Restoring Australia's Forest Cover with Maximo Bottaro, ReForest Now
Release Date: 11/16/2021
Fight Fire With Fire: Indigenous Land Management with Firesticks
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A warming and drying climate is connected to the increased frequency, severity and duration of extreme wildfire weather conditions in Australia. And in the months leading up to Summer, Australian’s are reminded of bushfire season and advised by government and community organisations to prepare. Generally, the recommendations are for people who live in bushfire prone areas to prepare their homes and ensuring they have an evacuation plan. But I wanted to find out how our natural spaces are being prepared through appropriate land management. So, I reached out to the team at , a...
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Creating an Ecological Afterlife with Recompose
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The funeral industry is one that has remained largely unchanged with many people seeking sustainable alternatives to traditional burials or cremation. Current end of life practices can have a significant effect on the environment from energy use to greenhouse gases and soil pollution. So, one of the alternatives will be introduced by my guest today who is Katrina Spade, founder and CEO of the world’s first human composting company, . Founded in 2017, Recompose describes the process of human composting as natural organic reduction. Human composting has a host of environmental benefits which...
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Reducing Our Fashion Footprint With Tiffanie Darke
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While oil and energy garner the bulk of attention for the climate crisis, there is another major culprit - the fashion industry that is responsible for 8 to 10 per cent of global carbon emissions. Impacts include water and plastic pollution and fashion is also a major human rights issue through fast fashion’s unethical production. There is a lot of work to do for the industry to align with the Paris Agreements 1.5-degree pathway and in Australia, we are large fashion consumers. With a population of approximately 26 million, on average, Australian’s buy 56 brand new items of clothing a...
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Southern Seagreens On The Bright Future of Seaweed
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Forget what you know about slimy seaweed washing up ashore as seaweed is now the fastest growing food in aqua culture. Seaweed is in fact a nutritious superfood and a very clever and climate friendly plant with high carbon sequestering qualities. Helping me explore the potential of the seaweed sector is Cam Hines, who is Owner and Co-Founder of Southern Seagreens who run regenerative commercial seaweed farms in Flinders, Victoria. Southern Seagreens are growing sustainable seaweed for human consumption along with supporting marine ecosystems. Cam runs the daily operations at...
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Mike Coots: Surfer, Shark Bite Survivor & Ocean Photographer
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Mike Coots grew up on the Hawaiian island of Kauai. The lifestyle fuelled his obsession with the ocean along with an aspiration to be a professional bodyboarder. When he was 18 years old, Mike and his teammates took to the water one morning looking to catch a wave at Majors Bay where Mike was almost killed by a Tiger Shark. Mike’s survival instincts helped him paddle back to shore and with the help of his friends and passersby who witnessed the attack, Mike survived but underwent emergency amputation surgery losing his leg. But instead of turning his back on the water, Mike went from...
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Gorilla Conservation & Community with Volcanoes Safaris
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Today we’re taking an audio visit to where you can trek to see mountain gorillas and chimpanzees in the forests of Rwanda and Uganda. This once in a lifetime wildlife experience is as magical as it sounds and Volcanoes Safaris have been at the heart of reviving gorilla and chimpanzee tourism since 1997. I’m delighted to bring you my conversation with Volcanoes Safaris COO, as we explore what we’ll find on the property and what it’s like to see a gorilla for the first time. And as he defines it: “You really are connecting to something of our past.” We discuss...
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The Black Mambas, South Africa’s All Women Anti-Poaching Unit
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Women in wildlife conservation just make sense and continue to demonstrate that they are key to protecting nature and their communities. Patrolling the critical areas of the Greater Krueger National Park is South Africa’s first all-women anti-poaching unit, The Black Mambas. The Black Mambas are women who are selected, trained and deployed rangers which avoid a gun-first approach instead working to deescalate conflict towards potential poachers protecting The Big 5 and countless other animals. Today on the podcast, I speak to the founder and director of Transfrontier Africa and founder and...
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Wildlife's Curtain of Cruelty with Aaron Gekoski
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Many animal lovers will seek out wildlife encounters when they travel. Sometimes tourists are sold a once in a lifetime experience to pet a tiger cub, have breakfast with an orangutan or ride an elephant. But it’s important to note that these experiences often have a dark side with animals in these venues subject to degrading entertainment, cruel training methods and horrendous living conditions – deprived of their right to live a full, wild life. So how do we know this? Well, today’s guest spends his days documenting these difficult stories in the hope that we can bring urgent...
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Arctic Warming with Climate Scientist Dr. Kimberley Miner
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Have you been to or seen photos of the Arctic? It’s unparalleled beauty with magnificent blue glaciers, maybe a whiskered seal moving through its crystal waters or a polar bear trekking across the ice. But this beautiful region is being challenged with temperatures in the Arctic rising faster than anywhere on Earth. The effects of climate change are seeing the tampering of weather, melting ice, rising sea levels and threatened wildlife. To help me unpack what’s happening in The Arctic is today’s guest, , who is a climate scientist and program manager at the . Her research on climate...
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Fishful Thinking: AQUA Cultured Foods Take The Fish Out Of Seafood
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Climate change is challenging our oceans ecosystems when it comes to seafood. We’ve got unsustainable fishing practices such as overfishing, bycatch, unethical fish farming and even microplastics but seafood has quite the market. The Nature Conservancy reports that fish and other seafood products provide vital nutrients for more than three billion people around the globe and supply an income for 10 to 12% of the world's population. So how do we sustainably meet a demand like that and avoid depleting our oceans? Well, in a bid to create an ocean-friendly alternative, today I speak...
info_outlineLosing rainforests continues to wreak havoc on our climate and world leaders (yet again) have pledged to end deforestation. But waiting for policy makers is never the solution and today I sought to speak to someone who is doing ground work on reforestation.
I came across a brilliant charity, ReForest Now and am delighted to bring you my conversation with their CEO and Co-Founder, Maximo Bottaro.
ReForest Now is a young and fast-growing charity in Byron Bay and as their name suggests, they are working tirelessly to rewild bare paddocks to much needed rainforest cover in Australia.
Since 2018, the team has grown to 29 employees and they are on their way to achieve planting 250,000 trees by the end of 2021. The organisation is diversified into several categories of environmental work including rainforest nursery tree planting, bush regeneration, maintenance and partnership teams.
Like many people, I knew the basics around rainforests - they absorb carbon, produce oxygen, cool the planet, house animals but today, Maximo delves into the fascinating science behind rainforests and their ability to truly stabilise the climate.
Today Maximo takes us behind the scenes of ReForest Now and hot to design and protect a rainforest. We discuss the charity's incredible achievements in such a small amount of time and how they remain accountable to their donors. Maximo has a refreshing take on climate change activism as we discuss how we are all responsible to be of service to our environment.
I hope you enjoy today's episode with Maximo. He brings so much value to the climate conversation today and I hope it might encourage a new respect and desire to protect our much needed rainforests.
You can find out more about ReForest Now through their website and even get involved with tree planting.