Always Adding More: The Unpopular Reality about Energy Transitions with Jean-Baptiste Fressoz

Always Adding More: The Unpopular Reality about Energy Transitions with Jean-Baptiste Fressoz

(Conversation recorded on November 6th, 2024)

The vision of a carbon-free, net-zero society is often framed around the promise of transitioning away from fossil fuels. But what can we learn from past "energy transitions" that might inform how feasible – or unrealistic – this vision actually is?

Today, Nate is joined by energy and technology historian Jean-Baptiste Fressoz for a lesson on the importance of understanding the historical trajectory of energy use for realistically navigating the unprecedented challenges humanity faces today – including the dominant narrative of a modern-day "energy transition." Jean-Baptiste explores the interdependent relationship between different energy sources—from wood to coal to oil—and reveals how this history shapes our hopes for renewables and nuclear energy moving forward.

How can examining the history of energy and material use help us fully grasp the scale at which human societies actually consume them? What role do our current economic systems play in driving an ever-growing demand for new energy sources? In the history of our species, have we ever fully transitioned off of one energy source and replaced it with another – and what does this imply for the hope of a fossil-free future?

About Jean Baptiste Fressoz:

Jean-Baptiste Fressoz is a historian and researcher at the Alexandre Koyré Center of the School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences in Paris, France. His work focuses on environmental history, technology and energy, and the Anthropocene. He is the author of Happy Apocalypse: A History of Technological Risk, as well as the co-author of the book Chaos in the Heavens: The Forgotten History of Climate Change. Most recently, he wrote More and More and More: An All Consuming History of Energy.

Show Notes and More

Watch this video episode on YouTube

Want to learn the whole story of The Great Simplification? Watch our 30-minute Animated Movie.

---

Support The Institute for the Study of Energy and Our Future

Join our Substack newsletter

Join our Discord channel and connect with other listeners

Avsnitt(385)

Moving from Apathy to Action: How Facing Grief Can Help Us Navigate a World in Crisis | Reality Roundtable #17

Moving from Apathy to Action: How Facing Grief Can Help Us Navigate a World in Crisis | Reality Roundtable #17

When facing the realities of our world, the urge to drown in grief or shut down into apathy is becoming more and more common. As we are flooded with information and global predicaments outside of our ...

9 Juli 20251h 18min

Ask Nate Anything 2025 | Frankly 100

Ask Nate Anything 2025 | Frankly 100

In today's Frankly, Nate reads and responds to questions from viewers of the channel, offering reflections on a wide range of topics from current events, balancing fear and action surrounding often ex...

27 Juni 202534min

Algorithmic Cancer: Why AI Development Is Not What You Think with Connor Leahy

Algorithmic Cancer: Why AI Development Is Not What You Think with Connor Leahy

Recently, the risks about Artificial Intelligence and the need for 'alignment' have been flooding our cultural discourse – with Artificial Super Intelligence acting as both the most promising goal and...

25 Juni 20251h 37min

The 10 Core Myths Still Taught in Business Schools | Frankly 99

The 10 Core Myths Still Taught in Business Schools | Frankly 99

Economics departments around the world teach a narrow boundary story of the way our world works. A narrative of infinite growth driven by consumption and money, which has dominated our culture and unk...

20 Juni 202543min

The National Security Risks We're Not Prepared For: Adapting In an Age of Actorless Threats with Rod Schoonover

The National Security Risks We're Not Prepared For: Adapting In an Age of Actorless Threats with Rod Schoonover

National security concerns have been the invisible hand guiding governance throughout recorded history. In the 20th century, it was defined by a country versus country dynamic: whichever nation was th...

18 Juni 202559min

The Systems Science Behind Our Global Crises: How Energy Drives Economics, Ecology, and Our Future  | The Great Simplification Movie

The Systems Science Behind Our Global Crises: How Energy Drives Economics, Ecology, and Our Future | The Great Simplification Movie

👉 WATCH THE MOVIE HERE 👈 Three years ago, my team and I created a 30-minute movie that provides a comprehensive systems analysis of the human predicament—spanning energy, economics, ecology, and b...

13 Juni 20251min

Globalization End Game: How Localization Builds Resilient Communities & Economies with Helena Norberg-Hodge

Globalization End Game: How Localization Builds Resilient Communities & Economies with Helena Norberg-Hodge

Over the last few decades, humanity has globalized everything – from food production and supply chains to communication and information systems – making countries, businesses, and individuals more con...

11 Juni 20251h 18min

10 Qualities That Could Change the Future: The Seeds of New Cultural Mitochondria | Frankly 98

10 Qualities That Could Change the Future: The Seeds of New Cultural Mitochondria | Frankly 98

Living in a period increasingly fraught by various crises and risks, it is more necessary than ever to be able to metabolize anxiety into something useful. But what about at a cultural level? The beha...

6 Juni 202520min

Populärt inom Vetenskap

dumma-manniskor
p3-dystopia
allt-du-velat-veta
kapitalet-en-podd-om-ekonomi
svd-nyhetsartiklar
rss-vetenskapsradion
det-morka-psyket
rss-ufo-bortom-rimligt-tvivel-2
rss-vetenskapsradion-2
medicinvetarna
sexet
paranormalt-med-caroline-giertz
hacka-livet
rss-spraket
vetenskap-och-halsa
rss-tidslinjen-podcast
dumforklarat
halsorevolutionen
bildningspodden
vetenskapsradion