Make Climate Change a Rom-Com

EPISODE 156: What if we get it right?

It was one hell of a week for the climate here on Planet Earth. Hurricane Helene carved a terrifying, 500-mile path from Florida’s Gulf Coast, up to the Appalachian Mountains in Virginia, and into the top of last Tuesday’s vice-presidential debate.

But the reality of the climate change discourse is that we’ve seen this sort of movie before. And nothing’s really changed.

And so what I wanted to do was talk to an expert who believes that we absolutely should take climate change seriously…

But take ourselves somewhat less so.

Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson is the co-founder of the Urban Ocean Lab, a nonprofit think tank; a marine biologist; and the author of the new New York Times bestseller, What If We Get It Right? Visions of Climate Futures.

But maybe most importantly, Ayana is the expert people tend to approach, while they’re out late at a party in Brooklyn, maybe a little drunk, with a burning question:

How fucked are we?

Which means that we have ideas for how to change the way we talk about change.

DKN/YOUTUBE SPOILER ALERT:

Futuristically,

Pablo