Bad Idea #22 "Solar can’t power the world" with Bill McKibben

Episode summary In this episode of Saving the World from Bad Ideas, host Mark Lynas is joined by Professor Lonnie Thompson, an ice paleoclimatologist with The Byrd Polar and Climate Research Center at Ohio State University. In this episode, they discuss Lonnie’s legacy of over 50 years of strenuous expeditions traveling to tropical high mountain glaciers around the world, to take ice core samples that date back tens of thousands of years. Mark and Lonnie dive into the critical importance of these ice cores — some of which are the last remnants of mountain glaciers that have since melted away completely — as they hold records of greenhouse gases, temperatures, microbes and volcanic activity over Earth’s history that will continue to prove valuable to science for years to come. “Probably this year or next, those glaciers will totally disappear. And the only ice from that part of the world is here in the freezers at Ohio State University. From these ice cores, we can go back thirty, forty thousand years and see how that has varied in the natural world. The ice records anything that's in the atmosphere. And I can only imagine 20 years from now, there are things that we haven't even asked about, that will be important and only preserved in these frozen ice cores.” Watch the film Canary, a full-length documentary that dives into Lonnie Thompson’s legacy of work: https://canary.oscilloscope.net/

Episode summary In this episode of Saving the World from Bad Ideas, host Mark Lynas is joined by George Monbiot, columnist in The Guardian and environmental campaigner of worldwide renown, to discuss the return of bluefin tuna to British waters and the critical importance of protecting this wonderful marine megafauna from being exploited and killed by fishing. George isn’t just an academic expert — he tells Mark about his recent and ongoing exploits in a sea kayak, watching these incredible animals leap out of the water while chasing their prey. He and Mark then discuss how overfishing has depleted marine ecosystems around the United Kingdom and beyond and why the fishing industry escapes scrutiny while corporate lobbying and political inaction block meaningful change. “We have a very storybook view of the fishing industry, but it's actually rife with multimillionaires and billionaires running these enormous boats and huge corporations. It's very, very concentrated. It's utterly ruthless. It hides just like farming does. We have these radical double standards when it comes to fishing and farming,” says George.

Episode summary In this episode of Saving the World from Bad Ideas, host Mark Lynas is joined by Roger Hallam, climate campaigner and co-founder of Extinction Rebellion, to discuss his evolution in climate activism and the case for mass civil resistance. Roger reflects on the successes and failures of Extinction Rebellion, his various arrests and time in prison, and his subsequent international campaigns. Mark and Roger discuss Roger’s most recent and controversial “4 Billion Dead” campaign, discussing the role of science communication about climate impacts at high levels of global heating. Roger argues that our political systems are failing to respond at the scale and speed required, and advocates for civil resistance, citizens’ assemblies and even solar geoengineering as possible responses to the planet’s escalating climate crisis. “As a general rule, 99% of humans find courage through the community of collective action,” says Roger Hallam. “Then they radicalise through that experience and that can happen very quickly. As a general rule, if 3% of a population occupies a capital city for anything from 10 to 20 days, then you're rolling a dice on whether you get regime change or structural change in the regime. And we know that's what's necessary to slash carbon emissions at the present time.” Join ‘4 Billion Dead’ for monthly campaigning and organizing Zoom calls at this link → 4billiondead.org

Episode summary In this episode of Saving the World from Bad Ideas, host Mark Lynas is joined by Quico Toro, Director of Climate Repair at the Anthropocene Institute, to discuss his research on ocean-based carbon dioxide removal via phytoplankton. Quico challenges the idea that photosynthesis must only occur on land via reforestation, when 70% of our planet is ocean. He also discusses working with stakeholders in the South Pacific, like the Kingdom of Tonga, in collaborating with knowledge keepers and local ocean ecosystem experts to address concerns about carbon removal and approach the practice thoughtfully, scientifically and responsibly. “To me, the obvious answer to carbon removal is photosynthesis. The forestry people had it right in the first place: photosynthesis is great. It's had a billion and a half years to develop through research and development and evolution. Oceanographers have been thinking for many years that a logical way to approach this problem would be to increase carbon dioxide removal by increasing phytoplankton concentrations in the center of the ocean.”

Episode summary In this inaugural episode of Saving the World from Bad Ideas Season 4, host Mark Lynas is joined by scientist Joshua Elliott, director of Advanced Research for Climate Emergencies (ARC) and chief scientist at Renaissance Philanthropy, to discuss Earth's tipping points and rapidly changing climate systems — and how human intervention, via approaches like climate stabilization, is a fast becoming a moral imperative to combat the worst projections of climate breakdown. “We have been geoengineering this planet since we first developed agriculture,” says Joshua Elliott. “The tacit belief that accidental geoengineering is somehow okay, but that thoughtful, science-driven, purposeful, researched and scaled geoengineering or stabilization is somehow a horrible moral hazard. I mean, to me, that just completely defies logic.”