The Elephant

Look pretty much anywhere on our planet and it’s clear that human beings are having an outsized impact on the Earth. And it’s not just climate change. There’s our enormous land footprint, our rapidly growing numbers, our thirst for resources, and the vast quantities of waste we produce every year.

But how did homo sapiens transform from a species with only minor numbers in parts of Africa, to one that’s spread across the world with 7 billion people, and whose consumption patterns have become so voracious that we’re now threatening the very stability of the planet we depend on?

In this special episode of The Elephant we go on a journey from the dawn of Earth to the 21st century to find out - how exactly did we end up here?

Conservatives, especially in America, are known for doubting the scientific basis of man-made climate change, and the need to do anything about it. But earlier this February something surprising happened - several elder Republican statesmen released a proposal for what they call a Conservative solution to climate change. The plan consists primarily of carbon tax - something that many progressives have long advocated for. But controversially for Democrats, the plan also calls for repealing more intricate climate regulations such as the Obama administration’s Clean Power Plan.

At this time when by all signs it seems like the divide between Republicans and Democrats is wider than ever, Radio producer Barbara Lucas takes a look at the plan, and asks, when it comes to climate change, can Conservatives and Progressives in the U.S. ever find common ground?

March 8th marks international women's day, an annual celebration of the achievements of women across the globe. And this year’s campaign is: Be Bold For Change.

To discuss climate change and equality, and how it intersects with the role of women worldwide, our new Elephant producer and co-host Charlotta Lomas spoke with a woman who has herself been bold for change - Mary Robinson who was the first female President of Ireland from 1990-1997. She now leads the Mary Robinson Foundation: which is devoted to climate justice and she is also the United Nations Secretary-General’s Special Envoy on El Niño and Climate Change. We reached Mary Robinson by phone in Dublin.

Custom Artwork by Krista Lai

The Elephant has been in Marrakech Morocco the past week for COP 22. And on Friday, on the last day of the conference, we caught up with a few youth groups from around the world to find out what motivated them to come to the talks, and how they feel about the future in a world grappling with climate change.

Last week Donald Trump's election sent shockwaves around the world - particularly within the climate community. Trump has long denied that climate change even exists and has vowed to roll back all federal action. So what should those of us who actually care about reality do next?

We caught up with activist and campaigner Nicolas Haeringer, of 350.org, in Marrakech to get his thoughts on where the climate movement goes from here, and what lessons we can draw from Trump's shocking win.

When humanity first travelled into space, it didn’t just mean exploring new worlds and frontiers. It also meant for the first time seeing our home planet in an entirely new light. What from the ground seemed infinite and indestructible - something that we could never impact -from space suddenly appeared finite and fragile.

When it comes to truly understanding that blue marble we all call home, few people can claim as much insight as Piers Sellers. Not only as an astronaut did Piers get the chance to witness Earth from that ultimate bird’s eye view, but now as the division director of NASA's Earth Sciences department, he oversees the work of 1600 scientists tasked with understanding how the natural systems of our planet operate, and how they’re changing because of humanity's collective impact.

In this special Season 1 Finale of The Elephant, we speak with Piers Sellers about his experiences as an astronaut and what it was like to view earth from space, the exciting new science of understanding the earth’s natural systems, and why despite the serious work ahead, he’s optimistic humanity will be able to overcome the challenge posed by climate change.

The Greenland ice-sheet is massive. So massive that if it were to melt completely global sea-levels would rise by more than 6 meters. So it's critical that scientists understand how the ice-sheet is changing because of climate change.

Liam Colgan is a glaciologist and professor at York University who specifically studies the Greenland ice-sheet and we got a hold of him by satellite phone as he was in Greenland on a 36 day research expedition led by NASA. We learn about how the Greenland ice-sheet is changing due to climate change, why it matters, and what it's like to do research in such an extreme environment.

For decades Noam Chomsky has been one of the most important political dissidents and intellectuals in the world. Now in an exclusive new interview with The Elephant, Chomsky reflects on the incredible period in human history we currently find ourselves in, and how the peculiar institutional systems we've set up put considerations of short-term profits ahead of the very future of our species. In our interview, Noam Chomsky also shares his thoughts on the 2016 U.S. presidential election and where Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton stand on climate change, and why advertising has a tremendously distorting effect on our society.

The Great Barrier Reef in Australia is right at this moment suffering from what is the most devastating bleaching event in its entire fossil history, with 93% of its reefs experiencing at least some degree of bleaching. Many of these reefs will be killed permanently, and similar damage is occurring to countless other coral reef systems around the world. And the culprit? Human caused climate change. We called up professor Justin Marshall, a coral reef expert who has studied these ecosystems for over three decades, to learn about the damage being done, why it matters, and why our only hope for saving these systems is to decrease our greenhouse gas emissions as quickly as possible.

The Occupy movement of 2011 was one of the most successful activist actions of the last few decades. It changed the discourse, raised the issue of income inequality world-wide, and it galvanized a new generation of activists. But its co-founder, Micah White, considers Occupy a 'constructive failure', but one that that has lessons that activists - including those of us in the environmental movement - can learn from. With Micah we talk about the story behind how Occupy Wall Street started, the future of protest, and how activists can bring about the social change that our world so badly needs.