Outrage + Optimism

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139. 2% For 1.5 with Yuval Noah Harari

Outrage + Optimism

02/17/22 • 67 min

It took 40-50% of GDP to win WWII, 15% to manage COVID in 2020, so what can 2% do?

Historian, philosopher, bestselling author (and newly welcomed activist!), Yuval Noah Harari joins us to highlight how investing just 2% of global GDP into developing eco-friendly technologies and infrastructure every year could avert “the apocalypse” as he puts it.

His clear, down-to-the-essence thinking shines a bright light on a dark moment. Hit play to listen!

And at the top of the episode, our hosts Christiana Figueres, Tom Rivett-Carnac, and Paul Dickinson discuss the latest UK fringe conservative rumblings of the “Net Zero Scrutiny Group” and how recent populism movements are a wolf in sheeps clothing for communities who feel disenfranchised by politicians and global energy price fluctuations alike.

Plus! This week we have a special musical guest, “Ny Oh” with her song “Australia”. Stick around for that!

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Christiana + Tom’s book ‘The Future We Choose’ is available now!

Subscribe to our Climate Action Newsletter: Signals Amidst The Noise

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Mentioned links from the episode:

LISTEN: Christiana guests on The Way Out Is In

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Thanks to our guest this week, Yuval Noah Harari

Yuval Harari

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Sapienship

2% More | Website

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The multi-talented, undeniable Ny Oh is our musical guest!

Ny Oh

Neon Gru

Spotify | BandCamp | YouTube

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Keep up with Christiana Figueres here:

Tom Rivett-Carnac:

Paul Dickinson:

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130. Opening Hearts with Elizabeth Wathuti

Outrage + Optimism

11/25/21 • 66 min

With the ink still drying on The Glasgow Pact, we’re already hearing the results from Glasgow being labeled in binary terms like “Success” and “Failure” While we know that some stunning pledges and progressive language in the Pact came from some of the negotiations, it is also true that historically these pledges have not been met completely, or have been missed entirely. Full stop.

So with millions of humans suffering under the systemic injustice of rising global emissions, how do we meet this moment to reduce those global emissions and break those unjust systems of oppression? And how does the COP process make those necessary changes politically possible? And in the next eight years?!

Maybe it’s as simple as starting with silence.

This week we speak with Elizabeth Wathuti, environmentalist and climate activist from Kenya. She is the founder and president of Green Generation Initiative, and Head of Campaigns and Daima Consortium Coordinator for the Wangari Maathai Foundation.

Elizabeth brought the house down at COP26 this year with her speech in which she led a moment of silence followed by the urgency to every Head of State in the room to “ please open your hearts”. You won’t want to miss what she has to say to us on the show!

Stick around ‘til the end for an incredible music track from Knomad Spock!

Excerpt from Elizabeth Wathuti's speech at COP26, reproduced courtesy of the UN.

Excerpt from the Opening Ceremony of the World Leaders Summit at COP26, November 2021.

Available here: Elizabeth Wathuti at COP26 “Please Open Your Hearts” Speech

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Christiana + Tom’s book ‘The Future We Choose’ is available now!

Subscribe to our Climate Action Newsletter: Signals Amidst The Noise

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Mentioned links from the episode:

Read: Martin Wolf’s piece in The FT

Thank you to our guest this week, Elizabeth Wathuti!

Elizabeth Wathuti

Environmentalist | Climate Activist

Twitter | Instagram | Facebook | LinkedIn

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The incredible Knomad Spock is our musical guest this week!

Knomad Spock

Twitter | Facebook | Instagram

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Keep up with Christiana Figueres here:

Tom Rivett-Carnac:

Paul Dickinson:

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145. Africa: A View From The Frontlines of Climate Justice and Gender Equality with Vanessa Nakate

Outrage + Optimism

03/24/22 • 68 min

For years in the Global North, our dialogue around climate change has been focused on the idea that it is a looming disaster with consequences that would happen in the future if we did not take immediate action. The recent years of extreme weather events where we saw flooding in Germany and London and heat waves and storms across Europe and the United States, brought the reality home that climate change was happening NOW.

But for those living in Africa and the Global South, this ‘looming disaster’ has been a reality for decades. While the devastation, droughts, famines, wars over life-sustaining resources and refugee crises that climate change has caused might not make the headlines in the Global North the way Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has, the impacts of climate change on these frontline communities is nonetheless devastating and requires attention and action NOW.

Which is why this week we invited one of the incredible female voices from the frontline of the climate crisis in Uganda, Vanessa Nakate, an activist and founder of the Rise Up! Movement, onto the O+O podcast so we could share her concerns and action points first hand with our listeners.

In this intimate, in-depth interview with Christiana, Vanessa shares her journey from Ugandan school girl to world renowned climate activist. She tells us about her passion for gender equality and why she believes it is synonymous with bringing the climate crisis to justice, and why Loss and Damage must stay on the agenda for COP27, touted by many as The African COP.

Keep your ears open because Vanessa gives a clear call to action to any listeners who want to help African activists get their voices heard during COP 27. Vanessa asks that businesses, organizations and individuals consider supporting African activists either through providing accreditation for COP27 or through funding. If you can help please reach out via social media to Vanessa directly or via the Rise UP Movement’s website.

And stick around until the end of the episode to hear the soul-stirring Ugandan musical artist Afrie perform her single, “Let Her Know”.

Enjoy the show!

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Christiana + Tom’s book ‘The Future We Choose’ is available now!

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Mentioned links from the episode:

DONATE: Vanessa’s Solar and Stove Project

ACT: Fridays For Future’s 4 Digital Strike Actions

WATCH: Vanessa Nakate asks Global North Ministers the “Thumbs Up” Question

READ: A 10-Point Plan to Reduce the European Union’s Reliance on Russian Natural Gas

READ: Christiana pens an alternative ending to ‘Don’t Look Up’ for Netflix

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Thanks to our guest this week, Vanessa Nakate!

Vanessa Nakate

Climate Justice Activist | Founder of Rise Up Movement

Twitter | Instagram

Rise Up Movement

Twitter | Instagram | Website

BUY THE BOOK: A Bigger Picture by Vanessa Nakate

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Our musical guest this week is Afrie!

Afrie

Instagram | YouTube | Website | YouTube

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Keep up with Christiana Figueres online:

Tom Rivett-Carnac:

Paul Dickinson:

Young People's Voices on Climate Anxiety, Government Betrayal and Moral Injury: A Global Phenomenon

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115. Turning Around in a Storm with David Shukman

Outrage + Optimism

09/21/21 • 27 min

Our struggle with the Climate Crisis begins with naming it, facing it, and engaging it.

Last week, the latest NDC Synthesis Report published showed that global emissions are on track to rise by 16% by 2030. With science screaming at the top of its lungs to get us to cut emissions 50% by 2030 to avoid catastrophic warming and climate tipping points, this 16% number says unequivocally, “we are headed in the wrong direction” as BBC Science Editor David Shukman tells us on today’s episode.

So that’s where we’re at. How do we face this moment with stubborn optimism? Tom dials up David to wrestle with the reality of how short our NDCs are of achieving the Paris Goals, and what mindset and ambition it will take to get our world’s biggest emitters to transparently confront this issue and reverse the course of rising emissions.

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Christiana + Tom’s book ‘The Future We Choose’ is available now!

Subscribe to our Climate Action Newsletter: Signals Amidst The Noise

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Links mentioned in the episode:

NDC Synthesis Report

Climate change: UN warning over nations' climate plans - David Shukman

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Thanks to our guest this week:

David Shukman

Science Editor | BBC News

Twitter

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Join the conversation online:

Christiana Figueres

Tom Rivett-Carnac

Paul Dickinson

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129. COP26: Glasgow Pact and Ready to Go Further

Outrage + Optimism

11/15/21 • 58 min

Yesterday, nearly 200 countries agreed to adopt The Glasgow Climate Pact after a roller coaster of a COP26...and this is a really big deal. From agreeing to reduce global dependence on coal, to speeding up the end of fossil fuel subsidies, this is progress on paper. But how far does it go to keep our 1.5C target front and center?

This week, our hosts dig through a few key details of the agreement, including the new commitment for every country to revisit and strengthen their emissions reductions plans together at COP27, instead of in 5 years time as previously required.

So let’s take a collective breath, get a good look at this thing, and find out where we go from here.

Stick around to the end for a special “Pass The Mic” segment we are sharing, which highlights some of the voices we heard around the corridors and in the streets of Glasgow during COP26.

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Christiana + Tom’s book ‘The Future We Choose’ is available now!

Subscribe to our Climate Action Newsletter: Signals Amidst The Noise

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COP26 - UN Climate Change Conference

Twitter | Instagram | LinkedIn

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Keep up with Christiana Figueres here:

Tom Rivett-Carnac:

Paul Dickinson is on LinkedIn!

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165. Moral Imagination, Patient Capital and Averting Collective Climate Suicide with Jacqueline Novogratz

Outrage + Optimism

07/21/22 • 67 min

Crippling heat, fire, and death in the U.K., Europe, and the U.S. are bringing the climate emergency to our literal doorsteps. At the same time, political antipathy一in the lack of climate depth among Britain’s leadership candidates or the collapse of sweeping climate legislation in the U.S., for example一seems to be adding fuel to the fire.

Co-hosts Tom Rivett-Carnac and Paul Dickinson, and especially Christiana Figueres, are outraged! They explore what this means for the climate agenda going forward and, of course, how compassion, inclusion, and optimism must be part of the solution. Will deaths in the streets of Madrid and 40+°C (102°F) temps in the alleys of London compel us to wake up and see what’s happening?

Next, how do we use the tools of capitalism without being controlled by them?

In this segment the gang explores the differences between traditional and enlightened capital and their connections to poverty, moral imagination, and climate – joined by visionary entrepreneur, philanthropist, and best-selling author Jacqueline Novogratz.

Novogratz, described by Forbes as one of the World’s 100 Greatest Living Business Minds (2017), is the head of the global nonprofit impact investment fund Acumen.

Novogratz explains, “What is the problem we’re here to solve, and how do we use the tools we have to solve them? Investment has always been [one of those] tools...but we see investment as a means, not as an end in itself.”

Listen in as they deconstruct patient capital, off-grid solar, outrage over ongoing divisiveness, and how moral imagination as corporate strategy might just work a little magic for the future.

NOTES AND RESOURCES

Check out more of Gabrielle Sey’s Music here, and be sure to spin her cut of “Patterns” and add it to your summer playlist!

Learn more about Acumen and its inspirational founder, Jacqueline Novogratz.

You Can buy Novogratz’s 2020 work “Manifesto for a Moral Revolution: Practices to Build a Better World” here, or in the US, here.

You can buy Novogratz’s bestseller, “The Blue Sweater: Bridging the Gap between Rich and Poor,” here, or in the US, here.

To learn more about our planet’s climate emergency and how you can transform outrage into optimistic action subscribe to the podcast here.

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144. Conflict Fueling Outrage: It’s Time to Quit Fossil Fuels

Outrage + Optimism

03/14/22 • 40 min

As the news from Ukraine unfolds quickly, detailing the tragedy Ukrainian citizens are living through, our hosts Christiana Figueres, Tom Rivett-Carnac, and Paul Dickinson cut straight to the roots of what is fueling this conflict - Our global addiction to fossil fuels.

What is our response as a global community to this crisis and many other current violent crises when many will argue climate action isn’t affordable and we should ramp up independent oil and gas production? Will we gather ourselves around the moral clarity that we need to end the violence by breaking our addiction once and for all?

Because our addiction is fueling the conflict we are watching our neighbors and our neighbor’s children suffer. It’s time to quit.

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Christiana + Tom’s book ‘The Future We Choose’ is available now!

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Mentioned links from the episode:

WATCH: Ukraine Video Showing Mock Footage of Paris Air Attacks

READ: China, Russia Agree to 30-Year Gas Deal via New Pipeline

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Keep up with Christiana Figueres online

Tom Rivett-Carnac

Paul Dickinson

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Follow @GlobalOptimism on social media and send us a message!

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137. We're Back! Welcome to Season 5

Outrage + Optimism

02/03/22 • 48 min

How do we know what we’re doing is really helping?

What should we do now that the world is changing?

A slow, intentional beginning to a new year after a racing finish to the last one raises some big questions for all of us in the climate space. This week, Christiana, Tom, and Paul set out the big topics for the year leading up to COP27. Yes, another one.

Shifting long term pledges to short term deliverables. Moving financial institutions from high carbon assets to low carbon assets. Getting the data points that move the needle on reducing emissions on the desks of central governments- Solid, concrete, ambitious NDCs driven by the innovation and flexibility of the private sector is how we will prove ourselves to a Net Zero future.

Listen in to hear how Christiana lays out how our Self-interest, with a capital “S”, is the key to unlocking our true collective potential.

Welcome to Season 5!

Stick around for an intimate and cozy musical performance from Lilo!

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Christiana + Tom’s book ‘The Future We Choose’ is available now!

Subscribe to our Climate Action Newsletter: Signals Amidst The Noise

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Mentioned links from the episode:

LISTEN: Overthinking IT by Willow (Paul’s recommendation)

WATCH: Joy

READ: The Book of Joy

LISTEN: The Deep Time Walk O+O Episode

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The incredible Lilo is our musical guest this week!

Lilo

Twitter | Facebook | Instagram | Music

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Keep up with Christiana Figueres here:

Tom Rivett-Carnac:

Paul Dickinson:

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Follow @GlobalOptimism on social media and send us a message!