ClimateGenn hosted by Nick Breeze

During my trip across Alentejo, it was a pleasure to visit the cooperative Adega de Borba. Winemaking in and around Borba has a long pedigree and is even mentioned in ‘Murray’s handbook to Travels in Portugal’, published in 1864, with reference to ‘A considerable quantity of wine is produced at Borba..’ View more at https://genn.cc/alentejo And so it is to this day with Borba producing around 10 million bottles per year. The co-op is also renowned for its quality with their very popular Adega de Borba Reserva being a top seller with its iconic label printed on cork. During my visit I was given a tour of the winery and the cellars by Helena Ferreira, the director in charge of production and quality control. Helena has been implementing an impressive suite of sustainability protocols right across the organisation. These include training the 300 growers, covering over 2200 hectares of vineyards, to improving energy, water, and waste management. All of this work is to ensure that the one thousand families who rely on Adega de Borba for their living, have confidence that they will be producing wine there in the years and decades yet to come. This is episode 4 of 8 in a special series on sustainability in Alentejo in Southern Portugal - one of the most vulnerable wine regions in the world.

In this ClimateGenn episode, we are discussing the risk of maladaptation that can seriously undermine our efforts to tackle the climate challenges we know are coming towards us.  [Support this channel via https://patreon.com/genncc & get new episodes early + visit https://genn.cc for more information Dr Lisa Schipper is an Environmental Social Science Research Fellow at the Environmental Change Institute at the University of Oxford whose work focuses on adaptation to climate change in developing countries, looking at factors that include gender, religion, and culture, to understand what drives vulnerability. As vulnerability and suffering increase, it is critical we are able to engage as many people as possible to help shape the solutions that benefit us all and avoid critical errors that can have long-lasting detrimental effects. In the next episode, I am speaking with Kelly Wanser from the Silver Lining Institute in Washington about their work in trying to counter near-term Earth system destabilisation by a combination of advanced supercomputer situations and interventions that might include marine cloud brightening. Thanks for listening to ClimateGenn - you can support this work and get episodes earlier by becoming a Patron backer and you can also subscribe for free on YouTube and all major podcast channels.

In this Alentejo Wines episode, I am speaking to Iain Richardson, from the wine estate, Mouchão. [View more on https://genn.cc and support this channel on https://patreon.com/genncc] Mouchão is a great example of an integrated estate in Alentejo where different flora and fauna are interwoven to create the whole. The Sobreiro, or cork oak trees, are an integral part of the history of this region and yet, as Iain tells us, climate is one of the drivers that is causing a substantial die-off against which he and his team are fighting. For reference, the Arroba, mentioned in this recording is actually a measure used for weighing cork, equivalent to 15 kilograms. The story of Mouchao is one that really marries the past with the present in terms of identifying the moment where history and tradition are faced with the need for non-linear responses in order to achieve sustainability. It is the story that really connects the glass of wine, or jug of olive oil, to the seemingly infinite physical and chemical interactions within the biosphere. It is also the great human challenge to adapt to these changes, regenerate our soils, and build resilience while learning to live in a different world. This feeds back into the importance of what programmes like WASP can achieve when they provide the framework for measuring change and disseminating knowledge.

Visit https://patreon.com/genncc or https://genn.cc In this ClimateGenn episode, I speak with Lieutenant General Norman Seip, the President of the American Security Project, about the urgency for the US Senate to stop playing dice with the global climate and vote through policy that will steer America back on course to being a nation worthy of respect. Ever since President George Bush Senior declared the American Way of Life is not up for negotiation, the United States has stood in the way of global efforts to limit the impacts of climate destruction.    We are now unnecessarily gambling our collective futures away because US politicians put wealth and ideology above the endless warnings of climate scientists, ecologists, among many others now screaming for change to avert disaster.  It is late in the day and we are all now at risk from business as usual policy and investment that prolongs the use of fossil fuels. Changing now could avert some suffering and, as we discuss here, the United States must grow up and face its responsibility as the world's largest emitter.

Get episodes early by supporting via Patreon: https://patreon.com/genncc full transcript at https://Genn.cc Nick Breeze, Dr Greg V Jones In the second episode of the Alentejo climate and sustainability series, I'm speaking with winemaker and climate scientist Dr. Greg Jones, who has co-authored climate and wine research papers looking at the vulnerability of certain regions to climate change. One, in particular, that is relevant to this series titled 'Climate Change & Global Wine Quality', published in 2005 states, "Other regions currently with warmer growing seasons, i.e. southern Portugal may become too warm for the existing varieties grown there and hot climate maturity regions may become too warm to produce high-quality wines of any type."  A couple of factors that are important in responding to this deduction are as follows. Mitigation is still essential. Every one of us, every business, every wine business, must play a part in the decarbonisation of human systems. Doing so is a collective responsibility that runs all the way through the wine business, from the vineyards, to how wine is communicated and consumed. But this alone is not enough wine producers have to go further in building resilience, regenerating soils, and ecosystems. This is as much about stewardship as it is about survival.  The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the IPCC recently released a report that states adaptation is critical, because climate impacts due to human-caused global warming, are now unavoidable. Here, Dr. Jones outlines some of the impacts we can expect in regions such as Alentejo, which are among the world's most vulnerable to heat increases and drought conditions. He also gives us his view on why regional certification programs such as the Wines of Alentejo Sustainability Programme play a crucial role in the sharing of knowledge, as well as providing the framework by which actions and progress can be measured. This second episode represents a broader view before we zoom in and meet the producers in Alentejo and hear their fascinating stories about the actions they are taking to boost resilience and protect the quality and reputation of the region.

In this ClimateGenn episode I speak with Fossil Free London activist Nuri Syed Corser about their focussed activism targeting the biggest polluters operating in the UK’s capital. [Get more early by supporting on https://patreon.com/genncc or follow on https://genn.cc] At a time when the UK is reeling from extreme heatwaves, the government are holding back on renewable energy projects and backing fossil fuel investments that will please their backers and make the climate problem much, much worse. They are also using the Russian invasion of Ukraine as an excuse to increase coal, oil and gas extraction across the British Isles. Activist groups like Fossil Free London help to highlight who the polluters are and bring public attention to their careless and destructive activities. As has been said in previous interviews, the activists and civil society groups are more inline with what the science tells us we need to do than the policymakers entrusted to protect us. This has to stop. Thanks for listening to Climate Genn. In the next episode I am speaking with a retired US General Norman Seip who is now President of the American Security Project and who agrees with me that as much as Climate Change is a US National Security Threat, US climate policy is itself a security threat to the rest of the world. You can subscribe on Youtube and all podcast channels. You can also get content early as well as extras by backing this series on Patreon.com. Please do get in touch or send feedback via genn.cc. Thanks.

As Part of the Climate Genn podcast, I am publishing concurrently with my normal interviews, a series within a series every week for the next 8 weeks called Sustainability & Wine in Alentejo, Portugal’s largest and most climate vulnerable region. This series is part of a larger project commissioned by the Wines of Alentejo Sustainability Programme with whom I have been collaborating for the past year. Find out more at https://genn.cc Alentejo Episodes to be released 1 per week for 8 weeks: EP. 1 Sustainability & Wine in Alentejo An Introduction - Alentejo, a climate-vulnerable region EP. 2 Dr Greg Jones - we need regional schemes that build into broader framework at a global level EP. 3 Herdade do Mouchão, Iain Richardson - 600 mature cork oak trees a year lost, it was tragic! EP. 4 Adega de Borba, Helena Ferriera - 1000 families depend on this business EP. 5 Herdade do Esporão, João Roquette - Leaders In Portugal EP. 6 Professor Kimberly Nicholas, Working With Nature EP. 7 Herdade de Coelheiros, Luis Patrão - If we don’t adapt we are finished EP. 8 Wines of Alentejo Sustainability Programme (WASP) João Barroso

In this ClimateGenn episode, I am speaking to climate psychologist and Deputy Director and theme lead for the Centre for Climate Change and Social Transformation (CAST Centre) Dr Stuart Capstick from Cardiff University about why scientists who research aspects of climate change are deciding to protest in public, and in some cases getting arrested. Get episodes early and access additional content - https://patreon.com/genncc We discuss the role of scientists in society as a group that have for many years played a key role in informing policy - but what happens when policymakers are not listening and the consequences mean risking the lives and well beings of citizens, which of course, includes their own family and friends. Stuart is a researcher looking at many aspects of civil disobedience and the publics response to it and has a lot to say that implies to me that more and more people with positions of authority are saying that is enough is enough - the risks to our own existence are now too high. In the next episode I speak with Nuri Syed Corser from Fossil Free London, a group of activists specifically targeting the fossil fuel industry, their backers and enablers, by, for example, disrupting shareholder events and other tactics. Thanks for listening to ClimateGenn - you can subscribe on Youtube and all major podcast channels as well as access podcasts early by becoming a Patreon backer.

In this ClimateGenn episode, I am speaking with Sunny Morgan in South Africa about the Debt for Climate Campaign that is calling for the global north to cancel the debts of the global south, which are both crippling the economies in developing nations and financing huge fossil fuel projects that we desperately need to get rid of. [Support the work of ClimateGenn] Sunny outlines how these institutions work with corporations to lock in hugely destructive projects that are destroying natural ecology, trashing the climate, and ruining people's lives. This is a system of corruption that must be stopped as part of the just transition to a fairer and cleaner world. There simply is no place for what equates to a contemporary form of colonialism and the campaign will be making its case at the G7 meeting later this month in Germany and again at COP27 in Egypt in November. Check out their website at debtforclimate.org Thank you for listening to ClimateGenn. You can watch, listen and subscribe on Youtube and all podcast channels. To get episodes early and also access additional content relating to the future we are facing, you can subscribe via Patreon which also supports this project. Thank you.

In this ClimateGenn episode, I am speaking with the theologian, environmentalist and philosopher, and author of over 50 books, Dr John B Cobb, about his efforts to bring into being a Living Earth Movement. [Join ClimateGenn for early episodes + extra climate focussed content] The Living Earth Movement asks us all to look at how we can reshape humanity to act as part of the ecosphere and not against it. A major part of John’s mission is to call on the US and China to stop competing and start working together as leaders in the change we need to end the destruction of our planet. John implores all of us as individuals to think about the way we live and not take anything for granted, especially now that we are committed to devastating impacts from the ecological destruction we are bringing on ourselves. The Living Earth Movement (livingearthmovement.eco) was founded in February, this year at the same time that John turned 97 years old, clearly demonstrating that it is never too late to take action to strive for a better world for all ecology. Action and activism are hot topics at the moment and in the next episode I am speaking Sunny Morgan in South Africa about a new campaign called Cancel The Debt - a call from thousands of activists in the global south demanding the global north cancel the very debts that are preventing them rising out of poverty and accelerating a green transition. Thank you for listening. Please subscribe and share on Youtube, or any major podcast channel. If you want to access episodes early, and gain access to unseen interviews, please consider becoming a member on Patreon where more climate emergency interviews and insights will be posted in the months to come. Thank you.