ClimateGenn hosted by Nick Breeze

In this ClimateGenn episode, I am speaking with professor Kevin Anderson from the Tyndall Centre at Manchester University. [Support this channel and access episodes early with additional content segments, articles, etc - https://patreon.com/genncc ] This is a longer interview with many, I believe, crucial points for consideration. We discuss our current usage of the available carbon budget for 1.5ºCelsius at just under 1% per month. Also the dangerous and foolish behaviour of UK Secretary of State for Energy, Kwasi Kwarteng, in trying to reclassify natural gas (methane), as a green gas in order to increase investment. Download the Phase-Out Paper being discussed: https://www.research.manchester.ac.uk/portal/files/213256008/Tyndall_Production_Phaseout_Report_final_text_3_.pdf Kevin Anderson Quotes: “Practically and morally, we are obliged to help [poorer nations] leapfrog over their fossil fuel period.” “Every month we are using just under 1% of the carbon budget.” “Senior academics are the new climate skeptics in my view!” “Natural gas - Methane is a transition fuel… to 4ºC” “We all paint a picture that fits with our world view but as we reassess that world view repeatedly, eventually it doesn’t sit with our world view.” “It is disturbing and interesting in the law that we will protect things that are causing incredible damage and we will prosecute things that are trying to stop that incredible damage being caused.” “Particularly academics, we are paid to be honest and direct about our research and we will sweeten the pill, hugely sweeten the pill in public and I think that is deeply arrogant, of often very decent people, fast we think the public can’t deal with it” “The policymakers are simply not up to the job.” In March, Kevin and colleagues at the Tyndall Centre released a research paper titled: Phaseout Pathways for Fossil Fuel Production within Paris-compliant Carbon Budgets. I begin by asking Kevin to clarify the critical points of this paper as he can do this much more clearly than I can! Please do comment and send feedback. You can support this channel on Patreon to access interviews earlier and with extra content. You can also subscribe for free on Youtube, and all major podcast channels. Thank you.

In this ClimateGenn episode, I am introducing Alentejo in Southern Portugal, declared in 2005 as one of the most climate-vulnerable wine regions in the world. The Alentejo region has been seeing temperatures rise and drought conditions intensify as rain patterns become more erratic and extreme. [Please support this channel on https://Patreon.com/genncc] In June I will be releasing a series of 9 recordings from my visit and interviews with producers and members of the Wines of Alentejo Sustainability Programme, looking at how they are responding to the emergent climate challenges. In the next ClimateGenn episode out this week, I am speaking with Professor Kevin Anderson about his recent research paper on phasing out fossil fuels to stay within the 1.5ºC obligation that governments set in Paris in 2015. This is a detailed conversation where Kevin talks about our current predicament being ‘The worst of both worlds with dire consequences and less carbon budget available to transition to clean energy’. What follows is the narration of the typescript of my overall response to the presentation given in London by the Wines of Alentejo producers.

The current heatwave in India and Pakistan sets the scene for this ClimateGenn episode, speaking with Climate Crisis Advisory Group Chair, Professor Sir David King about their new report on what we must do to have the best chance of averting climate and ecological collapse. [Support this work and listen/watch episodes early by backing on Patreon: https://patreon.com/genncc Sir David makes it very clear that nobody will escape these impacts as the climate emergency worsens and what we are seeing in India continues to spread around the world. Sir David emphasises the need for solidarity and pulling together to meet the challenges at the global level. He also highlights that wealthier countries must pay-up on adaptation costs for vulnerable and poorer nations. As someone with first hand experience of the climate negotiations, Sir David points the finger at the United States for its lack of global leadership on appropriate climate action at the political level. Activism around the world is stepping up as people realise the failures of governments to take appropriate action. Even the UN Secretary General is calling out the failures of world leaders, declaring that activists are rational actors compared to those entrusted with power. Thank you for listening to ClimateGenn. To get episodes early as well as unpublished archive material, you can support the channel via Patreon or become a member on Youtube. You can also subscribe for free on Youtube, or all major podcast channels. Thank you.

In this ClimateGenn episode I speak with Dr Delton Chen, the originator of the ‘Chen Paper’ concept made famous by Kim Stanley Robinson in his book, Ministry For The Future.  Delton is an engineer by training but has take almost a decade out to study economics to see if his Carbon Reward Coin concept, the idea of a reward for mitigating carbon, could provide the missing link needed to rebalance the human economy.   Support ClimateGenn on Patreon: https://patreon.com/genncc The Global Reward Coin would be backed by central banks around the world in order to provide stability and a mechanism to account for what he calls, The Living Systems Economy.   By making a comparative analysis of this concept with other economic proposals, Delton asserts that de-growth and circular economy proposals are inadequate to solve the climate emergency when placed in the context of the current paradigm of human civilisation.  Please do comment or send feedback as I will be interested to hear what people think.  Also, thank you for listening and subscribing. If you do want to support this work then please share the episode on whatever available channel, or you can back it on Patreon. Thanks.

In this ClimateGenn episode, I am speaking with Dr Paul Behrens about how the global food system is vulnerable to the domino effects that arise from conflict, climate impacts and other pressures. Please support this channel via Patreon: https://patreon.com/genncc or follow via: https://genn.cc Over 70% of land use on the planet is given over to animal agriculture and vast amounts of plant-based crops are being used to feed that livestock, we are emitting vastly more carbon than we need and leaving ourselves wide open for uncomfortable and unaffordable shocks. Paul talks about the changes that we can and should make in order to build resilience and make the food system actually work for all. Emerging science is showing that we are now vulnerable to multiple extreme events in bread baskets around the world happening at the same time. With 10% of the world’s population already struggling to feed itself, is now the time for us all to take the action required causing a social tipping point that, for a change, moves in our favour? Thanks for listening to ClimateGenn. In the next episode, I speak with Dr Delton Chen. Dr Chen is the creator of the Global Carbon Reward coin, a concept made famous in Kim Stanley Robinson’s climate fiction novel, Ministry For The Future. Through the creation of the Living Systems Economy, Chen believes he has a winning formula to finance the restoration of the biosphere, including tackling ecological breakdown and reducing atmospheric carbon. You can subscribe via any podcast channel, plus Youtube, and if you want to support this work you can also back it via my Patreon page. Thank you.

In this ClimateGenn episode, I am speaking to authors, podcasters, and activists, Sam Moore and Alex Roberts whose recently published book, The Rise Of Ecofascism, explores the characteristics of past, present, and potentially future ‘ecofascism’. The risks posed to society from extreme politics on the right and the left has been rising in recent years. Even in the last week or so, a cache of information was leaked via the Anonymous hacking group linking Putin’s regime to the financing of far right-wing groups across Europe. More evidence of the rise in far-right and fascist groups is seen in places like the UK, France, Italy, or Hungary, where political ground can become an objective. Sam and Alex’s work aims to be a pragmatic guide to identify these tendencies and emerging ideas in order to be able to stop them from rising into dominant movements, which as they evidence in the book, never deliver on the grand promises they make. They also provide a long history of how the far-right have developed relationships to nature that recur in history and are also echoed today in political narratives around climate denialism and delays in ridding ourselves of the fossil fuel era that is destroying the world as we know it. Thank you for listening to the ClimateGenn series. In the next episode I am speaking with Dr Paul Behrens on the risks of food system shocks arising from the Ukraine crisis and how this is a signal of how vulnerable our overall food system is in a worsening climate and ecological crisis. Please do subscribe on any podcast channel or back ClimateGenn via Patreon to get episodes early.

In this ClimateGenn episode I am speaking with Research Director of the Breakthrough National Centre for Climate Restoration in Melbourne, David Spratt, about assessing climate risk and why incremental tweaks to reduce emissions are failing us. [Please support httpss://genn.cc via https://patreon.com/genncc We also discuss IPCC forecasts, political failure, and how change is possible but it requires a huge mobilisation of resources, coupled with public and political participation and leadership of the Zelensky variety. The clock is ticking, parts of the system are tipping, whether you call it: code-red, an emergency, or blah blah blah, no one is immune from the cascade of climate impacts that we will face if we continue to do nothing to avert the growing threat of climate change this decade and into the future. Thanks for listening to ClimateGenn, especially at a time when there is so much violence and the threat of escalation of war. The pain that this is causing so many is inextricably linked to corruption and fossil fuels that extend well beyond Putin’s regime. I would very much like to express solidarity with the Ukrainian people, as well as with Russians who are standing up to the regime. https://www.breakthroughonline.org.au/ http://www.climatecodered.org/

In this ClimateGenn special episode, I publishing my first interview with Dr Jim Hansen who was at the time Director of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies. This was recorded in 2012 at the European Geophysical Union, the annual conference that takes place every year in Vienna. Please support at https://patreon.com/genncc or follow on https://genn.cc. In recent weeks I have exchanged emails again with Dr Hansen to discuss his recent work that has a working title of ‘The Big Climate Short’. Hopefully this will be recorded once his latest work is submitted for publication. What strikes me about this decade old interview is that the language is so clear and the warnings regarding urgent action are in the timeframe of the next 1-1.5years. He even states the danger of waiting a decade to what would be 2022. Hansen made international news in the late 80’s when he testified to US Congress about the need to change our energy system and reduce atmospheric greenhouse gases. He is straight pragmatic speaker who has consistently issued warnings that have been ignored despite the rising cost inflicted by such ignorance. Here he gives very clear definitions of what tipping points are and the danger of crossing them. He discusses the challenges that scientists face in communicating these problems. He also highlights evidenced strategies that could have significantly dealt with them at the time but with each passing year create an ever growing challenge. We are now where we are. The recent IPCC report talks about the closing window of opportunity to act. Coming at a time of extreme chaos and suffering in Europe, it is hard to see how we will navigate the coming weeks, months and years. How we deal with our own fear and concern regarding these issues is very important. War is obviously not the answer and neither is any sense of nihilism. Being able to focus on the problems and act with a broader sense of community is far more rewarding. In the next episode I am speaking to climate and policy analyst, David Spratt, Research Director at the Breakthrough National Centre for Climate Restoration in Melbourne, Australia. We will be discussing a range of subjects including the accelerating rate of impacts, what climate models don’t tell us, as well as the tipping point risks we can’t see or measure and that may already have been crossed. Thank you for listening to ClimateGenn. I have many more episodes to produce so please do subscribe. Thank you to all who are supporting the channel via Patreon. You can also drop me a note or comment on my website genn.cc and I will always try to respond. Thank you.

In this ClimateGenn episode, I am speaking with Eden Project founder, Sir Tim Smit about the stories that need to be told to create the future we want to have. Please consider supporting this work via a small subscription via https://patreon.com/genncc Sir Tim sees the now as a moment of great revolution that is emerging from what he calls the new green enlightenment. With world leaders of low-calibre and backward thinking, it is right to ask from whence will these great game-changers emerge? If you have just got your head around exponential climate change then why not have a go at exponential biosphere healing? With 20th century style aggression erupting in Europe, it will take a leap of great faith and hope to keep the lantern burning in these dark dystopian times. Some key quotes: i. “I am at a real sea change with Eden." ii. “A very rapid reappraisal is necessary of the whole world of science, of scientific research, the way it is funded…” iii. “Our disrespect for biology has led to many of the pickles we are now in.” iv. “I think we are living at a time of great revolution… in twenty years time we will be looking at this as the start of a new green enlightenment.” v. “I know many many top business people who feel they would not like to do anything other than have a shower after they have been with many bankers!” vi. “I have met very few leaders who are champions of citizenship. They see leadership as being about being decisive!” Vii. “I see us a shop window on a future that is still ours to make!” Thank you for listening to ClimateGenn where we explore the reality of what to do, and how to come to terms with such a severely changing world. You can support this work via https://patreon.com/genncc or by subscribing on any major podcast channel and Youtube. Please also consider sharing any episodes of interest.

In this episode of ClimateGenn I am speaking with Dr Minnie Go about her recent book ‘Rethinking Community Resilience’ looking in detail at how the city of New Orleans emerged from the destruction of Hurricane Katrina. Support ClimateGenn on Patreon: https://patreon.com/genncc and visit our website at https://genn.cc Minnie’s work looks at how the dynamics between civic groups and governing bodies can determine very different outcomes. Distrust of government by those most impacted communities meant they worked hard and fast to repair the damage to the same standards experienced before Katrina hit. A better-informed approach would have looked at what was necessary to protect them against future impacts that the science tells us are increasing in power and frequency. Minnie’s work gives us insight into how civic groups and communities are likely to become more resilient based on the characteristics and efficacy of regional government. In the next episode, I am speaking to Sir Tim Smit, who created the Eden Project in Cornwall, UK just over 20 years ago. Sir Tim discusses how the Eden Project has developed and become a shop window for initiatives that are going to be key to our survival in the coming years as climate closes in. Thanks for listening to ClimateGenn - please do consider supporting the series via Patreon and/or following on any of the podcast channels or Youtube. Feedback is always welcome too so don’t hesitate to get in touch. I will try my best to respond.