Amplifier: An Undeniable Climate Emergency Podcast

Today we talk to the wonderful urban-environmental sociologist Hillary Angelo. Hillary is an associate professor at UC Santa Cruz who focuses on Urbanization, nature, infrastructure, sustainability, and climate change. We talk about urban planning and how building denser communities can be more impactful than simply greening neighborhoods, why we don't need to destroy intact ecosystems to build out the renewable energy infrastructure we need, and how truly addressing climate change requires changing the broken social relations and structures that caused it.

Today we are talking with artist, scientist, and activist Kelli Armstrong. A resident of the Bahamas, we talk about how the climate crisis has changed her island home. How, even in her lifetime, storms have have grown from manageable to out of control. And the importance of centering the voices of her people in disaster management in the wake of these catastrophic storms. #ClimateChange #TheBahamas #disastermanagement 

We talked with Dr. Austin Bowden-Kerby, who specializes in working with Pacific Island communities and governments to prevent the collapse of coral reefs in the face of climate change and associated mass coral death due to bleaching. He goes deep into the processes he uses to help prevent and restore coral reefs and how these wonderful marvels of nature are not just important to the seas, but for all life on earth. #Coral #CoralBleaching #ClimateEmergency

Join us for this incredible conversation with Cana Uluak Itchuaqiyaq, Iñupiaq from NW Alaska, enrolled member of the Noorvik Native Community, Virginia Tech professor and communications and rhetoric scholar. We talked about the importance of language revitalization, the ongoing struggle for sovereignty for Indigenous Arctic peoples in the face of the climate emergency, and how educational spaces can be both beneficial to Indigenous communities, but can also cause harm when not built on respectful relationships with the communities the academics are working with. #IndigenousScience #Arctic #Indigenous

We had an incredible conversation with activist, scholar and educator Gopal Dayaneni, co-founder of Movement Generation: Justice and Ecology Project (among many other important endeavors), on the centrality of social, racial and economic justice to the fight to end fossil fuels, and why climate activists need to stand up against the ongoing genocide in Gaza. #ClimateEmergency #Gaza #JustTransition #Colonialism

We had a wonderful discussion with Henri-Count Evans, lecturer at the University of Eswantini, who is an emerging scholar in journalism, climate change and environmental humanities, and media studies. We discuss the transition away from fossil fuels in Africa, the responsibilities of the Global North for helping Africa adapt to a crisis created by the Global North, along with different theoretical approaches to climate change communication and sustainability.

Join us as we talk with Senegalese meteorologist Dr. Aïda Diongue-Niang, a Vice-Chair of IPCC's Working Group I. We explore the the disparities between  Africa's negligible contribution to global heating while being most vulnerable to the devastating impacts; the inadequacy of the resources being provided for adaptation; and exploring how West Africa can build a truly sustainable and prosperous future based around the needs of the people, not the Global North.

We talk with Lina María Forero Suescün, a climate communicator, Indigenous sovereignty and gender researcher from Columbia, about how Indigenous and women's rights are not just linked to the climate emergency, but are essential to tackling it and should be centered in the climate movement globally. We also discuss how learning to grieve for our dying planet is crucial to learning how we might save it.#Columbia #IndigenousSovereignty #ClimateEmergency #ClimateGrief

Join us as we talk to the wonderful Dr. Fernando Tormos-Aponte, Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Pittsburgh, about the value of human life in the face of climate crisis, the politics of research,  the importance of solidarity and mutual aid, and how those struggles can help movements win broader political change, in Puerto Rico and beyond. He's smart, passionate, and gave us a lot to think about as we organize ourselves to a new world.

Jon our conversation with the always amazing Dr. Melinda Adams, Assistant Professor in the Department of Geography and Atmospheric Science and Indigenous Studies at The University of Kansas. She uses a mix of modern and traditional knowledge of plant, soil, and cultural fire as a climate adaption strategy. We get into the practice of cultural fire, Native American sovereignty, and the effects of climate anxiety. 

Join us as we talk with Dr. Elkanah Babatunde, a Research Fellow in the University of Cape Town’s Global Risk Governance program who focuses on climate justice in Africa and global environmental governance. We dig into the challenges for burgeoning nations in transitioning away from fossil fuels, and the many hypocrisies of the global north lecturing Africa on how they should organize that transition, naturally, to benefit corporations in the global north rather than the people of Africa. It was a great conversation, with a really fascinating thinker. I hope you’ll join us.

Today on Amplifier we talk to Monica Araya, one of the BBC's most influential inspiring women, and the Executive Director of the European Climate Foundation (https://europeanclimate.org/). She is an emissions-free transportation advocate, and has been influential in making Costa Rica a leader in fossil free energy. She is incredible, and has done way too many amazing things to list here, so come on in and let her tell you herself! #CostaRica #EmmissionFreeTransporation #climateemergency 

Flaávia Mendes is a remote sensing expert based in Brazil, focused on forestry and land use for more than 16 years, on topics ranging from the prospects for the Amazon (so, you know, all of us), decolonizing science, women in science, and so much more. She's amazing, we love her, and hope you'll take the time to join us to get to know her. And be sure to check out her podcast, scenefromabove.podbean.com/