TRAILER - Cities 1.5 Season 4: Our Planet is Sick

The climate crisis is making both the planet and its inhabitants critically ill - and it's also amplifying public health issues and creating new ones, especially in urban areas. With over 65% of the world's population projected to live in cities by 2050, it is crucial that city governance integrates emerging research on climate health impacts. Season 4 of Cities 1.5 will feature conversations with urban leaders like Hilda Flavia Nakabuye, Clayton Paige Alder, and Thobile Chittenden, who prioritize planetary and public health over profit. Join host David Miller starting October 8th for a new episode every Tuesday to learn how we can change both the planet and ourselves to ensure a healthier world.

If you want to learn more about the Journal of City Climate Policy and Economy, please visit our website: https://jccpe.utpjournals.press/

Cities 1.5 is produced by the University of Toronto Press and Cities 1.5 is supported by C40 Cities and the C40 Centre for City Climate Policy and Economy. You can sign up to the Centre newsletter here. https://thecentre.substack.com/

Our executive producers are Calli Elipoulos and Peggy Whitfield.

Produced by Jess Schmidt: https://jessdoespodcasting.com/

Edited by Morgane Chambrin: https://www.morganechambrin.com/

Music is by Lorna Gilfedder: https://origamipodcastservices.com/

Transcript

[00:00:00] [somber music plays] David: The climate crisis is making both us and the planet we live on sick. More than pandemic sick. Systematically, earth shatteringly sick. Exploding poverty gap, runaway capitalism sick. Polar ice caps melting, sea levels rising, cities under threat of being washed away sick. Ecologically caused PTSD and damage to children's brain health sick. The impacts of the climate crisis harm our planet - and also harm us. They exacerbate existing public health issues, and also cause new ones. And cities and their residents are on the front lines of both of these dual climate and health crises. Over 65 percent of the world's population will live in urban areas by 2050, and cities house the bulk of the world's public health infrastructure. It's vital that city governance and policy makers absorb the emerging research around just how sick we already are - and will be very soon - because it needs to dramatically shape the way we tackle and safeguard urban public health.

[00:01:23] [upbeat music plays] David: In this season of Cities 1. 5, we're speaking with urban leaders who are putting the health of people and the planet over profit - like Hilda Flavia Nakabuye, climate, gender, and environmental rights activist, and founder of the Uganda chapter of Fridays for Future. 

[00:01:41] Hilda Flavia Nakabuye: I am a victim of this whole climate crisis, and I'm not ashamed to say so.

[00:01:47] David: Clayton Page Aldern, author and neurological climatologist. 

[00:01:52] Clayton Page Aldern: These extreme weather patterns influence neurocognitive health and mental health and the cellular health of neurons. 

[00:02:00] David: And Thobile Chittenden, network co-leader at the Wellbeing Economy Alliance and CEO of the Makers Valley Partnership. 

[00:02:08] Thobile Chittenden: We have gone through colonization, and westernization, and have lost some of our values and our ideals and our capabilities. And I think it's about going back to some of those ideals, but also knowing that we are a new era of Africans, and what does that look like and feel like? 

[00:02:30] [dramatic music plays] David: We're facing a sickness over a hundred years in the making. It's a sickness that threatens the habitat of every inhabitant on Earth. And we need to change both the planet, and ourselves, in order to save both. Season 4 begins October 8th, with a new episode each Tuesday after that. The fight for a healthier world is closer than you think. Subscribe now, so you don't miss a single episode. [music fades out]