The Megamachine and Green Growth Delusions | Christopher Ketcham

Techno-industrial extractivism is driving environmental destruction, and the media is complicit in upholding the growth model that sustains it. Christopher Ketcham, author of This Land: How Cowboys, Capitalism, and Corruption Are Ruining the American West, joins us. Highlights include: How techno-industrial extractivism plagues modern societies and the media is complicity in failing to challenge the growth model on which it is based; How environmental destruction in the U.S. West has been aided and abetted by corrupt federal land management agencies that have been captured by the livestock, forestry, and mining interests they're supposed to be regulating; The U.S. Department of Interior has failed to enforce the Endangered Species Act and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service engages in ongoing and shocking mass slaughter of animals that threaten the livestock industry; How 'green growth' ideology is fueling the lithium mining on sacred indigenous lands and aligns leading environmental groups with 'green' industry interests; Chris’ vision of ecological restoration which calls for freeing the trampled, denuded ecosystems from the effects of grazing, enforcing the laws already in place to defend biodiversity, allowing the native species of the West to recover under a fully implemented Endangered Species Act, and establishing vast stretches of public land where there will be no development at all, not even for recreation. See episode website for show notes, links, and transcript: https://www.populationbalance.org/podcast/christopher-ketcham   ABOUT US OVERSHOOT | Shrink Toward Abundance [Formerly The Overpopulation Podcast] OVERSHOOT tackles today’s interlocked social and ecological crises driven by humanity’s excessive population and consumption. The podcast explores needed narrative, behavioral, and system shifts for recreating human life in balance with all life on Earth. With expert guests from wide-ranging disciplines, we examine the forces underlying overshoot: from patriarchal pronatalism that is fueling overpopulation, to growth-biased economic systems that lead to consumerism and social injustice, to the dominant worldview of human supremacy that subjugates animals and nature. Our vision of shrinking toward abundance inspires us to seek pathways of transformation that go beyond technological fixes toward a new humanity that honors our interconnectedness with all beings.  Hosted by Nandita Bajaj and Alan Ware. Brought to you by Population Balance.  Learn more at populationbalance.org Copyright 2025 Population Balance