Cleaning Up: Leadership in an Age of Climate Change5 Elo

The Unseen Agents of Climate Change | Ep269: David Kirchman

Microbes rarely feature in discussions about climate change, yet they play a central role in regulating greenhouse gases through the Earth's carbon, methane and nitrogen cycles. As the climate changes, understanding these natural processes is becoming increasingly important to develop new approaches to clean energy, agriculture and emissions reduction.

This week on Cleaning Up, Bryony Worthington speaks with Professor Emeritus David Kirchman of the University of Delaware, one of the world's leading microbial ecologists and author of 'Microbes: the Unseen Agents of Climate Change.'

They explore how microbes drive the carbon, methane and nitrogen cycles, how climate change is reshaping ecosystems from permafrost to coral reefs, and how microbial science could help tackle the climate crisis, from microbial fuel cells and lower-emissions agriculture to biofuels, methane reduction and even emerging forms of carbon removal and geoengineering

Topics covered in this episode:

The microbes shaping Earth's climate
Ocean carbon cycle
Methane-eating microbes
Arctic warming impacts
Coral reefs and climate resilience
Low-carbon agriculture
Microbes powering climate solutions
Climate interventions

Leadership Circle:

Cleaning Up is proud to be supported by its Leadership Circle. The members are Actis, Alcazar Energy, Arup, Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners, Cygnum Capital, Davidson Kempner, EcoPragma Capital, EDP, Eurelectric, the Gilardini Foundation, KKR, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, National Grid, Octopus Energy, Quadrature Climate Foundation, Schneider Electric, SDCL and Wärtsilä. For more information about the Leadership Circle, visit cleaningup.live

Links:

David Kirchman’s bio: https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-kirchman-5925b331/
David’s book: Microbes, the Unseen Agents of Climate Change: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Microbes-Unseen-Agents-Climate-Change/dp/019768856X
Merlin Sheldrake on Cleaning Up: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YC-9ulSTnB4
Sea ice melting effect on microbes article: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-024-77821-9
Background on James Lovelock's Gaia Hypothesis: https://courses.seas.harvard.edu/climate/eli/Courses/EPS281r/Sources/Gaia/Gaia-hypothesis-wikipedia.pdf
DMS: Dimethyl Sulphide
Subscribe to our newsletter: https://cleaninguppod.substack.com/

Chapters:

00:00 - Intro
00:45 - About David Kirchman
05:50 - What Are Microbes?
15:29 - Climate Cycles & Carbon
23:04 - Methane Microbes
29:01 - Climate Change
34:41 - Coral Reefs
41:02 - Microbe Climate Solutions
50:10 - Climate Engineering
01:00:28 - Outro

Tämä jakso on lisätty Podme-palveluun avoimen RSS-syötteen kautta eikä se ole Podmen omaa tuotantoa. Siksi jakso saattaa sisältää mainontaa.

Jaksot(300)

How Much Better Can Solar Get? Deep Dive Australia 08: Martin Green

Solar was once dismissed as a marginal technology. Today, it is transforming the global energy system, and few people have done more to make that possible than Professor Martin Green. Innovations deve...

17 Elo 52min

AI Has An Electricity Problem | Ep270: Arshad Mansoor

Will AI break the grid? As hyperscalers race to build ever-larger data centres, electricity demand is soaring. The question is no longer whether power demand will grow, but by how much, how quickly, a...

12 Elo 1h 8min

How Renewables Are Replacing Australia's Ageing Coal Fleet | Deep Dive Australia 07: Paul Simshauser

Australia has one of the world's fastest-moving electricity systems. It leads the world in rooftop solar, has deployed grid-scale batteries at extraordinary speed, and is now starting to replace its a...

10 Elo 48min

Why The Transition Hasn't Made Australians Rich Yet | Deep Dive Australia 06: David Pocock

David Pocock is one of Australia's most influential politicians, working as the Senator of the Australian Capital Territory. He brings a distinctive perspective to some of the country's biggest debate...

3 Elo 52min

The Crisis Forcing An Energy Revolution | Ep268: Jonathan Maxwell

The UK is heavily exposed to global energy markets and has some of the highest electricity prices in Europe. At the same time, vast amounts of heat generated across industry and infrastructure go unus...

29 Heinä 1h 8min

Can Australia Become A Clean Tech Superpower? Deep Dive Australia 05: Ross Garnaut

Across huge swathes of the global economy, clean solutions are already cheaper than their fossil alternatives, and so a carbon price isn’t needed. But in other sections of the economy, the costs of gr...

27 Heinä 57min

How Norway Became A Global Gas Giant | Ep267: Anders Opedal

At the beginning of 2022, Europe was sourcing around 40% of its gas from Russia. By the end of this year, no more gas should be flowing from Russia into Europe. Much of that shortfall has been replac...

22 Heinä 1h 14min