Climate Water Project

69:04

Can water flip the planet’s climate? :...

Climate Water Project ·

2026/09/23

Could shifts in the world’s water cycle tip the earth’s climate?In 2023, a paper was published that exploded into a huge scientific debate. It was about the circulation of our oceans, and how it might be slowing down and changing, which was a matter of huge concern. It is called the AMOC, the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation. The paper raised the possibility that the AMOC might approach a major transition in the near future, which could have profound consequences for our climate.But why

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69:56

Animals regulate water, land, and climate : ecologist...

Climate Water Project ·

2026/09/09

I was excited to finally be able to interview Simon Mustoe after three years our initial effort. I think he presents a very important perspective of importance of animals to land, water and climate.There is traditional, simplistic view often held, that says climate sets the stage for the water cycle, the water cycle sets the stage for vegetation, and vegetation sets the stage for animals. In recent decades there has been a perspectival shift and enlargening, in that much more work on how vegetation

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72:45

Activating a global network of water restorers and...

Climate Water Project ·

2026/03/24

Restoring the world’s water cycles is a craft, one that takes time to learn, and a community to grow within. That community is being built.Water Stories is an education platform, community network, and hands-on career pathway dedicated to restoring the world’s water. It has been quietly growing, building a network of extraordinary people, advocating for landscape-scale change, and educating a new generation of practitioners in the art of working with water.Water Stories is following a similar path

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53:15

Rewilding, beavers, and water restoration : Derek Gow

Climate Water Project ·

2026/03/06

The idea of bringing back the beaver to the UK was an idea that was scoffed as too eccentric, even by environmentalists. But Derek Gow, against a lot of opposition, has pioneered bringing the beaver back, so that they are now once again part of the UK landscape, restoring the wetlands and rivers.Born in Dundee in 1965, Gow left school at seventeen and spent his early years in agriculture. He was inspired by the writing of Gerald Durrell, and jumped at the chance to manage a European wildlife park

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75:46

Supply chains & insurance: the secret levers to...

Climate Water Project ·

2026/02/02

I met Stephanie Betts a couple of months ago and was struck by her dynamic and enthusiastic energy. She had launched a pioneering, ambitious, and viable project to restoring the water cycle in a large scale systems way. Last week we sat down and talked about her project and her life.Stephanie Betts had worked in law and investment banking and was leading meetings between M&G (global investment manager) , the Bank of England and NGOs like Client Earth, looking at best practice governance for climate

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73:35

Precipitationsheds and the socio-economics of rain:...

Climate Water Project ·

2026/01/18

In Bolivia, farmers wait anxiously for rains. Meanwhile, Bolivian consumers buy beef and soy from Brazilian suppliers whose operations are clearing the very Amazonian forests that generate Bolivia's rainfall. The atmospheric connection is real but the economic feedback loop is invisible. If Bolivian businesses and policymakers could see this connection as clearly as they see a map of trade routes, would they make different choices about whom to buy from? Would Brazil negotiate differently if it

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110:24

The big groundwater crisis - food, water, pollution,...

Climate Water Project ·

2025/11/14

I was mesmerized listening to John Cherry talk about groundwater, so absorbed that I didn’t notice that two hours had gone by. With lucid clarity, he laid bare the massive groundwater crisis engulfing us.Cherry speaks from a place of gravitas. He’s won the Stockholm Water Prize, known as the ‘Nobel’ of water, which is awarded in conjunction with the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, the same institution behind the Nobel Prize itself. He wrote the seminal Groundwater textbook that shaped our modern

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51:33

The planetary boundaries of green water : Lan...

Climate Water Project ·

2025/10/12

Lan Wang-Erlandsson is a researcher studying moisture recycling. She focuses on the large-scale interactions between land, water, and climate, and their implications for social-ecological and Earth system resilience. She has conducted work on the planetary boundaries of green water, where green water is defined as water that vegetation uses, or more formally as ‘freshwater from precipitation that is stored in the soil and used by plants through transpiration’. She helped society understand moisture

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57:54

The forest-water connection: ecologist Douglas Sheil

Climate Water Project ·

2025/08/23

In this podcast, I had the wonderful experience of talking with Douglas Sheil, professor at Wageningen University in the Netherlands, about forests. Douglas's academic adventures took him on a journey from his homeland to places like the rainforests of Indonesia, where he studied how local communities can help protect forests. He has studied forests in many forms of their complexity and wrote a well-regarded textbook on tropical rainforests. He became interested in questions of forest and water and

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74:32

Making the map of the small water cycle : van der Ent

Climate Water Project ·

2025/08/01

Where does the evapotranspiration that rises from forests and grasslands come back down as rain? This was the question that Ruud van der Ent asked as a hydrology graduate student. He wondered if he could make a map of the world that would show this flow of moisture around the world.Van der Ent worked with his professor, the renowned Hubert Savenije to make this map. They published this in a paper called “Origin and fate of atmospheric moisture over continents”. Their map has been quite influential

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68:15

'Our Blue World' documentary : Paul O'Callaghan

Climate Water Project ·

2025/06/19

A wonderful new documentary, Our Blue World, is out, and it offers a panoramic exploration of how communities across the globe are learning to live in greater harmony with water. The film highlights a wide range of innovative and traditional practices—from China’s sponge city initiative, to New Zealand’s recognition of the Whanganui River as a legal person, to the ancient Peruvian techniques for guiding water into mountains so it reemerges as springs. It also delves into the Biosphere 2 project,

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60:08

Putting rocks in rivers to lessen drought, fire &...

Climate Water Project ·

2025/05/11

Laura Norman works for the USGS (United States Geological Survey), a US science bureau, studying water flow through our rivers and landscapes. There is a slow water movement underway, being spread by permaculture, agroforestry, Natural Sequence Farming and regenerative agriculture, promoted by people like Erica Gies, the author of ‘Water always Wins’, and its essence captured by Brock Dolman’s phrase ‘slow it, sink it, spread it’. Laura Norman has been helping make the impact of slow water more

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91:08

Natural Sequence Farming : Stuart Andrews

Climate Water Project ·

2025/04/11

Peter Andrews, also known as PA, was an Australian racehorse breeder who in the 1970s bought a piece of property, in the state of New South Wales, to raise racehorses. However the land he bought, the Tarwyn Park property, was degraded and the water on it was salinated. After a lot of thought and experimentation he developed his own set of restoration techniques.He looked at the dried up patterns in the floodplains to figure what used to happen on the land. He saw there used to chains of ponds. So

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94:58

The art of water : Charlotte Qin

Climate Water Project ·

2025/03/30

I had the joy of interviewing Charlotte Qin who is a water artist working to capture the emotions and spiritual essence of water through her paintings and her reciprocal performances where the audience engages in a connection with water. I was moved when I watched a performance of hers where glacial ice was brought in, and people spoke embodying the glaciers spirit, as the glacial ice melted. She comes from a physics background, and integrates science and policy into her art works, seeking to

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83:59

Plants drink water from the air: hydrologist Sieger...

Climate Water Project ·

2025/02/28

I met Sieger Burger a few years back, and we have had quite a few interesting conversations about water over that time. He is a hydrologist and writer. In this conversation we range over many aspects of the water cycle, with a focus on hydraulic redistribution (how plants bring up groundwater), and foliar water upake (the process by which leafs can take in water).During Sieger’s Dutch childhood, he became interested in water - “water was fascinating to me. Water is this weird molecule that is both

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94:42

Lessening LA wildfires : The water solution

Climate Water Project ·

2025/01/19

The Los Angeles wildfires hit close to home for me. In the wake of the fires, I started working on an expansion of an article “Rehydrating California to lessen wildfires” I wrote a couple of years back. Then I remembered that Didi Pershouse and Walter Jehne had run a Rehydrate California project awhile back. So, instead, I thought to have a dialog with her, as a way to provide an overview of the subject.Didi has a wonderful, warm personality, and is a leader in spreading the word about regenerative

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87:39

Absorbing rains to bring landscapes back to life:...

Climate Water Project ·

2024/11/03

Trees, stout and rugged, once dotted the valleys in the Makkah province in Saudia Arabia. An indigenous system of community land management called Hima allowed nature to flourish for thousands of years. But then in 1950s Hima was abolished, and desertification set in. People cut down trees, so they could have money to import food for their animals.The land became austere. The sun seared desolation into the hills and wabis (the valleys). The earth became dry as a parched throat. Xerophytic plants

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54:27

Regenerating a farm and a semi-arid region: Silvia...

Climate Water Project ·

2024/10/21

In the windswept plateau of South Eastern Spain, where the soil had been eroding, where desertification had been threateninghad the area, and where the community had been struggling with the exodus of young people, La Junquera farm, has been pioneering regenerative methods, and spearheading the activation and restoration of the local watershed. Its been hosting educational workshops for neighboring farmers, and its ways have gradually osmosized into the surrounding area. I had the pleasure of

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78:59

How eco-tourism can help the regenerative water...

Climate Water Project ·

2024/10/13

While in Spain, Nick Steiner, the water restorationist, and I were involved in discussions with folks from the Spanish hospitality sector about restoring the water cycles and bringing back the rains there. It began to dawn on us that eco-tourism could play a role in the regenerative water movement. Anna Pollock, who is from the UK, heard of our discussions, and contacted me. She has been a leader in the regenerative tourism movement and in conscious travel. The 2022 Journey Women award was given to

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79:24

The joy of restoring water cycles : Nick Steiner

Climate Water Project ·

2024/06/25

Nick Steiner’s delight in restoring the water to our lands emerges as I talk to him. He works in watershed management, his service is called PermaNick , helping landowners grow regenerative landscapes that slow and absorb more of the rain. He is a passionate advocate and speaker about the larger vision of restoring our water cycles. His home is in Canary Islands, where they only have a couple of inches of rain a year, and yet he has found a way to guide the rainfall so he can harvest it for his own

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