Podcast: Adventurer Ian Packham on tracking effects of the climate crisis in Pakistan

The latest episode of the Air Quality Podcast is now here. 

In this episode, editor Chloe Coules talks to adventurer, award-winning travel writer and motivational speaker Ian Packham about his next planned trip to Pakistan where he will be observing the effects of the climate crisis. 

Ian has already completed numerous impressive expeditions and is the first person to have done an unassisted circumnavigation of Africa by public transport. For this excursion, though, he won’t be relying on public transport to travel around: ‘The main means of transport for the trip will simply be my feet and the reason for that is I like, in all of my trips, to be on the ground and as close to local communities as possible, because I think that’s one of the best ways to truly understand what those communities are living through.’ 

Pakistan is currently experiencing climate catastrophe, after glacial melt and severe monsoon rains have caused extensive flooding, displacing around 33 million people.

In the podcast, Ian talks about why he thinks his trip to the country is important in showing the western world the devastating results of a warming climate: ‘I want to help maybe remind people it’s almost our historical responsibility. We kind of invented the industrial revolution and yeah we didn’t know what we were doing at the time, but we’re responsible for a lot of the carbon that’s being pumped out into the air, whereas the people in Pakistan aren’t.’

Ian will be talking on the Air Quality News Podcast and writing for the Environment Journal throughout his journey, sharing what he finds out while in Pakistan.