Fossil vs Future

Environmental law is the law relating to environmental problems – but these problems are anything but simple. Traditional legal systems weren’t designed with challenges like climate change or biodiversity loss in mind, making this one of the most diverse, evolving, and demanding areas of law today.

In this episode, James and Daisy are joined by Philippe Sands KC – a leading international lawyer, professor at UCL and Harvard, and author of East West Street and the recently published 38 Londres Street. Together, they explore the role of international law in protecting the environment. When did international law begin to take environmental issues seriously? Can nature itself have legal rights? What might international environmental law look like for future generations? 

SOME RECOMMENDATIONS: 

• Financial Times (2025) – Philippe Sands argues that our planet – not just its people – should have legal rights. 
• “Should Trees Have Standing?” by Christopher Stone (1972) – A landmark law review article that launched the idea of legal rights for nature. 
• LSE (2024) – Analysis of climate change litigation cases in 2023, drawing on the Sabin Center’s Climate Change Litigation Databases. 
• Stop Ecocide International – Leading the movement to make ecocide a crime. Philippe helped draw up the legal definition: “Ecocide" means unlawful or wanton acts committed with knowledge that there is a substantial likelihood of severe and either widespread or long-term damage to the environment being caused by those acts.

KEY CASES AND LEGAL CONCEPTS: 

• Chernobyl – The most serious nuclear accident in history. Philippe’s book, Chernobyl: Law and Communication, explores the international legal aftermath of the disaster.
• ICJ Advisory Opinion on the Legality of the Threat or Use of Nuclear Weapons (1996) – Paragraph 29 recognised a state’s obligation to respect the global environment. A new ICJ advisory opinion on climate change is expected in 2025. 
• Chagos Islands – Philippe has long represented Mauritius in its legal battle against the UK over the Chagos Islands. In 2023, he argued that the UN’s International Telecommunication Union could deem UK-US activities there unlawful.
• The Gambia vs Myanmar – A landmark ICJ case against Myanmar for violating the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide in relation to the Rohingya Muslims.
• Red Eagle vs. Colombia – A case involving Colombia’s protection of the pàramos ecosystems from mining. 
• The Special Tribunal on the Crime of Aggression – Proposed in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022, aiming to hold individuals responsible. The proposal followed this article by Philippe.  
• Montreal Protocol – A successful international treaty to phase out ozone-depleting substances. 
• Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism – An EU carbon tariff on carbon intensive products, such as steel, cement and some electricity. 
• The Law of Sea – Governs maritime conduct and environmental protection beyond national borders.

OTHER ADVOCATES, FACTS, AND RESOURCES:

• Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL) – A nonprofit focused on environmental law (founded in 1989). 
• Brownlie's Principles of Public International Law by Ian Brownlie – A foundational text in public international law. 
• Is a River Alive? by Robert Macfarlane – At powerful book on the legal and imaginative rights of nature. 
• Silent Spring by Rachel Carson – A groundbreaking book published in 1962 on the environmental harm caused by the widespread use of pesticides that reshaped environmental policy.   
• Bill McKibben – An American environmentalist, author, and journalist who has written extensively on the impact of global warming.
• Thomas Buergenthal – An Auschwitz survivor who became a judge with the UN war crimes court in The Hague. 
• Sir Nicholas Lyell QC – An Attorney General in the John Major government and Conservative MP.

Thank you for listening! Please follow us on social media to join the conversation: 

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Music: “Just Because Some Bad Wind Blows” by Nick Nuttall, Reptiphon Records. Available at https://nicknuttallmusic.bandcamp.com/album/just-because-some-bad-wind-blows-3

Producer: Podshop Studios

Huge thanks to Siobhán Foster, a vital member of the team offering design advice, critical review and organisation that we depend upon.

Stay tuned for more insightful discussions on navigating the transition away from fossil fuels to a sustainable future.

Climate change is increasing the risk of damage from unexpected events such as extreme weather and natural disasters. While steps can be taken to reduce the risk, they can’t eliminate it entirely – that’s where insurance comes in. It allows people to transfer financial risk and protect themselves from financial losses. 

In this episode, James and Daisy discuss insurance. How is insurance changing with our changing climate? Will certain areas become uninsurable? Can the insurance industry help build a more resilient future?  

SOME RECOMMENDATIONS: 

• Allianz SE (2025) – Allianz board member, Günther Thallinger, warns that the global financial system is at risk and that escalating extreme weather events could soon make some risks uninsurable. 
• Howden & BCG (2024) – This report highlights insurance as critical to mobilising $10 trillion of committed climate transition investment.
• David Howden is CEO of Howden and has written extensively about the problem of the insurance protection gap. 

OTHER ADVOCATES, FACTS, AND RESOURCES:

• AXA (2024) – In the 2024 AXA Future Risks Report, climate change is identified as the top risk for both experts and the general public in all international regions surveyed. This marks the third consecutive year that climate change has been ranked as the top global risk by AXA.

• World Economic Forum (2024) – “Unlike traditional insurance, parametric policies focus on the magnitude of a specific type of an event, with a simple, straightforward payout process.”
• Environmental Finance (2025) – An innovative wildfire insurance product offers lower premiums and deductibles as incentives for sustainable forest management. 

• AccuWeather (2025) – Estimates total damage and economic loss from LA wildfires of between $250 billion and $275 billion. 
• News Statesman (2025) – “California created an insurer of last resort in 1968, the California Fair Access to Insurance Requirements (FAIR) plan, following a spate of brush fires and riots in the state over the decade. (An insurer of last resort is an insurance company or government entity which provides insurance for entities which are considered high risk or uninsurable).”

• The Loss and Damage Fund – At COP27, it was agreed to create a fund that will help low-income developing countries offset the damage from natural disasters caused by climate change.
• Carbon Brief (2023) – An interview with Robert Van Lierop reflecting on the three-decade journey to a loss-and-damage fund. Countries negotiated the world’s first climate change treaty in 1991, which featured the word “insurance”. 

Thank you for listening! Please follow us on social media to join the conversation: 

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You can also now watch us on YouTube.

Music: “Just Because Some Bad Wind Blows” by Nick Nuttall, Reptiphon Records. Available at https://nicknuttallmusic.bandcamp.com/album/just-because-some-bad-wind-blows-3

Producer: Podshop Studios

Huge thanks to Siobhán Foster, a vital member of the team offering design advice, critical review and organisation that we depend upon.

Stay tuned for more insightful discussions on navigating the transition away from fossil fuels to a sustainable future.

Shortly after we recorded our episode on populism, two major developments in the UK prompted us to do this follow-up. First, former Prime Minister Sir Tony Blair called for a major rethink of the UK’s net zero policy. Then, the right-wing populist party Reform UK made significant gains in the English local elections.

In this episode, James and Daisy talk about these events and reflect on what they might mean for climate action in the UK. Was Blair’s report a missed opportunity to make a meaningful contribution? What did he get right – and where did he go wrong? And could this shift pose a threat to climate action? 

THE REPORT: 

• The Climate Paradox: Why We Need to Reset Action on Climate Change (2025) – The report published by the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change on 29th April 2025. 

SOME RESPONSES TO THE REPORT: 

• LSE 
• techUK 
• Energy Transitions Commission 
• Michael Liebreich 
• Outrage + Optimism

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES:

• Net Zero Strategy: Build Back Greener – This strategy sets out the policies and proposals for decarbonising all sectors of the UK economy to meet its net zero target by 2050.
• IEA (2025) – As the Chinese economy and domestic transport sector undergo significant transformations, demand for the most widely consumed oil-based fuels – including gasoline, jet fuel and diesel – declined marginally in 2024. EVs currently account for about half of car sales in China. 
• BBC (2025) – “Nigel Farage's Reform UK has made big gains in English local elections, cementing it as a prime challenger to Britain's traditional main parties. It won 677 of around 1,600 seats contested on Thursday across a clutch of mainly Tory-held councils last contested in 2021.”

Thank you for listening! Please follow us on social media to join the conversation: 

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You can also now watch us on YouTube.

Music: “Just Because Some Bad Wind Blows” by Nick Nuttall, Reptiphon Records. Available at https://nicknuttallmusic.bandcamp.com/album/just-because-some-bad-wind-blows-3

Producer: Podshop Studios

Huge thanks to Siobhán Foster, a vital member of the team offering design advice, critical review and organisation that we depend upon.

Stay tuned for more insightful discussions on navigating the transition away from fossil fuels to a sustainable future.

Populism is a political approach that claims to speak for “ordinary people” – those who feel ignored or left behind established elite groups. Around the world, populist movements frequently frame environmental action as elitist, out of touch with the priorities of “real people.”

In this episode, James and Daisy discuss the rise of populism. What exactly is populism? How is it shaping public attitudes towards climate action? How must the climate movement adapt? 

SOME RECOMMENDATIONS: 

·     The New Statesman (2025) – “It’s time for climate populism” – an interesting article by Caroline Lucas and Rupert Ready. Caroline Lucas, the former MP and Green Party leader, has warned that the rise of populism and the acceleration of the nature and climate emergences are becoming increasingly interlinked. 

·     Yale Program on Climate Communication conducts scientific research on public climate change knowledge, attitudes, and behaviour, and the underlying factors that influence them.

OTHER ADVOCATES, FACTS, AND RESOURCES:

·     Greg Jackson – The founder of Octopus Energy has said "British people support net zero, but not if bills rise. We need to reform the market urgently to maintain public backing for cutting emissions. Clean energy can be cheaper to generate, but our outdated market means consumers don’t benefit. Billpayers are forking out billions to switch off wind farms on windy days while households and industry struggle with high bills - instead of enjoying cheaper energy. A modern market could save tens of billions over the next 15 years."

·     The Guardian (2025) – A Channel 4 study, Gen Z: Trends, Truth and Trust, found 52% of Gen Zers thought “the UK would be a better place if a strong leader was in charge who does not have to bother with parliament and elections”. 33% of those aged 13-27 agreed that the UK would be better off “if the army was in charge”, and 47% agreed that “the entire way our society is organised must be radically changed through revolution”.

·     The Order of the Day – A book by Éric Vuillard telling the story of the pivotal meetings which took place in Germany in the run-up to World War Two.

·     The MIT Press Reader (2021) – “Populism is on the rise. From 1990 to 2018, the number of countries with populist leaders increased from four to 20.”

·     Sky News (February 2025) – A YouGov poll showed Reform UK leading for the first time, topping the poll at 25%, ahead of Labour at 24% and the Conservatives at 21%. 

·     E3G (2024) – This article provides a clear overview of the politics of populism and climate action. 

·     Sabin Center for Climate Change Law – This Climate Backtracker identifies steps taken by the Trump-Vance administration to scale back or wholly eliminate federal climate mitigation and adaptation measures.

Thank you for listening! Please follow us on social media to join the conversation: 

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You can also now watch us on YouTube.

Music: “Just Because Some Bad Wind Blows” by Nick Nuttall, Reptiphon Records. Available at https://nicknuttallmusic.bandcamp.com/album/just-because-some-bad-wind-blows-3

Producer: Podshop Studios

Huge thanks to Siobhán Foster, a vital member of the team offering design advice, critical review and organisation that we depend upon.

Stay tuned for more insightful discussions on navigating the transition away from fossil fuels to a sustainable future.

War engages our fight or flight instincts. When immediate threats like conflict arise, they often overshadow slower-burning, long-term crises like climate change.

In this episode, James and Daisy talk about war. How does climate change fuel conflict? How does war, in turn, hinder efforts to combat the climate crisis? How do we avoid trading one existential threat for another?

SOME RECOMMENDATIONS: 

• Conflict and Environment Observatory – CEOBS was launched in 2018 with the primary goal of increasing awareness and understanding of the environmental and derived humanitarian consequences of conflicts and military activities.
• The Military Emissions Gap – This site is dedicated to tracking, analysing and closing the military emissions gap, bringing together the data that governments report into one place.

OTHER ADVOCATES, FACTS, AND RESOURCES:

• NATO (2023) – Here are some remarks by NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg from the UN Climate Change Conference (COP28) in Dubai.
• ND-GAIN Country Index – Summarizes a country's vulnerability to climate change and other global challenges in combination with its readiness to improve resilience.
• United Nations – Today, of the 15 countries most vulnerable to climate change, 13 are struggling with violent conflicts.
• Sir Christopher John Greenwood - After being called to the Bar by Middle Temple, he became a Fellow of Magdalene in 1978 and later Professor of International Law at the London School of Economics, specialising in international humanitarian law. He was appointed Queen’s Counsel in 1999 and elected by the United Nations as a Judge of the International Court of Justice in 2008. That same year, Magdalene named him an Honorary Fellow.
• The Third Man –A classic thriller written by Graham Greene and starring Orson Welles in which a writer sets about investigating the death of a friend in post-World War II Vienna.
• Stop Ecocide International – Ecocide law provides a route to justice for the worst harms inflicted upon the living world in times of both peace and conflict, whenever and wherever they are committed.
• CND (Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament) – CND campaigns to rid the world of nuclear weapons - the most powerful and toxic weapons ever created, threatening all forms of life.
• Stop the War Coalition – Stop the War was founded in September 2001 in the weeks following 9/11, when George W. Bush announced the “war on terror”. Stop the War has since been dedicated to preventing and ending the wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and elsewhere.

• UK Parliament (2024) – In the 2023/24 financial year, the UK spent £53.9 billion on defence.
• UK Parliament (2025) – The Prime Minister has committed to spend 2.5% of the UK’s gross domestic product (GDP) on defence by 2027. 
• UK Parliament (2025) - The Prime Minister said the government would “fully fund our increased investment in defence” by reducing aid spending from 0.5% of gross national income (GNI) to 0.3% in 2027.
• Ministry of Defence (2024) –  In 2022, total military expenditure of NATO members was $1,195bn and total worldwide military expenditure was $2,240bn, as estimated by SIPRI. The USA was the world’s largest spender, accounting for 39% of the total global spending.
• The Week (2025) – Only 11% of people aged 18-27 say they would fight for the UK.
• Reuters (2025) - Poland wants to spend 5% of gross domestic product (GDP) on defence in 2026. Poland now spends a higher proportion of GDP on defence than any other NATO member, including the United States. It plans for this year's spending to hit 4.7% of GDP. 
• Institute for Security Studies – The global military carbon footprint currently accounts for around 5.5% of global emissions – more than Africa’s entire footprint.

• Listen to War by Edwin Starr here!

Thank you for listening! Please follow us on social media to join the conversation: 

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You can also now watch us on YouTube.

Music: “Just Because Some Bad Wind Blows” by Nick Nuttall, Reptiphon Records. Available at https://nicknuttallmusic.bandcamp.com/album/just-because-some-bad-wind-blows-3

Producer: Podshop Studios

Huge thanks to Siobhán Foster, a vital member of the team offering design advice, critical review and organisation that we depend upon.

Stay tuned for more insightful discussions on navigating the transition away from fossil fuels to a sustainable future.

ESG – short for Environmental, Social, and Governance – is a framework for evaluating how companies manage sustainability-related risks and opportunities. In ESG investing, environmental, social, and governance factors are integrated into investment decisions, alongside traditional financial metrics. 

In this episode, James and Daisy discuss ESG. How has sustainable investing evolved? Why is there a growing backlash against ESG? What is greenhushing?  

SOME RECOMMENDATIONS: 

• John Elkington, a world authority on corporate responsibility and sustainable capitalism, coined the phrase “people, planet, profit” in 1994 to describe the Triple Bottom Line. Originally intended as a tool to drive systems change and transform capitalism – not just as an accounting framework – Elkington later called for a "product recall" of the concept.
• 21st Century Investing: Redirecting Financial Strategies to Drive Systems Change by William Burckart and Steve Lydenberg – This book explores the evolution of investing from traditional models to sustainable approaches that consider environmental and social factors. The authors advocate for a third stage: system-level investing, where investors actively support and enhance the stability and health of the social, financial, and environmental systems on which they depend for long-term returns. 
• Aniket Shah is Managing Director and Global Head of Sustainability, Transition and Washington DC Strategy at Jefferies, a top global investment bank. We enjoyed this 10-minute video where he speaks about ESG and Impact Investing.  
• SYSTEMIQ (2025) – This essay “Shock Therapy” explores what a deep reset of the sustainability movement might look like. Part of The Blue Whale Inquiry, it draws on insights from interviews with over 50 leaders across business, finance, government, politics, and civil society to understand what it takes to shift stubborn economic systems. 

OTHER ADVOCATES, FACTS, AND RESOURCES:

• United Nations (2004) – ESG first appeared in the UN Global Compact report “Who Cares Wins”, developed with twenty financial institutions. It encouraged the financial sector to integrate environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors into analysis, asset management, and brokerage.
• EU Taxonomy – allows financial and non-financial companies to share a common definition of economic activities that can be considered environmentally sustainable.
• IEA (2024) – “Global energy investment is set to exceed USD 3 trillion for the first time in 2024, with USD 2 trillion going to clean energy technologies and infrastructure. Investment in clean energy has accelerated since 2020, and spending on renewable power, grids and storage is now higher than total spending on oil, gas, and coal.”
• CDP – a global non-profit that runs the world’s only independent environmental disclosure system. 
• The Taskforce on Inequality and Social-related Financial Disclosures (TISFD) – a global initiative to develop guidance for businesses and financial institutions to understand and report on impacts, dependencies, risks, and opportunities related to people. Growing inequality is recognized as a systemic risk with economic and political implications for global markets.
• Brundtland Report (1987) – Our Common Future, published by the UN, defined ‘sustainable development as "development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs".
• Morningstar (2025) – “Despite reduced fund flows, global sustainable fund assets reached an all-time high of USD 3.2 trillion at the end of 2024, an 8% increase from the previous year and more than quadruple the size in 2018. Europe remains the leading market, housing 84% of the assets.”
• Generation Investment Management – “Generation is a pure-play sustainable investment manager. It is all we do. It is all we will ever do.” – Founded in 2004 by Al Gore and David Blood, Generation is a dedicated sustainable investment firm focused on long-term value, integrated sustainability research, and strong client alignment. It has demonstrated that mission-driven investing can deliver superior returns.
• Octopus (2024) – The Future Generations Report 2024 – “Celebrating the impact that you, as an Octopus shareholder, employee or customer, have on the world.”
• Dame Julia Anne Hoggett DBE, a British banker and risk manager, became CEO of the London Stock Exchange in April 2021. With a background in development economics focused on Sub-Saharan Africa, she believes the job of the capital markets is “to facilitate the investment that creates the invention, production, jobs and productivity that drives the economy, improves real incomes and peoples’ lives”. 
• As noted in the episode, some state funds have been withdrawn from investors applying ESG policies. For example, in March 2022, West Virginia pulled assets from a fund managed by BlackRock, citing the firm’s “net-zero investment strategies that would harm the coal, oil and natural gas industries.”

Thank you for listening! Please follow us on social media to join the conversation: 

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You can also now watch us on YouTube.

Music: “Just Because Some Bad Wind Blows” by Nick Nuttall, Reptiphon Records. Available at https://nicknuttallmusic.bandcamp.com/album/just-because-some-bad-wind-blows-3

Producer: Podshop Studios

Huge thanks to Siobhán Foster, a vital member of the team offering design advice, critical review an...

Water is essential for all life on Earth, yet climate change is disrupting the natural water cycle, altering where, when, and how much water is available. In many ways, climate change expresses itself through water. 

In this episode, James and Daisy talk about the vital role of water. What is the water cycle? How will water security will be impacted by the changing climate? What can we do about it? 

SOME RECOMMENDATIONS: 

• Is a River Alive? by Robert Macfarlane – At the heart of this book is a single, transformative idea: that rivers are not mere matter for human use but living beings – who should be recognized as such in both imagination and law.
• Mina Guli is a renowned water advocate and ultrarunner who has dedicated her life to solving one of the world’s most urgent issues - the global water crisis. Following a successful 15-year career in law, finance and climate change, Mina founded Thirst - a non-profit focused on changing how we think about water. In March 2022, for the #RunBlue campaign, Mina set out to run 200 marathons in just one year, finishing the race at the first global UN water conference on World Water Day, 22 March 2023. This World Water Day on Saturday, March 22 2025, runners from around the world united for the #WorldWaterRelay - the largest global relay for water.

OTHER ADVOCATES, FACTS, AND RESOURCES:

• CDP – a global non-profit that runs the world’s only independent environmental disclosure system. Over 24,800 companies, representing two thirds of global market capitalization reported through CDP on climate change, forests and water security.
• Stuart Orr has been with WWF since 2006 and works with the private sector on a range of water related activities, from water footprint to public policy engagement. WWF estimate freshwater ecosystems have an economic use value of $58 trillion, or roughly 60% of global GDP. 
• Water.org – a global nonprofit organization working to bring water and sanitation to the world, founded by Matt Damon and Gary White. 
• Goldman Sachs Asset Management (GSAM) is launching its first biodiversity-focused bond fund, offering fixed-income investors a way to support nature conservation.

• NASA (2023) – There are more than 326 million trillion gallons of water on Earth. 
• Natural History Museum – The ocean has an average depth of approximately 3.7 kilometres (or 2.3 miles).
• USGS (2019) – About 71% of the Earth's surface is water-covered, and the oceans hold about 96.5% of all Earth's water. Only 2.5% of Earth's water is freshwater - the amount needed for life to survive.
• World Bank (2017) – Globally, 70% of freshwater is used for agriculture. 
• World Bank (2023) – 2 billion people live in countries experiencing high water stress. 
• WaterAid – Diarrhoea caused by dirty water and poor toilets kills one child under the age of five nearly every two minutes. 
• WaterAid – A staggering 90% of all natural disasters are water-related.

Thank you for listening! Please follow us on social media to join the conversation: 

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You can also now watch us on YouTube.

Music: “Just Because Some Bad Wind Blows” by Nick Nuttall, Reptiphon Records. Available at https://nicknuttallmusic.bandcamp.com/album/just-because-some-bad-wind-blows-3

Producer: Podshop Studios

Huge thanks to Siobhán Foster, a vital member of the team offering design advice, critical review and organisation that we depend upon.

Stay tuned for more insightful discussions on navigating the transition away from fossil fuels to a sustainable future.

Flying is one of the most carbon-intensive activities. In fact, if you fly, it is probably the most polluting thing that you do. Yet, aviation remains one of the toughest sectors to decarbonise, as battery technology and alternative fuels still struggle to match the efficiency of jet fuel.
In this episode, James and Daisy – who both love travelling – confront the challenging topic of aviation. What are the environmental impacts of aviation? Should we stop flying? What are the alternatives?

SOME RECOMMENDATIONS:

Mike Berners-Lee is a researcher and writer on carbon footprinting and has written articles on how cutting aeroplane contrails is an easy climate win. - https://www.ft.com/content/d0292413-5fcf-4ab9-b738-8da289fd4987

Carbon Brief (2020) – This article calculates the true climate impact of aviation emissions and describes the impact of CO2 and non-CO2 effects. - https://www.carbonbrief.org/guest-post-calculating-the-true-climate-impact-of-aviation-emissions/

OTHER ADVOCATES, FACTS, AND RESOURCES:

The Seventh Carbon Budget (2025) – Section 7.6 describes the UK’s aviation emissions and the Balanced Pathway for the aviation sector. - https://www.theccc.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/The-Seventh-Carbon-Budget.pdf

The Chicago Convention on International Civil Aviation was signed in 1944 and went into effect in 1947. It established the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and set the framework for global civil aviation.

The Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation (CORSIA) is a carbon offset and carbon reduction scheme to lower CO2 emissions for international flights and curb the aviation impact on climate change. CORSIA uses market-based environmental policy instruments to offset CO2 emissions: aircraft operators have to purchase carbon credits from the carbon market. - https://www.icao.int/environmental-protection/CORSIA/Pages/default.aspx

Jack Sweeney shares information about the locations of private planes of the rich and powerful on his social media accounts, including Elon Musk and Taylor Swift. - https://x.com/Jxck_Sweeney?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor

Climate Perks – The employee benefits scheme which gives staff the opportunity to take extra days off work if they choose low-carbon travel rather than flying when they go on holiday. - https://www.climateperks.com/

IPCC (1999) – There is a range of options to reduce the impact of aviation emissions, including changes in aircraft and engine technology, fuel, operational practices, and regulatory and economic measures. - https://www.ipcc.ch/report/aviation-and-the-global-atmosphere-2/

Our World in Data (2024) – “Aviation accounts for 2.5% of global CO₂ emissions. But it has contributed around 4% to global warming to date.” - https://ourworldindata.org/global-aviation-emissions

ICAO (2019) – 65% of aviation’s CO2 emissions are in international airspace and, therefore, do not necessarily “belong” to individual nation states. - https://www.icao.int/environmental-protection/Documents/EnvironmentalReports/2019/ENVReport2019_pg17-23.pdf

Carbon Brief (2025) – “A forest twice the size of Greater London would need to be planted in the UK to cancel out the extra emissions from the expansion of Heathrow, Gatwick and Luton airports.” “…offsetting these emissions would require more than 300,000 hectares of trees to be planted within just a few years. This equates to all the trees planted in the UK since 2000.” - https://www.carbonbrief.org/analysis-uk-would-need-forest-twice-size-of-london-to-offset-new-airport-expansion/

Thank you for listening!

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Music: “Just Because Some Bad Wind Blows” by Nick Nuttall, Reptiphon Records. Available at https://nicknuttallmusic.bandcamp.com/album/just-because-some-bad-wind-blows-3

Producer: Podshop Studios - https://www.podshoponline.co.uk/ 

Huge thanks to Siobhán Foster, a vital member of the team offering design advice, critical review and organisation that we depend upon.
Stay tuned for more insightful discussions on navigating the transition away from fossil fuels to a sustainable future.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming our world, enabling computers to learn and solve problems in ways that can seem human. This powerful technology is already being used to benefit the environment – optimising efficiencies, predicting weather patterns, and mapping ecological impacts. However, the immense computing power required for AI comes at a cost, consuming vast amounts of energy and other critical resources.

In this episode, James and Daisy talk about AI. What exactly is AI? What are its environmental impacts? And with AI now deeply embedded in our daily lives, how can we ensure it evolves responsibly to benefit all humanity? 

SOME RECOMMENDATIONS: 

• Code Dependent: How AI is Changing Our Lives – This book by Madhumita Murgia explores the impact of a set of powerful, flawed, and often exploitative technologies on individuals, communities, and our wider society.
• Liebreich: Generative AI – The Power and the Glory (2024) – Michael Liebreich examines the transformative potential of generative AI, particularly in creative and industrial sectors.

OTHER ADVOCATES, FACTS, AND RESOURCES:

• Mo Gawdat – The Former Chief Business Officer at Google X published Scary Smart: The Future of Artificial Intelligence and How You Can Save Our World, a roadmap detailing how humanity can ensure a symbiotic coexistence with AI when it inevitably becomes a billion times smarter than we are.
• Perplexity AI – A conversational search engine that uses large language models to answer queries with sourced citations. 
• Verv is an AI-based smart home product that sits next to your electricity or smart meter and analyses your home energy data at its source.
• IBM (2024) – A clear overview of AI and how it works. 
• BBC (2025) – “Sir Keir Starmer has pledged to "build baby build", as he announced plans to make it easier to construct mini nuclear power stations in England and Wales.”
• Goldman Sachs (2024): “On average, a ChatGPT query needs nearly 10 times as much electricity to process as a Google search.”
• Google (2024): “Our total GHG emissions were 14.3 million tCO2e, representing a 13% year-over-year increase and a 48% increase compared to our 2019 target base year—primarily due to increases in data center energy consumption and supply chain emissions” 
• ITU (2023) – Approximately 67% of the world's population (5.4 billion people) is now online. In Africa, that figure is just 37%. 
• UNCTAD (2024) – “The production of a single 2 kg computer requires the extraction of a staggering 800 kg of raw materials.”

Also, we looked up data centres in Ireland… 

• The Guardian (2024) – Ireland’s growing fleet of datacentres used 21% of its electricity, an increase of a fifth on 2022. 

Thank you for listening! Please follow us on social media to join the conversation: 

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Music: “Just Because Some Bad Wind Blows” by Nick Nuttall, Reptiphon Records. Available at https://nicknuttallmusic.bandcamp.com/album/just-because-some-bad-wind-blows-3

Producer: Podshop Studios

Huge thanks to Siobhán Foster, a vital member of the team offering design advice, critical review and organisation that we depend upon.

Stay tuned for more insightful discussions on navigating the transition away from fossil fuels to a sustainable future.

The fashion industry is huge. Fuelled by social media, influencer culture, and powerful marketing, we’re constantly tempted to buy new clothes at low prices. But behind these bargains lie devastating consequences for the environment and poor conditions for garment workers. 

In this episode, James and Daisy dive into our obsession with fast fashion and its hidden costs. What are the environmental impacts of the fashion industry? Do different generations approach fashion differently? What can we do to change our consumption habits? 

SOME RECOMMENDATIONS:

• Less – A book by Patrick Grant considering the crisis of consumption and quality in fashion, and how we might make ourselves happier by rediscovering the joy of living with fewer, better-quality things.
• Let My People Go Surfing – A memoir by Yvon Chouinard, the founder of outdoor clothing company Patagonia.  

OTHER ADVOCATES, FACTS, AND RESOURCES:

• The Fashion Pact – A non-profit organization forging a nature-positive, net-zero future for fashion, through CEO-led collaboration.
• WRAP – A global environmental action NGO focused on creating a circular economy for textiles and other industries. 
• Fashion for Good – A global platform for collaborative innovation in the fashion industry. 
• The Australian Wool Industry Insetting Program has recently been launched by Woolmark, Pollination, and Landcare Australia and will connect apparel brands with Australian woolgrowers looking to reduce emissions through nature-based solutions. 
• Mina Guli – CEO of the Thirst Foundation, a non-profit organisation dedicated to increasing awareness, driving stakeholder urgency and delivering meaningful action on fresh water.
• The Aral Sea was once the world’s fourth largest body of inland water but it has shrunk to a tenth of its size over the past fifty years due to human interference, causing severe environmental and social consequences. 
• SAGES is a textile industry start-up that offers a sustainable alternative to the synthetic fabric dyes currently on the market, by turning food waste into natural dyes. They are supported by Undaunted, a hub for the UK’s climate innovation community. 
• Grist (2024) – “Shein is officially the biggest polluter in fast fashion. AI is making things worse.” – An article about fast fashion giant, Shein, with some shocking statistics. 
• Ellen MacArthur Foundation – “Every second, the equivalent of a rubbish truck load of clothes is burnt or buried in landfill.” “…in the last 15 years, clothing production has approximately doubled.”
• thredUP (2022) – “1 in 3 Gen Z say they feel addicted to fast fashion.”
• UNEP – “About 60 per cent of material made into clothing is plastic, which includes polyester, acrylic and nylon textiles.”
• Earth.Org (2025) – “The the industry is the second-biggest consumer of water and is responsible for about 10% of global carbon emissions – more than all international flights and maritime shipping combined.”
• McKinsey (2025) – “The fashion industry is worth around $1.7 trillion and over 300 million people work across its global supply chains.” McKinsey research also indicates that most fashion brands could reduce their emissions by more than 60 percent for less thatn 1 to 2 percent of their revenues. 

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Music: “Just Because Some Bad Wind Blows” by Nick Nuttall, Reptiphon Records. Available at https://nicknuttallmusic.bandcamp.com/album/just-because-some-bad-wind-blows-3

Producer: Podshop Studios

Huge thanks to Siobhán Foster, a vital member of the team offering design advice, critical review and organisation that we depend upon.

Stay tuned for more insightful discussions on navigating the transition away from fossil fuels to a sustainable future.