Stay ConnectedReversing Climate Change is a podcast about carbon removal and climatetech that keeps wandering off into literature, history, philosophy, theology, and geopolitics on the theory that the technical and scientific questions stop making much sense without them. Hosted by Ross Kenyon, who did not go past a year of political philosophy PhD coursework and has visibly not let it go.
Paid subscriptions live on Substack @ https://rosskenyon.com.
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Copyright: © Nori
Forget merely about melting polar ice caps—expansion of deadly diseases is possibly the true Pandora’s Box that climate change is rapidly opening.
In this episode of Reversing Climate Change, host Ross Kenyon is rejoined by Zoya Teirstein, staff writer at Grist, to discuss the intricate and chilling intersection of climate change and disease.
The way Zoya puts it, climate change is taking the Earth and shaking it like a snowglobe: pathogens are meeting up in new configurations and wreaking havoc. She covers these proliferating diseases and their connection to climate change in her timely beat at Grist.
Learn how bacteria is traveling up the coast due to warming temperatures - accessing geographies where doctors are not familiar and not prepared to deal with the resulting, often fatal, illnesses.
Beyond the rising temperatures creating breeding grounds for deadly mosquitoes, and disrupted ecosystems with unpredictable consequences, the episode explores the challenging discussions around managed retreat and adaptation.
While the threat of mass death from heat waves exceeds critical thresholds, the conversation also unveils rays of hope—community resilience, the potential for preventable deaths through early action, and the ultimate cure lying in reversing climate change.
This critical wake-up call and call to action underscore the urgency of addressing the disease dilemmas caused by climate change. Share, discuss, and unite in the fight for a healthier planet.
Connect with Nori
Carbon Removal Memes on Instagram
Resources
The New York Times article on oyster-related deaths
Wet Bulb Temperatures, National Weather Service
Zoya Teirstein’s previous Reversing Climate Change episode
Boots on the Ground article
Resources
This episode's page on the web: https://www.rosskenyon.com/p/s3e64-disease-and-health-risks-of-fc7
Subscribe to the Reversing Climate Change Substack: https://www.rosskenyon.com/subscribe
Books from the show, at Bookshop: https://bookshop.org/shop/reversing-climate-change
My other show, Climate Workers Anonymous: https://www.climateworkersanonymous.com
"I won't be able to live with the realization that I could have done more and I didn't."
In this episode of Reversing Climate Change, host Ross Kenyon engages in a candid conversation with Ed Begley, Jr., a seasoned environmental activist and Hollywood actor. Unpacking his Hollywood journey and introducing his memoir, To the Temple of Tranquility and Step on It!, Ed provides a humorous yet insightful look into his life and passion for the environment.
Ed's unique perspective on climate change, shaped by his experiences with addiction and an intense pursuit of the low-carbon lifestyle, becomes a focal point as he explores the healing power of honesty, both personally and globally.
What is the role of personal action? Find out how Ed has learned over the years that a 'tripod approach' is critical to moving the needle on actionable change. What should the balance be between mindfulness and standing still vs. anger and activism? Balancing seriousness with a touch of humor, Ed and Ross discuss the role of laughter in climate change activism.
Tune in to glimpse the joy of living a low carbon life from the Zelig/Forrest Gump of Hollywood.
Connect with Nori
Carbon Removal Memes on Instagram
Resources
To the Temple of Tranquility...And Step On It!: A Memoir by Ed Begley, Jr.
This Is It: and Other Essays on Zen and the Spiritual Experience by Alan Watts
The Book: On the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are by Alan Watts
Matt Stone & Trey Parker’s animated lectures of Alan Watts
Begley’s Best non-toxic products
Act On DemandWater Heating
Resources
This episode's page on the web: https://www.rosskenyon.com/p/s3e63-radical-honesty-and-alan-watts-553
Subscribe to the Reversing Climate Change Substack: https://www.rosskenyon.com/subscribe
Books from the show, at Bookshop: https://bookshop.org/shop/reversing-climate-change
My other show, Climate Workers Anonymous: https://www.climateworkersanonymous.com
Can a tiny life be meaningful?For this Thanksgiving Day episode of Reversing Climate Change, join us for stories about food, family, connection, and love.Ross reaches across the pond to speak with Helen Rebanks, farmer, shepherd, and author of The Farmer's Wife: My Life in Days. She is the wife of another farmer, James Rebanks, author of The Shepherd's Life: Modern Dispatches from an Ancient Landscape, and Pastoral Song: A Farmer’s Journey, and each of them are personally prominent in the books of the other!From the serene and rugged Lake District in England, Helen shares the unique experience of life on their family farm, emphasizing the intrinsic value of domesticity amid the prevailing focus on individualism in modern society.Learn how Helen views regenerative shepherding methods, such as mob grazing, and their collaborative harmony with nature. What role does she believe local, organic, regenerative, traditional, and sustainable agriculture can play in empowering farmers as heroes in the fight against climate change?Helen's insights extend to the realm of cooking and food production, advocating for a departure from the industrial food system. What power do consumers, especially parents, hold in influencing the food industry and shaping a more sustainable future?
Tune in for a glimpse into a tiny life, and to discover the importance and value of the mundane.
Connect with Nori
Carbon Removal Memes on Instagram
Resources
The Farmer's Wife: My Life in Days by Helen Rebanks
The Shepherd's Life: Modern Dispatches from an Ancient Landscape by James Rebanks
Farm Carbon Toolkit
Pastoral Song: A Farmer’s Journey by James Rebanks
Helen on Instagram
Michael Pollan
Resources
This episode's page on the web: https://www.rosskenyon.com/p/s3e62-the-subtle-beauty-of-a-tiny-ea6
Subscribe to the Reversing Climate Change Substack: https://www.rosskenyon.com/subscribe
Books from the show, at Bookshop: https://bookshop.org/shop/reversing-climate-change
My other show, Climate Workers Anonymous: https://www.climateworkersanonymous.com
Starbucks is finding new mountains to grow coffee on, agribusiness is developing drought resistant seeds, and the governments are building seawalls. So what can individuals and families do to adapt themselves?!
This week Ross is joined by David Pogue, CBS News Sunday Morning correspondent, former New York Times weekly tech columnist, and author of How to Prepare for Climate Change: A Practical Guide to Surviving the Chaos.
How do we adapt to the safety risks of major disasters? Should we embrace firearm ownership for when society breaks down? Or is a tactical flashlight a better idea? How much food and water should you have in your cellar?
Ross and David discuss the ins and outs of climate adaptation: maybe you shouldn’t be where you are… If you have a choice, there are some climate geographies much more resilient than others (hint: here comes the Rust Belt renaissance and the Midwest’s time to shine.)
The conversation delves into the psychology of adaptation: certain demographics are not yet ready to admit that the planet is radically changing, while 40% of middle schoolers are now convinced that the world will end in their lifetime. Will adaptive actions actually make us feel better about the climate future?
Tune into this episode to learn what you can be doing to adapt to climate change and to learn which state is the most flooded (another hint: it’s not on the coast), why disease may be the most underrated climate risk out there, how the climate-concerned may invest, and how you can talk to your children about climate adaptation.
Connect with Nori
Carbon Removal Memes on Instagram
Resources
How to Prepare for Climate Change book
National Flood Insurance Program
Resources
This episode's page on the web: https://www.rosskenyon.com/p/s3e61-climate-prepping-how-should-e8a
Subscribe to the Reversing Climate Change Substack: https://www.rosskenyon.com/subscribe
Books from the show, at Bookshop: https://bookshop.org/shop/reversing-climate-change
My other show, Climate Workers Anonymous: https://www.climateworkersanonymous.com
Do carbon credit ratings help or harm the growth of carbon markets? How important is standardization to liquidity? Should we look to lessons from the bond market? Equities? Commodities? Derivatives? Precious metals? Real estate?! Get ready to go full high finance — it’s a show about market structure.
In this episode, Reversing Climate Change’s host and Nori Co-founder Ross Kenyon is joined by Tommy Ricketts, CEO and Co-founder of BeZero Carbon, a carbon credit ratings agency, and Matt Trudeau, the CEO of Nori, for a friendly debate about how the industry rates and prices carbon credits.
What do you do with heterogeneous credits? And what is the overall price of carbon — what is the price-setting instrument? Should or could there be an idealized financial instrument that represents a tonne of perfect carbon removal? What does this unlock? What might it obscure?
The discussion revolves around the vital role of project-level quality in the carbon market and the significance of a risk-based approach. Tommy sheds light on the creation of BeZero Carbon and its mission to distinguish the quality of carbon credits. The conversation underscores the potential growth constraints of striving for perfection in carbon markets. The trio explore the evolving landscape of carbon credit markets, the possibility of governmental intervention, and the role of private capital in fueling climate-positive projects.
Tune in to tickle the market structure nerd in your heart you didn’t know existed.
Connect with Nori
Carbon Removal Memes on Instagram
Resources
Tommy’s article that inspired the show, “Carbon isn’t just another commodity market”
Matt’s response, “Commodities markets and the financialization of carbon”
Matt writing on buffer pools for VCM
Resources
This episode's page on the web: https://www.rosskenyon.com/p/s3e60-are-carbon-credits-more-like-84a
Subscribe to the Reversing Climate Change Substack: https://www.rosskenyon.com/subscribe
Books from the show, at Bookshop: https://bookshop.org/shop/reversing-climate-change
My other show, Climate Workers Anonymous: https://www.climateworkersanonymous.com
Is hunting on the brink of extinction? Is that a good or a bad thing?
In this episode, we delve into the intricate connection between the art of hunting and our profound relationship with the natural world. Our is guest Bruce McGlenn, Founder and Lead Instructor of Human Nature Hunting—a program that, as Bruces describes it, is fundamentally and foremost about helping people reconnect or strengthen their connection to nature through hunting.
By delving into the immersive process of the hunt, we uncover the journey's transformative impact, from meticulous planning to profound reconnection with the environment.
Bruce sheds light on the intersections between veganism and hunting, emphasizing the shared commitment to minimizing animal suffering and aversion to conventional factory farming. The episode culminates with a reflection on the spiritual significance of acknowledging the sacrifice inherent in our sustenance, prompting listeners to contemplate their role within the delicate balance of nature.
Connect with Nori
Carbon Removal Memes on Instagram
Resources
Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer
A Sand County Almanac by Aldo Leopold
Wolf Reintroduction in Yosemite
S2E53: Paul Kingsnorth on the shared roots of climate crisis, transhumanism, & immortality
S2E64: How to Be Animal: a guide for confused humans—w/ Melanie Challenger, author
Here is the quote from Kahlil Gibran's The Prophet:
Then an old man, a keeper of an inn, said,
Speak to us of Eating and Drinking.
And he said:
Would that you could live on the fragrance of the earth, and like an air
plant be sustained by the light.
But since you must kill to eat, and rob the newly born of its mother’s milk to
quench your thirst, let it then be an act of worship,
And let your board stand an altar on which the pure and the innocent of
forest and plain are sacrificed for that which is purer and still more innocent
in man.
When you kill a beast say to him in your heart,
“By the same power that slays you, I too am slain; and I too shall be consumed.
For the law that delivered you into my hand shall deliver me into a mightier
hand.
Your blood and my blood is naught but the sap that feeds the tree of heaven.”
And when you crush an apple with your teeth, say to it in your heart,
“Your seeds shall live in my body,
And the buds of your tomorrow shall blossom in my heart,
And your fragrance shall be my breath,
And together we shall rejoice through all the seasons.”
And in the autumn, when you gather the grapes of your vineyards for the
winepress, say in your heart,
“I too am a vineyard, and my fruit shall be gathered for the winepress,
And like new wine I shall be kept in eternal vessels.”
And in winter, when you draw the wine, let there be in your heart a song
for each cup;
And let there be in the song a remembrance for the autumn days, and for
the vineyard, and for the winepress.
Resources
This episode's page on the web: https://www.rosskenyon.com/p/s3e59-should-you-be-a-hunter-a-vegan-0fc
Subscribe to the Reversing Climate Change Substack: https://www.rosskenyon.com/subscribe
Books from the show, at Bookshop: https://bookshop.org/shop/reversing-climate-change
My other show, Climate Workers Anonymous: https://www.climateworkersanonymous.com
What if you bought carbon removal, not as an offset, but rather as a gift?
This week we sat down with the founding team at Thanks a Ton (Laura Katayama, Tessaria Mihangel, and our own Siobhan Montoya Lavender), a carbon dioxide removal gifting startup on a mission to spread awareness about the burgeoning high-quality CDR industry.
“We take climate change very seriously, but try not to take ourselves too seriously” is a mantra the team lives by.
Thanks a Ton offers a platform where you can send the gift of carbon removal via a digital greeting card. Although the team admits that they are still circling product-market fit, they have had little problem securing high-quality project developers and have gotten a lot of attention for their fun-loving and often striking artwork.
In this episode we dive into this scrappy startup and the surprisingly robust platform they’ve built to engage non-insiders with carbon removal.
Connect with Nori
Carbon Removal Memes on Instagram
Resources
Thanks a Ton platform
Resources
This episode's page on the web: https://www.rosskenyon.com/p/s3e58-can-gifting-carbon-removal-35e
Subscribe to the Reversing Climate Change Substack: https://www.rosskenyon.com/subscribe
Books from the show, at Bookshop: https://bookshop.org/shop/reversing-climate-change
My other show, Climate Workers Anonymous: https://www.climateworkersanonymous.com
In this week’s episode, the name of the goal is not ‘net zero’, it’s regeneration. We’re joined by Paul Hawken: author of many books including Drawdown and Regeneration, activist, and entrepreneur to talk about the tools that he believes can end the climate crisis.
Paul takes us through the concept of "carbon tunnel syndrome," an overemphasis on carbon as a mere numerical figure, often favored by the tech industry. He also sheds light on the staggering statistic that less than 1% of the global population actively works on climate solutions. He also is quite skeptical that direct air capture will ever make energetic sense.
Throughout history, the climate movement has urged individuals to focus on future existential threats. However, Paul highlights a stark reality: over five billion people wake up every day preoccupied with current existential threats.
This episode serves as a stark reflection on the array of solutions within our grasp. It underscores the urgency of prioritizing Earth's regeneration and explores the intricate relationship between carbon removal and the broader climate solution landscape. Join us in this candid conversation about addressing the climate crisis head-on, and be sure to check out Paul’s new book Regeneration: Ending the Climate Crisis in One Generation.
Connect with Nori
Carbon Removal Memes on Instagram
Resources
Drawdown: The Most Comprehensive Plan Ever Proposed to Reverse Global Warming
Regeneration: Ending the Climate Crisis in One Generation
Resources
This episode's page on the web: https://www.rosskenyon.com/p/s3e57-is-direct-air-capture-an-energetic-7a2
Subscribe to the Reversing Climate Change Substack: https://www.rosskenyon.com/subscribe
Books from the show, at Bookshop: https://bookshop.org/shop/reversing-climate-change
My other show, Climate Workers Anonymous: https://www.climateworkersanonymous.com
Solar geoengineering. It's not just a question of whether or not to do it, but of how it might be done and why.
This week we are joined by Shuchi Talati, founder of The Alliance for Just Deliberation on Solar Geoengineering, to talk about who is making decisions about solar geoengineering and whether or not populations most vulnerable to climate change have a seat at the table.
Solar geoengineering or “Solar Radiation Modification/Management (SRM)” is the large-scale and intentional intervention to increase the amount of sunlight reflected back into space. The purpose is to temporarily limit temperature increase.
Shuchi walks us through why the Alliance is not for or against SRM, why refusing to discuss or research RSM is potentially an inherently privileged standpoint, and why she believes we should center voices from regions already experiencing horrific climate impacts.
Listen in to find out who is currently researching SRM, what the potential risks and benefits are, and how the Alliance plans to make such a controversial topic more open and accessible.
Connect with Nori
Carbon Removal Memes on Instagram
Resources
The Alliance for Just Deliberation on Solar Geoengineering
The Ministry for the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson
Resources
This episode's page on the web: https://www.rosskenyon.com/p/s3e56-could-there-be-a-just-solar-51d
Subscribe to the Reversing Climate Change Substack: https://www.rosskenyon.com/subscribe
Books from the show, at Bookshop: https://bookshop.org/shop/reversing-climate-change
My other show, Climate Workers Anonymous: https://www.climateworkersanonymous.com
Imagine a biomass substance that reduces our reliance on petroleum and deforestation for physical products. This is the vision of Hexas Biomass, a company that is developing new raw materials from sustainable sources. Their flagship product, XanoFiber, has been bred to possibly be(!) a #carbonnegative fiber that can be used to create a wide range of products, from clothing to building materials.
In this week's episode, Wendy Owens, CEO and Founder of Hexas Biomass, discusses the challenges and opportunities of integrating new raw materials into the existing supply chain. She introduces XanoFiber and its potential to revolutionize the way we produce and consume goods and materials.
Owens highlights the importance of using marginal lands for biomass production, which can help to avoid competition with farming. She also discusses why we still use trees for low-value commodity products, the potential of XanoGrass to outcompete tree farms, the gradual transition to a bioeconomy, and why we need to make use of the trillion dollars worth of manufacturing infrastructure that already exists.
This episode is a must-listen for anyone interested in learning more about the future of sustainable materials—enjoy!
Connect with Nori
Carbon Removal Memes on Instagram
Resources
Wendy’s previous Reversing Climate Change episode:84: Good Biomass, Bad Biomass: Giant Reed Edition—Wendy Owens of Hexas Biomass
Resources
This episode's page on the web: https://www.rosskenyon.com/p/s3e55-could-biomass-materials-science-820
Subscribe to the Reversing Climate Change Substack: https://www.rosskenyon.com/subscribe
Books from the show, at Bookshop: https://bookshop.org/shop/reversing-climate-change
My other show, Climate Workers Anonymous: https://www.climateworkersanonymous.com
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