Super Climate Models – Getting Intimate and Interactive With Sexy Looking Climate Data (#10)

“Peer-to-peer conversation tends to be the kind of space where people are willing to test their assumptions and change their minds.” – Drew Jones

Drew Jones is the co-founder and co-director of Climate Interactive, one of the world’s leading climate change think tanks and climate modeling firms. He is an expert on global climate change and energy issues and has written two op-eds for the Sunday New York Times. Drew is a clinical professor at the University of North Carolina, teaching Systems Thinking for Sustainable Enterprise. He is also an Adjunct Instructor in System Dynamics for Exec Ed at MIT Sloan School of Management and co-accepted the ASysT Prize in 2008 for a significant accomplishment achieved through the application of systems thinking to a problem of U.S. national significance.

Drew joins me today to discuss climate data and simulations that grab people’s attention and foster good decision-making on climate change. He shares the targets and changes we need to achieve climate goals. He reveals why science alone doesn’t make people change their minds about climate risks and how engaging people with games, workshops, and interactive climate simulations makes a more significant impact. Drew also discusses why we need a long-term vision where the actions we make today may take decades to have an impact on the climate.

This week on The Last Environmentalist Podcast:

• How the world must cut carbon emissions by 50% by 2030.
• Why heart, feelings, and learning is the route to changing people’s minds on climate change.
• How open-source sharing of climate simulation models and games engage thousands of people.
• How interactive climate models helped introduce the Copenhagen Accord and the Paris Agreement.
• Why it’s challenging for people to understand the change needed to meet climate change goals.
• The truth of the climate situation and why we must not give up on the challenges.
• Why we need a vision of long-term success over multiple decades.
• The many other benefits of taking care of our climate.

Resources Mentioned:

• New York Times Op-Ed: Stopping Climate Change Is Hopeless. Let’s Do It.
• UN IPCC Special Report: Global Warming of 1.5°C
• Limits to Growth by Donella Meadows
• The Most Comprehensive Plan To Reverse Global Warming

Connect with Drew Jones:

• Climate Interactive
• Drew Jones on LinkedIn

Impacting the Environment, One Story at a Time

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