Georgia Silvera Seamans, an urban forester, and Giulia Di Vincenzo, a high school student, explore the treescape of Washington Square Park, a public park in New York City that has been famous as a cultural center and gathering place for over a century.

Georgia gives Giulia a tour of the trees, giving insights on ecological and social benefits of nature in cities.

For this episode, video clips for the following trees are available at the link below:

Ginkgo Osage, Northern Catalpa, Bald Cypress, Willow Oak, American Sweetgum

https://newyork.thecityatlas.org/people/georgia-silvera-seamans/

Georgia writes and teaches in New York City, and her work can be seen here:

https://www.wspecoprojects.org/

https://www.georgiasilveraseamans.com/

“I write stories about people’s relationships with plants and narratives that connect people to trees.”

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Dr. Sam Stephenson has just completed his PhD in Energy, Climate, and Net Zero Policy in the Department of Engineering, Cambridge University.

In this episode, Sam describes a benchmark report from the UK government-funded research group he worked with at Cambridge, known as UK FIRES. The report, Absolute Zero, and others from UK FIRES can be downloaded here:

https://ukfires.org/impact/publications/reports/

Absolute Zero has been downloaded 176,000 times since it was published in 2019, and was written by more than a dozen researchers drawn from five universities: Cambridge, Oxford, Imperial, Bath, and Strathclyde. 

The top line finding in the report is that the UK should begin to reduce energy demand to 60% of the current usage in order to match the predicted available supply from zero carbon sources. This transition can be completed by 2050 in compliance with the net zero goal that is part of UK law without depending on carbon capture technologies that don’t yet exist (and may not yet exist at scale by 2050), but requires an immediate public discussion about a reduction in energy use. Reducing demand makes the zero carbon target more achievable. Missing the target impairs global cooperation that makes reducing emissions possible, and thus causes an increase in climate impacts.

In brief: continuing to miss emission reduction targets will cause an increase in preventable climate impacts.

Sam also describes his current research and how he initially chose climate change as his focus, which first led to a masters in environmental economics and now to his PhD.

We’re at an inflection point in history; at the time we post in August, 2025, a heat wave hovers over Europe, where southern France is expected to reach 109°f/43°C, and the northeast United States remains under a summer-long plume of smoke from wildfires in Canada. IPCC co-chair Robert Vautard reports that extreme heat waves are doubling in frequency on a ten-year basis, meaning 2035 will experience double the number of this year.

Pierce Siegel, a rising high school senior in New York City, Cindy Ye, about to begin her first year of college, and Ahana Pairee, moving from India to begin graduate school in the UK, each draw Sam out with questions about what the future is likely to hold and how to make it work best for everyone: with collective understanding, realism, optimism and determination.

Additional references for this interview are included at the foot of the transcript at this URL:

https://newyork.thecityatlas.org/people/sam-stephenson/

Pratibha Priya, David Case, and Helena Rambler also contributed to the questions for Dr. Stephenson; moderation and post production by Cindy Ye.

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Pete Sikora is the Climate & Inequality Campaigns Director at New York Communities for Change (NYCC).

Before a big mayoral election in New York City, Pete sat down to talk with high school students Helena Rambler, David Case, and Pierce Siegel in Cobble Hill Park on a sunny Saturday afternoon. 

Pete explains NYCC's endorsement of mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani, based on Mamdani's platform for working class New Yorkers and his help in a successful campaign to stop a fracked gas power plant in Astoria, which means less air pollution and fewer cases of asthma for Mamdani's Astoria constituents.

Sikora also describes his own career as an organizer and criticizes the influence of money in politics. He explains how sustained activism is the best cure for climate anxiety, and gives examples of real world results won with relatively small numbers of committed members.

Additional interview production: Cindy Ye. The interview took place on May 24, 2025.

https://www.nycommunities.org

https://www.nycommunities.org/climate

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Ellie Johnston is the Director of Programs at Climate Interactive, an organization that builds online simulators to let anyone test out the most effective strategies to limit climate change.

Johnston also happens to live in Asheville, North Carolina, a city that bore the full brunt of flooding from Hurricane Helene in late September, 2024. In our interview, which took place two months after the storm, she describes her first hand experience with the most destructive hurricane to strike the US since Katrina in 2005. Many people lost their lives, many homes were washed away, and there was no functioning water system during October and into November, shutting down much of the city.

A sense of the disruption from the storm can be seen in the Wikipedia entry on Hurricane Helene in North Carolina:

"Mayor of Canton Zeb Smathers referred to recovery efforts as being for a '21st century storm with 20th century technology' due to telecommunication and power outages forcing first responders to use pack mules and handwritten notes for communication and delivery.[37] Black Mountain residents resorted to using makeshift message boards to list missing residents and humanitarian aid details.[80]"

In her interview, Johnston emphasizes the community's resilience and the role of local organizations in disaster response. She also noted the ongoing challenges, such as water shortages and economic impacts, and the importance of personal and community preparedness for future disasters.

Cindy Ye, from Stuyvesant High School, and Helena Rambler, David Case, and Pierce Siegel, from Hunter College High School, spoke to Ellie Johnston on December 1, 2024.

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Helena Rambler, a high school junior, and Adam Aron, a professor of psychology at the University of California San Diego, discuss the emotional challenges of addressing climate change. Adam shares his journey from his rise in the field of cognitive neuroscience, to his growing concern about climate change, and then to his surprising career switch to learn, and teach, what makes movements effective. 

He emphasizes the importance of collective action, social obligation, and the need for high school curricula to address climate change as a political and social issue. Aron's class at UCSD incorporates collective action projects, aiming to foster a sense of mutual care and responsibility among students. He advises high school students to join groups and engage in strategic actions to effect change.

Transcript: https://newyork.thecityatlas.org/people/adam-aron/

https://aronlab.org/

At UCSD, Aron teaches PSYC185: The Psychology of Climate Crisis and PSYC193L: Social Movements and Organizing.

https://psychology.ucsd.edu/people/profiles/aaron.html

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Gail Whiteman is a Professor of Sustainability at the University of Exeter Business School, and a social science expert on how decision-makers make sense of systemic global risks from climate change and other environmental threats. Since 2012, Whiteman is the Professor-in-Residence at the World Business Council for Sustainable Development and is actively involved in building science-based targets for collective business action. 

She is a past member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on Frontier Risk, keynote speaker at Davos in 2023, “Unlocking the Polar Crisis” with HSH Prince Albert II of Monaco, and in 2020, “What’s at Stake: The Arctic,” alongside Sanna Marin (Prime Minister, Finland) and Al Gore. In 2021, she organized and participated in a High Level Panel – “A Plan for the Planet – the Arctic and Beyond” -- with TIME Magazine as part of WEF's media program for the online Davos Agenda, together with HRH Crown Prince Haakon of Norway, Robert Downey Jr., Baroness Bryony Worthington, Rainn Wilson, and Eric Rondolat.

Professor Whiteman is the Founder of Arctic Basecamp and the co-founder, with Rainn Wilson, of Climate Basecamp, two nonprofit climate communications organizations.

Pierce Siegel and Helena Rambler, juniors at Hunter College High School in Manhattan, spoke to Professor Whiteman on November 11, 2024.

Video: Helena Rambler's exploration of the Arctic Basecamp climate science website (four minutes).

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Mariana is an organizer with Climáximo, a climate justice direct action group in Portugal. 

Cindy Ye and Adeline Sauberli, seniors at Stuyvesant High School, and Helena Rambler, a junior at Hunter College High School, spoke to Mariana on November 17, 2024: after the US election which brought Trump back into the White House, and before the fires in Los Angeles.

Mariana describes the anxiety about climate change among young people in Portugal, the short window of time for phasing out fossil fuels, and the need for alternative paths to prevent climate collapse. She highlights the importance of emotions in climate activism and criticizes the disconnect between environmental education and real action, advocating for a curriculum that addresses current climate crises and solutions. Climáximo's approach includes a disarmament plan to stop harmful infrastructures and a peace plan for a future society. 

https://www.climaximo.pt/the-missing-agreement-among-organizers/

Mariana is also co-author of a new book:

https://all-in.now/

"All In is an easy-read, a tough-read, a deep-dive, and an honest conversation, engaging with strategy and organization using theory, analysis and emotions simultaneously."

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Carolyn McGrath and Kate Schapira co-authored An Educator's Guide to Climate Emotions, a project from the Climate Psychology Alliance of North America.

"The human-driven processes and impacts of climate change are disrupting young people’s lives and are putting their homes, institutions, and physical and mental health at risk. While young people may not always talk about these experiences in school or act outwardly distressed, their feelings about climate change are still making their way into the classroom. What can educators do to help young people navigate these difficult emotions?"

David Case, a senior at Hunter College High School in New York City, spoke to Kate and Carolyn to hear about what they think is missing in education now, and what could be done to help schools catch up to the rapid change facing students as climate impacts escalate.

Transcript:
https://newyork.thecityatlas.org/people/carolyn-mcgrath-and-kate-schapira/
Educator's Guide:
https://www.climatepsychology.us/educators-guide-climate-emotions

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Dr. Christopher Shaw is an independent climate communications expert. Chris was previously Head of Research at Climate Outreach, where among the reports he worked on is the IPCC handbook for climate scientists on how to communicate effectively.

Chris is also author of the book Liberalism and the Challenge of Climate Change. (London: Routledge 2023)
From the publisher's website:
"In this book Christopher Shaw analyses how liberalism has shaped our understanding of climate change and how liberalism is legitimated in the face of a crisis for which liberalism has no answers."

Chris spoke about his evolving views on the barriers to action on climate change with Helena Rambler, just after the conclusion of Climate Week in New York City.

Transcript:
https://newyork.thecityatlas.org/cityatlas-guests-interviews/christopher-shaw/

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Dr. Gianluca Grimalda was fired by his employer, a German research institute, after refusing to travel by plane for his return from Papua New Guinea, where he was conducting research on the social impacts of climate change. To reduce his own carbon footprint Dr. Grimalda instead chose to make his way back to Germany by ferry and then overland, a trip that took 72 days, but saved 9/10ths of the emissions that he would have been responsible for by using air travel.

In his journey he crossed many borders and met dozens of friendly traveling companions, and his choice to remain land bound attracted worldwide media attention.

This episode is complemented by a ten minute YouTube video including photos.

https://newyork.thecityatlas.org/people/gianluca-grimalda/

Dr. Grimalda is interviewed by Marie Fadeyeva and Gabe Gitter-Dentz. 
Episode edited by Eli Gitter-Dentz.

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