Climate One

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Making Cents Out of Watts: What’s Driving Up Your Energy Bills? Mar 14, 2025

Show notes

A third of Americans say that they've skipped food, medicine, or something else to be able to afford their energy bills. Much of the increase in the cost of electricity is driven by rising demand from artificial intelligence and data centers, industrial onshoring and hotter temperatures.

How does your electricity bill get calculated, and who’s in charge of setting those rates? Does public power serve consumers better than investor-owned utilities? And will rising electricity prices dampen the transition to cleaner sources of energy?

Guests:

Shelley Welton, Professor of Law and Energy Policy, University of Pennsylvania

Severin Borenstein,Professor, Haas School of Business, UC Berkeley

Kevin Miller, Reporter, Maine Public Radio

On March 24, Google’s Chief Sustainability Officer Kate Brandt and Irina Raicu, Director of the Internet Ethics Program at the Markkula Center, will speak with Climate One about the development of sustainably powered artificial intelligence. Tickets are on sale through our website.

And on April 22 and 24, Climate One will once again be hosting a series of SF Climate Week events at The Commonwealth Club! Join us for conversations with environmental luminaries such as Margaret Gordon, Jenny Odell, Project Drawdown, Grist, and Abby Reyes. Tickets are on sale now.

Support Climate One by going ad-free! By subscribing to Climate One on Patreon, you’ll receive exclusive access to all future episodes free of ads, opportunities to connect with fellow Climate One listeners, and access to the Climate One Discord. Sign up today.

For show notes and related links, visit our website.

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Is ESG BS? Mar 07, 2025

Show notes

Who’s responsible for climate change? Fossil fuel companies would like us to believe it’s all of us as individuals (after all, BP invented the idea of the personal carbon footprint). But many large corporations bear at least as much of the blame. And for a decade or so, there was a push for every company to disclose its own emissions — a kind of corporate carbon footprint — and “sustainability” became the word of the day. But corporate shareholders demand profits, and managers are held accountable if they don’t deliver.

Auden Schendler spent over 25 years running sustainability programs at Aspen One, the company that owns one of the highest-end resorts in the world. He argues that those pushing corporate sustainability programs are living a “big green lie.” Can capitalism be cleaned up from the inside? What should corporations and their sustainability managers do instead?

Guests:

Auden Schendler, Climate activist; Author, “Terrible Beauty: Reckoning with Climate Complicity and Rediscovering Our Soul”

Mindy Lubber, CEO, Ceres

For show notes and related links, visit our website.

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The $300M Lawsuit That Could Crush Dissent Feb 28, 2025

Show notes

Energy Transfer Partners, the company behind the Dakota Access Pipeline, is suing Greenpeace for $300 million. The pipeline company accuses Greenpeace of criminal behavior — trespassing, vandalism, and assault of construction workers — and inciting riotous behavior by protesters at Standing Rock in 2016.

Greenpeace considers this legal action to be a “SLAPP suit” — a Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation — aimed at silencing not just Greenpeace, but civil protests everywhere. The trial is just getting underway in Morton County, North Dakota. In this episode we unpack not just this case, but the broader implications of such suits.

Guests:

Rolf Skar, National Campaigns Director, Greenpeace

Montgomery Brown, Member, Standing Rock Grassroots

Laura Prather, Chair of First Amendment Practice, Haynes Boone

For show notes and related links, visit our website.

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Disasterology: Navigating Fossil-Fueled Chaos Feb 21, 2025

Show notes

From hurricanes on the East Coast to wildfires in LA, to floods in Vermont and storms in Texas, communities across the U.S. are facing a growing number of intense and devastating disasters. There are significant disparities in who has the means to evacuate during a disaster and who has the resources to rebuild once the storm has passed. Long after the immediate impact, the challenges continue, with many left to navigate a slow, complex, and often confusing recovery process.

As the harsh reality of climate chaos sets in, how can we better integrate community mental health into the disaster recovery process to ensure that emotional and psychological needs are addressed alongside physical rebuilding?

Guests:

Adrienne Heinz, Clinical Research Psychologist, Stanford University School of Medicine

Samantha Montano, Assistant Professor of Emergency Management, Massachusetts Maritime Academy; Author, “Disasterology: Dispatches from The Frontlines of the Climate Crisis”

Ralph Hamlett, Alderman, Canton, North Carolina; Professor Emeritus of Political Communications, Brevard College

Haley Geller, Photo stylist; Pasadena resident

And on March 24, Google’s Chief Sustainability Officer Kate Brandt and Irina Raicu, Director of the Internet Ethics Program at the Markkula Center, will speak with Climate One about the development of sustainably powered artificial intelligence. Tickets to both shows are on sale through our website.

For show notes and related links, visit our website.

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Solar Power to the People Feb 14, 2025

Show notes

At this moment, the cheapest way to create electricity is by pointing a solar panel at the sun. That’s good news for the climate. It’s also good news for communities who want to take control of their own electricity generation.

In the heart of Brooklyn, UPROSE is helping to build a solar project that will be owned by the community, provide jobs, and help residents bring down their energy costs. In Puerto Rico, where hurricanes have devastated the power grid, community members are building solar microgrids to provide reliable electricity as the utility has proven they cannot. Meanwhile in conservative rural Virginia, Energy Right is helping farmers and rural communities adopt solar projects, touting a free market message about energy independence and security.

Guests:

Elizabeth Yeampierre, Attorney; Executive Director, UPROSE

Skyler Zunk, CEO and Founder, Energy Right

Arturo Massol-Deyá, Executive Director, Casa Pueblo de Adjuntas

We’re excited to share two upcoming opportunities to see Climate One Live! On February 25, internationally recognized environmental and civil rights activist Catherine Coleman Flowers will join Climate One for a live conversation about the future of environmental justice. And on March 24, Google’s Chief Sustainability Officer Kate Brandt and Irina Raicu, Director of the Internet Ethics Program at the Markkula Center, will speak with Climate One about the development of sustainably powered artificial intelligence. Tickets to both shows are on sale through our website.

For show notes and related links, visit our website.

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Drag Queen Pattie Gonia: Bringing Joy to Climate Action Feb 07, 2025

Show notes

When individuals want to take action on climate, it’s often in the form of electrifying a home, voting, or maybe even traditional activism. Those are very important, but we often overlook how individual skills and talents can also make a difference.

This week we’re highlighting creative forms of climate action. Pattie Gonia is a drag queen, environmentalist and advocate for inclusivity and diversity in the outdoors who struts their message through national parks, in Pride events, and through the halls of Congress. Mike Roberts and Will Hammond Jr. wrote a sultry R&B song that will change the way you think about heat pumps… and an equally stimulating song about the power of geothermal energy. Together, they remind us that we don’t always have to take ourselves too seriously in order for our work to be meaningful and have impact.

Guests:

Pattie Gonia, Drag queen; Environmentalist

Mike Roberts, Musician; Climate advocate

Will Hammond Jr., Educator; Musician

On February 25, internationally recognized environmental and civil rights activist Catherine Coleman Flowers will join Climate One for a live conversation about the future of environmental justice. Join us at noon in San Francisco for a can’t-miss show. Tickets are now available!

For show notes and related links, visit our website.

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Pattie Gonia image credit Mitchell Overton

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What Climate Progress Is Possible Now? Jan 31, 2025

Show notes

The second Trump administration has hit the ground running. The president has signed a flurry of executive orders targeting everything from birthright citizenship to pulling out of the Paris Climate Accords. This is a far different moment from the first Trump term. The president is more focused, his team is more focused, and energy policy is at the top of their action list.

However, the renewable energy market is also much more mature, and the transition away from fossil fuels has been accelerated by three major climate-related bills passed during the Biden years. In this new political and economic landscape, how do climate advocates need to think and act differently to sustain progress?

Guests:

Dana R. Fisher, Director of the Center for Environment, Community, and Equity & Professor, School of International Service, American University

Nathaniel Stinnett, Founder and Executive Director, Environmental Voter Project

Arnab Datta, Director of Infrastructure Policy, Institute for Progress; Managing Director of Policy Implementation, Employ America

For show notes and related links, visit our website.

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LA Wildfires: Loss, Recovery and Resilience Jan 24, 2025

Show notes

The wildfires ravaging Los Angeles have caused incredible destruction — loss of life, thousands of homes and businesses gone or damaged and hundreds of thousands of people displaced. While the scale and speed of these fires may feel unprecedented, the dry, fire-prone foothills around LA burn often. Yet increasingly we see wildfires spurred by climate factors including warmer temperatures and weather whiplash — cycles of heavy precipitation followed by extreme drought.

This week we hear what climate science says about current and future wildfire risk and about ways to support an equitable recovery from such destructive urban disasters.

Guests:

Moira Morel, Cinematographer; Altadena resident

Hugh Safford, Research faculty, Department of Environmental Science and Policy, UC Davis

Andrew Rumbach, Senior Fellow, Urban Institute

Nick Mott, Multimedia journalist; Author of “This Is Wildfire”

For show notes and related links, visit our website.

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Even Old Houses Can Learn New Elec-Tricks Jan 17, 2025

Show notes

If we include personal cars, along with appliances like water heaters, stoves and furnaces, more than 40 percent of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions come from individuals at the home level. The good news: no matter where you live, there are steps you can take to make your home cleaner, healthier and more comfortable.

And thanks to the Inflation Reduction Act, there’s now a raft of federal incentives to help homeowners electrify their lives. Electrification has even become a theme on long running home improvement programs like “This Old House.” But with all the new technology and the federal tax credits, where to start?

Guests:

Ross Trethewey, Home Technology Expert, “This Old House”

Ari Matusiak, Co-founder, President and CEO, Rewiring America

Edith Buhs, Electrification Coach, Rewiring America; Decarbonization Advisor, Abode Energy Management

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Leah Stokes: 2024 Schneider Award Winner Jan 10, 2025

Show notes

Every year we highlight the work of a scientist who excels in communicating their work to the world. Climate One is delighted to present the 2024 Stephen H. Schneider Award for Outstanding Climate Science Communication to political scientist and energy expert Leah Stokes.

Her rare ability to communicate complex information to both academic audiences and the general public has established her as one of the most influential voices in climate action and clean energy policy.

“What I've started to think about is not how can I make my impact as small as possible, like a carbon footprint, trying to shrink, but actually how can I make my impact as big as possible by joining with others in campaigns to try to change policies and laws so that we're not just trying to make marginal, incremental improvements on a fossil fuel-based energy system, but actually change the system towards clean electricity,” she says.

Guests:

Leah Stokes, Anton Vonk Associate Professor at UC Santa Barbara; Senior Policy Advisor, Rewiring America; Co-host of the podcast “A Matter of Degrees”

Rebecca Solnit, Author, journalist, and activist

For show notes and related links, visit our website.

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