One series at a time, we break down complex issues into simple questions. 

In this first series, we’ll explore climate change. Climate change is likely to affect almost every area of our lives… like a toddler with sticky fingers. But how did it become this way? What are we doing about it now? And what does the future hold?

We’ll ask smart people some simple questions and see what happens!

New episodes every Thursday.

From the University of Cambridge and Cambridge Zero

Climate change is likely to affect almost every area of our lives… but how did we get to this point? When and why did we first take notice of climate change? And why has climate change evaded our collective attention and action for so long?

We talked with professor of human geography, Mike Hulme, science historian and journalist Dr Sarah Dry and environmental economist Dr Matthew Agarwala to try to figure all of this out. Along the way, we discovered new ways of thinking about climate change, from a tragic story where the issue is constantly caught between opposing forces, to more hopefully thinking of it as a source of generative change and innovation. 

This episode was produced by Nick Saffell, James Dolan and Naomi Clements-Brod. 

From the University of Cambridge and Cambridge Zero.

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Thanks very much.

In this episode:

0:00 - Intro

03:15 - What was the starting point for human made climate change?

08:30 - Recap point

10:10 - The economics of climate change and modelling for the future.

14:45 - The tragedy and politics of climate change

16:05 - The concept of values

20:25 - Recap point

22:10 - Can we find a single answer or a single story to solve climate change?

25:50 - The concept of the wealth economy

28:00 - Denialism and climate optimism

32:35 - What we've learned from COVID

33:35 - Recap point

35:20 - Has democracy helped, or hindered climate change?

37:15 - Are there any reasons to be optimistic?

40:45 - In the next episode

Guest Bios: 

Dr Sarah Dry (@SarahDry1)

I write about the history of science. I have written about Victorian fishermen and risk, epidemics and global health policy, the life and loves of Marie Curie, and the history of Isaac Newton’s manuscripts. That last project has just been published in paperback: The Newton Papers: The Strange and True Odyssey of Isaac Newton’s Manuscripts.

My latest book is Waters of the World: The Story of the Scientists Who Unravelled the Mysteries of our Seas, Glaciers and Atmosphere–and Made the Planet Whole. It tells the stories of the scientists who have uncovered the mysteries of our oceans, atmosphere, icesheets and glaciers, and in doing so, helped us see the earth as an interconnected globe. 

https://sarahdry.com/home/

Dr Matthew Agarwala (@MatthewAgarwala)

Matthew Agarwala is an environmental economist interested in wealth-based approaches to measuring and delivering sustainable development. The pace of globalisation, innovation, and social, environmental, and economic upheaval leaves no doubt: 20th century statistics can’t capture 21st century progress. Matthew joined the Bennett Institute’s wealth economy...

Last episode, we talked about how we got to where we are now with climate change, but do we even know what’s going on with climate change right now? In this episode we’ll talk about what tipping points we’re approaching, how and why we’re still struggling to gain momentum toward action on climate change, and what difference it would make if carbon dioxide was a brown smelly substance.

To figure all of this out, we talked to a mathematician, Emily Shuckburgh, an engineer Hugh Hunt and a psychologist, Sander van der Linden. 

Along the way, we discuss solutions like geoengineering, creating a fake news ‘vaccine’ and opportunities for businesses to be more transparent about how their activities contribute to climate change. If you’re curious to find out more specific ideas about how we can build a greener future, check out Cambridge Zero’s Green Recovery Report here: https://www.zero.cam.ac.uk/green-recovery-report 

This episode was produced by Nick Saffell, James Dolan, and Naomi Clements-Brod. 

Please take our survey.

How did you find us? Do you want more Mind Over Chatter in your life? Less? We want to know. So we put together this survey. If you could please take a few minutes to fill it out, it would be a big help. Thanks very much.

In this episode:

0:00 - Intro

3:21 - How healthy is the planet at the moment?

4:35 - Are we approaching any tipping points?

6:45 - Do people understand the risk of climate change?

9:10 - Would a better understanding of the numbers help?

10:55 - What if co2 was a brown, smelly substance, would we treat it differently?

14:55 - Recap

17:30 - So how is fake news affecting action around climate change?

23:30 - We found solutions to the CFC problem and the whole in Ozone layer.

24:15 - Where do we think the responsibility lies?

26:15 - How can technology contribute to solving climate change?

29:50 - Can individuals make a difference?

31:15 - Recap

34:40 - What about societal level change?

37:45 - What are some of the more risky ways in which we could tackle climate change?

42:50 - Reasons to be optimistic?

Guest Bios:

Professor Sander van der Linden (@Sander_vdLinden)

Sander van der Linden is Professor of Social Psychology in Society in the Department of Psychology at the University of Cambridge and Director of the Cambridge Social Decision-Making Lab. His research interests center around the psychology of human judgment, communication, and decision-making, including social norms and networks, attitudes and polarization, reasoning about evidence, and the public understanding of risk and uncertainty. He is especially interested in a) the social influence process and how people gain resistance to persuasion through inoculation and b) how people form (mis)perceptions of the social world, including the emergence of social norms in shaping human cooperation and conflict in real-world collective action problems such as climate change and the spread of fake news and misinformation. 

His research is regularly featured in the popular media, including outlets such as the New York Times, the BBC, CNN, The Economist, NPR, the Washington Post and Time Magazine.

For recent profiles on Dr van der Linden's research see here, here, and