Ep# 15 | WTF is Climate Change? Nikhil ft. Sunita, Bhumi, Navroz and Mirik

Atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations have surged from 290 ppm in the 1870s to 421 ppm in 2022, exceeding the safe limit of 350 ppm and reaching the highest levels in millions of years.

Featuring insights from experts like Sunita Narain, Mirik Gogri, Bhumi Pednekar, and Navroz K Dubash, we explore the impacts of climate change and the implications of a dramatic increase in carbon dioxide levels, as well as the looming threat of a 3-degree temperature rise. We also discuss the opportunities and incentives for building low-carbon economies, the evident trend in energy transition, the importance of net-zero emissions, renewable energy, and much more.

We discuss this on both the macro and micro levels, covering everything from tackling climate anxiety to implementing policies at an intergovernmental level for climate change mitigation

#Nikhilkamath
Co-founder of Zerodha, True Beacon and Gruhas

#SunitaNarain - Environmentalist

#BhumiPednekar - Actor and Climate Warrior

#NavrozKDubash - Researcher

#MirikGogri - Technologist

Timestamps
00:00 Introduction
00:34 How Navroz went from engineering to Climate Change
6:14 What is the IPCC?
9:25 Mirik on his early days, education and ventures
16:27 How Bhoomi became a Climate Warrior
21:06 Why Sunita started working in the Climate Space
26:47 What Changed in the Climate Space : Then Vs Now
35:25 What do environmentalist think about EV
38:30 What Drives Sunita Today?
40:18 The ‘Shit Story’ : India’s Sewage Story
45:55 What is Climate Change? Simplified
1:01:35 Effects of Politics and Narratives on Climate Change
1:07:00 Incentives of building low carbon economies
1:13:40 Grid Storage : Opportunities For Entrepreneurs
1:07:05 Issues with Indian Electricity Distribution Companies
1:27:27 One thing government can do to make the Power grids better
1:28:42 How to incentivise distribution companies
1:31:20 What is the Relationship between Pre-industrial temperatures and carbon
1:33:50 Why doesn’t bollywood make movies around climate
1:46:22 Why we are focussed on optics more than action
1:49:55 What are Carbon Credits and Offsetting ?
1:52:38 Nikhil Summarises the Episode so far
1:53:10 Mirik’s view on nuclear fission and fusion
2:04:40 Way Forward for Developing Nations
2:05:40 How can a 20-year-old contribute to climate action today?
2:11:45 What are some forums for engaging in climate change discussions?
2:13:47 Can we solve for Climate Change the same way we did for ozone?
2:22:05 Are carbon capture projects the future?
2:31:08 Can Geoengineering Be Effective in Addressing Global Issues?
2:34:45 How Should a Carbon Tax Be Levied?
2:39:40 Relevance of Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) to meet global climate targets
2:44:18 How effective is veganism in addressing environmental issues?
2:52:08 Advice to Entrepreneur and Government
2:56:00 WTF Fund is Back !

[thamam]

Can we all just appreciate the pop-ups in these podcasts that provides a clearer picture to what they are talking about eg. articles referred or companies mentioned. Such a value packed episode 👌

[udaysimhamysore]

Grew up reading about Sunita and have always admired the work she has done, it was amazing to finally hear her share her journey

[suprajameda]

When Nikhil mentioned about Sunita’s conversation with Leonardo Decaprio, just went back and saw that as well, she nailed it!

[ithinkitworks]

To have the opportunity to hear people like Sunita and Navroz is why I love this pod.

[ArtVandelay-av]

Bhumi was invited so that the audience could appreciate the other guests more 😂😂

[krutikattige]

I really admire Bhumi and Mirik. Sunita and Navroz are working in the field and know so much, whereas, the primary job of the other two is not that. And still, they are taking some action and are quite knowledgeable about it.

[bitmutex]

Sunita mam really knows her game, agricultural pumps with solar definitely intersects with the ground water problem, this is the reason city municipalities does not approve submersible pumps for non-commercial usage.

[navin]

I could not understand what was the compulsion behind calling Bhumi for Climate Change debate

[beautifullyskilled]

Now we want nikhil on shark tank india

[MotoBites_with_Manas]

Guys, we should not bash Bhumi. You need to understand that she’s just starting on this journey where the other 2 who are contributing the most to this discussion, come from decades of experience working on this cause.
What’s important is the intention, I appreciate the fact that she’s actually started on this journey. She’ll know more with time.

[omgano]

this is the most professional podcast channel with informal /friendly topics❤

[JCBosee]

You can tell Bhumi does it for virtue signalling.

[aaithubarla]

I happily skipped parts where Bhoomi was speaking after watching her intro.

[nishantchoudhury]

We are really poor at doing things that are good in the long run, but have limited immediate impact. Forget climate change (which is a very important issue), we are not able to cut out junk food, mindless scrolling or exercise consistently even when my survival as an individual is dependent on these. How are we humans ever going to work on something that is global!?

[anushreevelankar]

Nikhil- You are right. We need to have more conversations around it. I recently did my Masters in Sustainable and Business from the UK. I am back in India because, being an ex-entrepreneur, I know there is so much to do here. However, there are fewer job opportunities in the sustainability sector. It would be lovely if you use your platform to create more awareness about climate change, sustainability, circular economy, etc.

[akashbhoite]

28:36 Sunita talking down to Bhumi like CNG means Compressed Natural Gas? 😂

[harishgowdacn]

Seriously I am saying recently I was sitting in a group discussion for a interview really I faced this situation where I got topic of economy development vs climate change dam I don’t what is climate we just went to speak about economy development at last Hr stopped us and started scolding for 20 min that moment I felt ashamed but finally this Ep made to think out of the box and proper knowledge of climate change seriously thank u Nikhil for this wonderful episode

[starupiva]

Hi Nikhil and All, I liked the video and appreciate what each of the speakers has done to curb climate change. Thanks bhumi for your doing your bit to curb climate change, however a lot more needs to be done . Some interesting facts shared by Sunita about how rivers once brimming and sparkling with fresh clean water have been reduced to stinking and smelly sewage pits. However, the tone in which this whole video could've been presented could've been a bit more 'harsher' rather 'in your face'! I am an Engineer and Climate Scientist, currently developing green energy and contingency systems with scientists across the globe. The days of 'discussing' about climate change are over, like yesterday or the day before. This is the time to take action, hence my request to make the presentation harsher. Since, the advent of the industrial age, the volumes of CO, CO2, SO2, HFC's, benzene, toluene, xylenes, cumenes, coumarone, indene, benzofuran, naphthalene, acenaphthene, methylnaphthalenes, fluorine, phenol, cresols, pyridine, picolines, phenanthracene, carbazole, quinolines, fluoranthene, and pyrene have been spiking up gradually. CO2 alone which had a low (safe) concentration of 150 to 200 PPM pre-industrial level's is now 424 PPM as per the NOAA data. 1 PPM of CO2 = 7.83 gigatons, therefore 424 PPM of CO2 = 3, 319.92 gigatons of CO2 in the atmosphere currently and I havent even mentioned the volumes of the other gases and pollutants yet. We are currently breathing a toxic mixture of lethal chemicals right now, which explains modern diseases. Widespread deforestation in the name of infrastructure and I hate this word 'Realty', 'Real Estate', has caused earth to lose her natural carbon sinks aka radiators aka heat exchangers or dissipators. Result the earth boiled with every tree we cut, gradually coming now to a point of no return! Yes, we are now in a point of no return, uncharted territory. Lets come to the fun parts shall we, its not just the land which is getting hot, the seas and oceans are getting hot too. Now you've studied engineering, and you'd know that land cools down faster than water. So the water is boiling over the day time and its not cooling fast enough, even during the night, so the temparature of the seas and oceans is multiplying exponentially. Which explains the rapid elting of the glaciers. As we speak A23/A23A a huge antartic glacier has just melted off the southern ocean. Its the size of the city of Dubai, about 4100 square kilometers. Entire Ice shelves are melting off pouring gazillions of tons of fresh water into the ocean. Changing the salinity and physical and chemical properties of sea/ocean water. This has caused a change in our currents, which explains the back to back catastrophic cyclones and CAT6 hurricanes which have hit India, Australia, Acapulco, Mexico, USA and the list goes on. Thousands dead. I tracked the one of Acapulco and its wind speed was 150 to 200 kms per hour. The tornado in Libya literally flung people into the ocean and drowned them. Cars, people just flew and landed in the ocean the next second. They were unaware, they drowned, got eaten by sharks. So many missing till date. USA's west coast is experiencing an unprecedented chain of storms and hurricanes, which scientists termed Pineapple Express. Atmospheric Rivers or Rivers in the sky, which conveniently and happily fall over cities and people and drown them! It's not just the upper crust of the earth and seas who are affected. Global Warming and the resultant Climate Change have also caused a series of seismic events. Back ot back devastating earthquakes, Turkey's 8.0 or Indian Oceans 10.0 earthquakes still rattle the spines of even the bravest of bravehearts. Nature and Mother Earth have become monsters, baring fangs and wielding unseen, unheard of weapons in their hands. Who caused all this? Us, the human civilization, although I'd like to argue that there is nothing human about us, atleast not anymore. And yet some of us return home the end of each day and crash into the arms of our better halves, the so called 'babies and shonas' and start our god given reproductive engines, without even waiting for the green signals and proudly make clones of ourselves. Oh its just 140 crorer you know, just 16 crore football teams or 12.72 crore cricket teams. "Screw the effing climate, I gotta oil and keep ma engines runnin you know!". To answer Sunitas question in detail, there is lake in Bangalore, which had sparkling water, fishes and migratory birds throughout the year. Over a period of 10 years, a lot of apartments and houses came up and they connected their sewage pipelines directly to the lake, much against the pollution guidelines of the state. The result, a huge stinking, sewage pot, full of shit balls. This has caused irrepairable ground water contamination, so much that it contains E Coli and other dangerous bacteria and viruses. A volunteer group of scientists including me undertook the water testing and proudly presented the results to the residents and informed them of how wonderfully, they are consuming bacteria and viruses each day and how it is destroying them from the inside. I am glad to inform you that there are no more fish in that lake and the migratory birds have made nests in the neighboring apartments feeding on left over rice and other garbage. You know when I look at this whole situation from a third dimension, it feels like we lit a huge pile of coal and sat on it. It felt warm and nice at first but got unbearable when it began burning into our asses and to douze this fire, we'd have to do something that Joe Pantoliano and Brian Haley did to Joe Mantegna - Kick some balls!

[sumitbpatil]

Today, I learnt about climate change and how to ignore obnoxious impostors/"virtue signalling" individuals while identifying the right people in a room to learn and gain knowledge.

[srai]

I told about podcast in SF . Just love how this podcast is produced and how well it’s done . I literally like it better than all in podcast . Well done team and thanks Nikhil