ETC Group podcasts

In this interview, Sabrina Masinjila, from the African Centre for Biodiversity, speaks to ETC Group about some key targets in the Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) being negotiated at COP15 in Montreal. She explains the importance of agroecology and agricultural diversity in Target 10 of the GBF, and why these are so important for biodiversity in the future.

Find out what's happening at the Convention on Biological Diversity's COP 15 in Montreal, with this introduction to the COP by guest interviewee Christine von Weizsäcker. You can read the full transcript of the interview over at our website at: https://www.etcgroup.org/content/cop15-audio-introduction.

The push to get untried and untested corporate-backed bio- and digital technologies accepted as ‘nature-positive solutions’ is  taking place in the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) as well as climate negotiations. The long-postponed global biodiversity summit (COP-15) of the Parties to the CBD, which was supposed to take place in Kunming in China in 2020, is now taking place in Montreal in December. In Montreal a high-profile ‘Global Biodiversity Framework’ will be launched to determine the priorities for the next 30 years of biodiversity governance.. We’ve been working hard to try and ensure that the Global Biodiversity Framework and ongoing work of the Convention includes critical agreements to implement horizon scanning, technology assessment and monitoring of new and emerging technologies – especially modern biotechnologies. Governments need to give the green light to this next step in the Convention’s work, or risk undoing and undermining over a quarter century of commitments to the precautionary principle. This would, in essence, change the entire nature and ethos of the CBD and open the door to many risky and unjust technologies. Jim Thomas, Silvia Ribeiro and Tom Wakeford will be at COP-15 in Montreal in December. In this 5-minute mini-podcast Jim outlines why horizon scanning, technology assessment and monitoring must be included in the new ‘post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework’ and the CBD’s Work Programme on Synthetic Biology.

In celebration of United Nations World Philosophy Day 2021, ETC Group presents its third and final podcast in the "Spanner in the System" series, focussing on the philosophical underpinnings of corporate visions for disruptive technology, together with Dr Saurabh Arora from the University of Sussex. This podcast is part of ETC Group’s new three-part mini-series about Disruptive Technologies, produced by ETC Group in the Asia-Pacific region in collaboration with Puma Podcasts. Supported by Heinrich Böll Stiftung.

Find out what geoengineering is, why it's so dangerous, and why the idea of these largely non-existent technologies is being used as an alibi for the fossil fuel industry to continue extracting and polluting.

Why not listen to our new podcast during your lunch break today? As we mark World Food Day (16 October), it’s a good time to pause and reflect on our food and where it comes from. Our first podcast, in our new mini-series on disruptive tech, produced in the Asia-Pacific region, does just that! Together with Neth Daño, we learn about issues surrounding new technologies and their impacts on some of the world’s poorest and most vulnerable people, and what we can do about them. We look at the global food system, how we care for – and sometimes don’t care for – our land, and what needs to be done to make a better world. This might all sound complicated, but we can start with bananas: believe it or not bananas can tell us a lot about how the world we live in works! This podcast is part of ETC Group’s new three-part mini-series about Disruptive Technologies, produced by ETC Group in the Asia-Pacific region in collaboration with Puma Podcasts. Supported by Heinrich Böll Stiftung.

En esta historia, seguimos a un joven campesino llamado Jack mientras  trepa una enredadera de datos que conduce al castillo de un gigante,  donde descubre lo que sucede cuando conecta su granja a las brillantes  aplicaciones y las deslumbrantes promesas de la agricultura de  precisión.

In this special episode of the ETC Group podcast, we're sidestepping into the world of fairy stories to celebrate World Storytelling Day 2021, which focuses on 'New Beginnings'. 'Jack and the Cloud Giant' is a twist on an old European fairy tale. We follow a young peasant called Jack up a data-vine that leads into the Cloud Giant’s techno-castle, where he finds out what happens when he plugs his farm into the glittering apps and the dazzling promises of precision agriculture. We hope you enjoy it and will share it with friends and family! 'Jack and the Cloud Giant' was written by ETC Group's Jim Thomas and narrated by Zahra Moloo. To download a copy of this podcast and to see the 'book' itself, a pdf beautifully illustrated by children's book illustrator Garth Laidlaw, visit: https://etcgroup.org/content/jack-and-cloud-giant

What kind of system of knowledge considers it a good idea to try to manipulate the whole climate of an entire planet? For our second of two episodes on geoengineering, ETC Group's Dru Jay spoke to Tom Goldtooth, who is the Executive Director of the Indigenous Environmental Network about the meaning of colonization, what is called decolonization and Indigenous perspectives on geoengineering,

Who is behind schemes to block the sun and suck carbon out of the air – instead of rapidly reducing emissions? ETC Latin America Director Silvia Ribeiro talks about who is driving the geoengineering agenda and how geoengineering will affect people and ecosystems in the Global South. For more about Geoengineering, visit http://www.geoengineeringmonitor.org or read the Big Bad Fix (https://www.etcgroup.org/content/big-bad-fix)

In this podcast episode, ETC Group speaks to Abeba Birhane, a PhD candidate in cognitive science at University College Dublin in the School of Computer Science. Birhane talks about her work on the algorithmic colonisation of Africa, why we need to normalise critical thinking on new technologies and if there is such a thing as “ethical" AI.

Zahra Moloo asks Jim Thomas a seemingly simple question: what is technology? The answer takes us into the core of ETC's work, and the basic ideas behind our multi-decade push for Technology Assessment, and explains how "Mooney's Law" works.

This episode is also available with video. Those backing risky new technologies are seeing growing profits and power during the COVID-19 crisis. From fast-tracking genomic testing and novel vaccines to automation of ‘people-free’ supply chains, the pandemic is benefitting Big Tech. From the rise of Zoom and Netflix to enhanced data-surveillance of populations, Silicon Valley and its financial backers  are not only shaping how the crisis is lived, but are positioning themselves to shape behaviours and write the rules in a post-crisis new order. At the same time, the COVID crisis has revealed the fragilities in our food systems and the ways in which we still depend on the peasant food web to sustain us. Although the pandemic has brought numerous risks, community alternatives have flourished, suggesting new ways of living and forging the future ahead. Participants: Verónica Villa (Mexico City, Mexico) Zahra Moloo (Montreal, Canada) Neth Daño (Davao, Philippines) Jim Thomas (Val David, Canada)

In this episode (recorded before the COVID-19 pandemic began in earnest), ETC Founder Pat Mooney discusses ETC's communiqué, The Next Agribusiness Takeover: Multilateral Food Agencies and the moves powerful corporate actors are making to take over global food policy institutions.

ETC's Tom Wakeford speaks with Ugandan lawyer and advocate Barbara Ntambirweki about gene drives, a powerful new genetic technology that can change species in the wild and make species go extinct.