Centuries of systematically racist American policy has pushed Black communities into enduring the worst impacts of fossil fuel pollution and climate change. In her new book, Before the Streetlights Come On: Black America's Urgent Call for Climate Solutions , Heather McTeer Toney outlines how Black Americans experience these injustices - from extreme heat to petrochemical toxins and many more. But as we confront the long history of environmental racism, how do we empower the most impacted communi...
Jul 05, 2023•56 min•Season 1Ep. 246
How do we dramatically accelerate the pace of climate action and reduce emissions? According to Simon Sharpe's new book, Five Times Faster , it will take a fundamental rethinking of how we practice science, economics, and diplomacy. In this in-depth conversation, we examine his three solutions, what needs to get done to get there, and how achieving certain tipping points in clean technologies will create wide-spanning changes. Simon Sharpe is Director of Economics for the Climate Champions Team ...
Jun 28, 2023•1 hr 8 min•Season 1Ep. 245
The record-shattering ocean surface temperatures across the Atlantic over the last two weeks have shocked anyone paying attention to the climate crisis. Ocean surface temperatures are more than a degree Fahrenheit above previous records, and climate scientists hadn't expected this level of warming for decades, even in the worst case scenario models. But is there more to the story than human-caused climate change? Are there other factors contributing to this spike in ocean temperatures? How likel...
Jun 21, 2023•43 min•Season 1Ep. 244
Last week, wildfire smoke blanketed some of North America's biggest cities, sweeping across large swaths of the northeast and beyond. The smoke exposed millions to deadly levels of pollution and made many consider new climate adaptation strategies that may have previously overlooked. So what exactly happened? The team at Heatmap News put together some of the best coverage on an entire week of deadly wildfire smoke, looking at countless angles of a story that dominated headlines for days. This we...
Jun 14, 2023•48 min•Season 1Ep. 243
Dr. Peter Gleick, one of the world's leading scientists and communicators on water and climate crisis issues, returns to The Climate Pod to talk about his new book "The Three Ages of Water: Prehistoric Past, Imperiled Present, and Hope for the Future." This conversation highlights human history's inextricable links with water - how water influenced the evolution of homo sapiens, water's central role in nearly every religion's origin story, the science and technology created in response to waterb...
Jun 07, 2023•49 min•Season 1Ep. 242
Dr. Peter Gleick, one of the world's leading scientists and communicators on water and climate crisis issues, returns to The Climate Pod to talk about his new book "The Three Ages of Water: Prehistoric Past, Imperiled Present, and Hope for the Future." This conversation highlights human history's inextricable links with water - how water influenced the evolution of homo sapiens, water's central role in nearly every religion's origin story, the science and technology created in response to waterb...
Jun 07, 2023•49 min•Season 1Ep. 242
Not all climate activism has been popular. Some of the most viral, disruptive protests have been met with backlash, even by some in the climate movement itself. As Dr. Margaret Klein Salamon notes, these activists are operating in "emergency mode," serving as a reminder that the climate crisis is a crisis and nothing should be prioritized above it. In the latest edition of her book Facing the Climate Emergency: How to Transform Yourself with Climate Truth , Dr. Klein Salamon argues that too few ...
May 31, 2023•57 min•Season 1Ep. 241
As the Earth warms and many parts of America become uninhabitable, where will Americans go to find new homes? How will the communities built by American-born climate migrants be different from those they left? What can turn the hope of a new beginning into the nightmare they had been trying to flee? This week, we talk to Michelle Min Sterling, author of the new book " Camp Zero ". Set in 2049, "Camp Zero" tells the story of two American settlements, one government-funded and one privately-funded...
May 24, 2023•35 min•Season 1Ep. 240
In order for the United States to hit its Net Zero Emissions Goal by 2050, it's estimated that 3,100 gigawatts of wind and 3,500 gigawatts of solar capacity will be need across America. If clean energy developers continue to site and build as they are doing now, the land required to host all of that solar and wind generation will be larger than the state of Texas! In addition to the massive amount of land required for these critical clean energy resources, we also need new transmission lines tha...
May 17, 2023•46 min•Season 1Ep. 239
More than four years after it was first introduced, the Green New Deal has been extraordinarily influential in public policy around the globe. Though as a binding resolution it has not been enacted into law in the US, President Biden has referenced it as a crucial framework for his own climate plans. And many of the principles of the Green New Deal - centering climate justice, economic rights, and robust public investments - are certainly evident in many of the policies included in the Inflation...
May 10, 2023•1 hr 10 min•Season 1Ep. 238
Over the next 30 years, it's expected that thirteen million Americans living on the coasts will be forced to leave their homes as a result of rising sea levels, devastating floods, and worsening storms. How those cities prepare for and adapt to a warmer world will determine who will be displaced and what alternatives will be available to them. If America's history is an indicator of who will be protected and who won't, the white, rich neighborhoods will likely be prioritized while the black, bro...
May 03, 2023•47 min•Season 1Ep. 237
When Adam Nayman reflects on what makes There Will Be Blood so resonate, it's one of the central questions Paul Thomas Anderson's 2007 film asks that serves as a timeless themes in American culture. "What does it look like when you're appetite simply cannot be sated?" Nayman asks. "Your eyes are not bigger than your stomach. You literally need to have everything." On today's show, Nayman, the author of Paul Thomas Anderson: Masterworks joins to break down the film. We discuss how Daniel Plainvie...
Apr 26, 2023•1 hr 15 min•Season 1Ep. 236
In this installment of The Climate Pod's Climate Book Club (a new thing, maybe?), we revisit Upton Sinclair's 1927 classic Oil! with Professor Michael Tondre, who wrote the introduction to the recently released new edition of Sinclair's novel. Michael Tondre is an Associate Professor at Stony Brook University and an expert in Victorian studies. In this conversation, we look back at the corruption in the fossil fuel industry that Sinclair explored in the early 20th century and how it remains rele...
Apr 19, 2023•53 min•Season 1Ep. 235
The latest publication from the IPCC, AR6 Synthesis Report: Climate Change 2023 , outlines a grim future if we don't decarbonize faster and prevent more unnecessary warming. In recent years, there have been major steps taken to accelerate decarbonization, including last year's Inflation Reduction Act passed in the United States to incentivize green energy investments. But even while carbon-free energy infrastructure continues to get a boost, new fossil fuel infrastructure isn't exactly slowing d...
Apr 12, 2023•50 min•Season 1Ep. 234
There are an estimated 1.4 billion cars in use around the world. Despite the fact that cars and trucks are a major contributor to global warming, pollute the air, kill over 1.3 million people a year, and cost thousands to own, maintain, and drive each year, most modern societies are built in a way that makes it necessary to own a car. And while traffic seems to be an ever present problem in most cities, adding lanes and more roads has only exacerbated the problem. Daniel Knowles, Midwest corresp...
Apr 05, 2023•1 hr•Season 1Ep. 233
On the new show, Extrapolations, dramatizing the climate crisis isn't just about showing the science unfold. As co-showrunner Dorothy Fortenberry explains on the show this week, making Extrapolations meant telling a wide-ranging, intergenerational story that touches on the politics, economics, technology, culture, and social issues that arise when the world warms. Fortenberry explains the approach the behind the show, how they made it, and what themes were most important to explore. Dorothy Fort...
Mar 22, 2023•1 hr 3 min•Season 1Ep. 231
Julian Cribb's new book "How to Fix a Broken Planet: Advice for Surviving the 21st Century", explores the ten megathreats facing humanity today such as the climate crisis, the nuclear arms race, and unquenchable economic growth. Cribb joined the podcast to explain how all of these ten megathreats are connected to each other and how by allowing each to get worse, we're exponentially increasing the risk of wiping out human existence. Cribb then discusses his solutions for addressing all of these m...
Mar 15, 2023•1 hr 1 min•Season 1Ep. 230
How did Americans come to believe that markets were the answer to everything? Why don't people trust the government to efficiently allocate resources in a way that creates the greatest good? Who orchestrated this century-long con of the American people? Dr. Naomi Oreskes and Dr. Erik Conway , co-authors of the eye-opening book "Merchants of Doubt", join the show to discuss their new book "The Big Myth: How American Business Taught Us to Loathe Government and Love the Free Market." Our conversati...
Mar 08, 2023•51 min•Season 1Ep. 229
As an award-winning director, producer, showrunner, television and film writer, and author of six novels, "Fargo" creator Noah Hawley isn't afraid to tackle some of the biggest issues we face. His most recent work, the novel Anthem , is no different. Billed as "an adventure that finds unquenchable lights in dark corners" and a "leap into the idiosyncratic pulse of the American heart," Anthem takes an unflinching look at our most challenging problems and the obstacles we encounter as a society as...
Mar 01, 2023•54 min•Season 1Ep. 228
As US Department of Energy Deputy Secretary Dave Turk told us, "2023 is the year of implementation!" That's why we had him on our show to discuss the Biden Administration's historic investments in clean energy technologies and the infrastructure required to ensure they're resilient, available to everyone, and deployed as rapidly as possible. We also discuss the latest nuclear fusion breakthrough and how the global energy crisis resulting from Russia's invasion of Ukraine will evolve in 2023. Thi...
Feb 22, 2023•37 min•Season 1Ep. 227
After years of obstruction from their Republican colleagues, Minnesota Democrats used their state trifecta to pass one of the most aggressive clean energy bills in America. Last week, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz signed the 100% Clean Energy by 2040 bill which makes The North Star State one of just 5 American states with a goal of decarbonizing its electricity sector by 2040. We spoke with Minnesota House Majority Leader and chief author of the bill, Rep. Jamie Long, about how the bill came to pa...
Feb 15, 2023•43 min•Season 1Ep. 226
Adam McKay wants you to make him regret his most recent decision to help boost climate action. Teaming up with Climate Emergency Fund, McKay is auctioning off a walk-on role in his next film project, many of his prized comic book and basketball card collectibles, and yes, the screen used Sex Panther prop from Anchorman. Why? McKay and Climate Emergency Fund Executive Director Dr. Margaret Klein Salamon join the show to discuss how they plan to use the auction to raise awareness of the climate cr...
Feb 07, 2023•51 min•Season 1Ep. 225
Anyone serious about the climate crisis knows that we need to create a world powered free of carbon pollution sources. But how do we get there? Professor Mark Z. Jacobson has a plan and in his new book, No Miracles Needed: How Today's Technology Can Save Our Climate and Clean Our Air , he puts forth a plan for getting there. This is one of the most interesting and optimistic conversations you'll hear on the hope for a renewable energy future. Jacobson is a Professor of Civil and Environmental En...
Feb 01, 2023•58 min•Season 1Ep. 224
As the planet warms, droughts will be prolonged and communities around the world are going to be without the most critical resource to sustaining human life – water. By 2030, global demand for freshwater will exceed supply by 40 percent and two-thirds of the world's population will face regular water shortages. At the same time, as the planet warms, glaciers, which currently contain two thirds of all the freshwater in the world, are calving new icebergs at an alarming rate. This has lawmakers, s...
Jan 25, 2023•36 min•Season 1Ep. 223
In mainstream media, environmental justice issues are often poorly covered or overlooked altogether. Even in 2022, when we saw extreme weather disproportionately impact frontline communities and the Jackson, Mississippi water crisis expose injustices in our public infrastructure, the environmental justice angle was often unexplored in major media coverage. How do we improvement environmental justice coverage and provide better context in mainstream media? To discuss this, two expert guest return...
Jan 18, 2023•59 min•Season 1Ep. 222
If 2023 is anything like its predecessor, this year will be full of transformative events that change the trajectory of climate action across the globe. So what might happen this year that ends up defining our transition to clean energy transition and climate fight in 2023? To help us answer this question, this week we feature a conversation with Tom Standage, Editor of The Economist's The World Ahead 2023 . Tom also serves as Deputy Editor of The Economist and is the author of several books, in...
Jan 11, 2023•1 hr 5 min•Season 1Ep. 221
Another year has come to an end. In 2022, we saw a number of events unfold across the globe that further emphasized the need to address the climate crisis with greater urgency and accelerate the transition to clean energy. This is Part Two of our look back of the year with some of the biggest newsmakers we spoke to in 2022. We'll review the second of the year and some of the biggest developments in the climate fight to happen in 2022 - from the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act to establish...
Jan 04, 2023•33 min•Season 1Ep. 220
Another year has come to an end. In 2022, we saw a number of events unfold across the globe that further emphasized the need to address the climate crisis with greater urgency and accelerate the transition to clean energy. This is Part One of our look back of the year with some of the biggest newsmakers we spoke to in 2022. We'll review the first half of the year and remember how the conversation around the climate crisis evolved and responded to rapidly changing world events - from the Russian ...
Dec 29, 2022•33 min•Season 1Ep. 219
It's hard to see how the current meat industry is helping anyone but a handful of billionaires. In her new book, Raw Deal: Hidden Corruption, Corporate Greed, and the Fight for the Future of Meat , Forbes writer Chloe Sorvino reveals a fascinating look into this unsustainable system and how people are fighting to fix it. We discuss how the industry consolidated and crowded out competition, the scandals that have rocked the meat industry, and how innovation may come from more than just alternativ...
Dec 21, 2022•1 hr 2 min•Season 1Ep. 218
How have capitalism, colonialism, racism, and other social factors impacted how humans interact with our environment? How will better understanding these connections allow us to create solutions to the climate crisis that not only decarbonize our economy but also make it a world that everyone wants to live in, not just a lucky few? Based on the teachings of Karl Marx, the study of Urban Political Ecology seeks to answer these questions and more. On this week's episode, we speak with Dr. Tait Man...
Dec 14, 2022•49 min•Season 1Ep. 217
