363: Carbon Markets & The Art of Not Being Governed: Legibility vs. Complexity in James C. Scott—w/ Grant Faber

Episode 363 of the Reversing Climate Change podcast, hosted by Carbon Removal Strategies LLC, titled "363: Carbon Markets & The Art of Not Being Governed: Legibility vs. Complexity in James C. Scott—w/ Grant Faber" was published on August 26, 2025 and runs 62 minutes.

August 26, 2025 ·62m · Reversing Climate Change

Summary

One of my biggest podcasting regrets is not having been able to interview the anthropologist Dr. James C. Scott before he died in 2024. We had corresponded by email, but he'll forever be one of the ones who got away... Rest in peace, James. Your scholarship is still making people think.Today's show serves as an introduction to anthropology, and to some key Scottian concepts like "legibility" that Grant Faber and I apply to the carbon removal and carbon offsetting spaces.Why do states prefer straight lines? Why do more organic shapes take place seemingly everywhere else? How can creating legibility be simultaneously great for transparency and order but perilous for justice and truth? When complexity is often so much more accurate, what is it within us that yearns to abandon it? What is in us that desires to make everything legible to our gaze even if it creates a wasteland and calls it peace?If that's a soupy theoretical mess for you, you'll probably enjoy this episode. It's a doozy!“A language is a dialect with an army and navy."— Max Weinreich, attributed"[The Romans] create a desert and call it peace."— TacitusThis Episode's Sponsors⁠⁠⁠Philip Lee LLP: legal resources for carbon removal buyers and suppliers⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Arbonics⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠: forestry project developer in the EU⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Listen to the RCC episode with Lisett Luik from Arbonics⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Become a sponsor by emailing carbon.removal.strategies[at]gmail.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Use this affiliate link to use Descript's transcripting and podcast editing service⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Use this affiliate link to use Riverside to record your podcasts⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Sign up for the 9Zero climate coworking space with my referral code⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Resources⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Become a paid subscriber of Reversing Climate Change⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Subscribe to the Reversing Climate Change SubstackGrant Faber's Carbon-Based Commentary on SubstackJames C. Scott's Wikipedia pageJames C. Scott's posthumous In Praise of Floods: The Untamed River and the Life It BringsWeapons of the Weak: Everyday Forms of Peasant Resistance by James C. ScottThe Art of Not Being Governed: An Anarchist History of Upland Southeast Asia by Jame C. Scott"Not 'gay' as in 'happy' but 'queer' as in "f**k you'." is a line I've heard that is maybe informative here."On Truth and Lies in a Nonmoral Sense" by Friedrich NietzscheWilliam of OckhamNominalismMichel FoucaultJacques DerridaPostmodernismHauntologies of carbon removal—w/ Dr. Holly Jean Buck of the University of Buffalo: RCC S3 bonusCapitalist Realism: Is There No Alternative? by Mark FisherEdmund BurkeThomas PaineZhou EnlaiMichael Oakeshott, though I wonder if I have potentially overstated his position...Precautionary principleBr'er rabbitFordismSloanism333: Coproduction & Additionality: How Do We Draw the Line for Carbon Removal?—w/ Grant Faber, Carbon-Based Consulting"A primer on additionality and carbon removal" by Grant Faber350: Robert Höglund Presents: The Many Perils of Being Catalytic in a Carbon Accounting WorldDavid Graeber's Wikipedia page

Episode Description