In March 2021, Seoul woke up under a thick yellow haze - the worst dust storm in a decade. South Korea blamed China, who promptly blamed Mongolia. Fingers were pointed, narratives emerged, and what seemed like a weather event quickly became a diplomatic one.

Since then, dust storms have continued to blight the region, and have emerged as a source of continual transborder tension.

Joining Esau in this episode, Dr Thomas White, co-author of the article Foul Weather Friends? The Transnational Politics of Dust Storms Between China and Mongolia, and Prof Andreas Baas, a physical geographer with expertise in desertification and land degradation.

Together, they unpack how dust storms stir up more than sand - touching on nationalism, environmental diplomacy, and the politics of green solutions - questions that resonate far beyond the Gobi Desert.

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A recent assessment found that the area of Earth's landmass that will be too hot for even healthy adults to keep a safe core body temperature will approximately triple - to an area almost the size of the US – if global warming reaches 2°C above the preindustrial average. We've already reached 1.5°C.

This week Esau asks: what does 'too hot' actually mean? What will happen to the people who live in these areas? And what might be done to help combat the impacts?

Joining him are Dr Tom Matthews, lead author of the study and Senior Lecturer in Environmental Geography, and Aditya Pillai, who is a doctoral researcher in King’s India Institute, a Visiting Fellow at the Sustainable Futures Collaborative, New Delhi, and author of a recent report investigating India’s readiness for the extreme heat of a much, much hotter world.

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The proposed Grand Inga dam in the Democratic Republic of Congo would be the largest power station in the world - if its ever built. With twice the output of China's Three Gorges, the dam could potentially bring electricity to those 600 million in sub-Saharan Africa currently without.

But after decades of delay, investors withdrawing, environmental concerns, and its ballooning $80bn price tag, does the dream still hold water?

Joining Esau this time are Barnaby Dye, Lecturer in Development Policy and Practice; Mark Mulligan, Professor of Physical & Environmental Geography; and Clement Sefa-Nyarko, Lecturer in Security, Development and Leadership in Africa.

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