Global Solutions: Recent Episodes
Stuart J. Tanner
Global Solutions explores the world’s economic systems, political institutions, transnational bodies, and globalized economy. We examine how, in combination, they perpetuate a situation of fundamental global inequality and an unequal access to the vital prerequisites for living a healthy and fulfilling life. These global imbalances and lack of access to resources, challenge the human dignity and sustain the suffering for hundreds of millions of people. The Global Solutions podcast promotes paradigms that are based on just and sustainable practices, and provide self-determination and resource sufficiency to all of humanity.
All technologies have enormous potential for good, but because they are powerful, they can also give rise to new problems and ethical issues. We are in a century when genetic engineering, robotics, artificial intelligence and other emerging technologies will reshape our world. This is especially true of genetic engineering. We consider the benefits and ethical issues for society that arise from these technologies
Throughout history, change has been led by people who’ve responded to the deepest and most universal impulse to improve the life of their fellow human beings. They are the ones that felt the calling, responded to the need of the time, and led the way. They spoke for the least well off, the downtrodden, those who suffered from afflictions, such as disease, and those who were abused by the people how had power over them. Every progressive step, and the overthrowing of old orders and paradigms has required the courage, passion, and commitment of great leaders. They are the ones that saw what must be done, who felt righteous anger over injustice and inequity and took up the cause and led the way. They used their voices, dedicated their lives, and gave what they had to work for the betterment of their fellow human beings. The great social, economic, and cultural revolutions, have come about because of these leaders.
Art can be a powerful form of protest and activism. The reason authoritarian governments shut down artists is because they explore, investigate, and scrutinize, all propositions for how we should live, how we should understand life, how all social or political institutions should, or should not, function and behave. Art is a force of liberation in the modern world. It questions any assumptions about what it is to be human, and how humans should live, or be organized.
Activists, and activist groups, are an expression of the evolutionary drive that propels humans to want to see progress for the individual and their society. An activist’s goal is to address the underlying causes of inequality, poverty, corruption, climate change, environmental degradation, etc. Activists advocate for transformational change to address global issues. Achieving transformational change requires increasing the awareness of an issue, altering altitudes, the implementation of new government polices, shifting the world to sustainable and just practices.
What is it that promotes independence, freedom of action, and self-sufficiency for people and nations around the world? What is it that promotes dependency and lack of freedom of choice? Promoted by celebrities, political leaders, and religious figures around the globe, foreign aid has become a popular—and controversial—subject. Proponents insist that wealthy nations have a moral duty to assist poor countries and must expand aid budgets, while critics argue that such aid is useless and can in fact damage local economies and promote long-term dependency.
Every issue needs advocacy for things to change, new policies to be adopted, to inspire people to care and take action, and to raise awareness of an issue. For this reason, campaign groups and NGOs know that they have to use the full power of storytelling, the media, creativity, their own voice and the voices of others to highlight the issue and to bring about positive transformation. In this podcast we discuss what it takes to run an effective campaign on an issue.
An introduction to the Global Solutions 2 course. Starting with a deep dive into a global issue, we begin to appreciate the world's most pressing global issues and what we can do to address them.
There are still so many forces at work that divide us, promote disharmony, fragmentation, abuse of the planet and human rights, but there has always been those who have worked for the good of all. Their message has been one that unites humanity, promotes harmony and the attainment of a good standard of living and equal opportunity for all of humanity. Humans have the capacity for great empathy, compassion and understanding of the experience and plight of others. We can rise above our own limited needs and desires and seek to do that which will be of benefit to others.
Can the world liberate itself from a norm of exceptionalism, and discrimination based on ethnic group, religion, race, and culture?
In this module we consider what led to the formation of liberal democracies and the freedoms we enjoy in a modern society. We also consider the strength of American democracy and the challenges that it's currently facing. If we are to transform the world and address the critical global issues we've been looking at, we need healthy representative governments, an end to authoritarian regimes, and the eradication of corruption.
Global challenges need global solutions and global citizens to bring them about. The environmental movement has been in existence for decades, and many people have been working in NGOs and at all levels of government and society on global issues, Even so, over time, the scale of challenges facing the world has continued to grow and the situation has fundamentally grown worse in most areas, such as loss of habitat, biodiversity loss, pollution, climate change, income inequality, the unsustainable use of natural resources, etc. The need has grown for action on these issues which is no constrained by short-term thinking or the limited self-interest of an individual, company, or nation.
We are all born into a specific culture context. As we grow up, we are immersed in the world views, beliefs, attitudes and expectations of this culture. The two fundamental categories for a culture are traditional and modern. Modern cultures feature a secular government, a secular education, multiculturalism, and representative government. If we are to fundamentally transform the world to a just and sustainable model, it's important to understand the cultural and political context in which most of humanity has to operate.
Gods and Demons examines the use of the world's resources. The Agricultural Revolution and Industrial Revolution increased human productivity to previously unimaginable levels. This was the foundation of progress in the quality of life for hundreds of millions of people. It is also the basis of a lot of the liberties enjoyed by a large percentage of the human population on Earth. But it's also led to a staggering increase in the use of the world's resources and the destruction of the environment. The consumption of the Earth's resources is also very unequal, with the developed nations consuming the vast majority of the resources. The Gods and Demons podcast examines these critical issues and examines the proposition that the underlying economic paradigm that created this situation needs fundamental reform or the creation of a new paradigm.
In Module 2 we look at the state of the planet and our relationship to the natural world. We consider critical issues such as climate change, biodiversity loss, soil erosion etc, and examine how our lifestyles and the current practices of major industries are undermining the health of the planet and creating a worsening situation for future generations. As part of this investigation, we will also look at organizations attemtping to address these issue and build a sustainable future for humanity.
In Module 1 of the Global Solutions course we take a look at the state of the world. This is to give a sense of where we are in relation to progress with what all humans want: enough to eat, a place to live, a job, good health, security, the opportunity for self improvement and development, and respect of basic human rights. How many in the world have all of these basic requirements to lead a good life? How many do not? And what does it cost the planet to provide? Can all humans attain these basic necessities? Can the planet support this? Are the world’s resources shared in a fair manner? These are some of the questions we will examine.