The Land & Climate Podcast Land and Climate Review

Alasdair speaks to Peter Wholleben about his new book How Trees Can Save the World.Peter Wholleben is a forester and author who has written over 30 books on ecology and forest management. Peter and Alasdair discuss the problems with plantation forests, the power of trees to influence their local ecosystems and what modern forestry gets wrong.How Trees Can Save the World was published in March and is available to buy from Harper Collins here. Audio engineering by Vasko Kostovski.Further readin...

Alasdair speaks to Faustine Bas-Defossez about the relationship between sustainable farming policy and the European farmers' protests.Faustine Bas-Defossez is Director for Nature, Health and Environment at the European Environmental Bureau, a Europe-wide network of environmental citizens' organisations.Alasdair and Faustine discuss the Nature Restoration Law, reforms to the Common Agricultural Policy and what the upcoming European elections might mean for the future of EU agriculture.Audio en...

Alasdair speaks to environmental attorney Peter Lehner about US agriculture's contribution to global emissions.Peter Lehner is the managing attorney of Earthjustice's Sustainable Food and Farming Programme and former executive director of the National Resources Defence Council.Alasdair and Peter discuss the future of the US farm bill, the adverse climate effects of crop insurance and the influence agrochemical lobbies have on agriculture across America. Audio engineering by Vasko Kostovs...

Does our society have an addiction to short term thinking and planning? Is our failure to mitigate climate change a result of this? Vincent Ialenti spent three years doing fieldwork in Finland, interviewing experts working on Posiva's Safety Case for the world's first long term nuclear repository, Onkalo. His book about that fieldwork, Deep Time Reckoning: How Future Thinking Can Help Earth Now, explores the idea of "shallow" and "deep" time thinking. Dr. Ialenti uses Onkalo as a case study f...

Bertie speaks to Austin Frerick about his new book Barons: Money, Power, and the Corruption of America's Food Industry. Austin Frerick is an agricultural and antitrust policy fellow at Yale University, and has advised on policy for senior US politicians including Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, Pete Buttigieg, and Joe Biden during his presidential campaign. Bertie and Austin discuss lobbying and state capture in the US, the history of farming deregulation, and the environmental impact of fo...

Last month an investigation by Transport and Environment (T&E) exposed a number of challenges facing Eni's African biofuel projects. The Italian oil giant's "second generation" biofuel crops have not met production targets in Kenya and Republic of the Congo. The investigation found that key promises have not been met around intercropping, and collected testimonies of alleged expropriation driven by Eni's business partners. T&E say farmers are now giving up on the projects. To hear mor...