4 HN users recommended this talk3 months2021–2024score 3.5
Years with an HN recommendation, 2007–2026
Recommended in climate and energy threads as a numbers-based explanation of why energy underlies growth and emissions.
Jean-Marc Jancovici gives an MIT Media Lab talk on whether technology can save us from climate change. He argues from a physical view of energy that economic growth, energy use and climate impact are tightly linked.
“Interesting related presentation on what is energy and how it relates to the economy from a physical point of view” (HN, 2022)
Jancovici is a legend. Listenening to him and reading his latest comic book ( Le monde sans fin ) made me very aware of climate issues and directly influenced my behavior. He deserves to be better known by international audiences. Here are some of his talks in english: - [link] - [this video]
Listening to him raised climate awareness and changed behavior
You can try talks from this guy, he's a french energy and climate expert. I found that he explained very well the root of the issue between growth, energy and climate impact. Here is a talk he did for the MIT media lab in english: [this video]
Explains the root of growth, energy and climate impact
Interesting related presentation on what is energy and how it relates to the economy from a physical point of view [this video] Note: presented in a controversial way, that's the style of this speaker
Presentation on what energy is and how it relates to the economy
> What's the argument against researching it? It's a diversion. They're all stopgap measures with no real long term application. You can paint all the road white and add artificial clouds, if you continue to live like resources are unlimited and pollution isn't an issue you'll sooner or later hit another problem. If we don't take care of the root cause we're bound to fail. Unlimited growth and exponential energy usage isn't possible in a closed system. All these new "green" economy, "green" growth, &c. are perpetuating the idea that we're going down the right path and simply have to tweak a few variables to go from "catastrophic failure" to "idyllic paradise" I don't think people truly understand how fucked we are and how deep the problem runs. [this video]
Supports the argument that growth is the root problem
The current trajectory has locked us into 2C+ of warming. Even if some magical technology appears out of nowhere and allows us to start capturing and sequestering carbon at the gigaton volumes required to make a dent we're still locked into 2C+ of warming. [1][2] At this point it is no longer a matter of doing enough, it's a matter of actively adapting to the reality of a warmer planet because no matter what we do 2C+ warming is an immutable fact. 1: [this video] 2: [link]
I pulled that number as an exaggeration to illustrate the fact that even if "our civilization" survives (whatever it may mean), it doesn't mean things are going to be OK. Even if you make that 50% it's still not great news in my book. I've read Dire Predictions written by members of the IPCC, the famous Limits to Growth and I follow the works of Jancovici, a French engineer specialized in these issues (here is a talk in English he did for MIT Media Lab: [this video] ) Do those qualify as biased sources to you?
Talk in English by a French engineer on energy and climate
Indeed you have to look at the figures, no amount of wordage without computation will get you a true answer, still calling someone or something deplorable is, I am sorry, a dog-whistle. So to clear the air I propose you look at this substantive set of answers: [link] (cc to english should work ok) [this video]
Video list and Hacker News comment labels from HackerTube (prompted by @karpathy), released under ODC-By 1.0, built on the open-index/hacker-news archive. Hacker News data is provided by Y Combinator; comments remain the work of their authors. Video titles, channel names and thumbnails belong to their creators and are shown via YouTube. HackerTube Watch is an unofficial edition. Data export of 2026-10-31.
Plays via YouTube's privacy-enhanced embed
8 Hacker News comments
From the HN archive; up to 20 kept per video, favoring different commenters. Recommendations first.
Citations, criticism and jokes
Read more