Professor Katharine Hayhoe: [Who Is] Saving Us[?] - ClimateGenn Podcast

01/19/22 • 24 min

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In this ClimateGenn episode, I am speaking to author and chief scientist at the Nature Conservancy, Professor Katharine Hayhoe about how her recent book ‘Saving Us’ addresses issues relating to personal agency.

2022 has advanced out of the gate with threats of war, massive volcanic eruptions, economic and political upheavals, conspiracy theories, and the worsening accelerating degradation of the biosphere upon which we are all entirely reliant.

Awareness is growing and people from all walks of life are awakening to the need for emergency action. It now feels like we are simply being held back by an adherence by the few to the value systems and aspirations of the last century.

Thank you for listening to ClimateGenn, we have a programme of interviews for this year looking at the multi-faceted problem of rebalancing life in the biosphere. Please do subscribe and be sure to comment or send me your feedback by email.

You can also support this series via https://patreon.com/genncc.

Please do subscribe on https://genn.cc and be sure to comment or send me your feedback by email. You can also support this series via https://patreon.com/genncc.

You can also support this series via https://patreon.com/genncc.

Previous Episode

MEER | Mirrors For earth’s Energy Rebalancing with Dr Ye Tao at Harvard University

In this ClimateGenn episode, I speak to Dr Ye Tao at Harvard University who is head of the Mirrors for Earth Energy Rebalancing (MEER).

You can follow/support/get in touch via https://genn.cc + back via https://patreon.com/genncc

Addressing climate threats

With global agriculture across the world at high risk from rising temperatures and associated impacts, Ye’s team are proposing increasing the Earth’s reflectivity in order to reduce the temperature within the biosphere.

In this interview we go into some detail about how it works, resource requirements, where it would be deployed and the pathway to scaling up.

Social response is critical

Ye also highlights the need for more understanding of psychology in order to be able to align the growing numbers of people around the world who are realising that our future is in a perilous state.

By bringing people together, putting our wellbeing and safety before profit and extractive endeavours, only then do we really stand a chance of seeing these grand ideas tested and eventually deployed.

So much to lose, all to play for

A special thank you this week to Marion Troia who sent in a transcript of my last interview with Dr Tero Mustenon. This is interview received terrific feedback and resonated with a great many people, not least myself, so I am really grateful for this support.

Thank you to all my new Patrons who are supporting this series and to everyone for listening, commenting and getting in touch.

Next Episode

Population, Consumption & Climate Change | Dr Paul Behrens

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In this episode of ClimateGenn I am speaking to Dr Paul Behrens about the complexity of population, consumption and climate change.

Support this channel on Patreon: https://patreon.com/genncc (website: https://genn.cc)

In his book, ‘The Best of Times, The Worst of Times’ Paul addresses population, presenting both a pessimistic potential outcome, and also a more hopeful outcome based on a set of choices that we, especially those of us in wealthier high emitting countries, can make to improve the chances for a better future.

One big barrier to a better future is the growing narrative that stokes fears about migration. The propagating of these myths falls under the title of econativism, a term that Paul both defines and discusses in some detail.

Population and migration are critical and controversial issues and when placed in the context of continually rising emissions and consequent impacts, they stress the need for reflection on how we value our own life and the lives of all those around us.

In the next episode I am speaking to Dr Min Hee Go in South Korea about her recent book ‘Rethinking Community Resilience’ that looks at the politics of disaster recovery in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans.

Minnie’s research highlights the necessity to not just build back from catastrophe but also how we must ensure community resilience, as the frequency and extremity of these events increase.

Thank you for listening to ClimateGenn. You can follow this series on all major podcast channels, on Youtube, on my website at GENN.cc and you can follow and support on Patreon.