IN REVERSE CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER… starting with our most recent show
2024 SEASON
Extreme Heat = More Mass Migration (replay) April 24, 2024 Extreme heat and rising seas will push hundreds of millions of people toward sanctuary. New compilation of previous interviews: Alex de Sherbinin reveals hundreds of millions of climate refugees expected by an unlikely source: the World Bank. What cities, deltas or whole countries will be lost? Scientist Benjamin Krauss at Climate Central joins us. More AI climate music. Alex is back next week with all new shows. Download or listen to this Radio Ecoshock show in CD Quality (57 MB) or Lo-Fi (14 MB)
Nomad Century & Bad Banks (replay) April 17, 2024 Are your savings helping the mad new expansion of fossil fuels? From RAN, Dr. April Merleaux names big banks expanding oil, gas & coal from the Arctic to the Amazon. From London, broadcaster, author, and science journalist Gaia Vince on coming mass climate migration in her book “Nomad Century – How To Survive The Climate Upheaval”. Download or listen to this Radio Ecoshock show in CD Quality (57 MB) or Lo-Fi (14 MB)
The Coming Monster Heat Waves April 10, 2024 New monster heat waves are killing people across the world: the old, children, mothers, simple outdoor workers. A new analysis shows oil and gas production from just five well-known corporations will kill at least 5 million people, and maybe more than 10 million people. The real cost of burning our future with guest researcher Sarah Biermann Becker from Global Witness. Longer, hotter heat waves are here and worse to come. From Utah State University, we speak with co-author of new science – Dr. Wei Zhang. Plus global heat news media leaves out – and two little AI-made climate songs. Pay attention, we will test: are you a human? Download or listen to this Radio Ecoshock show in CD Quality (57 MB) or Lo-Fi (14 MB)
Why So Hot So Fast? April 3, 2024 Gavin Schmidt is Director of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies. He tells us “Climate models can’t explain 2023’s huge heat anomaly – we could be in uncharted territory.” Meanwhile, so much ice is melting at the Poles, Earth’s rotation is changing. Dr. Chad Greene from NASA’S lab in California reveals Greenland lost even more ice than we knew. Cutting climate science from NASA, this week on Radio Ecoshock. Download or listen to this Radio Ecoshock show in CD Quality (57 MB) or Lo-Fi (14 MB)
Climate Sci-Fi Gets Too Real March 27, 2024 Is it science or fiction? Both! Top climate science fiction writers Kim Stanley Robinson & Bruce Sterling. Robinson shocked the world with his 2020 book “The Ministry of the Future” where 20 million people perished in a massive heat wave. We talk consequences in a new interview. My feature on the climate sci-fi work of Bruce Sterling was produced in 2006 – but sounds like today (unfortunately). Download or listen to this Radio Ecoshock show in CD Quality (57 MB) or Lo-Fi (14 MB)
Whiplash & Greenlash March 20, 2024 When big systems flip into another state, that is trouble for species needing normal. Like us. We get the latest on global tipping points in 2023 from one of the world’s experts, Professor Tim Lenton from Exeter University. Then we explore earth energy imbalance at the poles with Hamish Prince and “greenlash” – backward steps in the European Union. I’m Alex. Welcome to Radio Ecoshock. Download or listen to this Radio Ecoshock show in CD Quality (57 MB) or Lo-Fi (14 MB)
Is This a Glimpse of the New Hot Future? March 13, 2024 Lost in endless political hype, this planet is hotter. Expert Earth System Modeler Till Kulhbrodt says this may be a glimpse of a future three degrees above pre-industrial. Are we approaching tipping points, or are some already behind us? We revisit an interview with Dr. Tim Lenton on cascading tipping points, as I line up guests to report the latest tipping science. The show closes with tips to survive times of mass fear. But first, let’s learn more from the best, about how our planetary home really works. Welcome to Ecoshock. I’m Alex Smith. Download or listen to this Radio Ecoshock show in CD Quality (57 MB) or Lo-Fi (14 MB)
Broken News March 6, 2024 Amid human disasters, some hope evolution can save us. Maine Professor Tim Waring worries evolutionary design may stop humans from solving climate change. New science: a major meltdown in Antarctica can happen not in thousands of years, but less than 200. That leads to a new age of rapid sea level rise around the world. Royal Society Research Professor Eric Wolff explains. Download or listen to this Radio Ecoshock show in CD Quality (57 MB) or Lo-Fi (14 MB)
Why Renewables Cannot Power Your World – Simon Michaux February 28, 2024 Renewables cannot power the world we know. Dr. Simon Michaux from the Geological Survey of Finland crunched the numbers: not enough time, and not enough metals. In this unique interview on Rachel Donald’s PlanetCritical broadcast, Michaux explains the limits – and what we CAN do in a sustainable society. Edited for radio by Maria Gilardin of TUC Radio and Alex Smith of Radio Ecoshock. Download or listen to this Radio Ecoshock show in CD Quality (57 MB) or Lo-Fi (14 MB)
2 Degrees by 2030 and Panic Politics February 21, 2024 1.5 degrees C is already behind us. Could 2 degrees of warming arrive by 2030? Despite pushback, Dr. Malcolm McCulloch makes the case from Perth, during Australia’s roasting, hottest-ever February. But first, UK Professor Emeritus and psychoanalyst Paul Hoggett on climate, victimhood, and the authoritarian urge. I’m Alex Smith. Welcome to Radio Ecoshock – exploring minds in twisted times. Download or listen to this Radio Ecoshock show in CD Quality (57 MB) or Lo-Fi (14 MB)
Cat 6, Grid Down & the Behavior Crisis February 14, 2024 Horrendous climate-driven storms are here. From Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, senior scientist Dr. Michael Wehner makes the case for Cat 6. Electricity from natural gas is more reliable than renewables, right? Wrong. Mark Specht from the Union of Concerned Scientists finds gas plant failures bring grids down. From the New Zealand Joseph Merz on the latest World scientists’ warning: The behavioral crisis driving ecological overshoot Download or listen to this Radio Ecoshock show in CD Quality (57 MB) or Lo-Fi (14 MB)
Climate Cities: Radical Adaptation February 7, 2024 Is your city ready for extreme heat, floods, and wind? No! It is time for “Radical Adaptation” with Professor Brian Stone, Director of the Urban Climate Lab at Georgia Tech. Can we still make cement, steel – the basics – without fossil fuels? Is fossil-free tech out there now? We catch up with Jeffrey Rissman, Senior Director, Industry at Energy Innovation. Download or listen to this Radio Ecoshock show in CD Quality (57 MB) or Lo-Fi (14 MB)
Methane: Monster Or Myth? January 31, 2024 Cornell Professor Robert Howarth returns to Radio Ecoshock reporting the whole Liquefied Natural Gas process leaks so much methane it may be worse than coal for the climate. Oxford Professor Raymond Pierrehumbert tells us methane worries are overblown. Carbon dioxide is the real threat driving Earth to a horrible Hothouse state. Download or listen to this Radio Ecoshock show in CD Quality (57 MB) or Lo-Fi (14 MB)
Going Over the Snow Cliff and Dark Mining January 24, 2024 A warming world is pushing us off the “snow cliff”. Snow drought is increasing. Dry fire-filled summers with low rivers and crop loss surely follow in many parts of the Northern Hemisphere. We talk with Lead Author Alexander Gottlieb from Dartmouth. Then “satellites don’t lie”. Australian mining expert Dr. Tim Werner finds twice as much mining activity and damage, half of it undocumented – the dark mining economy. Welcome to Radio Ecoshock. I’m Alex Smith. Download or listen to this Radio Ecoshock show in CD Quality (57 MB) or Lo-Fi (14 MB)
UNREPORTED: Amazon Emergency & Destabilized Atmosphere January 17, 2024 The Amazon – lungs of the world – is in last-stage crisis. It is boiling in record smashing heat, drought, and fire. We visit the last stand with Rhett Butler, Founder and CEO of independent media hub Mongabay. Does it seem more stormy where you live? Senior scientist Aiguo Dai confirms the atmosphere has been destabilized and is expected to get more wild as warming continues. I repeat: the atmosphere is destabilized. The show wraps with Dr. Douglas Sheil in Norway: can trees make their own weather? Download or listen to this Radio Ecoshock show in CD Quality (57 MB) or Lo-Fi (14 MB)
Spectacle, Necrocapitalism, & Methane January 10, 2024 Welcome to a wild ride into “Necrocapitalism” – cutting observations by Greek scientist and author George Tsakraklides. Then more worrying news about methane: frozen under the deep sea around every continent, methane can melt, migrate and release closer to shore. We talk through this new discovery from Petroleum Geologist and Pro-Vice Chancellor of Newcastle University Richard Davies. It all wraps up with my short-take on French Situationalist Guy Debord and “Society of the Spectacle”. You are living in it. All the creative images in this blog were created by our guest George Tsakraklides, as an artist using AI tools. Download or listen to this Radio Ecoshock show in CD Quality (57 MB) or Lo-Fi (14 MB)
Avoiding the Doom Loop in the Age of Crisis (replay) January 3, 2024 (Original Release Date: March 29, 2023) – Can crisis tip us into an ecologically sane civilization? UK Think tank report author Laurie Laybourn on a future where disasters ripple across the world. Then let’s get away – to Antarctica. Why did sea ice crash around that frozen continent? Increasing El Nino events may drive global sea levels higher. Australian scientist Adriaan Purich shares big changes at the South Pole. Download or listen to this Radio Ecoshock show in CD Quality (57 MB) or Lo-Fi (14 MB)
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