Climate One

Latest Episodes:

Dismantling White Supremacy to Address the Climate Crisis Apr 29, 2022

Show notes

A fundamental injustice of the climate crisis is that those who have contributed to it least are already bearing the brunt of the impacts, and that will continue as global temperatures rise. Like many other environmental and societal challenges, we can’t make real progress if certain groups are left behind. How might a new model for working together to solve interconnected crises, by tracing the origins of ecofeminism, environmental justice and other movements that center the voices and experiences of Black, Indigenous and people of color, work?

Guests:

Leah Thomas, author, Founder, The Intersectional Environmentalist

Hop Hopkins, director of organizational transformation, The Sierra Club

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Climate & Democracy with Jamie Raskin, Heather McGhee and Rebecca Willis Apr 21, 2022

Show notes

Congressman Jamie Raskin (D-MD) took the national spotlight as the lead manager for the second impeachment trial of the former president. As a member of the House Oversight and Reform Committee, he has grilled fossil fuel executives on the industry’s long history of intentionally misleading the public. And as a constitutional law professor, he has offered deep insight into the connections between an informed citizenry and a robust democracy.

At a time when many Americans doubt Congress’s ability to get anything done, what are the government’s strongest levers for climate action? And what are the connections between climate and democracy?

This story is part of ‘Climate & Democracy,’ a series from the global journalism collaboration Covering Climate Now.

Guests:

Jamie Raskin, U.S. Representative, Maryland’s 8th Congressional District

Heather McGhee, Board Chair, Color of Change; author, The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together

Rebecca Willis, Professor, Lancaster University; author, Too Hot to Handle? The Democratic Challenge of Climate Change

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Breaking Down Climate Misinformation with Amy Westervelt and John Cook Apr 15, 2022

Show notes

Fossil fuel companies and others have spent decades casting doubt on climate science to allow them to continue to profit. As documented by climate communication expert John Cook and others, these strategies have taken many forms: deny, dismiss, delay, deflect; and they have evolved over time. They’ve also included a concerted effort to recast political speech, banned and regulated in some contexts, as protected free speech, giving corporations more leeway in broadcasting their messages.

In a special collaboration with Amy Westervelt of Drilled, we trace the origins of this free speech argument and break down the tactics used to spread misinformation.

Guests:

Amy Westervelt, journalist, Founder and Executive Producer, Drilled, Critical Frequency Podcast Network

John Cook, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Climate Change Communication Research Hub, Monash University

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Can We Get Clean Energy Without Dirty Mines? Apr 08, 2022

Show notes

Global sales of electric vehicles more than doubled in 2021. Projections for this year are for another huge gain as more automakers introduce more models with increasing range. This is all good news for transitioning to a clean energy economy. But sourcing the materials needed for clean energy might not be so clean. Mining is the leading industrial polluter in the U.S., but the climate crisis demands a transition to technologies that require raw materials to be extracted. How can the world get the minerals it needs to mitigate the climate crisis without creating other ecological disasters in the process?

Guests:

Morgan Bazilian, Director, Payne Institute, Colorado School of Mines

Payal Sampat, Mining Program Director, Earthworks

Maureen Penjueli, Coordinator, Pacific Network on Globalisation

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Solar Flare-ups Apr 01, 2022

Show notes

Earlier this year, California regulators were set to propose significant changes to the incentives that drive rooftop solar installations. After widespread opposition from industry and climate advocates, the California Public Utilities Commission paused the effort. The issue centers on how much rooftop solar customers pay to use the grid and what rewards they get for selling their excess power.

But California is far from the only state where net metering is a hotly contested issue. While utility-scale projects may offer more bang for the buck in some contexts, rooftop solar offers distributed generation and a tool for resilience. This week, we explore the debate between rooftop and utility-scale solar.

Guests:

Adam Browning, Co-Founder and Executive Director Emeritus, Vote Solar

Bernadette Del Chiaro, Executive Director, California Solar and Storage Association

Tom Beach, Principal Consultant, Crossborder Energy

Emily Sanford Fisher, General Counsel & Corporate Secretary, Sr. Vice President, Clean Energy, Edison Electric Institute

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Coping with COVID and Climate Fatigue Mar 25, 2022

Show notes

Since March 2020, the global community has grappled with an unprecedented pandemic. At first, most people were willing to do what it takes to keep themselves and others safe. Two years in, pretty much everyone feels exhausted by the effort and by the general anxiety of living with COVID. The global community simultaneously faces an even greater existential threat: climate change. For those fighting to stave off this slower-moving catastrophe, fatigue is a familiar feeling. What have we learned from two years of COVID disruption that can inform how we deal with climate fatigue?

Guests:

David Wallace-Wells, Editor-At-Large, New York Magazine

Britt Wray, Human and Planetary Health Fellow, Stanford University

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Playing With Fire: Russia, Ukraine and the Geopolitics of Energy Mar 18, 2022

Show notes

The IPCC released its latest report the same day as the U.S. Supreme Court heard the most environmentally significant case in a decade, all while Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has rattled global energy markets. It’s a lot to take in all at once.

Will the disruption of methane gas supplies to Europe give it the extra push it needs to decarbonize, or will some countries always be beholden to untrustworthy partners for the resources they need? What other options exist to power our economies more sustainably in the short and long term?

Guests:

Amy Myers Jaffe, Managing Director, Climate Policy Lab, Tufts University

Erwin Chemerinsky, Dean, Berkeley Law

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Turning Air into Stone: Tech-Based Carbon Removal Mar 11, 2022

Show notes

It has been 3 million years since there’s been this much CO2 in the atmosphere. Even if we stop all burning of fossil fuels today, humans have already emitted enough CO2 that we’ll continue experiencing extreme weather events for years to come. Not only do we need to stop emitting greenhouse gasses, but according to the IPCC, we also need to accelerate the removal of CO2. With forests burning faster than we can grow them, nature-based solutions may not be enough. What role might tech-based solutions play? Can they be implemented in a just, equitable way that does not give license for fossil fuel interests to continue business as usual?

Guests:

Marcius Extavour, VP, Energy & Climate, XPRIZE

Angela Anderson, Director of Industrial Innovation and Carbon Removal at World Resources Institute

Rachel Glennerster, Associate Professor of Economics, University of Chicago

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Peat, Kelp and Trees: Nature-Based Carbon Capture Mar 04, 2022

Show notes

Humans must dramatically rein in greenhouse gas emissions in order to slow the planetary warming caused by centuries of fossil fuel combustion. But even if we accomplish that through major reforms to our power supply, food systems, industrial industries and more, we still need to remove huge amounts of carbon already in the atmosphere to stave off the worst impacts of climate disruption. This is no easy task. We need to explore every option – both nature-based solutions and tech solutions. In a two-part series, we look at both categories. First up, the natural mechanisms for carbon capture and storage, from forests to peat bogs to kelp beds.

Guests:

Ugbaad Kosar, Deputy Director of Policy, Carbon180

Edward Struzik, author, Swamplands: Tundra Beavers, Quaking Bogs and the Improbable World of Peat

Bren Smith, Co-Executive Director and Owner, Thimble Island Ocean Farm

Benjamin Preston, Senior Policy Researcher, RAND Corporation

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Cow Poop and Compost: Digesting the Methane Menace Feb 25, 2022

Show notes

In a 20-year time frame, methane is 80 times more damaging to the climate than carbon dioxide. Nationally, 37% of methane emissions come from cows. 17% of all US methane emissions come from food waste rotting in landfills. More than 100 countries, including the US, signed The Global Methane Pledge, promising to reduce methane emissions by 30% by 2030.

In California, a new law went into effect directly addressing the state’s methane emissions from organic waste and dairy farms. The law targets a 40% reduction in the same time frame. That’s ambitious. What effect will this law have on industrial agriculture, and the general population?

Guests:

Neil Edgar, Executive Director, California Compost Coalition

J Jordan, Policy Coordinator,Leadership Council for Justice and Accountability

Michael Boccadoro, Executive Director, Dairy Cares

Monique Figueiredo, Chief Executive Officer / Founder / Co-Owner, Compostable LA

Allen Williams, Understanding Ag

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