Climate Change. Human Caused Global Warming. Inspiration Monday Guest Menagerie!

This Inspiration Monday episode is inspired by Your Positive Imprint oceanographers, enviro capitalists, and climate change scientists. Climate change is rapid and it is human caused global warming. A planet in a state of urgency. Guests: Helen Phillips, Nathan Bindoff, Josh Willis, Inna Braverman, Mike Silvestrini, Terry Lilley, Andrew Bracken, Ray Schmitt, Kurt Polzin

Transcript
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Enjoy the show and get inspired to activate your own positive imprint.

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Your positive imprint.

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What's your PI.

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Today is inspiration Monday.

Catherine:

But quite a serious topic today.

Catherine:

This episode is inspired by oceanographers enviro capitalists and climate change scientists.

Catherine:

Terry Lilley, a Marine biologist, endangered species manager and reptile specialist

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studies the coral reefs and Marine life around the world.

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Through his underwater cinematography, some of his studies may be seen on national geographic.

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YPI episodes, 154, 156, 160, 161 and 164.

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Helen Phillips is a physical oceanographer with the Institute for Marine and Antarctic studies, university of Tasmania.

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She studies circumpolar currents and the role of eddies in influencing the large scale currents.

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Episode 80.

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Kurt Polzin is a physical oceanographer with the woods hole, oceanographic institution, observing and modeling energy exchanges between oceanic current internal waves and turbulence.

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He is a go-to oceanographer for instrumentation episode 29.

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Mike Silvestrini is an enviro capitalist who has traveled the world observing climate change.

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Seeing a need for big business, small business, you and me to invest in renewable energy around the world he began Energea.

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Renewable energy investing for everyone.

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Episodes 157 and 158.

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Ray Schmitt is with woods hole, oceanographic institution.

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Until 2020, he sat on NASA's earth science advisory committee.

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He studies ocean mixing and micro structure, the global water cycle, terrestrial rainfall prediction using ocean salinity, episode 41.

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Josh Willis is with NASA's jet propulsion laboratory.

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He researches the ocean's role in the rapid melting of Greenland's ice.

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This is part of his study on global climate change.

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As an artist, he writes climate change songs and performs them as Climate Elvis episode 144.

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Andrew Bracken creates public and private partnerships to invest in sustainable agriculture working with farmers in Africa and central and south America.

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Where climate change is affecting food supply.

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Today he is a program analyst with FEMA episodes, 50 88, 132.

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Inna Braverman was born in the Ukraine at the time of the Chernobyl explosion in 1986.

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Her health was affected.

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At the age of 24, she co-founded and became CEO of eco wave power, a renewable energy company with a patented technology for the generation of clean electricity from ocean and sea waves.

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Episode 96.

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Nathan Bindoff is one of the world's leading climate change scientists.

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He can be found at the Institute for Marine and Antarctic studies in Tasmania.

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His research and areas of expertise are oxygen levels, temperature and salinity of the planet's changing oceans.

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He is one of the first oceanographer scientists to discover ice melt.

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Episode 73.

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Inspiration, Monday, climate change, human caused global warming.

Catherine:

Our planet in a state of urgency.

Terry Lilley:

Who's liable for the cleanup caused by climate change and coastal properties falling into the ocean and damaging public beaches and public coral reefs?

Nathan Bindoff:

We're on this voyage of discovery, where the oceans are changing

Helen Phillips:

We've got to the point now where we have to reach the peak of our carbon emissions

Helen Phillips:

. Kurt Polzin: The, ocean can be a very challenging environment

Catherine:

Professor Bindoff and his colleagues documented some of the first evidence of the high melt rates of the Antarctic ice sheet.

Mike Silvestrini:

We had the Nobel prize going to the scientific community who proved beyond the shadow of a doubt that climate change was a significant concern for humanity.

Helen Phillips:

We know that heat must cross this current because that's how the earth maintains a stable climate

Nathan Bindoff:

it's a human induced oxygen decline.

Ray Schmitt:

The fact that we have a livable climate is really due to the presence of our ocean.

Josh Willis:

Climate change is a massive shift of our planet and our civilization is built on the climate we've had for thousands of years.

Terry Lilley:

We also have natural changes that happen on the earth.

Catherine:

They've been planting this seed for centuries, and now it's not growing because of climate change.

Helen Phillips:

We're studying the Antarctic circumpolar current it flows all the way around Antarctica and separates the warm waters of the subtropics from the cold Antarctic.

Nathan Bindoff:

Sea level change was primarily through, thermal expansion.

Nathan Bindoff:

So that's where you warm up the ocean and it expands.

Nathan Bindoff:

And that's the biggest contributor to the rising sea levels.

Kurt Polzin:

A little over half a meter in diameter and it is three meters long, four meters long.

Kurt Polzin:

We lower it over the side and we let it go.

Helen Phillips:

An Argo float is a, a little ocean robot.

Andrew Bracken:

The Kenyan government is providing this livestock insurance.

Andrew Bracken:

That's one way that the government is stepping in to help mitigate.

Nathan Bindoff:

And you can see that pressure on the coal industry.

Inna Braverman:

I think that was important to the United nations to see female representation in the energy business,

Ray Schmitt:

they'll completely deny proven facts.

Josh Willis:

It will be, expensive to deal with in terms of dollars and in terms of lives.

Catherine:

I'm super excited because he's going to show me the instruments that oceanographers use.

Kurt Polzin:

We have various radios and GPS and, pingers on it and flashers

Inna Braverman:

another thing that they want to promote is implementation of new, renewable energy source.

Inna Braverman:

Which can help the world mitigate the climate change.

Catherine:

We all need to do our part for the transition into renewable energy

Helen Phillips:

the ocean and the atmosphere system are very connected and any changes that are experienced in the ocean will impact the atmosphere.

Kurt Polzin:

So you've got two weeks and your entire financial year hinges on those two weeks,

Ray Schmitt:

It's important to know what the salinity is for understanding how the ocean's going to move.

Josh Willis:

Out in the future, the big enchilada is going to be the ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica,

Mike Silvestrini:

It was quite clear that renewable energy and wildlife conservation were going to be two industries that I wanted to be part of.

Helen Phillips:

One of the important things that's going on in the ocean right now is that more heat is being carried under the ice shelves in Antarctica, causing the loss of ice from the base of these ice shelves.

Ray Schmitt:

They've suddenly become anti-science just because of the people that are supporting their, campaign.

Ray Schmitt:

It's really sad to see..

Kurt Polzin:

Yeah.

Kurt Polzin:

There was an explosion inside the pressure case.

Kurt Polzin:

Gosh.

Kurt Polzin:

Yeah.

Mike Silvestrini:

We need more of those things so that we can turn off the carbon emitting, fossil burning infrastructure that we currently rely on.

Catherine:

Global food security does it really exist,

Nathan Bindoff:

The fire season this year has been an extraordinary wake up call for Australia and the wildfires in the USA

Terry Lilley:

kauai is shifting to all organic farming.

Ray Schmitt:

Climate has become a politicized issue.

Ray Schmitt:

Now that wasn't always true,

Inna Braverman:

I was born in the Ukraine in the 1986 and then two weeks after I was born, then Chernobyl nuclear reactor exploded, which was the worst in history, nuclear disaster in terms of cost and casualties.

Kurt Polzin:

It's not tethered and it floats away.

Helen Phillips:

We've seen dramatic increases in the amount of warming of the ocean and in the amount of heat that the ocean is storing.

Nathan Bindoff:

These are very significant profound possibilities for, uh, future, uh, sea level in an unmitigated world.

Inna Braverman:

And I think that growing up with such a background story is really what instilled in me, the motivation.

Inna Braverman:

to give something back,

Ray Schmitt:

They're building most of the solar panels on the planet nowadays.

Josh Willis:

We can see global sea level rise, which is one of the main consequences of human caused global warming.

Helen Phillips:

We're already committed to continuing temperature rise just based on how much carbon dioxide is in the atmosphere.

Helen Phillips:

.

Josh Willis:

The very first one of these satellites was called Topix Poseidon and it was launched in 1992.

Catherine:

A voyage of discovery

Nathan Bindoff:

Hopefully emissions reductions, as we go into the future.

Helen Phillips:

And we're not seeing major governmental direction towards a really different way of living on this planet so that we can stay within its resources.

Catherine:

You're talking about the melting of the ice sheets.

Kurt Polzin:

This boat can cost anywhere between 30 and a hundred thousand dollars a day.

Nathan Bindoff:

I think if it goes to eight meters, we can have a ocean in the middle of Australia.

Helen Phillips:

We're already locked in to two decades of sea level rise based on where we are now.

Catherine:

What happens if you continue to see the rising temperatures and the breaking of ice?

Ray Schmitt:

The first treaty was signed by, uh, president Bush

Catherine:

There would be at least a 20% increase in fire danger and catastrophic fire events would be more likely to occur.

Helen Phillips:

It's not okay anymore,

Andrew Bracken:

Sorghum is an important crop, with climate change

Nathan Bindoff:

It's transferring mass in the Antarctic ice sheet itself into the oceans

Ray Schmitt:

I testified in front of a US Senate committee about climate.

Ray Schmitt:

John McCain was the chair of the committee.

Ray Schmitt:

And John was very interested in climate change.

Ray Schmitt:

He asked all the right questions about the ocean's role in climate.

Helen Phillips:

in Australia, we have what we call the Marine national facility.

Helen Phillips:

So it's a ship called research vessel investigator,

Nathan Bindoff:

sea going life is actually a very pleasant once you get into the rhythm of it, it's a very simple life.

Josh Willis:

I play Elvis and I sing an Elvis song that I wrote the lyrics for a sort of a to Jailhouse Rock.

Kurt Polzin:

This glorious boat ride, along the, Western Antarctic peninsula in between two mountain ranges.

Helen Phillips:

We put them in the water and leave them to follow their programmed mission.

Helen Phillips:

They report by satellite their observations.

Helen Phillips:

And they're east of New Zealand now,

Josh Willis:

About one-third of modern day sea level rise is caused by this warming and expansion of the oceans.

Terry Lilley:

A true climate change issue that's changing the weather, which changes the surf, which alters the beach erosion in which led to a multi-million dollar home, falling into the surf

Mike Silvestrini:

The only way to really do this is to build more solar and wind assets.

Inna Braverman:

And I was one of the babies that the was impacted by the negative effects of such explosion.

Inna Braverman:

And I guess it was due to to the explosion in the air and I got the respiratory illness

Josh Willis:

Climate Elvis,

Nathan Bindoff:

The world made a logical organization, the United nations framework convention on climate change.

Helen Phillips:

In those meanders, Eddy is a form.

Helen Phillips:

So it is a circular rings of current that have distinct water properties in the middle because they're a way of exchanging water from the cold side of the current, to the warm side of the current and the reverse.

Ray Schmitt:

China knows it's got a big problem.

Ray Schmitt:

They have a huge pollution problem.

Ray Schmitt:

They know they have to shut down coal plants.

Catherine:

IPCC, which is the intergovernmental panel on climate change,

Nathan Bindoff:

You can see the huge increase in renewables in the landscape.

Mike Silvestrini:

Guilty of failing to grow things sustainably

Terry Lilley:

We have climate change happening, which we know is being accelerated by human activity.

Andrew Bracken:

We're trying to provide farmers with tools to mitigate the impact of climate change because the changes are happening so rapidly.

Helen Phillips:

Eddy is like a piece of the current that's broken away and it's got a circular vortex shape.

Josh Willis:

It's a huge international partnership.

Kurt Polzin:

You're looking at the world in a very tactile and tangible way,

Terry Lilley:

We're losing our trade winds

Nathan Bindoff:

and that voyage was the first ever against the Antarctic continent in winter.

Nathan Bindoff:

That was 1998.

Nathan Bindoff:

that voyage was actually on the relatively newly commissioned Aurora Australis.

Nathan Bindoff:

So that was the Australian icebreaker.

Ray Schmitt:

The unfortunate thing is in America.

Ray Schmitt:

Unlike Europe, the Europeans are taking climate change seriously.

Mike Silvestrini:

you need to work in harmony with your environment to have a strong society.

Nathan Bindoff:

There have been some famous, kills of crabs washed up on the Oregon coast.

Nathan Bindoff:

And these are connected to this, um, changing oxygen levels, in the equatorial ocean, actually.

Terry Lilley:

Frogs suck in water through their skin and they don't have kidneys and filters.

Terry Lilley:

So if there's any problems with the water in the area, the frogs are going to be the first to die.

Helen Phillips:

There are so many vested interests in our society and they have very loud voices and very deep pockets

Kurt Polzin:

When you're at sea, you take what the ocean gets you.

Kurt Polzin:

Sometimes it gets very angry and uncomfortable, other times it's also very beautiful.

Kurt Polzin:

I fell in love with that.

Josh Willis:

One of the things that we do is calculate sea level not just in each location, but averaged over the whole planet.

Terry Lilley:

The kids can go out there and do mushrooms studies and see how mushrooms are affected by climate change.

Catherine:

All right.

Catherine:

That's great.

Catherine:

Well, that's the Foghorn coming directly to you from the Cape over here in Massachusetts?

Inna Braverman:

Wave energy, which is a huge, renewable energy source to replace some of the more dangerous energy generation technologies.

Helen Phillips:

We also have observations from satellites so we can see very good detail in how the surface of the ocean is changing through time.

Mike Silvestrini:

And have themselves encouraged the acceleration of desertification, which has crippling effects on economy, which results in increased violence.

Josh Willis:

These satellites are so accurate that they can measure a change in sea level of about one inch from 800 miles up.

Inna Braverman:

Helping the development of a renewable energy technology

Catherine:

As a scientist, do these numbers, do they alarm you?

Helen Phillips:

Yes, they alarm me very much

Nathan Bindoff:

Research in Antarctica itself, you get the most fantastic views.

Nathan Bindoff:

You're privileged in a way, you, you see these ice sheets, there are cliffs right there in front of the ocean and they're brilliantly white.

Nathan Bindoff:

Clear blue of the ocean and the contrast in color is striking.

Terry Lilley:

Humans here are actually going to have to get progressive; figure out how to be sustainable.

Inna Braverman:

Wave energy can produce twice the amount of electricity that the world produces now.

Josh Willis:

United States teamed up with the French space agency called Kineis,

Ray Schmitt:

So we w very well aware that all the ring comes from the ocean,

Mike Silvestrini:

Germany has a per capita success story going on where about 53% of their total electric mix comes from renewables.

Nathan Bindoff:

It was about the hope that we could collaborate globally

Josh Willis:

It's called the climate rock.

Inna Braverman:

We only connect to the manmade structures

Nathan Bindoff:

It was in the time of, uh, Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan.

Helen Phillips:

My particular favorite is the EMA fix profiling float bit similar to the Argo float except that this one has the added capacity to measure ocean currents.

Mike Silvestrini:

we're testing the consciousness of our culture here and whether or not people are good at complaining about climate change, are they going to open up their wallets and, invest?

Josh Willis:

The European space agency are all teaming up together to continue building these satellites.

Terry Lilley:

What we did find is that when the seawaters are warmer, they're more reactive to pollution.

Terry Lilley:

The toxins are more active.

Terry Lilley:

coral reefs die

Kurt Polzin:

You're paying engineers to do design work.

Kurt Polzin:

The cost to create it would be over a million dollars.

Nathan Bindoff:

So it does require a genuine collaboration of all the nations to actually agree, and then follow a pathway to reduced emissions,

Ray Schmitt:

It's difficult to get human beings to think long-term,

Helen Phillips:

For governments to listen, they have to be told by the people that we need change.

Josh Willis:

Seawater expands when it warms.

Mike Silvestrini:

The reality is is that renewable energy very much is taking off.

Nathan Bindoff:

It's now becoming a very urgent problem.

Inna Braverman:

Harvesting of renewable energy.

Terry Lilley:

Warming seas, we have actually proven this now.

Ray Schmitt:

The actual global water cycle because most of the water cycle is over the ocean.

Helen Phillips:

It seems a little bit insufficient to just keep doing this work because it's really like monitoring the patient until he or she dies.

Helen Phillips:

It's not actually intervening to fix the problem and maybe save the life.

Catherine:

It's about global food security on a planet where climate change is affecting food supplies.

Nathan Bindoff:

I feel personally that I've done the work I've made the measurements reported the science

Helen Phillips:

And we don't think that the future of our children is as important as, as our right now.

Helen Phillips:

And of course our children are in our right now, but the world that they will live in is vastly different from the one that we've enjoyed.

Inna Braverman:

So imagine what could happen, what positive impact we could have if we would install a wave energy in every suitable country and city in the world.

Andrew Bracken:

Kenyan farmers have planted maze corn, but with climate change, the rains are less predictable

Ray Schmitt:

That carbon dioxide that we put in the atmosphere is going to be there for thousands of years.

Terry Lilley:

Start doing things ahead of the time instead of after the fact.

Mike Silvestrini:

The hard part about conservation is you have to be successful for eternity for it to matter at all.

Mike Silvestrini:

It only really matters if it works forever.

nathanbindoff on 2020-02-04 at 14.47 (Track 2) 00:20:54

From time to time.

nathanbindoff on 2020-02-04 at 14.47 (Track 2) 00:20:56

I do think about the future.

nathanbindoff on 2020-02-04 at 14.47 (Track 2) 00:20:58

My dream is that the picture we so frequently paint will be different.

nathanbindoff on 2020-02-04 at 14.47 (Track 2) 00:21:03

Not the catastrophe that is so frequently forecast, but a world where the pressing problems that cutoff, circumvented with human ingenuity and self-realization and mobilized by collaborative effort.

nathanbindoff on 2020-02-04 at 14.47 (Track 2) 00:21:18

A world where humans decide the future to be sustainable and transformed.

nathanbindoff on 2020-02-04 at 14.47 (Track 2) 00:21:24

And a transformed one that's successfully reconciles climate change; our needs for food, energy, and all of life.

2 Comments

  1. Terry T on 03/30/2022 at 5:23 PM

    Listened to this one twice. I was distracted during the 1st listening but really focused on the 2nd. Thanks for sharing this informative selection with us.

    • Catherine on 04/22/2022 at 3:29 PM

      Terry, I loved putting this menagerie of quotes and research together from my former guests regarding climate change. I’m glad it was inspiring for you. There’s so much work ahead of us regarding conservation and preservation. Thanks Terry!

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