Look Near First

On the face of it, something doesn't seem to make sense. Most of us are worried about climate change, and most of us also believe that flying is a major contributor to climate change. Yet around half of the UK population flies at least once a year, some much more than that, with demand continuing to grow.What is going on there? If there appears to be something irrational - a disconnect between what we understand and the choices we are making, why might that be? Is there something about the way our brains are wired which is making it very difficult to adjust our actions for the sake of a healthier global future? And is there anything we can do about it?As a pilot, I have seen first-hand the benefits that have been brought to aviation by the commitment to understanding how human factors have contributed to air accidents. Design of pilot training, operating procedures and the aircraft themselves have been based around new understanding of how our brains work - their strengths and their weaknesses. These designs have both made errors less likely, and greatly decreased the probability of any error leading to a tragedy, with the result that commercial aviation has become extremely safe.Can human factors knowledge be applied to climate change? Can they explain why we seem to be accelerating towards a disaster which we can see clearly in front of us? And can they help us find more effective ways to slow down and reduce the damage?Dave Powell has been immersed in both climate change and human stories for over twenty years. He is currently the host of the superb podcast series Your Brain on Climate, in which he probes psychologists and other experts on human behaviour to try to get to the bottom of how we have got ourselves into this mess, and how we might pull our way out of it.In this episode, I ask him to use all the knowledge he as accumulated from his guests and his own experience to answer the questions: 'why are we continuing to fly so much?' and 'what might it take to shift our holiday habits towards more sustainable choices?'The statistics on flying and attitudes to decarbonisation come from research done in 2024 by the Royal Aeronautical Society, which can be found through this link: https://www.aerosociety.com/media/26178/public-attitudes-to-the-decarbonisation-of-aviation.pdfThis is where you can find Dave's podcast, which I cannot recommend more highly: https://www.yourbrainonclimate.com/And, just like the last time I recorded a podcast with Dave, the Outrage and Optimism podcast released a show at almost exactly the same time with some very relevant content: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/is-it-over-a-direct-answer-to-climate-despair/id1459416461?i=1000775108378Produced by Joel WalkerMusic by Grand Project: 'Simple Happy Life' and 'Morning Coffee'

This is an episode from Dave Powell's brilliant podcast, Your Brain on Climate, which features me! Dave asked me to talk to him about how climate change led me to a place where I felt I had to leave my job as an airline pilot. We also talk a little bit about how our brains often don't make the most rational decisions when faced with challenges that they didn't evolve for, such as, for example, flying aeroplanes, and dealing with climate change. Fortunately, Dave has agreed to be a guest on this podcast soon, to dig into this fascinating and vital topic in a bit more detail.This one, though, is mostly my story and, having found so much warmth and wisdom from Dave's podcast over recent months, there was nobody with whom I would shared it more willingly.

Alastair Humphreys has written books about his epic, worldwide adventures, which included cycling around the world, walking across India and rowing across the Atlantic Ocean. But more recently, he has turned his attention much, much closer to home and, not being someone to do things by halves, he has taken 'local' to an extreme.In this episode, we explore some of the reasons behind the switch, and more importantly, how those local adventures compare to the global-scale ones. What has he discovered about what it means, and what it takes, to have a great adventure?Alastair's books, blog and more can be found at alastairhumphreys.com

John Ruskin is a fascinating figure from the 19th century. He wished for a fairer society, and advocated strongly for social reform. He was also concerned by what he recognised as harmful effects of the industrial revolution - not only seeing how the emissions might harm the environment, but how the ever-increasing pace of life could inhibit us from really seeing and appreciating the wonder and beauty in nature and art.In this episode, I talk with Howard Hull, the director and curator of Brantwood, the beautiful house which was home to John Ruskin throughout the second half of his life. I ask what Ruskin might have taught me, if I had attended one of his drawing classes at the Working Men's College in the 1850s, as well as more of Ruskin's views on society and how we live our lives, which are possibly even more relevant now than they were when he was alive.https://www.brantwood.org.uk/https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2018/aug/30/john-ruskin-artists-victorian-social-critic