Climate progress is stalling at the federal level, making local action more critical than ever. “In an increasingly urbanized world, cities must play the leading role in achieving our climate goals,” says San José Mayor Matt Mahan. But what does that look like in practice? What role can cities play in accelerating the transition to a fully electrified economy across all sectors? And how does he plan to secure funding in uncertain times? This conversation was recorded live as part of SF Climate W...
May 06, 2025•37 min
It’s so easy to spiral into a climate doom loop. But solutions to the crisis are out there! Even as federal action stalls, states, local organizers and innovators across the U.S. are charging ahead with climate progress. What responsibility does the media have in elevating the solutions that exist and are working? And how can artists help reframe the climate conversation and shift the narrative from foregone conclusion to a reimagining of what’s possible? This episode features conversations reco...
May 02, 2025•1 hr 1 min
Rep. Jared Huffman has represented California’s 2nd District — from the Golden Gate Bridge to the Oregon border — for over a decade. During that time, he has championed climate issues and fought to protect California’s public lands, prevent offshore drilling, pushed for financial institutions to divest from fossil fuels, and introduced legislation to tackle plastic pollution. Now, turmoil in the federal government is putting all those protections at risk. Advocating for climate action is pretty ...
Apr 29, 2025•48 min
Summer is coming soon, and for many that means vacation. While traveling far and wide can be an amazing experience, the carbon cost of traveling is significant. But what if we could rekindle a sense of awe in our own neighborhoods? After years of extreme expeditions all over the world, adventurer Alastair Humphreys spent a year exploring the detailed local map around his home. His new book “Local” is an ode to slowing down, as well as a rallying cry to protect the wild places on our doorstep. Gu...
Apr 25, 2025•58 min
On April 21, Pope Francis died at the age of 88. The Catholic Church's first Latin American pope was known for his humility and his efforts to make his religion more inclusive and welcoming around social issues like same-sex marriage. Pope Francis was also a climate leader. In honor of his passing, this bonus episode revisits a Climate One episode from 2015 that focused on the Pope's views on climate and humanity. Guests: Rev. Sally Bingham, Founder and President, Regeneration Project Paul Fitzg...
Apr 23, 2025•38 min
Since its creation under President Richard Nixon in 1970, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has worked to reduce pollution and toxic exposures to ensure that Americans have clean air, clean water and clean soil. The EPA has also sought to reduce emissions to address climate change. Now that the Trump administration is in power, the EPA is being threatened with a 65% reduction in their budget. In addition to EPA cuts, the newly created Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, is makin...
Apr 18, 2025•1 hr 2 min
More than 3 billion people rely on seafood as a primary source of animal protein. But waters are warming, and fish are moving. Are those fish, and the communities that have relied on them for centuries, in trouble? We go around the world, from the rocky shores of New England to the picturesque island of Niue, to investigate how three popular fish are doing. Along the way, we meet people who are protecting and regrowing these fish populations in different ways and learn about their challenges and...
Apr 11, 2025•58 min
In a previous Climate One episode, we discussed the good, the bad, and the ugly impacts of artificial intelligence. But AI isn’t going away. Humans rarely give up a nifty new tool unless something better comes along. AI’s share of energy consumption is enormous, and the Department of Energy estimates that data center energy demands will double or even triple in just the next three years. Demand on fresh water is at least as big and isn’t talked about nearly enough. So, what can we do to reduce A...
Apr 04, 2025•1 hr 3 min
It’s no secret that President Trump is not a fan of wind energy. As a matter of fact, he signed an executive order on his first day back in office that paused leasing for any new or renewed offshore wind energy projects and required the re-evaluation of all wind projects. This has thrown uncertainty into the entire industry, which already had supply chain and local opposition issues even before the new administration took office. Meanwhile, wind projects — especially offshore — have seen a decad...
Mar 28, 2025•1 hr 2 min
Catherine Coleman Flowers has dedicated her life to fighting for the most vulnerable communities — people who have been deprived of the basic civil right to a clean, safe and sustainable environment. When she was first on Climate One in 2021, Flowers talked about growing up in Lowndes County, Alabama, and working to stem the raw sewage contaminating homes and drinking water in her county and beyond. In recognition of this work she was granted a MacArthur “Genius Award.” Now, she picks up the sto...
Mar 21, 2025•59 min
A third of Americans say that they've skipped food, medicine, or something else to be able to afford their energy bills. Much of the increase in the cost of electricity is driven by rising demand from artificial intelligence and data centers, industrial onshoring and hotter temperatures. How does your electricity bill get calculated, and who’s in charge of setting those rates? Does public power serve consumers better than investor-owned utilities? And will rising electricity prices dampen the tr...
Mar 14, 2025•1 hr 3 min
Who’s responsible for climate change? Fossil fuel companies would like us to believe it’s all of us as individuals (after all, BP invented the idea of the personal carbon footprint). But many large corporations bear at least as much of the blame. And for a decade or so, there was a push for every company to disclose its own emissions — a kind of corporate carbon footprint — and “sustainability” became the word of the day. But corporate shareholders demand profits, and managers are held accountab...
Mar 07, 2025•1 hr 9 min
Energy Transfer Partners, the company behind the Dakota Access Pipeline, is suing Greenpeace for $300 million. The pipeline company accuses Greenpeace of criminal behavior — trespassing, vandalism, and assault of construction workers — and inciting riotous behavior by protesters at Standing Rock in 2016. Greenpeace considers this legal action to be a “SLAPP suit” — a Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation — aimed at silencing not just Greenpeace, but civil protests everywhere. The trial ...
Feb 28, 2025•1 hr 4 min
From hurricanes on the East Coast to wildfires in LA, to floods in Vermont and storms in Texas, communities across the U.S. are facing a growing number of intense and devastating disasters. There are significant disparities in who has the means to evacuate during a disaster and who has the resources to rebuild once the storm has passed. Long after the immediate impact, the challenges continue, with many left to navigate a slow, complex, and often confusing recovery process. As the harsh reality ...
Feb 21, 2025•1 hr 6 min
At this moment, the cheapest way to create electricity is by pointing a solar panel at the sun. That’s good news for the climate. It’s also good news for communities who want to take control of their own electricity generation. In the heart of Brooklyn, UPROSE is helping to build a solar project that will be owned by the community, provide jobs, and help residents bring down their energy costs. In Puerto Rico, where hurricanes have devastated the power grid, community members are building solar ...
Feb 14, 2025•1 hr 3 min
When individuals want to take action on climate, it’s often in the form of electrifying a home, voting, or maybe even traditional activism. Those are very important, but we often overlook how individual skills and talents can also make a difference. This week we’re highlighting creative forms of climate action. Pattie Gonia is a drag queen, environmentalist and advocate for inclusivity and diversity in the outdoors who struts their message through national parks, in Pride events, and through the...
Feb 07, 2025•58 min
The second Trump administration has hit the ground running. The president has signed a flurry of executive orders targeting everything from birthright citizenship to pulling out of the Paris Climate Accords. This is a far different moment from the first Trump term. The president is more focused, his team is more focused, and energy policy is at the top of their action list. However, the renewable energy market is also much more mature, and the transition away from fossil fuels has been accelerat...
Jan 31, 2025•1 hr 3 min
The wildfires ravaging Los Angeles have caused incredible destruction — loss of life, thousands of homes and businesses gone or damaged and hundreds of thousands of people displaced. While the scale and speed of these fires may feel unprecedented, the dry, fire-prone foothills around LA burn often. Yet increasingly we see wildfires spurred by climate factors including warmer temperatures and weather whiplash — cycles of heavy precipitation followed by extreme drought. This week we hear what clim...
Jan 24, 2025•1 hr 6 min
If we include personal cars, along with appliances like water heaters, stoves and furnaces, more than 40 percent of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions come from individuals at the home level. The good news: no matter where you live, there are steps you can take to make your home cleaner, healthier and more comfortable. And thanks to the Inflation Reduction Act, there’s now a raft of federal incentives to help homeowners electrify their lives. Electrification has even become a theme on long running ho...
Jan 17, 2025•1 hr 2 min
Every year we highlight the work of a scientist who excels in communicating their work to the world. Climate One is delighted to present the 2024 Stephen H. Schneider Award for Outstanding Climate Science Communication to political scientist and energy expert Leah Stokes. Her rare ability to communicate complex information to both academic audiences and the general public has established her as one of the most influential voices in climate action and clean energy policy. “What I've started to th...
Jan 10, 2025•1 hr
When most people hear the phrase renewable energy, they imagine fields full of solar panels or giant spinning wind turbines. But another source may be heating up: geothermal. Twenty years ago, it was thought that geothermal could provide at most 10% of any given area’s electricity, and only in very limited regions. There were also environmental concerns about depleting groundwater. But new technological advances may have unlocked the potential for scalable geothermal energy just about anywhere. ...
Jan 03, 2025•1 hr
Plastics are everywhere. And while we’ve known for a long time that plastics and our environment aren’t a good mix, it's becoming apparent that they’re massive climate polluters too. The production of plastics alone produces about 4% of global greenhouse gas emissions. After what is often a single use, the resulting waste continues releasing the greenhouse gasses ethylene and methane as it breaks apart. Yet, as petrochemical companies pay lip service ending fuel production, they are pouring reso...
Dec 27, 2024•1 hr
2024 set new records for extreme heat around the world in what is already the warmest decade on record. According to the World Meteorological Organization, sea-level rise and ocean heating are accelerating along with the loss of ice from glaciers. We continue to see extreme weather of all kinds wreak havoc on communities across the world. In spite of the growing disruption, countries continue to miss their self-imposed climate targets. And in November, the U.S. re-elected Donald Trump to the pre...
Dec 20, 2024•1 hr 7 min
For over a century, coal fueled much of the country and served as the economic backbone for many rural communities. But with the rise of more affordable wind and solar energy, coal is in decline, leaving these towns increasingly vulnerable. As jobs disappear, coal-dependent communities are faced with the threat of economic collapse and depopulation. To adapt, many are working to diversify their economies, seeking new industries and opportunities for the future. Today, we’ll visit coal communitie...
Dec 13, 2024•58 min
On the surface, climate policy couldn’t face a worse future than under a second Trump administration. As a candidate, Trump said on his first day back in office: “I want to drill, drill, drill.” So, what are environmental organizations, including those aligned with the Republican party, doing to keep making progress on addressing climate change? And what do Trump’s cabinet picks say about the incoming administration’s attitude toward energy policy? Guests: Abigail Dillen, President, Earthjustice...
Dec 06, 2024•58 min
Globally, one-third of food produced every year is wasted. That’s enough to feed about 2 billion people — twice the number of people who are undernourished. The global food system also accounts for a whopping one-third of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions. These two problems — waste and emissions — are intricately linked: Climate disruption exacerbates food insecurity. And industrial food production contributes to the climate crisis. When food is wasted, it’s also a waste of land, water and e...
Nov 29, 2024•59 min
Climate advocacy is a dangerous business. According to Global Witness, every week, somewhere in the world, between three and four environmental activists are killed. And even when they don’t suffer bodily harm, they are routinely arrested and jailed for speaking out. They are also sued in civil cases, bogging them down for years or even bankrupting them and their families. Each personal story in this episode is unique, but the physical threats and legal weapons fossil fuel companies and governme...
Nov 22, 2024•1 hr 4 min
For the third year in a row, the world’s most important climate conference is taking place in a country whose largest source of export revenue is fossil fuel. This year, over 190 countries are assembling in Baku, Azerbaijan. And despite nearly 30 years of pledges and promises, the UN’s recent Emissions Gap Report shows virtually every country failing to deliver on its promises. Ever since the Paris Agreement was signed at the 21st Conference of Parties (COP), the focus of this annual meeting has...
Nov 15, 2024•1 hr 3 min
When it comes to communicating climate science, weathercasters are uniquely positioned to connect the facts to viewers’ experiences. TV meteorologists are trusted members of their communities, and they’re often the only scientists the general public hears from regularly. How they communicate can shape public understanding and depoliticize a topic that has become disturbingly divisive. But in some parts of the country, politics continues to get in the way of the facts. So how do weathercasters ef...
Nov 08, 2024•1 hr
Artificial intelligence can do some pretty amazing things, including for the climate. AI can help optimize the electric grid, make heating and cooling buildings more efficient, and pinpoint exactly where greenhouse gas emissions are coming from all around the world. On the other hand, the energy use of AI is massive and growing. A recent study estimates that in just a few years, the extra energy needed will equal whole countries the size of Sweden or Argentina. How do we make sure the benefits o...
Nov 01, 2024•1 hr 1 min
