Conversations around climate change often take place at the “30,000-foot level,” said Ohio University Professor and ECSP Senior Advisor Geoff Dabelko in a recent radio interview with WOUB Public Media, based out of Athens, Ohio. Emission reductions, carbon concentrations, global temperatures. But a certain amount of change is already baked into the system and impacts are playing at in different ways around the world already.

After Typhoon Haiyan ripped across the Philippines in 2014 leveling nearly every building in sight, 4 million people – mostly poor and from coastal regions – were displaced. In response, the government set up “no build” zones in vulnerable areas and worked to move people to new land. But many of the newly relocated people discovered this land came with no access to water, electricity, or other services.

“After Ukraine, ISIS, terrorism…there are a lot of distractions in 2015,” says Nick Mabey, founder and chief executive of the environmental NGO E3G, in this week’s podcast. “Short term issues are important, but they’re not everything.”

“Human rights and climate change are completely interlinked,” says Robin Bronen in this week’s podcast, and “climate change is happening in Alaska faster than anywhere else on the planet.”