#15 Professor Millan Millan: The Second Leg of Climate Change

"Water begets water, soil is the womb, and vegetation is the midwife." -Professor Millan Millan In this episode we learn about what Professor Millan Millan calls "the second leg of human-induced climate change": how our land use changes lead to major disruptions of weather and climate patterns, independently of changes due to warming from carbon emissions. As Millan shares, the international scientific community has known for fifty years that anthropogenic climate change has two legs: greenhouse gases and surface property changes due to land use change. While business and politics have assimilated the greenhouse gas narrative, addressing the climate effects of our land use will require far more fundamental changes. In these conversations with Professor Millan, we'll hear about the processes involved in the land use leg of climate change, and how we can act to address it. As I mention in the introduction, this episode is a bit long, around two and a half hours, since I wanted to include as much as possible from my time with Millan learning about this important topic. A good breaking point if you need it, after the audio from our first visit, is at 1:24:17. Here's links to papers mentioned in the episode: Millán MM. 2014. Extreme hydrometeorological events and climate change predictions in Europe. Journal of Hydrology 518: 206–224 Science for Environment Policy (2015) Soil and Water: a larger-scale perspective. Thematic Issue 52. Issue produced for the European Commission DG Environment by the Science Communication Unit, UWE, Bristol. https://www.rainforclimate.com/article/water-for-recovery-of-the-climate---a-new-water-paradigm And here are the books mentioned in the episode: Inadverdent Climate Modification, by MIT Press Mesoscale Meteorlogical Modelling, Roger A. Pielke Sr. Mesoscale Atmospheric Circulations, B.W. Atkinson Atmospheric Thermodynamics, J.V. Iribarne and W.L. Godson And thank you to Peia, for gifting the use of her song The Old Ways Restored as the background music for the introduction. She is an amazing singer and songwriter, and carries old folk songs from cultures around the world, from times when folks were more connected to the natural world. https://peiasong.com/