AmpliFIRE: Raising Voices Against Rising Temperatures

World leaders face mounting pressure to address more effectively the unequal vulnerability of women to the deepening climate crisis. At United Nations negotiations in recent years, women activists have urged broader gender equality and women's leadership in launching new climate initiatives. Recent Emory graduates Prachi Prasad and Danni Dong interviewed delegates about the role of women and diverse voices at COP27 or the 27th UN Conference of the Parties held in Egypt in November 2022. That activism has set the stage for expanding women's participation at COP28 that meets in Dubai November 30-December 12, 2023. Introduction to Gender and Climate Change,” UNFCC, gender and women at COP28, https://unfccc.int/gender This episode includes several music sound clips recorded at the Indigenous People's Pavilion at COP27(the 27th UN Conference of the Parties,) Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, November 2022. The following are some of the female-led advocacy groups participating in the UN negotiations: Women's Earth and Climate Action Network (WECAN) International, https://www.wecaninternational.org/ Women's Earth Alliance (WEA), https://womensearthalliance.org/ Women‘s Environment and Development Organization (WEDO), https://wedo.org/ Women's Environmental Action, Global GreenGrants Fund, https://www.greengrants.org/what-we-do/womens-environmental-action/

How is climate change disproportionately impacting global health, and how should these damages be compensated? Join Margaret and Clare, two public health students at Emory University, to explore these questions by interviewing delegates from developing nations at the UNFCCC's 27th Conference of the Parties. The interviews were recorded in November 2022, and this episode is being released one year later to commemorate the life of Dr. Saleemul Huq, who recently passed away and is featured prominently in the episode. Learn more about Dr. Saleemul Huq https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/03/climate/saleemul-huq-dead.html Audio from the protest at the start of the episode: AP Archive. (2021, November 16). Activists from Global South lead protest at COP27. https://youtu.be/s2he_RjWhv4 Learn more about the International Centre for Climate Change and Development https://www.icccad.net/ Learn more about LaRutadelClima https://larutadelclima.org/ Learn more about the Panafrican Climate Justice Alliance https://pacja.org/ Learn more about IBON International https://iboninternational.org/ Read the full text of the loss and damage funding agreement https://unfccc.int/documents/624440 Read the press release titled "COP27 Reaches Breakthrough Agreement on New “Loss and Damage” Fund for Vulnerable Countries" https://unfccc.int/news/cop27-reaches-breakthrough-agreement-on-new-loss-and-damage-fund-for-vulnerable-countries Learn more about the Green Climate Fund https://unfccc.int/process/bodies/funds-and-financial-entities/green-climate-fund Read the Green Climate Fund report https://www.greenclimate.fund/sites/default/files/document/status-pledges-irm_1.pdf Learn more about Next Gen. Global Frontier https://ngglobalfrontier.org/ Read a PBS News article about the conference outcomes https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/cop27-closes-with-deal-struck-for-climate-disaster-fund-but-no-new-emissions-cuts , and a CNN article https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/19/world/cop27-egypt-agreement-climate-intl/index.html

“First, do no harm.” These words are part of the oath taken by doctors, as they pledge to avoid intentionally harming another person. But as the climate change crisis grows more urgent and the contribution of healthcare systems to the problem becomes clearer, this oath raises questions. In this episode, Lauren Balotin and Meg Withers discuss the role of healthcare in climate action and sustainability. The episode features interviews with Dr. Shanda Demorest, the Associate Director of Climate Engagement and Education at Health Care Without Harm, and Dr. Adam Klein, Professor in Emory University's School of Medicine. Dr. Demorest and Dr. Klein discuss how they discovered their passions for sustainability as healthcare providers, what barriers healthcare organizations face in climate action, and how healthcare systems can strengthen climate commitments. Additional resources: Health Care Without Harm's climate programming (https://healthcareclimateaction.org, including the Physician Network (https://noharm-uscanada.org/physiciannetwork) and the Nurses Climate Challenge (https://us.nursesclimatechallenge.org) Practice Greenhealth (https://practicegreenhealth.org) Medical Students for a Sustainable Future (https://ms4sf.org) Sustainability Roadmap for Hospitals (http://www.sustainabilityroadmap.org/strategies/index.shtml#.Y0x2yC2B3UK) Emory University's 2019 emissions report (http://sustainability.emory.edu/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/2019-GHG-Executive-Summary_finaldraft-1.pdf) Credits: Music by Coma-Media on Pixabay

You may have heard recent news about a growing list of American universities that are deciding to remove their investments in fossil fuel companies. This was no self-motivated act: students across the US have been charging for divestment for over a decade. In fact, a year ago students from several schools combined efforts to launch legal complaints against their universities for their financial entanglement with the fossil fuel industry. So how did we get here, and what work is left to do within higher education beyond divestment? Join Emory alumni Halle Bradshaw (‘18C, ‘19G) and Tyler Stern (‘16C) as they learn more about student divestment campaigns, their new legal strategy, and a wrinkle in investment practices that leads them back to their alma mater. Interviews with Jade Woods, Alex Mardquat, and Peter Scott Learn more about Climate Defense Project at https://climatedefenseproject.org

In this week's student-produced episode, Leah Hartung, Jackson Pentz, and Ellie Sulser discuss the state of the green energy transition in the United States. They explore the move from coal to solar power and interview a variety of experts making an impact in the field of renewable energy.

At universities, we have the opportunity to live and learn alongside students from other communities, countries, and cultures. We have the opportunity to hear how students from different backgrounds view climate change and climate activism. In this episode, we hear from international students at Emory. They discuss how topics such as climate change impacted them before coming to Emory, what their classes taught (or did not teach) about climate change, and how their perspectives on climate activism have changed over time.

From Glasgow to Georgia: Climate Action and Sustainable Land Use by Emory Climate Talks

For our final episode of Season 3, we sit down with Kumi Naidoo, Colin Spurway, and Mae Bowen for a roundtable discussion about COP26. We recap the events from Glasgow, the importance of equitable representation at international negotiations and the role that institutions of higher education can play in addressing the climate crisis. Featured Guests: Kumi Naidoo - Kumi has served as International Executive Director of Greenpeace International (from 2009 to 2016) and Secretary General of Amnesty International (from 2018 to 2020). Kumi is currently a Richard von Weizsäcker Fellow at the Robert Bosch Academy, on the Global Leadership Council for Sanitation and Water for All, and Honorary Professor of Practice at Thunderbird School of Global Management at Arizona State University. Currently, Kumi serves as Global Ambassador to Africans Rising for Justice, Peace and Dignity. Colin Spurway - Colin is the North Africa Country Director of the BBC's international development charity - BBC Media Action. His Tunis-based team implements a portfolio of media-development and media-for-development projects across North Africa in the spheres of governance, health, and resilience. Their El Kul social media platform for young Libyans, for example, aims to contribute to social cohesion and currently has over a million followers on Facebook. Colin has an M.A. in International Relations from St. Andrews University and was a Bobby Jones Scholar at Emory 1996-97. Mae Bowen - Mae is an attorney practicing environmental law in Washington, DC. She was part of Emory's first COP delegation, attending the Paris talks in 2015, serving as a student teacher for the accompanying course Paris is an Explanation, and co-founding the Emory Climate Organization. In 2016, she traveled to the talks in Marrakech as an alumni delegate, developed a fundraising campaign for the delegation, and founded the Emory Alumni Environmental Network, which she continues to lead today. Mae holds a bachelor's degree in Environmental Science and Political Science from Emory University, and a JD from New York University School of Law. All views expressed in the episode are her own and not reflective of her employer.

Recorded from Glasgow, Scotland (and Atlanta, Georgia), Tyler Stern and Emaline Laney capture a glimpse of youth voices leading climate action from around the globe during the first week of COP26. Hear what gives them hope and the perseverance to realize their vision of a decarbonized world. UNFCCC Executive Secretary Patricia Espinosa's Speech - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dcCla9thMgM Sir David Attenborough's Speech - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6SO0xkr_uI Prime Minister Mia Mottley's Speech - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PN6THYZ4ngM "The Green New Dream" from Inherited podcast - https://www.inheritedpod.com/listen

COP26 begins next week, and on the agenda is the finalization of the Paris Rulebook, which describes how to implement the Paris Agreement. The carbon trading mechanisms in Article 6 will be one of the key points in this discussion. While Article 6 offers several opportunities, it also has several risks -- especially for Indigenous communities.  In this episode, we speak with two Indigenous activists: Ghazali Ohorella, who will be in Glasgow advocating for Indigenous rights in Article 6, and Gunarti, who is an environmental activist  with the Sedulur Sikep indigenous community in Indonesia. Ohorella and Gunarti share the importance of representation at international climate negotiations and why these decisions matter to local Indigenous communities.  Listen to Ghazali Ohorella's podcast, “The Gomaluku Podcast”: https://podcasts.apple.com/nz/podcast/the-gomaluku-podcast/id1482388286?uo=4 Follow Ghazali Ohorella's Twitter handle: @GOMaluku Follow Hindou Oumarou Ibrahim's (Ghazali's “practically royal” colleague) Twitter handle: @hindououmar Learn more about Gunarti and her work with JMPPK: ​​https://th.boell.org/en/2021/06/16/gunarti-letter-kendeng-mountains

In this episode, we'll hear from two guests; Harlan Cutshall who is involved in helping define how companies and investors engage with the net-zero arena at the leading sustainability nonprofit CERES, and Ruth Apps, who works at a Scottish SME, Gravitricity, that is at the forefront of developing the technologies we'll need to implement in order to make net-zero a reality. With COP26 only a few weeks away, we've asked both of our guests to provide their insights on the current state of the corporate net-zero landscape, and the momentum that COP26 might provide in helping further accelerate the push towards corporate net-zero alignment.

A lot has happened since the first season of AmpliFIRE. The election of Joe Biden and the pursuit of his climate agenda has reintroduced the United States as an influential driver for international negotiations. With COP26 -- the Conference of Parties, a yearly climate conference hosted by the United Nations -- on the horizon, there is no time to lose. On the first episode of AmpliFIRE: season three, we examine the stage set for COP26 and speak to professor and community activist Dr. Na'Taki Osborne Jelks about the local impacts of the negotiations. Learn more about COP26: https://ukcop26.org/ Read about the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Sixth Assessment Report (AR6): https://www.ipcc.ch/assessment-report/ar6/ Get involved with the West Atlanta Watershed Alliance: https://www.wawa-online.org/ Additional audio from NBC News, France 24, and Joe Biden's YouTube Channel

In this episode, Jordan Hasty, Jasmine Williams and Mackenzie White have a roundtable discussion about global greenhouse gas emissions accounting systems and how to ethically distribute the responsibility for reducing these emissions. Join us as we explore what current emissions accounting frameworks include, where their limitations are, and what can we do about it. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09644016.2018.1507467 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0959652617330986?via%3Dihub

Carbon capture and sequestration has been identified as a leading solution for climate change mitigation. However, the technology has encountered challenges in being implemented at scale. Ambika Natarajan will be speaking to an expert, Dr. Hari Mantripragada, to learn how carbon capture works as well as the technological, market and policy barriers that limit CCS from reaching its potential. This episode was adapted from a podcast initially written and produced by Maggie Layer, Max Rotenburg and Regina Luu, with their permission. This episode features an interview with Dr. Hari Mantripragada, a research scientist at the University of Pittsburgh whose research focuses on Energy Systems. Dr. Mantripragada received his bachelors in technology from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, his masters in Energy Systems at the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, and his Ph.D. in engineering and public policy from Carnegie Mellon, where he also completed a post-doctoral fellowship. He is a science and engineering ambassador for the National Academy of Sciences, a member of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, and a member of both the US and International Association for Energy Economics. While we will be discussing some of the key takeaways from his paper, “Boundary Dam or Petra Nova — Which is a better model for CCS energy supply?” we also want to highlight his work on the Integrated Environmental Control Model, an open-access tool for measuring the cost performance and emissions of fossil fuel power plants. “Boundary Dam or Petra Nova — Which is a better model for CCS energy supply?” which was published in the International Journal of Greenhouse Gas Control in 2019 and is linked here: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1750583618307436. Integrated Environmental Control Model: https://www.cmu.edu/epp/iecm/.

In the second installment of a two-part episode, this episode aims to bring to light how climate change is endangering our growing shellfish industries—both farmed and wild. If we want to be able to rely on shellfish to clean our waters, provide jobs, and feed our growing populations, it is imperative that we act now to enact policies supporting climate change mitigation strategies. Join Thomas Odlum and Jaya Brizendine as they continue their conversations with Dr. Jane Harrison, Dr. Ashley Smyth, and Ms. Natalie Simon to explore policy and economic implications and the future of sustainable aquaculture in America and around the world. Blue Economy NC SeaGrant Website: https://ncseagrant.ncsu.edu/blueeconomy/ Big Bend Shellfish Trail Website: http://www.floridashellfishtrail.org/ North Carolina Oyster Trail Website: https://ncoysters.org/oyster-trail/ Monterrey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch Website: https://www.seafoodwatch.org/ Shellfish Growers Climate Coalition & Against the Tides Trailer: https://www.nature.org/en-us/what-we-do/our-priorities/tackle-climate-change/climate-change-stories/shellfish-growers-climate-coalition/ Thomas Odlum's Website: https://climate4us.wordpress.com/ Jaya Brizendine's Website: https://oystersandclimate.weebly.com/ Sensing Nature NatureCast Sustainable Seafood Program with Dr. Ashley Smyth: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TNbV9V1xwCw NOAA Oyster Reef Benefits Website: https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/national/habitat-conservation/oyster-reef-habitat

In the first installment of a two-part episode, Thomas Odlum and Jaya Brizendine take a deep dive into America’s oyster mariculture and sustainable aquaculture industry. They speak with Dr. Jane Harrison, a Coastal Economics Specialist with North Carolina Sea Grant, Dr. Ashley Smyth, an Assistant Professor of Biogeochemistry at the University of Florida, and Ms. Natalie Simon, a Biologist at the University of Florida, to explore how and why the farming of oysters could be the key to healthy and long-lasting coastal ecosystems. Join us as we learn more about oyster mariculture, why it is important, how oysters are impacted by climate change, and ways you can make a difference! To learn more about our speakers’ work, please visit: Dr. Jane Harrison: https://ncseagrant.ncsu.edu Dr. Ashley Smyth: http://trec.ifas.ufl.edu Ms. Natalie Simon: http://masgc.org/publications/category/brochures-fact-sheets To access the Guardian article: https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2017/jan/23/aquaculture-bivalves-oysters-factory-farming-environment

In this episode, Gabriela Rucker, Eden Yonas, and Genia Kim speak with Dr. Talea Mayo, an Assistant Professor in the Department of Mathematics at Emory University. Dr. Mayo specializes in developing hurricane storm surge models, which can be used to investigate how climate change impacts coastal flood risk, build resilient infrastructure, and create effective response policies. During this interview, Dr. Mayo discusses her work, her personal experience with Hurricane Irma, and the environmental justice impacts of hurricanes. Learn more about Dr. Talea Mayo: https://www.taleamayo.com/

In this episode, Meg Withers and Lauren Balotin discuss the intersections between climate change, COVID-19, and public health. They speak with community activist Sharon Lavigne, the founder and president of Rise St. James about her organization’s efforts to fight health impacts caused by air pollution in Cancer Alley. They also speak with public health expert Frank Richards about the ways climate change could influence disease spread in the future. Learn more about RISE St. James: https://www.facebook.com/risestjames/ Donate to RISE ST. James’: https://www.stopformosa.org/ Learn more about Dr. Frank Richards' work at the Carter Center: https://www.cartercenter.org/

As the pandemic has disrupted nearly every aspect of our lives, we’re all more aware of how dangerous infectious diseases can be. What few people may be aware of however, is how deforestation can lead to infectious disease transfer from wildlife to humans, also called zoonotic spillover. Join us this episode as Shirley Ma speaks with Dr. Alessandra Nava, a scientist at Fiocruz Amazônia in Manaus, Brazil, about the relationships between COVID-19, deforestation, and infectious diseases. To learn more about Dr. Nava’s work, head to https://amazonia.fiocruz.br.

In 2005, Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast, becoming one of the most deadly and costly storms in U.S. history-- and one of the most salient examples of minority communities being disproportionately threatened by severe weather and climate change. In other words, environmental racism. Join Halle Bradshaw as she speaks with Troy Roberston (Regional Organizer at the Gulf Coast Center for Law and Policy) and Gayla Tillman (Community Organizer for Georgia Conservation Voters) in their exploration of the intersectional struggle for climate justice.

Welcome to the first ever episode of AmpliFIRE: Raising Voices Against Rising Temperatures! In episode one, Halle and Tara explore how electoral politics impact climate policy on local and national levels ahead of the 2020 election, interviewing activist and community organizer Gayla Tilman and Florida Representative Ben Diamond on their experiences on using political action to expand climate justice.