Podcasts about global environment

How big is too big? When it comes to corporate concentration many observers raise concerns about the tech industry. However, in the new book, Titans of Industrial Agriculture: how a few giant corporations came to dominate the farm sector and why it matters, political economist Jennifer Clapp draws attention to the overwhelming shadow a small handful of transnational corporations cast over the global agricultural sector. Professor Clapp argues that these corporations hold concentrated power over the agricultural sector that keep industrial agricultural practices entrenched in patterns of production, despite the concerns of the social, ecological and health impacts to society. She explains how we got to this point and what it might take to make changes. Jennifer's work at the intersection of the global economy, food security, and food systems, and the natural environment, looks specifically at issues of global governance. She is currently a member of the International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems, and a member of the Scientific Advisory Committee of the UN Food Systems Coordination Hub.  Interview Summary Norbert - Jennifer, let's just jump right in and I'd love for you to help our listeners understand a little bit more about your book. You write about corporate concentration in the agricultural input sector. Can you explain what this involves and what products are we really talking about?    Yes. The book is about what we call the agricultural inputs industry. And that's really four different product types typically, and maybe a fifth that we can talk about. So, one of them is farm machinery, and that's really referring to things like plows and tractors, harvesters, etc. That kind of machinery on the farm. The second industry is the fertilizer industry, which is all about, you know, the nutrients that we bring to the soil through fertilizer products like nitrogen, phosphorus, and potash. And the seed industry. That's another industry that is a key input for farmers. And then also pesticides. And when we talk about pesticides, we're referring to things like insecticides, chemicals that kill insects, but also chemicals that kill weeds and fungus. And so those are the four sort of big inputs that I talk about in the book. But also, the book covers a fifth input, an emerging input, which is data. And this is, especially as we're seeing the datafication and digitalization of farming. Increasingly data has now become a commodity that is bought and sold as an input into farming. Norbert - Great. I have to ask, what drew you to the input industry? I mean, let's be honest, that's not the thing that most people get excited about. Why should we be concerned? Yeah, that's a great question. I've actually had a very long interest in the seed in chemical industry. That goes way back to the start of my career because I did studies in agriculture for my PhD dissertation. But then I got quite interested in toxic waste and then that sort of drew me to this question of the global pesticide trade. And when I learned that, you know, oftentimes, like in the US there might be a banning of a pesticide that's no longer in use. But it was still being traded globally. And this, I found this very fascinating and how that industry worked. And that kind of drew me into understanding the connections between seeds and chemicals. And then when the digitalization of farming came along and in recent decades it became really clear that it wasn't just chemical and seed industry involved in that digitalization. It was also the fertilizer and the farm machinery sector. It made me want to understand the interconnections between these industries. I know it's like, maybe a bit specific, but they have huge consequences in terms of the way our food systems look like. And so that really drew me to understand where did these inputs come from? And why are they controlled by just a few large companies? Erika - Jennifer, I want to ask you a question about why this sector, especially related to the inputs, is so important when we're talking about food systems. And especially their social and ecological dimensions. And specifically in the book, you tease out many of the social and ecological costs of inputs such as pesticides. Also the social and ecological consequences of even farm machinery. So it would be great if you could elaborate on their importance.  Thanks, Erika. That's a great question and that's part of the reason why I was really drawn to study these inputs. Because I'm in a school of environmental studies, I'm very interested in these interconnections between food systems and environmental outcomes. I was really interested in learning more about where these industries came from, and as I was teasing out where they came from. And how they became dominated by such large companies, I also learned in much more depth about the ecological consequences of these inputs. I can just say a little bit about some of them because these consequences are so big that we almost forget to talk about them. They become embedded in the product itself. And so, one example is farm machinery. Farm machinery was originally seen as quite revolutionary and that it allowed farmers to harvest their fields much more quickly than they used to be able to before. But that also meant then that to make the equipment efficient and pay for them they might as well extend the size of their farm. And as farmers extended the size of their farm, in the US anyway, they moved west and displaced its indigenous people from the land, in terms of taking that land for farm production. But also, as farms began to consolidate and get larger, as mechanization continued, it also displaced others from the land. Poor farmers, black farmers, those who were renting land and didn't have access to their own. And so, people who were marginalized and we still considered marginalized in society today, were really being displaced from the land as a direct consequence of farm machinery. It's not that farm machinery is like necessarily something that we want to do away with today, but I think we need to recognize those historical connections. And really understand that when, you know, you see a book for a small child about farming and there might be a picture of a farmer and it's usually a white guy sitting on a tractor. We can forget that image has a lot of baggage associated with it in terms of displacement and inequality. And I think we need to recognize that. But it does not just stop there. There's also plowing disturbs the soil, heavy machinery compacts the soil so it can harm fertility of the soil as well. And the machinery part of the equation has long been a source of inequality in terms of being very expensive for farmers. It's been one of the main reasons farmers have often been driven into debt. Farm machinery might have been liberating in one sense to allow increased production, but it did come with costs that we should acknowledge. We also need to recognize the ecological and social costs associated with the fertilizer industry. And this industry goes way back to the 1840s and we saw the rise of the guano trade. And we can think immediately of the working conditions of the workers who were digging the guano in the Chincha islands of Peru. And often they were coming from Asia and facing really harsh working conditions. But then when we saw the rise of synthetic nitrogen in the early 20th Century, the cost shifted in a way towards the cost of fossil fuels. The huge amount of natural gas used in the synthesis of nitrogen. And also, the climate consequences of the nitrous oxides that come from the application of synthetic nitrogen into the soil. So again, there's like enormous ecological and social impacts from that particular input. Similarly, when we talk about seeds, the hybridization of seeds in the 1920s and 1930s also raise huge concerns about plant genetic diversity. And we know that in the last century or so we've lost around 75% of plant genetic diversity for crop genetic diversity. And this is because of the way in which we started to see the uniformity of the genetic makeup of seeds. The monocultural planting of seeds really reduced that kind of diversity. And then intellectual property protection on seeds that came with the hybridization of seeds also led to a decreased ability of farmers to save their own seed and exchange their own seed with their neighbors. So again, social ecological costs. And finally, when we talk about pesticides, we have seen enormous issues with respect to pollution runoff. This kind of bioaccumulation of these toxic chemicals that have enormous health consequences. So, all of these inputs have very large impacts in terms of their social and ecological costs. And we can even extend that to the issue of data today. There's a lot of concern about data platforms for digital farming where farmers are signing away the rights to the data that are coming from their own farms. And they don't have the kind of interoperability with other data sharing systems. And there's also a lack of clarity about who owns that data. So again, there's big issues with respect to these inputs and how they are affecting both social and ecological dynamics within the food system.  Erika - Thank you for helping us understand the social and ecological impacts of these inputs into the farming industry. Norbert - This is a really rich conversation and I want to understand a little bit more. There's a big part of your text that's about the concentration in the input sector. What does it look like today and was it always this way? That's a great question because it's almost a trick question because we tend to assume that this high level of concentration that we see today is something that's new. But what I found in my research is that the high degree of concentration actually has a long history that goes back about a century or more in some cases. And when we're looking at each of these sectors, the farm machinery, for example, is controlled. Most of the market is controlled by about just four firms. And they control around 50% of the global market. But when you look specifically at national markets in the US, for example, John Deere, you know, the largest company that makes farm machinery, it controls over 50% of the tractor market. So that's just one firm alone. It's similar dynamics when we look at fertilizer, seeds and pesticides and fertilizer, for example. Just two firms control a hundred percent of North American potash production. The four key companies control a large amount of the global fertilizer trade. In seeds, it's also very similar and in pesticides. In the seeds and pesticides that's especially interesting because since the 1980s and 1990s, the seed and pesticide companies actually merged with each other. We can't even say there's a set of seed companies and a set of chemical companies. It's actually seed and chemical companies. That's one set. And they control around 60% of the global seed market and around 70% of the global pesticide market. And that's really what prompted me to want to work on this book is that after 2015, there was a set of mergers in the seed and chemical sector that concentrated those firms even further. They used to be dominated by six firms. We used to call them the Big Six, and then they had major mergers where Bayer bought Monsanto, Dow and DuPont merged and formed Corteva. Syngenta group was bought by Chem China, and then bought by Sino Chem, a big Chinese chemical company. And then BASF bought up all the bits that the other companies were forced to sell to pass regulatory hurdles. And so, we ended up with a Big Four. And these companies produce both seeds and chemicals and have a quite an enormous impact in terms of their market dominance. Norbert - Wow. This is really important and I think it's a topic that many of us who look at the food industry aren't paying attention to. And I'm really appreciative of you laying out this concentration that's taking place. Jennifer, when reading the book, I was really struck by the fact that this is not just a book about the farmers themselves and the farming industry and the companies that provide the inputs. But you also touch upon the role of universities and university science and scientists; and also the role of government in helping to fuel or seed innovation in this sector. And, you know, here I was hoping you could talk about this important role for universities and also the government given that we're in a current moment where we're seeing a retrenchment from investments by government, and also the ability of universities to continue to seed innovation. So I was hoping you could share some of your insights.  Yes, it's certainly an interesting time on the landscape of spending on innovation and with a retrenchment of state pulling back away from supporting technological innovation and other innovations. And that's certainly true in the farm sector, and that's very different from the situation if we go back to the 1800s and see, as you mentioned, the role that the state played in terms of really trying to support innovation in these sectors. And what I argue in the book is that these firms, they got big in the first place, and they were able to consolidate in the first place, through a series of what I call market technology and policy factors. And it's kind of messy. I put them in these three big categories. But in terms of these market factors, that's what most people tend to think about when they think, 'oh, a firm got big. Maybe it's just more efficient. It's able to produce products more cheaply and therefore it just grew to be big.' And that's much more complicated than that of course. And that's because, as you said this role of technological change in which universities have played a really important role. And government support and throughout history in the US, a lot of the book focuses on the US because we have good information and data there. And the US set up the land grant college system really to support development in the agricultural sector. And that gave us, you know, a lot of the innovations that led to, for example, the hybridization of seeds. And the corporations that took up that innovation that the state supported through university research, those firms also work directly with universities in many instances, to have these kinds of collaborative relationships, to develop, herbicides, to develop seeds, to develop further farm machinery, etc. So that role of technological innovation is really important, and that innovation doesn't just come from nowhere. It doesn't just pop up. It doesn't just show up one day. Right? It comes from investment. Investment in universities and research and development. And so that has been a really important strand to develop this kind of industrial agriculture. And now we know from university research, etc., that there are some problems associated with it. Yet it's proving hard to get that kind of funding to spur a new transformation towards a more sustainable agriculture because we're not giving that kind of state support, and support to universities to do that research and innovative work to lead us towards more sustainable agriculture. So, I think there's a lot there that we need to work on. And that's some of the recommendations that I make at the end of the book. Is that we need to shore up that kind of public investment in innovation, in alternative systems to address some of the problems. So just let me tag on another question from that. Just what are the consequences then for having just a small number of firms dominating this sector and no longer having these investments in innovation? Yeah, so what we're seeing increasingly as the state has pulled away from supporting agricultural research, is that most of that agricultural research now is being done by private corporations. And the big concern there is that as you have a smaller and smaller number of very large firms dominating in the sector, their incentive to innovate actually weakens. It weakens because if there's not a lot of players in the marketplace that are doing innovative work, there's just not a lot of competition. And so why would you innovate if you don't have to? If you're already a monopoly and you're able to sell your product, there's not a lot of incentive to innovate in a way that might then decrease the sales of your old products. And so, what we're seeing is a shift in innovation from the private sector, away from these kinds of transformative innovations and much more towards what we call defensive innovations. They're innovating in ways that actually enable them to sell existing products. And many would say that the rise of agricultural biotechnology was actually that kind of a defensive innovation. It was modifying seeds to make them resistant to the application of existing herbicides. And so there was innovation, but it was actually spurring further sales in an existing product. And part of the reason for that was that it became very expensive for these companies. The regulatory hurdles became quite expensive for them to develop new herbicides. And so, they were like, 'oh, it's cheaper and faster to work with seeds. Why don't we do it this way and then we'll continue to sell the herbicides.' Which by the way, got them a lot more profit than selling the seeds. So that's why they bought up a lot of the seed companies and really consolidated in that period. And there's a longstanding concern among competition regulators, the regulators that try to prevent a huge concentration in the economy, about this question of innovation. And it's very relevant in the agricultural sector. There's this sense that if you allow too much concentration to happen, it can dampen that innovation and that takes away that dynamic, innovative spirit within the sector. It's definitely a big concern. Norbert - Jennifer, I really appreciate this. Earlier in my career I was a part of some research related to biotechnology and innovation that happens there. And one of the things that I learned about is this idea of building thickets. These sort of patent thickets where you create a series of patents that actually make it difficult for others to be able to innovate in that same way. There are these real challenges of this kind of defensive innovation. And that's just one of the challenges that you bring up in the book. And I am interested in understanding, as sort a last question, what are some of the recommendations? You mentioned public sector funding of agricultural research and many of my colleagues in my discipline have said we need more research for agriculture. Are there other areas of recommendation to address some of the concerns you raised in the book? Thanks, Norbert. Yes, definitely. And I definitely do call for greater public support for agricultural research. And that's something within the agricultural sector. And I think there we really need to focus efforts on alternative agricultural production methods. For example, agroecology, which tries to reduce the amount of external inputs, not to increase them, by using nature's own processes to achieve the same functions of diversity and pest control, etc. And what's troubling is that when the firms don't have that incentive to innovate, you know, they're definitely not going to innovate in ways that would reduce their profits. They're not going to do that. The public sector has to step in if we want to see that kind of research done. But we also need measures outside of that food and agriculture system that will benefit food and agriculture. One area is stronger antitrust policies. Policies that would prevent further mergers and acquisitions that would allow those firms to continue to get bigger and bigger. Those antitrust policies are used largely, we've got merger guidelines, for example, in North America. And in Europe, when two firms want to merge, they have to get regulatory approval to do so. And those merger guidelines really walk the regulators through what would be a merger that might dampen competition, that might weaken innovation, you know, that kind of thing. It's important that we make those rules stronger. They had become progressively weaker after the 1980s. There was this move in the regulatory space that was this kind of idea that maybe it's okay if firms get really, really big because they can benefit from economies of scale. Maybe they can bring down consumer prices and maybe we shouldn't worry so much about these other areas of control. And there's been a bit of a shift in view around this in recent years where we've seen the rise of concern about these very big companies, especially with what we see with the big tech companies taking control over all these aspects of our lives. And people are saying, wait a minute, maybe we don't want to have this just a few companies controlling so much of our lives. And so, you know, we need to think about other ways to enforce antitrust policies to make them stronger so that we foster more competition and not just focus on whether something's more expensive or not. And that's, I mean, it's a bit of a hard thing to explain to some people. Obviously, people want to see lower prices. But the idea that we have to get across is that when competition dies, when it's not there, that's when the monopoly can really raise prices. And so, we need to have that competitive marketplace in order to spur innovation and also to bring prices down. That's really important and that's a kind of agenda item that's involves food and agriculture, but it's outside of the food and agriculture sector. It encompasses more. And another area where I think we can do more is to reign in the kind of undue corporate influence on the policy process. And that's arising out of a concern that as we're seeing fewer and fewer dominant companies in the food sector, and in other sectors as well, they tend to gain more political power to influence the policy and governance process. And so, what we're seeing is heightened lobby activity. Sponsoring of scientific studies and yes, coming back to the question about universities. But as corporations get bigger, they can shape science in ways that can help them win regulatory approval for their products. We need broader policies on conflict of interest to prevent large companies from taking over the policy process. And I know that's a really salient topic in the US right now, given what's going on in the broader politics. And I think it is a broader politics issue that needs to be seriously addressed if we want to support a more transformative form of food and agriculture. These kinds of policies like stronger antitrust, better conflict of interest policies, and also support for public agricultural research are all really important steps. I don't think any one of them on their own is going to do the trick in terms of spurring this desperately needed transformation in our food systems. But together, I think, they can bring us closer to that goal. Bio Jennifer Clapp is a Tier I Canada Research Chair in Global Food Security and Sustainability and Professor in the School of Environment, Resources and Sustainability at the University of Waterloo, Canada. Dr. Clapp is currently a member of the International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems (IPES-Food) and a member of the Scientific Advisory Committee of the UN Food Systems Coordination Hub. From 2019-2023, she was a member of the Steering Committee of the High Level Panel of Experts on Food Security and Nutrition (HLPE-FSN) of the UN Committee on World Food Security, and served as Vice-Chair of that body from 2021-2023. Dr. Clapp has published widely on the global governance of problems that arise at the intersection of the global economy, food security and food systems, and the natural environment. Her most recent research projects have examined the political economy of financial actors in the global food system, the politics of trade and food security, and corporate concentration in the global food system. She has also written on policy and governance responses to the global food crisis, the political economy of food assistance, and global environmental policy and governance. Her most recent books include Food, 3rd Edition (Polity, 2020), Speculative Harvests: Financialization, Food, and Agriculture (with S. Ryan Isakson, Fernwood Press, 2018), Hunger in the Balance: The New Politics of International Food Aid (Cornell University Press, 2012), Paths to a Green World: The Political Economy of the Global Environment, 2nd Edition (with Peter Dauvergne, MIT Press, 2011), and Corporate Power in Global Agrifood Governance (co-edited with Doris Fuchs, MIT Press, 2009). Her forthcoming book, published with MIT Press (2025), is titled Titans of Industrial Agriculture: How a Few Giant Corporations Came to Dominate the Farm Sector and Why It Matters.

Data is one of the most critical, and underused, tools for combating climate change – the more information we have about our impact, the better decisions we can make towards managing it. Lauren Dunford, co-founder of revolutionary startup Guidewheel, is on a mission to place that tool in the hands of manufacturers, offering a unique, data-driven system for monitoring factory operations, reducing energy costs, and improving efficiency.CEO Lauren launched the startup in 2018 with co-founder and current CTO Weston McBride, leading Guidewheel's development of its core product, the FactoryOps platform, a system they describe as “Fitbit for Factories.” With funding from major ESG players like Breakthrough Energy Ventures and the Decarbonization Partners fund, and brand name customers like Coca-Cola FEMSA and Igloo, Guidewheel's cutting-edge approach to sustainable manufacturing operations is turning heads across the industry. Lauren received a degree in Sustainability in Global Environment and Health at Stanford, where she also co-founded the Stanford Green Fund and ran the Students for a Sustainable Stanford program. After completing a Fulbright scholarship studying supply chain in India, Lauren worked her way up to chief of staff at the B-Corp Revolution Foods, where she saw firsthand just how impactful data could be for operational efficiency and sustainability, developing the idea for what would soon become Guidewheel.Hear Lauren discuss her passion for studying environmental impact, why better data can help industries cut costs and bolster sustainability, and how the practical approach of picking low-hanging fruit could make a significant impact in the long run. Episode Highlights:00:00 Lauren Dunford on adding sustainability into existing workflows00:52 Conor Gaughan introduces Lauren and Guidewheel04:28 Bay Area background, impact driven entrepreneurship, and Stanford 13:12 Fulbright Scholarship, Revolution Foods, and supply chain logistics 18:06 The lightbulb moment, business school, and launching Guidewheel26:00 The potential market, manufacturing inefficiencies, and hidden economies34:46 Adoption from big brands, pitching to investors, and implementing AI44:27 Aligning profit and purpose, the future of data, and defeating defeatism50:49 Exciting climate innovations and leaving a legacy53:30 Where to learn more and end creditsIf you liked this episode, listen next to Anne Coghlan of Scope3 on the Philosophy of Math, Decarbonized Media, and the Future of Digital AdsMore on Lauren Dunford and Guidewheel:guidewheel.com linkedin.com/in/lauren-dunford-6887ab7 linkedin.com/company/guidewheel Connect with Conor Gaughan on linkedin.com/in/ckgone and threads.net/@ckgone Have questions, or a great idea for a potential guest? Email us at CiC@consensus-digital.comIf you enjoyed this episode, please rate and review the show on Apple Podcasts and Spotify – it really makes a difference! Consensus in Conversation is a podcast by Consensus Digital Media produced in association with Reasonable Volume.

Climate change can have direct consequences on people's health, and better understanding of that link could drive future environmental policies. Dr. Mary Rice, new director of Harvard's Center for Climate, Health and the Global Environment, joins us to discuss.

Team Common announced a few weeks back that the show will transition to a once-a-week podcast this summer as part of some larger changes happening at WBUR. We are hard at work on this transition now. So, for the next few weeks we will be featuring some episodes from The Common's archive, while we focus on bringing the newest iteration of the show into the world and your podcast feeds very soon. With allergy season's vengful return, we take a look back at our discussion with Dr. Gaurab Basu, a primary care physician and director of education and policy at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health's Center for Climate, Health, and the Global Environment. We talked with Dr. Basu about the connection between climate change and allergies, and what you can do to mitigate your symptoms as the season continues. Greater Boston's daily podcast where news and culture meet.

In today's rapidly changing global landscape, businesses are increasingly exposed to political risks that can impact their existing or planned investments. These risks are further amplified by state-led economic policies, unpredictable conflicts, and the 2024 election year, which will see over 60 countries going to the polls. To successfully navigate these challenges, it is crucial for business leaders to have a robust strategy in place. In this episode of Risk in Context, Marsh's Robert Perry, Chris Coppock, and James Lloyd discuss the main political risks faced by businesses worldwide and how businesses can effectively navigate this adverse environment, mitigate risk, and make the most of opportunities by leveraging a robust political risk and trade insurance program. You can access a transcript of the episode here. Download the Political Risk Report 2024. For more insights and insurance and risk management solutions, follow Marsh on LinkedIn and X and visit marsh.com

As the President and CEO of the International WELL Building Institute (IWBI), Rachel is leading a movement to advance human health through healthier buildings, more vibrant communities and stronger, more equitable organizations. Her motto is “Always be winning for good,” and she's put that to work at IWBI, developing research-backed tools to help organizations create places where people can thrive. Today, these people-first places extend across 5 billion square feet of space in 130 countries and growing. Prior to joining IWBI, Rachel spent nearly a decade at the intersection of sustainability and human health, helping the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) make LEED the world's most widely used green building rating system. At USGBC, she founded the Center for Green Schools, which mobilized $275B+ investments in LEED-certified educational facilities and deployed over 750,000 volunteers to transform schools on every continent. Rachel serves on numerous boards and advisories for organizations including Second Nature and the Real Estate Pride Council. A graduate of Tufts University, she is a sought-after media voice, inspirational speaker and frequent guest lecturer and instructor at the Harvard School of Public Health's Center for Health and the Global Environment, Harvard University Kennedy School of Government, the University of Connecticut School of Business and Tufts.    Works With WELL Standard   https://healthybuilding.net        

Dave Pitts was the CIA's last man on the ground in Afghanistan as U.S. troops pulled out of the country in 2021. Even though he began his career as a humble private in the U.S. military, he quickly moved into special operations and eventually, to the CIA where he retired last October as the Assistant Director of CIA for South and Central Asia.  In his first podcast interview, Dave talks with State Secrets Podcast host Suzanne Kelly about how much the world has changed since his early days of fighting terrorism in the military and why it's more important than ever for the U.S. to be leading in today's world.

"This is politics on steroids. They want to prevent Trump physically, by putting him in jail, from becoming the President of the United States," says Roger Severino, the Vice President of Domestic Policy at the Heritage Foundation who previously served in the Trump administration. He joined AMAC CEO Rebecca Weber to discuss the frivolousness of the persecutions against President Trump through what he describes as a political powerplay. He also touched on the worsening border crisis enabled by Joe Biden that is being spotlighted in liberal-run cities, as well as how a hypothetical second Trump administration could be different from the first, and the new and unique challenges that would face the nation. This episode of the Better For America podcast features insight and perspective from someone who has unique perspective about the future of our country, so be sure to tune in!

Climate change has sparked a sharp rise in fires, floods and other natural calamities. Now, the Biden administration has directed the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to speed up victims' ability to get immediate monetary support through benefits including “displacement assistance.” In Massachusetts, Gov. Maura Healey has released the first round of funding for cities impacted by flooding last year. Plus, new research reveals plastic water bottles have up to 100 times more tiny plastic particles than previously estimated — a threat to the environment and health. And bitter cold unplugged electric vehicles across the country as batteries lost their charge. It's Under the Radar's Environmental News Roundtable. GUESTS Dr. Gaurab Basu, director of education and policy at the Center for Climate, Health, and the Global Environment at Harvard's T.H. Chan School of Public Health Beth Daley, executive editor and general manager of The Conversation U.S. Cabell Eames, policy consultant for Vote Solar

In this episode, Michael speaks with Billie Turner II, Regents Professor at the School of Sustainability at Arizona State University. Billie holds other positions as well, including Distinguished Global Futures Scientist at the Julie Ann Wrigley Global Futures Laboratory, also at Arizona State, member of the US National Academy of Sciences, and Associate Editor of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Billie is a geographer and human-environmental scientist who studies land use and land cover change from prehistory to the present, and he has also contributed to our understanding of the determinants of social vulnerability and resilience. He works on deforestation, primarily in Mexico and Central America, and urban design in arid environments, especially the American Southwest. Michael and Billie talk about two topics that Billie has written on, one being the reasons for the decline of a lowland Maya population around the years 800 to 1000, and the other being a long-standing debate between Thomas Malthus, who predicted that exponential population growth would inevitably outstrip linear growth in resources, and Esther Boserup, who argued that population-induced scarcity would motivate the necessary innovations to avoid systematic decline. The interview concludes with a discussion of the book that Billie recently wrote, entitled: The Anthropocene, 101 Questions and Answers for Understanding the Human Impact on the Global Environment. References: Turner, B. L., and Jeremy A. Sabloff. 2012. “Classic Period Collapse of the Central Maya Lowlands: Insights about Human–environment Relationships for Sustainability.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 109 (35): 13908–14. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1210106109. Turner, B. L., and A. M. Ali. 1996. “Induced Intensification: Agricultural Change in Bangladesh with Implications for Malthus and Boserup.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 93 (25): 14984–91. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.93.25.14984. Turner, B. L. 2022. The Anthropocene: 101 Questions and Answers for Understanding the Human Impact on the Global Environment. Agenda Publishing.

The Conference of the Parties (COP) has annually gathered representatives from around the world to address climate change, but the inner workings of this meeting have rarely been explored. On this episode, Dr. Naveeda Khan discussed her new book, In Quest of a Shared Planet.

As unusual weather patterns, heat waves, floods, and other catastrophic events in unlikely places seem to be on the rise, climate change continues to be a hot topic.  In this episode of Public Health Out Loud, Dr. Philip Chan is joined by climate scientists Dr. Gaurab Basu, Director of Education and Policy at the Harvard School of Public Health's Center for Climate, Health, and the Global Environment and Rachel Calabro, Climate Policy Specialist with the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management for a frank discussion on some of the alarming changes we are seeing around the world. Is climate change responsible for some of the unusual weather we've been seeing? How does it directly impact public health, and are there positive steps we can take to reduce those impacts here in the Ocean State? Download this episode for the answers to these questions and many more.  

With the recent proliferation of sometimes conflicting standards around sustainability and impact reporting, companies across the globe are seeking trusted partners to help them determine and measure sustainability metrics that are truly material to the business and its stakeholders and also generate real value. To this end, Workiva – a global software-as-a-service company – has developed a suite of products to help companies make real progress on their sustainability journeys.  In this episode, Chad Reed sits down with Mandi McReynolds, VP of Global Environment, Social and Governance at Workiva and the host of the ESG Talk podcast. Chad and Mandi discuss the at times differing perceptions of company executives and sustainability practitioners, the emerging role of AI in sustainability reporting and the evolving nomenclature surrounding efforts to generate and report sustainable impact.Links:Workiva ESGWorkiva 2023 Global ESG Practitioner SurveyRegister's Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa (RAGBRAI)Episode recorded October 4, 2023Email your feedback to Chad, Gil, and Hilary at climatepositive@hasi.com or tweet them to @ClimatePosiPod.

Climate change turned up the heat this summer — the sweltering temperatures in August and September were the hottest since global records began in 1880. Meanwhile, two significant efforts to fight climate change are taking root. In a first of its kind agreement, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut are working together to build more offshore wind farms. Plus, an $11 million grant will help Boston expand its tree canopy especially in areas where trees are scarce. That and more on our Environmental News Roundtable. GUESTS Dr. Gaurab Basu, director of education and policy at the Center for Climate, Health, and the Global Environment at Harvard's T.H. Chan School of Public Health Beth Daley, executive editor and general manager of The Conversation, U.S. Sam Payne, digital development manager and communications specialist for Better Future Project, a Massachusetts-based grassroots climate action organization

Today's podcast guest is Alexi Khajavi, President of Hospitality & Travel for Questex, LLC, a global business intelligence company that informs and connects buyers and sellers across hospitality, travel, healthcare, wellness, and technology. We discuss: -How everybody is accountable to someone -His adventurous nature, study of anthropology, and passion for travel -That leadership is about how you live your life and how you make decisions -The people you surround yourself with, regardless of their title, is critically important for your success -His belief in the importance of conversing directly, openly, and often with customers. "Pick up the phone, hop on a plane". -The trend of companies using external events for internal culture building More about Alexi: He is responsible for the overall management and development of the company's global hospitality and travel communications properties and events including notable flagship assets like the International Hotel Investment Forum (IHIF) Summit Series, The Bar & Restaurant Expo, Ultra Travel Summit, Luxury Travel Advisor, Hospitality Insights, HOTEC and the Destination Develop investment promotion arm. Khajavi, who brings more than 20 years of travel, technology, hospitality, media and aviation experience to his position, joined Questex in 2014 as head of Hospitality and Hotel Investment. Prior to joining Questex, Khajavi was senior vice president, global strategy, for MercuryCSC, a creative agency specializing in the travel industry where he helped design global marketing campaigns for hotel companies, tourism boards and active lifestyle brands. Prior to MercuryCSC, he was one of the founding team members of the travel consortium Nature Group based in Costa Rica and helped lead the airline and hospitality portfolio to be awarded the fastest growing travel company in Central America between 2003 and 2010 and the world's first carbon neutral airline in 2005. Khajavi has been a board member and advisor to a number of non-profits and tech companies including the Center for Responsible Travel at Stanford University, The Center for Health and the Global Environment at the Harvard School of Public Health, Sustainable Travel International and KERBspace an early stage startup in the revolutionizing the electric vehicle charging stations for the built environment. Khajavi holds a B.A from the University of California Santa Cruz, graduating Magna Cum Laude, with distinction and honors.

In this episode of Flanigan's Eco-Logic, Ted speaks with Gina McCarthy, the first-ever White House National Climate Advisor under President Biden and former U.S. EPA  Administrator under President Obama. Gina McCarthy is one of the nation's most respected voices on climate change, the environment, and public health. As head of the Climate Policy Office under President Biden, McCarthy's leadership led to the most aggressive action on climate in U.S. history, creating new jobs and unprecedented clean energy innovation and investments across the country. Her commitment to bold action across the Biden administration, supported by the climate and clean energy provisions in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the Inflation Reduction Act, restored U.S. climate leadership on a global stage and put a new U.S. national target to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 50-52 percent below 2005 levels by 2030 within reach.Throughout her years of public service in both Republican and Democratic administrations, McCarthy is credited for her common-sense strategies and ability to work across the aisle, with states, communities, business leaders, and the labor community, to tackle our nation's toughest environmental challenges in ways that spur economic growth, and improve public health for workers and families, especially those living in environmental justice communities.Prior to her appointment as White House National Climate Advisor, McCarthy was president and CEO of the Natural Resources Defense Council. She served as professor of the practice of public health in the department of environmental health at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, where she served as the director of the Center for Climate, Health, and the Global Environment. McCarthy was also a fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, where she engaged students, faculty, professionals, and climate leaders on actions to promote sustainability and justice. She also served as Commissioner of the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection and an advisor to five Massachusetts governors.Gina and Ted discuss her background, growing up in Boston, and spending her formative years playing outside in natural resource areas within the boundaries of the City. She shares that nature was in her blood and that being outside was all she cared about, so it was inevitable that the challenges that we are seeing with climate change is something that attracted her attention. She landed in the climate arena as a career when she was working as the Board of Health Agent in the town of Canton, intrigued with the intersection between environment and health, and the challenges that can be tackled to make people's lives better by remaining positive and  showing them the future that can be delivered. 

Welcome to Glynwood! We spent the day at Glynwood Center for regional food and farming. Glynwood is a non-profit organization serving food and farming change makers from New York's Hudson Valley and beyond. They advance local food production in Hudson Valley region, as well as educate a national audience about efforts to regionalize food and agriculture. They are inspired by, and contribute to work far beyond the borders of the Hudson Valley. Guided by the highest standards of ecosystem, soil, animal and community well-being, They promote regenerative agriculture in service of our natural environment, local economies and human health. Our Guest: The President of Glynwood, Kathleen Finlay, has been a leader in the regenerative agriculture movement for most of her career. She has also been instrumental in organizing women who work for environmental progress.Since arriving at Glynwood in 2012, she has refined the organization's mission and become a national figure in the world of progressive agricultural nonprofits. Under her leadership, Glynwood has become a premier learning hub for food and farming professionals. Previously, Kathleen was a Director of Harvard's Center for Health and the Global Environment, where she developed and shaped programs to educate communities about the correlation between human health and the global environment. She produced two award-winning documentaries (Once Upon a Tide and Healthy Humans, Healthy Oceans). Kathleen also founded Pleiades a membership organization working to advance women's leadership in the sustainability movement. Special Advisor for Planet Women, an international conservation NGO resourcing women-led efforts to save the planet

For the first time, the USDA has approved lab-grown chicken meat. This could make a significant impact if it leads to shifts in the American diet, as the average consumer is expected to eat 100 pounds of chicken in 2023, about twice the expected amount of beef and pork. Dr. Gaurab Basu, director at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, told Under the Radar that lab-cultivated meat's big promise is that it's better for the environment. He said reigning in agricultural emissions, which currently make up 24% of all global emissions, is key to fighting climate change. "Whether it's this one with chicken or, the Impossible beef-based [burger] ... we are going to need to just fundamentally transform the way we eat, not only for our personal health, but also because we are changing the Earth's composition by the way we're using the land," he said. As a former vegetarian, Sam Payne, a communications specialist for Better Future Project, is excited about the prospect of lab-grown meat. "We need to get meat eaters to switch over to cultured meat. Vegetarians are already having a significantly lower carbon footprint," Payne said. "So, I think if they can replicate the way that a steak breaks apart in your mouth, I think that this is a multibillion dollar idea, and I'm excited to see where it goes." But Payne said we're a long way off from lab-grown meat overtaking sales of real meat. Two companies, Upside Foods and Good Meat, are the first to get the go-ahead from the federal government. Still, it may not be available in grocery stores for some time. Upside has reported it be able to produce about 50,000 pounds of meat per year — enough to fully replace chicken in the diets of only 5,000 average Americans. Also, the ocean surrounding swaths of Europe is hotter than it's been since the mid-1800s. The warmer temperatures increase the moisture in the air, and fuel bigger and stronger hurricanes. "Of the global warming that we can attribute to human beings, our oceans hold about 90% of that warming, so our oceans have been protecting us dramatically from greater impacts of climate change," said Dr. Basu. And in Montana, 16 young people filed a lawsuit claiming the state violated their right to a clean and healthful environment. The final ruling in this first-of-its-kind climate lawsuit is expected within weeks. "I sometimes get pessimistic when I see so much effort by young people and not a lot of movement on the legal end. I will say this Montana case made me feel hopeful," said Beth Daley, editor of The Conversation, U.S. "I'm very curious to see how the judge rules. And I think it will also embolden — if they are successful — embolden many other lawsuits just like this across the country. So, hopefully it's a win for the climate." Those stories and more on our Environmental News Roundtable. GUESTS Dr. Gaurab Basu, director of education and policy at the Center for Climate, Health, and the Global Environment at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health Beth Daley, editor and general manager of The Conversation, U.S. Sam Payne, digital development manager and communications specialist of Better Future Project, a Massachusetts-based grassroots climate action organization

The European Union is exporting more than 10,000 tons of bee-killing neonicotinoid pesticides a year to megadiverse countries despite having banned these chemicals from its own farms to protect pollinators, according to research by Public Eye & Unearthed. Lynn Fries interviews Laurent Gaberell on GPEnewsdocs.

How many times have you sneezed today? It's allergy season, and, like with so many things that suck, climate change is making it worse. Dr. Gaurab Basu, Health Equity Fellow at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health's Center for Climate, Health, and the Global Environment, joins The Common to explain the connection between climate change and allergies, and what you can do to mitigate your symptoms as the season continues. Greater Boston's daily podcast where news and culture meet.

A new report finds Massachusetts storms have grown in frequency and severity since the early 1900s. The number of intense, two-day storms has increased by 74% — and that means many homes are becoming more vulnerable to flooding. "The first thing that comes to my mind is the health implication of this," said Dr. Gaurab Basu, co-director of the Center for Health Equity Education and Advocacy at Cambridge Health Alliance. "Concern about water damage in homes that could cause mold, which of course will cause people to have serious allergies. We want our homes to be safe and protected, and so the idea that climate could impact the health of our children within our home is concerning." And across New England, where many of the country's oldest buildings are located, some cities have begun preparing for the worst of climate change — by picking up historic buildings and moving them. "Look, we're going to make choices. Maybe it's not so important to save a [particular] historic house -- but maybe to save another one," said Beth Daley, editor and general manager of The Conversation, U.S. "I think the emphasis should really be on changing FEMA and flood insurance laws... These kind of incentives need to be geared toward retreat or relocation." But a United Nations panel says we can still keep the worst effects of climate change at bay, if industrialized countries can cooperate in cutting global greenhouse gasses in half by 2030. Cabell Eames, political director of Better Future Project, told Under the Radar that Massachusetts is making significant progress against climate change: "We have the first Climate Chief in Massachusetts and I know she is working diligently with the state of Massachusetts... There's just so much good will out there and there's so much opportunity to build relationship with one another and build community, and I think that when we do that everything else will just fall into place." A panel of experts discuss these stories and more for our Environmental News Roundtable. GUESTS Dr. Gaurab Basu, physician, co-director of the Center for Health Equity Education and Advocacy at Cambridge Health Alliance, and Health Equity Fellow at the Center for Climate, Health, and the Global Environment the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health Beth Daley, editor and general manager of The Conversation, U.S. Cabell Eames, political director of Better Future Project, a Massachusetts-based grassroots climate action organization

When it comes to climate change, anxiety is a common feeling among many of today's youth. From fires to air quality, to hurricanes and floods, exposure to diseases, and more, the rising concentration of greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere profoundly impacts children's health today. So, what can we do to support our kids? We talk with Aaron Bernstein, MD, MPH, Interim Director of The Center for Climate, Health, and the Global Environment at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, a pediatrician at Boston Children's Hospital, and an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Bernstein shares with us what makes children uniquely vulnerable to climate change, identifies action steps communities should take to better the environment for our children, and, most importantly, how the solution to despair – is action.

We know that the climate crisis can cause intense anxiety for parents as we imagine what the future will be like for our kids. Despite the less than positive news surrounding climate change, there's lots of progress being made and many reasons to remain a climate optimist. We're talking with Marcy Franck, senior communications strategist and creator of The Climate Optimist newsletter at The Center for Climate, Health, and the Global Environment at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health to highlight some climate wins this Earth Month.Sign up for The Climate Optimist Newsletter to get your monthly dose of good news about climate action.Learn more about climate activism below:climatecreatorstowatch.comrewiringamerica.org Two word tunesTwo Word Tunes! the children's podcast where I your host mr marshall will...Listen on: Apple Podcasts Spotify

In this episode, Chris is joined from Durham, North Carolina by Katie Kross, the Managing Director of the Center for Energy, Development and Global Environment at Duke University including the ClimateCAP Initiative, a partnership of 20+ business schools advancing education about the business risks of climate change. Katie has spent more than 15 years in university and nonprofit administration and is the author of Profession and Purpose: A Resource Guide for MBA Careers in Sustainability. We've asked Katie here to reflect on the most recent ClimateCAP Summit, an annual event that brings MBA students and industry leaders together to learn about the business implications of climate change. In the Episode Katie and Chris discuss:

This special episode of Career Diaries by Elemed is for International Women's Day 2023 and is about Leading Inclusively in a Global Environment.Featuring Meg Mucha of Philips, Andreas Stange of TÜV SÜD, Kristine Tucker of Bausch & Lomb, and Matthew Schabacker of BD.Listen to their insightful perspectives!Career inspiration, medtech opportunities, hiring solutions and market insights, all in one place. Find them here.

This week on Under the Radar with Callie Crossley: Governor Maura Healey wants Massachusetts to “lead the world” in its fight against climate change, and she has staked her claim by naming the first-in-the-nation cabinet-level climate chief to her Cabinet. But some advocates want more direct action. And, a new study documents a dramatic 50 year rise of warmer climates during our region's winters. With less snow and fewer frozen ponds — is New England's very identity melting away? Plus, there's exciting buzz for a new vaccine for honeybees. Will it offer new protection for the indispensable pollinator? That and more on our Environmental News Roundtable. GUESTS Beth Daley, editor and general manager of The Conversation, U.S. Dr. Aaron Bernstein, interim director of the Center for Climate, Health, and the Global Environment at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, a pediatrician at Boston Children's Hospital and an assistant professor of pediatrics at Harvard Medical School Cabell Eames, political director of Better Future Project, a Massachusetts-based grassroots climate action organization

The Smart 7 Ireland Edition is the daily news podcast that gives you everything you need to know in 7 minutes, at 7am, 7 days a week… Consistently appearing in Ireland's Daily News charts, we're a trusted source for people every day. If you're enjoying it, please follow, share or even post a review, it all helps… Today's episode includes the following guests:Dr Aaron Bernstein - Director of The Center for Climate, Health, and the Global Environment at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public HealthAshita Kapoor - Associate director of Product Safety at Consumer ReportsProfessor Kevin Sivula - Chemical engineer at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology LausanneAnna Luisa Daigneault - Linguistic Anthropologist and Programme Director at the Living Tongues Institute for Endangered LanguagesCorius Visser - Managing Director of the Vergenoegd Löw Wine EstateStefan Rahmstorf - Professor of Physics of the Oceans at Potsdam UniversityDr Helen Wall - GPContact us over at Twitter or visit www.thesmart7.com Presented by Ciara Revins, written by Oliva Davies and Liam Thompson and produced by Daft Doris. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Smart 7 is a daily podcast that gives you everything you need to know in 7 minutes, at 7 am, 7 days a week... With over 11 million downloads and consistently charting, including as No. 1 News Podcast on Spotify, we're a trusted source for people every day. If you're enjoying it, please follow, share, or even post a review, it all helps...Today's episode includes the following guests: Dr Aaron Bernstein - Director of The Center for Climate, Health, and the Global Environment at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public HealthAshita Kapoor - Associate director of Product Safety at Consumer ReportsProfessor Kevin Sivula - Chemical engineer at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology LausanneAnna Luisa Daigneault - Linguistic Anthropologist and Programme Director at the Living Tongues Institute for Endangered LanguagesCorius Visser - Managing Director of the Vergenoegd Löw Wine EstateStefan Rahmstorf - Professor of Physics of the Oceans at Potsdam UniversityDr Helen Wall - GPIn Ireland? Why not try our Ireland Edition?Contact us over at Twitter or visit www.thesmart7.comPresented by Jamie East, written by Olivia Davies and produced by Daft Doris. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

S03E01: Creating Cultural Coherency-TAM542 Leading Change and Transformation in a Global Environment by Course Stories

VANESSA M. GATTIS, PH.D., has served as president and chief executive officer of the Prince William County Community Foundation, Inc. since February 2018, when she also founded the non-profit. Vanessa has more than 30 years of leadership and operational experience, including 30+ years as a retired senior officer in the United States Army. She also serves as an Adjunct Assistant Professor at The Chicago School of Professional Psychology, Washington, D.C. campus where she teaches Ethics and Professional Development, Psychological, Socio-Cultural, and Political Dimensions of Organizations, and The Psychology of Decision Making in a Global Environment. She also serves as a dissertation chair and content expert for doctoral students. She has extensive experience in organization and development, having spent over 15 years in senior-level operations roles with the U.S. Army. As a senior Investigator in the U.S. Army Inspectors General Agency, she investigated alleged improprieties by senior officers and civilians. As a Division Chief for the Inspections Division, she ensured statutory and regulatory guidance and compliance of units and programs throughout the U.S. Army. She also prepared written senior executive-level documents and recommendations for improvement to systems, policies, and programs for the Secretary of the Army's review, approval, and/or consideration. Guest Links Website: https://pwccfoundation.org Facebook: @PWCCFoundation SJS Website: https://thesuccessjourneyshow.com Facebook: @successjourneyshow Instagram: @successjourneyshow Twitter: @success_show TikTok: @thesuccessjourneyshow

Bella is a young professional, currently working in the field of philanthropy at the Packard Foundation in Silicon Valley. She graduated during the pandemic with a Bachelor's degree in International Relations with an emphasis in Global Environment and three minors in Climate Science and Policy, Human Rights, and Professional Writing, and was able to study abroad twice during her undergraduate career to Ecuador and Australia. As a true California native, Bella enjoys the outdoors including camping, hiking, traveling to the mountains and the beaches, and going out in the city. Her true passions lie with the environmental and climate justice movements, exercise and holistic nutrition, traveling, and advocacy and activism for the environment.LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/bellabucheli/ IG: @bellarbuchTwitter: @bellsbuchels

Mina works as a futurist for a Fortune 500 corporation in Central Florida, USA. She previously worked at the Center for Health and the Global Environment at Harvard's T.H. Chan Public School of Health on a team that produced executive education programs in sustainability innovation for senior leadership. Mina holds a master's degree in Strategic Foresight from the University of Houston.

0:00 -- Intro.2:10 -- Start of interview.3:00 -- Henry's "origin story". His other book "China's Superbank: Debt, Oil and Influence - How China Development Bank is Rewriting the Rules of Finance") (2012)5:03 -- His current role at Benchmark Mineral Intelligence.6:09 -  The origin of his book Volt Rush: The Winners and Losers in the Race to Go Green (2022).10:09 --  On the new battery age and the origin of lithium-ion batteries for EVs.12:53 -- On Contemporary Amperex Technology (CATL) and its founder Robin Zeng.18:34 -- On the Chinese lithium industry and its champions Ganfeng Lithium and Tianqi Lithium. "They had a golden period where they could pick up assets globally, but now the West is catching up." Example: Government of Canada orders the divestiture of investments by foreign companies in Canadian critical minerals companies.21:10 -- About Tianqi's $4bn acquisition of SQM's stake in Chile. [Disclosure: I wrote about this case in 2018 here, here and most recently in my latest newsletter, here.] On the future of the Lithium Triangle (Chile, Argentina and Bolivia) for the global lithium supply chain. The unclear future of lithium in Chile, the government has hinted on the creation of a new Chilean national lithium company. "It's a once in a 100-year opportunity, are they just going to sit back and lose out on market share? This opportunity does not come very often."27:09 -- On the new US industrial policy to foster the EV and battery industry (and divest from China). The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, CHIPS & Science Act, and the Inflation Reduction Act (“the single largest investment in climate and energy in American history”) combined will invest more than $135 billion to build America's EV future, including critical minerals sourcing and processing and battery manufacturing. The impact for the global supply chain, particularly in Latin America, Africa and rest of the world.33:03-- On geopolitics, ESG and sustainability of the global battery supply chain and EVs generally. The problem of greenwashing. Amnesty International's report on Cobalt in Africa (2016) "This is What We Die For" (on human rights abuses in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the global trade in Cobalt). "Chinese consumers are also getting more environmentally conscious."38:02  -- On the challenges of the energy transition from ICE vehicles to EVs. The importance of renewable energy. "Clean energy clusters will become very important."40:09  -- On energy security, cleaner battery producers (example Northvolt from Sweden), the rise of Gigafactories, the shift to EVs from global OEMs (A Reuters analysis of 37 global automakers found that they plan to invest nearly $1.2 trillion in electric vehicles and batteries through 2030) and the future of jobs in this industry. "Vehicle manufacturing employment, which stands at 13.6 million globally, already employs 10% of its workforce in the manufacture of EVs, their components and batteries." (see IEA world energy employment report). "It is a race for the jobs of the future, and that's where the West has lost out. That's what making this industry so critical." "But the West will definitely catch up, I'm very optimistic about the U.S."46:03 -- On whether the U.S. will encourage more mining in the US to bridge this gap. "The mining industry has not done a good job at convincing the public that this is what is needed. People who support clean energy find it hard to support mining. That's the crux of the issue."48:14 -- On Tesla, and whether they will move upstream in the supply chain with more refining or mining. And their China operations and supply chain dependence.53:19 -- The 1-3 books that have greatly influenced his life:The Quiet American, by Graham Greene (1955)Books by Somerset MaughamDeng Xiaoping and the Transformation of China, by Ezra Vogel (2011)Other books he recommends on the battery global supply chain:Bottled Lightning: Superbatteries, Electric Cars, and the New Lithium Economy, by Seth Fletcher (2011)The Powerhouse: America, China, and the Great Battery War, by Seth Levine (2016)The Shadows of Consumption: Consequences for the Global Environment, by Peter Dauvergne (2008)55:28 -- Who were your mentors, and what did you learn from them? Michael Forsythe, now with the NYT. When he was in China working for Bloomberg, working with investigative journalists.56:23 -- Are there any quotes you think of often or live your life by? "Sooner or later...one has to take sides – if one is to remain human." by Graham Greene.57:18 --  The person he most admires: Greta Thunberg.Henry Sanderson is a journalist and author of Volt Rush, the Winners and Losers in the Race to Go Green. He's currently an Executive Editor at Benchmark Mineral Intelligence, the leading provider of data and information on the battery industry. Before that he covered commodities and mining for the Financial Times for seven years in London. He was previously a reporter for Bloomberg News in Beijing, where he co-authored a book about China's financial system and state capitalism, China's Superbank. He grew up in Hong Kong and lived and worked in China for seven years.  __ You can follow Henry on social media at:Twitter: @hjesanderson__ You can follow Evan on social media at:Twitter: @evanepsteinLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/epsteinevan/ Substack: https://evanepstein.substack.com/__Music/Soundtrack (found via Free Music Archive): Seeing The Future by Dexter Britain is licensed under a Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License

In this episode, I interview Mandi McReynolds, Head of Global Environment, Social, and Governance at Workiva. Workiva's mission is to power transparent reporting for a better world. We believe that consumers, employees, shareholders, and other stakeholders today expect more from business – more action, transparency, and disclosure of financial and non-financial information.  McReynolds is also the host of ESG Talk podcast to discuss the latest in ESG. McReynolds discusses, the recent backlash against ESG or "woke capitalism".

Did you know that 97% of the palm tree from which heart-of-palm is extracted is discarded? Guilhermo Queiroz, founder of Biosolvit, the winning company in the ‘Biotech' category of the Latam Edge Award 22, also did not know that – until one fateful day in 2013, when he realised that there were tons of biomass being discarded by a heart-of-palm production company he visited at the time. Unhappy with the less-than-great destiny being given to such fantastic material, Guilhermo had the idea of taking advantage of this “waste”, turning it into tree fern supplies made of vegetable fibre, which then started to be commercialised in large retail stores focused on houseware. Biosolvit – Biomass for a better global environment But that was not enough. In 2017, Guilhermo wanted to discover more noble uses for the biomass produced through this extraction process. And that was how, during his visits to the University Center of Volta Redonda, he met a researcher who was developing a product using the same biomass discarded after the heart of palm harvest – a product dedicated to absorbing oil spills very efficiently. The researcher became a partner of Guilhermo's company, and that's how Biosolvit was born. “We started taking part in international pitches. The first pitch was in Paris, where we presented our solution at StartOut Brasil. Total Petrolifera liked our product and requested to test it at the Cedre Institute in France. Our product was considered the most efficient oil absorber in the world. As well as being faster and more efficient, it allows for the recycling of the oil, reducing remediation costs,” Guilhermo tells us. From Barra Mansa, a small city in the South West of Rio de Janeiro, the company started dealing with large oil and mining companies, gas station networks, energy companies, and more. “The biopolymer – oil absorbent – which started being the main product of the Bioblue Ecofast line, made it so that in only 3 years, Biosolvit opted to acquire a product distribution company to expand its growth. “Today, we are 27 times bigger than we were in 2019. We grow at a rate of three times per year. This year, we should reach US$ 3m in revenue.”, he says. And it doesn't stop there. The company partnered with another startup to develop the Biogreen Agro solution, a bio fertiliser revitalising nutrients in the soil, therefore recovering productivity in farmlands. Another line of business is that of organic, mineral fertiliser, made through the solubilisation of rocks to release potassium, phosphorous and nitrogen, plus the bio fertiliser and biomass of the harvested palm. Together, they make up a bio compound that recovers the land. Another product being developed by Biosolvit was born out of the discovery that, beyond just absorbing oil, biomass can absorb hydrocarbons, which are carcinogenic elements, with 99.7% efficacy. “Water treatment is a great challenge to be faced by humanity in the coming years, so we are working towards developing a type of “film” destined towards water treatment in filtration systems in both industries and households,” says Guilhermo. Learning opportunities and moving forward “Today, the sale of tree fern fibre, which makes up the BioGreen Home line, which was the start of everything, is responsible for very little of our income. This line has another dynamic. It relies on the end customer. Starting our selling journey with small retailers instead of starting with large retailers delayed our expansion process. Retail is a different beast, and a series of small mistakes made it so that this line move forward slower.” says Guilhermo. These products are now commercialised in 15 Brazilian states through large retail stores. Bio Green Agro is also entirely focused on developing its agriculture solutions. Other lines, such as BioBlue Response (absorption and containment of oil and oil byproducts) and BioBlue Treatment (for water treatment, still in its trial phase), are moving forwards smoothly and quic...

For our final episode of Sustainability Decoded Season 1, we're doing some self reflection with a fellow podcaster. All season long we've talked about ESG – environmental, social, and governance, and we've spent several episodes on the environmental side. Mandi McReynolds is the Head of Global Environment, Social, and Governance at Workiva and the host of ESG Talk. In this episode, she broke down why the ‘S' and ‘G' in ESG are just as important as the ‘E.' She told us that good governance is a base for good business, and that social impact is a growing interest area for businesses around the world.   Learn more about Mandi McReynolds here. Sustainability Decoded is produced by our incredible team at Persefoni and Hueman Group Media.  Learn more about Persefoni and our climate management and accounting platform by subscribing to Tim's weekly newsletter!

Season 2 | Episode 30 | July 27, 2022Tess Wiskel, MD, a Climate and Human Health fellow with the Harvard Center for Climate, Health and Global Environment , the Harvard FXB Center for Health and Human Rights, and a board-certified emergency physician with Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, is the guest on Medical Matters Weekly on Wednesday, July 27. She will discuss her research on studying the climate and its affect on human health.Tess is an emergency physician and a graduate of the Brown University Emergency Medicine Residency Program and the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine. She has centered her career on improving care for at risk populations, both locally and globally. During medical school and residency, she conducted research, education and advocacy focusing on global and women's health, including developing an accident and emergency HIV testing program in Belize and an educational elective in reproductive health in emergency care.Treating the environmental impacts of health on her patients has motivated Wiskel's current efforts to address the effects of climate change on health, continuing to focus on at-risk populations. She is a member of the Medical Society Consortium on Climate and Health and a board member for Physicians for Social Responsibility Pennsylvania.Medical Matters Weekly features the innovative personalities who drive positive change within health care and related professions. The show addresses all aspects of creating and maintaining a healthy lifestyle for all, including food and nutrition, housing, diversity and inclusion, groundbreaking medical care, exercise, mental health, the environment, research, and government. The show is produced with cooperation from Catamount Access Television (CAT-TV). Viewers can see Medical Matters Weekly on Facebook at facebook.com/svmedicalcenter and facebook.com/CATTVBennington. The show is also available to view or download a podcast on www.svhealthcare.org/medicalmatters.Underwriter: Mack Molding

This week on Under the Radar: An unprecedented heatwave has swept Europe into a sweltering, deadly public health crisis. Here in the United States, President Joe Biden is soon expected to declare a climate emergency after he's spent months trying — and failing — to push his climate agenda through Capitol Hill. And a new survey shows that extreme weather disasters are taking a toll on Americans' personal finances. Those stories and more on our Environmental News Roundtable. GUESTS: Beth Daley, editor and general manager of The Conversation, U.S. Sam Payne, strategic communications manager for 350 Mass and Better Future Project, a Massachusetts-based grassroots climate-action organization. Dr. Aaron Bernstein, interim director of The Center for Climate, Health, and the Global Environment at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, a pediatrician at Boston Children's Hospital, and an assistant professor of pediatrics at Harvard Medical School.

Dr. Jonathan Foley is a world-renowned environmental scientist, sustainability expert, author and public speaker, and the executive director of Drawdown. Drawdown's mission is to help the world reach the point in the future when levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere stop climbing and start to decline as quickly, safely and equitably as possible. Dr. Foley's work focused on understanding the changing planet and finding solutions to sustain climate, ecosystems, and natural resources. He has been a trusted advisor to governments, foundations, NGOs, and business leaders globally. He has published over 130 peer-reviewed scientific articles and, in 2014, was named a Highly Cited Researcher in ecology and environmental science.  He has also presented at the Aspen Institute, the World Bank, the National Geographic Society and more. He's taught at major universities on climate change, global sustainability solutions, the food system and other major world challenges.  Dr. Foley has won numerous awards and honors for his work, including the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, awarded by President Clinton; the J.S. McDonnell Foundation's 21st Century Science Award; an Aldo Leopold Leadership Fellowship; the Sustainability Science Award from the Ecological Society of America; and the National Science Foundation's Faculty Early Career Development Award. In 2014, he was also named as the winner of the prestigious Heinz Award for the Environment. Prior to joining Drawdown, Dr. Foley launched the Climate, People, and Environment Program (CPEP) at the University of Wisconsin, founded the Center for Sustainability and the Global Environment (SAGE), and served as the first Gaylord Nelson Distinguished Professor of Environmental Studies. He was the founding director of the Institute on the Environment(IonE) at the University of Minnesota, where he was also McKnight Presidential Chair of Global Environment and Sustainability. And he also served as the executive director of the California Academy of Sciences, the greenest and more forward-thinking science museum on the planet. In this podcast, Sonya and Dr. Foley talk about climate solutions, food and agriculture, deforestation and how you can make a difference. Key Takeaways:   Where do greenhouse gases come from The five sectors of climate solutions How to feel empowered with climate solutions The food and agriculture sector  Deforestation Methane from cows/ruminants Fertilizers Things you can do at home  

Tune in for a replay of The Six Five Summit's Day Three Opening Keynote with Darius Adamczyk, CEO of Honeywell. In this session, Daniel Newman and Patrick Moorhead sit with Darius and discuss the global sentiment towards today's climate in the economy, business, tech, and… energy. Innovation-ready: A Pragmatic Approach to Leading the World's Energy Transition The world is in transition as enterprises across the globe are moving to more sustainable business practices. Honeywell plays a leading role in the world's energy transition through ESG enablement and measurement and reporting. In this opening keynote session Honeywell Chairman and CEO Darius Adamczyk sits down with Daniel Newman and Patrick Moorhead to explore the global sentiment towards today's climate in the economy, business, tech and… climate. Honeywell is already implementing technologies today, so companies can now understand how their environments are tracking with energy, carbon, power, and other climate-critical elements. Darius also discusses the current global environment and how that is affecting the way we live and work. The Six Five Summit is a 100% virtual, on-demand event designed to help you stay on top of the latest developments and trends in digital transformation brought to you by Futurum Research and Moor Insights & Strategy. With 12 tracks and over 70 pre-recorded video sessions, The Six Five Summit showcases an exciting lineup of leading technology experts whose insights will help prepare you for what's now and what's next in digital transformation as you continue to scale and pivot for the future. You will hear cutting-edge insights on business agility, technology-powered transformation, thoughts on strategies to ensure business continuity and resilience, along with what's ahead for the future of the workplace. More about The Six Five Summit: https://thesixfivesummit.com/

Addressing Corporate Risk Management in the Global Environment With Stephen Ward, CEO of Polaris Risk Management With Host Richard Levick of LEVICK: Stephen Ward, CEO of Polaris Risk Management, an investigations and intelligence company with deployable services in over 85 countries, speaks with host Richard Levick of LEVICK about addressing security vulnerabilities that come from conducting business in a global environment. He addresses brand and Intellectual property protection, global investigations, executive protection, cyber security, supply chain security and more.

The episode you're about to hear is being hosted by our student fellows. Our Student Fellows are an interdisciplinary group, representing colleges and specializations across the University of Nebraska. Jeffrey Owusu-Ansah (Law) and Mei Fong Looi (Business) interview Center faculty Professor Kyle Langvardt on how the United States can promote the principal of free speech in a global environment and how the first amendment operates generally on social media and online platforms.Professor Kyle Langvardt joined the University of Nebraska College of Law faculty in July 2020 as a member of the Nebraska Technology & Governance Center.  He is a First Amendment scholar who focuses on the Internet's implications for free expression both as a matter of constitutional doctrine and as a practical reality. His written work addresses new and confounding policy issues including tech addiction, the collapse of traditional gatekeepers in online media and 3D-printable weapons. Professor Langvardt's most recent papers appear in the Georgetown Law Journal, the Fordham Law Review and the George Mason Law Review. Related Topic Articles Collected by Jeff and Mei:https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/social-platforms-are-facing-more-regulation-in-more-regions-but-is-it-pro/611525/https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/Documents/Issues/Opinion/ContentRegulation/APC.pdfhttps://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/business/india-business/committed-to-comply-with-local-laws-work-constructively-with-governments-sundar-pichai-on-new-social-media-rules/articleshow/82995341.cmshttps://www.reuters.com/world/europe/exclusive-facebook-removes-more-russia-posts-claiming-childrens-hospital-bombing-2022-03-16/https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/03/05/russia-facebook-block-putin-ban-roskomnadzor/https://www.politico.eu/article/germany-hate-speech-internet-netzdg-controversial-legislation/https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/19/technology/facebook-deletion-center-germany.html

In this episode of Building the Future, Dan Runde is joined by Global Environment & Technology Foundation's CEO and founding member Monica Ellis to discuss today's most pressing challenges to global water security. Monica emphasizes water as a foundational issue that intersects with other development challenges such as climate change, COVID-19, women's empowerment, and conflict – including Afghanistan and Ukraine. The two also consider the need for heightened investment and the role of the private sector in advancing the water agenda. 

This week on Under the Radar with Callie Crossley: Earth Day is right around the corner. But we're far from putting Mother Earth first, according to the latest U.N. climate change report. Plus, Boston Mayor Michelle Wu has okayed 20 all-electric public school buses. Will a proposed new state Senate bill guarantee a whole fleet of electric MBTA buses? And environmentalists are getting pumped up over heat pumps! They're touted as a cleaner and more efficient way to heat and cool your home, and a way of reducing reliance on Russian gas or propane. It's our environmental roundtable! Guests: Beth Daley, Editor and General Manager of The Conversation US Cabell Eames, Political Director of Better Future Project, a Massachusetts-based grassroots climate-action organization Dr. Aaron Bernstein, Interim Director of The Center for Climate, Health, and the Global Environment at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, pediatrician at Boston Children's Hospital and an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School

Wildfires, extreme heat and particulate matter from fossil fuel power plants are increasingly affecting the well-being of people in the U.S. and other countries. In this episode, host Bill Loveless visits with Dr. Renee Salas about the adverse impacts of climate change on public health. As a leading public health researcher and emergency medical doctor, Dr. Salas has published extensively and testified in Congress on the impact of climate change on healthcare and the medical system. She served as the lead author of the Lancet Countdown on Health and Climate Change U.S. Brief since 2018.   Dr. Salas is a Yerby Fellow at the Center for Climate, Health, and the Global Environment at Harvard's T.H. Chan School of Public Health. She is also a practicing emergency medical physician at Massachusetts General Hospital and an assistant professor of emergency medicine at Harvard Medical School. They bring us a compelling conversation about the mindset shift necessary to address the climate health crisis head on.

We’ve had a tough few years and there are still tough times going on. This week on Build Value By Choice, Nana is going to discuss how global events can affect your business and your own personal well being. How do we navigate the changing environment and make sure the information we get is factually correct. KEY TAKEAWAYS If you can’t predict your future cash flow because of current events, then that will affect your emotional and financial well being. India and the US are both clamping down on crypto currency so that could impact your investments and the security of them. Your business is based on a certain assumption and a certain environment. But the environment is changing and we need to be aware of how that can impact you and we need to look forward to prevent disaster. Remember that there is a lot of misinformation and disinformation out there. You need to do your research and always think critically, be careful about where you get information and always have multiple sources. BEST MOMENTS ‘As a business owner you cannot afford to be stuck looking at the day to day’ ‘As a leader you need to be able to exude a sense of calm and confidence’ ‘Opinions are being fed into people’ ‘If you’re not reading the news, then you’re not informed, if you read it too much then you’re misinformed’ EPISODE RESOURCES Leave a comment or question on the Build Value By Choice Facebook community page Get more resources on infhorizons.com/podcastKnow Your Current Valuation: https://bit.ly/get-free-valuationHere's the link to the free live webinarDon’t forget to subscribe to the podcast and share it. PODCAST DESCRIPTION Hosted by Nana Bonsu of Infinite Horizons, this show aims to serve small business owners who want to grow their businesses while reducing their own personal involvement. We do this through a combination of interviews with industry leaders, and host presentations. We are certified value builder advisors and leverage a statistically proven methodology to help clients such as you scale or transition their business to the next chapter. We care for our listeners and see their dreams as our own. We aim to foster a community that embraces freedom, generosity, and integrity. This is a show by entrepreneurs and business owners for entrepreneurs and business owners. ABOUT THE HOST Nana Bonsu: “I am an entrepreneur and ex-Corporate Executive who's applying his experience and knowledge from working in various ways to pursue my passion of helping small business owners increase their choices in life by leveraging my knowledge and experience, their employees, systems and money. I help small business owners transform their business and increase value through action-oriented education and implementation of strategies and tactics to make their business sellable even if they are not planning on selling. Known for establishing an environment for personal growth and development. My multicultural background equips me with the intuitive understanding of different cultures and how they impact business owners.” infhorizons.com

We all know that sea-level rise, pollution and degrading ecosystems are bad for the planet, but are they bad for us, too? Yes, says Jessica Schiff, graduate student at Harvard who works with the Harvard Center for Climate Health and Global Environment, or Harvard C-Change. In this episode, Juliet and Rebecca chat with Jessica about the intersection between health and climate change and Harvard C-Change's work to explore the direct and indirect impacts of global climate change on human mental and physical wellness.

How can investment choices and strategies truly move the needle on large-scale change? Four leading entrepreneur/investors working to reinvent and re-imagine impact investing share strategies and projects. Hosted by Darian Rodriguez Heyman, former Craigslist Foundation Executive Director and SF Environment Commissioner. With: Silda Wall Spitzer, New World Capital, which invests primarily in green technologies; James Joaquin, co-founder of the venture capital firm Obvious Ventures; Catlin Powers of Sol Source, inventor, Research Fellow at Harvard's Center for Health and the Global Environment. Recorded Saturday, October 17, 2015 at the National Bioneers Conference in San Rafael, California.

Laurie McGraw is speaking with Inspiring Woman Dr. Sabina Shaikh.  Dr. Sabina Shaikh is the Director of the Program on Global Environment and an Associate Senior Instructional Professor in Environmental ...