How much do we really know about Climate Change - or just think we do?

The Climate Shift Podcast, hosted by Sam and Lara, welcomes special guest Yolay for the episode How Much Do We Really Know About Climate Change — or Just Think We Do?

Together, they explore common misconceptions, misinformation, and public understanding surrounding climate change, while breaking down the science and discussing why accurate knowledge is essential for meaningful climate action.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:04

Welcome back to the Climate Share Podcast. I'm Sam Thomas.

SPEAKER_02 0:08

I'm Lara Birtelers.

SPEAKER_00 0:09

And today we have a special guest for us.

SPEAKER_02 0:11

Yolai Respect Firston.

SPEAKER_00 0:12

And today we're going to be asking Jole some questions about what her opinions are on climate action.

SPEAKER_03 0:17

Yay! Okay, so Yole and I were talking before this podcast. I feel like it's a really, really good place to start. So were you like involved with like Euroschools in education before you left?

SPEAKER_01 0:29

Not really. And I will say though, my school that I did go to was an EcoSchool. So we had that, and they did do some stuff towards climate change, and I was like very subtly involved in it. But I'd say like I got a lot more involved once I left school or like externally, like external projects outside of school. And I think that's the thing as well, because it's maybe not as much of a pressure. Like there's a little bit of a pressure in school, I think, and it's more education focused, and there's nothing wrong with that. But I think you know, outside of school, it's very much how you want to approach climate change and what you want to do personally. So I think that's something that I prefer to do. So like I'm part of um like another climate organization, like a youth group called the Youth Climate Ambassador. So I do that, and I've been doing it for a quite a while now. But like the thing I like about that is we can choose our own projects and things like that to relate to climate change.

SPEAKER_03 1:27

That's cool. I think I would like to do that where you chose your own projects to like help.

SPEAKER_01 1:33

So, yeah, I feel like a fun one we did was like a fast fashion fashion show, so like from sustainable fashion, which was really cute. Um, that we did that in Cardiff, and it was nice to kind of promote like local communities, but also like it was just a fun topic, but it's still promoting sustainability and things, which is fine.

SPEAKER_00 1:51

And on this podcast, we speak very much a lot about social media and the aspects on social media. So, from your perspective, what would you say the you know social media brings down onto climate action?

SPEAKER_01 2:03

I would say that it is a good thing, definitely. I think there's so much about social media at the moment, and I think it's a good tool to spread awareness, definitely. Like you have a lot of organisations that are promoting like sustainability and things like that, but I understand that there's also this idea of like a false narrative, and people can use that to kind of spread false information, like false news, especially, and like with AI now, like it's even more of a problem. But I'd say it has both sides, and like you know, a lot of climate groups are doing good through social media and helping to spread awareness through a way that's like more relatable, maybe to young people. Um yeah, I understand both ways as well.

SPEAKER_03 2:48

So, what would you say? Like, obviously, you found this you found this climate group obviously that you're a part of now. Where did you find out? Where did you hear about that?

SPEAKER_01 2:57

Um, it was through one of my teachers actually. So um she was really lovely. Um, she wasn't even my teacher, but she just recommended it to me and I kind of looked into it a bit more and I applied. And I've been part of it for maybe like three years now.

SPEAKER_03 3:12

That's a really that's a good that's a good amount of time.

SPEAKER_01 3:15

Yeah, so but I mean if anyone's interested not to like promote it's the youth climate ambassadors, but there's also a lot of other local groups and things like that that you can join, so it's kind of to look into it. I'd say like one way is through social media, I think that people can find groups like that, especially like local groups, so I would say that.

SPEAKER_00 3:38

Going back to what we mentioned earlier about climate anxiety, what would you say the biggest concerns people have are about climate anxiety?

SPEAKER_01 3:46

Oh, I would say I mean it's kind of building on what we already said with the social media, like false news and false narrative. I think AI is such a big thing that um like you don't really know what is real and what isn't like things are coming up on like your free page or like Instagram, like you may see things and they be really extreme, but like it's not 100% true, and like that is a really big issue. Um and I would just say as well, like maybe young people feeling like they can't do anything, which in some aspects is true. I feel like when you look at like people in power and like policymakers and things, like you think that they're the ones making all the decisions, and they are, but like young people can make a difference, yeah. And I think that's important to like that your voice matters very much. Um whether that is like joining like other climate groups or like if you do want to protest, doing protests and things, or putting stuff on social media, um yeah, I'd say yeah, like you what you want to do matters, what your values are matter, and just kind of putting some action into that, I think really makes it different.

SPEAKER_03 5:01

So speaking about um, like you know, obviously like people who protest and stuff like that. Um obviously there's been quite a negative like outreach and outlook on like protesting at the moment, and a lot of people, peaceful or not, they obviously they get quite a harsh amount of judgment. There's obviously harsh ways of removal with people with like protesting. Would you say that protesting is a good way to like reach climate awareness to people who don't exactly know about it?

SPEAKER_01 5:26

I would say um peaceful protests. Yeah, I would say you know, non-peaceful protests can be a bit controversial. Um but if we're doing peaceful protests, I would say yeah. Um, but obviously it depends on the person. Sometimes it's not always uh you know appeasable for someone to do that to go out and spend like hours of their day protesting. But I know that you know they've been like organisations in front of the Senate and things where people are protesting against campaigns, and like it works to some extent, so it gets people's attention, it gets people to talk about topics that need to be talked about, and I think if you do that in a way that's not causing harm to anyone, then I would say that it's definitely a way that you can do that.

SPEAKER_00 6:12

And um, we've mentioned fuel prices earlier, but you drive right, Low Yole? So, what would what are your like concerns on driving and fuel prices at the minute?

SPEAKER_01 6:22

Um, my petrol is extortion at the moment, it's awful. Um I would yeah, um, like the to be fair, my car that I've got now isn't that bad, but the car I used to have, we used to like eat through patrol, and it's so annoying having to spend so much money like every single month on my petrol. Um and I would just say obviously it accounts for different things, not just climate change, but um yeah, I'd say it's a really big issue. And I think as well, it's one thing to mention, like because obviously if you're driving, people would say, like, well, why don't you use that more sustainable transport and things? Um, but for me where I live, it's literally in the middle of nowhere, very much like countryside rural, like as much as you can get. So, like it's not really an option for me to like take a bus or like take a train because I just have to drive to a train station and things, which rather like just be the point. Yeah, um so yeah, like it's it's obviously a big issue in itself, like transport and switching public transport and general for sustainability, but I would say that the fuel prices are definitely extortionate and it's definitely something to look into a bit more. But I don't know if that's also just um political, yeah, like sort of uh what's called supply and demand as well.

SPEAKER_03 7:43

But yeah, yeah. I feel like now would be a really funny time to ask like a funny kind of question to do with the petrol prices. How long do you spend waiting to actually get a place of the petrol pub in a petrol station?

SPEAKER_01 7:54

To be fair, I don't say my petrol does usually last a while. I will admit that. Like I my car is pretty good with that, but um when I do go, like it's a little bit of um like um there for a little while, I would say. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 8:10

Recently, my mum doesn't even drive a petrol car, she drives an electric car, but there's a petrol station in the Sainsbury's thing. So as you go in Sainsbury's, there's one right there, and she wasn't going to get petrol, she was going to shop in Sainsbury's, and she was queued 45 minutes to get into Sainsbury's. She wasn't even trying to get petrol.

SPEAKER_03 8:29

My wave is not that bad. So I'm we're quite unlucky where I live because where I live, um, I live right by a McArthur Glen Designer Outlet, and the Sainsbury's petrol station is right on the round about to turn off to MacArthur Glen's Designer Outlet car park. So there's about a there's about a 45-minute wait for a kid to get into a space to get petrol for your car. You can't turn into the Saintsbury thing because there's always a car right in the middle. And with the MacArthur Glen parking, because people like you know don't want to wait so long, people will generally park up, go to MacArthur Glen, like go shopping and whatever, and then come back and then go play for petrol. So then there's literally no parking anywhere with me. So yeah, the school run, like usually I was quite unlucky because I finished one of my recent shifts of like my workplace right as the school run had started, and so I'd got on the bus from my local workplace, and I didn't get home to half past five. My bus left at quarter past three, and I live 15 minutes away from my workplace. That's crazy because of how bad.

SPEAKER_00 9:34

What about the holidays? We've seen the holidays being cancelled.

SPEAKER_02 9:39

True.

SPEAKER_01 9:40

That's on fable as well, isn't it? I didn't realise this is an issue until we actually discussed it and on the meeting. And then it was suddenly all I saw, like all on social media, like all like literally everywhere being like, like if my holiday gets cancelled, I'm still finding a way there, and stuff like this.

SPEAKER_03 10:00

Um talking about the boats.

SPEAKER_01 10:03

I'm gonna know too much about like the technical aspect, the behind the scenes of it, but yeah, it is literally all I'm hearing at the moment from people being like, if my holiday gets cancelled, like fuel.

SPEAKER_00 10:15

I seen a I've seen a few, and the people were saying that they were having to pay a lot more for their holiday because they were having to add in the cost of fuel. But before I don't think they would have added well, they might have added it in, but slightly apparently now the fuel but the holiday prices or the plane prices are a lot more because they've got a cane for the fuel.

SPEAKER_03 10:33

There's such a high demand on seats because it cancelled so many flights. True, very lucky Yoli O's just come back from an holiday.

SPEAKER_01 10:45

Like, I'm sure it's an issue anyway, but like it's more I've seen it more common.

SPEAKER_03 10:48

Well, they booked more people on seats and then they've had to give people travel credit just because of the inconvenience. Yeah, to tell people to like exit the plane because they're not seat.

SPEAKER_00 10:58

I'd be I'd be fuming.

SPEAKER_03 11:02

Especially if it's like a long-term flight and you just wait in an extra like six hours in the airport to get on a nine-hour flight to like go somewhere. Yeah, it's definitely worse. So, right, this is a really, really like I wouldn't say this is exactly controversial. What do you like? But we spoke to Dola earlier, obviously, as you as you heard. Do what do you think about the environmental impact of the AI? Do you think the good outweighs the bad? Do you think the bad outweighs the good?

SPEAKER_01 11:26

Hmm it's a bit of a controversial one, I guess. I would say that it obviously can do good, but it also depends how you use it. So I would say that like if you were using it for one, like I would use AI to like prompt ideas for like when I'm running like the camera running, like the uh climate uh social media settings to be like what are hot topics, what are ideas, and like what waves, isn't it? So that would be a way of like to positively use it for climate action because you're trying to spread awareness in that way. But I would say like for one, people use AI as like to promote false stuff, but it's obviously not great. Like that's causing more anxiety among people, but we don't need like to stress without even trade that's running like false things around the internet. Um also I would just say like fun AI is a bit controversial at the moment, anyways, with supporting um like you get like supporting ice and things, like chapters tea getting cancelled, um like not only that, but using like using like logos and labels from other TV shows.

SPEAKER_03 12:43

Like, I don't think I don't know if anybody knows this, and Yole definitely knows this. Every I think we all definitely know about it. This like a huge epidemic of where like someone had created an AI cinema and they'd used fruit Love Island as a really really big form of gross for their account, and obviously they replicated Love Island and they replicated situations from the actual show, and Love Island had come forward and was like, You can't do that, and um apparently, and there's not an actual statistic on it because like everybody's doing their research on this, but apparently that created over like over 50% worth of water wastage, like from the contribution of water that came out of like the AI, you know, that it took to create that video, and apparently that took like over like a hundred hours of production for AI to create that full entire series, just for it to be taken off social media and deleted footprint-wise, like everywhere.

SPEAKER_00 13:34

That does go back to them to be fair, because uh recently I was doing a poster for my business Instagram account, and I couldn't really be bothered to design something, so I asked AI to make something, but I didn't give it my logo, so I just gave it my name, and the company that owns the building, it gave me their logo, which at first I questioned it and thought is that their logo, and then when I actually looked into it, it was actually their business logo, which is how how has she done that? How have you made that? Because obviously, a logo you make it once, and obviously, if someone then uses it in their thing, that's theirs. So I was I was mind-blown on how it took someone's logo and put it onto my poster, and then I think I was close to posting it too, to be honest with you. I know him, so I'm not gonna post it, so I had to like edit it and put mine in there then. But it just goes to show that it does just take anything it can find and chocolate on there to make the poster.

SPEAKER_01 14:33

Yeah, I'd say don't use AI for like creative stuff.

SPEAKER_03 14:38

Be your own creativity.

SPEAKER_01 14:40

Yeah, I would say that's maybe one thing AI isn't replacing anytime. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 14:45

Oh, I've got a big like this is a big question. I think like when we asked when I asked this earlier, I think you're a bit unsure, but I'm gonna put you on the spot with you. Um, do you think there's any formal climb of actions that have happened within like the last, you know, like obviously just anything you've researched or anything you've seen on social media that really stood out to you?

SPEAKER_01 15:03

Oh I would say one thing that is local as well, to Cardiff. Um, you may have heard of it, but it was the TAF tidy event where they um Kate Strong organised like a cleaning at the TAF with like a team by like a bunch of local volunteers and like other kind of organizations. Um and it reached like a world record, I believe, or something. Um I don't remember exactly, but it was it got a lot of news and it was on like the BBC, um, and it got a lot of coverage on it, which is really really great. Obviously, like it's bringing together like people in Southwest, which is amazing, and then promoting sustainability as well. So and like I got involved with that because of that organisation. So that's kind of how I heard about it, how I got involved with it. But I'd say like that was a really big one because it's one bringing together so many people, bringing together people who have like this passion and want to actually promote sustainability and promote climate action, and then also you're kind of it's getting so much awareness and coverage from media as well, that not only being like a world record as well. I'd say that was one thing that I was like, okay, this is really cool, and it's making a really big impact as well.

SPEAKER_03 16:18

That is actually class, I've never heard about it was quite recent. It was a world record. Yeah. What do you know what the world record was? I'd have to look after. But yeah, it was really cool. Have we got anything you want to ask?

SPEAKER_00 16:33

Oh, I think we cover quite a lot.

SPEAKER_03 16:35

I think that you you definitely spoke about, you know, the the right kind of things. I mean, I'm really, really do you know what? I'm really happy on your opinion on AI, you know. I generally am because I'm still feeling like, and this this will probably go in the blueberry. I just generally I'm still feeling so insecure of Dola. Right now, talk human form and start joining on the podcast on my behalf.

SPEAKER_00 17:01

She used bigger words than we have this whole entire episode.

SPEAKER_03 17:05

Well I've never heard her voice before, so I was really scared.

SPEAKER_00 17:09

She sounds really human.

SPEAKER_03 17:10

She does. No wonder we totally loved her.

SPEAKER_00 17:14

Well, this has been the Climate Shift Podcast. Yoli, thank you very much for coming on to this today's episode.

SPEAKER_02 17:19

Thank you, having me. Love telling you.

SPEAKER_00 17:22

I'm Sam Thomas.

SPEAKER_02 17:23

I'm Lara Bertels. I'm Yolet.

SPEAKER_00 17:25

Thank you.