# What's Left: Three Paths Through the Planetary Crisis with MALCOLM HARRIS

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Podcast: [AI & The Future of Humanity:  Artificial Intelligence, Technology, VR, Algorithm, Automation, ChatBPT, Robotics, Augmented Reality, Big Data, IoT, Social Media, CGI, Generative-AI, Innovation, Nanotechnology, Science, Quantum Computing: The Creative Process Interviews](https://stenobird.com/podcast/ai-and-the-future-of-humanity)
Published: 2025-08-27T08:04:00+00:00
Episode link: https://www.creativeprocess.info/ai-the-future-of-humanity/malcolm-harris-epdge-crcns
Audio file: https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5745d9f137013b9d0a627c60/t/68e129482605a31ba2d6ecf3/1759586658013/Malcolm+Harris+-+What%E2%80%99s+Left.mp3
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## Resource

Malcolm Harris explores the intersection of capitalism and the climate crisis, arguing that our current economic structure is fundamentally incompatible with a stable biosphere. He proposes moving beyond individual consumer choices toward a radical redesign of our social metabolism.

## Highlights
- Main idea: The climate crisis is rooted in a 'value-theoretical' rift between human social structures and the natural world
- Failure mode: Treating decarbonization as a commodity or an individual purchase fails to address the systemic need for production redesign
- Practical takeaway: True environmental progress requires a collective shift in how we manage the planet's finite resources
- Main idea: Capitalism functions by carving up the biosphere into disposable parts, including both ecosystems and people
- Critical perspective: Effective internationalism must be rooted in solidarity with those facing immediate existential threats, such as the people of Gaza

## Topics

Climate Crisis, Capitalism, Social Metabolism, Internationalism, Environmental Justice, Political Economy, Decarbonization, Systemic Change

## Chapters
- 0:00 — From History to Future: A transition from studying the history of capitalism to analyzing the existential threats of the planetary crisis.
- 3:00 — The Value of Oil and Ecology: Exploring how the concept of value links our economic systems to the physical reality of climate change.
- 6:10 — Redesigning Social Metabolism: The necessity of moving toward a system based on collective needs and decarbonized production.
- 9:10 — The Myth of Individual Solutions: Why market-based, individualistic approaches to climate change are fundamentally ineffective.
- 18:20 — The Ethics of Complicity: Navigating political action and the risks of engaging with compromised systems to achieve better outcomes.
- 31:10 — New Forms of Collectivity: Looking toward indigenous internationalism and new organizational structures in a disordered world.

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## Transcript

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