John Elkington is an internationally recognized authority on corporate responsibility and sustainable development, bestselling author, and serial entrepreneur. He currently serves as Chief Pollinator at Volans, a future-focused business working at the intersection of the sustainability, entrepreneurship, and innovation movements. Today, John joins Ross and Paul to discuss his most recent book, Green Swans: The Coming Boom in Regenerative Capitalism.
May 05, 2020•48 min
Dr. David Grinspoon is the author of Earth in Human Hands: Shaping Our Planet’s Future. He is also part of the team working with NASA on a proposed mission to Venus! On this bonus episode of Reversing Climate Change, David is back on the show with Ross to discuss the basic units of the geological time scale and explain why he proposes calling this new time marked by human impact and self-awareness the Sapiezoic Eon rather than the Anthropocene Epoch.
May 01, 2020•31 min
Julia Pyper and Shane Skelton are two of the three cohosts of Political Climate, a bipartisan podcast on energy and environmental politics in America. Today, Julia and Shane join Ross to discuss how their show is working to normalize the conversation on climate change (on both sides of the aisle) and explore what’s behind the increasing polarization in DC and what role the media plays in perpetuating our political divisions.
Apr 28, 2020•54 min
J. Maarten Troost is the travel writer behind such titles as The Sex Lives of Cannibals, Getting Stoned with Savages and Headhunters on My Doorstep. He spent multiple years in Kiribati in the Equatorial Pacific as well as Fiji and Vanuatu. On this episode of the Reversing Climate Change, Maarten joins Ross to explain how he came to spend time in the region of Oceania and offer insight around the provocative titles for his books and the egalitarian nature of island culture.
Apr 21, 2020•48 min
Ethan Soloviev is the coauthor of Regenerative Enterprise and Levels of Regenerative Agriculture and co-owner of High Falls Farm, a multi-enterprise farm in the Hudson Valley of New York that aims toward regenerative principles and practices. On this bonus episode, Ethan joins Ross to introduce us to the Jewish idea of shmita, as well as his attempts to learn from Irish/Celtic and indigenous North American agricultural traditions as well.
Apr 17, 2020•34 min
Dr. Lauren Gifford is a critical geographer exploring the intersections of global climate policy, conservation, markets, and justice. She is also the host of Carbon Social Club and the author of a recent paper entitled “‘You Can’t Value What You Can’t Measure’: A Critical Look at Forest Carbon Accounting.” On this episode, we dig into avoided deforestation credits, REDD/REDD+, and the dynamics at play when carbon is commoditized in forestry and in general.
Apr 14, 2020•48 min
Dr. Greg Dipple is a Professor of Geology in the Department of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences at the University of British Columbia—Vancouver,and a podcast alumnus! On this bonus episode of Reversing Climate Change, Greg joins Ross to give us an update on his research around carbon mineralization in mine tailings, reminding us how the process works and explaining why it’s not already common practice.
Apr 13, 2020•22 min
Dr. Jane Zelikova is the Chief Scientist at Carbon180, a carbon removal think tank on a mission to fundamentally rethink carbon, and cofounder of 500 Women Scientists, a nonprofit dedicated to transforming the leadership, diversity, and public engagement in science. On this episode of the Reversing Climate Change, Jane joins Ross and Christophe to discuss the challenges of measuring the carbon content of soil and the projections around how much CO2 we can sequester with improved management pract...
Apr 07, 2020•1 hr 1 min
Maria Streshinsky is the Executive Editor of Wired, a science and technology magazine devoted to exploring technology’s potential to shape the world for the better. On this bonus episode of Reversing Climate Change, Maria joins Ross to discuss the forthcoming issue of Wired, walking us through its sections on carbon capture, food and land, transportation and renewable energy.
Apr 01, 2020•21 min
Dr. Roger Aines is the Chief Scientist of the Energy Program at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and coauthor of the LLNL report Getting to Neutral: Options for Negative Carbon Emissions in California. On this episode of the Reversing Climate Change, Roger joins Ross and Christophe to discuss how the California study came about and walk us through the three carbon removal strategies outlined in the report—natural solutions, waste biomass and direct air capture.
Mar 31, 2020•50 min
Sophia Rokhlin is the coauthor of When Plants Dream: Ayahuasca, Amazonian Shamanism and the Global Psychedelic Renaissance. She also serves as the director of the sustainable ayahuasca cultivation program at the Temple of the Way of Light, a traditional plant medicine retreat center in the Peruvian Amazon. This episode Sophia joins Ross and Alexsandra to introduce us to the traditions of shamanism and discuss the fundamentals of ayahuasca, and how ayahuasca tourism impacts indigenous communities...
Mar 24, 2020•1 hr 6 min
Nathaniel Rich is a writer-at-large for The New York Times Magazine and the author of three novels. His nonfiction book, Losing Earth: A Recent History, is an account of the 10-year period from 1979 to 1989 when we ‘almost stopped climate change.’ On this episode of the podcast, Nathaniel joins Ross to give us an overview of the story behind the book, explaining how climate change was a bipartisan issue at the time and what eventually moved Republicans into a much more hostile posture.
Mar 17, 2020•42 min
David Roberts is a staff writer for Vox, and his work focuses on energy, politics and climate change. On this episode of the podcast, David joins Ross and Aldyen to share his take on the disappearance of the center-right as a faction of the Republican Party and discuss the role social trust plays in the health of a society. Aldyen introduces the idea of a common goal as key to the survival of an empire, and David explains why climate change is unlikely to serve as our national purpose here in th...
Mar 10, 2020•1 hr 18 min
Dr. Bryan Caplan is a Professor of Economics at George Mason University and New York Times Bestselling author. His most recent release is a collaboration with Zach Weinersmith called Open Borders: The Science and Ethics of Immigration. On this episode of Reversing Climate Change, Bryan joins Ross and Paul to discuss the thesis of his new nonfiction graphic novel and explain his view that open borders would ultimately double the productivity of humankind.
Mar 03, 2020•56 min
Jigar Shah is the Cofounder and President of Generate Capital, a financial services firm dedicated to building the infrastructure necessary to deliver affordable and reliable resource solutions. A luminary in the realm of financing renewable energy, Jigar is also the author of Creating Climate Wealth: Unlocking the Impact Economy. On this episode of Reversing Climate Change, Jigar joins Ross and Christophe to discuss his mission to help entrepreneurs and companies scale up proven climate solutio...
Feb 25, 2020•42 min
Peter Brannen is the award-winning science journalist and deep time aficionado behind the book, The Ends of the World. On this bonus episode of Reversing Climate Change, he comes back on the show to discuss his recently published articles in The Atlantic, ‘The Anthropocene is a Joke’ and ‘What Made Me Reconsider the Anthropocene.’ We discuss why deep time is such a foreign concept to the general public and Peter explains how the term Anthropocene has evolved to encompass all human activity.
Feb 04, 2020•24 min
Dr. Evan Kuehn is a theologian and academic librarian at North Park University, conducting research around modern religious thought. His forthcoming book is called Troeltsch’s Eschatological Absolute. On this bonus episode of Reversing Climate Change, Evan joins Ross to discuss his recently published article, "Is the Climate Crisis a Secular Eschatology?", introducing us to eschatology as an account of how our world ends and explaining how climate change qualifies as a secular eschatology.
Jan 21, 2020•28 min
Jeffrey Howard is the Founder and Editor-in-Chief at Erraticus, an online publication focused on human flourishing. On this episode, Jeffrey joins Alexsandra and Ross to discuss the ideas in Deneen’s book and compare how communitarians and liberals see the world.
Dec 31, 2019•1 hr 6 min
Dr. Holly Jean Buck is a postdoctoral research fellow at UCLA’s Institute of the Environment and Sustainability and the author of After Geoengineering: Climate Tragedy, Repair and Restoration. On this episode of Reversing Climate Change, Dr. Buck joins Ross to discuss how her take on climate solutions differs from traditional left-leaning views, explaining the aspects of geoengineering that should be in the hands of the people and the risks associated with Nori’s premise of treating carbon as a ...
Dec 03, 2019•59 min
Ted Nordhaus is the Founder and Executive Director of The Breakthrough Institute, the world’s first ecomodernist think tank promoting technological solutions to environmental problems. On this episode of Reversing Climate Change, Ted joins Ross and Christophe to discuss the fundamentals of ecomodernism, explaining the movement’s idea of decoupling and offering his response to the degrowther argument against it.
Nov 12, 2019•58 min
Nathanael Johnson is a Senior Writer at Grist and the author of All Natural: A Skeptic’s Quest to Discover If the Natural Approach to Diet, Childbirth, Healing and the Environment Really Keeps Us Healthier and Happier and Unseen City: The Majesty of Pigeons, the Discreet Charm of Snails & Other Wonders of the Urban Wilderness. On this episode of Reversing Climate Change, Nathanael joins Ross and Christophe to discuss how his writing challenges the status quo, asking the questions that inspire re...
Nov 05, 2019•53 min
Bill McKibben is the author and environmentalist credited with penning the first book on climate change written for a general audience, The End of Nature. He is also a founder of 350.org, the first global, grassroots climate change movement. Bill was awarded the 2014 Right Livelihood Prize, the 2013 Gandhi Prize and the 2013 Thomas Merton Prize, and he was named to Foreign Policy magazine’s inaugural list of the world’s 100 most important global thinkers.
Oct 08, 2019•36 min
Peter Brannen is an award-winning science journalist with expertise in ocean science, deep time, astrobiology, and the carbon cycle. Peter walks Ross and Christophe through the five major mass extinctions in Earth’s history, discussing what events triggered each extinction and how plant and animal life changed each time.
Aug 13, 2019•49 min
Thaddeus Russell joins Ross, Christophe and Paul to explain why he takes issue with the environmental movement. He challenges the moralist approach to political problems, describing how environmentalists leverage guilt and shame individual choices—while ignoring big emitters like the US military. Thaddeus also offers an overview of the Progressive Era, discussing the historical efforts to eliminate cultural diversity in the US and sharing his take on the parallels between progressives and enviro...
Jul 16, 2019•1 hr 27 min
Today, Albert Bates joins Christophe and Alexsandra to share his unique path from the courtroom to the ecovillage, describing how he came to study terra preta soils and get involved in the biochar movement. Listen in for Albert’s insight around the waste streams that could serve as biochar source material and learn about the ecovillages and cities that serve as proof of concept for using biochar to draw carbon out of our atmosphere and oceans!
Jun 18, 2019•46 min
A significant amount of carbon has been stored in Arctic permafrost for tens of thousands of years. And unless we take radical steps to restore the ecosystem that we destroyed there, the permafrost will melt and release 1400 GT of carbon dioxide and methane into the atmosphere. This dwarfs the amount humans generate annually and would accelerate climate change on an exponential scale. So, what can we do to reestablish the grasslands and reintroduce the animals that used to dominate the region?
May 07, 2019•44 min
Today, Joel joins Ross and Christophe to share his practice of duplicating nature’s patterns on the farmscape. He offers his take on the flaws in the environmentalist approach to climate change and where the Christian faith community, libertarians, and economists fall short. Joel also describes how the regulatory environment is prejudiced against small-scale operations, exploring the way oversight stifles innovation.
Apr 30, 2019•49 min
Today, Andrea joins Ross and Christophe to explain why Juliana v. US qualifies as a constitutional law case, sharing the progress of the case to date and discussing how it provides a framework for decarbonization. She describes the nuances of the government’s duty to protect its citizens and counters the argument that the government didn’t know its energy policy contributed to climate change.
Apr 16, 2019•50 min
Like it or not, humans have become the dominant agent of change on the planet, and as we proceed further into the Anthropocene period, we have a responsibility to accept responsibility and find a way to gracefully integrate our presence. But what if we are not the only ones who have experienced this phenomenon? What if the process of inadvertent planetary change is universal? What if the climate challenges we face are a natural part of planetary evolution?
Nov 13, 2018•46 min
Knowledge is the only truly infinite resource, and its value multiplies by the number of people who put it to work. How can we put what we know about climate change to work and develop sustainable innovations that either reduce emissions or capture carbon from the atmosphere? And what role might Nori play in accelerating that innovation?
Aug 14, 2018•41 min