Podcast | Yale Center for Environmental Law & Policy

#23: Jed Kaplan

The start date for what scientists call the Anthropocene - the era in which human activities begin to have a significant global impact on Earth’s ecosystems - varies widely. Some researchers point to the industrial revolution, others look much further back. In this podcast Jed Kaplan, of the Institute of Earth Surface Dynamics, University of Lausanne, Switzerland, discusses his research, focused on the role of the Earth’s land surface in the climate system – and what it reveals about how humans were transforming ecosystem more than 3,000 years ago.

#22: Dekila Chungyalpa

In this podcast WWF’s Dekila Chungyalpa, discusses the organization’s Sacred Earth program, which engages religious leaders and faith communities as stakeholders in the organization’s work. Religious leaders, Chungyalpa says, have long been the missing piece of conservation. Scientists often want to distance themselves from religion, or from addressing the moral and ethical questions inherent in many of our most critical environmental dilemmas.

#21: Whendee Silver

In this podcast, Whendee Silver, Yale F&ES ‘97 (PhD) and professor of ecosystem ecology at U.C. Berkeley, outlines how the use of composted organic material (agricultural and green waste) on rangeland soils can increase carbon storage and decrease greenhouse gas emissions.

#20: Elizabeth Barlow Rogers

In this podcast Elizabeth Barlow Rogers, president of the Foundation for Landscape Studies and founding president of the Central Park Conservancy, discusses her work as a landscape design historian and a writer examining the cultural meaning of place.

#19: Alexander Verbeek

In this two-part podcast Yale World Fellow Alexander Verbeek, strategic policy advisory on global issues at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands, discusses how to build an robust social network — and how to use it effectively to communicate key issues and build a global community (part 1). He then looks at how we might address some of the most critical environmental issues with an integrated approach that has governments working together with industry, civil society, and think tanks (part 2).

Part One:

#18: Thora Arnorsdottir

In this podcast Thora Arnorsdottir, senior news editor at the Icelandic National Broadcasting Service, documentary film producer, and 2014 Yale World Fellow, discusses her 2012 candidacy for the Presidency of Iceland, and the environmental issues, from natural resource management and green energy to the pressures of increased tourism on fragile ecosystems, that helped shape her platform – and how those issues are evolving today.

#17: Erik Christiansen

In 2013, Denmark produced more than 40 percent of its electricity from renewable energy – with more than 85 percent of this renewable energy produced by co-operatives owned and managed by ordinary citizens. In this podcast, Erik Christiansen, of Copenhagen Business School and the Middelgrunen Wind Co-op, outlines how Denmark has approached its renewable energy transition, and why the country is still on track to meet its targets: 50 percent from wind by 2020, 100 percent renewable electricity by 2030, and 100 percent renewable transportation by 2050.

#16: George Marshall

Climate change does not exist for people in terms of the evidence, however strong it is; it exists in the socially constructed narratives that we have around it. And these narratives become the life and essence of the issue rather than the true and major threat it represents. In this podcast George Marshall, founder of the Climate Outreach Information Network, discusses how we might break the silence that commonly defines the climate change narrative by being open about our convictions and beliefs.

#15: Dan Simberloff

From battered Asian carp to wild boar bacon, fighting invasive species at the dinner table has become an increasingly popular trend, even catching the attention of NPR commentator Bonny Wolf. While invasivory might make for some interesting recipes — lionfish nachos anyone? —is it an effective strategy for control? In this podcast University of Tennessee Professor Dan Simberloff and Yale postdoc and invasion biologist Sara Kuebbing discuss their concerns with the tactic.

#14: Megan Parker

Whether locating wire snares in Africa or dyer’s woad in the western United States, dogs are helping conservationists monitor wildlife and eradicate invasive species. In this podcast, Megan Parker, executive director and co-founder of Working Dogs for Conservation, visits with invasion biologist and Yale postdoc Sara Kuebbing about the organization, the dogs, and the dog/handler team’s key projects.