Bad Idea #56 "Just leave it to the market" with Tom Crowther

In this episode of Saving the World from Bad Ideas, Mark Lynas speaks with global ecologist Tom Crowther about a seductive but dangerous assumption: just leave it to the market. While part of the conversation focuses directly on capitalism, inequality, poverty, and wealth redistribution, the discussion is much broader than economics alone. Drawing on Tom’s new book Nature’s Echo, they explore how feedback loops shape everything from the birth of stars to the spread of ideas, the dynamics of ecosystems, the structure of societies, and the possibility of ecological recovery. The central argument is that markets can generate growth, innovation, and momentum, but without balancing forces they also drive instability, degradation, and collapse. It is a wide-ranging conversation about regeneration, resilience, scientific thinking, and how human systems might better mirror the stabilising logic of the natural world.

🧠 Topics Discussed

🔁 Why feedback loops are one of the most useful ways to understand nature and society

🌌 How the same looping dynamics help explain the formation of stars, life, and ecosystems

😱 Why climate doomism can become self-fulfilling if it closes off regenerative possibilities

⚡ Why renewables and electrification may now be driven by powerful self-reinforcing momentum

📉 Why no exponential growth system lasts forever, and why overshoot matters

🌱 How regenerative feedback loops can build when livelihoods improve alongside nature

🚜 Why Tom distinguishes regenerative livelihoods from simplistic anti-industrial romanticism

🌾 How nature loss can eventually reduce agricultural yields, even in intensive systems

🥩 Why plant-based proteins and nuclear energy could radically reduce ecological pressure

💸 Why poverty is one of the strongest drivers of environmental degradation

🧾 How wealth redistribution can act as a stabilising feedback in both society and ecology

🌳 What the trillion trees controversy got wrong about restoration

🗺️ How the Restore platform helps land stewards, funders, and the public support regeneration on the ground

🧪 Why science needs both rigour and humility, especially when defining the world in fixed categories

🧠 How constructivist thinking, belief, and consensus shape the way societies understand reality

👩‍🏫 Guest Bio

Dr Tom Crowther is a global ecologist working across multiple universities, with his foundation based in Switzerland. His research spans biodiversity, forests, restoration, agriculture, and the feedback loops that shape planetary systems. He is also the author of Nature’s Echo: Harnessing Ancient Feedback Loops to Heal a Changing Planet, which is now available.

📚 Recommended Reading & Resources

Nature’s Echo: Harnessing Ancient Feedback Loops to Heal a Changing Planet by Tom Crowther

The Restore platform

Research on ecological restoration, regenerative livelihoods, and nature recovery

Work on feedback loops in climate, biodiversity, and social systems

Writing and debate on trillion trees, reforestation, and restoration policy

💬 Quote Highlights

💬 “For me, the bad idea is that we’re doomed to a bleak future.”

Tom Crowther

💬 “There’s unbelievable potential for regenerative loops to build momentum as well.”

Tom Crowther

💬 “I am trying to think like a natural system.”

Tom Crowther

💬 “I think our economic system needs to perfectly mirror that.”

Tom Crowther

💬 “Poverty is the biggest driver of degradation.”

Tom Crowther

💬 “When they are lifted out of poverty, that is when nature thrives and they start to thrive more, which makes nature thrive more.”

Tom Crowther

🌐 About WePlanet

WePlanet is an international movement campaigning for science-based solutions to the climate, nature and development crises. Through conversations like this one, we challenge bad ideas, spotlight better ones, and make the case for a more abundant, resilient and hopeful future.

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