interviews

This is a complete list of all our available print and video interviews with Nobel Laureates and other leading thinkers speaking about solutions to global problems at our briefings, workshops, seminars, conferences, and other events – in reverse chronological order from 2010 to 1978. We have many more untranscribed video interviews which are not listed here. This diverse collection constitutes a unique historical record of the evolution of expert thinking about what a sustainable civilisation would mean, focussing on practical solutions that can bring it about while the window of opportunity to do so remains open. Note that those video interviews listed here which you can watch online may also be seen in our video section.

most recent > less recent:

You can't force feed EU citizens with GM food / Prof Patrick Wall

Michael O'Callaghan interviewed Prof Patrick Wall, the former chairman of the European Food Safety Authority, for the GM-free Ireland campaign in 2008. Prof Wall admits that citizens of EU Member States have lost confidence in EFSA's risk assessment process for genetically modified (GM) seeds, feed and food. "GM food has no benefits for consumers... EFSA is a consumer protection agency; it is not meant to rubberstamp biotech dossiers... We live in a democracy... Do we want corporate giants to own the food chain?... We cannot force-feed European citizens products they don't want..." EFSA (www.efsa.europa.eu) is the EU Agency mandated by the European Commission to provide its opinion on the safety of conventional and genetically modified animal feed and food for the entire food and feed supply chains, and on related issues including animal welfare, animal health and plant health. EFSA continues to be widely criticised by the EU Member States for failing to conduct credible risk assessments on GMOs. • Download transcript • Watch the video at GM-free Ireland • Download press release

Peak Oil / Colin Campbell

Michael O'Callaghan interviewed Colin Campbell, the petroleum geologist who created the concept of "peak oil", at the Tipperary Institute in Ireland in 2002. Colin Campbell has worked with BP, Texaco, Fina and Amoco, was Exploration Manager for Aran Energy in Ireland, and has been a consultant to Shell, Esso and various governments. In 1998 he and Jean Laherrère were largely responsible for convincing the International Energy Agency that the world's output of conventional oil would peak in the following decade. He is the author of two books and numerous papers on oil depletion and has lectured and broadcast widely. • Full transcript • Watch this video extract at Big Picture TV: What is the future of oil?

Hydrogen transition / Dr. Werner Zittel

Michael O'Callaghan interviewed Dr. Werner Zittel, a German consultant with L-B-Systemtechnik GmbH (www.lbst.de), a Munich-based consulting company specialising in sustainable energy and transport strategies, and a founding member of the European Business Council for a Sustainable Energy Future (www.e5.org), a business NGO which promotes compliance with the Kyoto protocol and lobbies in support of climate-friendly technologies and policies at climate negotiations. He holds a doctorate in physics from the Technical University of Darmstadt and worked at the Max Planck Institute for Quantum Optics. Produced and directed by Michael O'Callaghan at the Tipperary Instute, Ireland, in 2002. • Transcript • Video not available online.

Global Vision: the Rio + 10 interviews (full listing)

Michael O'Callaghan shot 25 video interviews with NGO leaders at the U.N. World Summit on Sustainable Development (the Rio +10 conference) at Johannesburg in 2002 – 10 years after the first Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, for our forthcoming documentary film Ecology of Mind. These interviews constitute a historical snapshot of civil society opinion on the failure of the U.N. Member States to implement the Rio agreements, a decade after they were signed by 110 heads of state. The series also provides one of the first expressions of the emerging global civil society consensus that (1) another world is possible, (2) most governments are failing to implement solutions before it is too late, (3) time is running out and (4) you have to be the change you want to see in the world! Interviewee descriptions refer to 2002. This section provides a complete listing and transcripts of the whole of this series, with links to video extracts of some of the interviews at Big Picture TV:

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John Bradin • Financial Adviser to Progressive Asset Management Inc. (www.progressive-asset.com), the oldest independent socially responsible investment broker/dealer in the USA. • Transcript

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Barry Coates • Director of WDM ‚ the World Development Movement (www.wdm.org.uk), an NGO which campaigns with an international network of partners to tackle the root causes of poverty, by lobbying governments and companies to change the policies that keep people poor. • Transcript

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Emilio d'Alessio • Emilio D'Alessio, Deputy Mayor of Ancona, a seaport on the Adriatic coast of Italy which analysed its own ecological footprint as part of its Local Agenda 21 process, and which formed an international bio-regional Local Agenda 21 network of cities around the Adriatic sea (www.comune.ancona.it). For more on the subject of Agenda 21, see also our interview with Kaarin Taipale below. • Transcript

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Felix Dodds • Chairman of the Stakeholder Forum for Our Common Future (www.stakeholderforum.org), which co-ordinated world-wide civil society preparations for the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) and whose website provided detailed information about its outcomes. • Transcript

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Bernward Geier • Director for International Relations at the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements (www.ifoam.org), which coordinates the international organic farming movement. • Transcript

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Jane Goodalll • World-renowned primatologist, author, professor, UN Messenger of Peace, and founder of the Jane Goodall Institute for Wildlife Research, Education and Conservation (www.janegoodall.org), set up to support field research on wild chimpanzees and to advance the power of individuals to take informed and compassionate action to improve the environment of all living things. • Full transcript • Watch these 4 video extracts at Big Picture TV: What can humanity learn from other primates? • What can we learn from Africa? • Case Study: The TACARE Project

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Mark Halle • Boardmember of the International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development (www.ictsd.org), which works with governments, inter-governmental organisations and NGOs to provide non-partisan reporting and facilitation services at the intersection of global trade and sustainable development. He also the European Representative of IISD - the International Institute for Sustainable Development (www.iisd.org), and was formerly Director of the Global Policy Division at IUCN - World Conservation Union. • Full transcript • Watch this video extract at Big Picture TV: How do environmental problems affect global security?

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Randall Hayes • Founder and president of Rainforest Action Network (www.ran.org), an NGO which works to stop old growth logging, halt destruction of tropical rainforests, and protect the human rights of those living in and around those forests. • Full transcript • Watch this video extract at Big Picture TV: Why do forests matter?

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Brendan Hoare • Convenor of the Organic Federation of Aoteaora, New Zealand, (a member of IFOAM - International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements www.ifoam.org). He taught at UNITEC School of Landscape and Plant Science at Auckland, New Zealand. • Transcript

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Jonathan Lash • President of the World Resources Institute in Washington DC, USA. (www.wri.org). Its mission is to move human society to live in ways that protect the Earth's environment and future generations. • Transcript

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Claude Martin • Director-General of WWF - the conservation organisation (www.panda.org). With offices and associates in over 40 countries, WWF works to stop the degradation of the planet's natural environment and to build a future in which humans live in harmony with nature, through action on the ground, national and international advocacy, international campaigns, and publications including the annual Living Planet Report. • Transcript

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Wally N'Dow • Secretary General of the Second United Nations Conference on Human Settlements (HABITAT II). Held in Istanbul in 1996 (www.unchs.org), this event brought the world community together to address the future of cities. • Fulll transcript Watch this video extract at Big Picture TV: What would sustainable communities look like?

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Helena Norberg-Hodge • Founder of the International Society for Ecology and Culture (www.isec.org), an NGO concerned with the protection of biological and cultural diversity, and education for action: moving beyond single issues to look at the more fundamental influences that shape our lives. She is also a co-founder of the International Forum on Globalisation (www.ifg.org), an alliance of sixty leading activists, scholars, economists, researchers and writers formed to stimulate new thinking, joint activity and public education in response to economic globalisation. Helena was a keynote speaker at the Irish Organic Conference chaired by Michael O'Callaghan in Dublin in May 2003. • Full transcript • Watch these 5 video extracts at Big Picture TV: What does economic globalization entail? • What are the benefits of supporting local food? (Part One) • What are the benefits of supporting local food? (Part Two) • Can GM solve the problem of global hunger? • What are the roots of fundamentalism?

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Rémi Parmentier • Rémi Parmentier was a founding member and the Political Director of Greenpeace International (www.greenpeace.org) until 2003. He is considered the main architect of the worldwide ban on the dumping of industrial and radioactive wastes at sea adopted by the Parties to the London Convention in 1993, a Greenpeace campaign which spanned 15 years. He now runs the Varda Group (www.vardagroup.org) consultancy based in Amsterdam. • Transcript

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Bushra Razack • Bushra (then aged 16), from South Africa, was a co-editor of the book Rescue Mission 2002 published by Peace Child International (www.peacechild.org), a youth-led network of 1,500 groups of teenagers from 180 countries who take responsibility for peace, human rights and the environment through education, leadership development and direct participation in the events that shape our world. She helped organise the Second World Congress of Youth organised by Peace Child in Casablanca, Morocco, in August 2003. • Transcript

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Danny Schechter • Member of the Global Vision adviser group, founder and Executive Editor of The Media Channel (www.mediachannel.org), and founder and Executive Producer of Globalvision Inc. (which has no connection with us). He is an award winning broadcast and print journalist, and the author of various books including "Media Wars", "The More You Watch, The Less You Know", and "News Dissector: Passions, Pieces, and Polemics." • Full transcript • Watch this video extract at Big Picture TV: Is the media's coverage of the environment adequate?

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Achim Steiner • Now Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). At the time of this interview, he was the Director-General of IUCN - The World Conservation Union (www.iucn.org). Based in Gland, Switzerland, IUCN played a major role at World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) in Johannesburg, South Africa in September 2002, where it hosted 10 days of workshops, seminars and multi-stakeholder dialogues on global environment and development issues. • Transcript

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Kaarin Taipale • Finnish architect, urban planner, and Executive Commitee Chair of the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives (ICLEI), a world-wide network of local authorities commited to the implementation of Local Agenda 21. (Agenda 21 is the international sutainable development action plan for the 21st century agreed by 100 Heads of State at the Rio Earth Summit in 1992.) • Transcript

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Dr. Mathis Wackernagel • Founder and President of the Global Footprint Network. At the time of this interview, he was the Sustainability Program Director at Redefining Progress (www.rprogress.org), a nonprofit public policy organisation based in Oakland, California, that creates policies and tools to encourage accurate market prices, to protect our common assets, and to foster social and economic sustainability. • Full transcript • Watch this video extract at Big Picture TV: Why does our ecological footprint matter?

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Dr. Ernst Ulrich von Weizsäcker • Founder and President of the Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment and Energy (www.wupperinst.org), Dean of the Donald Bren School of Environmental Science and Management at the University of California, Santa Barbara, Member of the German Parliament, and Chairman of the Enquète Commission "Economic Globalisation - Challenge and Responses" (www.e-education.uni-muenster.de/enquete). He is the author of Factor Four: Doubling Wealth, Halving Resource Use (1995) and Limits to Privatisation. • Full transcript • Watch this video extract at Big Picture TV: What does globalisation mean?

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David Woolcombe • President of Peace Child International (www.peacechild.org), a youth-led network of 1,500 groups of teenagers from 180 countries who take responsibility for peace, human rights and the environment through education, leadership development and direct participation in the events that shape our world. • Transcript

World Game

Interview with Medard Gabel in New York in 1995. Medard Gabel co-founded the World Game Institute with the world-renowned visionary and designer R. Buckminster Fuller in 1972. This unique educational research centre produced the World Game Workshop, an interactive educational game which is played on a map of the Earth the size of a basketball court. Over 40,000 people have participated in these workshops at UN agencies, governments, corporations, universities and schools around the world. The project has since been taken over by O.S. Earth's Global Simulation Workshop and is also being played interactively on the World Wide Web. Medard is now the CEO of Big Picture Small World, and is the author of six books on global problems, resources and strategies, the global energy situation, the global food situation, the U.S. food system, planning, and multinational corporations. • Transcript

A plea for global education

Michael O'Callaghan's video interview with Nobel Peace Laureate Rigoberta Menchú Tum, filmed in New York in 1993. She is a QuichÈ (Maya) human rights activist from Guatemala and the author of I, Rigoberta Menchú (London & New York: Verso, 1984). She was the official spokesperson for the United Nations International Decade of Indigenous Peoples (1994 - 2003). She says "There is a big change going on in the way people see the world: change in the concept of development, in the way people live together. But for this change to bear fruit, we need education on a global scale. Humankind will not recover from its mistakes without global education. The United Nations, human rights organisations, indigenous peoples, and all the countries of the world should concentrate their efforts on education. Solutions will come when the world becomes educated about global values, the common values of its inhabitants and communities. We have to focus on solutions in this time of great challenges. If we just wait around, the problems will overwhelm us. We need to take the initiative, to launch local, regional and global projects, to unite our efforts, and really listen to indigenous peoples. We have to listen to people to find out what they want, to discover the solutions they have to offer for the future." This interview been widely translated and published in educational circles. Transcript

A conversation with Dr. John Weir Perry

Michael O'Callaghan's interview with the visionary psychiatrist John Weir Perry has been widely disseminated around the world, since it provides a rare insight into his non-drug approach to the so-called "acute schizophrenic break" syndrome. Extracted from the book When The Dream Becomes Real: the inner Apocalypse in mythology, madness and the future, by Michael OíCallaghan 1982. Download transcript

Future Tapes

Future tapes was an ongoing interactive video exhibit produced and directed by Michael O'Callaghan in New York in the late 1970's and early 1980's. Ordinary people and leading thinkers were asked to privately record their answer to the question "How do you feel about the future?" in a 3-minute video, whilst watching their live image on a TV monitor alone in a room. Participants included author and designer Buckminster Fuller, palaeontologist Richard Leakey, psychiatrist R.D. Laing, evolutionary philosopher Thomas Berry, futurist Hazel Henderson, educator Elaine de Beauport, U.N. Under-Secretary General Robert Müller, anthropologist Helena Norberg-Hodge, Multinational Monitor editor Philip Frazer, U.S. Center for Defense Information founder Rear-Admiral Gene LaRoque, and the journalist and Inter-Press Service founder Brennon Jones.

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