Utopia is Now

Bob has been the executive director of the Solar Electric Light Fund (or SELF for short) since 1997. Under his leadership, SELF has installed over 650 solar energy systems in 25 countries, making it one of the world’s leading nongovernmental organizations that designs and implements solar energy-based solutions for those living without access to electricity. An early advocate of access to energy a...

Introduction Today I am joined by Dr. John Cook. Dr. Cook is a Senior Research Fellow with the Melbourne Centre for Behaviour Change at the University of Melbourne. He obtained his PhD at the University of Western Australia, studying the cognitive psychology of climate science denial. His research focus is understanding and countering misinformation about climate change. In 2007, he founded Skepti...

Dr. Roger Cohen is an entrepreneur, focused on addressing climate change through innovative solutions. He leads C2Zero and the Real Carbon Price Index (RCPI), initiatives aimed at reducing carbon emissions. Roger was part of the founding team at BetaShares and has held senior roles at Macquarie Bank, Deutsche Bank, and NatWest. Roger has lectured in risk management to engineering students at the U...

George Marshall (born 1964) is a British environmental campaigner, communications specialist and writer. He is the founder of Climate Outreach and is a specialist in climate communication. He is the author of Carbon Detox (2007) and Don't Even Think About It: Why Our Brains Are Wired to Ignore Climate Change (2014). Links ______________________________ Profile: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/climatege...

Dr. Dhanasree Jayaram is a Senior Assistant Professor at Manipal Academy of Higher Education and serves as the co-coordinator of the Centre for Climate Studies. She specialises in geopolitics and international relations, with a focus on environmental and climate security, climate diplomacy, and environmental geopolitics in Southern Asia, the Indo-Pacific, and polar regions. Dr. Jayaram is the auth...

Genevieve Guenther is the founding director of End Climate Silence and affiliate faculty at The New School, where she sits on the board of the Tishman Environment and Design Center. While writing the End Climate Silence newsletter, Dr. Guenther advises NGOs, corporations, and policymakers on fossil-fuel disinformation and climate communication, and she serves as an Expert Reviewer for the United N...

Dr Camelia Dewan is an environmental anthropologist focusing on the anthropology of development. She holds a PhD in Social Anthropology and Environment from the University of London (SOAS/Birkbeck) and is an Associate Senior Lecturer in Cultural Anthropology examining the socio-environmental effects of shipbreaking in Bangladesh. Dr Dewan is the author of Misreading the Bengal Delta: Climate Chang...

Dr Jeff Rotman is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Marketing and co-director of the Better Consumption Lab at Deakin Business School. He is the recipient of the 2021 Vice-Chancellor’s Early Career Researcher Award for Career Excellence. He specialises in research on consumer psychology with a specific focus on the areas of ethics, emotion, and sustainability. Links _______________________ Je...

Dr Robin Lamboll researches what humans emit into our atmosphere, what effects it will have on us, and what we can do about it. Robin completed a PhD in the physics of solar cells at the University of Cambridge, modeling the behavior of new designs of solar cells, and has an MSci in Natural Sciences from Cambridge. Robin has previously worked as a quantitative consultant and successfully represent...

Professor Harini Nagendra is the Director of the Research Centre at Azim Premji University in Bangalore, India, and leads the University’s Centre for Climate Change and Sustainability. Nagendra is known for her research spanning over 30 years on forest conservation, and urban sustainability, with several seminal publications in both areas of work. Her interdisciplinary work on forests combines rem...

Donnie Maclurcan Ph. D. leads the Post Growth Institute, an international organization exploring how we thrive within ecological limits. Believing purpose-driven enterprise is at the heart of a healthy market economy, he has consulted to over 500 not-for-profit projects and businesses, across 32 countries. His own initiatives include leading the development of the Offers and Needs Market, the Post...

Chris has more than 15 years of experience in researching climate policy and climate communications. Chris is also a contributing author for the IPCC Working Group I Sixth Assessment Report, serves as a Non-Executive Director of the award-winning environmental news organization DeSmog, is an Associate of the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, and holds the position of Research Associate i...

Tim Buckley, Director, Climate Energy Finance (CEF) has 30 years of financial market experience covering the Australian, Asian and global equity markets from both a buy and sell side perspective. Tim was formerly Director Energy Finance Studies, Australia/South Asia, IEEFA, and was a Managing Director, Head of Equity Research at Citigroup for 17 years until 2008. Links _______________________ Cont...

Dr Eshana Bragg is an ecopsychologist with over 30 years of experience in the field. Links _____________________ The Joyality Project: www.joyality.org Jagera EcoCommunity: www.ecocommunity.org.au Timestamps ____________________ 0:00 - Intro & Eshana’s Story 10:21 - What is Eco-Psychology & Deep Ecology? 19:20 - What are the psychological impacts on people due to the Anthropocene? 24:24 - Window o...

Rodolfo Dirzo is Professor of Biology and Earth Systems Science at Stanford University. Rodolfo's scientific work examines the study of species interactions in tropical ecosystems from California, Latin America, and other tropical areas of the world. Recent research highlights the decline of animal life (“defaunation”), and how this affects ecosystem processes/services (e.g. disease regulation...

Lionel Page is a Professor of Economics and the Director of the Behavioural and Economic Science Cluster at the University of Queensland. He has worked on a wide range of topics in behavioural economics, such as risk preferences, social preferences and strategic behaviour. Timestamps _____________________ 0:00 - Teaser 1:14 - A Quick Story & Introduction to Lionel Page 8:48 - Rationality &...

Ben Newell Professor of Cognitive Psychology and Deputy Head of the School of Psychology at the University of New South Wales. Ben’s research focuses on the cognitive processes underlying judgment, choice and decision-making, and the application of this knowledge to environmental, medical, financial and forensic contexts. He is the lead author of Straight Choices: The Psychology of Decision Making...

Aaron Vansintjan is the Author of 'The Future is Degrowth' & Co-Editor of Uneven Earth. Aaron completed his PhD Candidate in the Department of Film, Media, and Cultural Studies at Birkbeck, University of London. He studies gentrification in Montreal and Hanoi. His PhD research draws on the fields of urban geography, comparative urbanism, political ecology, ecological economics, and foo...

Matthew T. Huber is Professor of Geography at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University. He is the author of Lifeblood: Oil, Freedom and the Forces of Capital and Climate Change as Class War.    Links ___________________  Contact: utopiaisnow2020@gmail.com  Matt Huber:  https://www.maxwell.syr.edu/directory... Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3jkFkD3 Apple Podcast: https...

Professor Karoly was leader of the Earth Systems and Climate Change Hub in the Australian Government’s National Environmental Science Program, based in CSIRO, during 2018 to June 2021. During 2012-2017, he was a member of the Climate Change Authority, which provides advice to the Australian government on responding to climate change, including targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. He was...

Rob Karpati is a long-term finance leader in multi-national corporate environments. Focusing on strategic transformation and on global process optimization over a 30+ year career, Rob's strength has been integrating complex end-to-end processes in ways that optimize value across multiple stakeholders. Using Finance as a business improvement ‘activator’, Rob has worked cross-culturally and cross-re...

Gordon Menzies obtained a (First Class) Honours degree from the University of New England in 1985. He won the Robert Jones Prize for the best Masters student at the Australian National University in 1997, and he won a Commonwealth Scholarship to undertake doctoral studies at Oxford University over 1998 to 2001. Prior to joining the University of Technology Sydney in 2003 he was 'in the room&#3...

Professor Jacqui Ewart was a journalist and media manager for more than a decade. She has worked as an academic for the past 25 years. Professor Jacqui Ewart's research focuses on communication across various phases of disasters and the involvement of politicians in disasters. She also researches news media representations of various minority groups including Muslims and Indigenous Australians...

Professor James Hope-Ward (PhD) is the current Dean of Programs for STEM at the University of South Australia (UniSA). James has a mixed background in civil engineering and environmental science, putting himself under the broad heading of "environmental engineering". At UniSA, James coordinates two courses relating to hydraulics and environmental modeling. His research involves the study of big-pi...

Timothée Parrique is a social scientist, originally from Versailles, France. He is currently a researcher at the School of Economics and Management of Lund University (Sweden).He holds a PhD in economics from the Centre d’Études et de Recherches sur le Développement (University of Clermont Auvergne, France) and the Stockholm Resilience Centre (Stockholm University, Sweden). Titled “The political e...