Show Notes
Despite technology enabling us to become more efficient at almost everything we do, our demand for energy, year on year, continues to rise. What on earth is going on? And what is all this energy really doing for us? Is it making our lives better? In this conversation with Mike Berners-Lee, the hugely respected climate campaigner and author of How Bad Are Bananas, There is no Planet B and A Climate of Truth, we talk about how reevaluating how we are using energy, and making a conscious effort to cut back, can become a pathway to happier and simpler lives. Mike also gives an update on the People's Emergency Briefing; please check out that vital project here: https://www.nebriefing.org
Produced by Joel Walker Music by Grand Project: 'Simple Happy Life' and 'Morning Coffee'
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On the face of it, something doesn't seem to make sense. Most of us are worried about climate change, and most of us also believe that flying is a major contributor to climate change. Yet around half of the UK population flies at least once a year, some much more than that, with demand continuing to grow. What is going on there? If there appears to be something irrational - a disconnect between what we understand and the choices we are making, why might that be? Is there something about the way our brains are wired which is making it very difficult to adjust our actions for the sake of a healthier global future? And is there anything we can do about it? As a pilot, I have seen first-hand the benefits that have been brought to aviation by the commitment to understanding how human factors have contributed to air accidents. Design of pilot training, operating procedures and the aircraft themselves have been based around new understanding of how our brains work - their strengths and their weaknesses. These designs have both made errors less likely, and greatly decreased the probability of any error leading to a tragedy, with the result that commercial aviation has become extremely safe. Can human factors knowledge be applied to climate change? Can they explain why we seem to be accelerating towards a disaster which we can see clearly in front of us? And can they help us find more effective ways to slow down and reduce the damage? Dave Powell has been immersed in both climate change and human stories for over twenty years. He is currently the host of the superb podcast series Your Brain on Climate, in which he probes psychologists and other experts on human behaviour to try to get to the bottom of how we have got ourselves into this mess, and how we might pull our way out of it. In this episode, I ask him to use all the knowledge he as accumulated from his guests and his own experience to answer the questions: 'why are we continuing to fly so much?' and 'what might it take to shift our holiday habits towards more sustainable choices?'
Anna Hughes is an influential campaigner and activist. In 2018, she founded Flight Free UK which attracted widespread attention and acclaim, and has been successful in persuading people to think about their travel choices, to try a year without flying, and, literally, find out where that gets them. In this conversation, she talks to me from the cabin of her narrowboat about the inspiration behind Flight Free, what life is like as campaigner when some people think you're out to spoil their holidays, why going flight free is so very important, but also why it can be extremely rewarding
Wow. Hearing yourself on a podcast is a big moment, or at least it was for me, especially when, in that podcast, you dive deep into the issues that have turned your life upside-down. This is a brief reflection on the conversation I had with Dave, and how it has helped me to see what needs to happen next.
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