0:00

It is the hardest working habitat

0:02

type on planet Earth. If I could be king

0:05

for the day of the entire planet, and there's

0:07

only one thing I could do, I

0:09

would protect all mangroves.

0:12

Globally, It's only found in a very

0:14

sort of a sliver of our planet.

0:18

Fucked.

0:23

Welcome to I'm fucking the future.

0:26

I'm your host. Chris Turney are a

0:28

climate scientist from Sydney, Australia.

0:30

Today, a lot of people look to Silicon

0:33

Valley venture capitalists and

0:35

the next big startup to solve the climate

0:37

crisis. But a lot of these solutions

0:40

neglect the communities that are affected most

0:42

by the crisis. It doesn't

0:44

have to be that way. Actually,

0:46

let me just say it should not and

0:49

cannot be that way, because

0:51

the answers to this crisis lie

0:53

in our communities. That people

0:55

have taken care of this earth and

0:57

there's a small parcel of land or water on

0:59

it for generations upon

1:02

generations. They have

1:04

solutions and that's one

1:06

of the reasons that our guest today has been

1:08

so successful. M

1:10

Sanjan is an organizer, conservationist

1:13

and media personality whose

1:15

passion for the environment was instilled

1:18

from an early age. Growing up in Sierra

1:20

Leone. He's the CEO

1:22

of Conservation International, and

1:24

global nonprofit that does help protect

1:27

more than six million square

1:29

kilometers of land and ocean across

1:32

more than seventy countries. Today,

1:34

we're going to be focusing on a big part of this

1:37

mission, their work on the world's

1:39

oceans.

1:41

We're fucking

1:44

the future. We're

1:48

a fucking the future.

1:55

Our oceans are a major and

1:57

wildly underutilized tool in solving

1:59

the climate crisis, not

2:01

just because they can strengthen the resilience of communities,

2:05

but also because the ocean is a

2:07

giant carbon capture machine. It

2:10

draws down vast amounts of carbon

2:12

in the atmosphere and ultimately

2:14

moderates for climate, and

2:16

it can do so much more. It

2:19

offers the opportunity to walk back

2:21

from the precipice we face. M

2:24

Sungean is a biologist turned

2:26

into national conservation superstar,

2:29

and because of his upbringing, he's particularly

2:31

interested in using our natural resources

2:34

and water in particular to solve

2:37

Earth's greatest challenges. Sungan

2:42

grew up as Sierra Leone in a small

2:44

logging and mining town surrounded

2:46

by forest.

2:47

And here's the amazing thing about this place.

2:50

This was the place that David Attenborough

2:53

got his start in television. Wow,

2:56

very first time you see Assinbourgh on TV, it

2:59

was in this not just in cyri Leone,

3:01

but in this community that.

3:04

I grew up in.

3:05

Good Grief, and I think it's kind.

3:07

Of remarkable that this tiny little town was the place that

3:09

he he sort of got going on television

3:11

and then I had the chance to do it.

3:13

At the time, Sierra Leone was home

3:15

to some of the most incredible forests

3:17

in the world, so it made sense that one

3:19

of the world's top nature educators

3:21

would film their show there. And

3:23

he wasn't the only one. Gerald Double

3:26

spent time there too. He's

3:28

another celebrated British naturalist,

3:30

famous for his book My Family

3:32

and Other Animals.

3:34

So Darrel gets to start in sirial

3:36

Leone too.

3:39

Her first appearance on television isn't

3:41

the same place. It's

3:44

actually kind of amazing, right.

3:46

It's incredible. You could imagine there's

3:48

some producer there says hang on, I did a job there.

3:51

We could go there.

3:53

They used to call him, and when we were kids,

3:55

we used to hear about this guy that the

3:57

local people would call mister

3:59

White.

4:01

In decades to figure ound.

4:03

Mister White was durrel o God

4:06

because he was white and because he had a white

4:08

beard at the time.

4:09

So you've got mister White, David

4:11

Dattenborough, and Lil Sanjan all

4:14

learning about nature in the same twenty

4:16

mile area totally covered

4:18

in forest.

4:19

And my dad, here's an amazing thing. My dad

4:21

at the time was working for a logging company.

4:24

Before the logging industry got to Sierra Leone,

4:27

more than seventy percent of the country

4:29

was made up of biologically diverse

4:31

forest, seventy percent.

4:34

When European colonizes invaded

4:36

the region, they began exploiting these

4:38

incredible forests for their timber. This

4:40

paved a way for a commercial logging industry

4:43

to take over the country.

4:49

So this company would go into the forest

4:51

and cut down one giant tree, loaded

4:53

onto truck, that's how gigantic these

4:56

trees were, and then bring it back in.

4:58

And as a child, I would go

5:00

in with them sometimes and run up and

5:02

down the log as the tree

5:04

once the tree fell down, and

5:07

collect animals from the canopy and

5:09

bring them home, like chameleons and

5:11

baby parrots and things like that.

5:13

And then and you know, back then, we didn't have a

5:16

sense of the loss of the forest.

5:18

I don't really remember feeling really

5:20

bad about the tree,

5:22

you know, because it just felt like a big

5:24

frontier and it felt like there

5:27

was so much more Now that

5:29

same forest, it is one

5:31

of the rarest forests in the world now.

5:36

Heartbreakingly, less than five

5:38

percent of our original forest remains

5:40

today, that.

5:41

Upper Guineaan forest, there's only a

5:43

sliver of it left. It's

5:45

got thirteen speeds of primates, pygmy

5:48

hippos, a few elephants.

5:51

It's still there.

5:51

It's still that amazing biodiversity, but it's

5:54

so much smaller than it used to be.

5:56

Oh r, I forgive me, but we've really

5:59

got to discuss how terrible the

6:01

global logging industry really is. Deforestation

6:11

makes up about fifteen percent of our

6:13

global greenhouse emissions, and

6:16

yet this industry continues

6:18

to grow. Much of a wood that is

6:20

cut down today is processed into sawn,

6:22

timber, pulpwood board,

6:24

and wood based panels, and

6:26

we as consumers love process

6:29

would. In the US, demand

6:31

for wood based panels has increased by eight

6:34

hundred percent of the past three decades.

6:37

We simply can't get enough of it.

6:39

It's how we end up with fast furniture,

6:41

you know, like how your parents' dining room

6:43

table seem to last for fifty years and

6:45

yours barely holds up after five. But

6:48

back when Sangan's family was in Sierra Leone

6:50

working for the logging industry, we

6:53

really had no idea that the commercialization

6:55

of our trees would turn into fast

6:57

furniture trends on TikTok. But

7:00

here we are. We're fifteen percent

7:02

of our global emissions caused by deforestation

7:05

and a fast furniture industry that's only

7:07

getting worse. So

7:15

Bat Desangean. He grew up

7:17

in this incredible environment where they

7:19

were able to save chameleons and watched

7:22

David Attenberg get his start. Pret

7:24

you dream if for a kid is into nature, right. He

7:27

left Sierra Leone to study conservation

7:29

biology under Michael Soule

7:32

at the University of California, Santa

7:34

Cruz.

7:35

Michael Soule is often seen as

7:37

the father of conservation biology.

7:39

He coined the word conservation biology, and

7:42

he was really a big figure and in really

7:44

established the field. And Michael

7:47

at the time, I went to study cheatahs,

7:50

you know, like the African cat, right,

7:53

That's what I really wanted to study, and.

7:56

That would have been very cool.

7:57

It would have been very cool.

7:58

But interestingly, very sadly,

8:01

my project got canceled halfway through

8:03

because of some funding dispute, nothing to

8:05

do with me, nothing to do with the project. But I

8:07

was studying in Namibia, uh

8:10

and there was money that was going from the US to

8:12

Namibia that got caught up in some politics.

8:15

My project got canceled halfway

8:17

there, so I had to quickly switch and

8:19

find something because I was on the student visa

8:22

right so clock is sticking, you know,

8:24

my visa runs out, I'm getting sent back, and

8:26

so I ended up switching to study.

8:29

You know a little rat that lives

8:31

underground. They're called gopherst If

8:33

you ever watched the movie Caddyshack, Yes,

8:35

no money is off to killing Gover like

8:38

that's it, And that's all I knew about.

8:39

Go first. I've got a more important job.

8:42

I want you to kill every gopher

8:45

on the course.

8:47

Check me if I'm wrong, Sandy. But if I kill all the golfers,

8:49

they're gonna lock me have to throw away a key.

8:51

Go first, job, great kidnaped,

8:53

Call first a little brown furry

8:55

rodents. You know my advice I actually

8:57

gave me you know Caddyshack and said, go

9:00

watch this.

9:00

It'll tell you everything you know. And

9:02

it's such a depressing sort of story.

9:04

Because I was here here, I thought I was going to

9:06

go out there, you know, and know,

9:08

live in Africa with a land rover

9:10

and my binoculars and my khakis and

9:12

you know, sipping a gin and tonic under an efcresive,

9:15

watching a spotted cat across the Serengeti.

9:18

And the plains of Africa.

9:19

And I end up instead digging

9:22

in the dirt in California, in

9:25

the most boring part of California, which

9:27

is the agricultural region of California,

9:30

the Central Valley.

9:31

But here's the amazing thing about the story, Chris.

9:33

You know, in doing that and being forced

9:35

to do that, I ended up meeting some amazing

9:38

people. And I started

9:40

understanding that the people who lived in the Central Valley

9:43

of California had so much to tell me about

9:46

the land and about me, Except

9:48

they weren't using words you and I would use. They

9:51

were using I was using words that

9:53

had to do with love. I love nature, I love

9:55

the landscape, I love wildlife. They

9:58

were using words that had to do with value. You

10:00

know, we value what's going to happen the

10:03

soil or fire season, or

10:05

the crops or when the first

10:07

day of frost

10:10

shows up right, And it

10:13

really opened my eyes that the

10:16

whole thing about conservation. I always thought

10:18

that what this field is about is

10:20

how to protect nature. It

10:24

really isn't nature will take care of itself.

10:26

It really is about how to protect people. And

10:30

when that turn happened to

10:32

me, it really made a lot of sense because I

10:34

do come from the global South and in

10:36

the countries that I live in and I work

10:38

in and Conservation International works

10:41

in. If you want to make conservation stick,

10:43

it has to make sense for those communities and

10:45

those people. And that was my first

10:48

glimpse notion that these

10:50

people who we have often seen as the enemy

10:54

could really be our allies.

10:55

We only shifted the frame through

10:58

which we were talking about what we do.

11:00

This mentality and approach to conservation

11:03

led Sangan to Conservation International.

11:06

Their mission is to protect communities

11:09

by protecting nature.

11:11

You cannot get to a

11:14

stable human friendly

11:16

climate without including

11:19

nature. So not only

11:21

is it an ally, but ignoring

11:24

it is not enough either. Without without

11:27

it, you're not going to get to the numbers don't

11:29

add up, right, And another way

11:31

to put it is that even if miraculously overnight

11:34

all of our energy use becomes renewable

11:36

instantly, and I think we are heading

11:38

in that direction, you're

11:41

still going to be, you

11:43

know, aft because so much of the carbon

11:45

emissions that we get comes from our destruction.

11:48

Our war on nature.

11:50

One of the key priorities for Conservation

11:52

International is preserving and protecting

11:55

the ocean because it has a critical

11:57

role to play in carbon capture.

11:59

Now the shouldn't have been a bit ignored in that

12:01

whole equation. It turns out they're great

12:03

at sequestrian carbon. They're

12:06

also incredibly important in buffering

12:09

temperature itself. Like this

12:11

giant body of water is great at absorbing

12:13

that heat, and without

12:16

it, we would be in a frying planet already.

12:18

I mean, it's amazing, amoun it's only

12:20

ninety percent or something, it's ninety three percent.

12:23

Yes, the valace amount of energy that hits this planet

12:25

gets absorbed by the ocean.

12:26

It's kind of mind boggling how we treat

12:29

the ocean.

12:29

I don't think we should continue to put out fossil

12:31

fuel emissions. I think we need to get

12:33

that to zero, and get that to zero fast. But

12:36

we also need to do this other thing, which

12:39

is protect and restore nature at scale.

12:40

You can't do one without doing the other.

12:43

And you get great return on

12:45

the nature side right now, because frankly

12:47

it's cheap.

12:49

Oceans are carbon sucking machines,

12:51

and the seaweed didn't help forest within. Oceans

12:54

are spectacular at absorbing

12:56

carbon. In my home in Australia,

12:59

I regularly swimming in the ocean on

13:01

the weekends, and as I swim for

13:03

the sea grass, I can't help but notice

13:06

just how much biodiversity of they

13:08

hold. But behind the scenes,

13:10

the water I swim through and all

13:13

the wildlife I admire is working

13:15

over time to save our planet. It's

13:18

such an important part of a global

13:20

carbon cycle. Not to mention

13:23

it might actually be the cheapest carbon

13:25

capture we have available to us.

13:30

I'd be willing to bet this.

13:32

It's probably the most carbon rich environment

13:34

that you have in Australia.

13:36

Those seagrass bet and that's very little.

13:38

You know, people don't really know that how important

13:41

they are for the world's future

13:43

but also Australia's future. The amazing

13:45

thing about that also is that when

13:47

I was there, you know, I was studying I was.

13:49

I was there with some researchers who were looking at dogongs.

13:52

Oh right now that live on the coast of Australia.

13:55

If you haven't seen the do goong, please

13:57

google. It is absolutely

14:00

the amazing do cele sea mammals.

14:02

They're kind of graceful, but Sanjin

14:05

explains it far better.

14:07

Mythical the old sirens

14:09

of the deep right. That's yes, the.

14:10

Mermaids legends came from the sea cow. They're

14:13

very very threatened. Now once upon a time

14:15

in Sri Lanka you could find them there. Now there's probably

14:17

fifty there. Both sides of Australia

14:20

have dogongs. But it turns out that

14:22

sea grass seeds

14:25

only really germinate if they go through

14:27

the gut of a dogong. So dougong

14:29

poop basically is full

14:32

of seeds that

14:34

are primed to germinate.

14:36

If you just take sea grass seeds

14:38

and just plant them, the germination rate

14:40

is I think one fifth or

14:42

one sixth the rate you get when they

14:44

go through the gut of a do goong. So

14:47

dogong's, it turns out, are incredibly

14:49

important carbon sequestration catalysts,

14:52

if you will. So here's this animal, this

14:54

dozy thing called the sea cow that

14:57

again could be part of the future of our

14:59

planet.

15:00

Which brings us to the other big

15:02

point of this episode. Our

15:04

oceans might save us. All the

15:07

ocean suck up twenty five percent

15:09

or so of the amount of carbon that we humans

15:12

put up into the atmosphere, and

15:14

that's why Conservation International has

15:16

made ocean conservation a key

15:19

part of their strategy.

15:20

If you don't have a healthy ocean, you

15:24

are making it impossible

15:26

to have a healthy planet. When it comes to

15:28

oceans, we focus on three areas, you

15:30

know. The first is really creating marine protected

15:33

areas. So

15:35

only about five percent of the oceans are

15:38

actually protected at any reasonable

15:40

level, and that's far below the thirty

15:42

percent or so that we think we need.

15:45

We are putting in substantial

15:47

funding to help create, better

15:50

manage, and better protect marine.

15:52

Protected areas around the world.

15:54

So we want to go from five percent to ten percent, which

15:57

is about eighteen million square kilometers of ocean

15:59

that we want to add to the protected area network

16:02

around the world, and we're on a great pathway

16:04

to doing that. The second part of it is

16:06

is restoration of core reefs

16:09

and mangroves. I

16:11

would say that the third part

16:13

of this is fisheries. Right,

16:16

So you know, three hundred plus million people

16:18

are directly dependent on fish

16:21

in the Pacific for their primary source

16:23

of protein. It's incredibly important

16:25

to the GDP of many many nations. If

16:27

we don't find a great way to manage those

16:29

fisheries resources in a sustainable

16:31

way, you know, the world is going to be

16:33

poorer. And some of these countries really just don't

16:36

have an alternative, right, no alteri.

16:39

So, particularly in the Pacific, we're very heavily

16:41

involved in the tuna fisheries in the Pacific,

16:43

but around the world around coastal fisheries.

16:46

You know, how do you manage those fisheries

16:48

better, How do you think about aquaculture and

16:50

make sure they're sustainably done, and

16:53

how do you make sure that you know, it's

16:56

the last hunter gathering resource we have

16:58

left, right, there's no other There's not other

17:00

thing that humans go out there into

17:02

nature and gather in large numbers

17:07

of the old days.

17:09

People often forget that, don't they they're actually

17:11

going out seafishing, your

17:13

hunting. We're still

17:16

hunter gatherers scale right,

17:18

It's amazing, and so this is the last.

17:20

Thing we have to do, and you know what a shame if we

17:22

if we don't find a way to do that right.

17:24

I want to go back to something Sanjan mentioned

17:27

earlier, mangroves and coral

17:29

reefs. Now, coral

17:31

reefs are greatly underprotected,

17:34

but we all know how valuable they are. They're

17:37

biological hotspots about

17:39

the court of all marine life on the planet living

17:41

coral reefs. Plus they're crucial

17:44

to local economies which depend on

17:46

the reefs for tourism and fishing.

17:49

They should be protected. But

17:51

how often do you see people shouting to protect

17:54

our mangroves? I mean, do

17:56

you even know what a mangrove is.

18:00

It is the hardest working habitat

18:02

type on planet Earth. If I could be king

18:05

for the day of the entire planet, and there's

18:07

only one thing I could do, I

18:10

would protect all mangroves

18:12

globally.

18:13

It's only found in a very.

18:15

Sort of a sliver of our planet, A

18:17

tiny, tiny portion of our planet has

18:19

mangroves in them. So they are sort of an aquatic

18:22

or a semi aquatic tree, and

18:24

they are fast growing for the most part,

18:27

and they grow in the

18:29

boundary between salt

18:31

water and land.

18:34

And when I was growing up, they were really seen

18:36

as just a terrible habitat. They're

18:38

hard to get through, lots

18:41

of insects in them. They're basically in swamps

18:44

right right on the coast, and if you are if you're

18:46

trying to get to a coastline, if you're trying to fish, if

18:48

you're trying to do anything like that, you can't get

18:50

to the beach because of the mangroves. It's

18:53

moist, lots of bugs,

18:56

and you can't really see the sea. You can hear it,

18:58

but you can't see it from lamb because

19:00

you've got this big forest, this thick,

19:03

intertangled network of

19:05

aerial roots and tree

19:07

cover, multiple species,

19:09

all twisted with one another, and

19:12

then surrounded by water that's

19:14

tidal. So sometimes it's

19:16

just mud and you step into it and you're going to sink,

19:19

you waste. Sometimes you

19:21

have to get in there with a boat.

19:23

Look, as someone who loves our

19:25

planet, I've got to say, even

19:27

this is ridiculously understating

19:30

how much people don't like mangroves.

19:32

They have this smell like stale

19:35

water mixed with the overpowering odes or

19:37

rotten eggs. It's of a mistaken

19:39

for sewage. So safe

19:41

to say they're not coral reefs.

19:44

People don't go on vacation to admire

19:47

and take pictures of mangroves, but

19:49

they should.

19:50

They end up being incredibly important for

19:52

humans and for nature. So

19:55

mangroves are obviously important

19:57

because they stop sea level rise. They protec

20:00

coastlines from big waves. They're really

20:02

good at blocking waves. If you remember

20:04

the big tsunami that hit Asia

20:07

back in I think two thousand and what is

20:09

it six or two thousand and four won that hit

20:11

Sri Lanka and Thailand and

20:13

Indonesia, mangroves

20:15

really did protect some of that coastline

20:17

and places that had mangroves were protected

20:19

and is that didn't lost it.

20:22

They're also incredibly important of fish because

20:24

they're fish nurseries, and lots

20:27

of fish that you go out there and catch in the open ocean

20:30

end up spending their lives.

20:32

As babies sheltered in the mangroves.

20:35

And then they're really important for climate

20:38

change because they are fantastic

20:41

at absorbing carbon from the atmosphere.

20:44

So all plants absorb carbon from the atmosphere,

20:46

that's how they grow. They're fantastic

20:49

at doing this, it's called photosynthesis, and

20:52

they're just a giant carbon captive machine. Mangroves

20:55

do it really fast, and mangroves

20:57

put all that carbon that they captured

21:00

underground and underwater. So

21:03

what's good about mangroves is they're not just

21:05

capturing it in their branches and their leaves,

21:07

but they're really good at setting it all

21:09

the way down at their root systems, and

21:11

that goes down six meters underwater,

21:14

right like under the mud. And

21:16

so that mud under the mangroves,

21:18

if you ever dig into it, it's.

21:20

Dark black mud that

21:22

is chock full of carbon, and.

21:25

It's like four to six times the

21:27

amount that an equivalent sort

21:30

of chunk of rainforest would store.

21:32

So hector by hector, acre by acre,

21:35

mangroves gives us the biggest bang for the buck

21:37

when it comes to capturing carbon,

21:39

and then they do all these other things as well. So

21:42

you know, my belief is that no mangroves should ever

21:44

be cut down.

21:51

But sadly, mangroves are still

21:53

being attacked.

21:54

They're still being cut down, and we should actually

21:57

restore mangroves to their former glory. And

21:59

we have a big project, a joint project

22:01

with lots of other groups called the Mangrove

22:03

Breakthrough that is really trying

22:06

to incentivize all the countries

22:08

of the world that have mangroves to protect

22:10

them.

22:11

But that's not the only solution. Sangan

22:14

and his teams are also working with private

22:17

companies to create carbon buyback

22:19

credits for promote for creation and

22:22

protection of mangroves.

22:23

So we brought the first blue

22:26

carbon project to market, which

22:28

was in Colombia in a project called Vita Manglare.

22:31

And in this case, one of the

22:33

one of the partners that came into to

22:35

help us do that was Apple. So

22:37

you know, Apple's got a bit of a carbon footprint.

22:39

Now most of their footprint they're trying to reduce

22:42

on a track to reducing by

22:44

reducing their emissions, reducing packaging,

22:47

etc. There's some part of the mission

22:49

that is hard to abate, and

22:51

it's that part of that emissions that they're trying to

22:53

get ahead of the curve on and meet their

22:55

goals sooner than they can do

22:57

through industrial processes, and then

23:00

doing that by protecting these high carbon

23:02

ecosystems.

23:03

In this case, this.

23:04

Project, community run project

23:06

on the coast of Columbia, which is just

23:08

this amazing mangrove.

23:09

Forest community is at

23:11

the heart of these projects.

23:13

They're involved in the protection activities of it.

23:15

They're involved in how the revenue

23:18

is accruede and then spent, and

23:21

then importantly in this project,

23:23

they even got to choose who they

23:25

were willing to sell this carbon too.

23:28

Gosh really really yes,

23:30

so involved in the whole process.

23:32

They were involved all process because, as I said, I

23:34

mean, we had the choice of whether we would sell

23:36

it to a say, an oil and gas company,

23:38

or whether we would go with maybe a company

23:40

that has a higher brand profile

23:43

and really much high ambitions,

23:45

like Apple, and it was the community's

23:48

decision to go with Apple. Can

23:51

make all sorts of jokes about whether or not they

23:53

were going to get an iPhone out of it, but they they

23:56

that even in very rural parts of the world,

23:58

people know Apple.

24:00

That's incredible as

24:02

lovely in Colombia, the

24:04

local communities around the mangroves

24:06

are also benefiting from the project.

24:09

They're paid for their labor, and community

24:12

organizations also receive funding

24:14

for their projects.

24:15

And the wonderful thing about the funding, particularly

24:18

for carbon projects, is it not year by year.

24:20

It's like a thirty year thing, because you're

24:22

selling those credits for years of thirty

24:25

years.

24:26

So imagine having that

24:28

like that life for us.

24:31

So the communities know that actually

24:33

they've got this long term income stream

24:36

right exactly, long.

24:37

Term fantastic can plan around it. They

24:39

can build a school because of it. I mean, they can really

24:42

invest in the right way. And that

24:44

project is I think like three or

24:46

four x oversubscribed so

24:49

once while yeah, I mean like there's so

24:51

much demand for.

24:52

It because mangroves capture

24:54

carbon. Supporting a mangrove

24:56

ecosystem on the other side of the world helps

24:58

you wherever you are. A That's

25:01

what Tom Starr was talking about a few episodes

25:03

ago when you mentioned that carbon capture can

25:06

help create economic equality in

25:08

our incredibly unequal

25:10

world.

25:11

Like you protect mangroves

25:14

in Papua New Guinea

25:17

or West Papua, it will have a

25:19

direct material impact on my

25:21

life in New York City.

25:24

Wow, that's powerful.

25:25

It is. It's true. It's true.

25:28

If you're ready to take to the streets and protest

25:31

for mangrove justice, I'll be there

25:33

right beside you. Sanjin

25:35

says that every single one of us can

25:37

actually support the regeneration of mangroves.

25:40

So the thing about mangroves is

25:42

that you can restore them they

25:45

do grow back fast, but you've got to do it

25:47

in the right way. So

25:49

some of the stuff you might see on YouTube, like you

25:51

know, all these towns mobilized

25:54

and they go out and plant a million mangroves in a

25:56

weekend or something like that, most of them

25:58

don't succeed because they're they're

26:00

not using the best sort of available.

26:02

Science on how to do it.

26:04

You need to understand the hydrology, you need to understand

26:06

how water moves.

26:08

But don't let that warning deter you from

26:10

going out and getting involved in mangrove

26:13

restoration. Both Sanjan

26:15

and I were at a climate conference last

26:17

year in the UAE and

26:19

outside the metropolis of Abu Dhabi

26:22

there's actually a mangrove forest that was

26:24

only planted ten years ago.

26:26

Just north of Abu Dhabi, right

26:29

there's a restoration site and you can see

26:31

mangroves that have been planted before, like

26:34

ten years ago, and they're quite big. They're quite big

26:36

now, So you know they can

26:38

do it if you do it right.

26:39

So yes, the average person actually can

26:42

get involved in mangrove restoration.

26:44

You just need to find a credible organization

26:46

to sort of work with.

26:47

And don't forget the two big tools

26:49

in front of.

26:50

Us, the two big levers we have. The

26:53

two big levers we have.

26:54

Are government and private

26:56

sector. We need to keep the pressure on governments.

26:59

They do listen to a They listen to concerned So

27:01

vote, you know, vote again, get

27:04

involved right, make

27:06

your voice heard with government for sure. Number

27:09

two companies. Reward

27:11

the companies that are trying to do the right thing, Punish

27:14

the companies that are not, And don't

27:16

be too harsh on it, like it's not

27:18

easy to do this right. You're not trying

27:20

to get the perfect trying

27:23

it better.

27:26

We're fucking

27:29

the future. We're

27:34

fucking the future.

27:40

Sanjan and Conservation International

27:42

are having a big impact protecting

27:44

the natural biodiversity of our oceans.

27:48

It's one of the most important things we

27:50

can do to slow global heating because

27:53

all of those mangrove and kelp forests

27:55

and doogongs and other sea life enhance

27:58

the ocean's ability to absorb carbon

28:01

dixide. So you

28:03

might be wondering how you can get involved,

28:06

which brings us to our final segment of

28:08

a show where we ask what

28:10

the fuck can I do?

28:12

What fuck can

28:14

I know?

28:15

I'd like to welcome back to the show our

28:18

good friend and activist Maggie

28:20

Bird. Maggie, what did you

28:22

think of our chat with Sanjan Okay?

28:24

Well, first of all, how amazing

28:26

are kelp and seaweed? Incredible?

28:30

Conservation International scientists

28:32

found that seaweed absorbs as

28:34

much carbon as one point six

28:36

billion trees. One point

28:39

six billion. I cannot get my brain

28:41

around that number. So I just want

28:43

to first acknowledge that all of us

28:45

should be more appreciative of the often

28:48

overlooked seaweed. And

28:51

then the second thing, I want

28:53

to encourage people to consider volunteering

28:57

with the local environmental group. Places

28:59

like Conservation International depend

29:01

on financial support to do their incredible

29:04

work, but there's also a lot

29:06

of local environmental groups

29:08

that depend on our volunteer time

29:10

to accomplish their goals, whether you're

29:12

working in the trenches or serving

29:15

on their boards. True, I mean, you know, it

29:17

doesn't have to be something you do every single week,

29:20

but just making a commitment to a

29:22

local environmental group that you'll volunteer,

29:24

say once a month with a beach cleanup

29:27

or a tree planning event, that can make

29:29

a huge difference.

29:31

So how can people get started with volunteering?

29:33

Where can they start? Well?

29:35

If I was going to find one here in Los Angeles,

29:37

for example, I might just google

29:40

Volunteer LA Environmental

29:42

Group, check out their websites, look

29:44

at their mission statements, and then reach

29:46

out and see what their needs are.

29:49

That's a great suggestion.

29:50

Yeah, And you know what, you can narrow your search

29:53

by the issue that you care about most.

29:55

So if you're into greening your neighborhood,

29:58

check out tree People. If you care

30:00

about food equity and how it relates

30:02

to the climate crisis, we'll check out

30:04

my organization Support and Feed Friends

30:07

of the La River, for example, is focused

30:09

on how we turn that big concrete

30:11

waterway of ours into a dynamic,

30:14

functioning ecosystem. We

30:16

have so many cool orgs just

30:18

here in LA and with a little

30:21

searching you can find similar

30:23

organizations wherever you might

30:25

be.

30:26

Such a good point, Maggie. Our time

30:28

is so valuable to local nonprofits.

30:31

We've all got to do our part.

30:32

We really do, and it's a great way to do it.

30:35

And that's what the fuck you can do?

30:37

What the fuck can

30:39

I do? Oh?

30:43

Fucked?

30:48

You may have started this show because you thought

30:50

we were seriously fucked. Now,

30:53

don't get me wrong. We're not in a

30:55

great place, but I hope

30:57

you, like me, have been in Spa

31:00

by the amazing people out there doing incredible

31:03

things. If we're going to unfuck

31:05

this, we need to act quickly, at

31:07

speed and scale. But

31:10

perhaps most importantly of all, we

31:12

need to do this together as one

31:14

global community. Look,

31:17

we haven't covered all the solutions to the climate

31:19

crisis, we haven't even touched the edge.

31:22

But there are great people and great ideas

31:24

out there that can make a difference.

31:27

We really can turn things around, and

31:29

it's already starting to happen. So

31:32

get involved and let's all

31:34

unfuck the future together. For

31:37

now. This is Chris Turney signing off from

31:39

Sydney, Australia. Hope to see

31:41

you soon.

31:42

We're Fucking

31:45

the Future.

31:50

Unfucking the Future is produced by Imagine

31:53

Audio and Awfully Nice for iHeart Podcasts

31:55

and hosted by me Chris Turney. The

31:58

show is written by Meridi Brian. I'm

32:01

Fucking the Future is produced by Amber von

32:03

Shassen and Rene Colvert. Ron

32:05

Howard Brian Grazer, Carral

32:07

Welker and Nathan Chloke are the executive

32:10

producers from Imagine Audio. Jesse

32:12

Burton and Katie Hodges are the executive

32:14

producers from Awfully Nice,

32:16

sound design and mixing by Evan

32:18

Arnette, original music by Lilly

32:20

Hayden, and producing services by

32:23

Peter mcgigan. Sam Swinnerton

32:25

wrote our theme and all those fun jingles.

32:28

If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to

32:30

rate and review Unfucking the Future on Apple

32:33

Podcasts, or whether you get your podcasts