ClimateGenn hosted by Nick Breeze

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.

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.