Can Lawyers Save The Planet? - with Michael Gerrard

11/10/22 • 26 min

Can lawyers save the planet? I asked the world’s foremost climate lawyer.
Welcome to FutureBites with Dr. Bruce McCabe, futurist and keynote speaker. In this episode, instead of examining science and technology pathways to a better future, we're looking at the role of litigation.
Michael Gerrard is a globally-recognised leader in environmental law and a passionate lifelong advocate for sustainability. He is Professor at the Columbia Law School and Founder of the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law, has tried numerous cases in Federal and State courts, and is the author or editor more than 13 books on climate law, the most recent of which is Legal Pathways to Deep Decarbonization in the United States.
In his book-lined office at Columbia University we discussed the current status of climate litigation, the delaying tactics of defendants, what's next, future scenarios, and the role litigation can realistically play in curbing the behaviours of greenhouse gas emitters and securing a pathway to a better future for the planet.

We also canvassed his personal journey, which goes back to the high levels of air and water pollution he encountered as a child in Charleston, West Virginia, courtesy of the petrochemical industry. Ever since, he has dedicated his entire professional life to environmental advocacy.
What a privilege it was to spend time with him!
For additional comments, and to read the interview transcript, check out the FutureBites post on the website.
Learn more about Bruce's work as a futurist speaker.
See you in the future!

Previous Episode

Gene Therapies for Eye Disease - with Aykut Demirkol

Welcome to the second episode of FutureBites with Dr. Bruce McCabe. In this episode, Dr Aykut Demirkol of the Harkness Eye Institute joins Bruce to talk about CRISPR gene-editing and the future of ophthalmology!
CRISPR is short for CRISPR-Cas9. The CRISPR-Cas9 system and a family of related tools have brought faster, cheaper, more accurate, and more efficient methods to genome editing. They are unquestionably one of the top technologies changing the world.
Dr Aykut Demirkol works in Professor Stephen Tsang's lab on new gene therapies to correct retinal diseases. This is SUCH an important area in the future of medicine, as so many people around the world are debilitated by eye disease. The team at Tsang lab have already used gene editing to successfully restore vision in mice suffering from retinitis pigmentosa, and used CRISPR to repair a genetic mutation responsible for retinitis pigmentosa in induced pluripotent stem cells derived from humans.
We discussed heritable versus non-heritable factors, the two-pronged attack on retinitis pigmentosa, and what the future might hold. For the hundreds of millions suffering from eye diseases, Aykut and his colleagues really are changing the world!
For additional comments from Bruce, and to read the whole interview, check out the FutureBites episode transcript.
Learn more about Bruce's work as a futurist speaker.
See you in the future!

Next Episode

What Does it Mean to Make a Robot Conscious? - with Hod Lipson

What does it mean for a robot to be conscious? Can a robot have feelings? Will we make robots that take care of one another, upgrade themselves, and reproduce?
I discussed these and other mind-bending questions about the future of robots with Hod Lipson, the brilliant founder of Columbia University’s Creative Machines Lab.
Welcome to FutureBites with Dr. Bruce McCabe, futurist and keynote speaker. In this episode, we're looking at the extraordinary future lives of robots with Hod, a global pioneer in both the ‘hard’ mechanics and the ‘soft’ AI underpinnings of robotics. A Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Data Science and founder and director of the Creative Machines Lab at Columbia University, Hod lives to push the boundaries of what robots can be and should be. He has BIG ideas about the future, and he and his colleagues prove out those ideas with real-world prototypes.
We met at his lab, and as he walked me through the happy chaos of robot limbs, spare parts and experiments-in-progress, it struck me that not one experiment was trivial. Each represented a potential game-changer.
Hod took me in unexpected directions and introduced me to many new possibilities. I particularly enjoyed his knack for distilling complex ideas into simple one-liners. We covered plenty of ground and could have gone on for hours. All the laughter on the recording gives you some idea of all the fun we were having!
I hope you enjoy listening to the podcast as much as we did making it.
For additional comments, and to read the interview transcript, check out the FutureBites post on the website.
Learn more about my work as a futurist speaker.
See you in the future!