Alizé Carrère

Bio: Alizé Carrère is a fifth year PhD candidate who researches climate change utopias. Otherwise known as “climatopias” because she loves a good portmanteau. Her journey began on the edge of a Finger Lake/civilization in upstate NY. Here she was raised in a treehouse built by her French father. It was all rather bucolic. She fledged the nest at 18 and hopped our friendly northern border to realize her dreams in Montreal, Canada. She completed her B.A. at McGill University in Environmental Sciences and International Development, and spent time studying in Panama while based out of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute. Alizé then returned to McGill to do an M.Sc. in Integrated Water Resource Management. During this time, she received a scholarship to live in the Middle East and study the management of Israel and Palestine’s largest shared aquifer as it related to electronic waste disposal. She spent a lot of time sniffing out e-waste graveyards and examining the environmental and human health hazards of this black-market industry. Ask her about it sometime over a beer. Or five.

In 2012, Alizé attended a National Geographic grant workshop where she saw Kenny speak. Inspired by his unconventional approach to life (and in an attempt to further stave off adulthood), she applied for a NatGeo grant of her own and received support to conduct research in Madagascar. She spent several months researching an unexpected agricultural adaptation in response to severe deforestation, which turned into a 4-part digital series called Adaptation that she directed and produced for PBS about innovative human adaptations to environmental change. She’s now studying futuristic architectural and urban design plans for climate change, and the rise of radical new proposals for 21st century sustainable living. From the Saudi Arabian giga projects in the middle of the desert to the humble housing co-op, no plan is too grand or too bland for her examination. She spends her free time with her pet rats Romeo and Alfonso.

Check out her CV here and her website here: www.alizecarrere.com