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
What does a utopian second-generation Direct Air Capture (DAC) system look like, and how does it differ from what we have now?
In this engaging episode of Reversing Climate Change, Ross and Siobhan have a very frank and honest discussion with Sampo Tukiainen, a farmer, apiarist, meditator, rifleman and the CEO of C-Fix, a second-generation #directaircapture company that wants to do it all. After a brief intro to #DAC, they discuss the energy consumption of current facilities, and how second-generation technology offers potential energy savings compared to the energy-intensive first-generation methods.
Would DAC with co-benefits be unstoppable? Probably. Sampo imagines a DAC facility that also addresses water scarcity, provides agricultural resources, and stores carbon dioxide onsite. Learn how Sampo balances his CDR career with his passion for farming, riflery, meditation and family. Hear his frank thoughts on the challenges of building a CDR company when there is conflict.
By the end of the episode, listeners gain a deeper understanding of the possibilities offered by second-generation DAC and the importance of incorporating co-benefits into the system.
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This episode's page on the web: https://www.rosskenyon.com/p/s3e44-is-it-time-for-second-generation-d4d
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
Making decisions for your garden and yard is often a yearly exercise. But for long-lived perennials, you need to start thinking about how climate change is going to impact your region. But don't start loading up on olive trees just yet...
Today on the Reversing Climate Change podcast, Sally Morgan, coauthor of The Climate Change Garden: Down to Earth Advice for Growing a Resilient Garden, teaches host Ross Kenyon about how to cope with a simultaneously drier and wetter world. What happens when temperate zones become Mediterranean? And what happens to zones already Mediterranean?!
Tune in this week to get your mind working on gardening in a climate-changed future.
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Sally's Instagram (for ducks!)
The Climate Change Garden: Down to Earth Advice for Growing a Resilient Garden
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This episode's page on the web: https://www.rosskenyon.com/p/s3e43-how-to-get-your-garden-ready-f66
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 episode, Ross and Siobhan are joined by Ongeleigh Underwood and Nikki Batchelor to delve into the newly released report from the Circular Carbon Network, an initiative of XPRIZE. The report provides valuable insights into the state of the Circular Carbon Market, addressing crucial questions such as who is building Carbon Dioxide Removal (CDR) projects and who is funding them.
The conversation explores the role of XPRIZE in fostering market growth and collaboration, and examines how companies have evolved since the last carbon-focused XPRIZE, which is when the report started gathering data. Ongeleigh and Nikki shed light on the partnerships formed by companies to complete the carbon removal process and discuss whether Direct Air Capture (DAC) is having a moment.
Listeners gain valuable insights into the current state of the market, funding trends, technological advancements, and the role played by XPRIZE in driving innovation. If you haven’t yet, read the full report here!
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Circular Carbon Network’s state of the market report 2022
$100 million prize for carbon removal
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This episode's page on the web: https://www.rosskenyon.com/p/s3e42-carbon-removal-funding-and-606
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
Beast and Cleaver, a butcher shop and charcuterie in Seattle, is on a mission to elevate the craft of butchery to true artistry. They want you to eat meat of higher quality, and yes, less of it.
On this episode of Reversing Climate Change, the founder of Beast and Cleaver, Kevin Smith, joins Ross to discuss his butcher shop’s unique approach to localized meat production in a carbon heavy industry.
Have you heard the expression “it’s the how, not the cow”? That very much reflects Beast and Cleaver’s ethos. With more and more people eating meat globally as they gain access to financial means, the details of meat production become incredibly important. Part of the good news is that American consumers are increasingly interested in Old World food traditions of pâté and offal rather than merely prestige cuts, and even things like aspic that went deeply out of fashion decades ago are seemingly making a foodie comeback.
Kevin and Ross discuss the perception that major factory meat producers like Tyson and Smithfield Foods are incredibly efficient at using all parts of the animal. But are they in comparison to local, small-scale operations like Beast and Cleaver? They also discuss the challenges of running an artisanal meat business and how they are working to educate consumers about the benefits of sustainable meat production.
So if you're in the Seattle area and are a meat-eater (and enjoy classical charcuterie), be sure to check out Beast and Cleaver and get yourself a slice of pâté en croûte! Listen to the full episode to learn more about their innovative approach to localized meat production and learn how to possibly indulge with respect and care on your plate.
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Global meat consumption increasing
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This episode's page on the web: https://www.rosskenyon.com/p/s3e41-whole-animal-butchery-nose-30a
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
PlantVillage won the Carbon XPRIZE milestone award in 2022, and was awarded one million dollars. It aims to lift 200 million African farming families out of poverty. They are working to capture and sell a billion tonnes of carbon per year using biochar sequestration by integrating trees with crops on farms and using lumber for biochar.
So what exactly is happening on the ground with biochar? And can we solve today's problems with the mindset that helped create them?
In today's Reversing Climate Change podcast, Dr. David Hughes, the Huck Chair in Global Food Security at Penn State University and Director of USAID Innovation Lab on Current and Emerging Threats to Crops, Founder of PlantVillage & Carbon4Good, describes how this program avoids middlemen and gets farmers paid directly for making biochar, how biochar improves soil health and provides additional income, and how the technique represents both climate adaptation, and mitigation.
David also goes on to fit biochar and soil health into the broader context of the global climate fight, international economics, and climate justice.
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This episode's page on the web: https://www.rosskenyon.com/p/s3e40-plantvillage-is-working-to-760
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 goes into the making of a carbon removal meme? How many pitches does it take before magic comes out? Why do some many captions end up as emojis?!Nori's Memelab: Ross Kenyon, Siobhan Montoya Lavender, and Asa Kamer film their writer's room meeting on a lark to show how we go from a notion to something we think worthy of sharing with our community. Listen in to learn more, and also, respond to the survey in this episode to let us know if you like video podcasts, meme shows, etc. It is an experiment! Thanks for hanging with us.
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This episode's page on the web: https://www.rosskenyon.com/p/a-spotify-video-podcast-what-goes-24b
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
CarbonCapture is looking to build a large-scale direct air capture facility in Rock Springs, Wyoming, a town with deep roots in the coal industry.
And last fall, the company invited the community to a town hall event to learn more about the initiative, known as Project Bison, and its aim to remove five million tonnes of CO2 annually by 2030.
How did the people react to CarbonCapture’s plans? And what can the carbon removal industry learn from events like this?
Nicholas Kusnetz is an award-winning reporter for Inside Climate News. His work has appeared in more than a dozen publications, including The Washington Post, Business Week, and The New York Times.
On this episode of Reversing Climate Change, Nicholas joins guest hosts Asa Kamer and Siobhan Montoya Lavendar to discuss his December 2022 piece on CarbonCapture Inc’s Project Bison.
Nicholas discusses what CarbonCapture’s town hall event was like, describing the wide range of people who attended, and what questions they had for the presenter.
Listen in for Nicholas’ insight into other DAC projects taking place in fossil fuel country around the US and learn about the local tradeoffs facing communities at carbon capture sites.
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Nicholas at Inside Climate News
Nicholas’ Series—Pipe Dreams: Is Carbon Capture a Climate Solution or a Dangerous Distraction?
CarbonCapture Inc’s Project Bison
Wyoming Law to Encourage Carbon Capture at Coal Plants
Powder River Basin Resource Council
Exxon’s Proposed DAC Hubs in the Gulf
Resources
This episode's page on the web: https://www.rosskenyon.com/p/s3e39-wyomings-project-bison-carbon-a00
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
A massive amount of seaweed known as the Great Atlantic Sargassum Belt is growing as a response to climate change. To date, it has expanded to a width twice that of the United States.
When sargassum reaches the coast, it causes human health problems, destroys ecosystems, and wipes out tourism, usually in communities that don’t have the resources to combat the issue.
So, what can we do to prevent these destructive seaweed blobs from reaching coastal regions and remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere in the process?
Patricia Estridge and Mike Allen serve as CEO and Chief Science Officer, respectively, at Seaweed Generation, a startup using robotics and seaweed to fight climate change.
On this episode of Reversing Climate Change, Patricia and Mike join Ross, Siobhan, and Asa to explain how their technology, a Pac-Man meets Roomba meets WALL-E style robot, collects seaweed and sinks it in the deep sea.
Patricia and Mike discuss Seaweed Generation’s pilot project with Antigua, describing the advantage their process may have over other methods of carbon removal and how they’ve been received by the community there.
Listen in for insight around the growing acceptance of open-systems pathways for carbon removal and learn how you can get involved in helping Seaweed Generation tackle the sargassum problem around the world.
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A Small Place by Jamaica Kincaid
‘Leveling the Playing Field for Open-System Carbon Removal’ by Dai Ellis & John Sanchez
‘Quantification Uncertainty and Discounting’ by Dai Ellis & John Sanchez
Patricia’s Interview with Mike on the Seaweed Generation Podcast
Resources
This episode's page on the web: https://www.rosskenyon.com/p/wide-sargassum-sea-and-carbon-removal-74b
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
A lot of sci-fi writing focused on climate is high literary fiction, which means it’s filled with allusion and often difficult to understand.
So, why don’t authors take on climate fiction as a serialized genre like detective novels, zombie books or erotica?
Is there a way to make climate fiction more playful without making light of climate change as a global issue?
Daniel Backer is the novelist and literature educator behind Off the Wall Novels and the author of Abraham and Lionel Lancet and the Right Vibe.
On this episode of Reversing Climate Change, Daniel joins Ross to explore postmodern and metamodern literature, explaining the postmodern idea that myths guide our decision-making but also make us human.
Daniel helps us make sense of Thomas Pynchon’s The Crying of Lot 49, discussing how it plays on the detective genre and why we find comfort in the familiarity of literary conventions.
Listen in for Daniel’s take on how literature, at its best, comes from a place of character and learn how a writer might personalize the problem of climate change.
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The Ministry for the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson
The Illuminatus Trilogy by Robert Anton Wilson
On Truth and Lies in a Nonmoral Sense by Friedrich Nietzsche
The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon
Hamlet 2: The Creative Process
Resources
This episode's page on the web: https://www.rosskenyon.com/p/s3e38-where-are-the-campy-cli-fi-0bb
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
For people living in affluent parts of the world in the 21st century, we are used to preserving food by way of refrigeration.
But this technique is quite new when you consider that people have been preserving food through fermentation for at least 10,000 years.
Our ancestors experimented with fermenting to make food more delicious, more easily digestible, and more stable for storage. And there are many reasons why you might want to learn the process yourself.
Sandor Ellix Katz is a well-known food writer and self-taught fermentation experimentalist. He is the author of several books, including The Art of Fermentation, Wild Fermentation, and The Revolution will Not Be Microwaved.
On this episode of Reversing Climate Change, Sandor joins Ross to explore the practical benefits of fermentation and explain how our disconnection from food systems contributes to our destruction of the environment.
Sandor explains why it’s valuable to maintain the cultural wisdom around preserving food through fermentation and how our health might improve if we relied less on refrigeration and more on fermenting.
Listen in for Sandor’s insight on the tradeoffs between pure culture starters versus wild fermentation and learn how to take the first steps in learning fermentation—and why it’s easier than you think!
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Fermentation As Metaphor by Sandor Ellix Katz
Wild Fermentation: The Flavor, Nutrition and Craft of Live-Culture Foods by Sandor Ellix Katz
Fermentation Journeys: Recipes, Techniques and Traditions from Around the World by Sandor Ellix Katz
Resources
This episode's page on the web: https://www.rosskenyon.com/p/s3e37-sandor-katz-on-fermented-foods-da2
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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