How did we get here?  How bad are things really? Is there still hope? (Yes!) and... crucially - what can we do, individually, collectively, in our businesses, in our governments, around the world, to turn the bus from the edge of the cliff?  Professor Mark Maslin is a climate scientist with a mission to explain in clear terms all we need to know.  And he does it with panache, enthusiasm and optimism.   

How do we unpick the damage of Neoliberalism?  How can we break the connections between work and income and unsustainable consumerism?  Amidst the ideas of how our climate is changing, Professor Mark Maslin, FRGS, FRSA, offers answers to the social and economic ills of our time. 

Mark Maslin FRGS, FRSA is a Professor of Earth System Science at University College London. He is a Royal Society Industrial Fellowship, Executive Director of Rezatec Ltd and Director of The London NERC Doctoral Training Partnership. He is a member of Cheltenham Science Festival Advisory Committee and sits on the Corporate Social Responsibility Board of the Sopria-Steria Group and Sheep Included Ltd.

Mark is a leading scientist with particular expertise in past global and regional climatic change. He has published over 175 papers in journals such as Science, Nature, and The Lancet. His areas of scientific expertise include causes of past and future global climate change and its effects on the global carbon cycle, biodiversity, rainforests and human evolution. 

He also works on monitoring land carbon sinks using remote sensing and ecological models and international and national climate change policies, and has presented over 50 public talks over the last five years including Google UK, Twitter EU, New Scientist Live, UK Space conference, Oxford, Cambridge, RGS, Tate Modern, Royal Society of Medicine, Fink Club, Frontline Club, British Museum, Natural History Museum, Goldman Sachs, the Norwegian Government, UNFCCC COP and the WTO. 

He has also written 8 popular books, over 60 popular articles. His “Climate Change: A Very Short Introduction” by Oxford University Press is now in its fourth edition and has sold over 50,000 copies. 

In this podcast, we talk about his most recent book, 'How to Save our Planet: the Facts' which does exactly what it says on the tin. A crips, cleanly written, utterly absorbing book, this is one of the clearest books ever written on the nature of the problems that assail us, the fact that it's not too late to change - and what we need to do at every level of society to change things.  It's small enough to leave in the smallest room of the house - or by the kettle in the kitchen - so that everyone who comes by can pick it up and learn something useful.  This is how we change the world, one aphorism at a time. 

Links from the podcast

How to Save Our Planet: https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/320/320155/how-to-save-our-planet/9780241472521.html

Mark Maslin's home page: https://www.geog.ucl.ac.uk/people/academic-staff/mark-maslin

Review of Bill Gates's book: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12115-021-00581-z

The Conversation: How bad could things be if we do nothing?: https://theconversation.com/climate-change-how-bad-could-the-future-be-if-we-do-nothing-159665