Stories on why we find it so hard to save our own planet, and how we might change that.
The “unequivocol” consequences of climate change
"A brief and rapidly closing window of opportunity” is how a new major climate change report from the UN described the effect of rising emissions. Already 40% of the world's population is "highly vulnerable" to the impacts according to the latest report from the International Panel on Climate Change. And it’s all happening much more quickly than previously thought. Sophie Eastaugh and Jordan Dunbar discuss the findings with a panel of experts and ask how much more serious do things need to get before action is taken? Produced for the BBC World Service by Darin Graham.
How quickly is battery technology advancing?
The need to be able to store electricity as part of our low carbon future, has increased dramatically as the use of renewable energy has expanded. Both solar and wind energy rely on sunlight and weather, only providing intermittent power. Electric cars need to be able to travel greater distances on one charge and cost less to have mass market appeal. It’s clear batteries are a key - but evolving - technology. Improvements still need to be made to their safety, power and cost. Megawatt batteries are being built in many countries, in a step toward creating a renewable energy back-up for the grid. But these batteries are made using Lithium, which is limited because of their size, the length of their lifespan, and their track record in causing fires. We look at the limitations of the batteries that exist right now, and what new technology in the field is expected to bring in the coming 10 to 15 years. We also visit a hydro-pump powered energy storage system in Israel, where the company, Augwind, is developing an interesting alternative to electric batteries. Presenters Kate Lamble and Jordan Dunbar are joined by: Susan Babinec is Program Lead in Energy Storage at the Argonne National Laboratory Sandra Chavez is Director Partnerships at Powerhouse Gary Yang is Founder of UniEnergy Technologies Eshhar Chetsrony is the VP Business Development at Augwind Producer: Dearbhail Starr Reporter: Roni Dori Researchers: Lizzie Frisby Series Producer: Alex Lewis and Rosamund Jones Editor: Emma Rippon Sound Engineer: Andrew Garratt
What will happen if the world's glaciers melt?
We hear a lot about how melting glaciers are contributing to sea-level rise but not so much about the impact inland. In places like Tajikistan, glaciers feed rivers and are a significant water source. As they melt climatologists expect water flows to increase, contributing to a rise in mudslides and floods. But in the long term, the melting ice will lead to water shortages. We look at mountain communities living near glaciers and try to understand what impact this is having now and what might happen in the future. What can we do to prepare for the consequences of glacier melt? Presenters Kate Lamble and Jordan Dunbar are joined by: Edson Ramírez Rodriguez. glaciologist, University of San Andrés Jemma Wadham, professor of glaciology, University of Bristol Natalya Idrisova, project coordinator, The Little Earth Reporter: Navruz Karimov Producers: Darin Graham and Tatyana Movshevich Series Producer: Alex Lewis Researcher: Matilda Welin Editor: Emma Rippon Sound engineer: Tom Brignell
Is our obsession with GDP killing the climate?
For nearly a century, governments around the world have measured the health of their economies by a single metric: GDP, or Gross Domestic Product. It measures a country’s economic growth, and over the years has become a shorthand for national progress; a rising GDP is generally understood to mean more people in work, more companies in business, living standards on the rise. Yet, as experts have argued for decades, there is a lot that GDP leaves out. While it measures the value of all goods and services produced and consumed in an economy, it doesn’t account for nature, wellbeing, or planetary health. To GDP, a 100-year-old carbon capturing tree is worthless until its chopped down and sold as timber. Cleaning up after disasters, such as extreme weather events, improve GDP due to the increase in spending - even as people and planet suffer the consequences. In an age of climate breakdown, many economists are arguing that our obsession with GDP is damaging the planet. So is it time to ditch GDP as a measure of progress and come up with a new metric that puts sustainability at its core? Presenters Jordan Dunbar and Tanya Beckett are joined by the economists: Professor Kate Raworth, Senior Associate at Oxford University’s Environmental Change Institute Professor Tim Jackson, Director of Centre for Understanding Sustainable Prosperity Professor Jayati Ghosh, University of Massachusetts, Amherst Dr Celestin Monga, visiting professor of public policy at Harvard University
Can we believe companies’ promises on climate?
Ahead of COP 26, there was a rush of businesses declaring their commitment to “net zero” emissions targets. But concerns were raised about how credible these targets were. Critics pointed out that many companies’ plans did not require them to change behaviour any time soon or be held accountable for realising them....and that actually some of their promises just weren’t good enough. In this edition of The Climate Question, Kate Lamble and Jordan Dunbar ask how much can we believe in companies’ promises on climate?
How committed is China to climate change?
At the UN climate summit in Glasgow last year, China and the United States announced they will work together on reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Experts say this is a significant move because China and the United States are the two largest economies and polluters. China emits the most greenhouse gasses, around 27% of global emissions, but it is walking a narrow path between its energy crisis and its commitment to climate work. There are reports of plans to build up to 80 new coal power plants. Without China acting, attempts to keep global temperatures down will not work. How committed is China to climate change? Presenters Kate Lamble and Jordan Dunbar are joined by: Changhua Wu, executive director of the Professional Association for China’s Environment Todd Stern, former climate envoy, United States Bernice Lee, research director, Chatham House Producer: Darin Graham Reporter: Sophia Yan Researchers: Tatyana Movshevich and Matilda Welin Series Producer: Alex Lewis Editor: Emma Rippon Sound Engineer: Tom Brignell
Are we too reliant on tech that’s not invented yet?
Written into many of the promises made by countries about how they intend to achieve their UN climate pledges to reduce emissions is an assumption that technology will help them make this happen. But this technology either does not currently exist or is in its infancy. This includes schemes to take carbon out of the air via carbon capture and storage or direct air capture and to replace our dependency on fossil fuels with green hydrogen. We visit the world’s largest direct air capture plant in Iceland and speak to the person in charge of Namibia’s grand plans to become the green hydrogen production hub of the world - can both really be scaled up in order to meet our current needs? Presenters Kate Lamble and Jordan Dunbar are joined by: Zeke Hausfather, Director of Climate and Energy at the Breakthrough Institute, Victoria Gill, BBC’s Science Correspondent, Christoph Beuttler, Head of Climate Policy at Climeworks, and Jane Olwoch, Executive Director of South African Science Service Centre for Climate Change and Adaptive Land Management (SASSCAL) Producer: Dearbhail Starr Researcher: Tatyana Movshevich and Zoe Gelber Reporter: Magnús Geir Eyjólfsson Series Producer: Alex Lewis Editor: Emma Rippon Sound engineer: Tom Brignell
Can putting a price on nature help us care about it more?
Everyone who steps outside can appreciate the value that the natural world brings to our lives. To some people, the idea of placing a monetary value on trees and mangrove forests is wrong because nature and its gifts are priceless. But others say the love of nature has not stopped it from being polluted or destroyed. The natural world plays a major role in capturing the carbon from our atmosphere. A marketplace now exists where countries and big business can pay others to protect their forests, swamps and bogs in return for offsetting their emissions. Could giving nature a dollar value make us care about it more and help us fight against climate change? Presenters Kate Lamble and Jordan Dunbar are joined by: Kevin Conrad, founder, Coalition for Rainforests Tina Stege, climate envoy, Marshall Islands Pavan Sukhdev, chief executive officer, GIST Producer: Darin Graham Researcher: Natasha Fernandez Reporter: Gloria Bivigou Series Producer: Alex Lewis Editor: Emma Rippon Sound engineer: Graham Puddifoot
Are we putting too much faith into electric vehicles?
Billions of dollars are being invested in electric vehicles in the name of fighting climate change. World leaders are backing them as the green fix for our burgeoning road transport emissions. But when you factor in the carbon emissions that come from manufacturing EVs, how well do they stack up against their petrol and diesel counterparts? If all the cars on the road switched to EVs, could we meet our climate targets? This week The Climate Question looks under the bonnet of electric vehicles – and whether there is an altogether better solution. Presenters Neal Razzell and Kate Lamble are joined by: Heather Maclean, Professor of Civil and Mineral Engineering, University of Toronto Quentin Willson, Motoring journalist and EV campaigner Clarisse Cunha Linke, Brazil Director of the Institute for Transportation & Development Policy Producer: Sophie Eastaugh Researcher: Natasha Fernandes Series Producer: Alex Lewis Editor: Emma Rippon Sound engineer: Tom Brignell
Is science fiction holding back climate action?
For centuries, we’ve been reading, watching and listening to science fiction. And all too often, it’s pretty pessimistic about our future, especially when it touches on the topic of climate change. This is leading some to ask whether these doom and gloom stories are doing the climate fight more harm than good - causing us to feel so anxious and powerless that we don’t take action. So for this week's climate question, Graihagh Jackson is asking: Is sci-fi holding us back? First broadcast on 5th April 2021. Graihagh Jackson is joined by: Amy Brady, editor-in-chief of the Chicago Review of Books, where she writes a monthly column called Burning Worlds. In it she explores how fiction addresses climate change. Cheryl Slean is a playwright, filmmaker and educator working with the National Resource Defense Council’s Re-write the Future campaign to increase accurate climate stories in film and television. Ken Liu is a futurist and author of speculative fiction. He has won the Nebula, Hugo, and World Fantasy awards. His debut novel, The Grace of Kings, is the first volume in a silkpunk epic fantasy series. Producer: Jordan Dunbar Editor: Emma Rippon Sound Engineer: Andy Garratt and Tom Brignell
Does climate change have an ‘image problem’?
Images are a key part of communicating climate change, and shape how we understand the crisis unfolding around us. But while lots of research has been done into the language we use to talk about climate, images are often left out of the conversation. As a result, over time, a limited set of images have come to dominate how we think of climate change – like polar bears and melting glaciers - which haven’t kept up with the changing conversation about the crisis. All too often, these images tend to be abstract, removed from our daily lives and typically don’t feature people - when we know that climate change is happening all around us, all the time, and is very much a story with people and communities at its core. So how can we develop a new, and more effective visual language for climate change? What kind of images ‘work’ to both convey the urgency of the crisis as well as inspire behavioural change? And what are some of the ways in which photographers are seeking to represent the crisis in a way that transforms apathy into action? Guests: Cristina Mittermeier, photographer and conservationist Arati Kumar-Rao, National Geographic Explorer and photographer Toby Smith, Programme Lead at Climate Visuals Saffron O’Neill, University of Exeter Presenter: Neal Razzell Producer: Zoe Gelber Researcher: Lizzie Frisby Series Producer: Alex Lewis
Why do we find it so hard to take action on climate change?
For decades scientists have warned us about the risks of climate change. Yet humans are badly psychologically designed to face up to the challenge of changing our behaviour. Research shows that constant threats of impending doom make us hit the snooze button rather than waking us up. And our evolutionary shortcomings mean we respond to the threat of immediate danger rather than what might happen in the future. So what can actually work to help us change our status quo? Presenters Kate Lamble and Neal Razzell are joined by: George Marshall, Founder of Climate Outreach and author of Don’t Even Think About It: Why Our Brains Are Wired to Ignore Climate Change Elke Weber, Professor of Psychology at Princeton University Per Espen Stoknes, Psychologist, Economist and author of What We Think About When We Try Not To Think About Global Warming. Producer: Sophie Eastaugh Reporter: Frank Walter Researcher: Natasha Fernandes Series Producer: Alex Lewis Editor: Emma Rippon Sound Engineer: Graham Puddifoot
What role is overpopulation playing in the climate crisis?
If there were fewer of us, would the amount of greenhouse gasses we emit reduce? It’s a question that often creeps up in discussions about climate change. Studies show that the global population will decline eventually and populations in many rich nations are already declining. However, 11,000 scientists signed a paper warning of “untold suffering due to the climate crisis” unless society transforms, including the reversal of population growth. But an analysis by the United Nations found that affluence has a greater impact on the climate than population. When we talk about overpopulation, what are we really saying and where does the conversation go from here? Presenters Neal Razzell and Kate Lamble are joined by: Nyovani Madise, head of the Malawi office of the African Institute for Development Policy. Anu Ramaswami, professor of civil and environmental engineering at Princeton. Arvind Ravikumar, professor in energy transition and climate policy at the University of Texas. Producer: Darin Graham Reporter: Rajesh Joshi Series producer: Alex Lewis Editor: Emma Rippon Sound engineer: Tom Brignell
Counting the cost of fashion
The journey from catwalk, to wardrobe, to landfill is getting shorter and shorter. Our demands for fast fashion mean around 100 billion garments are produced every year. We’re buying more, then wearing them less often. Many will end up in the trash. Not only that, there’s been a big growth in clothes being made out of synthetic materials originating from crude oil. In this edition we ask can fashion cost less to the climate? Speaking to Kate Lamble and Sophie Eastaugh are- • Vanessa Friedmann New York Times Fashion Editor • Lily Cole Fashion model, actress and podcast host- ‘Who Cares Wins’ • Phillip Meister - Quantis Sustainability Consulting • Claire Bergkampf – Textile Exchange Producer: Jordan Dunbar Researcher: Natasha Fernandez Series Producer: Alex Lewis Editor: Emma Rippon
What can we learn from the fight to fix the ozone hole?
In 1985 British scientist Jonathan Shanklin and colleagues published a study that shocked the world. The study revealed a hole in the Earth’s atmosphere right over Antarctica. It had been caused over time by chemicals known as CFCs, used in things like fridges, air conditioning units and aerosol cans. These were destroying the layer of ozone in the stratosphere which protects us from most of the sun's ultraviolet radiation - without it, cases of skin cancer would soar. Less than two years after the discovery, world leaders signed an agreement called the Montreal Protocol, committing to phase out CFCs. It has been described as the most successful international treaty of all time - every UN country has signed up, and ozone is expected to return to its previous levels around the middle of the century. So what can we learn from how we tackled the ozone hole in how we address climate change? Presenters Neal Razzell and Kate Lamble are joined by: Jonathan Shanklin, Meterologist at the British Antarctic Survey, Dr Paul Newman, chief scientist for Earth Science at the Nasa Goddard Space Flight Center, Tina Birmpili, former executive secretary of the Ozone Secretariat, Dr Anita Ganesan, associate professor of Atmospheric Chemistry at the University of Bristol. Producer: Sophie Eastaugh Researcher: Natasha Fernandes