ClimateGenn hosted by Nick Breeze

In this episode of Shaping The Future, I am speaking to the Vatican’s head of ecology, Father Josh, who also happens to be coordinating the COVID-19 response within the Holy City. In May 2020 Pope Francis declared a year of Laudato Si, building on the work of his encyclical on climate change in order to inspire exponential change across all walks of life, including all forms of Christianity, other faiths, and like-minded people around the world. Through many advisors that make up the Pontifical academy of sciences among other advisers, church leaders are informed on climate and ecological science from some of the worlds most respected experts. Father Josh iterates the connection between nature, humanity and climate, while emphasising that the poor who have not caused this crisis are often the worst impacted and that a just response to climate change, means putting their needs at forefront of our actions. In this interview, Father Josh also reminds us that we must learn from the pandemic in order to reform our relationship with nature and live within planetary constraints. Thank you for listening to Shaping The Future - the next episode will feature the director of the World Resources Institute in Washington, Dan Lashof, discussing how impactful President-Elect Biden’s climate plans will likely be. Here is the link about the Laudato Si' Year and LS Action Platform (you can find the brochure in seven languages): http://www.humandevelopment.va/en/news/laudato-si-special-anniversary-year-plan.html Cambridge Climate Series & Shaping The Future: https://climateseries.com/climate-change-podcast

In this episode of Shaping The Future I am talking to Wall Street energy analyst Dan Dicker about his new book, Turning Oil Green- A market based path to renewables. Dan’s book gives us a lot of fascinating insights into how the oil markets work and how we should use the existing infrastructure of the markets and this toxic industry to literally turn oil green. Like many of the complexities around the climate crisis, pathways to progress often appear counter-intuitive at the outset. What I found revelatory in Dan’s perspective is that collapsing the oil price can destabilise nations, increase poverty and potentially derail the uptake of renewables in parts of the world where energy demand is only ever going to rise. One of the key issues around the emissions reduction and the transition to clean energy is the sheer scale of the challenge ahead. To successfully pass through the eye of this needle of opportunity and transform our world we must maximise our ability to meet these scales of enormity. Could Dan’s approach set out in his book get us some of the way there? We surely cannot at this point, take anything off the table. The book is available from Amazon and I have placed a link below. Thank you for listening to this episode of Shaping The Future. With the Pandemic causing devastating spikes in cases and deaths around the world, now could never be a more prescient time to reconsider the human journey. In the next episode, I speak to The Pope’s Coordinator of the Sector on Ecology at the Vatican, Father Joshtrum, about the pandemic, climate change and how this is the year of Laudato Si, the Pope’s encyclical on climate change. Turning Oil Green By Dan Dicker: https://amzn.to/3pJx14t More about The Cambridge Climate Lecture Series and Shaping The Future Podcast

In this episode of Shaping The Future, I’m discussing the risks posed by Geoengineering in the context of averting worst-case climate change, with author Professor Bill McGuire. Bill's new book, Skyseed, is his first full length foray into writing fiction, from a distinguished career as Emeritus Professor of Geophysical & Climate Hazards at University College London as well as being one of Britain's leading volcanologists. Skyseed presents the reader with a narrative of when humanity’s failure to address the climate crisis coupled with the political failure to say no to dangerous engineering interventions are gambled to reduce the impact of greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere. The scenario in the book is extreme but the story itself holds together very well as an existential consideration for where we are as an intelligent species on a living planet. Reducing our carbon emissions in every aspect of life, from agriculture to transport, travel, or heating our homes, is of critical importance in trying to stabilise our climate. Without an immediate thorough rethink, the risks of climate catastrophe, either by allowing global heating to run wild or by interventions that unleash any number of unintended consequences grow greater every day. Thank you for listening to this podcast. We are recording more interviews with a wide range of experts, so please do subscribe on any of the major podcast channels or Youtube, all accessible from climateseries.com. Buy Skyseed by Bill McGuire: https://amzn.to/3kd8IrN Find out more about the Cambridge Climate Lecture Series: https://climateseries.com/climate-change-podcast

Welcome to Shaping The Future. In this episode I am speaking with Dr Zack Labe at Colorado State University’s Department of Atmospheric Science about the perilous heat trends reshaping the Arctic. Zack is very well known on social media for bringing the climate data to life, in a series of visualisations and charts that depict extremes, such as we have seen recently in the Laptev Sea where the start of the sea ice formation is yet to begin. In this discussion also we talk about improving the general publics’ overall literacy on climate change and why panicking is not the preferred course of action. This is one in a series of interviews that seeks to gain insights into how scientists consider communicating the changes in the Earth system to wider audiences in order to promote greater awareness and understanding. Thanks for listening to Shaping The Future. In the next episode, I will be speaking with Professor Bill McGuire about his new book Sky Seed. This novel tells the fictional-apocalyptic-story of a geoengineering experiment that has a chilling outcome. You can subscribe on any major channel or listen on Youtube. For more information on CCLS and this series please visit climateseries.com. Follow Zack's live updates on Twitter: https://twitter.com/ZLabe His personal website: https://sites.uci.edu/zlabe/ #climatechange #climatecrisis #arcticchange #arctic #climatechangepodcast

In this episode of Shaping The Future, I am speaking with Adrian Tait, a founding member of the Climate Psychology Alliance, (the CPA). Adrian discusses how the linkages between events such as the US election and COVID-19 are compounding the anxiety that many people feel about the climate and ecological crisis. In particular, he discusses Through The Door, a CPA initiative that has been utilised to help create a space where people who share anxieties about climate and ecology can come together. These groups are self-sustaining and may well offer the foundations of psychological resilience needed in ever more troubled times. One key observation is that the pandemic offers insights into how a society under pressure responds. In particular, Adrian highlights how necessary it is to discern the conflicting desires between a return to a pre-COVID world founded on unsustainable principals and the opportunity to reset our value systems and gear them towards a more balanced and sustainable world. Thank you for listening to ‘Shaping The Future’ - we have more episodes covering climate science, psychology, policy among the many complexities surrounding climate change. Please do subscribe on any of our channels to stay up to date. Find out more about the Cambridge Climate Lecture Series (CCLS and Shaping The Future Podcast Find out more about the CPA: https://www.climatepsychologyalliance.org/ Shaping The Future is now ranked in the Top 3 of Feedspot's Global Climate Change Podcast List

Welcome to Shaping The Future - In this episode, I am speaking to Rabbi Yonatan Neril in Jerusalem about his newly co-authored Eco-Bible, a book that reaches back through more than 2000 years of religious texts. At a time when religion in the US is being politicised and views are expressed about Gods will in consuming the Earth, Eco Bible uses 450 identified texts that clearly demonstrate the role religious teachings have had in promoting stewardship of the Earth. It has been my experience on numerous occasions of climate reporting that these underlying teachings exist across the multiple schools of faith that exist on the planet, from Christianity to Judaism, Islam and far far beyond. With 6 billion humans today identifying with some form of religion, what Yonatan has to say about our existence as spiritual beings in a physical world, carries a lot of weight. Thanks for listening to the Shaping The Future series. There are more podcasts being edited as we speak as we delve deeper into learning to live with and respond to the climate crisis. Please subscribe on any preferred channel to stay up to date. Eco Bible https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/173533880X/ shows how the Bible and its great scholars embrace care for God's creation as a fundamental and living message. It is co-authored by Rabbi Yonatan Neril, who founded and directs The Interfaith Center for Sustainable Development (ICSD), and Rabbi Leo Dee. who directed ICSD's faith and ecology programs, and graduated from Cambridge with a Masters in Engineering. Purchase EcoBible on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Eco-Bible-Yonatan-Neril/dp/173533880X More about Cambridge Climate Lecture Series and Shaping The Future: https://climateseries.com/climate-change-podcast

Welcome to Shaping The Future - in this episode, I am speaking with scientist and author, Professor Sarah Bridle, about her recently published book, ‘Food & Climate Change Without The Hot Air’ - Sarah’s book provides an invaluable perspective on the reality-versus-perception of the impact on climate change that our diet actually has. Sarah not only gives examples of how misleading, ideals about food buying, preparation and consumption can be, she also explains how the UK government (and I suspect many others) could implement policies that would please local food producers, whilst bolstering public support and reducing climate emissions, all at the same time. We are what we eat and our diets must be as sustainable as every other component of modern life. Sarah’s book is based on hard science but really does belong in the kitchen with all of our other reference books. It’s available from all major retailers and the Ebook is actually a subsidised free download so there is no excuse for not digesting this important work. Thank for listening to the podcast - please do subscribe on any of the major channels - we have plenty more interviews on the way and all of them have something positive to say around the discussion of how we shape a better future. Note again that the Kindle edition is free: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Food-Climate-Change-without-hot-ebook/dp/B0873WWT6W

Welcome to Shaping The Future - in this episode, I am talking with meteorologist Scott Duncan, about how weather data is used to inform both the public and the organisations we rely on to insure us against the worst of life’s low-probability high-impact events.. We also discuss the recent Storm Alex that struck parts of western and southern Europe, in the context of frequency & extremity, as well as how the findings of meteorology can be used to alert those people who are in the path of future storms. It can be easy to exist in a bubble of climate communications and forget that the vast majority of people have no idea of why and what we should be doing to prepare for and prevent the worst of future impacts. The climate crisis means that many parts of the world will become uninsurable and this could be more closer to home than we think. Greater literacy in critical weather and climate science will help forge a better dialogue between people who are going to be impacted and the companies that realise future insurance is no longer viable. I have added the links in notes so that you can follow Scott on Twitter and Instagram. Thank you for listening - please do subscribe to Shaping The Future on any of the major podcast channels, or you can also listen on Youtube. The next interview in the series will be with author Professor Sarah Bridle at the University of Manchester about her recent book ‘Food and Climate Change Without The Hot Air’ - a really worthwhile source of information for anyone interested in the links between food and climate emissions. Follow Scott Duncan on Twitter here: @ScottDuncanwx Follow Scott Duncan on Instagram here: @scottduncanwx Find out more about Climate Series and the Shaping The Future Podcast here: https://climateseries.com/climate-change-podcast

Welcome to Shaping The Future and in this episode, I am talking to the Secretary-General of ICOS - The Integrated Carbon Observation System, Dr. habil. Werner L. Kutsch. ICOS is a network of ocean and ground-based carbon monitoring stations that is giving us a wide spread of open-source scientific data, expanding our understanding of our changing environment. Werner talks about how ICOS data can explain the collapse of a carbon sink from summer drought, as much as it can lead us towards cleaner air in cities and resilience to the climate impacts coming our way. Also in the making,  is a global system measuring & analysing atmospheric gases, that will, politics permitting, progress humanity towards a future that benefits all living creatures within the biosphere. Thank you for listening to Shaping The Future - our mission is to be as informed as we possibly can, to overcome the challenges wrought by human existence to date. There are many more interviews in the pipeline, please subscribe and share to stay up to date. Find out more about ICOS: https://www.icos-cp.eu/ Shaping The Future is hosted by Nick Breeze as part of the Cambridge Climate Lecture Series. https://climateseries.com/climate-change-podcast

Doing our bit to avert the very worst of climate change means going beyond nodding along in agreement with those who are sounding the alarm about the dangers we all face from pumping hundreds of billions of tonnes of carbon pollution into the atmosphere. It means we individually and collectively have to make drastic changes in our lives to reduce carbon emissions to beyond zero. How many of us cast our guilt into the recesses and shadows of the mind as we book that next flight, or order one more juicy beef steak that we lament is becoming harder to conscience? A new initiative, The Climate App, is currently in development and aims to help all of us reduce our carbon consumption by socialising and gamifying the task of adjusting our lifestyles for the greater good. There is much more to the Climate App than this and so in this special episode of Shaping The Future, I am speaking with project founder Sam Naef about who they are, what they need and when we can expect to participate in this unique effort to help mainstream positive climate action. Please support the Indiegogo campaign to make the Climate App a reality and affirm our willingness to try everything possible to shape a better future. Full URL to help fund this project: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/the-climate-app-create-a-carbon-cutting-movement--2#/ Full Climate App URL: https://www.theclimateapp.earth/ My URL for Shaping The Future Podcast: https://climateseries.com/climate-change-podcast