Climate Change and The Many Faces of Denial: Recent Episodes
Don Shafer
Most of these interviews were recorded between 2016 & 2018 while working at Roundhouse Radio. They were used to assist in writing my master's thesis with Simon Fraser University, "Climate Change and The Many Faces of Denial." https://theses.lib.sfu.ca/file/thesis/4626
Some new interviews have been added that build on this work.
In this episode Katharine Hayhoe talks about what she's been up to and offers some interesting ideas of how to have difficult conversations.
This is a conversation from the Victoria Forum. A collaboration between the Senate of Canada and the University of Victoria. I was asked to moderate this plenary session, "Bridging Environmental Divides: Shifting our relationship with the natural world from extractive to regenerative." This conversation analyzes our quest to shift our relationship with the natural world from extractive to regenerative by bridging environmental divides and exploring the many conversational ecosystems that come along with them. Our panel consists of Balgis Osman Elisha, Senator Rosa Galvez, Wendy Smith, and Kresse Wesling.
You can watch all of the sessions from this 3 day event at thevictoriaforum.ca
Heartfelt thanks to Saul Klein, Natalie Slawinski, and the organizers for permission to bring this to our campus and community radio stations.
In this episode from another conversation, we talk about the power of paradox and how it impacts the work we do including climate change.
Professor, author, poet, and lecturer, David Talks about the conversational nature of reality. That place between where who we think we are and what we expect of the world and what others think and expect of us is the only place that's real. We talk about his family and his work. One of my favorites!
Dr. Scranton is an Associate Professor of English at the University of Notre Dame, where he teaches creative writing and environmental humanities. Roy is an essayist, novelist, literary critic, and climate philosopher, best known for his work on war, war literature, and the Anthropocene. He is the author of five books and has written widely for publications such as the New York Times, Rolling Stone, MIT Technology Review, the Yale Review, and elsewhere. At the time of this interview, Learning to Die in the Anthropocene had just been released. One of the more sobering conversations I've had over the years and one I always return to!
Marketing guru and former CEO of the David Suzuki Foundation. We talk about climate change and as well as pollution in the public square, where a toxic smog of adversarial rhetoric, propaganda, and polarization stifles discussion and debate, creating resistance to change and thwarting our ability to solve our collective problems.
In this second edition of I'm Right and You're an Idiot , James Hoggan grapples with this critical issue, through interviews with outstanding thinkers and drawing on wisdom from highly regarded public figures. Featuring a new, radically revised prologue, afterword, and a new chapter addressing the changes in the public discourse since the 2016 United States election, his comprehensive analysis explores:
Naomi Oreskes is a Professor of the History of Science and Affiliated Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Harvard University. A world-renowned geologist, historian and public speaker, she is a leading voice on the role of science in society and the reality of anthropogenic climate change.
Al Gore is an American politician, businessman, and environmentalist who served as the 45th vice president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He is an environmental activist whose work in climate change activism earned him the Nobel Peace Price with the IPPC in 2007. This was recorded in Seattle during our Climate Reality Project training.
Andrew J. Hoffman is a professor of sustainable enterprise at the University of Michigan. He is a leader in using organizational networks and strategic analysis to assess the implications of environmental issues for business. He has published over 16 books and over 100 articles. The last time we met in Vancouver Andy was on sabbatical and we were able to spend some time talking about his latest book How Culture Shapes the Climate Debate. Our conversation focused on culture, ideology and building social consensus on climate change.
Director, Writer, and Producer of Secrets From the Ice, a documentary, tells us about what got him into film-making and enticed him about this project which offers a look at some never seen artifacts that recently ‘released themselves’ from the melting ice in the Yukon.
John Englander is an oceanographer, multi-book author, and international speaker on climate change and Sea Level Rise (SLR). Located in Boca Raton, FL, John frequently travels for both science and business. In this episode, we talk about what Vancouver is doing to get prepared. John is joined by Brad Badelt, Assistant Director, The City of Vancouver Sustainability Group.
Mark Maslin is a Professor of Earth System Science at UCL. Maslin is a leading scientist with particular expertise in understanding the Anthropocene and how it relates to the major challenges facing humanity in the 21st century.
Katharine Hayhoe is an atmospheric scientist who studies climate change. She teaches political science at Texaz Tech Univerisity where she is the Director of the Climate Science Center. In her role as Chief Scientist, Katharine is responsible for the TNC’s wider portfolio of global climate advocacy and adaptation work.
Katharine has served as lead author on the Second, Third, and Fourth National Climate Assessments. She also hosts and produces the PBS Digital Series, Global Weirding, and serves on advisory committees for a broad range of organizations including the Smithsonian Natural History Museum, the Earth Science Women’s Network, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Chad Frischmann is the CEO and Founder of Regenerative Intelligence (RegenIntel), a global ecosystem superpowered by a network of world-class system thinkers and doers creating a virtuous cycle of collaborative intelligence, that enables the effective implementation of the highest impact ‘system of solutions’ for the planet and for people at scale.
From 2014-2022, prior to launching RegenIntel, Chad was the co-author the New York Times best-seller Drawdown: The Most Comprehensive Plan Ever Proposed to Reverse Global Warming. At the time I spoke with Chad Frischmann, he was Project Drawdown’s Vice President and Research Director.
Eric Peterson of the Hakai Institute discusses their research in climate change and the recent discovery of a 14,000- year-old village of the BC coast.
Gabrielle Hecht is a Professor of Nuclear Security at CISAC, Senior Fellow at FSI, Professor of History, and Professor (by courtesy) of Anthropology.
Her current research explores radioactive residues, mine waste, air pollution, and African Anthropocenes.
Director of Graduate Studies for Environmental Studies, Associate Professor of Sociology and Environmental Studies with the University of Oregon. A specialty of Karis is living with denial. Other interests in Interests: Gender, Place and Environment, Social Psychology and Interaction, Sociology of Culture, Theory Knowledge Science, Qualitative Approaches.
Kelly Oliver is an American philosopher specializing in feminism, political philosophy and ethics. She is W. Alton Jones Professor of Philosophy at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. She is also a founder of the feminist philosophy journal philoSOPHIA. We spend much of our time discussing Animal Lessons, how they teach us to be human.
Connie Zweig, Ph.D., is a retired therapist, writer, Climate Reality Leader, and Citizens Climate Lobbyist. Known as the Shadow Expert, she is co-author of Meeting the Shadow and Romancing the Shadow and author of Meeting the Shadow of Spirituality and a novel, A Moth to the Flame: The Life of Sufi Poet Rumi.
Brian Stafford, MD, MPH is a depth psychiatrist, wilderness guide, poet, essayist, and agent of human and cultural transformation. Previously, he was an academic pediatrician, and an adult, adolescent, child, perinatal, and infant psychiatrist with numerous clinical, research, and educational publications as well as many institutional, state, and national awards.
Hann Morris is an Assistant Professor at the School of the Environment at the University of Toronto with research interests in climate change media and communication, culture and climate politics, transnational climate movements, and authoritarianism and the climate crisis. Previously, she was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania.
Tzeporah is a Canadian environmental activist, adjunct professor, and the International Program Director at Stand.earth. She is also the Chair of the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Initiative. In 2019 Tzeporah received the Climate Breakthrough Project Award, which included $2 million USD to create breakthrough global strategies on climate change.
Jason W. Moore is a world historian, historical geographer, and associate professor of Sociology at Binghamton University. He is the author of several books; Capitalism in the Web of Life, and editor of Anthropocene or Capitalocene? Nature, History, and the Crisis of Capitalism (PM Press, 2016). A History of the World in Seven Cheap Things: A Guide to Capitalism, Nature, and the Planet (with Raj Patel). He coordinates the World-Ecology Research Network and is presently completing Ecology and the Rise of Capitalism.
The first recipients of the newly created David Suzuki Foundation Fellowships feature conversations with Brett Dolter, Jerome Laviolette, and Melina Laboucan-Massimo. We are also joined by Harpreet Johan the DSF Senior Fellowship Specialist who shares more information about this program.
Olena is the Director of The Climate Reality Projects Leadership Training. Olena talks about what brought her to Al Gore’s team, Climate Reality Project training, and what trainers and leaders can accomplish and expect from the annual conference.
Sara Harris is a Canadian scientist, and professor in the department of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences, and the associate dean academic in the Faculty of Science at the University of British Columbia. Her fields o interest include the art of teaching, climate science, climate change, oceanography, paleoceanography, and science education.
Chief Robert Joseph, Hereditary Chief of the Gawawaenuk First Nations, and David Patterson a Vancouver Lawyer practicing in the field of Aboriginal rights discuss the Walk for Reconciliation and what reconciliation can mean in our community, Canada, and the world.
Geoff Dembiki offers a contemporary view of how the future will be impacted by millennials who could be the first to experience the doomsday impacts of climate change. It's also the last generation able to do something about them. Dembicki aptly alludes, the collective voice does make a difference, and the social media savvy of the millennials is unparalleled.
Tero Mustonen works for the Snowchange Cooperative, Finland. He also is an adjunct professor at the Department of Geographical and Historical Studies, University of Eastern Finland. He served as a Lead Author for the 6th IPCC Assessment. He is a winter seiner.
In this episode, we look at how one of the largest ocean-going scientific research vessels is offering scientists the ability to find out what is happening to our oceans as our climate changes.
In this episode, Naomi discusses her views of the world and her new book No Is Not Enough, Resisting Shock Politics, and Winning the World We Need. We talk about why we need history, politics, strategy, and optimism and that another world is possible.
Ann discusses her career and her new musical The Mysteries. Ann is fascinated with the ancient myth of Persephone in the underworld and believes that its powerful impact on the thought leaders of western civilization has continued through the centuries. She trusts that if we can revision the myth the impact could change the world.
Michael E. Mann is a Presidential Distinguished Professor of Earth & Environmental Science at the University of Pennsylvania with a secondary appointment in the Annenberg School for Communication. He is also director of the Penn Center for Science, Sustainability and the Media (PCSSM).
Eliza is the President of Burns Bog Conservation Society and she talks about the importance of supporting conservation and educational lands around Vancouver and Seattle.
Lynne Quarmby is a Canadian scientist, activist, and politician. She is a professor and Chair of the Department of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry at Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, British Columbia.
Torrance Coste was born and raised on Vancouver Island in constant contact with nature, and developed strong environmentalist values at a young age. He pursued this passion into post-secondary education, and earned a degree in Geography from the University of Victoria in 2010. Torrance is constantly analyzing and critiquing resource policy, and envisions a world beyond unsustainable extraction-based economies. Torrance serves as a campaigner and spokesperson for the Wilderness Committee, and in his spare time can be found on the hiking trails and secret swimming spots on the Island.
David Miller is the North American Director, C40 Climate Leadership Group, and Global Ambassador of inclusive climate action. Prior to joining the C40, David was a former Toronto mayor and CEO of the World Wildlife Fund.
Professor of both the Psychology and Institute for Resources Environment and Sustainability departments at UBC, Jiaying Zhao talks about their research on what shapes behaviours around climate change.
Dr. Wabnitz is a marine scientist interested in understanding the functioning of ecosystems, how these may respond to human pressures and natural forcing, and the design, together with government, industry, NGOs and local communities, of appropriate measures for the sustainable use of their resources and the long term conservation of their services.
Is an ecologist, adjunct professor in Environmental Studies at the University of Victoria, and science coordinator for the Central Coast Indigenous Resource Alliance. With First Nations of British Columbia's Central Coast, he conducts research on marine ecology and conservation.