Dave the Planet

“It’s not a happy time when Dave Gardner has to cancel his campaign, the last hope for a living planet.” Presidential candidate Dave Gardner, running mate Stefanie Hawks-Johnson, and key campaign team volunteers share observations of the 2024 U.S. presidential race, make an important campaign announcement, and plan for the future. They consider possible reasons the campaign failed to attract signi...

Marine biologist Stefanie Hawks-Johnson both won the “People’s Choice” vote and the confidence of Dave and his campaign team. So in this episode Dave invites Stefanie to join the ticket, and the two discuss our state of overshoot, the importance of biodiversity, challenges in communicating about human overpopulation, why they’re voting for Kamala Harris, and how to proceed with the campaign. MENTI...

We’re all united by a desire for our kids to have good lives. How do we achieve that bright future when ecological overshoot threatens to instead leave our kids a dead planet? In this episode, presidential candidate Dave Gardner and campaign volunteer/permaculture educator Ally Richardson sketch out some of the communication details for The Bright Future Project. Ally is also a potential running m...

U.S. presidential candidate Dave Gardner is determined to alert us that ecological overshoot is a profound emergency threatening to leave our children a dead planet. So it’s critical that everyone understand what ecological overshoot is. William E. Rees, the originator of ecological footprint analysis, provides a primer for the uninitiated – plus some advanced thinking for those already well aware...

Independent presidential candidate Dave Gardner was prepared to step into Biden’s place on the Democratic ticket, but instead is pledging to vote for Kamala Harris. He’s not quitting the race, though. He says that’s because the conversation still has to change. Because we’re in ecological overshoot, we need to end the quest for robust economic growth, and begin living more lightly on the planet, s...

In order to get the nation out of ecological overshoot, we need to stop pursuing population growth and adopt a population policy that will voluntarily and ethically contract our population. This is, of course, in addition to policies to reduce our material and energy consumption.  Presidential candidate Dave Gardner invited a few of the experts he would appoint to a President’s Council on Pop...

Developing Programs and Policy to Put Us On Course to a Bright Future A conversation with Joseph Merz of the Overshoot Behavior Lab and the Future Behavior Lab How can we help ourselves and everyone in the country make the dramatic changes needed to get our nation out of ecological overshoot and on a path to a bright future? Getting out of ecological overshoot – and doing it before the damage of o...

It’s critical we set the record straight on the uninformed fearmongering about a baby bust. The latest round comes from a Wall Street Journal story and a segment on the CNN show, Smerconish. Presidential candidate Dave Gardner shines a little light on the subject in this episode. Far too few of us are aware we have a human overpopulation crisis. For the past thirty years, too many have run for cov...

Some voters are seriously concerned about our environmental meta-crisis, as we find out in this virtual town hall. Dave isn’t burning gas (and cash) roaming the country to meet with voters, so to have a dialogue he took to Zoom. Much of the conversation focused on answering these key questions: How can we be effective but also quick in alerting the public to the ecological overshoot emergency...

Baby Bust Alarmism or Depopulation Panic are misplaced. We’ve outgrown the planet and are in ecological overshoot. So population contraction is not a disaster; it should be celebrated. Professor Scott Galloway often gets things right, but on this topic, he needs to hit the books.  [DAVE THE PLANET VIRTUAL TOWN HALL – May 11 at 10 Pacific/11 Mountain/Noon Central – Register Here: https://us02w...

President Biden couldn't tell us the full truth in his State of the Union address last week. So independent presidential candidate Dave Gardner recorded this State of the Planet address, to provide a more accurate assessment of how things are going. We need the full truth about threats that – if ignored – could mean a dead planet for our children. In this address, Dave outlines how we can acknowle...

“The people who lead this world have not been square with you, because that would hurt their bank accounts, and might take away their power. We are destroying our world and making it unlivable for future generations so that we can have more things now - not what we need - but what we want.” These are lines from a speech written by Matt Orsagh, a speech we need to hear from our leaders, but so far...

If things were going well, there’d be no reason to question our current system that puts so much faith in economic growth. But things aren’t going well. Common sense and system dynamics models tell us we cannot grow economic throughput forever. It’s making our world more and more unlivable. An array of evidence suggests continued pursuit of growth will leave our kids a Mad Max future, at best, and...

Don’t Let Trump Near the White House No one was surprised at Donald Trump’s victory in the Iowa Caucus, but here’s why we cannot allow him anywhere near the White House. In this short bonus episode, presidential candidate Dave Gardner shares why anti-Trumpers are so adamant. We hear briefly from John Heilemann (speaking on MSNBC’s Morning Joe) about how unimpressive 51% is for the Donald. Read Dav...

In the first town hall of Dave Gardner’s campaign for U.S. President, Dave answers questions from panelists and audience about why he’s running and his plan for our nation to stop making dead planet decisions and start providing a bright future for our children. Why would an everyday guy - who’s never starred in a hit movie, written a New York Times bestseller or held public office - run for Presi...

It’s the economy, stupid. But what’s stupid is the persistent belief that economic growth can continue forever on a finite planet. Gag-orders silenced one scientist in an attempt to bury the truth that economic growth will give us a dead planet. It’s just one more obstacle that’s prevented the needed shift from a culture of “more” to a culture of “enough.” In this episode, Brian Czech discusses hi...

How would presidential candidate Dave Gardner answer the questions posed at the GOP Debate November 8? As an independent candidate, Dave was obviously not invited to the event. But as a service to voters, Dave sat down and answered all of the questions. Dave is the one candidate who promises our children not a dead planet, but a bright future. Learn more about Dave Gardner's campaign for U.S. Pres...

Presidential candidate Dave Gardner discusses the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and overpopulation. Overpopulation may not be the central issue in the conflict between Israel and Palestinian terrorist groups, but the stress of crowded, high density living and scarce resources like food and water exacerbate the situation. Many global conflicts have been happening in areas that can’t support their gr...

Campaign launch behind us, Dave and campaign team discuss strategies to get attention and spread the word about our ecological overshoot emergency. RFK, Jr.’s candidacy and the spoiler effect are also on the table. And we review volunteer needs and what campaign contributions will allow us to do.   Please do what you can to help: Like and share our Wake Up, America campaign video: https://you...

Growth profiteers want you to believe growth is making your life better. When the bloom comes off that rose, they want you to believe growth is inevitable. In this episode, Dave debunks a recent newspaper column, Curbing Population Growth is Hard to Do , which seems designed to quell rising public awareness and concern about the unsustainability of continued population growth: “ the overall pictur...

Presidential candidate Dave Gardner fills us in on his national project that will unify the nation behind the goal of leaving our children not a dead planet, but a bright future. In this episode, hear Dave’s full campaign launch speech (the speech intended for his September 19, 2023 live campaign launch, but cut short by technical difficulties). Follow this podcast to track Dave Gardner’s adventur...

Follow Dave Gardner’s adventures running for U.S. President. If elected, Dave will declare an ecological overshoot emergency and launch a national project to get the nation out of overshoot. We’ve got a planet to save, and the U.S. should do its part. Folow this podcast so you don't miss upcoming episodes - some fun, some serious, all enlightening. Learn more about Dave or the campaign, subscribe...