What’s the connection between climate change and national security? “Military commanders don't operate on the basis of fiction,” says Leon Panetta, who served as Secretary of Defense and Director of the CIA under President Obama. “Understanding climate change and what was happening had to be part and parcel of our effort to protect our security.” The military has long seen climate as critical to readiness, as Rear Admiral David Titley (Ret) explains. “If you’re directly connecting renewable ener...
Aug 17, 2018•52 min
California. Land of sunshine and seashore. In an effort to protect the state’s magnificent landscape, California has led the country in environmental action. It established strong automobile emission standards. It preserved fragile lands from development. But as climate change fuels megafires across the state and sea level rise threatens the coast, is California doing enough, fast enough? Huey Johnson Chair, Resource Renewal Institute Jason Mark Editor, Sierra Magazine David Vogel Author, Califo...
Aug 10, 2018•51 min
Production of animal protein is producing vast amounts of climate-eating gases. But a new generation of companies are creating innovative food products that mimic meat and have much smaller environmental impacts. Some of this mock meat is derived from plants with ingredients designed to replicate the taste and pleasure of chomping into a beef hamburger. Others are growing meat cells that come from a laboratory and not a cow. Will those options wean enough people from burgers and chicken wings to...
Aug 03, 2018•52 min
Can changing our consciousness hold off the climate apocalypse? When we think about the enormity of climate change and what it’s doing to our planet, it’s easy to get overwhelmed, even shut down, by despair. But is despair such a bad place to be? Or could it be the one thing that finally spurs us to action? A conversation about climate change, spirituality and the human condition in unsettling times. Guests: Roy Scranton, Author, "We're Doomed. Now What?" (Soho Press, 2018) Matthew Fox, Co-Autho...
Jul 27, 2018•52 min
Strategic Adviser for National Geographic, Andrew Revkin, has been writing about climate change since the 1980s, including 21 years for The New York Times. So what are some things he’s learned in those three decades? How has he learned to best tell the story? As New Yorker writer Elizabeth Kolbert knows all too well, covering climate change is journey that can be a challenge. “On some level it’s the worst story ever. It’s sort of everything and nothing and so finding the narrative is very, very ...
Jul 20, 2018•53 min
Electric scooters, skateboards and bicycles are popping up all over in cities all over the country. Ride-hailing companies are also moving to two wheels. Uber bought the bike sharing company Jump, and Lyft followed suit by scooping up Motivate, which operates bike sharing services in San Francisco, Boston, Chicago, New York and other cities. Is an electric skateboard company next? As companies jockey to offer a suite of transportation options what is the future of urban mobility? Are these new u...
Jul 12, 2018•52 min
When you think of climate activism, Wall Street doesn’t immediately come to mind. But as investors are coming to realize, they do have a voice – and a vote – when it comes to corporate environmental action. Responsible investing is a concept that’s been around for many years, but it’s only recently that companies have begun to take notice. And who’s driving that change? Shareholders. Greg Dalton talks with three experts about the ways that market forces can turn the ship, inspiring awareness, tr...
Jul 10, 2018•52 min
It’s a summer movie special as Climate One talks to the directors/producers of four recent documentaries that bring human drama to the climate story: Hillbilly, which explores the myths and realities of life in the Appalachian coalfields; My Country No More, the story of one rural community divided by the North Dakota oil boom; Saving the Dark, which focuses on the battle of dark-sky enthusiasts to fight light pollution; and Point of No Return, in which two pilots risk their lives flying around ...
Jun 29, 2018•53 min
Are GMOs the answer to our planet’s food shortage? Or do they jeopardize our health, crops and climate by creating a destructive cycle of Roundup resistance? Like many issues these days, it depends on who you believe. Supporters of genetically modified organisms say that altering the DNA of corn and other crops is just another tool in the farmers’ toolbox - an innovation that will help feed a world whose food production has been disrupted by climate change. Opponents maintain that modified crops...
Jun 22, 2018•52 min
The new climate reality means that even those living on a hill will be affected by flooding in the valley, and those living in the North will be affected by droughts in the South. There are many factors to consider how you will be affected by climate change. “I think this question of inequity is also really, really important,” states Katharine Mach. “And the flipside of that is that wealth is not necessarily protection.” Who will win and lose as climate disruption impacts agriculture, employment...
Jun 15, 2018•53 min
Looking for a movie that takes climate science to the masses? In the first part of this week’s episode, former Vice President Al Gore joins Climate One along with co-directors Bonni Cohen and Jon Shenk to talk about the making of their 2017 movie AN INCONVENIENT SEQUEL: TRUTH TO POWER and the solutions that it offers. In the second part, TV’s Bill Nye is joined by director Jason Sussberg, who shadowed Nye as he goes toe-to-toe with outspoken climate deniers and travels the world to show the caus...
Jun 08, 2018•52 min
Mark Kurlansky and Anna Lappé are two of the country’s most prolific and influential authors writing about feeding a crowded planet with a destabilized climate. The connection between global warming and the dinner table isn’t always obvious when we go to the grocery store. But our choices about how we put food on our plates, and what we do with the waste, contribute to as much as one third of total greenhouse-gas emissions. How can we continue to feed the planet without destroying it in the proc...
Jun 02, 2018•53 min
For fifteen years, California Governors Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jerry Brown charted a steady bi-partisan course as climate leaders. Their combined legacies include reduced carbon emissions, a clean energy economy and forward-thinking electric transportation. During that time, the effects of climate disruption -- rising seas, shrinking aquifers, wildfires and drought - have become increasingly clear. Greg Dalton sits down with three of the leading gubernatorial candidates to ask them how they p...
May 30, 2018•1 hr
Over a century ago, the industrial revolution brought wealth and opportunity to a generation of American innovators. It also brought us dirty coal power and a sky clogged with carbon emissions. The good news? There’s a new generation of entrepreneurs eager to make their fortune by fighting global warming. Creative start-ups are coming up with fresh, climate-friendly ideas for getting around town, powering your cell phones, and even eating breakfast. And there is a growing number of forward-think...
May 25, 2018•53 min
In June 2017, President Trump announced his plan to withdraw the country from the 2015 Paris Climate Accord, claiming it disadvantaged the United States. The symbolism of the American government’s retreat overshadowed the reality that the U.S. business community has embraced a low-carbon future. “We committed under Paris to do nothing we weren’t gonna do anyway and that we aren’t doing anyway,” says former Sierra Club chairman Carl Pope. Many countries have also reaffirmed their commitments to t...
May 18, 2018•52 min
Climate change isn’t just an environmental problem – it’s also a health hazard. Air pollution and changing weather patterns give rise to heat-related illnesses, asthma and allergic disorders. Disasters like Superstorm Sandy and Hurricane Irma leave hospitals scrambling to save patients without power and resources. According to the Centers for Disease Control, insect-borne diseases have tripled in the United States in recent years – and warmer weather is largely to blame. Guests: Jonathan Patz, D...
May 11, 2018•53 min
The scientific consensus is that human activity is cooking the planet and disrupting our economies. Yet many people still don’t believe that climate change will affect them personally, or they deny the urgency of the problem. Can better communication help sell the science of climate change? “Only the repetition of simple messages changes public opinion and affects the brain,” says David Fenton, a four-decade veteran of PR campaigns for the environment, public health and human rights. “If you are...
May 04, 2018•53 min
In 1968, the best-seller “The Population Bomb,” written by Paul and Anne Ehrlich (but credited solely to Paul) warned of the perils of overpopulation: mass starvation, societal upheaval, environmental deterioration. The book was criticized at the time for painting an overly dark picture of the future. But while not all of the Ehrlich’s dire predictions have come to pass, the world’s population has doubled since then, to over seven billion, straining the planet’s resources and heating up our clim...
Apr 27, 2018•54 min
In an emergency, we’re told to “break the glass” and grab the fire extinguisher. If we’re in the midst of a climate emergency, is there a firehose we could spray into the sky to cool down our atmosphere? It may sound like science fiction, but some climatologists endorse research into such techniques known as geo-engineering. But could tinkering with the stratosphere in this way lead to a new ice age – or worse? What group of people could be trusted with such God-like powers? Join us for a discus...
Apr 20, 2018•53 min
As the planet gets hotter, it’s affecting many of the foods we love – when and where they’re grown, how they get to the grocery store and how much we pay for them. On today’s program, we’ll talk about migrating crops, shrinking grasslands, and how food producers and restaurants are using technology to better predict and adapt to the new food normal. Ashley Allen, Senior Manager, Climate and Land, Mars Corporation Jason Clay, Senior Vice President, Food & Markets; Executive Director, Markets Inst...
Apr 12, 2018•54 min
Volkswagen’s brazen cheating on air pollution rules rocked an industry with a history of skulduggery. The scandal has now cost the company $30 billion plus jail time for one. Furthering chaos in the auto industry is a Trump administration looking to roll back emissions standards while California and 12 additional states, making up 36% of the auto market, threaten to maintain theirs. Alberto Ayala, Air Pollution Control Officer, Sacramento Metropolitan Air Quality Management District Edward Niede...
Apr 06, 2018•52 min
We’ve all heard that hopping on a plane is one of the worst things we can do for the climate. So how do we justify the environmental costs of world travel? Whether we’re scaling Mount Everest or diving with sea turtles in the Galapagos Islands, it’s important to tread lightly – and respectfully – on every corner of our planet. And ideally, use the experience to make the world a better place. Three veterans of adventure and eco travel talk about doing just that. Join us for a conversation about t...
Mar 30, 2018•53 min
In her book “Dark Money: the Hidden History Behind the Rise of the Radical Right,” New Yorker writer Jane Mayer exposes the powerful group of individuals who bankroll our political system. Mayer traces the billions of dollars spent by the Kochs, the Mercers, and other wealthy conservative activists to influence policies related to climate change, the economy and more. And as the Trump administration rolls back regulations, the head of the US Chemical Safety Board, Vanessa Sutherland, wonders how...
Mar 23, 2018•53 min
Tech companies are cleaning up their data centers and building shiny new buildings that sip water and energy. But are they really as green as they claim? Many companies issued statements in support of the Paris climate agreement, but their actions will be more important than their statements. According to guest Aron Cramer from BSR, the way we measure how green companies are needs an update. “Companies should be judged not only on what they do, which is more traditional,” Cramer says, “but also ...
Mar 16, 2018•53 min
Executive Committeewoman of Democratic National Committee Christine Pelosi, as well as staunch Trump supporter and clean energy advocate, Debbie Dooley, join Climate One for a discussion about the politics of energy more than a year into the Trump presidency. Reviving fossil fuels and rolling back action on climate change has arguably been one area where his agenda has achieved the most traction. Debbie Dooley, President, Conservatives for Energy Freedom, Co-Founder, Tea Party Movement Christine...
Mar 09, 2018•53 min
When the U.S slapped 30 percent tariffs on imported solar panels, headlines heralded bad times ahead for clean energy in this country. But the stock prices of solar installers increased because the hit could have been worse. Solar entrepreneur and advocate, Jigar Shah, said it was “good news.” Our guest and professor from University of California Berkeley, Severin Borenstein said, “there's no question, this is a policy that was designed to make renewables more expensive because it doesn't make a...
Mar 02, 2018•53 min
After more than a century of ruling the roads, oil is starting to lose its dominance over the auto industry. More and more automakers are introducing electric models, and according to one report, sales of electric cars will surpass those of regular cars within twenty-five years. With Detroit embracing plug-in cars, electric utilities sense an opportunity to grow their business as the age of oil starts to sunset. A conversation exploring the future of the cars we love, the impact of robotic and e...
Feb 23, 2018•53 min
2017 brought a raft of extreme weather disasters costing the U.S. hundreds of billions of dollars in damages, including hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria. And those are just the ones with names – other areas of the country were hit by floods, fires and drought. How do we fight back? The mayors of three cities on the frontline of climate change – Houston, Miami, and Columbia, South Carolina - discuss what their cities are doing to recover, rebuild and prepare for the next mega storm. Steve Benjam...
Feb 16, 2018•53 min
What should climate-conscious people do to eat most sustainably? How people approach their diet is deeply personal and can be extremely controversial. Roughly 1 in 9 people in the world are undernourished. Addressing hunger while making the food chain more sustainable is critical for addressing climate change. John Purcell, VP and Global R&D Lead, Monsanto Company Austin Wilson, Environmental Health Program Manager, As You Sow Scott Kennedy, Filmmaker, Food Evolution Nicolette Hahn Niman, Author...
Feb 09, 2018•53 min
It was in 1970, under President Nixon, that the Environmental Protection Agency was founded. While the Agency enjoyed tremendous bipartisan support for decades, the last 9 years have seen a decline in support from congressional Republicans. Recently, former EPA Administrator, Gina McCarthy, explained that she is not worried about protections being rolled back—she thinks they will withstand the assault—but rather about the budget cuts Lynda Deschambault, former EPA Staff Scientist Benjamin Franta...
Feb 02, 2018•53 min
