CLIMATE ACTION SHOW

OCTOBER 9th 2023

Mark Diesendorf : SUSTAINABLE CIVILISATION

As the world’s ecosystem and climate is collapsing around us, due to humanity’s uncontrolled carbon emissions, is a transition to a civilisation that is sustainable, socially just, healthy and less militarised even possible? Associate professor Mark Diesendorf and science journalist Rod Taylor think so, and they have recently published a book about how we will do it: ‘The Path to a Sustainable Civilisation’.

In this podcast interview courtesy of journalist Mik Aidt, Mark Diesendorf describes what is wrong with our current political system, and then he makes a coherent argument for how it can be transformed.

Diesendorf calls for citizen-based environmental, social justice, public health and peace groups to form alliances in order to challenge the overarching issues of state capture and flawed economic ideology.

Former US President Franklin D. Roosevelt once told a delegation: “OK, you have convinced me. Now get out there and make me do it!”

In other words, says Diesendorf, pressure from voters is needed to make government action politically feasible. Otherwise why would governments free themselves from state capture and discard the growth economics ideology?

“The solution is to build a social movement to apply overwhelming pressure on government and big business, weaken the power of vested interests, and strengthen democratic decision-making,” Mark Diesendorf explains. “However, building enormous pressure on politicians will require a broader strategy than lobbying.”

“Technological change is necessary but not sufficient. We must also struggle for substantial socioeconomic and political change, as discussed in the book. Consider the nonviolent strategies used to obtain votes for women, civil rights for black Americans, the expulsion from India of the colonial power of Great Britain, and the nonviolent removal of dictators in Argentina and the Philippines.”

Mark Diesendorf is Honorary Associate Professor in the Environment & Society Group, School of Humanities & Languages at UNSW Sydney. He has written the book ‘Sustainable Energy Solutions for Climate Change’ (Routledge-Earthscan, 2014) and six other books.

Rod Taylor is a freelance science writer and journalist. Rod is co-editor of Sustainability and the New Economics (Springer, 2022). His book, ‘Ten Journeys on a Fragile Planet’ (2020), received strong positive reviews.