A Conversation with Vandana Shiva - Question 2 - Quantum physics and our natural world

Vandana Shiva discusses what her teachings in quantum physics have taught her about philosophy and our natural world.
Environmental leader, eco-feminist, philosopher, and quantum physicist, Vandana Shiva's expertise seems to have no limits. She has become a globally respected activist for grassroots and alternative globalization movements, biodiversity, bioethics, intellectual property rights, and sustainable living. Some of her books include Staying Alive (1988), The Violence of the Green Revolution (1992), Monocultures of the Mind (1993), Biopiracy (1997), Water Wars (2002), Earth Democracy (2005), and Soil Not Oil (2008). Shiva's scholarship and activism has been recognized internationally and she has won numerous awards, including the Right Livelihood Award, considered the Alternative Nobel Prize.
Ian Mauro is a Canada Research Chair in "human dimensions of environmental change" at Mount Allison University, in Sackville, New Brunswick. He is both a researcher and filmmaker, with a PhD in environmental science, and his work focuses on hunter, farmer and fisher knowledge regarding environmental change, specifically issues related to food security and climate change. He first interviewed Dr. Shiva in 2002, as part of his doctoral research on farmer knowledge and biotechnology in the Canadian prairies, which in part resulted in the documentary film Seeds of Change (www.seedsofchan.... He subsequently went on to make various films, including Qapirangajuq: Inuit Knowledge and Climate Change (www.isuma.tv/lo..., with acclaimed Inuk filmmaker Zacharias Kunuk, as well as the Climate Change in Atlantic Canada project (www.climatechan...).
The conversation between Drs. Mauro and Shiva took place on February 26th, 2012 at Mount Allison University, with a full audience of 300+ people. This was Shiva's only New Brunswick event, on a larger Maritime tour, and she went beyond the surface issues facing our world today and explored, through conversation, the solutions and deep changes required for humans to find a more balanced relationship with the earth and each other.
For more information about Dr. Vandana Shiva, visit the Navdanya website: www.navdanya.org/

[@hearmeout9424]

i really admire this woman

[@harjutapa]

"In physics, all you are taught is how to create a chain reaction. You're not taught about radiation. You're not taught about risks of nuclear... systems..." Then she did not get anything like a reputable education in nuclear physics. I worked in a nuclear power plant, and I've since had an undergraduate physics class which covered all of the things she supposedly was not taught.

[@soundhill1]

It was in 1985 when the Indian 40MW fast breeder reactor eventually went critical. Vandana would have been in Canada by then. Knowing about problems with breeder reactors it had probably been in the process of going critical for some time. Do you have any comment on what you learned about these health matters of reactor workers in those days? books.google.co.nz/books?id=uKp3ridsHrYC&pg=PA475&lpg=PA475&dq=health+physics+submarines+1985&source=bl&ots=tm3si3pu3v&sig=PyvEP_9mpmS4JufOvpyZ1oxB99w&hl=en&sa=X&ei=0IXDVKTuNYqjgwScuYCQBw&ved=0CCIQ6AEwAg#v=onepage&q=health%20physics%20submarines%201985&f=false Sensible for Vandana to go into theoretical physics. Her PhD thesis: alpha.lib.uwo.ca/record=b1770869. (205 leaves) seems very much physics. Related material: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_nonlocality

[@soundhill1]

+Symbolia Some sources say it is fairly safe to handle uranium metal until its been in a reactor I think. I think Vandana's sister (a doctor) made her aware not enough precautions were being taken, whether internal or external were involved.

[@soundhill1]

+Symbolia In many industries workers have been fairly dispensible. Maybe bosses know the risks and don't say. Marie Curie didn't know the risk and carried radium in her pocket. She didn't isolate the metal it till about 1910. and didn't die of anaemia till 1934. Then I suppose the Indians had 30 years since that till Vandana's time to bring in safety measures. 30 years can be very little when you think of asbestos &c.

[@ErikRothFfM]

Thank you Bhavānī. ❤🌿🔥🍀🌒🌕🌘🍀🔥🌿❤ Namasté and Blessed Be.

[@Civilizashum]

This is the very nadir of intellectual honesty. She is NOT a physicist. She has a philosophical objection to quantum physics; this is not 'teaching about quantum physics'. See if you can proceed from meanings of words a little better. Her Phd is in PHILOSOPHY. Free thinker! A joke. You people are total fools, this is a con artist. You hear 'what the foundations of physics philosophy taught me...' and no alarm goes off? WOW. Physics is not philosophy; physics is physical, not metaphysical. See if you can proceed from meanings of words a little better.

[@soundhill1]

Physics as it moves into quantum physics explores matters which are very strange. "So if two people each receive one of the entangled photons and performs a measurement, they will find that the other person's photon has orthogonal polarization. There is an apparent connection between the particles, no matter how far apart they are taken." www.ipod.org.uk/reality/reality_quantum_entanglement.asp

[@MitchellPorter2025]

"She has a philosophical objection to quantum physics" Is this a typo? She says she agrees with the "quantum philosophy"

[@MzeeMoja1]

Watch Greg Braden for in depth information about this question.

[@LordAmbrosia1]

She is NOT a "quantum physicist". Please correct.

[@talon115]

Who melted the ice at the end of the last ice age?