It all comes down to social incentives — Behind every great fortune is a great crime. It’s a well-known saying that no doubt carries some weight. And yet, no one seems to care. If you’re rich, you’re revered. If you’re a high-flying executive, you’re respected. If you’re a successful entrepreneur, you’re venerated. This is only natural, seeing as…

Seemingly worlds apart but with a critical shared characteristic — They’re nothing but gun-loving patriots. They’re intolerant, racist and have a callous disregard for immigrants. Or They’re nothing but tree-hugging peacemongers. They’re bad for the economy, always want to raise taxes, and if they get their way we’ll be overrun by immigrants. Whatever side of the political spectrum you lie…

It all comes down to being in the right place at the right time — How did neoliberalism go from being mocked to dominating economic policy? How did Martin Luther King’s non-violent protests during the Civil Rights Movement help put an end to Jim Crow Laws? How did Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring help form the modern environmental movement? They did so by harnessing the power…

Plenty of evidence suggests otherwise — “Ruin is the destination toward which all men rush, each pursuing his own best interest in a society that believes in the freedom of the commons.” So argues the ecologist Garrett Hardin in his renowned essay The Tragedy of the Commons. Hardin was of the belief that if ‘the commons’…

Incrementalism or paradigm shift —two distinctive camps at the forefront of transformation — It’s widely acknowledged that transformation is required to move to a sustainable future. But what exactly does transformation mean? Does it mean redesigning our economic system so that it produces goods and services differently? Does it mean redefining social success? Does it mean making changes to how businesses operate? None…

Based on the law of cultural evolution, our fate appears inevitable — They can be easy to take for granted, but homo sapiens — that is, you and I — are an extraordinary species with extraordinary abilities. Our ability to form societies based around a shared understanding of highly complex nuanced cultures, our ability to understand the natural world and apply it…

We’re sleepwalking into a world of pain — When does a crisis not feel like one? A crisis doesn’t feel like a crisis when there is barely any mention of the crisis in the news. It doesn’t like a crisis when the electricity still works, or when hot water still streams from the shower. It doesn’t feel like…

Eating meat and dairy is ingrained in cultures — Steak, hamburgers, ice cream — they hardly seem controversial, do they? But interwoven with our food choices is a moral dilemma of global proportions. Producing meat and dairy has catastrophic environmental impacts to the point that moving to a plant-based diet is the most effective measure you can take to…

The wrong frame leads to the wrong goal. The wrong goal leads to the wrong actions — Climate change, global warming, climate crisis, climate emergency, whatever word that’s used, it’s clear the problem facing humanity revolves around the fact the climate is changing. But the climate is only one way we influence the environment. The interconnected nature of the environmental problem was powerfully revealed by the planetary…