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The Last Straw: Assessing Alternatives to Single-Use Plastics, with Shelie Miller Nov 22, 2021

Show notes

In this week’s episode, host Daniel Raimi talks with Shelie Miller, a professor at the University of Michigan’s School for Environment and Sustainability. Miller describes her recent research, which investigates whether reusable products like straws and coffee cups are really more sustainable than their single-use counterparts. In part because manufacturing these products and then keeping them clean over their lifetimes can be water intensive, Miller says that consumers need to reuse alternatives to plastics many times if they want to minimize their environmental impacts. Today’s episode is very much news-you-can-use when you’re trying to decide whether you should buy that reusable sandwich wrapper or straw, or take home that canvas bag from the latest conference you’ve attended. References and recommendations: “Environmental payback periods of reusable alternatives to single-use plastic kitchenware products” by Hannah Fetner and Shelie A. Miller; https://www.springerprofessional.de/en/environmental-payback-periods-of-reusable-alternatives-to-single/19334396 “Five Misperceptions Surrounding the Environmental Impacts of Single-Use Plastic” by Shelie A. Miller; https://css.umich.edu/sites/default/files/publication/CSS20-33.pdf “Green Porno” with Isabella Rossellini; https://www.sundancetv.com/shows/green-porno--1001041

COP26 Wrap-Up: What Did We Accomplish?, with Billy Pizer Nov 15, 2021

Show notes

In this week’s episode, host Kristin Hayes talks with Billy Pizer, the Vice President for Research and Policy Engagement at Resources for the Future. The episode was recorded on the second-to-last day of COP26, closing out our three-part COP-focused podcast series. Pizer joins Resources Radio live from Glasgow, where he has been RFF’s eyes and ears, to discuss how this critical negotiating session has unfolded. He shares his reflections on the conference proceedings and outcomes, along with what needs to happen next. References and recommendations: “Fixing the Climate: Strategies for an Uncertain World” by Charles F. Sabel and David G. Victor; https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691224558/fixing-the-climate

COP26 Week 2: Progress to Date, with Suzi Kerr Nov 08, 2021

Show notes

In this week’s episode, host Kristin Hayes talks with Suzi Kerr, chief economist at Environmental Defense Fund. Kerr’s areas of expertise include emissions pricing, climate change policy, land use, and—most relevant for this podcast episode—international climate cooperation. Kerr originally hails from New Zealand, where she helped found Motu, an economics and public policy research institution that serves the needs of Kiwi decisionmakers. Kerr is the second podcast guest in our three-part series on COP26. She shares her reflections on the action at COP26 to date—major agreements that already have been forged, deals that have been scuttled, and key issues still on the negotiating table—with a particular lens on developing-country interests. References and recommendations: “Tears of Rangi: Experiments Across Worlds” by Anne Salmond; https://aucklanduniversitypress.co.nz/tears-of-rangi/

COP26 Week 1: What’s Ahead and What’s at Stake, with Rachel Cleetus Oct 29, 2021

Show notes

In this episode, host Kristin Hayes talks with Rachel Cleetus, policy director of the Climate and Energy program at the Union of Concerned Scientists. Cleetus is an expert on the process used by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, or UNFCCC, and has been attending international climate negotiations since 2009. As this podcast episode airs, we are two days into this year’s negotiations in Glasgow, at the meeting known as COP26. Cleetus joins Resources Radio as the first guest in a three-part COP-focused podcast series; she’ll help set the stage for what we can expect out of COP26 over the next two weeks, including the issues under discussion, where progress this year is particularly critical, and how US action—or lack thereof—will affect the dialogue in this pivotal year for international climate negotiations. References and recommendations: “On Being” podcast episode, “Our future is still in our hands,” with guest Katharine Hayhoe; https://onbeing.org/programs/katharine-hayhoe-our-future-is-still-in-our-hands/ “All We Can Save: Truth, Courage, and Solutions for the Climate Crisis” edited by Ayana Elizabeth Johnson and Katharine K. Wilkinson; https://www.allwecansave.earth/anthology

Understanding the Impacts of Product Packaging, with Boma Brown-West Oct 25, 2021

Show notes

In this episode, host Daniel Raimi talks with Boma Brown-West, director of consumer health at Environmental Defense Fund. Brown-West works on a wide range of issues related to the safety of consumer products, and she discusses some of the risks associated with packaging. Along with the well-known environmental damages from plastic pollution, Brown-West and Raimi dig into the lesser-known risks to human health from the chemicals that are part of the packaging people consume every day. Whether it’s single-use plastics, food containers, or even pizza boxes, there’s reason to be concerned, and there’s a lot we don’t know about how these products affect our long-term health. References and recommendations: “The world has a packaging problem—a new tool gives companies the ability to fix it” by Boma Brown-West; https://www.greenbiz.com/article/world-has-packaging-problem-new-tool-gives-companies-ability-fix-it The “Understanding Packaging Scorecard” from Environmental Defense Fund; https://upscorecard.org/ “American War” by Omar El Akkad; https://www.penguinrandomhouse.ca/books/543957/american-war-by-omar-el-akkad/9780771009419 “Degrees” podcast from Environmental Defense Fund; https://business.edf.org/degrees/ “Up to Heaven and Down to Hell: Fracking, Freedom, and Community in an American Town” by Colin Jerolmack; https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691179032/up-to-heaven-and-down-to-hell

Fighting for Environmental Fairness in San Antonio, with Char Miller Oct 16, 2021

Show notes

In this week’s episode, host Daniel Raimi talks with Char Miller, a professor at Pomona College and a senior fellow at the Pinchot Institute for Conservation. Miller recently published a book called “West Side Rising: How San Antonio’s 1921 Flood Devastated a City and Sparked a Latino Environmental Justice Movement.” It’s a fascinating look back at how decades of environmental discrimination led to a new type of organizing and activism among the city’s residents, even before the term “environmental justice” was widely used. Miller explores the history of this movement and how it has blossomed over time to shape the politics and policies of today and tomorrow. References and recommendations: “West Side Rising: How San Antonio’s 1921 Flood Devastated a City and Sparked a Latino Environmental Justice Movement” by Char Miller; https://tupress.org/9781595349385/west-side-rising/

How Much Do Fine Particulates Matter for Public Health?, with Inês Azevedo Oct 10, 2021

Show notes

In this week’s episode, host Daniel Raimi talks with Inês Azevedo, an associate professor of energy resources engineering at Stanford University, a senior fellow at the Woods Institute for the Environment, and a fellow at the Precourt Institute for Energy. Azevedo publishes on a very wide range of topics, but the conversation in this episode focuses on her work that examines the effects of particulate matter emissions from the power sector and how those emissions affect public health. Azevedo describes where the emissions come from, how the pollution affects different parts of the country, how effects vary across racial and demographic characteristics, and much more. References and recommendations: “Fine Particulate Air Pollution from Electricity Generation in the US: Health Impacts by Race, Income, and Geography” by Maninder P. S. Thind, Christopher W. Tessum, Inês L. Azevedo, and Julian D. Marshall; https://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acs.est.9b02527 “Optimizing Emissions Reductions from the U.S. Power Sector for Climate and Health Benefits” by Brian J. Sergi, Peter J. Adams, Nicholas Z. Muller, Allen L. Robinson, Steven J. Davis, Julian D. Marshall, and Inês L. Azevedo; https://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acs.est.9b06936 “Energy Efficiency: What Has Research Delivered in the Last 40 Years?” by Harry D. Saunders, Joyashree Roy, Inês M. L. Azevedo, Debalina Chakravarty, Shyamasree Dasgupta, Stephane de la Rue du Can, Angela Druckman, Roger Fouquet, Michael Grubb, Boqiang Lin, Robert Lowe, Reinhard Madlener, Daire M. McCoy, Luis Mundaca, Tadj Oreszczyn, Steven Sorrell, David Stern, Kanako Tanaka, and Taoyuan Wei; https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/abs/10.1146/annurev-environ-012320-084937 Collaborative late-night show episodes about climate change; https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/23/arts/television/late-night-climate-change.html Many recent blog posts from Resources for the Future about fuel economy standards, machine learning, smart thermostats, and the Clean Electricity Performance Program on the Resources website; https://www.resources.org/

Illinois’s Illuminating and Ambitious Power Plan, with Gilbert Michaud Oct 03, 2021

Show notes

In this week’s episode, host Daniel Raimi talks with Gilbert Michaud, an assistant professor at Loyola University Chicago. Michaud is an expert on the power sector and economic development, and he discusses a new state law in Illinois called the Climate and Equitable Jobs Act. The bill aims to eliminate greenhouse gas emissions from the power sector by mid-century and includes other provisions to help make the state’s energy transition more equitable. References and recommendations: Captain Planet television show; https://captainplanetfoundation.org/about/captain-planet-the-planeteers-legacy/ The Energy Gang podcast; https://www.greentechmedia.com/podcast/the-energy-gang “Incorporating equity in the clean energy economic development landscape” with Gilbert Michaud on the Solar for All podcast; https://solarforall.show/podcast/gilbert-michaud “Illinois’s brilliant new climate, jobs, and justice bill” by David Roberts in the Volts newsletter; https://www.volts.wtf/p/illinois-brilliant-new-climate-jobs

Bridging the Data Gap in Oil and Gas Methane Emissions, with Arvind Ravikumar Sep 27, 2021

Show notes

In this week’s episode, host Daniel Raimi talks with Arvind Ravikumar, an associate professor at the Hildebrand Department of Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin. Ravikumar is a leading researcher on the topic of methane emissions from oil and gas systems; he recently coauthored a paper demonstrating how the US Environmental Protection Agency can better account for these emissions, which are notoriously hard to measure. Ravikumar and Raimi discuss federal policies that are designed to reduce methane emissions, along with the voluntary commitments made by some companies recently to do just that. References and recommendations: “Closing the methane gap in US oil and natural gas production emissions inventories” by Jeffrey S. Rutherford, Evan D. Sherwin, Arvind P. Ravikumar, Garvin A. Heath, Jacob Englander, Daniel Cooley, David Lyon, Mark Omara, Quinn Langfitt, and Adam R. Brandt; https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-25017-4 Comprehensive news coverage of Hurricane Ida in the Times-Picayune; https://www.nola.com/ “At least 350 oil and chemical spills reported in Louisiana waters after Hurricane Ida” by Tristan Baurick; https://www.nola.com/news/environment/article_133c6d96-0f32-11ec-9642-0fb29acbbdba.html The India Energy Hour podcast; https://www.101reporters.com/podcast/The_India_Energy_Hour “What do we hope to find when we look for a snow leopard?” by Kathryne Schulz; https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/07/12/what-do-we-hope-to-find-when-we-look-for-a-snow-leopard

Financing the Energy Transition around the World, with Afsaneh Beschloss Sep 20, 2021

Show notes

In this week’s episode, host Daniel Raimi talks with Afsaneh Beschloss, founder and CEO of RockCreek Group. Before founding RockCreek, Beschloss worked with the World Bank and other financial institutions to develop energy projects around the world. As pressure mounts on banks to move away from fossil fuels, Beschloss and Raimi discuss the special role of multilateral development banks in the transition to clean energy. They also talk about recent guidance from the US Treasury Department that seeks to curb fossil fuel financing at these institutions, and what it all means for the future. References and recommendations: “They Knew: The US Federal Governments Fifty-Year Role in Causing the Climate Crisis” by James Gustave Speth; https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/they-knew

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