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Piers Locke

@degrowthanthro.bsky.social
43 followers 71 following 55 posts

The elephant anthropologist engaged with overshoot, metacrisis, and post-growth transition

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Piers Locke @degrowthanthro.bsky.social · 14/10/2026
How to think about coupled systemic risks reshaping capital, institutions, and what it means to invest for the future. www.thegreatsimplification.com/episode/238-...
thegreatsimplification.com
Optionality Collapse: We're Investing in a Future That Won't Exist - The Great Simplification
In this episode, Nate welcomes back Indy Johar, co-founder of Dark Matter Labs, for an exploration of how coupled systemic risks are reshaping capital, institutions, and what it means to invest for th...
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Piers Locke @degrowthanthro.bsky.social · 11/10/2026
‘Renewable energy’ has indeed been misnamed, as Olivia Lazzard recognises when she suggests it would be better named ‘mineral energy’ to remind us of the finite resources that those energy technologies rely on.
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Piers Locke @degrowthanthro.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
What you need to know for the upcoming general election in New Zealand… youtube.com/shorts/bRP1k...
youtube.com
NZ Election 2026 | 100% Pure S*itF@^kery
YouTube video by thejuicemedia
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Piers Locke @degrowthanthro.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Good that The Guardian is reporting on The Planetary Boundaries. We’re now exceeding 7 of 9 boundaries crucial for keeping the planet in a safe operating space. www.theguardian.com/environment/...
theguardian.com
‘Planetary boundaries’ necessary for flourishing of life have been massively breached, scientists warn
New report shows key indicators of Earth’s health are ‘outside the safe operating space’ as climate disaster looms
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Piers Locke @degrowthanthro.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
It’s worth appreciating how the breakdown of deregulating, globalising, trickle-down, Neoliberal political-economy that served as the ruling paradigm for so long, paved the way for the rise of reactionary right-wing authoritarian populism.
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Piers Locke @degrowthanthro.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
One could look at the unregulated situation as symptomatic of a preceding alignment problem concerning corporate power- see Greg Elliott’s Psychopathic Selection Hypothesis explaining how institutions come to make psychopathic decisions.
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Piers Locke @degrowthanthro.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
There’s so much commentary on the AI scare story, but this is some of the very best. Ezra Klein explains the issue and argues for AI companies to pull the plug on recursive self-improvement. podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/t...
podcasts.apple.com
We’re Not Losing Control of A.I. We’re Giving It Away.
Podcast Episode · The Ezra Klein Show · 20 September · 31min
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Piers Locke @degrowthanthro.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Naomi Klein and Astra Taylor discuss their new book with the QAA crew podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/q...
podcasts.apple.com
End Times Fascism feat. Naomi Klein and Astra Taylor (E389)
Podcast Episode · QAA Podcast · 16 September · 1hr 12min
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Piers Locke @degrowthanthro.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
A great topic for community organising and petitioning change could be the National Emergency Briefing- a doco presented by Chris Packham that has been touring the UK, and which argues the PM should give a televised address on the nature and climate crisis, putting us into wartime emergency mode.
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Piers Locke @degrowthanthro.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
The book End Times Fascism is out soon, here’s a taster: www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-i...
theguardian.com
The end times fascists are plotting their escape from our world. Our mission is clear | Naomi Klein and Astra Taylor
An unholy alliance is working toward an apocalyptic future from which only a chosen few will emerge unscathed. It’s becoming clear how we stop them
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Piers Locke @degrowthanthro.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
Check out season two of the podcast Suspicious Minds- an excellent investigation into AI and the apocalypse. It’s thoughtful, it features experts, and it’s well researched and produced. www.agoricmedia.com/suspicious-m...
agoricmedia.com
Suspicious Minds – Season 2 — Agoric Media
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Piers Locke @degrowthanthro.bsky.social · 17/08/2026
Looking forward to “End Times Fascism and The Fight for The Living World”. Naomi Klein’s new substack is worth reading in the meantime. naomiklein.substack.com/p/the-goal-i...
naomiklein.substack.com
The Goal is a Fascist Continent
Unpacking Trump's End Game in Latin America with William Callison and Verónica Gago
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Piers Locke @degrowthanthro.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
That’s the goal of the campaign.
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Piers Locke @degrowthanthro.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
Further to the government report warning of a collapse of global food systems by 2030, is the National Emergency Briefing campaign, featuring a doco arguing the PM should put us into wartime emergency. Find a screening near you here: www.nebriefing.org/the-film
nebriefing.org
National Emergency Briefing
A 50-min film centred around the National Emergency Briefing. The frank facts, but also the huge opportunity if Government steps up and leads a WW2-scale response. Designed to be watched by communitie...
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Piers Locke @degrowthanthro.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
Background to Greens calling a COBRA meeting- an FOI forced the government to release a truncated and redacted report in which intelligence chiefs recognised the nature and climate crisis as a security threat. See: www.gov.uk/government/p...
gov.uk
Nature security assessment on global biodiversity loss, ecosystem collapse and national security
This strategic assessment explores how global biodiversity loss and the collapse of critical ecosystems could affect the UK’s resilience, security and prosperity.
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Piers Locke @degrowthanthro.bsky.social · 06/08/2026
www.nebriefing.org
nebriefing.org
National Emergency Briefing on climate & nature
National Emergency Briefing | The UK’s leading climate and nature experts brief MP's on the risks, impacts and solutions to the climate emergency
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Piers Locke @degrowthanthro.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
BTW- Great show last night! You and Alex were great, as were your colleagues from The Byline Times and The Lincoln Project.
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Piers Locke @degrowthanthro.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
So, we were having a chat about authoritarianism and in walks Count Binface, fresh from electioneering in Clacton! With- Quiet Riot, The Byline Times, and from across the pond The Lincoln Project
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Piers Locke @degrowthanthro.bsky.social · 27/07/2026
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Piers Locke @degrowthanthro.bsky.social · 22/07/2026
Carole Cadwalladr explores the belated focus on Farrage’s finances, noting the role of right-wing UK newspapers. She also reminds us that 3 months ago George Cottrell published a book called “How to Launder Money” with a chapter titled “How to Bribe a Politician”! www.facebook.com/share/v/14uG...
facebook.com
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Piers Locke @degrowthanthro.bsky.social · 18/07/2026
Reform are such utter hypocrites!
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Piers Locke @degrowthanthro.bsky.social · 12/06/2026
I notice though that Selwyn prescribes transition without acknowledging that it will only be possible if we also reduce production and consumption, and hence global energetic and material throughput.
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Piers Locke @degrowthanthro.bsky.social · 09/06/2026
For fun and entertaining ways of exploring the question of whether civilisation is doomed, this podcast is great. doompod.com
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Piers Locke @degrowthanthro.bsky.social · 05/06/2026
open.substack.com/pub/thehones...
open.substack.com
On The Possibility of World War III...
Decades of conflict instead of nuclear annihilation?
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Piers Locke @degrowthanthro.bsky.social · 05/06/2026
Interesting claim from The Honest Sorcerer (a global systems thinker from the energy infrastructure sector)- He suggests that the war in Iran has brought the crunch point of global resource decline 4 or 5 years closer.
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Piers Locke @degrowthanthro.bsky.social · 06/05/2026
Neural surveillance is arriving, the time to protect our cognitive liberty is now. podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/k...
podcasts.apple.com
it's not sci-fi. mind-reading tech is here
Podcast Episode · kill switch · 6 May · 41min
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Piers Locke @degrowthanthro.bsky.social · 03/05/2026
And, of course, there’s the grifting element - beyond the fire and brimstone zealotry and the prosperity gospel elevating the pursuit of wealth is the profiteering that comes from eroding public health and growing the market for wellness products and treatments.
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Piers Locke @degrowthanthro.bsky.social · 03/05/2026
This has involved major budget and staff cuts- “Driving these cuts is a neoliberal-theological fusion: the belief that dismantling public institutions is not just fiscally sound but morally ordained to combat demonic evils”
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Piers Locke @degrowthanthro.bsky.social · 03/05/2026
On the worrying rise of Christian Nationalism in the Trump regime, focussing on Kennedy and the MAHA agenda. When politics is cast as a battle against demonic forces, things aren’t likely to go well…
theguardian.com
‘Christofascism’ is here: inside the slow demolition of US public health | Adrienne Matei
From prescribing spiritual warfare to demonizing health experts, RFK Jr’s health empire has become a dangerous vehicle for a Christian nationalist worldview
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Piers Locke @degrowthanthro.bsky.social · 03/05/2026
I was hoping it was an article you had written for the NY Times!
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Piers Locke @degrowthanthro.bsky.social · 03/05/2026
Minor quibble- “Officially”?! And the authority to make such a designation resides with…? Please avoid the overblown rhetoric.
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Piers Locke @degrowthanthro.bsky.social · 29/04/2026
Indeed, familiar political categories and coordinates are losing their utility amidst the uncertainties of the polycrisis.
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Piers Locke @degrowthanthro.bsky.social · 10/04/2026
Interesting discussion, but as usual, the elephant in the room of the societal progress they applaud, is the ecological impossibility of sustaining it, and of drawing on overshot limits to understand the societal unraveling that today’s reactionary authoritarianism is symptomatic of.
podcasts.apple.com
The Civilization Trump Destroys May Be Our Own
Podcast Episode · The Ezra Klein Show · 10 April · 1hr 8min
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Piers Locke @degrowthanthro.bsky.social · 28/03/2026
N.B. Monographs are not subject to peer review in the same way as articles submitted to academic journals. Different reviewing processes.
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Piers Locke @degrowthanthro.bsky.social · 17/03/2026
How a university research institute is assessing the unravelling of democracy www.theguardian.com/world/commen...
theguardian.com
‘Trump is aiming for dictatorship’. That’s the verdict of the world’s most credible democracy watchdog | Martin Gelin
Sweden’s V-Dem Institute warns that the US is no longer a liberal democracy. And autocracy is creeping across Europe too, says writer Martin Gelin
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Piers Locke @degrowthanthro.bsky.social · 11/03/2026
Norway wins the internet today with this amusing vid on enshittification youtu.be/T4Upf_B9RLQ?...
youtu.be
A Day in the Life of an Ensh*ttificator
YouTube video by Forbrukerrådet - Norwegian Consumer Council
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Piers Locke @degrowthanthro.bsky.social · 07/02/2026
Substack author, The Honest Sorcerer goes public as himself in this discussion with Nate Hagens to discuss the unravelling of our civilisation through the lens of energy security, resource scarcity, and geopolitical instability, as well as how we might navigate to a post-growth future.
thegreatsimplification.com
How to Read the Signs of Collapse: Economic Stagnation, Resource Scarcity, and Europe’s Industrial Decline - The Great Simplification
Today, Nate is joined by Balázs Matics, the author of the popular Substack blog The Honest Sorcerer, to explore the systemic reasons behind civilization's potential collapse, the importance of energy ...
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Piers Locke @degrowthanthro.bsky.social · 04/02/2026
Brilliantly written, powerfully argued. “The implications for democracy cannot be reduced to a facile equation of regulation with censorship.”… www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
theguardian.com
When Maga oligarchs control the platforms, it isn’t really a debate about ‘free speech’ | Rafael Behr
The debate over banning under-16s from social media should raise deeper questions about who controls democracy’s digital infrastructure, says Guardian columnist Rafael Behr
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Piers Locke @degrowthanthro.bsky.social · 28/01/2026
The CEO of the Center for Countering Digital Hate, Imran Ahmed, is being sanctioned by the US State Department for his work fighting for safer online spaces, and is facing deportation. counterhate.com/blog/ccdh-ce...
counterhate.com
CCDH CEO Faces U.S. Deportation Threat for Research on Social Media Harms   — Center for Countering Digital Hate | CCDH
The U.S. government threatened to deport CCDH CEO Imran Ahmed for our work fighting for safer digital spaces. Here’s what happened.
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Piers Locke @degrowthanthro.bsky.social · 28/01/2026
When it was Twitter, you tweeted. So, now that’s it’s X, do you x-crete?
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Piers Locke @degrowthanthro.bsky.social · 27/01/2026
The threat of imminent ecological system failures now acknowledged by the UK’s intelligence agencies! Rupert Read and Caroline Lucas discuss this new report. www.resilience.org/stories/2026...
resilience.org
It's ecological breakdown that should put us on a war-footing: official
Admissions of extreme, eco-caused national security threats foreground importance of climate adaptation to bring much needed urgency and agency.
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Piers Locke @degrowthanthro.bsky.social · 22/01/2026
Or listen on his Better Offline podcast (in 4 parts). podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/b...
podcasts.apple.com
The Enshittifinancial Crisis: Part One
Podcast Episode · Better Offline · 20/01/2026 · 36m
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Piers Locke @degrowthanthro.bsky.social · 22/01/2026
Ed Zitron on the Enshittifinancial Crisis-explaining how the flawed business model for AI chips, datacentres, and products is fuelling an investment bubble that will burst. www.wheresyoured.at/the-enshitti...
wheresyoured.at
The Enshittifinancial Crisis
Soundtrack: Lynyrd Skynyrd — Free Bird This piece is over 19,000 words, and took me a great deal of writing and research. If you liked it, please subscribe to my premium newsletter. It’s $70 a year, ...
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Piers Locke @degrowthanthro.bsky.social · 21/01/2026
www.thegreatsimplification.com/episode/real... On the topic of being informed: Groc, said: “I tailor my information since I know who you are. I'm going to use more foreign sources than I do for the average person”. But that means it is biasing! Groc replied; “yes, but that's how I'm programmed.”
thegreatsimplification.com
Arms Race or the Human Race? Governance in the Age of AI, Nuclear Threats, and Geopolitical Brinkmanship - The Great Simplification
In this Reality Roundtable, Nate is joined by geopolitical risk experts Mark Medish and Chuck Watson to discuss the increasing strain being placed on human governance as a result of escalating conflic...
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Piers Locke @degrowthanthro.bsky.social · 16/01/2026
A brilliant pillorying of the ineffectual governance of The Labour Party, still in thrall to the technocratic neoliberalism that has hollowed out the country and triggered reactionary populism. Decisive but non fascist governance required! www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
theguardian.com
Say what you will about Trump, but unlike Starmer he knows his own power – and how to use it | Aditya Chakrabortty
The right is unafraid to show its might on the world stage – meanwhile the PM is tinkering with potholes, says Guardian columnist Aditya Chakrabortty
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Piers Locke @degrowthanthro.bsky.social · 15/01/2026
When you have to pinch yourself because you never thought you would have to censor yourself, live in fear, and strategise your safety in the face of a government that could threaten your liberty at any moment… bylinetimes.com/2026/01/15/a...
bylinetimes.com
A Year of Living Dangerously in Trump's America
I no longer feel safe to speak or act freely in a country where people are being arbitrarily detained and killed and where the truth is becoming whatever Donald Trump says it is, reports Alexandra Hal...
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Piers Locke @degrowthanthro.bsky.social · 14/01/2026
Latest episode-what happens when you let an AI Agent onboard a human into your company? As perverse and amusing as the rest of Evan Ratliff’s attempts to run a company with AI agents. podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/s...
podcasts.apple.com
Episode 7: Welcome Aboard
Podcast Episode · Shell Game · S2 E7 · 53m
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Piers Locke @degrowthanthro.bsky.social · 12/01/2026
“my most consistent fascination is where humanity is heading, to be alive at a time when the world is dying, and AI is on the cusp of becoming indispensable to life, and so will soon control the destiny of man, is just incredible.”- Gary Numan
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Piers Locke @degrowthanthro.bsky.social · 12/01/2026
On the demise of journalists in the Pentagon press corps, replaced by sycophantic influencers happy to operate under constraint, not to question, not to investigate, and instead just to cheerlead childishly. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...
theguardian.com
Rightwing bloggers and Maga minions: meet the Trump-loving Pentagon press corps
A group of reporters meant to hold the Pentagon to account is full of pro-Trump sycophants … what could go wrong?
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Piers Locke @degrowthanthro.bsky.social · 11/01/2026
Stewart Lee is on top form. When reality has become this ridiculous, his acerbic wits cuts through the bullshit better than the mainstream news, and gives you a giggle too. www.thenerve.news/p/stewart-le...
thenerve.news
Stewart Lee: Nakedly imperialist oil wars just aren’t what they used to be
Call me nostalgic, but didn’t the US used to have a cover story for invading South American countries – or at least have a president who could remember what it was?
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