Earth and Humanity: Myth and Reality | Earth Day 2021

This synthesis is based on 15+ years of collaboration with a network of scientists and systems thinkers. It highlights dozens of the core myths and stories prevalent in modern culture and contrasts them to our underlying biophysical (biological and physical) realities. There will be a web portal in near future going deeper on these topics for use in education and outreach as well as providing direction on societal interventions. Here is the chronological myth order and time stamp. They can be watched in any order, but this order makes the most sense (so we decided).

Thank you to all the humans who helped create this video and gave me advice, information and support:

Leslie Batt-Lutz, Lew Blank, Joan Diamond, Louise Mitchell, Anne Weiland, Peter Kilde, Kyle Saunders, DJ White, Justin Ritchie, Art Berman, David Hughes, Jeromy Barber, Sage Wheeler, Daniel Schmactenberger, Chuck Watson, David Korowicz, Rune Likvern, Jason Bradford, Severine von Tauscher Fleming, Wes Jackson, Mike Blahnik and others.

Cover art of Blue Earth courtesy of Elena Mozhvilo.

It will take a village.

Time stamps:
00:04 — Introduction
02:20 — Myth #33: The Experts Have ALL the Answers
04:16 — Myth #32: Humans Are Separate From Nature
06:45 — Myth #31: Humans Are Mostly Selfish
12:17 — Myth #30: More Is Better
18:12 — Myth #29: “Someday I’ll Have enough”
21:18 — Myth #28: We Care About the Future
23:38 — Myth #27: Everyone Has Their Own Truth
26:37 — Myth #26: Truth Matters
29:31 — Myth #25: Energy Is Merely a Commodity
34:28 — Myth #24: The American Dream is Based on Hard Work and Cleverness
36:05 — Myth #23: Oil: The USA Will Be the Next Saudi Arabia
41:46 — Myth #22: We Can Always Get More Resources if We Have More Money
44:42 — Myth #21: Renewables Can Power THIS Civilization
50:55 — Myth #20: In the future we wont need oil due to Peak Demand!!
55:01 — Myth #19: We Can Achieve Net Zero!! (by 2050 or any date)
59:54 — Myth #18: As Earth runs out of resources, We’ll Colonize Outer Space!!
1:02:26 — Myth #17: Growth Is Forever
1:05:04 — Myth #16: GDP Is the Right Goal for Society
1:10:56 — Myth #15: Overpopulation Is the Main Driver
1:15:21 — Myth #14: Technology Will Solve It
1:21:16 — Myth #13: The Environment Is Part of the Economy
1:24:04 — Myth #12: The Natural World Is Ours
1:27:03 — Myth #11: Climate Change Is the Core Problem
1:32:44 — Myth #10: Billionaires and Politicians Are in Charge
1:38:56 — Myth #9: Financial Markets Give Us the Right Signals for the Future
1:43:22 — Myth #8: Stimulus Is Permanent
1:48:37 — Myth #7: We Need to Crash the System to Get a Fresh Start
1:52:43 — Myth #6: The Use of Nuclear Weapons Is Unthinkable
1:57:03 — Myth #5: Fossil Fuel Companies Are at Fault
2:03:01 — Myth #4: Capitalism Is to Blame
2:07:54 — Myth #3: Humans Are Bad
2:11:37 — Myth #2: We Face a Shortage of Energy
2:14:17 — Myth #1: We Are Doomed
2:19:56 — Interventions (and Wild Ideas)