Ep 85: David Heinemeier Hansson, Co-Founder & CTO at Basecamp

In today’s episode, we cover:

• David’s influential career in tech
• His advocacy of various causes
• DHH’s view that, regardless of one’s background, one should become versed in climate change
• How his attention first peaked with the California drought
• How the fires near Malibu made the crisis feel personal and urgent
• “The Uninhabitable Earth” by David Wallace Wells helped inform him of the catastrophe brought about by a temperature rise above 2 degrees centigrade
• How it’s remarkable to think that, since Seinfeld has aired, we’ve doubled GHG
• His family’s carbon budget and how it showed him how much more complicated the problem is 
• His belief that changes in consumer and voting behavior will only happen when people see the existential threat themselves (e.g. fires, floods, etc.)
• His pessimism that things won’t change until the situation becomes more dire
• Do carbon offsets inhibit decisive action?
• The longer democracies fail to address climate change, the more society becomes ripe for the rise of dictators
• DHH’s recommended reading: “The Divide” by Jason Hickel
• His acceptance of the likelihood that he will live on an uninhabitable earth; that we’re not going to stay below 2 degrees Centigrade

Links to topics discussed in this episode:

• “The Uninhabitable Earth”: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/586541/the-uninhabitable-earth-by-david-wallace-wells/
• “The Divide”: https://www.jasonhickel.org/the-divide
• Green New Deal: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_New_Deal
• Yellow vests movement: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellow_vests_movement

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*Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant