One Planet Podcast · Climate Change, Politics, Sustainability, Environmental Solutions, Renewable Energy, Activism, Biodiversity, Carbon Footprint, Wildlife, Regenerative Agriculture, Circular Economy, Extinction, Net-Zero

Rob Verchick is one of the nation’s leading scholars in disaster and climate change law and a former EPA official in the Obama administration. He holds the Gauthier-St. Martin Eminent Scholar Chair in Environmental Law at  Loyola University New Orleans. Professor Verchick is also a Senior Fellow in Disaster Resilience at Tulane University and the President of the Center for Progressive Reform, a research and advocacy organization that advocates for solutions to our most pressing societal challenges. He is the author of numerous articles and books, including The Octopus in the Parking Garage. A Call for Climate Resilience.“Well, there are good stories and bad stories. So the good stories are, Oh my gosh, renewable energy is just a wonderful technology story with solar panels getting as cheap as almost anything. Wind turbine technology. We're working on offshore wind farm planning in the Gulf right now, and we're going to build wind turbines that can survive hurricanes. So there's a lot of technology going on in energy storage that involves batteries. And I'm hoping that at some point we're going to get to batteries that don't use things like lithium so much, so that we don't have to be involved so much in the mining of those kinds of things.There's a lot of really interesting technology going on with using natural landscapes to protect against flooding and storms. So we have a coastal restoration effort in Louisiana, one of the largest in the world. And what we're experimenting with is diverting water from the Mississippi River to replenish sediment and grow new wetlands on our tattered shores. And that's technology, too. I mean, we've got some of the best engineering firms in the world down here, and NASA trying to figure out exactly how to do that. And if we can do it, we'll export that technology all over the place and help rebuild coastlines. So those are some really bright spots in terms of the technology that I see.”https://robverchick.comhttps://works.bepress.com/robert_verchickwww.progressivereform.org/Twitter/X/Instagram/Facebook: @robverchick @robsoctopusbookwww.creativeprocess.infowww.oneplanetpodcast.orgIG www.instagram.com/creativeprocesspodcast

"Australia is generally considered one of the most vulnerable developed countries to the impacts of climate change, and I've been in the climate science space for more than 30 years, but I have to say this last month has been particularly confronting. We're seeing all sorts of tipping points that scientists have been warning about for decades and they are really real right now. I've never had such climate anxiety, and it's sort of new for me to be struggling with that because I think I've been pretty resilient to sort of eco-anxiety. Talking about averages all the time is a real problem in climate science because the temperature on any one day goes up and down a lot more than 1.5 or 2 degrees. So we have to keep working on relating those average global temperatures to the extremes that people experience in their lives on the ground where they live. We have to keep reminding people that that is the sort of thing that we are going to see more and more often. It isn't a one-off event. It's a message about the future."Now in the 21st century, with an abundance of renewable technologies, why is the world still using 18th-century energy technology? How can each of us harness our unique skills to help solve the climate crisis?Lesley Hughes is a Distinguished Professor of Biology and Interim Executive Dean of the Faculty of Science & Engineering at Macquarie University. She is an ecologist whose main research interest has been the impacts of climate change on species and ecosystems, and the implications of climate change for conservation. She was a Lead Author of the IPCC’s 4th and 5th Assessment Report, Director for the WWF Australia and federal Climate Commissioner and is now a Councillor and Director with the Climate Council of Australia. She is also a member of the Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists.https://researchers.mq.edu.au/en/persons/lesley-hugheswww.climatecouncil.org.auwww.creativeprocess.infowww.oneplanetpodcast.orgIG www.instagram.com/creativeprocesspodcast

Now in the 21st century, with an abundance of renewable technologies, why is the world still using 18th-century energy technology? How can each of us harness our unique skills to help solve the climate crisis?Lesley Hughes is a Distinguished Professor of Biology and Interim Executive Dean of the Faculty of Science & Engineering at Macquarie University. She is an ecologist whose main research interest has been the impacts of climate change on species and ecosystems, and the implications of climate change for conservation. She was a Lead Author of the IPCC’s 4th and 5th Assessment Report, Director for the WWF Australia and federal Climate Commissioner and is now a Councillor and Director with the Climate Council of Australia. She is also a member of the Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists."Australia is generally considered one of the most vulnerable developed countries to the impacts of climate change, and I've been in the climate science space for more than 30 years, but I have to say this last month has been particularly confronting. We're seeing all sorts of tipping points that scientists have been warning about for decades and they are really real right now. I've never had such climate anxiety, and it's sort of new for me to be struggling with that because I think I've been pretty resilient to sort of eco-anxiety. Talking about averages all the time is a real problem in climate science because the temperature on any one day goes up and down a lot more than 1.5 or 2 degrees. So we have to keep working on relating those average global temperatures to the extremes that people experience in their lives on the ground where they live. We have to keep reminding people that that is the sort of thing that we are going to see more and more often. It isn't a one-off event. It's a message about the future."https://researchers.mq.edu.au/en/persons/lesley-hugheswww.climatecouncil.org.auwww.creativeprocess.infowww.oneplanetpodcast.orgIG www.instagram.com/creativeprocesspodcast

"The lobbyists that represent the fossil fuel companies like ExxonMobil, Koch companies, and the American Petroleum Institute, they knew for years that the climate crisis would happen, and they've been telling us that it wouldn't. And right now in every state capital, the lobbyists are doing everything they can to slow the transition from fossil fuel to renewables. The sad fact is, these oil and gas lobbyists will never wake up one morning and say: I am worried about the climate crisis. I'm worried about my children. I am going to cut off ties with these oil and gas companies and stop taking their money. That will never happen. And I'm sad to say this, but it's been a long, long road to try to change their behavior with facts or reason."Why are fossil fuel lobbyists also allowed to work for communities, schools, businesses, and nonprofit organizations being harmed by the climate crisis without declaring their conflict of interest? Why divestment from fossil fuels should include divesting from lobbyists which play for both sides.James Browning is the founder of F Minus, a research and advocacy group that tracks the extent to which fossil fuel lobbyists also represent victims of the climate crisis. He is also a writer and game designer, and his novel The Fracking King was named one of the best 100 books of 2014 by Amazon.https://fminus.orgwww.creativeprocess.infowww.oneplanetpodcast.orgIG www.instagram.com/creativeprocesspodcast

Why are fossil fuel lobbyists also allowed to work for communities, schools, businesses, and nonprofit organizations being harmed by the climate crisis without declaring their conflict of interest? Why divestment from fossil fuels should include divesting from lobbyists which play for both sides.James Browning is the founder of F Minus, a research and advocacy group that tracks the extent to which fossil fuel lobbyists also represent victims of the climate crisis. He is also a writer and game designer, and his novel The Fracking King was named one of the best 100 books of 2014 by Amazon."The lobbyists that represent the fossil fuel companies like ExxonMobil, Koch companies, and the American Petroleum Institute, they knew for years that the climate crisis would happen, and they've been telling us that it wouldn't. And right now in every state capital, the lobbyists are doing everything they can to slow the transition from fossil fuel to renewables. The sad fact is, these oil and gas lobbyists will never wake up one morning and say: I am worried about the climate crisis. I'm worried about my children. I am going to cut off ties with these oil and gas companies and stop taking their money. That will never happen. And I'm sad to say this, but it's been a long, long road to try to change their behavior with facts or reason."https://fminus.orgwww.creativeprocess.infowww.oneplanetpodcast.orgIG www.instagram.com/creativeprocesspodcast

In this episode of the Speaking Out of Place podcast, Professor David Palumbo-Liu interviews climate activist, astrophysicist and co-founder of Scientist Rebellion Tim Hewlett.Scientist Rebellion is a growing climate activist group with 1000+ scientists and academics across 32 countries. Members range from science students and professors to IPCC contributors and leading climate-related scientists. Through disruptive nonviolent action, Scientist Rebellion demands emergency decarbonization via economic degrowth. During acts of civil resistance, members wear lab coats, and volunteers organize the vast majority of the campaign activity."I believe in the UK there have been over a hundred cases in the last year, many of them ending in jail, and that's a massive escalation in recent history. And yet we had one in February that was dating back to the founding action at the Royal Society, but we were being tried for there. And we did win that case. But I think all around the world, what we're seeing is a convergence of institutions of power to try to shut out truthtellers, to try to shut out activists and people who would hold those powerful actors to account.I suspect it's because they recognize that they are committing heinous crimes, and if there were to be true accountability, they would be the ones being prosecuted.We've seen top-down directives from the government which are blocking activists and people in court from making legal arguments. In our case, for instance, we weren't allowed to refer to human rights legislation. We weren't allowed to argue the defense of necessity that we're trying to avoid greater harm. There's a long-established principle in case law, but you're not allowed to make those arguments anymore because activists kept on winning. And that's extremely inconvenient to the government. So the government dictated they shouldn't be able to do that. And that's not something that's meant to happen in a separation of powers. So we're seeing this convergence, coalescence of these institutions to try to protect the powerful and to protect the status quo even though that status quo inevitably leads to the breakdown of society."http://scientistrebellion.orgwww.palumbo-liu.com https://speakingoutofplace.comhttps://twitter.com/palumboliu?s=20

In this episode of the Speaking Out of Place podcast, Professor David Palumbo-Liu and Azeezah Kanji talk with Anthony Arnove and Haley Pessin about their new volume Voices of a People’s History of the United States in the 21st Century: Documents of Hope and Resistance.This book is not only a beautiful archive of people's struggles in the 21st century, but also a powerful tribute to and continuation of the work of professor and radical historian Howard Zinn. We speak with Anthony and Haley about the histories of struggles and the possibilities for building a more beautiful future.Anthony Arnove is the editor of several books, including, with Howard Zinn, Voices of a People’s History of the United States and Terrorism and War. He wrote the introduction for the thirty-fifth anniversary edition of Zinn’s classic book, A People’s History of the United States.  Arnove cofounded the nonprofit education and arts organization Voices of a People’s History of the United States, wrote, directed, and produced the documentary The People Speak, and has directed stage and television versions of The People Speak in Dublin with Stephen Rea, in London with Colin Firth, and across the United States with various groups including Lincoln Center, the Brooklyn Academy of Music, and the Sundance Film Festival. He produced the Academy Award-nominated documentary Dirty Wars. Arnove is on the editorial boards of Haymarket Books and Tempestmag.org and is the director of Roam Agency, where he represents authors including Arundhati Roy and Noam Chomsky. He lives in Hopewell, New Jersey.Haley Pessin is a socialist activist living  in Queens, New York. They have participated in struggles against police brutality and mass incarceration, in solidarity with Palestine, in defense of abortion rights and reproductive justice, and as a legal service worker and union delegate for 119SEIU (Service Employees International Union). Pessin has spoken at conferences in Switzerland, Australia, Ireland, Quebec, and throughout the United States on the struggle for Black liberation. Their writing has appeared in New Politics and at Tempestmag.org, where they currently serve on the editorial board."Climate action has become woven into every aspect of our society. I remember that time so clearly. It wasn't just activists and politicians who were building the future. Artists, creatives, storytellers, actors, and athletes began realizing their part in these movements to shape culture and reach the masses. Entrepreneurs, designers, architects, and poets began to reimagine what our society could look like if we used this great time of crisis as humanity's most unifying moment.I remember the shows I played and how we transformed those arenas into places of celebration and unity. The idea of being an activist was left behind. We realized that it is within our power as humanity and identity that belongs to all of us. To change the story and to build the world we've always known was possible. The place the world is in is a result of us striking the balance between technology, innovation, culture, and the ancient wisdom and teachings of the original peoples of this earth. Here we are, 10 years after changing everything to redefine our legacy, carried on in flowers and songs."from Xiuhtezcatl Tonatiuh Martinez’s “To Fight for a Just Climate Is to Fight for Everything That We Love” inChapter 8: OUR RESISTANCE MUST BE INTERSECTIONALhttps://sevenstories.com/books/4479-voices-of-a-people-s-history-of-the-united-states-in-the-21st-centurywww.palumbo-liu.com https://speakingoutofplace.comhttps://twitter.com/palumboliu?s=20Photo credit: Francesca Ruggiero and Eric Soucy

Why do we make art? What can the performing arts teach us about how to engage in dialogues to overcome conflict and division?Our guests today are actress Catherine Curtin and artistic director Kate Mueth. Curtin is known for her roles on Stranger Things, Homeland, and Insecure. She played correctional officer Wanda Bell in Orange Is the New Black, and for this role she was a joint winner of two Screen Actors Guild Awards for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series.Mueth is the Founder and Artistic Director of the award-winning dance theater company The Neo-Political Cowgirls that seeks to deepen and challenge the ways in which audiences experience stories and awaken their human connection. Based in East Hampton, New York they have performed to audiences in America and Europe."It's so important, like when Number 45 went into office, and he emptied out all of the documentation in the EPA. He was like, empty all those files, get rid of all that research, get rid of all those researchers. I think that clearly, even now, the Trumpers are like, oh, the environment. It was a global warming. You know, we had a global warming problem. Well, we knew that a long time ago. And so one hopes that maybe that is one of the places that AI can improve the human condition. Maybe AI, the statistical data, and the non-emotional data will convince people when there's a problem and take the emotion out of the issue. Because I think that that's one of the reasons why issues don't move forward sometimes is that the emotional impact is too hot. And so maybe just getting it into statistics or getting it into data, or getting it into numbers where people can't really deny the truth of one plus one does equal two, you know?www.imdb.com/name/nm0193160/www.npcowgirls.orgwww.creativeprocess.infowww.oneplanetpodcast.orgIG www.instagram.com/creativeprocesspodcast

"Capitalism is an inherently unsustainable system the way that it is being practiced now. It is an economy that is based on infinite growth, even though we live on a finite planet. What if we measured success based on happiness and based on the health of communities? Based on wealth equity instead of just how rich are the richest people?So there's always going to be an end game for a growth-based economy. But, of course, that's being largely ignored right now to the detriment of the world around us. It's focused on growth and maximizing corporate profits but at the expense of people and the planet. It exploits workers. It exploits the environment. So we need to reimagine how we approach our economy."How can we take inspiration from our love for animals to protect wildlife and change the world? How can we take action and start making changes in our lives? What if we measured success based on happiness and on the health of communities? Stephanie Feldstein leads the Center for Biological Diversity's work to highlight and address threats to endangered species and wild places from runaway human population growth and overconsumption. Previously Stephanie worked for Change.org, where she helped hundreds of people start and win online campaigns to protect wildlife. She has years of experience in organizing, outreach and communications. She is the author of The Animal Lover’s Guide to Changing the World, and the series aimed at young adults Take Action: Save Life on Earth.https://biologicaldiversity.org/about/staff/#sfeldstein https://biologicaldiversity.org www.abebooks.com/9781250153258/Animal-Lovers-Guide-Changing-World-1250153255/plp https://cherrylakepublishing.com/series/445-take-action-save-life-on-earth https://takeextinctionoffyourplate.com/ https://endangeredspeciescondoms.com/www.creativeprocess.infowww.oneplanetpodcast.orgIG www.instagram.com/creativeprocesspodcast

How can we take inspiration from our love for animals to protect wildlife and change the world? How can we take action and start making changes in our lives? What if we measured success based on happiness and on the health of communities? Stephanie Feldstein leads the Center for Biological Diversity's work to highlight and address threats to endangered species and wild places from runaway human population growth and overconsumption. Previously Stephanie worked for Change.org, where she helped hundreds of people start and win online campaigns to protect wildlife. She has years of experience in organizing, outreach and communications. She is the author of The Animal Lover’s Guide to Changing the World, and the series aimed at young adults Take Action: Save Life on Earth."Capitalism is an inherently unsustainable system the way that it is being practiced now. It is an economy that is based on infinite growth, even though we live on a finite planet. What if we measured success based on happiness and based on the health of communities? Based on wealth equity instead of just how rich are the richest people?So there's always going to be an end game for a growth-based economy. But, of course, that's being largely ignored right now to the detriment of the world around us. It's focused on growth and maximizing corporate profits but at the expense of people and the planet. It exploits workers. It exploits the environment. So we need to reimagine how we approach our economy."https://biologicaldiversity.org/about/staff/#sfeldstein https://biologicaldiversity.org www.abebooks.com/9781250153258/Animal-Lovers-Guide-Changing-World-1250153255/plp https://cherrylakepublishing.com/series/445-take-action-save-life-on-earth https://takeextinctionoffyourplate.com/ https://endangeredspeciescondoms.com/www.creativeprocess.infowww.oneplanetpodcast.orgIG www.instagram.com/creativeprocesspodcast