Communicating Earth podcast

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How do we build effective communication around the unseen risks of extreme heat?

Jamil Wyne talks to our host Tom Clark about building the first national strategy for communicating extreme heat, and why adaptation and resilience is the biggest education gap facing climate communicators right now.

Jamil Wyne is the founder of the Hazelwood Network, a global climate innovation company. He describes himself as a builder, adviser and educator, creating new programmes, partnerships and consortiums that support climate innovation and investment across emerging markets and the US. He has worked with the World Bank, the UN, the International Rescue Committee and national governments, and teaches climate change at university level.

His subject in this episode is extreme heat, the way most of us will experience climate change first and the risk the sector has barely learned to talk about. Turning up the air conditioning is not an answer when many people do not have any, when running it emits more of the problem, and when nothing else exists at scale. Jamil describes how a set of parallel conversations, a serendipitous funder and two very different partners became a working consortium with Climate Mayors and the polling firm Northwind Climate, producing a communications toolkit now being used by mayors across the US during heat season.Listen to hear what Jamil has learned about:

• Convening partners who are already circling the same idea, and knowing when not to own the relationship
• Getting specific, and why one message that resonates with everybody is the wrong goal
• Building audience personas that shape the message rather than decorate it
• Turning a large research exercise into something a busy political leader can act on
• Measuring impact when the most interesting uses of your work are the ones nobody planned for

Jamil is candid about what is still unresolved: converting a strong communications guide into real world action, the mental health toll of the work, and a climate story that remains heavily skewed towards one Western viewpoint. He also makes the case for retiring the idea that we will one day defeat climate change, and replacing it with navigation, the way a sailor treats the ocean.

Follow Jamil Wyne at: LinkedIn

Additional Notes:

• Hazelwood Network - https://hazelwoodnetwork.com/
• Jamil Wyne - https://www.jamilwyne.com/
• Climate Mayors Extreme Heat Cohort and toolkit - https://www.climatemayors.org/extreme-heat
• Smart Cities Dive on the toolkit - https://www.smartcitiesdive.com/news/5-extreme-heat-communication-strategies-mayors-hot-cities/825394/
• Northwind Climate - https://northwindclimate.com/
• Switch 5 - https://www.linkedin.com/company/switch-5/
• Potential Energy Coalition - https://potentialenergycoalition.org/
• ILO, Working on a Warmer Planet - https://www.ilo.org/publications/working-warmer-planet-impact-heat-stress-labour-productivity-and-decent-workGrist - https://grist.org/

Released: 20 August 2026

Run Time: Approximately 62 minutes

Listen on: Spotify | Apple Podcasts | YouTube