Michael Shellenberger
speaker
1,228 appearances
6 recordings
4 series
first heard Oct 2024
last heard 18 Feb
Michael Shellenberger’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
Trend
recordings per month · last 12 monthsRecordings per month over the last 12 months — 1 in all, peaking in Feb 2026 with 1.
Appearances
And to see it snap back in the way that it snapped back, I can't help but be filled with a sense of optimism. I don't think we have a lot of visibility still in terms of what comes next. But I mean, I think what I'm also getting in the conversation is the sense that you do have to have this faith. You do have to affirm human life. You have to say humans are good.
There's something special about us on this earth. It's a beautiful earth. There's a lot of wonderful other species, but there's something special about humankind. We have a specific responsibility. Human Western liberal democratic civilization has been the high point in that. And that really the alternative is just might makes right. It's the Hobbesian world.
And we don't want to go, I think the American people have said, we don't want to go back to that. We don't want to go live in a world where every president gets put into prison by the next president or where committees of experts decide what the truth is. So for me, it's just, you know, I just kind of look at it and I go, it's a completely open plane now.
And, you know, we're not seeing these reactionary totalitarian forces able to even respond to what's been happening.
I'm in Austin for a few more hours, and then I fly to London.
Nice to see you.
believe there's five active fires right now and these are ignition driven fires meaning that this these are all this is all shopper all or you know uh scrubland you know brush area so this isn't this is different than the sierra forests right these are not forest fires Yeah, these are not forest fires.
And that doesn't mean that you're doomed to them, but it's not the same problem that we get in the Sierras. So they're ignition-driven and they're obviously wind-driven, but there's nothing unusual. I just interviewed a climate scientist about this, or rather an environmental forest scientist about this. There's nothing unusual about this. I mean, it is somewhat unusual to get...
You have a dry period and then the Santa Ana winds in January, but it's not like that never happens. I'm working my way there. Of course. The important thing to know is that the National Weather Service put out a fire warning on January 2nd and a local weatherman actually forecasted on January 1st.
they said we're headed towards a super dangerous moment um the next day the national weather service los angeles held a briefing to underscore that point the day after that the mayor flew to ghana i mean it's crazy like you would have public press conferences yeah these were oh i mean it's absolutely public and it goes to the politicians first but it's all said publicly it's the national weather service so
So that was like literally on the first or second, the governor should have called out the National Guard. He should have called all of our neighboring states. He should have called Canada and Mexico, asked for all their backup help. They should have started circling C-130s that are especially retrofitted that can dump the fire retardant or water.
They should have had helicopters circling to see where the fires were. It should have been immediate mobilization.
Yeah, and because there's so many ignitions, because of really these two factors, mostly the electrical wires brushing up against vegetation and triggering a fire, that's kind of one of the main ones. The other one is homeless people starting fires all over LA. Half of all fires put out by the LA Fire Department are started by homeless people. It's been that way for years.
Well, you know, it turns out meth heads love to start fires. You know, there's just every drug has its kind of weird element to it. But meth heads love starting fires. They love destroying things like meth is like the drug of nihilism. So it's like perfect drug for L.A. and California at the moment. So it's not these are not cooking fires.
No, totally fine. Yeah, what could go wrong?
Psychopathy, yeah. I mean, for sure. I mean, look, meth makes you psychopathic. It makes you psychotic. It's meth-induced psychosis. But, I mean, yeah, and all the crazy... I mean, people behave... I mean, things that people do on meth, I mean, it is like...
It's like they behave with like superhuman crazy powers, the levels of violence, the assaults, the, I mean, you just, when you interview people, particularly people in recovery that describe being on meth, I mean, they're just awake for like weeks at a time. Like it's not even clear how they get any sleep at all. So that's just, that madness has continued. And, you know, and Mayor Bass, who's the-
Not totally. I mean, I think homeless people are going to often start fires for a lot of different reasons. I mean, drugs can start fires, but the meth heads are like into fire. Like it's a big part of meth culture. It's just starting things on fire. No one sees this in theological terms. It's like this. I know it's amazing.
Yeah. No, it's satanic.
Yeah. It's awful. So, but you know, you kind of go, I mean, so first of all, that problem should have been dealt with obviously years ago, it should never have been allowed. So, but that they knew on January 1st, January 2nd, that the fires were coming. Like it was inevitable that there would be fires.
Showing 841–860 of 1,228 · page 43 of 62
← Previous
Next →