Tag: global warming

Luisa Neubauer Presents the Human Side of Climate Change in the New Spotify Original Podcast ‘1,5 Grad’

November 18, 2020

In 2019, Luisa Neubauer emerged as one of the public faces of the youth-led movement to combat global warming, powering the Fridays for Future climate strikes in Germany. Now, she’s taking her knowledge and combining it with a call for urgency, empowerment, and action through a new platform: podcast.

Her new Spotify Original podcast, 1,5 Grad, or “1.5 Degrees,” which launched last week, is already the number one German show on Spotify’s trending charts. In each impactful episode, Luisa speaks to leading scientists and activists who explain the ways in which climate change is impacting our world. Throughout the show, she explores the issue in-depth with the people on the ground fighting the devastation.

“The climate crisis is usually perceived as a crisis of the climate,” Luisa says. “It’s not. It’s a crisis of people. The climate will be fine—we won’t.”

For the Record sat down with Luisa to talk about the meaning of 1.5 degrees; Fridays for Future, the youth-led climate movement; global warming as a social issue; and more.

How did creating a podcast fit into your climate activism work? How does its impact differ from a march or rally?

What I do, and so many others do, is fight for the people and their right to grow old on a safe planet, no matter where they live. Yet this is not the story that is being told. With this podcast I wanted to tell the stories of the people, to dig deep. And to allow myself to approach the climate crisis with curiosity and empathy. I usually organize and mobilize for rallies. This podcast hopefully doesn’t just inform, but inspires people to take the crisis personally and to start understanding oneself as part of the solution.

Can you explain the title of the podcast? What is the significance of 1.5 degrees?

1.5 degrees Celsius is the global compromise that was made by signing the Paris Agreement. On a diplomatic level, the fact that there is such an international agreement is incredible. It is also where the world community is drawing the line in terms of destruction and suffering. And it is also the only guarantee for younger generations that promises them to grow old on an inhabitable planet. The science is very clear about the kind of danger zone we enter once we pass 1.5. This is what I committed to fight for, alongside so many others.

What can listeners expect in each episode?

I take people with me, bring them to experts, thinkers and activists, invite them to our conversation. It’s gonna be more emotional than a science podcast, more interactive than a discussion podcast. To me, this podcast feels like the listeners, the team and I, alongside my guest, sign up to an exploration.

What do people misunderstand about the climate justice movement?

Well the climate crisis is one gigantic injustice, and it produces more injustices. When we ask ourselves why exactly we are doing this, why we are fighting, why we are committing all our time to this—we inherently talk about justice. Those who are affected today, those at the front line, we refer to them as MAPA (most affected people and areas); they are the ones who remind us every day that Fridays for Future is not that much about the future as it is about the present. It’s about the very present threat the climate crisis is posing to those who are often overlooked yet should be listened to.

How is climate justice an issue of social equality as well?

The climate crisis is sometimes perceived as an issue of the elites who don’t have any other problems to care about. This is not only a misleading, but a dangerous framing. As the climate crisis escalates, it is posing more and more injustices to the ones who are already marginalized by race and gender. Engaging in real, sustainable, and just climate action is essential for real social equality.

What do you want listeners to take away after hearing the podcast?

I just really hope people ask themselves very honestly: What is my role in this crisis? Am I really doing everything I can? What is the story I will once tell about where I was, when we knew everything we needed about this crisis—and also knew there was still time to fight it?

What actions do you recommend for someone looking to get involved in climate justice for the first time?

Climate strike! Join an organization! Talk about it! Call your local politician about it! Spread the word. But mostly: climate strike and believe in yourself. Everyone counts. The power of people works when people start taking themselves seriously. That is what we ask you to do.

Check out the first episode of 1,5 Grad and watch for new episodes the second Tuesday of every month.

Join Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson and Gimlet’s Alex Blumberg as They Discuss ‘How to Save a Planet’ in Their New Podcast

August 20, 2020

Anyone can search “10 things I can do to help save the planet.” And according to marine biologist, policy expert, and Urban Ocean Lab founder Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson, that’s a problem. “People feel satisfied when they’ve bought their reusable bag and water bottle and ride their bike everywhere.” It’s not enough, she says. To mitigate the effects of climate change, we need to take collective action by transforming electricity, transportation, construction, manufacturing, agriculture, and land use, to name a few.

So where to begin? That’s the question that Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson and Gimlet cofounder Alex Blumberg seek to answer in their new podcast, How to Save a Planet.

Nine months ago, the pair started talking about producing a podcast on combating climate change with expert-led, actionable solutions. Then they recruited a knowledgeable team that includes journalists Kendra Peirre-Louis and Rachel Waldholz, Gimlet producers Caitlin Kenney and Anna Ladd, and sound engineer Emma Munger to help in creating a podcast that will continue to evolve as people take systematic action on climate change

In creating the podcast, the team aimed to engage listeners, give them concrete, large steps to take part in during every show, and tell the stories of people around the world already mobilizing around climate change. So in addition to interviews with academic leaders like Kate Marvel and youth activists like Varshini Prakesh, Alex and Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson will also talk to individuals like farmers and fishermen who’ve started to make changes after decades of not thinking about sustainability. And what they’ve found? It’s working for them—and the climate. 

For the Record sat down with the cohosts to get the inside scoop on How to Save a Planet. 

A lot of people feel that the issue of climate change is really out of our control. How do you think people can start to take the power back into their own hands when it comes to addressing the issue?

Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson: I think we need more journalism focused on solutions, because we’re finally at the point where we have the journalistic expertise and the media support for talking about climate science and how climate change is already impacting people. But we don’t have nearly enough media about what we should do about all the solutions that are already at hand and how people can be part of larger systematic change, instead of just being stressed out about their individual carbon footprint all the time.

Alex Blumberg: What we want to do is increase the range of options, because people are all different and you can probably engage in a way that leverages your particular skills and personality that isn’t just like a sort of one-size-fits-all solution. So hopefully, this podcast can provide more ways for people to plug into a more effective solution because it’ll be something that appeals to them particularly.

What have you learned about climate change in this process that you were not expecting? Anything that really blew your mind? 

Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson: One of the things that’s really fascinating is how many people are working on climate solutions without ever talking about climate, even if it’s their motivation, because they just don’t want to complicate things or make them “political.” Whether that’s on how we manage the chemicals in air conditioners that are extremely potent greenhouse gases or how we transition agriculture or ramp up wind energy. There are often financial reasons for doing the right thing in terms of climate now, especially with how the technologies and the markets have evolved.

Alex Blumberg: The reason that people are actually taking action is because it’s usually better for them on a straight-ahead “what’s in it for me” calculation. And that’s what’s been sort of very surprising and very hopeful. Like, people who are doing regenerative farming are more profitable than when they weren’t doing it. There’s no downside. What’s been shocking to me is the more we talk to these folks, the more we realize there is literally no reason we shouldn’t make these changes, because they’re actually all-around better. I think people know that, but telling that story is really important. 

How is making this podcast different from the podcasts you’ve made in the past?

Alex Blumberg: The aim is a little bit different. The aim of every other podcast that I’ve worked on is to share a story, share experience, create understanding, but not to like galvanize action. That’s new. I think we all want this podcast to be part of a solution itself.

Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson: If part of our goal is to help people be part of real systems-level change, as opposed to stressing out about whether they’re allowed to get on an airplane or eat a hamburger, then we need to actually point people towards things they can be part of. One of my hopes is certainly that in one of these episodes, each of our listeners will find a place where they feel like they fit in, where they have something they can contribute. Not everyone wants to go to utility board meetings or start farming seaweed, but hopefully some people will raise a ruckus for their local utility boards to transition to renewables or rethink their farming practices.

Alex has said that he’s a big believer in the power of podcasts. What do you each think is the power of this podcast?

Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson: I think there’s a very simple power, which is to help people not feel so alone, right? This podcast can help nurture a community of listeners that feel like we’re all in it together and perhaps feel informed and motivated enough to deepen their involvement in climate solutions, to understand where they can actually plug in and then charge ahead with it, and hopefully report back to us and let us know how it’s going, because we’re really excited for those stories, too.

Alex Blumberg: In the moment that we’re in right now with climate, a lot of people are very terrified. Justifiably, it’s a scary moment, but people don’t have anything to do with that terror, and they’re sort of sitting with it alone. And so a lot of people are like, “I believe you. I believe you, it’s bad. I just don’t know what to do.” We’re hoping that our podcast can be a place for people who feel that way to not be alone with that feeling and actually turn that feeling into action, which will make it feel less helpless and more positive.

Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson: Alex, does it feel like the stakes are higher on this one?

Alex Blumberg: It does. Yeah, it does.

Tune into the first episode of How to Save a Planet now. Plus, preorder All We Can Save: Truth, Courage, and Solutions for the Climate Crisis, coedited by Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson and featuring many of the podcast’s guests.