Avsnitt
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Developing Programs and Policy to Put Us On Course to a Bright Future
A conversation with Joseph Merz of the Overshoot Behavior Lab and the Future Behavior Lab
How can we help ourselves and everyone in the country make the dramatic changes needed to get our nation out of ecological overshoot and on a path to a bright future? Getting out of ecological overshoot – and doing it before the damage of overshoot is irreversible – will require a World War II level of effort. All of us – citizens, businesses, scientists and policymakers – will work together to completely reinvent our society, so that we give our kids not a dead planet, but a bright future.
We’ve begun to sketch this out on the Dave the Planet campaign website. Here’s a quick link to The Bright Future Project there: https://brightfutureproject.us. It’s far from complete, however. In this episode, presidential candidate Dave Gardner sought valuable perspective and advice to help us plan that project. Joseph Merz is one of the people he would invite to serve on the “President’s Council on The Bright Future.”
Merz was lead author of World Scientists’ Warning: The Behavioural Crisis Driving Ecological Overshoot https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/00368504231201372
Merz is:
Founder and Chairman of the Merz Institute https://merzinstitute.org/on the Executive Committee of the Stable Planet AllianceSenior Fellow of the Global EverGreening AllianceThe Merz Institute’s Overshoot Behavior Lab and Future Behavior Lab are doing work at a high level that we think would inform The Bright Future Project.
Follow this podcast for a ringside seat to Dave Gardner’s adventures running for U.S. President. If elected, Dave will declare an ecological overshoot emergency and launch a national project to get the nation out of overshoot. Podcast guests don't necessarily endorse Dave for president. We’ve got a planet to save, and the U.S. should do its part. Learn more, subscribe to campaign updates, volunteer, or donate to the campaign at https://davetheplanet2024.com
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It’s critical we set the record straight on the uninformed fearmongering about a baby bust. The latest round comes from a Wall Street Journal story and a segment on the CNN show, Smerconish. Presidential candidate Dave Gardner shines a little light on the subject in this episode.
Far too few of us are aware we have a human overpopulation crisis. For the past thirty years, too many have run for cover when the subject comes up. There is a fear of being labeled (usually falsely) racist, classist, or misogynist if one acknowledges overpopulation – or even worse – suggests we do something about it.
Yet today, growth boosters – and the journalists and commentators who carry water for them – shout from the rooftops about an alarming baby bust. They are the ones who should be ashamed and embarrassed, for reducing human beings to economic pawns. No child should be brought into this world in order to bolster the supply of labor, beef up the supply of taxpayers, restock an oversupply of consumers (customers), or provide some built-in, unpaid elder care.
Gardner shares how we know that we’re in a state of overpopulation today, and therefore should welcome falling birth rates. Smaller family decisions are a gift that will keep on giving – to generations to come.
MENIONED IN THIS EPISODE:
Why are Global and U.S. Fertility Rates Plummeting? – Smerconish on CNN
https://www.cnn.com/videos/health/2024/05/25/smr-fertility-rate-plummeting.cnn
Suddenly There Aren’t Enough Babies. The Whole World Is Alarmed – Wall Street Journal
https://www.wsj.com/world/birthrates-global-decline-cause-ddaf8be2
Follow this podcast for a ringside seat to Dave Gardner’s adventures running for U.S. President. If elected, Dave will declare an ecological overshoot emergency and launch a national project to get the nation out of overshoot. We’ve got a planet to save, and the U.S. should do its part. Learn more, subscribe to campaign updates, volunteer, or donate to the campaign at https://davetheplanet2024.com
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Saknas det avsnitt?
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Some voters are seriously concerned about our environmental meta-crisis, as we find out in this virtual town hall. Dave isn’t burning gas (and cash) roaming the country to meet with voters, so to have a dialogue he took to Zoom. Much of the conversation focused on answering these key questions:
How can we be effective but also quick in alerting the public to the ecological overshoot emergency, and leading the country to action?Is there a role for alarmism, or not? And if facts don’t persuade, what will, and how quickly?Also discussed: How best to educate the public about overpopulation, in the face of growing baby bust alarmism.
Thanks to those who joined in this conversation!
Recorded May 11, 2024
See the video of this town hall: https://youtu.be/iIE7-gEwn0E
MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:
The Bright Future Project
https://brightfutureproject.com
This Sustainable Life – podcast hosted by Joshua Spodek, and more
https://joshuaspodek.com/
The Limits to Growth
https://www.clubofrome.org/publication/the-limits-to-growth/
We Asked 380 Top Climate Scientists What They Felt About the Future
They are terrified, but determined to keep fighting. Here’s what they said
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/ng-interactive/2024/may/08/hopeless-and-broken-why-the-worlds-top-climate-scientists-are-in-despair
Dave the Planet on Substack: https://davetheplanet.substack.com
Donate to the Dave the Planet campaign: https://davetheplanet2024.com/donate
Volunteer for the campaign: https://davetheplanet2024.com/volunteer
Contact the campaign: https://davetheplanet2024.com/contact.html
Follow this podcast for a ringside seat to Dave Gardner’s adventures running for U.S. President. If elected, Dave will declare an ecological overshoot emergency and launch a national project to get the nation out of overshoot. Podcast guests don't necessarily endorse Dave for president. We’ve got a planet to save, and the U.S. should do its part. Learn more, subscribe to campaign updates, volunteer, or donate to the campaign at https://davetheplanet2024.com
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Baby Bust Alarmism or Depopulation Panic are misplaced. We’ve outgrown the planet and are in ecological overshoot. So population contraction is not a disaster; it should be celebrated. Professor Scott Galloway often gets things right, but on this topic, he needs to hit the books.
[DAVE THE PLANET VIRTUAL TOWN HALL – May 11 at 10 Pacific/11 Mountain/Noon Central – Register Here: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZUrdO6oqT0jGN3K6fTrJdj7P9sTVJzWHIxT]
This episode was inspired by remarks made by Galloway on HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher on April 26, 2024. The professor was lamenting how gen z are not conceiving children because the American Dream (Dave Gardner's words) isn’t working out for them. In this episode, you'll hear Galloway characterize the population contraction Japan and Italy are experiencing as “the way we go out of business.”
You can’t talk our young people into being optimistic. They see what we’re doing to the planet. And you can’t restore their faith and optimism with bigger paychecks and affordable housing, because one finite planet just can’t support the antiquated American dream of ever-increasing wealth.
This is very relevant to Dave Gardner’s campaign for U.S. President, because a key part of his platform, The Bright Future Project to get out of overshoot, includes contracting our nations’s population (ethically and voluntarily) and ending our love affair with increasing wealth, economic growth and material consumption.
If you’re Scott Galloway and want to brush up on limits to growth, planetary boundaries and ecological overshoot, here are a few recommendations:
The Most Dangerous Secret – will point you to four good podcast episodes about overshoot
https://davetheplanet.substack.com/p/the-most-dangerous-secret
For an excellent summary of our situation, plus links to some of the most important reading you can do:
Polycrisis, Unraveling, Simplification, or Collapse: Coming Soon to a Planet Near You? – by Richard Heinberg, Senior Fellow at Post-Carbon Institute
https://www.resilience.org/stories/2023-06-15/polycrisis-unraveling-simplification-or-collapse-coming-soon-to-a-planet-near-you/
Follow this podcast for a ringside seat to Dave Gardner’s adventures running for U.S. President. If elected, Dave will declare an ecological overshoot emergency and launch a national project to get the nation out of overshoot. Podcast guests don't necessarily endorse Dave for president. We’ve got a planet to save, and the U.S. should do its part. Learn more, subscribe to campaign updates, volunteer, or donate to the campaign at https://davetheplanet2024.com
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President Biden couldn't tell us the full truth in his State of the Union address last week. So independent presidential candidate Dave Gardner recorded this State of the Planet address, to provide a more accurate assessment of how things are going. We need the full truth about threats that – if ignored – could mean a dead planet for our children. In this address, Dave outlines how we can acknowledge those threats and come together to give our kids a bright future, instead.
Dave Gardner is the one candidate for U.S. President in 2024 who has that bright future agenda. Learn more about the candidate and his platform at https://davetheplanet2024.com
Get more detail about Dave’s National Project to Get the U.S. Out of Ecological Overshoot at https://davetheplanet2024.com/natlonalproject.html
Full transcript and more about this subject: https://davetheplanet.substack.com/p/state-of-the-planet-address
Follow this podcast for a ringside seat to Dave Gardner’s adventures running for U.S. President. If elected, Dave will declare an ecological overshoot emergency and launch a national project to get the nation out of overshoot. We’ve got a planet to save, and the U.S. should do its part. Learn more, subscribe to campaign updates, volunteer, or donate to the campaign at https://davetheplanet2024.com
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“The people who lead this world have not been square with you, because that would hurt their bank accounts, and might take away their power. We are destroying our world and making it unlivable for future generations so that we can have more things now - not what we need - but what we want.”
These are lines from a speech written by Matt Orsagh, a speech we need to hear from our leaders, but so far we’re only hearing it from one political candidate – Dave Gardner, independent candidate for U.S. President in 2024.
Read the speech we're discussing here:
https://degrowthistheanswer.substack.com/p/the-speech-we-need-to-hear-from-our
The speech is so truthful, accurate and poignant, that we convened a few members of the Dave the Planet campaign team to review it. We’re faced with the decision of a lifetime: inconvenience ourselves and do what’s right for future generations, or opt for comfort and leave our kids a dead planet.
The speech continues:
“This year is a big election year around the world. Every politician will promise you growth. That's how they get elected. They will tell you that they will deliver growth. The assumption is that growth and a good life are the same thing, that growth is the thing in your heart of hearts that you want. But that's not how the natural world works. Things don't grow forever. You don't grow forever, the trees outside your house don't grow forever. The only thing that grows forever is cancer. It grows until it kills its host, and then it dies too.”Thank you to finance guru Matt Orsagh, who wrote this speech and published it on his Substack column, Degrowth is the Answer, in January of 2024. It was stunning to read the speech Dave Gardner could have delivered - such syncronicity. We interviewed Matt in our last episode; be sure to listen. Find that podcast in the links below. Here is one more, very relevant excerpt:
"I will not promise you growth because that is irresponsible. But I can promise you a better way. I can promise you a way that is sustainable. I can promise you a way that is better for your children 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, and 100 years from now. But that will take a change that is quite uncomfortable. Do you want to keep your comfort for today and doom your children, or do you want to make uncomfortable changes and save them?”We also share some campaign news in this episode:
Endorsements – our campaign website now includes endorsements from notable people, plus supporters like you. Add your endorsement.
Flyers – download these graphics and leave them wherever you go to help spread the word.
Dave the Planet on Substack – campaign updates and notes about the issues are now being published on Substack. If you’re not already getting thes, be sure to subscribe here: https://davetheplanet.substack.com
Fundraising – this national campaign has so far not met even the $10,000 milestone. Please support this campaign so we can alert, educate and inspire more people. We promise not to be a spoiler.
Recorded January 24, 2024.
MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:
The Speech We Need to Hear from Our Leaders – by Matt Orsagh
I encourage our leaders to steal this speech.
https://degrowthistheanswer.substack.com/p/the-speech-we-need-to-hear-from-our
Degrowth is the Answer on Substack
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If things were going well, there’d be no reason to question our current system that puts so much faith in economic growth. But things aren’t going well. Common sense and system dynamics models tell us we cannot grow economic throughput forever. It’s making our world more and more unlivable.
An array of evidence suggests continued pursuit of growth will leave our kids a Mad Max future, at best, and very possibly a dead planet. Finance professional Matt Orsagh explains why we need to change our economic paradigm, put human outcomes above economic, and embrace degrowth. He also explains the concept. Matt writes the Substack column, Degrowth is the Answer.
Americans, on average, are engaged in 5-planet living. We need to scale back in order to avoid leaving our children a dead planet — instead giving them a bright future. Contracting our economy back to a sustainable level is a major part of Dave Gardner’s agenda as a presidential candidate.
MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:
Degrowth is the Answer on Substack
https://degrowthistheanswer.substack.com/
The Economics of Biodiversity
https://www.cam.ac.uk/stories/dasguptareview
Degrowth Resources – recommended by Matt Orsagh
https://degrowthistheanswer.substack.com/p/degrowth-resources
Planetary Boundaries
https://www.stockholmresilience.org/research/planetary-boundaries.html
Doughnut Economics – Kate Raworth
https://doughnuteconomics.org/
The Speech We Need to Hear from Our Leaders
https://degrowthistheanswer.substack.com/p/the-speech-we-need-to-hear-from-our
Thanks to Michael Kerbow for permission to use his painting, The Oil Age.
https://www.michaelkerbow.com/
Follow this podcast for a ringside seat to Dave Gardner’s adventures running for U.S. President. If elected, Dave will declare an ecological overshoot emergency and launch a national project to get the nation out of overshoot. Podcast guests don't necessarily endorse Dave for president. We’ve got a planet to save, and the U.S. should do its part. Learn more, subscribe to campaign updates, volunteer, or donate to the campaign at https://davetheplanet2024.com
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Don’t Let Trump Near the White House
No one was surprised at Donald Trump’s victory in the Iowa Caucus, but here’s why we cannot allow him anywhere near the White House. In this short bonus episode, presidential candidate Dave Gardner shares why anti-Trumpers are so adamant. We hear briefly from John Heilemann (speaking on MSNBC’s Morning Joe) about how unimpressive 51% is for the Donald.
Read Dave’s full Iowa Caucus response here: https://davetheplanet.substack.com/p/dave-gardner-statement-on-the-iowa
View his abbreviated response here: https://youtu.be/mCmznRC77x4?si=dXcuVzp41Omk3_ie
Follow this podcast for a ringside seat to Dave Gardner’s adventures running for U.S. President. If elected, Dave will declare an ecological overshoot emergency and launch a national project to get the nation out of overshoot. We’ve got a planet to save, and the U.S. should do its part. Learn more, subscribe to campaign updates, volunteer, or donate to the campaign at https://davetheplanet2024.com
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In the first town hall of Dave Gardner’s campaign for U.S. President, Dave answers questions from panelists and audience about why he’s running and his plan for our nation to stop making dead planet decisions and start providing a bright future for our children.
Why would an everyday guy - who’s never starred in a hit movie, written a New York Times bestseller or held public office - run for President of the United States? Independent candidate Dave Gardner answered this question and more at a town hall in Colorado Springs on December 11.
Dave warns, “Continued business as usual will result in a dead planet. We have a moral obligation to leave the children of the world a planet worth inheriting.” So, his administration will shrink the U.S. footprint – by contracting the material throughput of the economy, putting the nation on an energy diet, and ethically and voluntarily contracting the population that demands that energy and consumes that material throughput.
PANELISTS:
Ally Richardson, campaign team volunteer and permaculture educatorBecky Elder, permaculture educator and consultant, Transition Town veteran, former city councilorJax Armendariz Unzueta, Chicana community organizer and activist, former state senate stafferLOCATION:
Buffalo Lodge Bicycle Resort
AUDIO MIX AND VIDEO DIRECTION:
Haden Gillespie
Follow this podcast for a ringside seat to Dave Gardner’s adventures running for U.S. President. If elected, Dave will declare an ecological overshoot emergency and launch a national project to get the nation out of overshoot. We’ve got a planet to save, and the U.S. should do its part. Learn more, subscribe to campaign updates, volunteer, or donate to the campaign at https://davetheplanet2024.com
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It’s the economy, stupid. But what’s stupid is the persistent belief that economic growth can continue forever on a finite planet. Gag-orders silenced one scientist in an attempt to bury the truth that economic growth will give us a dead planet. It’s just one more obstacle that’s prevented the needed shift from a culture of “more” to a culture of “enough.” In this episode, Brian Czech discusses his experiences at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, as recounted in his new book, Gag-Ordered No More: The 800-Pound Gorilla In The U.S. Government.
The conversation includes, of course, society’s obsession with economic growth, and why that is in conflict with environmental integrity.
Brian Czech is founder and executive director of the Center for the Advancement of the Steady State Economy. He also authored:
Supply Shock: Economic Growth at the Crossroads and the Steady State SolutionShoveling Fuel for a Runaway Train: Errant Economists, Shameful Spenders, and a Plan to Stop them AllThe Endangered Species Act: History, Conservation, Biology, and Public PolicyHost Dave Gardner is – to the best of our knowledge – the ONLY candidate running for any office in the U.S., promising to shrink the economy. This is necessary in order get out of ecological overshoot.
View video of this episode at https://youtu.be/2KyM_0dr4eE?si=ymM9rgT9qr86bWAJ
MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:
Center for the Advancement of the Steady State Economy
https://steadystate.org/
Books by Brian Czech (including Gag-Ordered No More)
https://steadystate.org/membership/
Sign the CASSE Position Statement Calling for a Steady State Economy
https://steadystate.org/act/sign-the-position/
More about Dave’s economy platform, including links to learn more about the unsustainability of continued economic growth
https://davetheplanet2024.com/economy
Notable Interviews with Brian Czech:
The Silver Lining of Covid Induced Recession - Episode 42 of the GrowthBusters podcast
https://www.growthbusters.org/silver-lining-covid-recession/
Pulling the Rug Out From Under Our Kids - Episode 204 of the Conversation Earth radio series and podcast
http://www.conversationearth.org/pulling-rug-kids-brian-czech-204/
Follow this podcast for a ringside seat to Dave Gardner’s adventures running for U.S. President. If elected, Dave will declare an ecological overshoot emergency and launch a national project to get the nation out of overshoot. We’ve got a planet to save, and the U.S. should do its part. Learn more, subscribe to campaign updates, volunteer, or donate to the campaign at https://davetheplanet2024.com
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How would presidential candidate Dave Gardner answer the questions posed at the GOP Debate November 8? As an independent candidate, Dave was obviously not invited to the event. But as a service to voters, Dave sat down and answered all of the questions.
Dave is the one candidate who promises our children not a dead planet, but a bright future.
Learn more about Dave Gardner's campaign for U.S. President and his National Project to Get Out of Overshoot at https://davetheplanet2024.com
Follow this podcast for a ringside seat to Dave Gardner’s adventures running for U.S. President. If elected, Dave will declare an ecological overshoot emergency and launch a national project to get the nation out of overshoot. We’ve got a planet to save, and the U.S. should do its part. Learn more, subscribe to campaign updates, volunteer, or donate to the campaign at https://davetheplanet2024.com
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Presidential candidate Dave Gardner discusses the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and overpopulation. Overpopulation may not be the central issue in the conflict between Israel and Palestinian terrorist groups, but the stress of crowded, high density living and scarce resources like food and water exacerbate the situation. Many global conflicts have been happening in areas that can’t support their growing populations. The fact that Israelis and Palestinians have long been engaged in a population growth competition adds to the tragedy.
Dave sat down to discuss this with campaign team-member Chris Bystroff, a university professor who teaches a course about population dynamics. The outstanding 2013 book about overpopulation, Countdown, by Alan Weiss devotes its first chapter to the conditions and population competition in this area.
They also discuss Liz Cheney’s values and unique honesty in the world of political spin, and a great column by Froma Harrop reminding us that the “American Dream” isn’t all about money.
MENTIONED IN, OR OTHERWISE RELEVANT TO, THIS EPISODE:
Countdown: Our Last, Best Hope for a Future on Earth? – by Alan Weisman
https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/17332183
The Catalyst of Overpopulation in the Gaza Conflict – by Jon Austen and Jane O’Sullivan
https://overpopulation-project.com/the-catalyst-of-overpopulation-in-the-gaza-conflict/
End The Insanity: For Nuclear Disarmament and Global Demilitarization
https://www.ecologicalcitizen.net/article.php?t=end-insanity-nuclear-disarmament-global-demilitarization
It's Really Not All About Money - by Froma Harrop
https://www.creators.com/read/froma-harrop/09/23/its-really-not-all-about-money
Photo credit: Al Araby CC BY-SA 3.0 DEED
Follow this podcast for a ringside seat to Dave Gardner’s adventures running for U.S. President. If elected, Dave will declare an ecological overshoot emergency and launch a national project to get the nation out of overshoot. We’ve got a planet to save, and the U.S. should do its part. Learn more, subscribe to campaign updates, volunteer, or donate to the campaign at https://davetheplanet2024.com
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Campaign launch behind us, Dave and campaign team discuss strategies to get attention and spread the word about our ecological overshoot emergency. RFK, Jr.’s candidacy and the spoiler effect are also on the table. And we review volunteer needs and what campaign contributions will allow us to do.
Please do what you can to help:
Like and share our Wake Up, America campaign video: https://youtu.be/vtV_FPRbCJM
https://davetheplanet2024.com/donate
https://davetheplanet2024.com/volunteer
https://davetheplanet2024.com/subscribe
See the video version of this episode here: https://youtu.be/LZzvrDa4Qo0
Follow this podcast for a ringside seat to Dave Gardner’s adventures running for U.S. President. If elected, Dave will declare an ecological overshoot emergency and launch a national project to get the nation out of overshoot. We’ve got a planet to save, and the U.S. should do its part. Learn more, subscribe to campaign updates, volunteer, or donate to the campaign at https://davetheplanet2024.com
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Growth profiteers want you to believe growth is making your life better. When the bloom comes off that rose, they want you to believe growth is inevitable. In this episode, Dave debunks a recent newspaper column, Curbing Population Growth is Hard to Do, which seems designed to quell rising public awareness and concern about the unsustainability of continued population growth: “the overall picture is that rapid population growth is a permanent part of life in Colorado.”
Contrary to widespread misassumptions, population growth is NOT inevitable, it’s not beyond our control. We can end public policies that subsidize growth. We can ensure couples are fully informed about overshoot, are free of pronatalist pressure, and are fee to make well-considered, responsible family-size decisions. We can embrace the trend to smaller families. The U.S. can take accountability for its ecological footprint and therefore population size – moving to stop exploiting immigrants, while welcoming refugees.
We can encourage our cities and states to end Ponzi demography, stop competing for population growth, and focus on shrinking their footprints while sustainably meeting the needs of their residents. We can discard those archaic growth-based metrics for success, and start defining and creating a healthy 21st century economy. If I’m elected, we’ll do that at the national level, and I’ll lead the nation in supporting this paradigm shift in all our communities.
Bending the curve, making U.S. and world population peak sooner and contract toward a level that can allow us to restore balance with nature, doesn’t require any coercion or loss of liberty. Everywhere in the world that girls are educated, women have access to family planning and abortion, and women have decision-making power, family sizes go down. More freedom will lead to more freedom.
Mentioned in This Episode:
Curbing Population Growth is Hard to Do – by Tom Cronin and Bob Loevy
https://gazette.com/colorado_politics/curbing-population-growth-is-hard-to-do/article_bdb2ed9e-5d51-11ee-95d4-6f2bb8c87818.html
Follow this podcast for a ringside seat to Dave Gardner’s adventures running for U.S. President. If elected, Dave will declare an ecological overshoot emergency and launch a national project to get the nation out of overshoot. We’ve got a planet to save, and the U.S. should do its part. Learn more, subscribe to campaign updates, volunteer, or donate to the campaign at https://davetheplanet2024.com
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Presidential candidate Dave Gardner fills us in on his national project that will unify the nation behind the goal of leaving our children not a dead planet, but a bright future. In this episode, hear Dave’s full campaign launch speech (the speech intended for his September 19, 2023 live campaign launch, but cut short by technical difficulties).
Follow this podcast to track Dave Gardner’s adventures running for U.S. President and learn more about the issues and his platform. If elected, Dave will declare an ecological overshoot emergency and launch a national project to get the nation out of overshoot. We’ve got a planet to save, and the U.S. should do its part! Learn more, subscribe to campaign updates, volunteer, or donate to the campaign at https://davetheplanet2024.com
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Follow Dave Gardner’s adventures running for U.S. President. If elected, Dave will declare an ecological overshoot emergency and launch a national project to get the nation out of overshoot. We’ve got a planet to save, and the U.S. should do its part. Folow this podcast so you don't miss upcoming episodes - some fun, some serious, all enlightening.
Learn more about Dave or the campaign, subscribe to campaign updates, volunteer, or donate to the campaign at https://davetheplanet2024.com
