My Interview with Nicole Foss
Earlier this year I interviewed Nicole Foss as part of the documentary I’m making with Jordan Osmond of Happen Films. The interview is quite long but it is well worth a watch:
Jul 22, 2015
Interesting interview, thanks Sam.
Just a quick comment based on the first 5 minutes. I take issue with Nicole’s point about the causes of the industrial revolution and modern economic growth, which she attributes SOLELY to fossil fuels. But I do think this is a significant over-simplification (a common one made by greens). Specifically, it overlooks the emergence of the market-growth economy – a development which definitely preceded the discovery and wide utilization of FF – and which has been shown to have created an epoch defining break with all previous societies (see i.e marxist scholarship by Robert Brenner). In England, for example, where the market economy first emerged, labor productivity growth, and thus GDP growth, had increased significantly compared to other states on the European mainland. This was, initially, entirely due to economic organisation and had nothing to do with fossil fuels.
Perhaps more importantly, Nicole’s view, by obscuring the market economy from the picture, ignores the obvious point that, had industrial economies emerged in the context of a different socio-economic system – one NOT driven by growth – then we could have potentially used these resources more wisely/frugally and for the benefit of all, not the few….
Keep up the good work.
Wonderful interview! I wish so many people I know would watch this, but I think it’s a bit long and “talky” for them. I look forward to the final, edited documentary to share. Good work! I’m looking forward to hearing about your continued progress on this project.
Nicole Foss: Absolutely brilliant interview, highly relevant and with enormous practical implications as well. It provides a platform of wholistic understanding from which to personally change direction and prepare for a radically different life experience. Thank you for producing this awesome piece!
Bill Bilodeau
St. Petersburg, Florida, USA
I managed to listen to this via mp3 while pottering about the garden and walking in the park. It felt like a book I couldn’t put down (or stop listening to in my case). Great perspectives, thought-provoking and have been reflecting heavily since listening.
I’ll be sharing around with others and keen to hear the counter arguments to further enhance my thoughts and understandings on this talk.
Big thanks. d’Arcy.
Latest post from d’Arcy Lunn…The Irony of Ramadan in Dubai…
Brilliant and well worth taking the time to listen to in entirety.
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