ClimateGenn hosted by Nick Breeze

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.

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.