Climate One

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Overheated (6/27/13) Aug 07, 2013

Show notes

“Climate change will be the biggest health issue of my grandchild’s lifetime and my great-grandchildren’s lifetime…we will be looking at somewhere in the range of half a billion lives being affected profoundly by the impacts of climate change,” according to Dr. Richard Joseph Jackson, professor at the UCLA School of Public Health. As increasing temperatures amplify natural disasters and impact water supplies, people in the U.S. and around the world will face greater health health risks. Meanwhile, resource scarcity may lead to worldwide conflict, like “putting a vice on an existing crisis – there’s no guarantee it’ll flame up, but it makes it more likely,” said UC Berkeley Law School professor Andrew Guzman. This conversation offers a sobering view of the cost of rising temperatures, along with solutions for a more sustainable future. Andrew Guzman, Professor, UC Berkeley Law School; Author, Overheated: The Human Cost of Climate Change Richard Joseph Jackson, Professor, UCLA School of Public Health; Host of the four-part public TV program, Designing Healthy Communities This program was recorded in front of a live audience at The Commonwealth Club of California on June 27, 2013

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Nature's Price Tag (7/25/13) Jul 29, 2013

Show notes

An emerging area of economics aims to put a price on nature as a way of justifying preserving it in societies dominated by the wisdom of markets. A mountain stream, for example, provides many economic benefits beyond people who own property near it or drink water from it. The same is said of bees that pollinate our food, wetlands that cleans water, and trees that drink up carbon dioxide. If nature were a corporation it would be a large cap stock. Putting a precise tag on something long seen as free is a conceptual leap. However many large companies are starting to realize the extent to which their profits rely on well operating ecosystems. Larry Goulder, Professor of Environmental and Resource Economics, Stanford Tony Juniper, Associate Professor, University of Cambridge Programme for Sustainability Leadership; Special Advisor to The Prince of Wales International Sustainability Unit This program was recorded in front of a live audience at The Commonwealth Club of California on July 25, 2013

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Fracking News (7/19/13) Jul 26, 2013

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Hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, is “the most profound [energy] revolution that we’ve had in decades,” said San Francisco Chronicle reporter David Baker. Thanks to fracking, natural gas is cheap and abundant. However, water contamination may prove to be a huge problem as monitoring efforts are “woefully inadequate,” therefore we don’t really know what’s happening, said ProPublica reporter Abrahm Lustgarten. “If you taint somebody’s drinking water, you have destroyed their property value... That should be a big warning sign to people that this is not something you can monkey around with,” Baker said. This conversation with two reporters attempts to explain the fine line between the profits and liabilities associated with hydraulic fracturing, the process of injecting water or steam into shale rock at high pressure to extract petroleum or natural gas. David Baker, Reporter, San Francisco Chronicle Abrahm Lustgarten, Reporter, ProPublica This program was recorded in front of a live audience at The Commonwealth Club of California on July 19, 2013.

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Environmental Debt (7/8/13) Jul 09, 2013

Show notes

There is a pattern between the way we do business and the changes in our climate. “The companies that are the biggest polluters make the biggest profits,” according to Amy Larkin, author of Environmental Debt: The Hidden Costs of a Changing Global Economy. Companies like McDonald’s and Coca-Cola are changing the rules to run a more socially conscious business. According to John Hofmeister, former President of Shell Oil USA, “social cost could be the game changer that warrants the way we look at future environmental debt.” Both Larkin and Hofmeister agree that the government must play a large role in changing the rules of business if we have any hope of solving the climate crisis. A conversation with a leading environmentalist and former oil executive on the costs of pollution and cleaning up capitalism. This program was recorded in front of a live audience at The Commonwealth Club of California on July 8, 2013.

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Governors Ritter and Whitman: Risk and Resilience (6/19/13) Jun 27, 2013

Show notes

Hurricane Sandy and the devastating Colorado fires of 2012 underscore the idea that climate disruption is amplifying natural disasters, if not causing them. Forest fires in Colorado have been “economically devastating for communities,” says former Colorado Governor Bill Ritter Jr. In the East, Superstorm Sandy and other extreme weather events have caused massive destruction and large bills for coastal communities. “Different states and different countries are going to adapt in different ways,” says Christine Todd Whitman, former Governor of New Jersey. Both former governors emphasized the importance of clean energy sources. There is an “economic development opportunity” in the green energy economy says Ritter. Nuclear energy, says Whitman, is an option that creates lots of jobs and no greenhouse gasses. A conversation with two former state chief executives on bridging the partisan divide and adapting to climate change. This program was recorded in front of a live audience at The Commonwealth Club of California on June 19, 2013

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Power Choice (6/17/13) Jun 24, 2013

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Rising interest in clean power is presenting electric monopolies with competition for the first time. Community choice aggregation (CCA) gives towns and cities the opportunity to get in on the energy market and decide where their energy will come from. More than a thousand communities across the country are taking electric power into their own hands. Supporters say that is a great way for communities to get greener electricity. San Francisco’s proposed community power option has a goal of 100% renewables and may be provided by a unit of Shell Oil. That juice could cost up to 40 percent more than the local monopoly, PG&E. Skeptics are wary of such cost premiums and say local power may not be as green as people think. A conversation with four experts on local and clean power nationally and in the San Francisco Bay Area. Kim Malcolm, Director, CleanPowerSF Shawn Marshall, Mill Valley Council Member; Executive Director, Local Energy Aggregation Network Marcie Milner, Senior Regulatory Manager, Shell Energy North America Hunter Stern, Business Manager, Brotherhood of Electrical Workers This program was recorded in front of a live audience at The Commonwealth Club of California on June 17, 2013

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Sea Surge (6/18/13) Jun 24, 2013

Show notes

Humans have been using their ingenuity to deal with sea level rise, floods, and fluctuating coasts for the past 15,000 years, and recent extreme events have emphasized the need to adapt. “There are no easy solutions to adaptation,” says Brian Fagan, author of “The Attacking Ocean”, but we can learn from historic sea walls in the Netherlands, cyclones in the Indian Ocean, and other major oceanic events over the last 10,000 years. “The global ocean has actually done us this incredible favor by buffering us from a variety of effects of climate change and our fossil fuel addiction,” says Meg Caldwell, Executive Director of the Center for Ocean Solutions at Stanford. However the combination of warming waters, acidification, and lower oxygen levels have have the oceans at their limit. A conversation with an archaeologist and a lawyer on sea level rise, climate refugees, and the impact of climate change on the world’s oceans. This program was recorded in front of a live audience at The Commonwealth Club of California on June 18, 2013

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Pandora's Promise (6/15/13) Jun 21, 2013

Show notes

In the wake of the Fukushima disaster, the U.S. is struggling to define its nuclear energy future. The film “Pandora’s Promise” asks whether we should use nuclear energy to deal with global warming. Michael Shellenberger, President of the Breakthrough Institute and featured in the film, says you can’t be an “anti-nuclear activist and an anti-fracking activist.” Nuclear is an invaluable power source that is both scalable and produces no greenhouse gasses, says Shellenberger. However, says Severin Borenstein, Co-Director of the Energy Institute at UC Berkeley, the movie fails to address cost. In order for nuclear to remain a viable part of the energy mix it must become less expensive. The developing world, he says, won’t be willing to adopt something that isn’t “as cheap or cheaper than burning coal.” A Climate One Cinema post-screening conversation on the documentary “Pandora’s Promise” and the future of nuclear power. This program was recorded in front of a live audience at The Commonwealth Club of California on June 15, 2013

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Rebels With a Cause (6/9/13) Jun 21, 2013

Show notes

The documentary “Rebels with a Cause” follows “ordinary citizens who did extraordinary things” in the second half of the 20th century to preserve the natural landscape of Point Reyes, California from urbanization. Point Reyes National Seashore in the San Francisco Bay Area was the first national park of major size that was created from private land, says the round table. Over the course of the 1960s and 70s activists brokered an agreement between ranchers and environmentalists that created a model to preserve the land and the ranches on it. The importance of having nature close to home became a topic of national conversation and sparked the creation of parks in numerous states. Today smart urban growth is increasingly important with rapidly expanding populations putting increased pressure on natural resources. Climate change means sea level rise, changing habitats, and extreme weather are straining the ecosystems of the parks. “Activism still matters a lot,” say panelists. A Climate One Cinema post-screening conversation on a local conservation movement with national implications. Nancy Dobbs, President and CEO, KRCB Nancy Kelly, Director, Rebels with a Cause Trent Orr, Staff Attorney, Earthjustice Will Rogers, President and Chief Executive Officer, The Trust for Public Land This program was recorded in front of a live audience at The Commonwealth Club of California on June 9, 2013

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Google's Eric Schmidt and Jared Cohen (6/4/13) Jun 06, 2013

Show notes

Google's Eric Schmidt and Jared Cohen In the next decade, five billion more people should be able to access most of the world’s information through a mobile device. “The internet is going to wire up the entire world,” says Eric Schmidt, Executive Chairman of Google. “The change to people who have no information, no political freedom, no healthcare…is going to be extraordinary.” With this increase of technology comes privacy concerns, greater risks from cyber espionage, and important conversations on how to teach the next generation about data permanence and online privacy. “When you talk about privacy you need to also talk about security. The two concepts are deeply intertwined,” says Jared Cohen, Director of Google Ideas who points out the importance of parents talking to their children about digital privacy. A conversation with two architects of our digital future on innovation and the implications of a connected world. This program was recorded in front of a live audience at The Commonwealth Club of California on June 4, 2013

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