"The Great Retrofit is a near-future version of the city of Messina, in Sicily. Its science fictional element is the rise, and success beyond expectations, of a new type of economic agent, a form of for-benefit company that follows a quintuple bottom line approach, having the objective to improve its own performance across five dimensions: surplus (rather than profit), people, planet, beauty and truth, or knowledge sharing."
With my sisters and brothers from the Science Fiction Economics Lab, we prototyped a method to develop economically consistent science fictional "imperfect utopias" that are within reach (maybe). The secret sauce is a group with good balance of economists, science fiction authors, and "doers" (activists, policy makers).
"Tesla has also increased security around its factory with security personnel, called “Mobile CCTV Unit” guarding the factory’s fence. Their cars’ hoods are decorated with eyes and their licensed plates read 'SAURON.'"
A Norwegian study finds that climate emissions from air travel are 50% higher than reported to UNFCCC.
Under-reporting by Member States is very likely a problem across the board, not just aviation. There are clear political incentives to do so. Climate scientists and the United Nations are working with doctored data.
There is now a film about Modern Monetary Theory. It appears to be available only in the USA and Canada for now.
"FINDING THE MONEY follows former chief economist to the Senate Budget Committee, Stephanie Kelton, on a journey through Modern Money Theory or “MMT”, to unveil a deeper story about money, injecting new hope and empowering democracies around the world to tackle the biggest challenges of the 21st century: from climate change to inequality."
I am travelling by train from Brussels, in Belgium, to Messina, in Sicily. I am used to international rail travel, but this is my longest one-way trip yet at 2,500 km. Day one was Brussels - Paris - Geneva - Milan. Day two is today, Milan - Messina with an early start that should take me to Messina by dinner time. Beautiful early morning light! #rail
@mario hello Mario. I just took the 6.40 Italo from Milan to Villa San Giovanni, and then a Bluejet ferry to cross the strait.
If you travel from Brussels alternative is to enter Switzerland through Germany. Unfortunately Deutsche Bahn struggles with delays, so I recommend making sure you have no tight connections. 30 mins would be the minimum.
Belated update: the whole 2,500 km journey through four countries ran flawlessly, not one minute of delay. And day 2 was even a day of strike by Italian rail workers!
So that was great. Unfortunately it is always rather unusual. I love #rail travel, but delays and missed connections are a real problem, especially with international trips where you need to ride with several operators. A @EU_Commission passengers rights directive, like we have for air travel, would help.
On my way to the Science Fiction Economics Residency! Two days of train travel! But it's well worth it. Flexing our economic imagination muscle fellow economists, policy makers and science fiction authors... what more could I ask for?
The United Nations launched last week its Climate Promise. They crowdsourced messages from people all around the world to the leaders preparing to meet at COP. The result is powerful: moving, terrifying, but also strangely uplifting. Like Brian Eno says, "the climate movement is the largest collective action in human history".
"From where I'm standing, the American Climate Corps has the potential to be the flagship Green New Deal policy. It delivers climate action, workforce upskilling, workers’ rights and Keynesian benefits, all at the same time. It has the scale and the lineage. If the CCC’s experience is anything to go by, it will lift the morale of those participating in it, and will be hugely popular."
[New post] "There is a refreshing absence of HR overhead, multiple interviews and tests and so on. The purpose is clear and collective. People will need to adapt, so the main ingredients to succeed are will, ingenuity and teamwork. [...] There is plenty of work to be done, so labour demand is no issue."
Love Robin's definition of "conservative". And the dovetailing of conservatism and financialization is a powerful - and terrifying - concept to understand the world.
@pluralistic 's post is mostly about America, but Europe has the same direction of travel.
Very inspired by the American Climate Corps initiative. It captures the spirit of the #greennewdeal , even in the @pluralistic version in "The Lost Cause". I am jealous of the Americans, a rare occurrence. Joe Biden has really grown into his role; his presidency might be the best one I witnessed in my adult life (I am 58). @EU_Commission , could we have this too? https://www.acc.gov/ #ClimateCrisis