Look Near First

Joel Walker

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Earth Sciences

Look Near First aims to help reconcile our wishes for exploration, adventure, and enjoying our lives on this world, with the need to reduce the impacts of climate change. I speak with guests from many backgrounds to explore how cutting our emissions from travel may not feel like a sacrifice at all. By looking closer to home, to local landscapes, culture and community, could looking near first be a key to greater connection and happiness?

2d ago

The Beauty in Low-Energy Living, with Mike Berners-Lee

Despite technology enabling us to become more efficient at almost everything we do, our demand for energy, year on year, continues to rise. What on earth is going on? And what is all this energy really doing for us? Is it making our lives better? In this conversation with Mike Berners-Lee, the hugely respected climate campaigner and author of How Bad Are Bananas, There is no Planet B and A Climate of Truth, we talk about how reevaluating how we are using energy, and making a conscious effort to cut back, can become a pathway to happier and simpler lives. Mike also gives an update on the People's Emergency Briefing; please check out that vital project here: https://www.nebriefing.org Produced by Joel Walker Music by Grand Project: 'Simple Happy Life' and 'Morning Coffee'
Jul 3

Dave Powell: Our Brains on Flying in a Climate Crisis

On the face of it, something doesn't seem to make sense. Most of us are worried about climate change, and most of us also believe that flying is a major contributor to climate change. Yet around half of the UK population flies at least once a year, some much more than that, with demand continuing to grow. What is going on there? If there appears to be something irrational - a disconnect between what we understand and the choices we are making, why might that be? Is there something about the way our brains are wired which is making it very difficult to adjust our actions for the sake of a healthier global future? And is there anything we can do about it? As a pilot, I have seen first-hand the benefits that have been brought to aviation by the commitment to understanding how human factors have contributed to air accidents. Design of pilot training, operating procedures and the aircraft themselves have been based around new understanding of how our brains work - their strengths and their weaknesses. These designs have both made errors less likely, and greatly decreased the probability of any error leading to a tragedy, with the result that commercial aviation has become extremely safe. Can human factors knowledge be applied to climate change? Can they explain why we seem to be accelerating towards a disaster which we can see clearly in front of us? And can they help us find more effective ways to slow down and reduce the damage? Dave Powell has been immersed in both climate change and human stories for over twenty years. He is currently the host of the superb podcast series Your Brain on Climate, in which he probes psychologists and other experts on human behaviour to try to get to the bottom of how we have got ourselves into this mess, and how we might pull our way out of it. In this episode, I ask him to use all the knowledge he as accumulated from his guests and his own experience to answer the questions: 'why are we continuing to fly so much?' and 'what might it take to shift our holiday habits towards more sustainable choices?' The statistics on flying and attitudes to decarbonisation come from research done in 2024 by the Royal Aeronautical Society, which can be found through this link: https://www.aerosociety.com/media/26178/public-attitudes-to-the-decarbonisation-of-aviation.pdf This is where you can find Dave's podcast, which I cannot recommend more highly: https://www.yourbrainonclimate.com/ And, just like the last time I recorded a podcast with Dave, the Outrage and Optimism podcast released a show at almost exactly the same time with some very relevant content: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/is-it-over-a-direct-answer-to-climate-despair/id1459416461?i=1000775108378 Produced by Joel Walker Music by Grand Project: 'Simple Happy Life' and 'Morning Coffee'
Jun 16

Living Flight Free, with Anna Hughes

Anna Hughes is an influential campaigner and activist. In 2018, she founded Flight Free UK which attracted widespread attention and acclaim, and has been successful in persuading people to think about their travel choices, to try a year without flying, and, literally, find out where that gets them. In this conversation, she talks to me from the cabin of her narrowboat about the inspiration behind Flight Free, what life is like as campaigner when some people think you're out to spoil their holidays, why going flight free is so very important, but also why it can be extremely rewarding
May 18 · Bonus

How the climate crisis led to the end of my career as an airline pilot

This is an episode from Dave Powell's brilliant podcast, Your Brain on Climate, which features me! Dave asked me to talk to him about how climate change led me to a place where I felt I had to leave my job as an airline pilot. We also talk a little bit about how our brains often don't make the most rational decisions when faced with challenges that they didn't evolve for, such as, for example, flying aeroplanes, and dealing with climate change. Fortunately, Dave has agreed to be a guest on this podcast soon, to dig into this fascinating and vital topic in a bit more detail. This one, though, is mostly my story and, having found so much warmth and wisdom from Dave's podcast over recent months, there was nobody with whom I would shared it more willingly.
May 15 · Bonus

Bonus Episode - when I heard myself on Your Brain On Climate

Wow. Hearing yourself on a podcast is a big moment, or at least it was for me, especially when, in that podcast, you dive deep into the issues that have turned your life upside-down. This is a brief reflection on the conversation I had with Dave, and how it has helped me to see what needs to happen next. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-pilot-who-quit-for-the-climate-with-joel-walker/id1577093580?i=1000767951095
Mar 16

How Near Can You Find Adventure? With Alastair Humphreys

Alastair Humphreys has written books about his epic, worldwide adventures, which included cycling around the world, walking across India and rowing across the Atlantic Ocean. But more recently, he has turned his attention much, much closer to home and, not being someone to do things by halves, he has taken 'local' to an extreme. In this episode, we explore some of the reasons behind the switch, and more importantly, how those local adventures compare to the global-scale ones. What has he discovered about what it means, and what it takes, to have a great adventure? Alastair's books, blog and more can be found at alastairhumphreys.com
Mar 13

The Magic of Stopping to Draw Pt 2: Silvie Hibdon and how we can find awe in nature on our doorsteps

Inspired by John Ruskin's example (see part 1 in the previous episode), I was keen to get out on a nature walk with my sketch pad. But at this time, I met Silvie Hibdon, a co-fellow in Cohort 8 of the Climatebase course, has set up the non-profit organisation 'Arts Humanitas', and is leading the organisation of the San Francisco biennale in art, nature and ecology. She is knowledgable and passionate about how art can connect us to the natural world, and foster a desire to protect it. This episode features my conversation with Silvie, in which she gives me advice in not only the practicalities, but also in getting over my inhibitions over trying to draw anything in a public place! Find Silvie's project at arthumanitas.org
Mar 13

The Magic in Stopping to Draw Pt 1: Howard Hull and the wisdom of John Ruskin

John Ruskin is a fascinating figure from the 19th century. He wished for a fairer society, and advocated strongly for social reform. He was also concerned by what he recognised as harmful effects of the industrial revolution - not only seeing how the emissions might harm the environment, but how the ever-increasing pace of life could inhibit us from really seeing and appreciating the wonder and beauty in nature and art. In this episode, I talk with Howard Hull, the director and curator of Brantwood, the beautiful house which was home to John Ruskin throughout the second half of his life. I ask what Ruskin might have taught me, if I had attended one of his drawing classes at the Working Men's College in the 1850s, as well as more of Ruskin's views on society and how we live our lives, which are possibly even more relevant now than they were when he was alive. https://www.brantwood.org.uk/ https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2018/aug/30/john-ruskin-artists-victorian-social-critic
Feb 17

Learning to Love Where We Live with Olivia Stamp

Olivia Stamp is a writer and project builder committed to unleashing our collective intelligence and imagination to create a future we actually want to live in. A couple of years ago she left her comfortable life in London to embark on a more adventurous life - adventures of the kind that arise from breaking away from societal expectations and trappings, and finding communities and ways of living which treat our planet more as home to cherish than as a commodity to consume. Part of this is her project, 'Learning to Love Where We Live', which is all about finding adventure, meaning and love exactly where we are. Find Olivia's project at learningtolovewherewelive.com ...and Look Near First at looknearfirst.com

9 Episodes

Look Near First aims to help reconcile our wishes for exploration, adventure, and enjoying our lives on this world, with the need to reduce the impacts of climate change. I speak with guests from many backgrounds to explore how cutting our emissions from travel may not feel like a sacrifice at all. By looking closer to home, to local landscapes, culture and community, could looking near first be a key to greater connection and happiness?

Creator

Joel Walker
Years Active

2026
Episodes

9
Rating

Clean
Copyright

© Joel Walker
Show Website

Look Near First