Saving the World From Bad Ideas

• Saving the world from BAD IDEAS season two is coming!

  We’re back. Season 2 of Saving the World from Bad Ideas is coming — and it’s bigger, bolder, and maybe even more controversial. This time once more , we’re joined by some of the sharpest minds on the planet.🌍 Bill McKibben on activism, power, and what we’ve learned from 30 years of climate campaigning. 🧠 Hannah Ritchie returns to dismantle more doomer myths with data. 🔥 Luke Kemp on civilisational risk and collapse. ⚡ Michael Liebreich on energy transitions without fantasy thinking. 💥 Ted Nordhaus on why he's no longer a 'climate catastrophist', degrowth, and the real way forward.If you're tired of bad ideas blocking good solutions — this season is for you. Subscribe now and be ready. 

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• Bookend episode: looking back at season 1 of Saving The World From Bad Ideas

  In this special season finale of Saving the World from Bad Ideas, host Mark Lynas flips the script by inviting producer Rob on mic for the first time. Together, they look back on an exhilarating first season — what worked, what surprised them, what they learned, and where the podcast might go next.From nuclear debates and rewilding wolves to Just Stop Cooking and geoengineering taboos, Mark and Rob unpack the biggest ideas (and the most controversial guests). They also explore a meta bad idea: the notion that “bad ideas = bad people”, and why it’s crucial to challenge ideas without descending into tribalism or cancel culture.Expect behind-the-scenes stories, reflections on feedback, philosophical rabbit holes, and a few laugh-out-loud moments. Plus: what’s coming in Season Two — AI, decarbonising flying, oceans, and existential risks.🧠 Topics Discussed ● 🤝 Meta Bad Idea: Why “bad ideas ≠ bad people” (or not!)● 🎙️ Favourite guests & episodes: George Monbiot, Hannah Ritchie,, Luigi Boitani, and more ● ⚛️ Nuclear myths, green tribalism & the rise of a global pro-nuclear movement ● 🌍 Climate justice & cooking with charcoal — insights from Uganda ● 🐺 Wolves, rewilding, and de-romanticising nature ● 💥 Nuclear winter, biofuels, and the politics of bad ideas ● 🌡️ Planetary boundaries vs. ecomodernist optimism ● ✈️ Future topics: AI, sustainable aviation, oceans & rethinking activism ● 🧪 Why progress means embracing technology and complexity ● 📚 Blurbs, books, and podcast crossovers: Pinker, Grunwald, Richie, Robock & more👩‍🏫 Featured Guests (Season Highlights)Hannah Ritchie  – urgent optimismGeorge Monbiot – rewilding, food justice, and political powerSteven Pinker – enlightenment, science, and progressLuigi Boitani – wolves, coexistence, and ecological realismMike Grunwald – land-sparing and the biofuels disasterOliver Morton & Cynthia Scharf – talking about geoengineering (yes, talking!)Rebecca Wrigley – wildness without nostalgiaPatricia Nanteza – cooking fuel justice in AfricaAlan Robock – nuclear winter is real (and terrifying)Rebecca Tuhus-Dubrow & Tea Törmänen – the global pro nuclear movement and how Finnish Greens embraced nuclear📚 Recommended Listening & Reading● The God Species – Mark Lynas● The Good Fight – podcast by Yascha Mounk● The Decouple Podcast – deep dives on nuclear and energy● Cleaning Up – with Michael Liebreich & Bryony Worthington● Clearing the air– upcoming book by Hannah Ritchie💬 Quote Highlights“Bad ideas don’t make bad people. We have to debate the idea, play around with thel as our toys instead of cancelling people. ” — Rob“There’s no simple slogan that can replace complexity. But there is humour.” — Rob“If you want to kill billions of people, you need a nuclear winter, not global warming.” — Mark“As an ecomodernist I would say, AI is a tool, and it can be used in good ways and bad ways...” — Rob🌐 About WePlanetWePlanet is a global citizen and science movement challenging bad ideas and championing evidence-based solutions for climate, nature, and human development. Learn more at weplanet.org.📥 Join the Conversation💬 Feedback or guest suggestions? Email: [email protected]📩 Subscribe to new episodes: weplanet.org/podcast👁️ Follow us on Twitter/X: @weplanetint🎧 Binge Season One wherever you get your podcasts. Season Two launches September 2025.

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• Bad Idea #19 "greens are anti-science" with Tea Törmänen

  🔍 Episode SummaryCan Greens support nuclear power? Finnish environmentalist and WePlaneteer Tea Törmänen joins Mark Lynas to dismantle Bad Idea #19: “greens are anti-science.” With clarity, courage, and a wealth of lived experience, Tea shares her journey from feeling like an outcast in the environmental movement to helping make the Finnish Green Party officially pro-nuclear.Drawing from decades of activism, Tea explains how anti-nuclear sentiment became part of the environmentalist identity — and how that is now changing. She unpacks the myths around waste, safety, cost, and tribal loyalties, and shows how climate goals demand pragmatic, science-based solutions — including nuclear energy.From wolves to fast reactors, American football to European energy policy, this episode explores what it takes to change minds and movements — and why it’s time for Greens everywhere to evolve.🧠 Topics Discussed ● 🌱 How anti-nuclear views became “baked into” green identity ● 🧠 Tribalism, virtue, and the psychology behind environmental dogmas ● 🚧 Why Greens often oppose solutions more than problems ● 🗳️ How the Finnish Green Party became officially pro-nuclear ● ⚛️ Myths about nuclear waste and how Finland solved it ● ☢️ Radiation vs risk: what safety really looks like ● 🔁 Nuclear fuel recycling and “the waste of waste” ● 🧊 Why SMRs could decarbonize district heating ● 🌍 Building a global pro-nuclear environmental movement ● 🧬 From gene tech to clean heat — embracing science in climate action ● 💚 Finding your tribe when you don’t fit into one box👩‍🏫 Guest Bio Tea Törmänen is a Finnish environmentalist, science advocate, and movement builder. She’s a former chair of WePlanet Finland and played a key role in shifting the Finnish Green Party toward a pro-nuclear and pro-GMO stance. With a background in animal cognition research and a fierce commitment to evidence-based activism, Tea combines a passion for nature with a pragmatic embrace of clean technologies. She’s also a former a Finnish national team American football player and a wolf behaviour researcher.📚 Recommended Reading & Resources ● WePlanet.org ● Prescription for the Planet – Tom Blees ● Not Beyond Redemption – Tea’s upcoming work (TBD) ● Apocalypse Never – Michael Shellenberger ● The God Species – Mark Lynas ● Finnish Green Party platform (updated pro-nuclear position) ● POSIVA – Finnish nuclear waste repository project ● Barakah Nuclear Power Plant (UAE case study)💬 Quote Highlights“Being an environmentalist doesn't mean rejecting technology — it means embracing what works.”“Too much clean energy? That’s not a problem. That’s the solution.” “We solved nuclear waste in Finland. It was never a technical issue. It was political.” “You don't stop climate change by limiting options. You stop it by using all the best ones.” “I never fit in one tribe. Now I’ve found mine in WePlanet.”🌐 About WePlanet WePlanet is a global citizen and science movement challenging bad ideas and championing evidence-based solutions for climate, nature, and human development. Learn more at weplanet.org.📥 Join the Conversation 💬 Feedback or questions? Email: [email protected] 📩 Subscribe to new episodes: weplanet.org/podcast 👁️ Follow us on Twitter/X: @weplanetint

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• Bad Idea #18 "we’re addicted to fossil fuels" with Maarten Boudry

  🔍 Episode SummaryAre we addicted to fossil fuels and can we just go cold turkey? Philosopher of science Maarten Boudry joins Mark Lynas to tackle Bad Idea #18:: “we’re addicted to fossil fuels”. Drawing from his new book The Betrayal of the Enlightenment, Boudry offers a bold and clear-eyed critique of the dominant climate narrative. He argues that moralising fossil fuels as an "addiction" obscures both the complexity of the climate challenge and the role fossil fuels played in liberating billions from poverty, hunger, and hard labour.Fossil fuels have undeniably caused environmental harm. But they also powered modern hospitals, clean water systems, food security, and global development. Denying this legacy may feel righteous, but it risks sabotaging both climate progress and justice for the Global South.This episode explores the psychology of pessimism, the limits of degrowth, the ways today's climate discourse often betrays Enlightenment values like reason, science, and human flourishing, and whether we need a new progressive movementWhether you're a climate activist, a policy wonk, or simply curious about how to save the world without losing our minds, this episode is for you.🧠 Topics Discussed ● 🛢️ Why calling fossil fuels “evil” is historically ignorant and morally lazy ● 🔥 Fossil fuels as a moral tragedy: the engine of progress and the cause of warming ● 💡 Climate change is a technical challenge, not a cosmic punishment● 🌍 Green colonialism: how Western elites block energy access in the Global South ● ☢️ Why serious climate policy must include nuclear energy ● 🧠 The evolutionary roots of pessimism — and why alarmism sells ● 🚫 The flaws of degrowth and “planetary boundaries” fundamentalism ● 📚 Enlightenment values and how the modern Left betrayed them ● 🐾 Why real environmentalism means innovation● 🧪 Why romanticising nature leads us away from real solutions👩‍🏫 Guest Bio Maarten Boudry is a philosopher of science at Ghent University and author of several books and essays challenging irrational beliefs — from religion to climate catastrophism. His latest work, The Betrayal of the Enlightenment (currently available in Dutch), critiques how the modern Left has abandoned Enlightenment ideals of reason, science, and human progress, often replacing them with pessimism, guilt, and technophobia.📚 Recommended Reading & Resources ● De Verraad van de Verlichting (Maarten Boudry) ● Maarten’s Substack● Enlightenment Now – Steven Pinker ● More from Less – Andrew McAfee ● The God Species – Mark Lynas ● Apocalypse Never – Michael Shellenberger ● We Are the Weather – Jonathan Safran Foer (for a contrasting perspective) ● Why We Disagree About Climate Change – Mike Hulme ● WePlanet’s “Just Stop Cooking” campaign💬 Quote Highlights“Fossil fuels aren’t evil. They’re the reason we have modern hospitals, schools, and food security.” — Maarten Boudry“You don’t solve climate change by going backwards. You solve it by going forward, with better tech.”“Calling something evil ends the conversation. It doesn’t start a solution.”“If nuclear isn’t part of your climate plan, then your climate plan isn’t serious.”“We romanticise nature as if it were kind — but nature gave us famine, disease, and child mortality.”🌐 About WePlanet WePlanet is a global citizen and science movement challenging bad ideas and championing evidence-based solutions for climate, nature, and human development. Learn more at weplanet.org.📥 Join the Conversation 💬 Feedback or questions? Email: [email protected] 📩 Subscribe to new episodes: weplanet.org/podcast 👁️ Follow us on Twitter/X: @weplanetint

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• Bad Idea #17 "rewilding VS the people" with Rebecca Wrigley

  🔍 Episode SummaryIs rewilding just about wolves and wilderness, headset against farmers and rural communities, or something much more hopeful and human? In this episode of Saving the World from Bad Ideas, Mark Lynas is joined by Rebecca Wrigley, Chief Executive of Rewilding Britain, to unpack Bad Idea #17: “Rewilding VS the people.”Together, they challenge some of the biggest myths surrounding rewilding. From fears of people being kicked off land to the notion that it’s anti-farmer. They reveal what rewilding actually means: restoring natural processes at scale, with people and communities at the heart. They discuss how rewilding is about practical solutions and land management to meet the challenges of the 21st century — from marine zones to city parks, from beavers to glow worms.Whether you’re a farmer, policymaker, activist, or someone with a window box, this episode shows that rewilding isn’t about returning to the past — it’s about releasing the future.🧠 Topics Discussed ● 🐺 The myth that rewilding is only about bringing back predators, and removing humans ● 🌱 What rewilding actually means — and why it’s for people too ● 🧑‍🌾 Rewilding and farming: from conflict to cooperation● 💡 Why rewilding should be part of our national infrastructure strategy ● 🌊 The ecological and economic case for marine rewilding● 🐻 Keystone species: beavers, lynx, deer, and the “beaver deceiver” ● 🌍 Rewilding Britain’s goal: 30% of land and sea for rewilding ● 🧭 How local rewilding networks are revitalising communities ● 🧬 Why rewilding is about future adaptation, not past restoration ● 🏡 How you can rewild your garden, park — or even your street👩‍🏫 Guest BioRebecca Wrigley is Chief Executive and co-founder of Rewilding Britain, an NGO driving systems change for the large-scale restoration of ecosystems on land and sea. With a background in conservation and community development in Uganda, Mexico, and the Pacific, she’s helped pioneer rewilding in the UK for the last decade. Under her leadership, Rewilding Britain now supporters rewilding across about 180,000 hectares and campaigns for policies that normalise rewilding as a productive, people-powered approach to land and marine use.📚 Recommended Reading & Resources ● Rewilding Britain ● Feral – George Monbiot ● “Wilding” (book & documentary) – Isabella Tree ● Ocean – BBC documentary on marine rewilding ● National Food Strategy (UK) ● Global Rewilding Alliance – globalrewilding.org ● Rewilding Europe – rewildingeurope.com ● Why Valley Wilding & Wild Ken Hill – community-based rewilding models ● Public Goods Subsidies in UK Agriculture Policy💬 Quote Highlights“Rewilding is not about going back to the past — it's about releasing the future.” — Rebecca Wrigley “Every ecosystem needs balance. In the absence of wolves, sometimes that means human stalkers managing deer.” “We subsidise sheep farming in the uplands — but ask nothing of that land in return. Rewilding can do so much more.” “You can rewild your garden, your local park, your street verge. It’s not just for landowners — it’s for everyone.” “Natural process-led management should be a discipline in every agricultural college.”🌐 About WePlanetWePlanet is a global citizen and science movement challenging bad ideas and championing evidence-based solutions for climate, nature, and human development. Learn more at weplanet.org.📥 Join the Conversation 💬 Feedback or questions? Email: [email protected] 📩 Subscribe to new episodes: weplanet.org/podcast 👁️ Follow us on Twitter/X: @weplanetint

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