Challenging Climate

Oliver Morton is The Economist’s briefings editor, specializing in the energy business, climate science and policy, and other green issues. He is the author of The Planet Remade: How Geoengineering Could Change the World and most recently The Moon: A History for the Future. In this episode, we discuss ideas from The Planet Remade on climate change and how recent events have influenced our prospects of reaching net zero emissions, as well as tackle serious questions on deploying geoengineering to combat climate change.

Links:

• Oliver’s profile 
• Oliver’s new book, The Moon: A History for the Future 
• The Planet Remade: How Geoengineering Could Change the World 

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Ben Novak is lead scientist at Revive & Restore, where he leads the de-extinction efforts – especially the group’s restoration of the extinct passenger pigeon. He is also the lead coordinator for its conservation cloning projects and Program Manager for Revive & Restore’s new Biotechnology for Bird Conservation. In this episode, we dive deep into the applications of biotechnology in de-extinction, genetic modification for climate adaptation, and the ethical arguments for and against biotechnology for conservation.  

Links:  

• Ben Novak's profile, including more links to his publications!
• Revive and Restore website
• Intended Consequences Statement 
• The Great Passenger Pigeon Comeback

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Gaia Vince is an award-winning science journalist, author, broadcaster and speaker. In this episode, we discuss her new book Nomad Century: How to Survive the Climate Upheaval. Vince gives insight on how humanity can plan for and manage an unavoidable climate migration. We also explore methods to restore the planet to a fully habitable state, such as stratospheric sulfate aerosol injection and iron fertilization of the oceans. 

Links:  

• Gaia’s website 
• Check out Gaia's new book: Nomad Century 
• Check out Gaia’s other books: Transcendence  
• And Adventures in the Anthropocene

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Professor Kerry Emanuel is a prominent meteorologist and climate scientist working at the Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences at MIT. His research focuses on tropical meteorology and climate, with a specialty in hurricane physics. In this episode, we spoke with Kerry about what distinguishes a hurricane from tropical storms and tornadoes, and the dangers these natural hazards pose to societies. We also cover how these threats will evolve in an increasingly warming world, and what a hypercane is.

Links:  

• Kerry Emanuel's profile 
• Kerry's website
• Carbon brief on a new study showing hurricanes strengthening and intensifying 
• Kerry's book, Divine Wind: The History and Science of Hurricanes

Further information on hurricane impacts

• Fewer deaths in tropical storms in recent decades
• Economic impacts of hurricanes
• The hypercane 
• Normalized hurricane damage has not changed 

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Dr Arunabha Ghosh is the founder-CEO of the Council on Energy, Environment and Water, and has led CEEW to the top ranks as one of Asia's leading policy research institutions and among the world’s 20 best climate think-tanks. In this episode, we discuss the work that CEEW is involved in and dive deep into the environmental challenges that developing countries, such as India, face.   

Links:  

• Council on Energy, Environment and Water
• Arunabha Ghosh’s profile

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Dr Tom Matthews is a climate scientist at King’s College London, specialising in glacier-climate interactions and extreme weather. In Episode 17, we discuss Tom’s exciting fieldwork on Mt. Everest co-installing the highest-altitude weather stations in the world, as well as extreme heat and its impacts on society. 

Links:  

• Tom Matthews’ profile 
• Two articles on Tom’s expedition to Mt Everest: this and that  
• Wikipedia page on penitentes
• Check out this article on the upper temperature limit of human tolerance and Tom’s paper documenting the first occurrences of this temperature 
• Check out these 3 articles on extreme heat in Asia: this and that and this other one
• The book discussed: The Ministry for the Future 

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Dr Hannah Ritchie is a Senior Researcher at the Oxford Martin Programme in Global Development and the Head of Research at Our World in Data. In this episode, we spoke with Hannah about her work at Our World in Data and her article, "Stop Telling Kids They’ll Die From Climate Change". We discuss her thoughts on what some of the world's most pressing problems are, touching on topics such as agriculture, the link between meat consumption and poverty, education and more.

Links:

• Hannah Ritchie’s profile
• Hannah's article, "Stop Telling Kids They’ll Die From Climate Change"
• The world’s biggest problem: Agriculture (check out the data here)
• Here’s an article on meat consumption and climate change by Hannah 
• And another one 
• Dollar Street Gapminder

Definitely check out these Our World In Data articles as well:  

• Decoupling of GDP and carbon emissions
• Carbon dioxide Data Explorer
• Economic growth in low- and middle-income countries 
• Global improvements in quality of education

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Dagomar Degroot is an associate professor of environmental history at Georgetown University. In this episode, we spoke with Dagomar about historical climatology and how the past can inform us about contemporary climate change. We cover his book, The Frigid Golden Age, and why societies like the Dutch and Thule thrived while the Norse suffered when the climate changed. Dagomar also addresses existing biases in the field of historical climatology. 

Links: 

• Dagomar Degroot’s profile  
• Historical climatology website 
• Dagomar’s book, The Frigid Golden Age  
• The Nature article outlining the baises in History of Climate and Society 
• Another article by Dagomar on The Washington Post, “Our planet is not doomed. That means we can, and must, act.”  

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Dr. Nils Gilman is the Senior Vice President of Programs at the Berggruen Institute and the deputy editor of Noema Magazine. We speak with Nils about two of his popular articles, "The Coming Avocado Politics" and "The Guns of Warming".  We first discuss avocado politics, what it is and how it manifests in the United States and Europe. The second half of the episode takes a look at climate change and security on global and national scales, and what it really means to prioritize climate change on the political agenda. 

Links: 

• Nils Gilman’s profile
• Check out Noema Magazine and Nils' article (with Jonathan Blake) on "Governing in the Planetary Age"
• Article by Nils on “The Coming Avocado Politics” 
• The other article by Nils on “The Guns of Warming”

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Dr Britt Wray is an author and researcher working at the forefront of climate change and mental health. She is currently a Human and Planetary Health Fellow at Stanford University and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Britt’s research focuses on the mental health impacts of the climate crisis and has published popular books such as Rise of the Necrofauna: The Science, Ethics and Risks of De-Extinction, and Generation Dread: Finding Purpose in an Age of Climate Crisis. 

In this episode, we spoke with Britt about eco-anxiety, how it can affect our mental health and daily lives, and how we can cope and find optimism. We began by diving into the trends in eco-anxiety across demographics and over time. We also discussed the role of media in propelling eco-anxiety and why sentiments of the general public differ from climate experts. 

 Links: 

• Britt Wray’s website 
• Britt's books: Generation Dread and Rise of the Necrofauna
• Gen Dread newsletter (free subscription!)
• The Hickman et al. (2021) paper on a global survey on climate anxiety in children and youth and their perception of government responses to climate change

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