S2E39: The cost of climate repair vs. COVID-19—w/ Sir David King & Rick Parnell
Episode description
Solving the climate crisis is challenging because it requires both dramatic behavioral change and a great deal of capital. And yet, when faced with a global health crisis, governments were willing to enact multitrillion-dollar aid packages and people radically shifted their behavior in a matter of weeks. So, what if we mobilized against climate change similarly to the way we responded to the coronavirus?
Sir David King is the former Chief Scientific Advisor to the Government of the United Kingdom and Rick Parnell is the CEO of the Foundation for Climate Restoration. Together, they coauthored The Washington Post piece, ‘Stopping Climate Change Could Cost Less Than Fighting COVID-19.’ On this episode of the podcast, Sir David and Rick join Ross to discuss the opportunity governments have to invest in climate repair as we rebuild our economies in the aftermath of the global pandemic.
Sir David and Rick compare the economic impact of reversing climate change with that of COVID, describing the catastrophic consequences of rising sea levels and explaining what Europe, China, and the US are doing to both reduce emissions and scale direct air capture technologies. Listen in to understand why the countries that took the advice of scientists fared well in the pandemic and how we might learn from their example to respond to the climate crisis.
Connect with Nori
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Resources:
Foundation for Climate Restoration
Centre for Climate Repair at Cambridge University
Rick on Carbon Removal Newsroom
‘Stopping Climate Change Could Cost Less Than Fighting COVID-19’ in The Washington Post
The Thunderbird Study on Market Opportunities in Climate Restoration