Profit & Freedom

The People's Countryside Environmental Debate Podcast

In this episode of The People's Countryside Environmental Debate Podcast, hosts Stuart 'The Wildman' Mabbutt and William Mankelow tackle two thought-provoking listener questions.

The first question, and it is quite a long one, comes from Cedric in Central Region, Malawi - ”Business has a part to play in the ecological and climate crisis, its part of the problem and thus, part of the solution, don’t you think?

Think on this, the climate crisis is a once in a generation opportunity for big business to make money, not lose it. If you frame it like that to the CEO’s etc, they will buy into doing the right thing, even if they don’t give a shit. The top brass are often just motivated by profit, so this brings them along with us. What's coming down the track is every business is going to have to reduce its carbon output, and clients and supply chains could bypass them for more sustainable businesses if they don’t shape up. Some try and avoid putting value on nature, but maybe the idea of value needs reframing too?

When it's done for the right reasons or not, as long as everything is more sustainable, surely that's a good thing? 60% of us say we want to do something to be sustainable, yet barely 20% actually do. Maybe that's to do with people wanting to feel safe in the just transition that has to happen, or scared to do the wrong things. We shouldn’t be scared as that teaches us how to do the right things. We’re all part of the same system, none of us outside of it, so we shouldn’t use energy thinking whether we should exert our influence from the inside or from the outside. We need to bring our influence to bear in all areas of the system. The system isn’t broken, it's doing exactly what it was originally set up to do, make money. The system just needs recodeing as it were, and guess what? There would still be room to make money, though maybe it would be done more fairly?

We are bearing witness to a period of huge change. Is it quick enough though? Who knows, but what I do know, the approach of LESS - BETTER - LOCAL is a clear way forward. We need to differentiate between need and want. 25% of the value of what we buy is the production costs, 75% of its value is what they spend convincing us that we need this crap. The marketeers drive want and don’t always solve a need. Just saying”.

In this discussion, sparked by Cedric's question, Stuart and William explore how businesses can simultaneously contribute to, and solve, environmental challenges, examining companies' motivations for sustainability, consumers' environmental concerns, and the pivotal role of supply chains in driving sustainable practices.

The second question for this episode comes from Aytama in Harjumaa, Estonia - “What’s the true meaning of freedom? Not sure if you’ve talked about this before?”

With this shorter, philosophical question, Stuart and William reflect on whether true freedom exists, and discuss how freedom might better be understood as moments of release or escape, rather than an absolute state.

What do you make of this discussion? Do you have a question that you'd like us to discuss? Let us know by sending an email to ⁠[e-mail]

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This podcast's overall themes are nature, philosophy, climate, the human condition, sustainability, and social justice.

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