Rising Tides: How indigenous communities are facing the climate crisis

Outrage + Optimism: The Climate Podcast

Persephonica

News, Planet, Business, Society & Culture, Current Affairs, Green, Policy, Finance, Society, Environment, Science, Energy, Climate

4.7 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 4 September 2025

⏱️ 58 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

What does it mean to live on the front lines of climate change - where rising seas, collapsing ecosystems and the legacies of colonialism collide?

This week, Christiana Figueres and Paul Dickinson are joined by guest host Andrew Higham (Founder of the Future of Climate Cooperation, and former UNFCCC Senior Advisor), to hear from three remarkable people from across the Solomon Islands, Alaska and Greenland. Their stories serve as a stark warning of the ways climate change is reshaping lives, identities and politics. How centuries-old knowledge offers resilience and guidance the world cannot afford to ignore.

How do you build an island? Indigenous Knowledge Advocate Lysa Wini describes how her Solomon Islands ancestors literally created their islands from coral and rock. How are their successors responding, now that rising oceans threaten their homes?

Wáahlaal Gidaag, Haida leader from Alaska and VP of Arctic Conservation at Ocean Conservancy, shares how her son’s questions are drawing her back to ancestral ways of seeing land and sea.

And Parnuna Egede Dahl, Special Advisor with Oceans North Kalaallit Nunaat in Greenland, explains how self-rule intersects with ocean governance, and what Greenland’s decision to join the Paris Agreement means for the future.

Their experiences challenge us to look beyond negotiations and policy texts, and ask: what can we learn from those who have always been on climate’s front lines? And how can we work together to protect the planet on which we all depend?

🎤 Leave us your voice notes and questions for upcoming episodes on SpeakPipe

Instagram @outrageoptimism

LinkedIn @outrageoptimism

Or get in touch with us via this form.

Producer: Ben Weaver-Hincks

Video Producer: Caitlin Hanrahan

Assistant Producer: Caillin McDaid

Assistant Producer: Eve Jones

Exec Producer: Ellie Clifford

Commissioning Editor: Sarah Thomas

This is a Persephonica production for Global Optimism and is part of the Acast Creator Network.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Hello and welcome to outrage and optimism. I'm Paul Dickinson. I'm Cristiana Figueres and Paul today.
0:08.0	Today. We have a special treat. A special, special treat. Who's with us, Kristiana?
0:13.0	So, we are joined by my dear colleague, Andrew Hyam, who will go down in history.
0:20.0	He's already. He's already.
0:21.2	He's already in history.
0:22.7	The annals of...
0:23.7	As having held the pen of the Paris Agreement, Andrew did an absolutely brilliant job,
0:30.3	coordinating a team of 15 people, all of whom were bringing together the input from the various governments as to the changes that they
0:40.9	wanted in the Paris Agreement. And it was Andrew's responsibility to look across all of those
0:48.7	changes in the text that was constantly changing and ensure that there was constant political balance.
0:55.3	That was not an easy job, but he did it with wisdom, grace.
1:00.4	And importantly, got every single country in the world to sign up to it.
1:03.0	Indeed, indeed.
1:04.1	Pretty impressed.
1:04.9	That was your job, Chrissio.
1:07.9	So, Andrew, it is just so lovely to have you here again. Andrew left the UN and has been doing
1:14.8	many things on climate still and has returned to his native Australia, but we are thrilled to have him
1:21.0	here in person today. Thank you. It's really lovely to be in your presence. Yay, very fun. Anything you
1:26.9	want to say about yourself before we dive in. Yeah, Andrew, what's kind of like... Who is Andrew Hyde? I've moved back to Australia and have been pummeled by three major climate events since I returned. All perhaps for my sins through the process. I don't know, but it's happening everywhere, isn't it? It is happening everywhere. Please say something about that.
1:44.6	Yeah, I mean, first you would have remembered the fires that started way up in the north of the country and went all the way down.
1:51.5	That was in 2019, I think.
1:53.7	I can't remember the dates.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Persephonica, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Persephonica and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.