Fascinating lives, deep convictions, dedication to self-mastery...these are the stories within Rare Air. Meri Fatin's curiosity and light touch as an interviewer allows the teller to guide the narrative. Prepare to be enlightened.
Petra Tschakert: Geologist, Anthropologist, IPCC Scientist
"Overshoot means we consciously and willingly allow to go above 1.5 while waiting for the right technology...to then rapidly bring down the overshoot. It would fulfill the goal laid out in the Paris Agreement however the damage done on the way is tremendous.
The obligation of scientists is to lay out different ( plausible) scenarios. Its governments and industries who then take these plausible scenarios and insist that we have the luxury to wait because technical solutions will save us in the end. The reason why this interpretation is so flawed (and I think this is when I cracked on the IPCC 1.5 Special Report) was the realisation that an overshoot...could mean an eight degree warming for the Arctic."
Petra Tschakert is Professor of Geography and Global Futures at Curtin University where she has recently begun her tenure.
She is a human-environment geographer, motivated to use her research to strengthen resilience in communities experiencing disadvantage. She does this working at the intersection of a number of elements: climate change adaptation, sustainability, livelihood security, and climate, mobility, energy, and multispecies justice.
And the inter-disciplinary approach Petra has taken to her education will give you a good idea of how she can function in all these spaces. Geography and French in Austria led to working in community development in Senegal and then to a dissertation on soil carbon sequestration, also in Senegal, a PhD in arid lands resource sciences and applied anthropology in Arizona …the list goes on.
Petra was a Coordinating Lead Author in Working Group 2 of the IPCC’s Fifth Assessment Report (AR5), and contributed to its Summary for Policy Makers and the Synthesis Report, all of which fed into COP21 and the Paris Agreement. Then she worked on the IPCC Special Report on 1.5 degrees global warming post-Paris.
Petra now co-chairs the National Strategy on Just Adaptation, led by the Australian Academy of Science and Future Earth Australia, and leads the Energy Humanities Initiative at Curtin.
19 Nov 2022
Peter Newman: Environmental Scientist and Sustainable Transport expert
"We changed the world to start to see that automobile dependence was not a good thing...we were much hated by the automobile associations, the vehicle companies, the oil companies. They used to run people who would follow us everywhere. And they were given money to write papers attacking us."
Professor Peter Newman reflecting on his work in the US with colleague Professor Jeff Kenworthy
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WA Scientist of the Year in 2018, Peter Newman AO is Professor of Sustainability at Curtin University where he established CUSP, the Curtin Sustainability Policy Institute.
He’s one of those people it’s hard to introduce because of the sheer volume of his achievements.
As well as being a renowned authority on sustainability in WA, and an adviser at a Federal level, Peter’s international work includes being co-ordinating lead author on a number of reports with the IPCC – the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
He’s authored hundreds of publications including over 20 books, some of which are used as texts in the USA. His primary focus is transport and the solutions that would vastly improve the liveability of our cities.
Peter began his career as a foundation lecturer in Environmental Sciences at Murdoch University in 1974 and consequently is a senior knowledge holder and champion in the overarching story of environmentalism in WA.
Recorded at RTRFM, Beaufort Street Mount Lawley Western Australia on August 23, 2022
Mastered by Adrian Sardi at Sugarland
Theme music by Blue Dot Sessions
26 Feb 2022
Saul Griffith: Australia's Electric Future
If you follow thought leaders on the energy transition, you’ll be familiar with the hashtag Electrify Everything.
The argument is that a huge proportion of ‘global energy needs’ can be met with electricity sourced from renewables – and to use it we simply need to – electrify everything.
This is the message of Australian inventor and engineer Saul Griffith – recently returned from two decades in the US where he’s advised, among others, NASA and the Biden Administration. Saul Griffith's book, “The Big Switch – Australia’s Electric Future” details some very clear thinking that could drive Australia's energy transition pathway.
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