Renewable energy is one of the great hopes of humankind when it comes to addressing the threat of climate change and some forms of pollution. Thanks to technological advances it’s now become cost-effective enough to compete with non-renewable energy sources. As renewable energy technologies and efficiency continue improving, and new innovations emerge, it’s hoped that we can make clean energy ubiquitous. But, as Thomas Sowell said, "there are no solutions - only trade-offs". The harm done by energy generation is not just about the gasses emitted during the generation process. It’s also about where renewable energy infrastructure is located; the materials that are mined and transported to build energy infrastructure; the batteries to store energy from non-baseload sources; the waste produced when energy infrastructure needs to be renewed; and, of most relevance to today’s discussion, the relative impacts of different forms of energy production on biodiversity.

Alexandros Gasparatos is Associate Professor of Sustainability Science at the Institute for Future Initiatives at the University of Tokyo; and Adjunct Associate Professor at the United Nations University Institute for the Advanced Study of Sustainability, also in Tokyo. He is an ecological economist interested in, among many other things, renewable energy and energy policy. In my conversation with him he makes clear above all, I think, that the relationship between energy production (from both renewable and non-renewable sources) and biodiversity is highly complex and what constitutes best solutions can be context-dependent.

Time stamps:
2:13   Different energy production "pathways" 
3:50   What is bioenergy?
6:39   How gaps in the literature inspired Alexandros to explore this area of conservation
13:48   How different forms of energy production differ in terms of their impact on nature
20:15   The difficulty in comparing different forms of energy production
25:02   Scale mismatches, and local versus global impacts
30:45   Other factors to consider, like energy security
32:44   Configuration choice and other ways of reducing impact
38:00   Trade-offs and context
42:18   Working with stakeholders

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It’s widely agreed that one of our greatest global environmental challenges is the impact of fisheries on the oceans. Aquaculture, practiced at a small scale around the world and especially in Asia for centuries, emerged decades ago as a potential solution. But it soon became clear that aquaculture was using more wild-caught fish as feed (as an input), than it was generating as product. In other words, it was making the situation even worse. However, things have changed in the way that we manage this final frontier of agricultural intensification. And this story is not all about the ocean. Mariculture - marine aquaculture - supplies more than 50% of the world’s seafood, but the freshwater aquaculture is even larger than the mariculture industry. Aquaculture is a big deal.

I spoke about this subject with economist Roz Naylor, a professor of earth system science at Stanford University's Center for Food Security and the Environment. She led a seminal review to examine the "Effect of aquaculture on world fish supplies", which was published in the journal, Nature, in 2000. Twenty years later she led the publication of "A 20-year retrospective review of global aquaculture", again in Nature. Both papers took an exhaustive look at all the literature available at the time, to piece together comprehensive narratives that outlined the pros and cons; the advances and obstacles of one of humankind's most important and promising food systems, and its impact on the environment.

Time stamps:
2:10   What is aquaculture - what does it include?
2:57   Where is most aquaculture happening?
5:30   The many species used in aquaculture and how they are used.
10:16  Roz’s interest in aquaculture, as an economist.
12:25  How aquaculture became more sustainable, and related trade-offs
20:58   Technology that has improved aquacultural production and sustainability
27:53   Aquaculture species’ energy conversion efficiency
29:33   The potential and limitations of "extractive species"
34:57   Integrated multi-trophic aquaculture
37:32   Future promise of aquaculture

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Freshwater biodiversity tends to be the most threatened of all types of biodiversity. In this episode I speak with Jenny Day about the state of freshwater biodiversity in South Africa's drought-prone Southwestern Cape, and elsewhere in the world. We get into how it coexists with humankind’s need for water.

Jenny is emeritus professor of freshwater ecology at the University of Cape Town, where she was also Director of the Freshwater Research Unit for many years. She has co-authored the book Vanishing Waters and, more recently, Freshwater Life: A field guide to the plants and animals of southern Africa, as well as numerous papers and research reports on various aspects of river and wetland ecology.

Time stamps:
01:30: Why Jenny decided on career in freshwater ecology
04:40: Why freshwater ecologists end up being involved in management and policy
11:20: The state of freshwater biodiversity
15:36: Threats to freshwater biodiversity
18:15: Water needs of communities, and dealing with Cape Town's two-year drought
28:00: Invasive trees
31:20: Virtual water
35:05: Adapting agriculture to be water-smart

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Much has been written about why we wish to protect nature. The initial motivation for conservation was ostensibly for nature's own sake. Around the 1980s, the concept of ecosystem services began to highlight  ways in which we depend on nature, as a motivation for conservation. Ecosystem services and similar concepts now dominate the discourse. But do they adequately describe our relationship with nature?

Sharachchandra Lele (or Sharad, for short) is Distinguished Fellow in Environmental Policy & Governance at the Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology & the Environment (ATREE) in Bangalore. After starting his career as an engineer, he went on to earn a PhD in Energy & Resources at UC Berkeley. Since then he has held positions as Senior Research Associate at the Pacific Institute, and fellowships or visiting fellowships at Harvard, Stanford and Cambridge Universities.

Resources (linked):

• Nature's Services: Societal Dependence on Natural Ecosystems - Seminal 1997 book edited by Gretchen Daily, to which Sharad refers in the discussion. He asked me to point out that he had mistakenly said this was by Daily and Paul Ehrlich. In fact, it builds on some earlier work by Ehrlich and others, but Ehrlich was not an author. The book focuses mostly on ecosystems' regulatory services.
• Millennium Ecosystem Assessment - Key assessment of "the consequences of ecosystem change for human well-being" conducted from 2001 to 2005 and involving more than 1,360 experts worldwide.
• Untangling the Environmentalist's Paradox: Why Is Human Well-being Increasing as Ecosystem Services Degrade? - A key 2010 article in Bioscience, brought up by Sharad in our discussion.
• Environment and well-being: A Perspective from the Global South - A recent opinion piece that Sharad published in New Left Review, which lays out many of his views in detail.
• From wildlife-ism to ecosystem-service-ism to a broader environmentalism - A 2021 summary of Sharad's thoughts on ecosystem services, this time in a peer-reviewed journal.

Time stamps

02:46: Sharad's career change, from engineering to conservation and related topics 
07:37: The nuanced and complex history of ecosystem services concepts
16:26: Trade-offs between ecosystem services; ecosystem disservices
23:21: How does biodiversity fit into a framework for viewing our relationship with nature?
30:15: Why are human development indicators improving while environmental indicators worsen?
37:40: What should be our motivation for conserving nature?
48:02: Are generic frameworks really useful to describe our relationship with nature? 

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People from various walks of life have an affinity to nature. Why is that, and why is nature important to us? This episode is less of an inquiry and more of a ramble through this topic, with one of the most nature-loving, inspiring and interesting people I know. 

Steven Lowe is is a high school science teacher in the UK. But he started as a cardiovascular cell biology researcher, after earning his PhD in that subject. In between those two sub-careers he spent more than 10 years studying and working in conservation biology - mostly in South Africa - where we met doing our Masters degrees in that subject.

02:12: How Steve chose a successful career in cardiovascular cell biology, and left it for conservation
11:11: The importance of biodiversity conservation relative to climate change action
16:08: Moral and practical arguments for conservation
18:03: Trade-offs, consequences and opportunities
25:46: Political conviction about improving conservation
28:39: Why are YouTube "freak animal clips" so popular?
31:48: Young people’s interest in nature
35:23: The influence of inspiring individuals
40:36: The influence of spending time in nature

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Why has environmentalism  come to be considered a left-wing  agenda, even though much of its history has conservative roots? And what does it even mean to be conservative when it comes to conservation and environmental issues?

Quill Robinson has some ideas about this. He is Vice President of Government Affairs for the American Conservation Coalition, and spends much of his time in Congress advocating for what he considers pragmatic, bipartisan policy solutions to environmental challenges. He turned conservative after witnessing the defeat of one such policy solution by progressive organizations early in his career.

02:18: How Quill changed political perspectives early in his career
09:04: What it means to be a conservative in the environmental sphere
12:15: Why is environmentalism thought of as a leftist agenda?
16:06: Why market-based approaches?
21:23: Incremental change versus transformative change
26:50: Unleashing innovation
32:27: The importance of local solutions and feeling like we can make a difference
35:33: The argument against environmental catastrophism
38:20: A culture shift towards steadfastness against adversity

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Most conservationists are motivated by the purpose of their work. But that work often involves a lot of struggle and it can be daunting, especially when one does not yet have the experience of hard-won success to draw inspiration from. So, how do we keep going when the odds seem stacked against us?

Grant Pearsell and Widar Narvelo both recently retired from decades-long, pioneering careers in urban conservation - Widar at the City of Helsingborg in Sweden and Grant at the City of Edmonton in Canada. In this discussion they share some of the wisdom and experience they have gathered over their lifelong work.

1:33: How Widar and Grant chose careers in conservation
6:15: Conservation goals compared with broader institutional goals
12:53: Most difficult career challenges
17:16: Ecosystem services as a tool, or not
19:04: Most rewarding career achievements
24:27: Changes in public and institutional attitude over time
26:11: Importance of integration into broader planning
28:04: Communicating conservation with non-conservation language
31:11: Advice to conservationists who feel they are struggling against the odds

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There is a lot in the media these days about how protecting biodiversity reduces the risk of zoonotic disease spillover, and hence the risk of epidemics and pandemics. There seems to be  a lot of good evidence for this in published studies on the topic, but how universal is such a conclusion? What is the science behind it? What about context? Are there exceptions to the rule? 

Dan Salkeld is a disease ecologist, and professor at Colorado State University. He has been addressing this topic in the literature for years, and shares some of his conclusions with us. We also talk a little more broadly about the trend, in the literature, towards making generic causal links, when the sum of the data show correlations of varying strength, and include exceptions.

03:10: Main factors likely to increase the risk of zoonotic disease spillover
05:08: Relationship between biodiversity and spillover risk; the dilution effect and amplification effect
12:32: The role of scale in spillover
13:55: The state of the debate regarding the links between biodiversity and spillover
18:18: Claims of causation and consensus
22:34: Results that don't get published
26:09: Communicating nuanced messages to the broader public

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The scientific method remains the best systematic approach we have been able to develop in our ongoing endeavor to advance human flourishing. But that does not mean it's perfect - indeed, it probably never will be. But what are the ways in which we can make science better? Perhaps some of the most fundamental ways lie in the process of publishing research findings. This applies to biodiversity science as much as it does to other scientific disciplines. 

Randy Schekman joins me to pick apart some of the well-known and less well-known critiques of the scientific publication process, including the role of hype. Randy is a cell biologist, Nobel Prize winner, and previous editor-in-chief of PNAS, Annual Review of Cell Developmental Biology, and eLife. He is based at the University of California, Berkeley, where he has spent almost his entire career.

01:57:  How biodiversity got Randy interested in science
07:37:  How and why we publish scientific research
11:50:  Domination by commercial journals
17:22:  The introduction of impact factor, and its flaws
21:12:  Professional editors and other problems with "luxury journals"
26:59:  The pressure to publish in big journals, and its societal implications
28:11:  The problem with not publishing negative results
34:41:  What's changed since Randy began his crusade in 2013?
38:03:  What can we do about it?
43:30:  What's the alternative to impact factor?

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These days some very impressive-sounding conservation projects are catching the public eye, from massive tree-planting initiatives to high-profile urban greening. They capture the headlines and they capture the imagination. But do they deserve the level of attention and adulation that they receive? Or should we be a little more discerning as conservationists and the public, and pay a little more attention to the details?

Someone who has looked into these questions is Adam Welz. He is a writer, photographer, filmmaker and self-proclaimed conservation theorist with an uncompromising approach to conservation.

04:25: What does it mean to be a conservation theorist?
10:50: Overview of the concept of "huge tree planting projects".
21:30: What is performative conservation?
25:19: New York City High Line Park.
30:10: Is performative conservation sometimes done with good intentions?
35:10: Cheonggyecheon stream restoration project and Saemangeum wetlands.
38:55: Prioritizing resources for the most important conservation.
41:08: Ecological illiteracy prevents us from identifying mistakes in conservation.
46:27: The important, and lack, of nuance in understanding conservation problems.

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