In this climategenn episode, I am speaking with journalist-and-author, Andy Neather, about his new book: Rooted In Change – The Stories Behind Sustainable Wine, co authored with Master of Wine, Jane Masters. The authors set out to document the challenges facing all aspects of wine production from the vineyard to the glass.
Wine makes up an estimated 0.3% of agriculture globally and yet despite this tiny proportion, it is a beverage that humans have been making for thousands of years– serving sometimes with food, or as a ceremonial drink, or, in times more extreme, as a source of calories for French soldiers in the 1st World War trenches.
Today vineyard around the world– from France to Australia or Chile to China– are at risk from worsening impacts of climate change – in that sense, this 0.3% of agriculture is as vulnerable as much of the other 99.7% of agriculture that underpins our global food supply. As Professor Paul Behrens said in the previous episode, 30-40% of inflation on food in the UK is due to climate change.
A decade ago in Champagne, a wine producer told me harvest dates shifted forward in the late 1980s due to warming. Polar researchers I'd interviewed earlier noted Arctic sea ice decline accelerated in the same decade. Both independent observations confirmed the same reality: our world is heating up.
This new book, Rooted In Change, gives us a glimpse of the global response of the wine industry to save it self while acting responsibly as stewards of both land and atmosphere.
In this climategenn episode I am speaking with Professor Paul Behrens, British Academy Global Professor, at the Oxford Martin School, at the University of Oxford, UK. “If we continue on the way we’re going, we just have less and less resiliency in the system, less and less ability to roll with the punches of climate change.”Paul is the keynote speaker at the Sustainability In Drinks conference being held in London on the 21st October, where he will highlighting the incredibly fragile state of food production and supply. This fragility is being exacerbated by climate change.https://sustainabilityindrinks.com/“Some research suggests that food prices will increase between one and three percentage points, so an extra one to three percent per year by 2035, based on climate impacts. Now, the thing you've got to remember on the modelling on this is it's very hard, extremely hard, to model all the different impacts on the food system. In general, when I look at a model or an outcome of the model, I typically think that it's probably going to be a little bit worse than what you read.”Here we discuss the changes urgently required to help us navigate a more resilient pathway to the future. Aside from the Sustainability In Drinks conference on the 21st October, Paul is also part of a broader presentation being given at Westminster Hall in London on 27th November. This National Emergency Briefing on climate change will be given to MP’s, as well as other government officials and business leaders. Please check the link below:https://www.nebriefing.org/In the next episode I speak with author Andy Neather about his newly published book ROOTED IN CHANGE – The Stories Behind Sustainable Wine, coauthored with Jane Masters, Master of Wine. Available to order from the Academie du Vin Library.Thank you to all listeners commenters and members. There are many more episodes being recorded so please do subscribe to stay up to date.
In this ClimateGenn episode I speak with Dr René van Westen about his recently published papers with colleagues that identify a physics based method for forecasting the very consequential AMOC Tipping Point.
LINK TO RESEARCH PAPER: https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2025JC022651
If or when the AMOC – full name, Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation – collapses, it will lead to North western Europe plunging into freezing conditions with an estimated 20% less rainfall, and widespread societal disruption, especially to food production and energy needs.
In René’s own words: “There is this signal that this may be a potential scenario, which we can’t ignore because the impacts are quite, quite drastic. And therefore it is very worthwhile to know what we can expect as a society. And I hope in the end that I’m wrong also in the predictions, because we don’t want to deal with these kinds of changes because that’s in the end will be very difficult to adapt to.”
In the next episode I am speaking with Professor Paul Behrens, who is the British Academy Global Professor at the Oxford Martin School, University of Oxford. Paul specialises in exploring the intersections of climate, energy, and food systems, suggesting one proven action that we can all take that could change our course from famine, to one of better health and more abundant and affordable food supply.
Paul Behrens is also the keynote speaker at next weeks Sustainability In Drinks conference in London where I will also be chairing the high-level panel at the end of the session. If you are in London and work in any aspect of the Drinks Business then do consider coming along. Tickets are available from the SID website.
"The car seems like freedom, and it might have been the freedom of the 20th century, but it certainly isn’t the freedom of the 21st century." Dame Hentrietta Moore
In this ClimateGenn episode I am speaking with Professor Dame Henrietta Moore and Arthur Kay about their new book Road Kill – Unveiling the true cost of our toxic relationship with cars.
Despite the motorcars association with freedom, it is become responsible for the degeneration of our town and city centres, enormous fossil fuel consumption, lung damage from air pollution, and a whole host of undesirable impacts.
This book Roadkill is not just about diagnosing our car blindness and true costs of maintaining our addiction to them, it is also about rethinking the future, including urban design and local thinking. Henrietta and Arthur give us insights into how they are tackling this uber-toxic issue. More information on Roadkill and how to order the book can be found here.
IN this ClimateGenn episode I speak with ecologist and founder of the Ecosystem Restoration Communities, John D. Liu. We explore the insights that John has acquired from many years observing nature and humanity, while also pragmatically seeking collective pathways to a better tomorrow.
Full of wisdom and inspiration, it is a pleasure to feature John on the ClimateGenn podcast.
Visit https://genn.cc for more information.
In this Climate.Genn episode I am speaking with Erin Sikorsky, Director at The Center for Climate and Security and also the Security Director at the The International Military Council on Climate and Security. We are discussing issues that Erin covers in her new book, Climate Change on the Battlefield.
With so much focus on national defence spending, while fires and floods are tearing through nations around the world, this is a timely subject. Here, Erin guides us in untangling the contradictions of investing in modern warfare, while simultaneously struggling to keep citizens safe from the extreme impacts of fire and floods that are worsening in intensity and frequency.
In Spain in recent days there has been 199 wild fires counted with more across the northern hemisphere, whilst floods across countries like Pakistan and China, and across S America and beyond, are taking lives and costing billions in infrastructure damage.
Yet, countries are being coerced into spending hundreds of billions on defence that excludes protecting against the raging climate. How we proceed from here has consequences and Erin, with her book ‘Climate Change on the Battlefield’ offers many essential insights.
Order: https://amzn.to/4fAcfi8
In this climategenn episode I speak with climate policy analyst and Research Director at the Breakthrough National Centre for Climate Restoration, David Spratt. He has recently published a report titled: Warming has reached 1.5°C. What does that mean for climate advocacy?
https://www.breakthroughonline.org.au/climateadvocacy2025
David offers his perspective on climate policy through the Australian lens as the Earth heats to 1.5. degrees with no end in sight for the damage that it is causing to human life, nature and infrastructure.
In this ClimateGenn episode I speak with researcher, Rene van Westen. We discuss his recent paper looking at how the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) responds in three different carbon emissions scenarios. This work builds on his – and colleagues – previous research that looked at establishing the conditions for the AMOC to collapse.
René et al's findings shed new light on the risks we are facing from this vital ocean circulation in the Atlantic that connects to the global climate system.
The research paper can be accessed here: https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2025GL114611
In this ClimateGenn episode we are looking at 3 interviews recorded at the Arctic Repair Conference in Cambridge hosted by the Centre for Climate Repair at the University of Cambridge.
In the 1st interview with Centre for Climate Repair director, Dr Shaun Fitzgerald, we touch on some of the theme emerging from the conference but also from the news cycle during London Climate Week that was running concurrently.
In the 2nd interview I speak with Anni Pokela from the Finnish organisation Operaatio Arktis – an emerging think tank looking to articulate informed discussions around extreme climate impacts, tipping points and geoengineering also called climate interventions. Operaatio Arktis have gained international recognition for their clear engagement on these complex and often taboo topics.
The 3rd interview in this series is with Justus Lehtisaari also from Operaatio Arktis. Both these conversations are recorded during the evening drinks in Cambridge and attempt to explore how their work interacts with such a broad range of issues that we are collectively facing today.
There are 5 more interviews from the Arctic Repair conference that include Indigenous Climate representative from Tuvalu, Faatupu Simeti discussing the existential threat of sea-level rise and inundation, as well as a conversation with Julius Mihkkal Eriksen Lindi, PROJECT COORDINATOR at the Arctic and Environmental Unit from the Saami Council who is tasked with trying to see if climate interventions can help preserve their way of life or be rejected as dangerous to life.
There are also a second set of discussions with Kerry Nickols from Ocean Visions, Jason Box from the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland, and Rafe Pomerance, a legendary climate policy expert based in Washington.
I have a backlog of interviews waiting to be published and recorded. I will uploaded a preview of my interview this week with David Spratt from Australia, an in-depth discussion of policy and risk response. David is always very well informed and has much to say.
Thank you for listening.
In this episode Nick Breeze speaks with Dr Soumitra Das from the Healthy Climate Initiative. Soumitra sheds light on the life threatening challenges that face citizens in India and surrounding countries today. A major threat to life is when heat and humidity combine – known as wet bulb temperatures. This is when the body is unable to cool itself, leading to fatal heatstrokes within a few hours. Today 2% of India’s population are exposed to wet bulb extremes. In a country nearing 1.5 billion people, 2% equates to ~around 30 million people. On the current trajectory this figure is set to rise by midcentury to 70%, or, in real terms, in excess of 1 billion citizens at risk of heatstroke.The fossil fuel industry is the main culprit of this ongoing rise in temperatures, doing everything they can to slow the inevitable transition to clean renewable energy. The impact on peoples lives, infrastructure, biodiversity on land and in the oceans, is incalculable, as carbon emissions continue to rise. All of this is set against the needlessly worsening relations between humans around the world. New episodes include interviews with Professor Mark Maslin at UCL about the state of what the recent World Meteorological Organisation Climate Report tells us and his views on whether we should be looking into methods to cool the earth while we continue to try and reduce emissions. Nick also catch's up with Dr René van Westen at Utrecht University about his and his colleagues new AMOC research paper. The research tells us more indications of Europe’s dramatic climate future as the global mean temperature rises over 2ºC. This is inline with our current emissions scenarios that scientists have told us we should avoid at all costs. Currently our emissions trajectory is taking us much much higher and raises hard questions about the future we want to try and exist in.
Geoengineering, also known as ‘climate intervention’ is being debated by the UK government on 23rd June 2025. This is a response to a petition signed by ~160k people calling for a ban on geoengineering in the UK.
I have been conducting interviews on this topic for the last 15 years. In that time, the climate science data has gotten worse and worse. Successive governments around the world have failed to properly regulate in order to phase out carbon emissions from the fossil fuel industry and land use sectors, that make up the main bulk of pollution.
The outcomes we face are regarded by many scientists as existential around the world and the question of geoengineering as a response polarises climate scientists, experts, and many others involved in this space.
This sequence of edits taken from my interviews between 2012 and 2025 features many leading scientists and commentators on both sides of the argument.
The main focus of this video is a type of geoengineering called solar radiation modification or SRM. Within this there are different proposals. One mentioned here is stratospheric aerosol injection, or SAI, and Marine Cloud Brightening, MCB. These techniques aim to reduce the amount of the suns energy that reaches the earth’s surface, thereby helping to cool the planet while efforts continue to reduce carbon emissions worldwide.
Please watch and post your own thoughts and comments below. I have created a very short survey on the genn.cc website where you can state your position and response to this sequence.
Please note that I have included the years in which these interviews were recorded in each segment, although they are not presented in chronological sequence. What this shows is the huge inertia in this topic while the background noise of catastrophic climate impacts has been moving into the foreground.
Thank you for watching. Please do consider subscribing to Climategenn or even better, become a member. I will be posting all these interviews into the members area on Youtube and Patreon. Many are already in the public domain.
Zack is well known on social media for his engaging graphics that tell the climate change story. He also played a pivotal role at the US National Oceanic Atmospheric Association, or NOAA, in advancing climate modelling and forecasting through innovative AI and machine learning approaches. His forced departure, along with hundreds of other scientists due to DOGE-led federal cuts, has significantly undermined NOAA’s research capacity. The loss not only stalls progress in critical climate science but also poses real risks to public safety and the global understanding of climate change.
“The data is actually in a pretty fragile ecosystem... in some cases in their free time, just kind of turning a crank to update the data.”
“The data is actually in a pretty fragile ecosystem... in some cases in their free time, just kind of turning a crank to update the data.”
“The data is actually in a pretty fragile ecosystem... in some cases in their free time, just kind of turning a crank to update the data.”
[Dr Alexander MacDonald]We've been lucky. The day could come where most of the world loses electricity at exactly the same time. So we have to modernise electricity centred around the supergrid that protects the flow of electricity because it is life-giving.[Nick Breeze]In this ClimateGen episode, I'm speaking with Dr Alexander McDonald, a former head of climate research at the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association, NOAA. Alexander outlines the need to urgently upgrade electrical energy generation in the US and around the world using supergrids. The vulnerability of existing grids was illustrated recently in Spain and Portugal, where an outage hit the entire Iberian Peninsula in May 2025.Without a massive transition to resilient electrification, we are all exposed to huge risks posed by power outages. In the next episode, I speak with Dr Sumitra Das about the proposed cooling plan for India. What we have found last year, 37 cities crossed 45 degrees Celsius and with humidity that means 55 degrees to 65 degrees Celsius, real fill that you'd have.90% of the people do not have air conditioning today. Dr Sumitra Das and his colleagues have proposed a national cooling policy plan in an effort to counter the deaths caused by extreme heatwaves. This includes geoengineering techniques that many will find controversial.And yet, as the emissions keep rising, so do the temperatures and the humidity. Thank you to all members and subscribers for supporting this channel. There are more episodes in the pipeline covering interrelated climate topics from experts across the globe.Thank you for listening. Alexander, thank you very much for taking the time to speak to me today. We're going to talk about the whole supergrid proposal that you're very involved in.And I just wanted to ask you to give a brief status quo in the US for electricity generation and transmission and also considering the future demand for, especially when we're talking about new technologies like AI, for example.
IN this ClinateGenn episode I am speaking with Dr Mike MacCracken, a pioneering climate scientist whose research on atmospheric physics and global climate change has significantly advanced our understanding of human impacts on the climate system. His leadership roles at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and the US Global Change Research Program established him as a key figure in climate science. As chief scientist for the Office of the US Global Change Research Program, he played a crucial role in advising multiple US administrations on climate science and policy.In this episode we explore counter and cross-over views to opposition to solar geoengineering. With great respect to experts on all sides of this discussion– Mike offers some compelling reasons as to why we cannot just denounce proposals to cool the planet.This is at a time when the UK government is significantly funding research into solar geoengineering. With such a split in views on this topic, I hope you take the time to consider what Mike says, and also what Professor Raymond Pierrehumbert says in a previous episode, in order to inform your own perspective.In the next episode I’ll be speaking with Alexander McDonald, a former head of US National Oceanic and atmospheric Agency, NOAA, who is the leading proponent behind SuperGrid’s for supplying the world with clean abundant electrical energy– without which, all our dreams of the future will fail.Thanks to all subscribers. Please do like and share and feedback in the comments. I try to respond to as much as I can.
In Alentejo, techniques to conserve water are transforming the outlook for the region. As large olive oil and wine estates start to deploy regenerative farming techniques, we see the landscape come alive with biodiversity thriving.
Indigenous grape varieties mean that new wine styles that are both elegant and charming are giving Alentejo a new character that resonates with international markets. This is an exciting chapter in the journey of this wine region that predates the Romans.
Download the FREE ebook: https://sustentabilidade.vinhosdoalentejo.pt/uploads/ebook/into-the-heat.pdf
Sustainability is often framed and presented as a purely environmental subject. The truth is that the economics of any given sustainability effort are underpinned by economic viability. It is the market place that determines whether products are desired and thus bought. If the producers get it wrong, there is no business, meaning job losses and environmental objectives are abandoned. Here we dive into the economic challenges that face Alentejo’s wine industry but also are mirrored in many regions around the world.
Download the FREE ebook: https://sustentabilidade.vinhosdoalentejo.pt/uploads/ebook/into-the-heat.pdf
Francisco Mateus was the President of the Wines of Alentejo wine commission at the time of this interview. He stepped down in 2025. His broader picture view helps us to place the economic pillar of sustainability into a broader context.
In this episode Nick Breeze speaks with a range of producers hearing how critical it is to invest in communities, building house, schools, offering scholarships to children and transport links.
Download the FREE ebook: https://sustentabilidade.vinhosdoalentejo.pt/uploads/ebook/into-the-heat.pdf
Without communities in this scarcely populated region, there would be no development of regenerative agriculture. Without the economic structure of business the land, degraded from decades past, would turn to desert and spread north. Supporting communities in Alentejo is literally holding back the Sahara.
Southern Portugal’s alentejo region is the location setting for our tour of sustainability practices but Portugal is facing a range of different environmental challenges that will become more pronounced in coming years. In this episode with guest prof. Francisco Ferreira, we delve into the water, heat and other climate issues.
Francisco Ferreira is a professor of Environmental Engineering at Universidade Nova de Lisboa and president of the environmental NGO ZERO, recognized for his extensive work on air quality, climate change, and sustainable development in Lisbon and across Portugal.
Download the FREE ‘Into The Heat’ ebook:
Jason Box accepted the invitation to come Into The Heat with Nick Breeze and here he gives insights into what he saw. At the outset, Jason thought the efforts to survive in these conditions were ‘fighting gravity’. After 2 days, that view changed. Jason also offers great insights into the potential for using data rich landscapes to create digital twins that can help produce greater quality products resilience in anticipating future climate.
Download the FREE ebook: https://sustentabilidade.vinhosdoalentejo.pt/uploads/ebook/into-the-heat.pdf
Professor Jason Box is an American glaciologist renowned for his pioneering research on the Greenland ice sheet, having participated in over 30 expeditions since 1994 and leading projects such as the Dark Snow Project and the Extreme Ice Survey to study ice-climate interactions and glacier dynamics.
He is a professor at the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland (GEUS) and is prominently featured in the documentary film Into the Ice, which follows his fieldwork investigating the mass balance and melt processes of Greenland’s ice sheet. Box is among the most cited scientists in his field, has contributed to major climate reports including the IPCC, and is recognized for his impactful science communication and advocacy on climate change. Jason has also featured in many Climate.Genn podcast episodes on this channel in the last ten years.
In this episode, Nick Breeze discusses with author and broadcaster Janet Wang, how interventions in landscapes and agriculture can have a positive impact, and how what may appear out of control, might just be a very happy ecosystem.
Janet Z. Wang is a British-Chinese wine journalist, author, and TV pundit renowned for her expertise on Chinese wine and culture. She is the author of The Chinese Wine Renaissance: A Wine Lover’s Companion (Ebury Press, 2020), a comprehensive guide exploring the history, varieties, and cultural significance of wine in China, with a foreword by Oz Clarke OBE. Wang is a principal Chinese-speaking member of the prestigious Circle of Wine Writers and the Association of Wine Educators.
The video podcasts can be viewed here or on Youtube, Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Download the Into The Heat ebook: https://sustentabilidade.vinhosdoalentejo.pt/uploads/ebook/into-the-heat.pdf
