Utopia Dispatch Utopia Dispatch

In this episode, George and Sarah speak to Rob Hopkins, author of the book From What Is to What If: Unleashing the power of imagination to create the future we want. Rob is well known for his work as co-founder of the Transition Network and many other related initiatives. His latest book is strongly linked to our ability to solve the climate crisis and is a call to action to reclaim and unleash our collective imagination, told through the stories of individuals and communities around the world who are doing it now. In this conversation we hear all about why he wrote it and what he found along the way.

Find out more:
- Rob's podcast From What If to What Next - https://www.robhopkins.net/podcast/
- From What is to What If - https://www.chelseagreen.com/product/from-what-is-to-what-if/
- Untitled project - https://untitled.community

Also listen to:
- Episode 1.3 - Just Build It

In this episode, Sarah interviews Leila Fortunato, volunteer Director of Banister House Solar which is a community-owned and managed solar energy project in Hackney, London. Leila talks about her journey to becoming Director of a community solar project on her local housing estate, and all the benefits that projects like this can bring to communities. The Banister House project was launched with help from Repowering London, an organisation that has been empowering communities across London to fund, install and manage their own renewable energy supply.

Find out more:
- Banister House Solar: http://www.hackneyenergy.org.uk/banister-house/
- Repowering London: https://www.repowering.org.uk/
- Community Energy England: https://communityenergyengland.org/
- Community Energy Scotland: https://www.communityenergyscotland.org.uk/
- Community Energy Wales: http://www.communityenergywales.org.uk/

Join George as he explores one of the most important strands of the climate crisis; climate justice. It's a phrase that crops up again and again, but what does it mean and how does it inform how we should respond to climate change? Without understanding it, can we ever arrive at anything worthy of being called a solution? To help us understand, we hear from Dr Leon Sealey-Huggins about the origins of global climate injustice and the imperative for incorporating this understanding into our actions.

Leon is a lecturer on the Global Sustainable Development Programme at the University of Warwick. His research looks at the social and political relations of climate change, with a particular focus on the Caribbean region, and he investigates what climate justice means in the context of global historical, and present, inequalities.

Links
- [Bio] Dr Leon Sealey-Huggins https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/schoolforcross-facultystudies/gsd/aboutus/peoplenew/drleonsealeyhuggins
- [Twitter] Dr Leon-Sealey Huggins https://twitter.com/Leon_Ayo
- [Book Chapter] 'The Climate Crisis is a Racist Crisis‘: Structural Racism, Inequality and Climate Change, Dr Leon Sealey-Huggins http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/103485/13/WRAP-climate-crisis-racist-crisis-structural-racism-inequality-climate-change-VoR-Sealey-Huggins-2018.pdf
- [Article] ‘1.5°C to stay alive’: climate change, imperialism and justice for the Caribbean, Dr Leon Sealey-Huggins https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/01436597.2017.1368013
- [Article] Extreme weather linked to CC https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/weather/climate/climate-and-extreme-weather
- [Data] Cumulative carbon emissions https://ourworldindata.org/co2-and-other-greenhouse-gas-emissions#cumulative-co2-emissions
- [Data] Emissions by region https://ourworldindata.org/co2-and-other-greenhouse-gas-emissions#emissions-by-world-region
- [Wiki] Cyclone Idai https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyclone_Idai
- [Wiki] Hurricane Irma https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Irma
- [Wiki] Colonialism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colonialism#Premodern
- [Article] Philip Hoffman https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/europe/2015-10-07/how-europe-conquered-world
- [Article] Apartheid in Global Governance https://www.jasonhickel.org/blog/2019/10/16/apartheid-in-the-global-governance-system
- [Site] CARICOM Reparations Commission http://caricomreparations.org

Music
- April 16 by Nathan Cheetham https://soundcloud.com/nathancheetham/april-16

Sound Effects
- distant blasts by suburbanwizard https://freesound.org/people/suburbanwizard/sounds/455513/
- marching concrete loop by stib https://freesound.org/people/stib/sounds/240732/
- ganpati celebration in street clapping chanting horns cowbell distant surf india by kyles https://freesound.org/people/kyles/sounds/451417/
- tykki laukaus big gun cannon 76 mm single shots gunshots by ylearkisto https://freesound.org/people/ylearkisto/sounds/332935/
- atlantic ocean waves by tim-kahn https://freesound.org/people/tim%20kahn/sounds/197714/
- vanhan ajan sota taistelu miekkailu ancient old time battle combat horses snorting and galloping men shouting and barking fencing swords clanging mix by ylearkisto https://freesound.org/people/ylearkisto/sounds/258207/
- marchingband by daveincamas https://freesound.org/people/daveincamas/sounds/43799/

Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash