Music, Public Health & Climate Action – Emma O’Brien, Global Scrub Choir
Release Date: 02/28/2024
Women Leading the Charge for Renewables – Gauri Singh, Deputy Director-General of IRENA, the International Renewable Energy Agency
Electric Ladies Podcast - Women Leaders Discuss Careers, Trends, Technologies and Innovation in Energy, Climate, and Corporate Responsibility
“Renewable energy is women-friendly. It has the potential to be customised for every use case, but I don’t think enough has been done. Women have always been both producers and consumers of energy, from gathering firewood to cooking. What’s needed is for women to understand that this is an area where they can make a difference and adopt this energy source that is modular and customizable [for their needs].” Gauri Singh on Electric Ladies Podcast COP28 set an ambitious goal to triple renewable energy capacity by 2030. Achieving this target requires countries to deploy clean energy to...
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The Future is Electric - Joan on Full Crew podcast with Matt Bianco and Chris Treanor
Electric Ladies Podcast - Women Leaders Discuss Careers, Trends, Technologies and Innovation in Energy, Climate, and Corporate Responsibility
“This is not just an executive order. There is a point behind net zero goals, and this is to address climate change and global warming. A million and a half EVs were sold last year. Infrastructure is still being built. I’d say the train has left the station." Joan Michelson on Full Crew Podcast The U.S. government has provided $7 billion in funding for critical minerals and $7 billion to fund 500,000 electric vehicle (EV) charging stations. With a new administration now in place, what can this mean for the transition to EVs, as well as EV policies and regulations? Listen to Joan...
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Putting AI to Work for the Climate – Dr. Stephanie Hare, Researcher, Broadcaster and Author
Electric Ladies Podcast - Women Leaders Discuss Careers, Trends, Technologies and Innovation in Energy, Climate, and Corporate Responsibility
“Many countries are looking to lead on AI and embed it in as many aspects of our lives as possible. But right now we do not have an electricity grid that is built for this purpose. We also need to think about the fuel needed to power up this grid.” Dr. Stephanie Hare on Electric Ladies Podcast We’re putting artificial intelligence (AI) to work for a variety of our problems on a daily basis -including climate change. How? In more ways than you might think, though it’s the amount of electricity, water and fuel it requires that raises tough questions. Listen to Dr. Stephanie Hare, a...
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Can Cities Thrive in a World of Polycrises? – Lauren Sorkin, Co-founder and Executive Director, Resilient Cities Network
Electric Ladies Podcast - Women Leaders Discuss Careers, Trends, Technologies and Innovation in Energy, Climate, and Corporate Responsibility
“Resilience is a team sport. You cannot build resilience in insolation. I cannot emphasize how important multi sector action and teamwork is. So let’s understand that and work together.” Lauren Sorkin on Electric Ladies Podcast To kick off the first interview of 2025, we’re diving into a topic that affects us all: Can the cities we live in truly provide what we need to thrive? With over half of the global population now living in urban areas – a figure projected to hit 70% by 2050 – cities are at the forefront of the climate transition. Join me as I talk with Lauren Sorkin,...
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Connecting with Curiosity – Jennifer Hough, Author & TEDx Speaker
Electric Ladies Podcast - Women Leaders Discuss Careers, Trends, Technologies and Innovation in Energy, Climate, and Corporate Responsibility
“If you want to get something done in this world that transcends what’s already happening, you have to be willing to listen to the people that are trying to hold dearly to how it has been. Become a master bridge builder. Be committed to asking questions such that you understand where the commonality is. Find the common points.” Jennifer Hough on Electric Ladies Podcast At the end of a year where every country and neighborhood seems more divided than ever, and many of us feel like we’re walking on eggshells in every conversation, we’ve found ourselves in uncharted terrain....
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The Future Of The Energy Transition, Grid - Joan Moderating ICWS Webinar With Energy Leaders
Electric Ladies Podcast - Women Leaders Discuss Careers, Trends, Technologies and Innovation in Energy, Climate, and Corporate Responsibility
“Today we are talking about accelerating the clean energy transition, including government policy, lowering costs, and decarbonization...The new 2024 Energy Fact book (by BCSE & BNEF)… found that the energy transition is in full swing with ‘record breaking’ public and private sector investments in clean power and renewable energies showing cost competitiveness even without government subsidies…But the two key pieces we're going to talk about today are… the grid and storage.” Joan Michelson on Electric Ladies Podcast Between market forces, government incentives and funding,...
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Buying Sustainable Fashion at the UN - Joan Moderates Climate Week
Electric Ladies Podcast - Women Leaders Discuss Careers, Trends, Technologies and Innovation in Energy, Climate, and Corporate Responsibility
“Women make up 80% or more of the garment industry workers. Women garment workers make meager wages and work excessive working hours, 14 to 16 hours a day…Fashion is ranked as the second most polluting business in the world by the UN, 7% of the landfill is garments. The garment industry emits 8 to 10% of global CO2 and 500,000 tons of micro plastics are dumped into oceans each year.” Joan Michelson at UN Climate Week SDG Media Zone The fashion industry faces the twin problems of being an environmental disaster, and treating their majority female workforce very, very badly, even...
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Scaling Donations – Kate Williams, 1% For The Planet
Electric Ladies Podcast - Women Leaders Discuss Careers, Trends, Technologies and Innovation in Energy, Climate, and Corporate Responsibility
“1% for the planet is really set up as a way to sort of break it down, and create a pathway to action that kind of gets us through the overwhelm. So, the way it works is that we have businesses who are our members, and they're actually supporting environmental partners at the level of 1% of revenues….You invest in the things that matter and the planet matters. …(The point is to) drive impact at scale. And so, in terms of that scale, last year we certified US$100million of support going from these companies to environmental partners….When a company joins, they pay a dues fee to us, but...
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Converting CO2 To Energy – Bjork Kristjansdottir, Carbon Recycling International
Electric Ladies Podcast - Women Leaders Discuss Careers, Trends, Technologies and Innovation in Energy, Climate, and Corporate Responsibility
“Carbon Recycling International was founded around the idea of taking something which was waste, like CO2 and turning it into some valuable product…(Today they are) converting CO2 into sustainable methanol…(W)e have technology, which takes CO2 as a waste, and it takes hydrogen and turns it into methanol…and it is used today both like into chemicals. So, the chemical sector is a big consumer of methanol, which is a very large known product in the world today. …(and into) a sustainable fuel...playing a pretty big role in the energy transition.” Bjork Kristjansdottir on Electric...
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New Research: Community Impact Of Green Manufacturing – Bethia Burke, President, The Fund For Our Economic Future
Electric Ladies Podcast - Women Leaders Discuss Careers, Trends, Technologies and Innovation in Energy, Climate, and Corporate Responsibility
“It's really that investment to transition from a legacy industry into a future industry…that is aiming to drive more sustainability and manufacturing processes and products overall…One of the things that we fundamentally see as being important in this economic shift, and we say it in this Practical Guide to the Green Economy, is that this transition we believe will favor places that make things.… and we want to make them better and more sustainable.” Bethia Burke on Electric Ladies Podcast Green jobs, economic development from growing these new energy and sustainability sectors....
info_outline“The link for us with (the WHO) is about universal health coverage and the sustainable development goal number three, which obviously the WHO places in the middle of the wheel of all the sustainable development goals. But on top and behind and with each other is climate action. We cannot have one without the other. And our role is to remind a lot of people that when they're making policies, they're talking about human beings.” Emma O’Brien on Electric Ladies Podcast
Climate change has a real impact on public health, from asthma and other respiratory illnesses due to CO2 and pollutants, to biodiversity-related risks like viruses, to heart disease, malnutrition and injuries and deaths from extreme weather events and extreme heat. Not to mention the stresses of displacement and trauma of these events.
Listen to Emma O’Brien, Ph.D., the founder of the Global Scrub Choir and Head of Music Therapy at the Royal Melbourne Hospital talk about music + public health + climate change in this truly inspiring interview on Electric Ladies podcast with host Joan Michelson.
You’ll hear:
- The impact of music on the brain – and the impact of creativity on health.
- The connection between the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Global Scrub Choir and the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals – and why the Choir was at the UN’s Climate Week 2023.
- Risks to public health from climate change
- Plus, insightful career advice ….
“if you're within a system, I think you need to spend a lot of time understanding that system, but also, never being afraid to question it.… not be afraid to ask questions. Because I found across my career that often I'll ask a question in a meeting and everyone will go, oh, thank goodness someone asked that question.” Emma O’Brien on Electric Ladies podcast
You’ll also want to listen to:
- Sandra Bargman & Chantal Bilodeau, about their Climate Cabaret
- Jill Tidman, Executive Director of The Redford Center, on how we talk about the climate and documentaries
- Daniella Ortega, writer and director of “Carbon: The Unauthorized Biography.”
- Deborah Rutter, President of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts on managing creative people and the Reach center’s sustainability features. (Note: This was recorded under the previous name of the show, Green Connections Radio.)
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