CLIMATE HOUR – Tipping points are thresholds at which a tiny change can alter an entire system. A climate tipping point is a critical threshold at which a regional climate system changes from one stable state to another stable state. For example, the state of a region changing from cropland to desert. Or, in the case of today’s topic, the Arctic changing from an ice pack to open ocean.

A study published by the American Association for the Advancement of Science, has identified nine global climate tipping points. We’ve already reached two of them. The collapse of the Greenland Ice Sheet, and the collapse of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet. And continuing business as usual will trigger another four of the world’s remaining climate tipping points. Once we cross a tipping point, we can never go back. And each tipping point crossed accelerates the approach of the next tipping point.

Join host, Bob Grove, and Dr Richard Davy to discuss World Tipping Points: Emerging Collapse Of The Arctic Sea Ice.

Dr Davy is the Senior Researcher in Polar Climate at the Nansen Environmental and Remote Sensing Center with the Bjerknes Center for Climate Research in Bergen, Norway. For the last decade, he’s worked on the physics of global climate change to forecast how our climate future.

• https://nersc.no/en/
• https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0C6JPDD24

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CLIMATE HOUR – One of the major drivers of climate change is perpetual economic growth. Throwing things away and buying new stuff emits far more carbon than repairing items or just creating durable products in the first place. During periods of economic recession, people buy less and emissions drop. For instance, the Great Recession of 2008 produced an emissions drop of 9.9% in the U.S. In contrast, the Covid pandemic of 2020 produced an emissions drop of 7%; less than that of a comparable economic downturn. None of us want to live through recession or pandemic to address climate change. But looking at these events show us how tightly our social and economic structures are linked to the climate crisis. And they show us that we can modify our behaviors without an economic crash. We can embrace social and economic reform to live a sustainable life and bring an end to the climate crisis.

Join host, Bob Grove, and Dr Juliet Schor to discuss Opportunities for Climate Action Through Social And Economic Reform.

Dr Schor is an economist and Professor of Sociology at Boston College, where her research focuses on work, consumption and climate change. She received her Ph.D. in economics from the University of Massachusetts, is a former Guggenheim Fellow, and is a former Brookings Institution Fellow. Dr Schor has received the American Sociological Association’s award for Public Understanding of Sociology, the Herman Daly Award from the US Society for Ecological Economics, and the George Orwell Award for Distinguished Contributions to Honesty and Clarity in Public Language. She’s served as a consultant to the United Nations and to the World Institute for Development Economics Research.

Dr Schor is a co-founder of the Center for a New American Dream and on the Board of Trustees for the Better Future Project. Her recent books include After The Gig, Plenitude, Born To Buy, The Overspent American, The Overworked American, and her latest book, Four Days A Week.

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juliet_Schor
• https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0C6JPDD24

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CLIMATE HOUR – A sustainable future is certainly no guarantee at this point. There are simply too many systems broken. And that’s why it’s so important to envision a sustainable future. For without a vision we have no direction, and without direction we just wander around until it’s too late. We have to envision the future we want, then develop frameworks and treaties to get us there.

There are many things we can do individually to assure that our lives are the best they can be in today’s less than sustainable world. But a better world takes coordinated action at a governmental level. Governmental groups like the E.U. and the United Nations are taking the lead in developing sustainable policies and frameworks like the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals, and the United Nations Environmental Program. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), and the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES). It is the scientists and staff of these and other groups that are our best hope for transitioning the world to a sustainable future.

Join host, Bob Grove, and Dr Laura Pereira to discuss How To Transition The World To A Sustainable Future.

Dr Pereira is a Professor in Sustainability Transformations and Futures with the Global Change Institute at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa, and a researcher at the Stockholm Resilience Centre at the Stockholm University in Sweden. Laura is trained in ecology, law, zoology, and human geography. She holds a Doctor of Philosophy in Geography and Environmental Science from the University of Oxford, and has worked as a Giorgio Ruffolo & Gundle Fellow in sustainability science with the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.

Laura is an Earth Commissioner, a lead author of the Transformative Change Assessment Report by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), and a lead author on the United Nations Environmental Program’s (UNEP) seventh Global Environmental Outlook (GEO7) assessment report.

To learn more, visit …

• https://futureecosystemsafrica.org/
• https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0C6JPDD24

View other Climate Hour episodes at www.ClimateHour.net.