Season 3, Episode 26: Prasiddhi

Season 3, Episode 26: Prasiddhi

Host John Whidden welcomes 13-year-old Indian environmentalist Prasiddhi, founder of Prasiddhi Forest Foundation, who has planted 200,000 trees toward a goal of 10 million and built a global following to spread hopeful, action-focused climate messaging. She describes starting after the 2016 Varadhah Cyclone in Tamil Nadu, learning fundraising, creating a seed-collecting “kids army,” and growing a nursery capable of 30,000 saplings. Prasiddhi discusses attending UN COP conferences (including COP29), her UN-accredited NGO’s work helping youth attend, and her two illustrated books—"Prasiddhi’s Amazon Rainforest Adventure" and "Prasiddhi’s Great Barrier Reef Adventure"—which each fund one planted tree per purchase. She argues for balancing reality, hope, and responsibility, redefining success beyond GDP, and showcases her green career-matching tool, greenbuzzai.com. 00:00 Welcome and QuickFix 01:05 Meet Prasiddhi and Mission 02:00 Passion School and Balance 03:07 Family Support and Social 04:31 Early Planting Journey 07:16 Cyclone Spark and 100K 09:39 COP Connections and Youth 11:01 Books That Plant Trees 14:17 Hope Reality Responsibility 16:50 Redefining Success and AI 19:54 Seeing Through Child Eyes 22:29 Countries Doing It Right 25:12 Future Purpose and Values 26:56 Climate Action Believe You 28:30 Hopeful Inspirations Closing https://prasiddhiforest.org/ https://www.amazon.ca/s?k=prasiddhi&crid=668OLOP0VJDH&sprefix=prasiddhi%2Caps%2C138&ref=nb_sb_noss https://greenbuzzai.com/ https://thegreenpillar.com/books/ [https://thegreenpillar.com/books/] climateactionfigures@gmail.com [climateactionfigures@gmail.com] https://www.facebook.com/climateactionfigures [https://www.facebook.com/climateactionfigures] https://www.instagram.com/climateactionfigures/ [https://www.instagram.com/climateactionfigures/] https://www.youtube.com/@ClimateActionFigures [https://www.youtube.com/@ClimateActionFigures]

Season 3, Episode 25 Sophia

Host John Whidden introduces a QuickFix from Janice in Calgary encouraging “no mow May” to protect invertebrates, then interviews Sophia, a third-year environmental engineering student focused on drinking water and microplastics. Sophia recommends boiling or filtering water and explains concerns about bottled water, including plastic-related endocrine disruptors and potential bacterial biofilms. She describes her microplastics research on how particle shape affects settling and treatment, noting flat plastics may slip through systems. Sophia also shares her youth transit advocacy, inspired by childhood mobility barriers, which helped make transit free for youth under 13 in Regina and expanded nationally. She discusses involving youth through leadership opportunities and funding strategies, reflects on awards and positivity in climate work, shares her own low-car lifestyle, and outlines steps for better, safer, more frequent transit systems. 00:00 Welcome to the Show 00:27 QuickFix No Mow May 01:25 Meet Sophia 02:03 Drinking Water Tips 03:49 Microplastics Explained 05:55 Reducing Plastic Pollution 07:27 Youth Transit Advocacy 10:41 Scaling Youth Climate Action 13:17 Awards and TEDx Impact 14:47 Staying Hopeful 15:46 Car Free Climate Action 16:10 Building Better Transit 19:01 Hope and Farewellhttps://video.igem.org/w/8QuTT9pE784FakJrccZLYB https://chem-eng.utoronto.ca/news/igem-toronto-engineering-biology-for-global-impact/ [https://chem-eng.utoronto.ca/news/igem-toronto-engineering-biology-for-global-impact/] https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=UPUWBpSS7po https://www.fesplanet.org/ [https://www.fesplanet.org/] https://www.poparide.com/en-ca/ [https://www.poparide.com/en-ca/] climateactionfigures@gmail.com [climateactionfigures@gmail.com] https://www.facebook.com/climateactionfigures [https://www.facebook.com/climateactionfigures] https://www.instagram.com/climateactionfigures/ [https://www.instagram.com/climateactionfigures/] https://www.youtube.com/@ClimateActionFigures [https://www.youtube.com/@ClimateActionFigures]

Season 3, Episode 24: Alice

In the 77th episode of Climate Action Figures, host John Whidden welcomes Alice, a Switzerland-based veterinarian who no longer practices clinically and instead works toward One Health through policy and research. Alice explains that veterinary careers extend beyond treating animals into areas like food safety, prevention, research, and education, and describes moving from clinical work in Italy to policy work in Brussels via a veterinary trade association, then to research in Switzerland to build expertise for future policymaking. She outlines One Health as the interdependence of human, animal, and environmental health, citing food systems and climate-driven shifts in vector-borne diseases as examples, and argues that healthy humans depend on healthy environments and animals. Alice compares sustainability in Italy, Belgium, and Switzerland, shares her climate action of saving surplus perishable food through local initiatives, and says hope comes from connecting with committed advocates like Harshita. 00:00 Welcome to Episode 77 00:32 QuickFix Mailbox Hack 00:55 Meet Alice in Switzerland 03:22 Vet Without Patients 04:29 Finding One Health 07:41 Breaking Into Policy 09:38 One Health in Action 12:49 Moving for Sustainability 15:36 Harshita and Youth Advocacy 17:15 Food Saving Climate Action 19:23 Hope and Closing climateactionfigures@gmail.com [climateactionfigures@gmail.com] https://www.facebook.com/climateactionfigures [https://www.facebook.com/climateactionfigures] https://www.instagram.com/climateactionfigures/ [https://www.instagram.com/climateactionfigures/] https://www.youtube.com/@ClimateActionFigures [https://www.youtube.com/@ClimateActionFigures]

Season 3, Episode 23: Twila

John  hosts a unique episode of Climate Action Figures featuring his daughter, Twila. The QuickFix highlights “Adopt Don’t Shop,” encouraging pet adoption and volunteering at local shelters. Twila shares her climate actions, including conserving and reusing water (collecting shower warm-up water and catching sink water for plants), thrift shopping, growing herbs, using reusable bags and cups, combining errands into one trip, and installing solar panels. They reflect on John’s long-running environmental habits while Twila was growing up—cool house temperatures, composting, walking to school for rewards, bringing reusable containers to restaurants, and hang-drying laundry for calculated energy savings—along with humorous stories about cooling leftovers outside and wildlife getting into food. Twila says hope comes from friends’ small changes and youth becoming more environmentally aware. 00:00 Meet Twila 00:43 QuickFix Adopt Don’t Shop 02:12 Why Twila Is Here 02:52 Twilas Climate Actions 04:47 Growing Up Eco 05:21 Cold House Stories 06:08 Early Eco Habits 09:03 Walking To School Bribes 11:03 Hang Dry Math 12:34 Twila Grills Dad 14:42 Cooling Food Outside 16:53 Wrap Up Hope climateactionfigures@gmail.com [climateactionfigures@gmail.com] https://www.facebook.com/climateactionfigures [https://www.facebook.com/climateactionfigures] https://www.instagram.com/climateactionfigures/ [https://www.instagram.com/climateactionfigures/] https://www.youtube.com/@ClimateActionFigures [https://www.youtube.com/@ClimateActionFigures]

Season 3, Episode 22: Gokul

Host John Whidden welcomes Gokul from Kerala, India. Gokul connects cultural practices to science and explains youth climate organizing through YOUNGO’s local, regional, and global Conferences of Youth ahead of COP. A final-year Ayurveda student, he describes how climate change disrupts Indigenous/traditional medicine by affecting medicinal plants, potency, treatment protocols, and trust, with implications like antimicrobial resistance. He presents Govardhan, an app envisioned as a global repository and “social media for biodiversity” to share medicinal plant uses across countries, and Climate Entertainment, a youth-friendly way to translate UN climate language. He also mentions COP participation via Ukraine and Egypt accreditation, advocates protecting nearby species through turtle-egg protection in Kerala, and says hope comes from engaged audiences who share and support climate content. 00:00 Welcome to the Show 00:29 QuickFix Yard Cleanup 01:10 Traditions and Turmeric 03:04 Kerala Roots and Youngo 04:33 Ayurveda Meets Climate 05:56 Govardhan Plant App 08:08 Climate Entertainment Project 09:18 Indigenous Medicine at Risk 13:24 Ukraine COP Connection 14:36 Climate Action and Hope 16:42 Final Thanks and Subscribe https://sites.google.com/view/govardhan-app-web [https://sites.google.com/view/govardhan-app-web] https://www.climateentertainment.com/ [https://www.climateentertainment.com/] climateactionfigures@gmail.com [climateactionfigures@gmail.com] https://www.facebook.com/climateactionfigures [https://www.facebook.com/climateactionfigures] https://www.instagram.com/climateactionfigures/ [https://www.instagram.com/climateactionfigures/] https://www.youtube.com/@ClimateActionFigures [https://www.youtube.com/@ClimateActionFigures]