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257. What If We Get It Right?

51 min • 12 september 2024

This week, Christiana shares her awe and admiration for the athletes at Paris’ Paralympics after being lucky enough to experience some of the games first-hand. Can these incredible athletes inspire us to think and act differently on climate change?

As global barometers measure the hottest August ever recorded, the hosts talk about extreme heat and its impact on children - affecting their health, their education and even placing them at increased risk of child marriage.

Tom quizzes Paul and Christiana about the events of 12th January 1882 (hint: coal-fired power stations) and celebrates the news that the UK will close its last coal-fired power station later this month. Paul meanwhile is emphatic that nations and businesses need A Plan to Decarbonise.

This week, Christiana is in conversation with Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson, a marine biologist, policy expert and writer. Ayana co-founded the non-profit think tank Urban Ocean Lab, co-edited the bestselling climate anthology All We Can Save, and was the co-host of the How to Save a Planet podcast. Her upcoming anthology is What If We Get it Right?: Visions of Climate Futures. Christiana and Ayana discuss the ocean’s bounty of climate solutions; renewable offshore energy, carbon-absorbing wetlands and mangroves, and seaweeds and shellfish to feed people.

GUEST

Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson, Marine Biologist, Policy Expert, and Writer LinkedIn | Instagram | X | Website

You can preorder the book, What If We Get it Right?: Visions of Climate Futures

For more information, subscribe to the What If We Get It Right? Newsletter where the new podcast will be launching!

NOTES AND RESOURCES

Outrage + Optimism launches its new Listening Journeys

Recycled bottle tops and tables made from shuttlecocks - the greenest Olympics? BBC, July 2024

World’s warmest August completes hottest boreal summer on record, Copernicus Climate Change Service, September 2024

Summer 2024 is the hottest on record making it likely this will be the hottest year ever, Euronews, September 2024

Almost half a billion children live in areas experiencing at least twice as many extremely hot days as their grandparents, UNICEF report, August 2024

Bangladesh: IRC study reveals a staggering 39% surge in child marriage due to climate change, December 2023

Britain’s Reliance on coal-fired power set to end after 140 years, FT, September 2024