Outrage + Optimism

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170. Australia is Back! Oct 06, 2022

Show notes

Welcome to another episode of Outrage + Optimism.

As always, we examine issues at the forefront of the climate crisis, interview change-makers, and transform our anger into productive dialogue on building a sustainable future.

In this episode, co-hosts Christiana Figueres and Paul Dickinson are joined by guest co-host and friend, Dean Bialek. Dean has worked on climate change for years in his native Australia, which is especially relevant to today’s episode.

The team spends some time Down Under一well, proverbially speaking一conversing with Aussies-extraordinaire Zali Steggall, Australia’s most renown international alpine skier, Teal Movement founder, and current independent member of the Australian Parliament for Warringah; and Mike Cannon-Brookes, climate activist and Co-Founder and Co-CEO of software juggernaut Atlassian Corporation Plc.

Our guests weigh in on Australia’s new government, its audacious climate bill, and how a nation chock-full of renewable resources (but historically low political will) could be about to pivot to climate superpower status.

We also have an update on the Environmental Music Prize from Edwina Floch, Founder of The Environmental Music Prize as well as a music track from the Winner of the Prize, King Gizzard and The Lizard Wizard.

You won’t want to miss this inspiring podcast episode一It’s definitely ace!

NOTES AND RESOURCES

To learn more about our planet’s climate emergency and how you can transform outrage into optimistic action subscribe to the podcast here.

Thank you to our guest co-host, Dean Bialek!

Dean Bialek

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Thank you to our guests this week!

Zali Steggall | Member Australian Parliament for Warringah

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Mike Cannon-Brookes | Co-founder and Co-CEO of Atlassian

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Atlassian

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Congratulations to our musical guest and winner of the 1st Environmental Music Prize, King Gizzard and The Lizard Wizard!

King Gizzard and The Lizard Wizard

Instagram | Twitter | YouTube | BandCamp | Website

Go watch their Prize-Winning Music Video “If Not Now, Then When” on YouTube

**Note from Clay** - It’s f***ing awesome

Listen more from the Environmental Music Prize and sign up for their newsletter to stay tuned for next year's prize!

Edwina Floch

LinkedIn | Twitter

Environmental Music Prize

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Check out Tom’s appearance on the Coliving Conversations podcast.

Learn more about Australia’s Climate Change Bill 2022

Learn more about the Australia Asia Powerlink by Sun Cable

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169. Do The Work Sep 29, 2022

Show notes

Welcome to this week’s episode - It’s a packed agenda. Our hosts cover everything from nature breakdown in the UK, the threat of nuclear war in Europe, the downfall of a World Bank President and plenty in-between. We also hear from the incredible Helen Clarkson and Catherine McKenna on everything to do with greenwashing, carbon tax and the power of straight-talking on climate. For those of you working in the corporate world and grappling with climate action, this is an episode you do not want to miss.

Helen Clarkson, CEO of the Climate Group which convenies Climate Week NYC, shares a fascinating insight at the disconnect happening within companies on the road to net zero, who are now having to turn their commitments into real action.

And that brings us to the fascinating conversation on greenwashing with Catherine McKenna, Chair of something with an extraordinarily long and very difficult to say without reading your notes name: the UN’s High-Level Expert Group on the Net-Zero Emissions Commitments of Non-State Entities. We talk about how, while we’re all outraged - rightly - by greenwashing, we still need to lift up the folks who are doing the real work and not lump everyone in the same group.

And there’s more: on the balance between integrity and momentum, supply chain efficiencies, understanding risk, a price on carbon, disclosure and what blockchain has to do with all of that.

We wrap up with a gorgeous song from Finnegan Tui. Your ears will thank you for staying on to listen.

Notes and Resources

Thank you to our guests this week:

Helen Clarkson | Chief Executive Office at the Climate Group

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Climate Group

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Catch all of last week’s Climate Week NYC On Demand

Catherine McKenna | Chair of H-LEG - the UN’s High-Level Expert Group on the Net-Zero Emissions Commitments of Non-State Entities.

Twitter

Thank you to our musical guest this week, Finnegan Tui!

Finnegan Tui

Patreon | Bandcamp

Watch the ‘ZEPHYR’ Audio-Visual Journey on YouTube

Congratulations to Global Optimism’s very own Freya Newman on her Masters Resarch being published in Nature Communications!

For more on WBG President David Malpass’s controversial remarks, start here.

@OutrageOptimism is where we are online!

Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn

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168. From Climate Week NYC: No Other Option But To Solve This Sep 22, 2022

Show notes

In an event as rare as the triple Jovian eclipse on Jupiter, Christiana, Tom and Paul recorded this episode together! As in IRL together! Physically at the same table!

Having graduated from their humble beginnings which saw them huddled together around a mic in a San Francisco bathroom (not ‘toilet’ as the Brits call it, conjuring up all kinds of odd visions for our US audiences), they are now broadcasting to you listeners from Tom’s ‘cozy’ New York hotel room, bringing us all the news and highlights from the first half of Climate Week NYC.

Christiana shares that alongside all the useful conversations that will be happening this week as the community grapples with solutions to tackling the climate crisis, the need for a gut belief that we CAN solve this crisis is critical. A belief she is sensing is worryingly absent…

Tom’s prediction for the next mega trend in the climate movement and philanthropy is in the form of strategic communications and political economy building.

Paul meanwhile is inspired by the role cities can play in implementing much needed governance and policy without the obstacles that are present in high level government.

While our special guest this week, the Financial Times columnist, Martin Wolf might not self-identify as an optimist, his conversation with Christiana, Tom and Paul offers a fascinating analysis of the economic, corporate and political forces that we find ourselves at the mercy of, the reasons behind the rise of populism and what he thinks it will take for us to really collectively wake up to this crisis.

And of course another incredible song from our new friend, Tommy WÁ. Stick around to the end to hear an exclusive performance from him!

Notes and Resources

Thank you to our phone guest this week, Martin Wolf!

Martin Wolf | Chief Economics Commentator at the Financial Times

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Be sure to check out Martin’s Column in The Financial Times

Thank you to our musical guest this week, Tommy WÁ!

Tommy WÁ

Twitter | Instagram | Facebook | LinkTree | YouTube

Check out Tommy’s Live from NYC 3 Song Concert on YouTube

The EarthShot Prize Innovation Summit 2022 was a major highlight this week. Christiana moderated!

Your inside scoop to Climate Week NYC - @OutrageOptimism

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167. We Like To Call It Piñata Syndrome Sep 15, 2022

Show notes

Welcome back to a brand new season of Outrage + Optimism! We have missed you, friends!

This summer break in the Global North was yet another massive climate summer with much to talk about.

We kick off this jam-packed episode acknowledging the sad passing of Queen Elizabeth II with personal reflections from the hosts Christiana, Tom and Paul as well as a touching conversation with Henry Dallal, a photographer who was regularly commissioned to capture Queen Elizabeth during the last few decades of her reign.

Christiana offers us a unique insight from Gastech, the world's largest gas, LNG, hydrogen, and energy event that saw lone-climate-advocate Christiana deliver a strong speech to 40,000 executives on their role and moral duty to tackle emissions in their industry. A speech that is not to be missed and you can watch the full version here.

The hosts turn their attention to the key events of the summer that offered the global community both hope and sorrow as the world watched with keen optimism as the implications of Biden’s IRA legislation unfolded, Australia successfully passed a key climate bill through government, and India, Australia and Egypt submitted new NDCs ahead of UNGA and COP 27.

With heavy hearts however Christiana, Tom and Paul considered the devastating impact of the Pakistan floods that left a third of the country under water, mass crop failure, many lives lost including children, and vital infrastructure destroyed. The very real impacts of climate change are already hitting so many people in the global south, that issues of loss and damage and financial aid from the global north must surely form part of the discussions between world leaders in this year’s big climate events.

We will of course be here throughout the rest of the season with the help of our very special guests, to bring you all the insights and analysis from these big events.

Notes and Resources

Thank you to our phone guest this week, Henry Dallal!

Henry Dallal | Photographer

Website | Instagram

Be sure to check out Henry Dallal’s Book, ‘Addressing Climate Change’

Thank you to our musical guest this week, Gabriela Eva!

Gabriela Eva

Check out Gabriela’s lyric video for ‘Pulling Faces In The Wind’

Be sure to spin ‘Feng Shui’ this weekend!

There’s a solar-powered boombox in a park in Queens, NYC that plays LL Cool J’s music from noon to 5p every Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday and yes it’s 100% real.

Listen to Tom’s appearance on our sister-podcast, ‘The Way Out Is In’!

We tweet and stuff - @OutrageOptimism

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166. No Mud, No Lotuses: The Last Episode of Season 5 Jul 29, 2022

Show notes

So here we are!

30 episodes later we have finally arrived at the end of Season 5 of the Outrage + Optimism podcast. And what a rollercoaster it has been for all of us in the global climate community since the start of the year! We are due to take a well-earned break over August before we return with gusto in September for Season 6 - but before we go - in this dynamic episode, we take you on a whistlestop tour of the last six months of the podcast, narrated with a present day lens from our hosts, Christiana Figueres, Tom Rivett-Carnac, and Paul Dickinson.

We hope you will enjoy revisiting the wisdom and inspiration our guests and hosts offered up over the last six months. Even though it has often felt we are in dark times, we invite you to draw from these episodes the gritty determination to believe that we have what it takes to move the trajectory we are currently on to a safer, more resilient and just world. To paraphrase the teaching of Thich Naht Hahn that Christiana recalls in her interview with Plum Village: “No mud, no lotuses’.

And in true Outrage and Optimism fashion, playing us out is the talented Australian TV weather presenter and musician, Jessica Braithwaite. Jessica contacted the team recently to share her positive feedback and offer us the use of her single ‘Hello (You Got My Heart)’ to play out the final episode of this season. We jumped at the chance and invited her to reflect on what it means to working as a musician (and weather presenter) in an ecological crisis. We loved her answers - be sure to check out more of her music!

Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | TikTok

See you next season!

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165. Moral Imagination, Patient Capital and Averting Collective Climate Suicide with Jacqueline Novogratz Jul 21, 2022

Show notes

Crippling heat, fire, and death in the U.K., Europe, and the U.S. are bringing the climate emergency to our literal doorsteps. At the same time, political antipathy一in the lack of climate depth among Britain’s leadership candidates or the collapse of sweeping climate legislation in the U.S., for example一seems to be adding fuel to the fire.

Co-hosts Tom Rivett-Carnac and Paul Dickinson, and especially Christiana Figueres, are outraged! They explore what this means for the climate agenda going forward and, of course, how compassion, inclusion, and optimism must be part of the solution. Will deaths in the streets of Madrid and 40+°C (102°F) temps in the alleys of London compel us to wake up and see what’s happening?

Next, how do we use the tools of capitalism without being controlled by them?

In this segment the gang explores the differences between traditional and enlightened capital and their connections to poverty, moral imagination, and climate – joined by visionary entrepreneur, philanthropist, and best-selling author Jacqueline Novogratz.

Novogratz, described by Forbes as one of the World’s 100 Greatest Living Business Minds (2017), is the head of the global nonprofit impact investment fund Acumen.

Novogratz explains, “What is the problem we’re here to solve, and how do we use the tools we have to solve them? Investment has always been [one of those] tools…but we see investment as a means, not as an end in itself.”

Listen in as they deconstruct patient capital, off-grid solar, outrage over ongoing divisiveness, and how moral imagination as corporate strategy might just work a little magic for the future.

NOTES AND RESOURCES

Check out more of Gabrielle Sey’s Music here, and be sure to spin her cut of “Patterns” and add it to your summer playlist!

Learn more about Acumen and its inspirational founder, Jacqueline Novogratz.

You Can buy Novogratz’s 2020 work “Manifesto for a Moral Revolution: Practices to Build a Better World” here, or in the US, here.

You can buy Novogratz’s bestseller, “The Blue Sweater: Bridging the Gap between Rich and Poor,” here, or in the US, here.

To learn more about our planet’s climate emergency and how you can transform outrage into optimistic action subscribe to the podcast here.

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164. The Supreme Court's EPA Ruling: Is the Crisis of Climate a Crisis of Democracy? Jul 15, 2022

Show notes

With the US Supreme Court's ruling on the EPA still sending shockwaves through some quarters of the climate community, we ask in our second special episode this week: is this a sign that the tide is turning against environmental regulation, or should we be careful not to mistake the tide for the current?

In this episode, co-hosts Christiana Figueres, Tom Rivett-Carnac, and Paul Dickinson take leave of UK politics (in the most part) and take a look across the ‘puddle’ at what many have described as the devastating ruling delivered by the US Supreme Court on the EPA’s power to regulate green house gas emissions.

We hear from two very special guests, Gina McCarthy former EPA administrator and now the first National Climate Advisor to the White House, and John Podesta, the founder and chair of the Board of Directors for the Center for American Progress, and former counselor to President Barack Obama.

NOTES AND RESOURCES

Have you enjoyed listening to this new format of Outrage + Optimism? We have had great fun making these last two episodes so as Tom suggests in the show, let us know what you think by dropping us an email at contact@globaloptimism.com.

Christiana + Tom’s book ‘The Future We Choose’ is available now!

Gina McCarthy

Twitter

John Podesta

Twitter | Website

To learn more about the climate emergency and how you can translate outrage into action, subscribe to the podcast here.

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163. Boris and Net Zero: What Happens Next? Jul 12, 2022

Show notes

Welcome to another episode of Outrage + Optimism.

As always, we examine issues at the forefront of the climate crisis, interview change-makers, and transform our anger into productive dialogue on building a sustainable future.

In this episode, co-hosts Christiana Figueres, Tom Rivett-Carnac, and Paul Dickinson reflect on the recent downfall of British Prime Minister (PM) Boris Johnson and what comes next for U.K. climate initiatives, with guests Ben Goldsmith, Founder of the Conservative Environment Network, and Chris Skidmore, MP for Kingswood, near Bristol.

Despite Johnson’s decidedly mixed term as PM一including delivering on Brexit, recent Partygate blunders, and other scandals一he has kept the U.K. focused on climate and nature progress. He’s embraced Net zero by 2050, introduced ambitious goals for 2035, and supported the Conference of the Parties summit (COP26). But what do the hosts think?

And, where does the U.K. go from here? With the interests of the global right generally focused on issues such as immigration, and new Tory leadership on the horizon, will climate and nature continue to be relevant to the U.K. conservative project? Guests Ben Goldsmith and Chris Skidmore weigh in on this dynamic moment.

NOTES AND RESOURCES

For more on conservative environmentalism in the U.K. and overseas visit the Conservative Environment Network.

Chris Skidmore, MP, Kingswood

Learn more about the United Nation’s Net zero initiative and the COP26.

Read Chris Skidmore’s recent piece with Zac Goldsmith, ‘Ditching Net Zero would be electoral suicide for Conservatives’.

“Hustings” is defined as a meeting at which candidates in an election address potential voters.

To learn more about the climate emergency and how you can translate outrage into action, subscribe to the podcast here.

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162. 'Our Time On Earth': Radical Visions for The Future by Arts & Ecology Jul 07, 2022

Show notes

Welcome to another episode of Outrage + Optimism. As always, we examine issues at the forefront of the climate crisis, interview change-makers, and transform our anger into productive dialogue on building a sustainable future.

In this special episode, the Outrage + Optimism crew has teamed up with the Dartington Arts School to bring you the first episode of the school’s intriguing new podcast, Arts and Ecology. The podcast explores the nexus between art, ecology, and culture and the role creatives can play in tackling the climate crisis.

In this inaugural episode, Arts and Ecology co-host Natasha Rivett-Carnac and O + O Executive Producer Sarah Thomas discuss “Our Time on Earth,” a major multimedia exhibition currently running at the Barbican in London with co-curator Caroline Till. Till is the co-founder of FRANKLINTILL, a research agency exploring design, colour, and material innovation for a sustainable future.

You’ll also hear from two teams who collaborated on exhibition pieces. Chippindale, CEO of the award-winning digital retail agency, Holition, and George Monbiot, writer, Guardian columnist and environmental activist bring us The World Beneath Our Feet. The piece was inspired by “The Wonders of Soil,” the first chapter in Monbiot’s latest book, Regenesis: Feeding the World Without Devouring the Planet.

Next, we hear from Anab Jain and Jon Ardern, the co-founders of Superflux, an award-winning experimental design agency creating visceral experiences that bring future possibilities into the present. Their exhibition piece, a lavish multi-species banquet, is entitled, Refuge for Resurgence.

Notes and Resources

To explore more about the interconnection between art, ecology, and culture, subscribe to the Dartington Arts School’s podcast Arts and Ecology.

Natasha Rivett-Carnac, curator, Arts and Ecology, Dartington School of Arts

The exhibit Our Time on Earth, created by Caroline Till and Kate Franklin, will be at the Barbican in London from Thursday, 5 May to Monday, 29 Aug 2022.

Caroline Till is Co-Founder of FRANKLINTILL. Her book, co-written with business partner and co-curator, Kate Franklin, is Radical Matter: Rethinking Materials for a Sustainable Future and can be purchased here or in the US, here.

Jonathan Chippindale, is CEO of Holition.

You can get George Monbiot’s latest book, Regenesis: Feeding the World Without Devouring the Planet, here. Or in the US, here.

Anab Jain and John Arden are co-founders of Superflux.

You can listen to Jain and Arden’s piece, Window View, accompanying their exhibition piece, Refuge for Resurgence, here.

To learn more about our planet’s climate emergency and how you can transform outrage into optimistic action subscribe to the podcast here.

Thank you to our amazing guests this week!

Dartington Arts School

Website | Twitter | Instagram

Caroline Till

Designer | Co-Curator of Our Time on Earth

Website | Instagram

Barbican - ‘Our Time on Earth’

Website | Twitter | Instagram

Jonathan Chippindale (Holition)

Website | Instagram | Twitter

George Monbiot

Twitter

Anab Jain and Jon Arden (Superflux)

Twitter | Instagram

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161. The Power of Disclosure with CDP’s Paul Simpson Jun 30, 2022

Show notes

This week, our hosts Tom Rivett-Carnac and Paul Dickinson sit down for an exclusive interview with Paul Simpson as he exits his role as CEO of CDP after co-founding the organization over 20 years ago.

CDP began in a basement with a few committed individuals to bring about a livable future through the disclosing of environmental data from companies around the globe. While it may have had humble beginnings from a small basement office and only a few employees in 2000, today CDP reports directly on current disclosures that cover over 13,000 companies covering around 64% of global market capitalization.

So as Paul Simpson wraps up his last few hours on the job, we look back into the roller coaster ride of how CDP discovered that disclosure of information was a latent power that existed in the world, and how they transformed it into a positive force moving both business and government towards a Paris-Aligned trajectory.

And of course it’s just not our podcast without some amazing music, so this week we have the rootsy band Our Man In The Field with an intimate performance of their single, ‘Thin (I Used To Be Bullet Proof)’.

Enjoy the show!

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Christiana + Tom’s book ‘The Future We Choose’ is available now!

Subscribe to our Climate Action Newsletter!

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Thanks to our guest this week, Paul Simpson!

Paul Simpson

Twitter | LinkedIn

CDP

Twitter | Website

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Thank you to our musical guest this week, Our Man In The Field!