The Climate Pod

Latest Episodes:

COP26: The Need For Clean Energy Now (w/ Rep. Sean Casten) Nov 04, 2021

Show notes

On this installment of our series, The Road To COP26 Presented By Octopus Energy, we welcome back Rep. Sean Casten to the show to discuss what global solutions we need to accelerate the adoption of clean energy and what needs to be accomplished at COP26 to help make it happen. We also talk about the obstacles facing the world's clean energy transition - from fossil fuel subsidies and misinformation across the globe to inaction in Congress at home - and what the state of U.S. domestic policy means for the world's ability to decarbonize. Finally, we discuss Rep. Casten's successful #HotFERCSummer campaign and why he wanted to shed spotlight on this crucial regulatory commission.

Co-hosts Ty Benefiel and Brock Benefiel also discuss the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero and why governments and financial institutions need to quit funding and subsidizing fossil fuels if they want an inhabitable planet.

Thank you to our sponsor Octopus Energy, a 100% renewable electricity supplier. Octopus Energy is currently serving millions of homes around the globe in countries like the United Kingdom, United States, New Zealand, and Germany.

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As always, follow us @climatepod on Twitter and email us at theclimatepod@gmail.com. Our music is "Gotta Get Up" by The Passion Hifi, check out his music at thepassionhifi.com. Rate, review and subscribe to this podcast on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, and more! Subscribe to our new YouTube channel! Join our Facebook group. Check out our updated website!

Further Reading:

COP26: World leaders promise to end deforestation by 2030

COP26: Can World Leaders Stabilize The Climate? (w/ The Economist's Oliver Morton) Nov 02, 2021

Show notes

On this installment of our series, The Road To COP26 Presented By Octopus Energy, we look at the big picture of the climate crisis with The Economist's Oliver Morton to talk about their latest Special Report "Stabilising the climate." We go in-depth on the state of the crisis, greenhouse gas emissions, and what it will take to hit the goals set out in the Paris Agreement almost 6 years ago as we arrive at the second day of the World Leader's Summit. We discuss the realities world leaders face with the economics of clean energy, how the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) committed to in the Paris Agreement are measuring up, and the hurdles countries may face trying to achieve negative emissions.

Co-hosts Ty Benefiel and Brock Benefiel also react President Joe Biden's speech at COP26 and Sen. Joe Manchin's reaction to it and discuss the WMO's "State of Climate in 2021: Extreme events and major impacts" report.

Oliver Morton is an award-winning science writer and editor, author of multiple books including most recently 2019's The Moon: A History for the Future. The Economist's "To a lesser degree" podcast on climate change.

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What's At Stake At COP26? (w/ Time's Justin Worland) Nov 01, 2021

Show notes

On this installment of our series, The Road To COP26 Presented By Octopus Energy, we kickoff our two week special coverage of COP26 in Glasgow with Time Magazine's Justin Worland, senior correspondent covering climate change, about what to expect from this year's critical United Nation's conference on climate change. Justin explains the biggest issues on the table at this year's negotiations, why this year's conference is a big test for multilateralism, and what it's like to be in Glasgow during the meetings. He also talks about his recent piece "The Diplomat: John Kerry Brings America Back To The Climate Fight" and what COP26 could mean for the legacy of the US Special Presidential Envoy on Climate.

Co-hosts Ty Benefiel and Brock Benefiel also react to COP26 President Alok Sharma's kickoff press conference and discuss the stakes for world leaders as they gather for the opening days as the conference begins with a rocky start.

Subscribe to Time Magazine's Climate Newsletter

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Further Reading:

The COP26 Climate Talks Are Opening. Here's What to Expect.

Climate finance for poor countries to hit $100bn target by 2023, says report

Bad weather causes delays on train routes to Glasgow Cop26 talks

Halloween Special: Frankenstein And Climate Change (w/ Michael Wysession) Oct 30, 2021

Show notes

We're mixing it up for this episode to celebrate our favorite spooky holiday with an exceptional guest that gives us the very real climate-related inspiration behind Mary Shelley's classic Frankenstein. Dr. Michael Wysession, Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, talks about his 2018 essay "Frankenstein Meets Climate Change: Monsters of Our Own Making" and explains how not only was the story influenced by a brief period of extreme climate change, but it also provides many parallels to the climate crisis we're facing today.

Listen to last year's Halloween episode "Sea Fever" Is A Nightmare Climate Allegory (w/ Director Neasa Hardiman)

Subscribe to our Substack newsletter "The Climate Weekly": https://theclimateweekly.substack.com/

Jane Goodall On COP26 And Using Hope To Inspire Climate Action Oct 27, 2021

Show notes

On this installment of our series, The Road To COP26 Presented By Octopus Energy, Dr. Jane Goodall, the legendary primatologist and anthropologist, joins the show to discuss why she wanted to serve as a COP26 Advocate, how everyone can get involved to fight climate change and the destruction of the natural world, and what she's learned over the course of her life and work that gives her hope for a better future. Dr. Goodall is the founder of the Jane Goodall Institute and the organization Roots & Shoots. Most recently, she is the author of The Book of Hope: A Survival Guide for Trying Times.

Subscribe to our Substack newsletter "The Climate Weekly": https://theclimateweekly.substack.com/

The Climate Chaos Of Ancient Civilizations (w/ Brian Fagan) Oct 20, 2021

Show notes

How did our ancestors handle catastrophic changes to their climate? Brian Fagan has been researching that very question for decades. As one of the world's leading archaeological writers and recognized authorities on world prehistory, he has put together several great works on ancient climate change including the New York Times bestseller The Great Warming. Now, he's co-authored a new book Climate Chaos: Lessons on Survival from Our Ancestors with Cambridge University-trained archaeologist and writer Nadia Durrani. In this conversation with Fagan, we explore how ancient civilizations - from the Roman Emperors to Egyptian Pharaohs and many more - dealt with extreme environmental shifts and why climate change caused so many civilizations to eventually collapse. We explore the droughts, volcanoes, glacial melts, and other climate calamities that felled once-mighty civilizations and what we can learn from their example to lead us in our decisions today.

Brian Fagan is a Distinguished Emeritus Professor of Anthropology at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Buy Climate Chaos: Lessons on Survival from Our Ancestors

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How To Electrify Everything (w/ Saul Griffith) Oct 13, 2021

Show notes

This week, Saul Griffith joins the show to talk about his new book Electrify: An Optimists Playbook for Our Clean Energy Future. Saul is the co-founder and Chief Scientist of Rewiring America, a non-profit dedicated to widespread electrification and decarbonization. We discuss how replacing or adding just a handful of products in our homes and our businesses can help transform and decarbonize our electricity grid, making us all healthier and saving us money at the same time.

Brock and Ty also discuss the "People vs. Fossil Fuels" protests happening in front of the White House.

Check out Rewiring America

Check out Saul's Sankey diagram of America's energy use

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Will We Decarbonize Transportation Fast Enough? (w/ National Geographic's Craig Welch and Sam Howe Verhovek) Oct 06, 2021

Show notes

This week, we look into the future of decarbonizing transportation with two great writers featured in National Geographic's October cover story on the issue. First, Craig Welch talks about his piece "The Future of Driving is here - and it's Electric" that examines the car industry and how quickly the electric vehicle market is developing all around the world. Second, Sam Howe Verhovek joined the show to discuss his article "How Green Can We Make Air Travel? And How Soon?" Sam outlines the problems the airline industry is facing as it tries to decarbonize and the future technologies that might hold the key.

Subscribe to our Substack newsletter "The Climate Weekly": https://theclimateweekly.substack.com/

How Climate Change Worsens Droughts and Wildfires (w/ Dr. Park Williams) Sep 29, 2021

Show notes

This week, we take a deep dive into how climate change is exacerbating extreme droughts and accelerating wildfires with bioclimatologist Park Williams. Dr. Williams is an associate professor at UCLA's Department of Geography. His particular expertise in the causes and consequences of drought guides us through a wide-ranging conversation on the transformative changes we are seeing in the American West as temperatures rise and how we should adapt to a future of more frequent droughts and dangerous wildfires. Dr. Williams is the recent co-author of the paper, "Uncertainties, Limits, and Benefits of Climate Change Mitigation for Soil Moisture Drought in Southwestern North America," and he explains the biggest findings of the research, how bad drought has been over the past two decades, and how this compares to historic megadroughts.

You can learn more about Dr. Williams and his research at his website here.

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