Ben Shread-Hewitt, climate researcher and geopolitical analyst, joins Craig Applegath to argue that climate change is no longer a future threat but a present reality reshaping politics, economies, and the built environment. The conversation covers three urgent topics: Derailment Risk, the idea that escalating climate impacts can actively undermine mitigation efforts; the Overshoot Era, where societies must simultaneously manage impacts, cut emissions, and strengthen resilience; and why fairness is not optional but a core resilience strategy.

Ben is co-creator of the documentary podcast Overshoot: Navigating the World Beyond 1.5°C and author of the Geopolitical Climate newsletter. His research sits at the intersection of climate science, geopolitics, and systems risk. This conversation is essential listening for anyone designing, planning, or building for a world where climate disruption is a permanent condition.

“Make climate futures visible - We have to show positive change!”

In this episode, Craig speaks with landscape architect, researcher, and educator Nadia Amoroso about the power of visual communication in shaping climate action. Drawing from her latest book, Representing Landscapes: Visualizing Climate Action, Nadia explores how drawings, mapping, and storytelling can help communities better understand environmental change and imagine more hopeful futures.

“Visualization isn’t just representational, it’s an instrument.”

Nadia reflects on how her early interest in architecture evolved into a fascination with public spaces, environmental systems, and the larger ecological forces shaping cities and landscapes. Over time, this led her toward a career focused on visual communication in landscape architecture and climate adaptation.

The conversation also traces the origins of Nadia’s influential Representing Landscapes book series, which began nearly 15 years ago as a response to a gap in design education. At the time, students had limited access to examples of innovative representation techniques for wetlands, infrastructure, public spaces, and complex ecological systems.

“How do we make invisible systems visible?”

How do we make invisible systems visible? A central theme of the episode is that effective climate action depends on effective communication. Nadia explains that many of the most important environmental systems such as hydrology, biodiversity, sea level rise, and ecological change are often hidden from public view.

“A strong design that isn’t understood can never be realized. Make your drawings compelling!”

Nadia highlights several international firms featured in Nadia’s book, including Stoss Landscape Urbanism, SCAPE Studio, and Felixx Landscape Architects & Planners, whose visualizations help communicate climate adaptation, biodiversity, and resilient futures in compelling and accessible ways.

Nadia also discusses the growing importance of:

A recurring theme throughout the conversation is the need to move beyond fear-based climate narratives and instead communicate optimistic and achievable futures. For designers, planners, and citizens alike, Nadia encourages people to become stronger storytellers - making climate futures visible through drawings, maps, design work, and public engagement.

Book Recommendations from Nadia Amoroso

A Call to Action

“Make climate futures visible.”

Nadia’s message is ultimately about communication, collaboration, and imagination. Whether through design, policy, or public engagement, she believes we must become better at visualizing and communicating positive environmental futures.

Chris Turner: The Case for Climate Optimism

“We’re not just trying to eliminate something bad—we’re building something better.”

In this episode, Craig speaks with journalist and author Chris Turner about his book How to Be a Climate Optimist and the shifting narrative around climate change from one rooted in fear and sacrifice to one driven by possibility, innovation, and better ways of living.

Chris traces his journey from early reporting on climate catastrophe to a pivotal realization: instead of documenting the worst impacts, he could seek out places already solving the problem. That shift led him across the world to communities, technologies, and systems that are quietly building a low-carbon future.

“What would it look like to go to the places already beating climate change?”

A defining moment came when Chris visited the Danish island of Samsø, where a community had effectively achieved net-zero emissions. It wasn’t theoretical, it was real, functional, and deeply ordinary.

People were living their lives comfortably, powered by clean energy.

That experience reframed the problem: the solutions weren’t distant or speculative - they already existed.

From “Less Bad” to “Much Better”

“You would choose it even if we didn’t have an emissions problem.”

A central theme of the conversation is that climate solutions must be better, not just less harmful. Chris points to high-speed rail in Spain as an example, not just low-carbon, but more comfortable, efficient, and enjoyable than alternatives.

This idea challenges the traditional narrative of sacrifice:

Instead, the energy transition can deliver:

The Quiet Revolution: Cheap, Scalable Solar

“The most important thing that’s happened is that solar became the workhorse.”

While breakthrough technologies often capture attention, Chris argues that the most transformative shift has been the dramatic drop in the cost of solar energy.

Solar is now:

This changes the entire conversation from if we can transition, to how fast we can build it.

What Governments Should Do

“Treat energy as a shared national resource.”

If advising policymakers, Chris identifies three priorities:

Adaptation: The Hard Reality

“We’re going to have to make difficult decisions about where we live.”

Even with progress on emissions, climate impacts are accelerating. Chris emphasizes that adaptation will require:

Financial systems such as insurance, lending, and investment may ultimately shape these decisions.

Grounds for Optimism

“The solutions keep getting better, faster, cheaper.”

Despite geopolitical instability and ongoing crises, Chris remains optimistic.

Why?

The transition is no longer hypothetical - it’s underway.

Book Recommendations from Chris Turner

He also recommends following the work of Ember Energy and their “Electrotech Revolution” writing for deeper insights into the energy transition.

“There is nothing radical about doing what is easy… what is truly radical is to do what is necessary to build a better world.”

In this episode, Craig speaks with forester and author Ethan Tapper about his award-winning book How to Love a Forest and what it means to care for ecosystems in an age of climate change, biodiversity loss, and what he calls “global change.”

Ethan’s path into forestry began unexpectedly, with a life-changing wilderness expedition that reshaped how he saw the natural world. That experience grew into a career working in forests and, eventually into a book that blends ecology, storytelling, and a deeply personal reflection on stewardship.

“The more you look, the more you see… and the more you see, the more you care.”

A central idea in the conversation is the need to move beyond the familiar dichotomy of either preserving nature or exploiting it. In today’s context, Ethan argues, that framing no longer works.

Forests are now shaped by overlapping pressures - climate change, invasive species, fragmentation, and the long legacy of human land use. Simply leaving them alone is often not enough. Instead, stewardship requires active, ongoing care.

“How could we love forests and cut trees? It doesn’t make sense—until you understand the moment we’re in.”

Through his work, Ethan reframes practices like tree cutting, invasive species management, and deer population control as necessary, if difficult, acts of restoration. These decisions are often emotionally challenging, but they reflect a deeper responsibility: recognizing that inaction can cause harm too.

“We are their greatest threat and also their best hope.”

The conversation highlights how multiple stressors are undermining forest health, particularly their ability to regenerate. Without regeneration, forests cannot adapt or survive.

This leads to a critical distinction: the greatest threat is not the cutting of trees, but deforestation—the permanent conversion of forests into other uses. In this sense, land-use planning, density, and zoning become central climate strategies.

“If we can’t keep forests as forests, nothing else we do matters.”

Turning to cities, Ethan reflects on the role of urban forests as both ecological and social infrastructure. Parks and ravines can provide meaningful habitat and climate benefits, but they also require trade-offs. Not every space can maximize ecological function, human use and cultural value are part of the equation.

“The answers aren’t simpler—they’re more complicated.”

Underlying the discussion is Ethan’s concept of “deep environmentalism” - an approach that moves beyond simply stopping harm toward actively doing good. It embraces complexity, trade-offs, and a more engaged relationship with the natural world.

One of the most powerful examples comes from his work restoring his own degraded forest, Bear Island, which has become a symbol not of loss, but of possibility.

“I’m not just preventing loss - I’m trying to build something more abundant.”

The episode closes with a simple call to action: engage locally. Connect with conservation organizations, participate in their work, and become part of the community caring for the ecosystems around you.

My guest today is Ken Greenberg - urban designer, city builder, and one of the most influential voices in shaping how North American cities think about density, public space, and climate resilience.

Cities are where the climate crisis becomes real.

Cities are where emissions are generated, where heat is felt, where floods happen, and where millions of daily decisions - about housing, mobility, energy, and land - quietly shape our collective future.

For decades, Ken has worked with cities around the world, helping them better understand that the question isn’t how dense we should we make our cities; but how we should make our cities dense, and what kind of life that density makes possible.

In this conversation, we talk about cities as adaptive organisms - places that evolve in response to powerful forces, including climate change.

Ken reflects on his early experiences in city-making, his work with Jane Jacobs, and what it means to design for organized complexity rather than false certainty.

We explore how urban form shapes emissions, why car-dependent sprawl is at the heart of both the housing and climate crises, and how walkable, mixed-use communities dramatically reduce our environmental footprint.

We also talk about climate adaptation, from providing shade and green infrastructure, to flood-resilient landscapes, to rethinking public space in an era of extreme heat and weather.

This is a wide-ranging conversation about patience, humility, and long-term thinking - about building cities that can learn, recover, and care for people in a century defined by uncertainty.

At its core, this episode is a reminder that cities have survived enormous upheaval before - and that with imagination, collaboration, and courage, they can help lead us through what comes next.

I hope you enjoy my conversation with Ken Greenberg.

In this conversation, Craig Applegath speaks with Lynda Ulrich, founder of The Goodness Exchange and host of the Conspiracy of Goodness podcast, about why stories of progress matter and how real change actually happens. Lynda traces the origins of her work back to a moment when she noticed something unsettling: people who had once been optimistic were suddenly afraid of the future.

In this episode my guest is Patrick Crabbe. Patrick is the Director of Mass Timber at Bird Construction, North America’s first general contractor to dedicate full-time expertise, and a create a national centre of excellence, for sustainable mass timber construction.

“We have to start managing infrastructure from a starting point of carbon. Carbon is the universal language. Maybe we need to stop looking at chasing points in certain building accreditation programmes, and really starting to focus on what is the carbon impact of this decision?”   Patrick Crabbe

I’ve come to know Patrick as one of Canada’s sustainable mass timber industry leaders , with a focus on mass timber’s potential to reduce and sequester carbon dioxide emissions. Patrick is not only hugely knowledgeable, but he is also one of the most passionate and energetic advocates for sustainable mass timber I have met.

Growing up in a wood manufacturing family, and then earning degrees in biology from St. Francis Xavier University, and then an Honours degree in Wood Products Processing from the University of British Columbia, Patrick brings a lifetime of experience and expertise to sustainable mass timber construction.

In his leadership role at Bird Construction, Patrick supports 18 districts across Canada with a focus on providing constructability input during the design and pre-construction and construction phases, as well as educating project teams, clients, and the public. He is an active member of the Carbon Pricing Leadership Coalition (led by the World Bank) and a trusted advisor to Infrastructure British Columbia and the Canadian Wood Council.

Our conversation ranges from a discussion of Patrick’s passion for wood and mass timber as a powerful tool to meet the challenges of greenhouse gas emissions, and reduce embodied carbon in the construction industry, to the opportunities and challenges for mass timber market acceptance, to the advice he would give listeners, and of course, and to the two books that Patrick Recommends to listeners.

I hope you enjoy our conversation!

                                            --------------------

You can read more about this podcast in the podcast’s Show Notes. 

Please Support this Podcast: The Twenty First Century Imperative podcast relies entirely on user support. If you find it valuable please consider supporting us by becoming a patron at our TFCI Patreon Page.

#zerocarbon #carbonaction #ClimateChange #makingadifference #movingtheneedle #climateaction #environment #sustainableconstruction #environmentalactivist

And we now have a new TFCI Online-shop, with all the proceeds going to cover our production costs!  And It has some great products for you! We have organic, fair-trade t-shirts and hoodies, as well as non-toxic BPA-free coffee containers, with great graphics! So, if you like the podcast, please think about helping us out by buying a t-shirt, hoodie or mug for you (and one for each of your friends!!!)

In this episode my guest is Ben Gibbons. Ben is the Founder and Managing Partner of Waterpoint Lane, a venture capital firm focused on investing in growth stage companies centered in primary production, technology and services,  and consumer products,  that promote sustainable practices throughout our food system.

In our conversation Ben and I talk about the really big challenges facing the world in creating and maintaining a sustainable food system in the face of escalating climate change impacts; the most promising policies, strategies and technologies for helping us reduce the environmental harm we are causing; the huge challenge of food security and a sustainable food supply in the face of climate impacts; and what advice Ben would offer listeners about what they can do to be part of making a difference in meeting the challenges of the Twenty-first Century Imperative and maintaining hope. 

Background

Ben grew up on his family’s sheep and wheat farm in central New South Wales, in Australia.  

In 2019, Ben re-established his connection with the land and the sustainability of our food supply with his founding of the venture capital firm Waterpoint Lane.  (and Ben tells me that Waterpoint Lane was the name of the road leading up to the family farm!)

Ben spent the previous 15-plus years of his career in investment banking and consulting to support growth-stage and middle-market companies, with extensive experience across mergers and acquisitions, debt, equity, and alternate capital financing transactions.

Through Waterpoint lane, Ben sees significant opportunity to drive change in the way we think about our food system, change that contributes to climate solutions, and secures a lasting-and-sustainable legacy for our children.

I hope you enjoy our conversation!

                                            --------------------

You can read more about this podcast in the podcast’s Show Notes. 

Please Support this Podcast: The Twenty First Century Imperative podcast relies entirely on user support. If you find it valuable please consider supporting us by becoming a patron at our TFCI Patreon Page.

And we now have a new TFCI Online-shop, with all the proceeds going to cover our production costs!  And It has some great products for you! We have organic, fair-trade t-shirts and hoodies, as well as non-toxic BPA-free coffee containers, with great graphics! So, if you like the podcast, please think about helping us out by buying a t-shirt, hoodie or mug for you (and one for each of your friends!!!)

In this podcast I talk with Geoff Smith, CEO and President of EllisDon. Geoff is the President & Chief Executive Officer of EllisDon, an employee-owned, $5 billion-a-year construction services and technology company. In the world of Climate Change mitigation, Geoff Smith is probably best known for his leadership of the Carbon Impact Initiative – A Building Industry-Led Action Plan in Support of Canada’s International Climate Change Commitments.

In our conversation, Geoff and I talk about how climate change and carbon emissions came to be such an important concern for Geoff, and what EllisDon is trying to do about it; what the construction industry can do to make a difference in moving the needle on carbon emissions; the big efforts EllisDon is making to tackle the opportunities and challenges associated with Mass Timber given its potential to significantly reduce embodied carbon and lock up carbon; and what will be required to actually meet our commitments to the Paris agreement and reduce carbon emissions before it is too late. We also talk about losing hope and what we need to do about it.

I have known and worked with Geoff for many years and have come to admire him as both one of the Construction Industry’s most respected leaders, but also as a great guy. He is one of those rare people, who is successful, intelligent, and incredibly competent, while also having a real sense of humility, and a wonderful sense of humour. These are the qualities that have made him such an effective industry leader and innovator and why I wanted to interview him for this podcast.

I hope you enjoy our conversation!

                                            --------------------

You can read more about this podcast in the podcast’s Show Notes. 

Please Support this Podcast: The Twenty First Century Imperative podcast relies entirely on user support. If you find it valuable please consider supporting us by becoming a patron at our TFCI Patreon Page.

And we now have a new TFCI Online-shop, with all the proceeds going to cover our production costs!  And It has some great products for you! We have organic, fair-trade t-shirts and hoodies, as well as non-toxic BPA-free coffee containers, with great graphics! So, if you like the podcast, please think about helping us out by buying a t-shirt, hoodie or mug for you (and one for each of your friends!!!)

In this episode I talk with Alex Lukachko. In our conversation, Alex talks about the rapid change that we face within the design and construction industry as we try to move the entire industry towards the goal of zero-carbon (and perhaps restorative construction) that we need to address the climate crisis.  He talks about the challenges of designing buildings for the long-term, but he also talks about opportunities to help this effort if we look to the past. 

We also talked about what gives Alex hope, and keeps him going when things look dark, and the advice he would offer listeners about what they can do to be part of making a difference in meeting the challenges of the Twenty First Century Imperative.

Alex is a Principal at RDH Building Science Inc. and an Assistant Professor at the University of Toronto’s John H Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape and Design.  Alex is well known in Canada’s building industry as an important thought-leader in building science, zero-carbon building design, and climate change adaptation. 

An architect by training, with degrees in both philosophy and architecture, from the University of Waterloo, Alex currently leads an interdisciplinary consulting team at RDH in Toronto that works on advanced, net-zero carbon buildings.

Alex works with multi-disciplinary design teams, and industry stakeholders, for both new buildings and for deep-energy retrofits of existing buildings. This gives him a broad view of the industry, as well as the forces that need to be marshalled to significantly reduce building-related greenhouse gas emissions.

At the University of Toronto, Alex teaches Master’s of Architecture students about building performance, low-carbon design strategies and technologies, resilience, and long-term adaptation to climate change. 

Outside of this work, Alex, his partner, and their three kids lead an active, cycling-intensive life in Toronto, investing a little extra carbon each year to spend time at the edge of the ocean in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia.

I hope you enjoy our conversation!

---------------

You can read more about this podcast in the podcast’s Show Notes. 

Please Support this Podcast: The Twenty First Century Imperative podcast relies entirely on user support. If you find it valuable please consider supporting us by becoming a patron at our TFCI Patreon Page.

And we now have a new TFCI Online-shop, with all the proceeds going to cover our production costs!  And It has some great products for you! We have organic, fair-trade t-shirts and hoodies, as well as non-toxic BPA-free coffee containers, with great graphics! So, if you like the podcast, please think about helping us out by buying a t-shirt, hoodie or mug for you (and one for each of your friends!!!)