Bernie Bastien-Olvera
Interdisciplinary researcher on climate impacts on nature.
Communicator, media producer, and National Geographic Explorer.
I study how climate change affects the diverse values of nature.
As an Assistant Professor of Interdisciplinary Climate Studies at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) and an Affiliated Scientist at the European Institute on Economics and the Environment in Milan, I combine ecological modeling with economic valuation to understand how climate-driven shifts in terrestrial and marine ecosystems hit our ways of living, especially in the Global South. My research has been published in journals like Nature and Nature Climate Change.
I completed my PhD in Geography at UC Davis, as a Fulbright Scholar and John Muir Institute Fellow, earning the Kinsella Memorial Prize for my dissertation, followed by a postdoctoral fellowship at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UCSD. I am a National Geographic Explorer, a Beijer Young Scholar a Scholar of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists and serve on the Council of the American Geophysical Union.
In the world of science communication I go by El Capi — short for Capitán Planeta — and I co-founded Planeteando, a collective that translates climate science into podcasts, boardgames, festivals, films and performances.
Selected Publications
- Bastien-Olvera, B.A., et al. Unequal climate impacts on global values of natural capital. Nature (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-023-06769-z
- Bastien-Olvera, B. A., & Moore, F. C. (2022). Climate Impacts on Natural Capital: Consequences for the Social Cost of Carbon. Annual Review of Resource Economics, 14, 515-532. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-resource-111820-020204
- Bastien-Olvera, B. A., Granella, F. & Moore, F. C. (2022). Persistent effect of temperature on GDP identified from lower frequency temperature variability. Environmental Research Letters, 17(8), 084038. https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ac82c2
- Bastien-Olvera, B. A. & Moore, F. C. (2021). Use and non-use value of nature and the social cost of carbon. Nature Sustainability, 4, 101-108. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-020-00615-0
Selected Awards, Honors & Scholarships
- 2023 – Kinsella Memorial Prize Award
High quality, original, multidisciplinary Ph.D. dissertation of the year.
College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences at UC Davis. - 2022 – National Geographic Explorer
National Geographic Society - 2017 – Fulbright-Garcia Robles Fellowship
Fulbright
Media coverage
As the visible effects of climate change become more obvious, next to come will be the cost to economies around the world, says Bernie Bastien-Olvera @Capi_Planeta who worked on a research showing we’ve massively underestimated those costs. pic.twitter.com/fOWqDxfRzA
— Michael Holmes (@holmescnn) August 22, 2022
We Can’t Fight Climate Change Without Valuing Nature. Healthy ecosystems essential to meeting Paris Agreement.
by Dana Nuccitelli
A New Approach to an Unresolved Mystery in Climate Economics. Do shifts in temperature have enduring economic impacts? A “clever” trick identifying climate trends gets us one step closer to addressing this long-standing question in climate economics.
by Jenessa Duncombe September 2, 2022
Natural capital in climate models. Models typically used to analyse climate–economy interactions have paradoxically ignored much of nature’s value. A new study explicitly addresses this issue and reveals feedback loops between nature and the climate system that make climate change more costly.
by Matthew Agarwala & Diane Coyle
Creative productions and outreach
I am passionate about science communication, and I dedicate a huge part of my time to it. I am co-founder of Estudios Planeteando, a production house that creates multi-media socio-environmental storytelling projects.
Festivals and Live Performances
“TierraFest” Earth Day science, art and film festival (May 2023). Venue: Centro Cultural El Rule, Mexico City.
My Role: General Coordinator and activities curator.
Media cover | Video | Webiste|
Earth Film festival featuring short films by Mexican directors.
My Role: General coordinator
Drag queens perform different Earth spheres: Biosphere, Geosphere, Atmosphere, and Oceans.
Mexico City, 2023.
Role: Producer.
TV and Films
Documentary TV-series (June 2022). Role: researcher, scriptwriter and host. A series about climate change risks and conservation efforts related to the biocultural heritage in Mexico. Aired on the Mexican public TV channel Canal 14.
Short stop-motion film about the indigenous communities in Puebla, Mexico combatting the water extractive industry.
Scriptwriter and Producer
Link to the film
Short documentary film (2023). Producer and scriptwriter advisor. A film about the entangled stories of cultures and birds diversity in Santa Gertudris, Veracruz, Mexico.
Short documentary film (2023). Producer and scriptwriter advisor. A film about the community of Cuajimiloyas, Oaxaca assessing the risks and benefits of protecting their forests within the carbon offsets market. Screened at TierraFilme 2023.
Writing
Los árboles están huyendo: Así es la migración más grande y silenciosa del planeta.
Al pensar en los impactos del cambio climático te podrán venir a la mente imágenes de incendios forestales incrontrolables o huracanes de intensidad inaudita. Pero existen cambios más sutiles, extendiéndose vastamente en espacio y tiempo, tan imperceptibles en el día a día que desafían nuestra comprensión.
Natureleando.
Es un error común pensar que la naturaleza está afuera, un lugar exterior al que se puede ir de día de campo para luego regresar a casa, cuando en los hechos nunca nos separamos de ella, estamos permanentemente inmersos en ella. Desde hace miles de años los cazadores y recolectores, así como los primeros agricultores, transformaron lentamente el paisaje e iniciaron de esta manera el proceso de co-construcción humana y no humana de los procesos del sistema Tierra.
La economía mundial está en riesgo ante el cambio climático. El cambio climático está afectando las nubes de datos que almacenan la información de millones de personas hoy en día. Nada se salva. ¿Hasta qué punto la economía mundial podrá resistir?
Ambiente y pandemias. La pandemia por covid-19 no llegó sola, la constante destrucción del medio ambiente que por décadas hemos impulsado fue en gran medida la responsable; ¿qué acciones debemos tomar para evitar otra crisis sanitaria?
Dos grados de calentamiento global nos dicen que no estamos haciendo suficiente. El cambio climático está afectando las nubes de datos que almacenan la información de millones de personas hoy en día. Nada se salva. ¿Hasta qué punto la economía mundial podrá resistir?
Podcasts
Debunking climate change myths. My Role: Producer, Host and Scriptwriter.
Stories and theory behind socio-environmental problems. My Role: Producer and Scriptwriter.