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ClimateGenn hosted by Nick Breeze

Latest episodes

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May 14, 2025 • 21min

2– Building a regenerative culture in Alentejo, Portugal– Behind the WASP certification

João Barroso is the Sustainability and R&D Director at Wines of Alentejo, where he developed and leads the award-winning Wines of Alentejo Sustainability Programme, coordinating and monitoring sustainability performance across Portugal’s largest wine region.Download the FREE ‘Into The Heat’ ebook:https://sustentabilidade.vinhosdoalentejo.pt/uploads/ebook/into-the-heat.pdfA closer look behind the #sustainability certification in Alentejo Portugal. #wine #climatechange #drought
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May 14, 2025 • 13min

1– Into The Heat– Responding to extreme climate in Europe's most vulnerable wine region

Welcome to ‘Into The Heat’. Join me on a two week road trip across Alentejo in Southern Portugal, visiting the Wines of Alentejo Sustainability Programme (WASP) certified wine producers. In this series we are going to discover:We are going to learn about how Europe’s most climate vulnerable wine region is learning, not just to cope with a hotter climate, but how to thrive in it– boosting biodiversity, creating job security, improving viticulture techniques that defy expectations and meet consumer expectations of elegance and incredible more-ish-ness.The video podcasts can be viewed here or on Youtube, Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.Download free ebook: https://sustentabilidade.vinhosdoalentejo.pt/uploads/ebook/into-the-heat.pdfJoin Nick Breeze, Jason Box, Janet wang and João Barroso on a 2 week road-trip across Alentejo in S Portugal.
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May 8, 2025 • 21min

The Arctic: "There are bad outcomes and there are better outcomes ... no good outcome." Jennifer Francis

In this ClimateGenn episode I am speaking with professor Jennifer Francis from the Woodwell Climate Research Center. Jennifer is a leading expert on the changes going on in the Arctic region and as she says– these changes will impact everyone on Earth.The Arctic is a gigantic ecosystem worthy of our protection– and yet at this time, world powers talk of domination and resource extraction– demonstrating hubris and reckless ambition, when what we need is a unified plan for restoration and preservation.
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Apr 24, 2025 • 31min

Climate Diplomacy Decoded: The Art and Craft of Environmental Law with Dan Bodansky

"I call international environmental law a '30% solution'—it's not the most important factor in addressing problems like climate change. Politics, science, economics, and social attitudes all play crucial roles. Law can contribute, but it's just one piece."Order here: https://www.amazon.com/Art-Craft-International-Environmental-Law/dp/019767237XIn this ClimateGenn episode I am speaking with the Regent’s Professor at Arizona State University’s Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law, Dan Bodansky, about the second edition of his book ‘The Art and Craft of International Law’.Dan is a recognised expert having worked on a range of negotiations across the decades including being part of the US negotiating team at the UNFCCC in the 1990’s. Dan’s talks through how International Environmental Law has evolved with state and non-state actors–including how civil society plays a role in creating momentum that can translate into societal norms that lead to international agreements.All of this is set against the rogue nature of the current US administration and the drastically reduced operating space in which we have to preserve a liveable climate.In the next episode I am speaking with Professor Jennifer Francis from the Woods Hole Research Centre, for an update on record Sea Ice loss in the Arctic and the myriad impacts this has on so many other parts of the global climate system.Forthcoming episodes also include my speaking with Zita Sebesvari, Deputy director of the United Nations University - Institute for Environment and Human Security –who is the lead author on a new Interconnected Disaster Risks report. And also an in-depth discussion with professor Mike McCracken about the role of solar radiation management geoengineering, offering a nuanced response to my recent interview with professor Raymond Pierrehumbert.Thanks to all subscribers. Please do send feedback or like and share, or become a member on Youtube or Patreon to support the channel. Thank you.
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Apr 10, 2025 • 36min

A Climate of Truth: Why Lies Are Costing Us the Planet – Mike Berners-Lee

In this Climategenn episode I am speaking with Mike Berners-Lee about his new book ‘Climate Of Truth’. Mike gives us his spiralling definition of the poly crisis that we are faced with today.Order here: https://amzn.to/3G59RlPHe cites examples of deceit in our society that have not just created the dire problems we face today but are actually doubling down as we accelerate into the crosshairs of nightmare consequences.Despite the seriousness of the threats, ‘Climate of Truth’ is a pragmatic book helping to find ways to tap into personal agency, switching off malignant media, while calling out the lies and delusion that have gripped western society.In the next episode I will be speaking with esteemed legal expert, Professor Dan Bodansky from Arizona State University, about the 2nd Edition of ‘The Art And Craft of International Environmental Law’. We’ll be discussing the complexities of how International Environmental Law has emerged, how it is effective and whether it is even going to survive what some are calling the ‘post-rules’ era – which sounds to me like an age of total chaos.Subscribers help keep the interview series going and we have many more episodes in the pipeline in this period of environmental-socio-political flux. Thank you to all who subscribe - please do send feedback or add comments. I do try to read and respond. You can also order my cook COPOUT that is available worldwide from many online retailers.
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Apr 3, 2025 • 41min

The Damocles World: Professor Raymond Pierrehumbert on the Dangers of Solar Geoengineering

In this ClimateGenn episode I am speaking with Professor Raymond Pierrehumbert, who is the Halley Professor of Physics at the University of Oxford about solar geoengineering. He and Professor Michael E. Mann from Pennsylvania University coauthored an article in The Guardian on the 12th March 2025 titled:‘The UK’s gamble on solar geoengineering is like using aspirin for cancer’."We shouldn't be actively creating harm. And the first line of defence is to actually not at least have governments and philanthropy funding these outdoor experimentations."Professor PierrehumbertHere we delve deeper into Ray’s overt objections to the UK’s Advanced Research & Invention Agency (ARIA). ARIA is the UK’s version of the mysterious US Defence Advanced Projects Agency (DARPA). ARIA has recently allocated £45mn British Pounds to fund solar geoengineering projects including outdoor experiments.
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Mar 28, 2025 • 27min

Highway to Hell: How BR319 Threatens the Amazon + Undermines Brazil’s #cop30 Credibility

"The Amazon directly influences global climate stability. If it collapses, the consequences will extend far beyond Brazil – disrupting weather patterns, increasing extreme events, and accelerating global heating."Visit https://Genn.cc for more information.View the related article: https://monicapiccinini.com/2024/03/06/the-br-319-highway-a-scientists-call-to-action-for-the-amazon-and-beyond/In this Climategenn episode we are taking a closer look at conflicts of interest in Brazil, threatening the Amazon rainforest, an essential global ecosystem. As well as the indigenous communities that live within the forest regions and it also threatens all of us around the world. A common phrase we hear these days is: what goes on in the Arctic doesn’t stay in the Arctic. We also know that what goes on in Antarctica does not stay in Antarctica. It is the same for the Amazon. If it is allowed to collapse – and this is the policy trajectory Brazil is on – then the outcome will be catastrophic for the global climate system. Two years ago I interviewed a Chinese climate scientist, professor Jingfang Fan, working with the Potsdam Institute, who identified a teleconnection between heat from the burning Amazon and the Tibetan Plateau. The transported heat to the Tibetan Plateau, via stratospheric jets, is accelerating the melt of the ice in a region often referred to as the third pole. The heating of the Amazon directly threatens the water security of 1.5 billion people on the other side of the world.To bring us up to speed on the conflicts of interest between what the Brazilian President, Lula da Silva, says is policy and the projects he is green lighting, is journalist Monica Piccinini. Monica and her colleagues are covering these issues in depth and as the spotlight is shot on Brazil for COP30 in Belem, a city within the Amazon region, we get a glimpse of what is really going on. Links to Monica’s related articles are also in the notes.In the next episode I am speaking with Professor Raymond Pierrehumbert from University of Oxford. Professor Pierrehumbert coauthored an article in The Guardian very recently with Professor Michael E. Mann from University of Pennsylvania, specifically criticising the UK government for their research grants into solar radiation management geogineering techniques. This is a topic I have covered for about 15 years and – far from fading away – geoengineering is being seen by a growing number of people as humanity’s escape route from continued burning of fossil fuels. Thank you to all subscribers and members for supporting this ongoing series of interviews. I have many more in the pipeline and episodes are available in the members area before going public. If you like, you can also support my work by ordering my book 'COPOUT - How governments have failed the people on climate’ available worldwide in paperback and from a multitude of online retailers not owned by Jeff Bezos. It remains as relevant as ever in todays world of political malaise.
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Mar 19, 2025 • 21min

Can Enhanced Rock Weathering Supercharge Regenerative Farming and Fix the Climate? Prof. David Beerling

In this ClimateGenn episode I am speaking with Professor David Beerling about his rock-breaking research that could help to regenerate agricultural soils, while also enhancing their capacity as vast carbon sinks. Carbon dioxide removal (CDR) is a controversial topic and yet it is also embedded within many national plans for carbon reduction. David Beerling is the leading researcher in this field of Enhanced Rock Weathering, and here he shares a wide range of insights about the potential for deployment, effectiveness and scaling to meet our global challenges.For more information and links click here.
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Mar 3, 2025 • 7min

Spike in Dolphin deaths along Galicia's (Spain) Atlantic coast

Welcome to ClimateGenn and I am Nick Breeze. The following is an update from a post a year ago looking at the impacts on marine ecosystems with the 2024 data on dolphins that came in for the Galician coast in NW Spain.You can order COPOUT By Nick Breeze worldwide from all retailers.Doniños beach is a 2km (1.18mile) stretch of sweeping sandy shoreline, exposed to the wild roar of Galicia’s Atlantic waves. At this time of year it is shrouded in a fine sea mist. About midway along the beach a colony of shearwaters takes flight as they eye our arrival. It is only when we are closer to where they were gathered that we see a large common dolphin lying dead, mouth agape in a jovial toothy smile. Later, further along the beach, we spotted another dolphin lying with the familiar grimace, covered in flies, rotting on the shore. This one, smaller in size, had been dead longer.“There are days with one dead dolphin, other days with nine.”Mónica González - Galician Stranding Network (CEMMA)
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Feb 14, 2025 • 38min

Movie: ‘The Researcher’–Gianluca Grimalda on why activism must be stubborn in the face of resistance

In this ClimateGenn episode I speak with Dr Gianluca Grimalda, the researcher who shot into the limelight when he was sacked for refusing to fly back from Papua New Guinea. I met Gianluca at the Films For Future Festival in Zurich where his movie was getting an early screening. He represents a growing number of scientific researchers who are prepared to take action to draw attention to what the science is telling us - namely that we are barreling towards total global climatic disaster. Grimalda is calling for a global strike by scientists in protest of decades of allowing special interests and profits to override what is best for society.The Researcher documentary is now available for streaming and download on platforms including YouTube, Amazon and iTunes.

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