. It's a wide-ranging examination of the ideas and tensions that shape environmentalism.🧠 Topics Discussed🌱 Why environmentalism may be better understood as three competing philosophies rather than a single movement✊ What George calls "Green Liberationism" and how it draws on civil rights, anti-colonial struggles, feminism, and social justice movements⚙️ What "Green Pragmatism" looks like in practice, from clean energy deployment to technocratic climate governance🌾 What George means by "Green Social Nostalgia" and why he sees it as a powerful but problematic force within environmentalism📜 Why George argues that rural revivalism became a foundational component of twentieth-century fascist movements🌳 How post-war environmentalism inherited ideas from both progressive and deeply conservative traditions🍽️ Why George believes many nostalgic visions of agriculture struggle to answer basic questions about feeding large populations👶 How population anxiety became embedded in parts of environmental thought and why George sees it as politically unhelpful⛪ How Christian traditions, pastoral imagery, and millenarian thinking continue to shape environmental narratives🧘 How wellness culture, alternative health movements, and environmental politics can become vulnerable to far-right influence🌍 What figures like RFK Jr., Vandana Shiva, and other controversial environmental voices reveal about ideological drift within green movements🍔 How precision fermentation, microbial protein, and cultivated foods could transform debates about meat, land use, and sustainability🤝 Why successful environmental politics requires combining technological innovation with democratic participation and social legitimacy🚨 Why the environmental movement may be underestimating the challenge posed by far-right actors adopting green rhetoric👤 Guest BioGeorge Monbiot is an environmental journalist, author, and campaigner known for his work on ecology, politics, land use, food systems, and climate change. A longtime columnist and public intellectual, he has written extensively on environmental justice, rewilding, democracy, and the social forces shaping ecological crises. 📚 Recommended Reading & Resources📖 Feral — George Monbiot📖 Regenesis — George Monbiot📖 The Anatomy of Fascism by Robert Paxton📖 Works by Wendell Berry📖 Writings and debates surrounding Paul Kingsnorth and the Dark Mountain Project💬 Quote Highlights💬 “You can have rural revivalism without fascism, but you can’t have fascism without rural revivalism.”— George Monbiot💬 “Power and politics don't disappear when you push people out of the way.”— George Monbiot💬 “You needed the technologies in order to realise the more political liberationist vision.”— George Monbiot💬 “We’ve been far too unprepared for the takeover of aspects of our movement by the far right.”— George Monbiot🌐 About WePlanetWePlanet is an international movement campaigning for science-based solutions to the climate, nature and development crises. 📥 Join the Conversation💬 ⁠podcast@weplanet.org⁠ 📩 ⁠https://weplanet.org/podcast⁠👁️⁠ https://twitter.com/weplanetint⁠

In this episode of Saving the World from Bad Ideas, Mark Lynas speaks with global ecologist Tom Crowther about a seductive but dangerous assumption: just leave it to the market. While part of the conversation focuses directly on capitalism, inequality, poverty, and wealth redistribution, the discussion is much broader than economics alone. Drawing on Tom’s new book Nature’s Echo, they explore how feedback loops shape everything from the birth of stars to the spread of ideas, the dynamics of ecosystems, the structure of societies, and the possibility of ecological recovery. The central argument is that markets can generate growth, innovation, and momentum, but without balancing forces they also drive instability, degradation, and collapse. It is a wide-ranging conversation about regeneration, resilience, scientific thinking, and how human systems might better mirror the stabilising logic of the natural world.🧠 Topics Discussed🔁 Why feedback loops are one of the most useful ways to understand nature and society🌌 How the same looping dynamics help explain the formation of stars, life, and ecosystems😱 Why climate doomism can become self-fulfilling if it closes off regenerative possibilities⚡ Why renewables and electrification may now be driven by powerful self-reinforcing momentum📉 Why no exponential growth system lasts forever, and why overshoot matters🌱 How regenerative feedback loops can build when livelihoods improve alongside nature🚜 Why Tom distinguishes regenerative livelihoods from simplistic anti-industrial romanticism🌾 How nature loss can eventually reduce agricultural yields, even in intensive systems🥩 Why plant-based proteins and nuclear energy could radically reduce ecological pressure💸 Why poverty is one of the strongest drivers of environmental degradation🧾 How wealth redistribution can act as a stabilising feedback in both society and ecology🌳 What the trillion trees controversy got wrong about restoration🗺️ How the Restore platform helps land stewards, funders, and the public support regeneration on the ground🧪 Why science needs both rigour and humility, especially when defining the world in fixed categories🧠 How constructivist thinking, belief, and consensus shape the way societies understand reality👩‍🏫 Guest BioDr Tom Crowther is a global ecologist working across multiple universities, with his foundation based in Switzerland. His research spans biodiversity, forests, restoration, agriculture, and the feedback loops that shape planetary systems. He is also the author of Nature’s Echo: Harnessing Ancient Feedback Loops to Heal a Changing Planet, which is now available.📚 Recommended Reading & ResourcesNature’s Echo: Harnessing Ancient Feedback Loops to Heal a Changing Planet by Tom CrowtherThe Restore platformResearch on ecological restoration, regenerative livelihoods, and nature recoveryWork on feedback loops in climate, biodiversity, and social systemsWriting and debate on trillion trees, reforestation, and restoration policy💬 Quote Highlights💬 “For me, the bad idea is that we’re doomed to a bleak future.”Tom Crowther💬 “There’s unbelievable potential for regenerative loops to build momentum as well.”Tom Crowther💬 “I am trying to think like a natural system.”Tom Crowther💬 “I think our economic system needs to perfectly mirror that.”Tom Crowther💬 “Poverty is the biggest driver of degradation.”Tom Crowther💬 “When they are lifted out of poverty, that is when nature thrives and they start to thrive more, which makes nature thrive more.”Tom Crowther🌐 About WePlanetWePlanet is an international movement campaigning for science-based solutions to the climate, nature and development crises. Through conversations like this one, we challenge bad ideas, spotlight better ones, and make the case for a more abundant, resilient and hopeful future.📥 Join the Conversation💬 podcast@weplanet.org📩 https://weplanet.org/podcast👁️ https://twitter.com/weplanetint

In this episode of Saving the World from Bad Ideas, Mark Lynas speaks with journalist and author Nicholas Niarchos about the dirty, dangerous, and politically fraught supply chains behind lithium-ion batteries. Using cobalt mining in the Democratic Republic of Congo as a central case study, they explore how a technology essential to electrification and decarbonisation became tied to child labour, unsafe artisanal mines, corruption, colonial legacies, and weak global accountability. The conversation pushes back against a simplistic response, namely shutting down cobalt mining altogether. Niarchos argues that cobalt is a highly effective battery material and that the real problem is not the mineral itself, but the governance failures and moral outsourcing that allow abuse to persist across global supply chains.🧠 Topics Discussed🔋 Why lithium-ion batteries became central to the clean energy transition⚙️ Which minerals go into modern batteries, including cobalt, copper, lithium, nickel, graphite, and phosphates🏭 How Exxon helped pioneer lithium-ion battery research before abandoning it🚗 Why lithium-ion batteries made modern electric vehicles viable⛏️ Why cobalt from the DRC became so important to battery chemistry👷 The realities of artisanal mining, including child labour, mine collapses, and extreme precarity📱 How major brands such as Apple are tied to these supply chains, even when they claim high standards⚖️ Why industrial mines and artisanal mines differ, but both still raise serious questions♻️ Why recycling alone does not solve the underlying justice problem🧪 Whether sodium-ion and other new battery chemistries will reduce dependence on cobalt🌍 Why the goal should be fixing the supply chain, not abandoning battery technology or Congo itself👩‍🏫 Guest BioNicholas Niarchos is a journalist and author whose work focuses on conflict, extraction, inequality, and global supply chains. In this conversation he discusses his book on the hidden human and political costs behind lithium-ion batteries and the minerals that power the energy transition, especially in the Democratic Republic of Congo.📚 Recommended Reading & ResourcesThe Elements of Power by Nicholas NiarchosReporting on cobalt mining and battery supply chains in the Democratic Republic of CongoResearch on artisanal and industrial cobalt miningWork on battery chemistry, electrification, and critical mineralsAnalysis of colonial extraction, governance, and resource politics in Central Africa💬 Quote Highlights💬 “The bad idea is the battery supply chain itself, which arose from a series of decisions that didn’t seem to be taken particularly consciously, but seem to be driven by avarice, essentially.” - Nicholas Niarchos💬 “I have been to mines that sit directly in Apple’s supply chain and watched as people without shoes go into these mines.” - Nicholas Niarchos💬 “The iPhone is the great success story for Apple. Don’t forget it. This success was built on the backs of these kinds of labor conditions. - Nicholas Niarchos💬 “If we start recycling all our material, which we’re admittedly a very, very long way off from, what gets left in Congo? - Nicholas Niarchos💬 “There’s no need to go to sodium. There’s no need to try and figure out new technologies... because we have the technology. The technology is the lithium ion battery.” - Nicholas Niarchos💬 “The bad idea is the supply chain, not the use of cobalt in batteries.” - Mark Lynas🌐 About WePlanetWePlanet is an international movement campaigning for science-based solutions to the climate, nature and development crises. Through conversations like this one, we challenge bad ideas, spotlight better ones, and make the case for a more abundant, resilient and hopeful future.📥 Join the Conversation💬 podcast@weplanet.org📩 https://weplanet.org/podcast👁️ https://twitter.com/weplanetint

“Attenborough’s films ignore human impacts.”In this episode of Saving the World from Bad Ideas, Mark Lynas speaks with filmmaker and environmental storyteller Colin Butfield, co-founder of Open Planet Studios and a long-time collaborator of David Attenborough. They discuss how Attenborough’s work has evolved from classic nature spectacle toward a much more explicit confrontation with ecological destruction, restoration, and humanity’s role in shaping the living world. Through the making of Ocean with David Attenborough, they explore the shocking reality of bottom trawling and Antarctic krill fishing, the changing grammar of nature documentaries in the Anthropocene, and why stories of damage now have to sit alongside stories of recovery. It is a rich conversation about storytelling, responsibility, and the power of film to show that human impacts can no longer be ignored.🧠 Topics Discussed:🎥 What it is like working with David Attenborough over nearly two decades🗣️ How Attenborough delivers those iconic pieces to camera🌍 How nature documentaries shifted from pristine spectacle to ecological reality🌊 Why Ocean with David Attenborough was made as an urgent film about human impacts🐟 How bottom trawling devastates marine ecosystems on an industrial scale🛑 Why bottom trawling is still allowed in many marine protected areas🐋 How Antarctic krill fishing competes directly with whales and destabilises the Southern Ocean food web🧾 Why “sustainable” seafood labels often deserve much more scrutiny📚 How films can remain true to documentary storytelling while still driving real-world campaigns🎬 Why Open Planet gives footage away for education and advocacy🌱 What ecological recovery can look like when people choose restoration and protection🤝 Why humans are not inherently destructive and can become a force for good🐻 What it takes to film extraordinary wildlife and wild places around the world🚀 Why “we can always go and live on Mars” is its own terrible environmental fantasy👩‍🏫 Guest Bio:Colin Butfield is co-founder and director of Open Planet Studios. As a filmmaker, writer and environmental storyteller, he has worked on major productions including A Life on Our Planet, Breaking Boundaries, Our Planet, and Ocean with David Attenborough. He has also co-written Ocean with David Attenborough and works at the intersection of documentary storytelling, conservation, and public engagement.📚 Recommended Reading & ResourcesOcean by David Attenborough and Colin ButfieldOcean with David AttenboroughOpen PlanetCampaigns and research on bottom trawling in marine protected areasWork on marine protection, krill fisheries, and ocean restorationSea Shepherd footage and reporting on the Southern Ocean krill fishery💬 Quote Highlights💬 “This is what we’ve chosen to do as a society or chosen to allow.”Colin Butfield💬 “I can absolutely sympathize with a community casting nets, even bottom trawling though I hope we can get away from that to feed their families, feed their communities, and earn a living. That’s a million miles away from going all the way down to Antarctica, hauling up krill for pet food and supplements.”Colin Butfield💬 “You just got to a point where it felt very strange... not to mention humanity or talk about the changes that are happening in them.”Colin Butfield💬 “It was unavoidable. You just can’t ignore this. It’s crazy to ignore it.”Colin Butfield💬 “I don’t think humans are inherently bad.”Colin Butfield🌐 About WePlanetWePlanet is an international movement campaigning for science-based solutions to the climate, nature and development crises. Through conversations like this one, we challenge bad ideas, spotlight better ones, and make the case for a more abundant, resilient and hopeful future.📥 Join the Conversation💬 podcast@weplanet.org📩 https://weplanet.org/podcast👁️ https://twitter.com/weplanetint

Clean energy won't work in the global south... right? At a moment when the fossil fueled economy is cracking under geopolitical pressure, Daan Walter of EMBER brings the data that reframes everything: clean energy is moving ahead, in developing countries — it's already winning. Walter unpacks EMBER's latest electricity review findings: for the first time, wind and solar absorbed nearly all global electricity demand growth in 2024, causing fossil fuel generation to actually fall. And unlike the economic shocks of 2020 or 2013, this is structural.The episode covers the ElectroTech revolution's three core drivers — none of which are explicitly about climate. Walter explains why emerging economies, far from lagging, are leapfrogging the West: over 50% of CVF nations now out-solar the United States. The Strait of Hormuz crisis is accelerating everything. Pakistan's bottom-up solar revolution — millions buying off Alibaba, DIY-installing, disconnecting from failing utilities — is the preview of what comes next everywhere.Nuclear gets a candid assessment too, the question is how it can play nice with solar dominating the grid. Walter closes with a refreshingly honest admission: we don't know yet how to solve the last 5-10% of the grid cleanly — but that's fine. The right move is to sprint the 90% we can solve and invest in R&D for the rest, rather than let perfect be the enemy of transformational.🧠 Topics Discussed:⚡ ElectroTech defined: why wind, solar, batteries, EVs, and heat pumps all cluster around electricity as their magnetic center📉 Bad idea autopsied: "clean energy is too expensive for developing countries" — true five years ago, dangerously wrong today🌍 CVF nations leapfrogging: 50%+ of the world's most climate-vulnerable countries out-solar the US💸 Capex parity moment: upfront costs of EVs and solar panels now matching fossil alternatives — the game-changer for capital-constrained economies🌞 Solar as baseload: 80-90% uptime solar + battery achievable at ~$100-120/MWh; UAE Masdar project hit 99.5% uptime below $70/MWh🛢️ Hormuz crisis as accelerant: biggest energy shock since the 1970s, turbocharging electrotech exports from China globally👨‍💼 Guest Bio:Daan Walter is a Principal at EMBER, where he leads global energy strategy research. His CV spans Rocky Mountain Institute (batteries, efficiency, mineral demand), McKinsey, and two graduate degrees from the University of Cambridge — one in nuclear energy, one in theoretical physics. He's one of the sharpest analysts tracking the real-time pace of the ElectroTech revolution.💬 Quote Highlights:"The answer is not 'you're wrong.' The answer is: you were right five years ago." — Daan Walter"The poorest countries in the world and the poorest families within countries are adopting ElectroTech because it's the cheapest option now, not the most expensive." — Daan Walter"We identify three key drivers of the ElectroTech revolution across the world. None of those three are explicitly climate." — Daan Walter"Every country in the world has a small Saudi Arabia worth of energy falling from the skies on them every year. All they need to do is put a panel up and capture it." — Daan Walter"By 2040, we might be in a very highly electrified, very low-carbon economy — in the same way that by 2040, we might be in an economy that largely runs on AI white-collar work." — Daan Walter🌐 About WePlanet:WePlanet is a global citizen and science movement challenging bad ideas and championing evidence-based solutions for climate, nature, and human progress. Learn more at weplanet.org📥 Join the Conversation💬 Email: podcast@weplanet.org📩 Subscribe: weplanet.org/podcast👁️ Follow: @weplanetint

Can we really solve climate change just by fixing energy — and ignore food? In this episode of Saving the World from Bad Ideas, Mark Lynas sits down with Bruce Friedrich, founder and President of the Good Food Institute, to tackle Bad Idea #37: “Solving energy is enough for solving climate.”Bruce argues that focusing exclusively on decarbonising energy while ignoring food systems is one of the biggest blind spots in climate policy. From antibiotic resistance and zoonotic disease to geopolitics, national security, and the S-curve of technological change, this conversation makes the case that the protein transition must stand alongside the energy transition if we’re serious about saving the planet.🧠 Topics Discussed: ● ⚡ Why decarbonising energy alone only solves about half the climate problem ● 🍖 Global meat demand: why “eat less meat” has never worked ● 🌍 Land use, deforestation, and rewilding at planetary scale ● 🧫 Cultivated meat, fermentation, and next-generation plant proteins ● 📉 The inefficiency of feeding crops to animals ● 🦠 Antibiotic resistance and industrial animal agriculture ● 🦆 Pandemic risk and zoonotic spillover from livestock systems ● 🐟 Cultivated seafood and the future of ocean recovery ● 📈 The protein S-curve and lessons from solar, EVs, and the internet ● 🏛️ Why government support matters — and where it’s already happening ● 🇨🇳🇮🇳 China, India, and the geopolitics of alternative proteins● 🌱 Farmers, land sparing, and the future of agriculture ● 🌎 Food security, resilience, and feeding a growing world👨‍🏫 Guest Bio:Bruce Friedrich is the founder and President of the Good Food Institute (GFI), a global non-profit accelerating the transition to alternative proteins. He has worked for more than three decades at the intersection of food, climate, and innovation. Bruce is the author of Meat: How the Next Agricultural Revolution Will Transform Humanity’s Favorite Food and Our Future, and a leading global advocate for plant-based, fermentation-derived, and cultivated meat as climate, biodiversity, and food-security solutions.📚 Recommended Reading & Resources: ● Meat: How the Next Agricultural Revolution Will Transform Humanity’s Favorite Food and Our Future ● Good Food Institute● GFI Europe ● SYSTEMIQ & Good Food Institute – The Protein Transition: Pathways to Lower Climate, Land, and Water Impacts● What’s Cooking? (UNEP alternative proteins report)● Livestock’s Long Shadow (FAO) ● World Resources Institute: Creating a Sustainable Food Future● IIASA land-use & food systems research● Our World in Data: Meat and dairy production ● UNEP & ILRI: Preventing the Next Pandemic 💬 Quote Highlights:“Focusing on energy alone while ignoring food is like lifting your foot off the accelerator — but keeping it on the highway to hell.” “If alternative proteins reach 50%, we could free more land than the entire Amazon rainforest.” “People aren’t going to give up meat — so we need to change how meat is made.” “This isn’t a moral problem. It’s a science and engineering problem.” “The protein transition is one of the most tractable climate solutions we have.”🌐 About WePlanet:WePlanet is a global citizen and science movement challenging bad ideas and championing evidence-based solutions for climate, nature, and human well-being. Learn more at https://weplanet.org📥 Join the Conversation: 💬 Feedback or questions? Email: podcast@weplanet.org 📩 Subscribe to new episodes: https://weplanet.org/podcast 👁️ Follow us on X/Twitter: https://twitter.com/weplanetint

Is “degrowth” a noble environmental solution — or one of history’s truly terrible ideas? In this episode of Saving the World from Bad Ideas, Mark Lynas sits down with Adam Dorr, Director of Research at RethinkX and author of The Degrowth Delusion: Dispelling One of History’s Truly Terrible Ideas.Dorr argues that degrowth — the increasingly popular environmental movement calling for economic contraction — meets every criterion of a “Truly Terrible Idea”: it sounds virtuous, promises the moon, spreads easily, appeals especially to the young, and catastrophically backfires when implemented.Mark and Adam explore why degrowth misunderstands economic growth itself, why material “stuff” is not the same as value, how technological progress consistently decouples prosperity from environmental harm, and why shrinking the global economy could never solve climate change — and would instead cause mass deprivation, collapse, and tyranny.If you’ve ever heard the phrase “you can’t have infinite growth on a finite planet,” this conversation will challenge your assumptions. And it lays the groundwork for next episode’s deep dive into the optimistic, data-driven alternative: a future where humanity and nature both thrive.🧠 Topics Discussed:💡 What makes an idea a “Truly Terrible Idea” (TTI) — and why degrowth qualifies🌍 Why degrowth’s core logic (“too many people consuming too much”) is seductive but false📉 Why “infinite growth on a finite planet” misunderstands value, not stuff🐎 How technological progress (e.g., cars replacing horses, digital replacing film) eliminates old harms🔌 Why degrowth would block the very innovations (solar, EVs, biotech) that solve environmental problems🔥 The “house on fire” analogy: why reducing emissions 50% still leaves the house burning📉 GDP vs wellbeing: is economic growth actually correlated with human development?🌐 Why degrowth is a luxury belief seldom embraced by people who’ve experienced real poverty😡 The role of resentment, pessimism and misanthropy in the appeal of degrowth🏛️ Why degrowth requires authoritarian state control and cannot be implemented democratically🤝 The win–win path: how technology enables prosperity and ecological restoration🔭 Why environmentalism desperately needs a credible, optimistic, tech-enabled vision of the future👨‍🏫 Guest Bio:Adam Dorr is the Director of Research at RethinkX, a nonprofit think tank analyzing how new technologies disrupt existing systems. He is the lead author of The Degrowth Delusion, a sweeping critique of degrowth ideology and a roadmap for a technologically enabled, sustainable future. Dorr’s work spans energy, food, transportation, and long-term civilizational pathways.📚 Recommended Reading & Resources: ● The Degrowth Delusion — Adam Dorr ● RethinkX research reports (energy, food, transport disruptions) ● Studies on GDP vs Human Development Index (UNDP) ● The Limits to Growth: Malthus and the Classical Economists ● Steven Pinker — Enlightenment Now ● Literature on zero-sum vs non-zero-sum thinking💬 Quote Highlights:“Truly terrible ideas don’t die out on their own — they must be actively refuted.” — Adam Dorr“It’s not that we need to do less — it’s that we need to do better.” — Adam Dorr“There is no sustainable amount of fire. Reducing emissions by half still leaves your house burning.” — Adam Dorr“Poverty is not virtuous. It is not something to aspire to. To believe otherwise is a failure of compassion.” — Adam Dorr“Technology is the only way we have a rational, data-driven basis for optimism.” — Adam Dorr🌐 About WePlanet:WePlanet is a global citizen and science movement challenging bad ideas and championing evidence-based solutions for climate, nature, and human progress. Learn more at weplanet.org📥 Join the Conversation💬 Feedback or questions? Email: podcast@weplanet.org📩 Subscribe to new episodes: weplanet.org/podcast 👁️ Follow us on X/Twitter: @weplanetint

Is nuclear power too slow, too expensive, or too essential to ignore? In this episode of Saving the World from Bad Ideas, Mark Lynas sits down with Baroness Bryony Worthington — crossbench peer, climate policy architect, and co-host of the Cleaning Up podcast — to take on Bad Idea #34: “Nuclear? No Thanks.”🧠 Topics Discussed: ● ⚛️ Why nuclear costs haven’t fallen — and why China may change that ● 🇫🇷 What France got right (and wrong) in its Mesmer-era nuclear buildout ● 🇨🇳 China’s nuclear ecosystem: HTRs, molten salts, SMRs, and industrial policy ● 🧱 Why huge gigawatt-scale reactors fail — and when modularity matters ● 🌡️ Heat: the forgotten one-third of global energy that renewables struggle to replace ● 🇺🇸 The growing bipartisan nuclear consensus in the U.S. ● 🔥 Geothermal, CSP, and advanced drilling as zero-carbon heat sources ● 👾 AI and data centres: the quiet driver of surging electricity demand ● 🧪 Thorium, molten salt reactors, and the cult of “better nuclear” ● ♻️ Nuclear waste, fuel recycling, plutonium, and the politics of the NRC ● 🛡️ Risk, radiophobia, and why safety rules became so irrational ● 🌍 Authoritarianism, industrial strategy, and what China’s system gets right (and wrong)👩‍🏫 Guest Bio: Baroness Bryony Worthington is a crossbench member of the UK House of Lords and one of Britain’s most respected climate policy thinkers. She was a lead author of the UK’s Climate Change Act, co-founded the children’s environmental charity Sandbag, and serves as co-host of the global energy podcast Cleaning Up with Michael Liebreich. Bryony currently leads work on clean industrial transitions, including repowering coal infrastructure with zero-carbon heat from nuclear, geothermal, and advanced solar technologies.📚 Recommended Reading & Resources ● Cleaning Up podcast – https://www.cleaningup.live ● BloombergNEF – https://about.bnef.com ● Kairos Power (advanced reactors) – https://kairospower.com ● Oklo (fast microreactors) – https://www.oklo.com ● TerraPower (Natrium reactor) – https://www.terrapower.com ● High-temperature gas-cooled reactors (HTR info) – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-temperature_gas-cooled_reactor ● Molten salt reactor background – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molten-salt_reactor ● Tsinghua University Institute of Nuclear and New Energy Technology – https://www.inet.tsinghua.edu.cn/ineten/ ● Repower Initiative – https://www.repower.world/ ● Jamie Beard on geothermal – https://www.texasgeo.org ● IAEA on nuclear fuel recycling – https://www.iaea.org/topics/spent-fuel-management ● Waste Not (WePlanet nuclear fuel recycling report) – https://www.weplanet.org/reports/waste-not ● China’s solar overcapacity & exports – https://ourworldindata.org/renewable-energy ● Our World in Data: electricity mix – https://ourworldindata.org/electricity-mix 💬 Quote Highlights:“Once you build nuclear, you never regret it — it just quietly produces heat and power for 80 years.” “China has already built almost everything we were going to tell them to try.” “Heat is a third of global energy. Batteries can’t solve that. Nuclear can.” “Radiation is everywhere — from rocks, from the sun, from your partner in bed. We’ve regulated nuclear as if none of this exists.” “I’m not pro-nuclear everywhere. I’m pro-nuclear where it makes the transition faster.” “I’m a pro-humanity environmentalist. Nuclear is part of that story.”🌐 About WePlanet: WePlanet is a global citizen and science movement challenging bad ideas and championing evidence-based solutions for climate, nature, and human well-being. Learn more at https://weplanet.org📥 Join the Conversation 💬 Feedback or questions? Email: podcast@weplanet.org 📩 Subscribe to new episodes: https://weplanet.org/podcast 👁️ Follow us on X/Twitter: https://twitter.com/weplanetint