(Conversation recorded on March 6th, 2024)

Show Summary:

On this episode, Nate is joined by maverick ecologist Pella Thiel to discuss the legal frameworks behind the Ecocide and Rights of Nature Movements. Our current economic and legal systems have no mechanisms to consider nature in our decision making - much less to make systemic planetary stability a priority. Could redefining the destruction of our biosphere to be considered a crime parallel with that of genocide alter the way we structure laws governing our societies and economies? How are countries legislating and enforcing these ideas - even going so far as to act against the flow of the superorganism? Most importantly, how could top-down legal ideas such as these interact with bottom-up individual action to create powerful shifts in cultural values and motivations?

About Pella Thiel:
Pella Thiel is a maverick ecologist, part-time farmer, full-time activist and teacher in ecopsychology. She is the co-founder of Swedish hubs of international networks like Swedish Transition Network and End Ecocide Sweden and a knowledge expert in the UN Harmony with Nature programme. Pella was awarded the Swedish Martin Luther King Award in 2023 and the Environmental Hero of the year 2019.

For Show Notes and More: https://www.thegreatsimplification.co...

0:00 - Intro
1:59 - What is Ecocide?
6:32 - Is Ecocide Common Knowledge?
8:07 - Other Environmental Laws
11:39 - Are Consumers at Fault?
16:53 - Where Do You Draw the Line?
20:04 - Best Case Scenario
23:48 - Ecocide and Energy Abudance
26:25 - Nature as a Resource
34:49 - Donella Meadows’ Iceberg
37:29 - The Rights of Nature
50:39 - Human and Nature Rights in Conflict
53:02 - Pella’s Work on the Rights of Nature
58:33 - Personal Advice
1:07:12 - What Would You Do with a Magic Wand?
1:09:01 - Future Topics