Too Hot to Handle?: Facing a Future Beyond 1.5°C

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

🗓️ 14 August 2025

⏱️ 54 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

As global temperatures continue to skyrocket, the once unthinkable is now within view: overshooting 1.5°C of warming. This limit, set out in the Paris Agreement, has defined a decade of climate action, but is fast approaching. So what happens next?

This week, Tom, Christiana and Paul grapple with the latest science, the looming risks of climate tipping points, and the urgent need to prepare for the worst - even while hoping and working for the best. They’re joined by Ricken Patel, former Founding CEO of global activism nonprofit Avaaz, who is now calling us to take the possibility of overshoot seriously, and to build the political, technological and social capacity to bring temperatures back down.

From nature-based solutions to novel carbon dioxide removal and solar radiation management, this episode considers the broad spectrum of options on the table, and the challenges they present. Why has climate contingency planning been missing from the political debate? And does simply talking about it risk slowing climate action?

These aren’t just questions of what we might do in the future - but of what we’re prepared to act on now.

Learn more

🌡️ Explore the IPCC’s Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5°C - outlining some of the projected impacts and available pathways

🌱 Interested in nature-based solutions? Check out this explainer from the UN Environment Programme

🌬️ Interested in carbon dioxide removal? Browse through the CDR Primer

☀️ Interested in solar radiation management? Read this NOAA factsheet

🎧 Listen to two of producer Ben’s other podcasts about carbon dioxide removal, The Carbon Removal Show and Grounded: A Climate Startup Journey

🎤 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.
0:04.0	I'm Tom Rivikarnik.
0:05.0	I'm Christiana Figueres.
0:06.0	And I'm Paul Dickinson.
0:07.0	This week, a conversation that the climate world has long resisted but can no longer afford to ignore.
0:13.0	And we speak to our good friend Rick and Patal.
0:16.0	Thanks for being here.
0:17.0	Ooh, that was rather ominous, Tom.
0:24.4	Well, ominous is the right word, I'm afraid.
0:32.4	Now, we spend a lot of our time in the climate movement looking at mitigation,
0:37.4	sticking to our goals, limiting climate change, preventing these dangerous tipping points that we spend so much
0:38.3	of our lives thinking about it.
0:39.3	You mean mitigating greenhouse gas emissions.
0:41.3	You don't mean mitigating climate impacts.
0:44.3	Correct.
0:45.3	Well done.
0:46.3	Mitigating greenhouse gas emissions.
0:47.3	However, it is also true that in the short to medium term, our 1.5 degree target is looking under real threat. The new round of
0:55.9	NDCs, nationally determined commitments are coming up this year. Excuse me. Sorry that we are
0:59.9	correcting you so much. It's not a 1.5 degree target. We're not aiming for one. It's a limit. It's
1:07.7	a ceiling. It's a maximum temperature level. It's not a target. If it is a target, it's a target to limit to that, but you're absolutely right. Yes, correct, yes. Poor Tom. No, this is fine. This is good. Are you attempting to finish the intro of this? This is good. This could be the whole podcast, actually. It could just be me attempting to finish the intro, yeah. Now, the world has, of course, briefly passed
1:31.9	1.5 degrees of warming in 2023, 24. And a permanent breach is now looking quite likely in the 2030s.
	...

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