When it comes to cutting emissions, there are many paths to success. Sweden, France, South Korea, and Ontario have all taken steps to replace fossil fuels with nuclear, hydro and renewable energy, while China is expanding electric car and battery production. But the absence of U.S. climate leadership is causing heads of state to ease off their goals, and violent protests in France against higher diesel taxes are casting a shadow over efforts to combat climate change. Join us for a discussion abo...
Feb 01, 2019•52 min•Transcript available on Metacast 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 are a growing number of forward-thin...
Jan 25, 2019•51 min•Transcript available on Metacast 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...
Jan 20, 2019•52 min•Transcript available on Metacast 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. Hurricanes and other disasters 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. Jonathan Patz, of the Global Health Institut...
Jan 13, 2019•53 min•Transcript available on Metacast In its infancy, the Paris Agreement carried the promise of a truly global climate solution. Supporters still say the Agreement is the first step in setting the global economy toward a sustainable future, but U.N. reports now say current commitments are only a fraction as strong as they need to be, and critics say it's dangerously delusional to think the pact is ambitious enough to avoid catastrophic climate change. Katharine Mach, Senior Research Scientist at Stanford University, and Trevor Hous...
Jan 03, 2019•52 min•Transcript available on Metacast The math is clear: lowering greenhouse gas emissions is not enough to keep the earth below 1.5 degrees Celsius of post-industrial warming. The latest science states that actively removing carbon from the atmosphere — storing it in rocks, soil, trees, and even turning it into products like concrete — is critical to restore the carbon and energy balance. To keep our planet from dangerous levels of warming, we’ll need to go carbon negative. Which natural and technological approaches are the most pr...
Dec 28, 2018•50 min•Transcript available on Metacast We’re making a list (and checking it twice) of 2018’s biggest climate stories, with the help of Vox reporter David Roberts. Roberts notes that while President Trump’s continued rollbacks of environmental protections made the news, the Green New Deal and ongoing decline in costs of clean energy technologies are the year’s big stories. For other parts of the country, wildfires and other extreme weather events made the biggest headlines. Greg Dalton talks to some of California’s leading wildfire ex...
Dec 21, 2018•52 min•Transcript available on Metacast We all know about the environmental and physical effects of climate change. But what about its impact on our mental health? Therapists report that their patients are exhibiting symptoms of what they call “climate anxiety” – loss of sleep, changes in appetite, feelings of grief, anger and hopelessness. How do we maintain our optimism in the face of a global existential crisis? And how do we talk with others about our fears without turning them off – or freaking them out? Three climate psychologis...
Dec 14, 2018•50 min•Transcript available on Metacast From fires and floods to hurricanes and hot temperatures, 2018 put climate on the front page in ways it hadn’t been before. Yet amidst the disruption, clean energy prices continued to fall, climate-conscious technologies continued to progress, and people living on the front lines of climate change found ways to adapt and thrive. Join us for a look back on some of our most memorable conversations of 2018. Guests (in order of appearance): Lizzie Johnson Scott Stephens Francis Suarez Steve Benjamin...
Dec 07, 2018•53 min•Transcript available on Metacast Stabilizing our climate is going to take some hard truths – and hard numbers. “If you look at 1.5 degrees, it's about 13 years,” says Stanford’s Arun Majumdar. “If you look at 2 degrees, it’s 20 years. And after that, it’s zero.” We can fight back with the power of zero: a zero-carbon grid, zero-emission vehicles, zero-net energy buildings and zero-waste manufacturing. Whether through massive technological breakthroughs or deployment of existing technologies, powering these opportunities will re...
Nov 30, 2018•50 min•Transcript available on Metacast It’s a holiday 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...
Nov 27, 2018•53 min•Transcript available on Metacast In their 1968 book The Population Bomb, Paul and Anne Ehrlich warned of the dangers of overpopulation. These included mass starvation, societal upheaval and environmental ruin. This and other dire predictions about humankind earned Ehrlich a reputation as a prophet of doom, and fifty years later he doesn’t see much in the way of improvement. Harvard cognitive psychologist Steven Pinker, on the other hand, prefers to look on the bright side: people are living longer, extreme poverty has been decr...
Nov 15, 2018•50 min•Transcript available on Metacast The U.S. has surpassed Saudi Arabia and Russia as the world's biggest oil producer, largely due to the fracking revolution. Yet new development of fossil fuels is not consistent with the math of the Paris climate accord. So what's next for fossil fuels? Guests: Bethany McLean, Author, Saudi America: The Truth about Fracking and How It's Changing the World Kassie Siegel, Senior Counsel, Climate Law Institute Director at Center for Biological Diversity Severin Borenstein, E.T. Grether Professor, H...
Nov 09, 2018•52 min•Transcript available on Metacast Red states, blue states – when it comes to our environment, are we really two different Americas? New Yorker writer Eliza Griswold spent time in southwestern Pennsylvania to tell the story of a family living on the front lines of the fracking boom. Berkeley professor Arlie Hochschild traveled to Louisiana to escape what she calls the “bubble” of coastal thinking. Both writers emerged with books that paint an honest portrait of a misunderstood America. On today’s program, tales of the people whos...
Nov 01, 2018•50 min•Transcript available on Metacast After a year of climate-amplified fires and hurricanes around the country, New York Times reporter Trip Gabriel tells host Greg Dalton how climate and energy issues are playing in the midterm elections. Nathaniel Stinnett, founder of the Environmental Voter Project, describes what his organization is doing to mobilize the more than 10 million Americans who cite environmental protection as a core value but who don't vote regularly. And Sam Arons, Director of Sustainability at Lyft, explains how h...
Oct 26, 2018•52 min•Transcript available on Metacast Chinese factories churn out parts and products that end up in our cars, our kitchens and our cell phones. And all that productivity has improved the lives of its citizens, many of whom can now afford cars and cell phones of their own. It’s also made China the global leader in carbon emissions. But in her new book, “Will China Save the Planet,” Barbara Finamore says that China may well take the lead in saving the world from environmental catastrophe. How? By phasing out coal and investing in gree...
Oct 18, 2018•50 min•Transcript available on Metacast Climate used to have bipartisan support. Now that the Republican party is skeptical about fighting climate, companies are moving into a leadership void. On the show today we'll hear from two former white house spokesmen in Republican and Democratic administrations now working on climate from different angles. Robert Gibbs addresses what McDonald's is doing to cut its carbon emissions and environmental impact. Jeff Nesbit heads a communications organization trying to get the climate story covered...
Oct 12, 2018•53 min•Transcript available on Metacast Former UN climate negotiator Christiana Figueres credits Buddhist teachings both for helping her through a personal crisis, and for providing a source of inner strength that sustained her through negotiations at the 2015 Paris Climate Accord, and helped contribute to its success. “I realized my commitment and my task here is to change that global mood,” Figueres remembers. “And of course I can't change the global mood before I change myself, because as we know all change starts with self.” Can m...
Oct 05, 2018•50 min•Transcript available on Metacast The Paris Climate Accord was successful in bringing together the entire world around a common goal, but the focus was on what could be done at the national level. In light of the U.S. abdicating their own leadership role, there is a growing chorus demanding that subnational leaders take on the issue of climate change. The goal of GCAS is to inspire and elevate the solutions from those leaders. This event is in partnership with Cool Effect, Capital Public Radio and in affiliation with the Global ...
Sep 28, 2018•53 min•Transcript available on Metacast Wildfires have always been part of the landscape in the western states. But the size and intensity of fires over the last several years is something new. They are being called “megafires;” wildfires covering over 100,000 acres each. The higher temperatures and lower humidity, brought on by climate change, are whipping up these hotter and bigger wildfires. And people’s lives are being upended by the flames. Today we’re exploring the damage megafires are unleashing on life, property and natural ec...
Sep 22, 2018•51 min•Transcript available on Metacast Can a menu at a fancy restaurant be a map for solving the climate challenge? A handful of high-end chefs are using their restaurants to show how innovative grazing and growing practices can cut carbon pollution. Anthony Myint, asks “What would it look like if you had ... environmentalism right up there with deliciousness, as your top priorities?” Dominique Crenn, a two Michelin star chef, pushes to move beyond the restaurateurs who she says only pay lip service to responsibly sourcing their food...
Sep 14, 2018•52 min•Transcript available on Metacast On the eve of the Global Climate Action Summit (GCAS), we started the conversation about how solutions could be led by states, cities, businesses and NGOs. The Paris Climate Accord was successful in bringing together the entire world around a common goal. But as Gina McCarthy points out, “We need to get together and figure out how you address and drive solutions to climate that actually end up in not just a cleaner and healthier and more sustainable world, but one that’s more just.” This event i...
Sep 14, 2018•1 hr 7 min•Transcript available on Metacast Solutions to the climate crisis include driving cleaner cars, planting more trees, eating less meat. But how do our housing choices factor into this? Where we build housing and how close it is to mass transit has a big impact on our carbon footprint. Plans to green our cities should include new, urban housing that’s convenient to transportation. But this runs the risk of boosting the real estate market and gentrifying the neighborhood out of the reach of all but the wealthy. Can we build smart a...
Sep 07, 2018•51 min•Transcript available on Metacast Fossil fuels have helped bring people out of poverty around the world, and many people working in the industry are proud of their contribution. William Vollmann writes about the lives of laborers and executives in different parts of the vast fossil fuel system. Discussing an alternative path for these communities, National Director of Green for All Michelle Romero advocates, “for some, retraining is a viable option and for others nearing retirement...maybe providing a benefit package that will h...
Sep 01, 2018•52 min•Transcript available on Metacast The reality of permanent change along the shoreline is starting to slowly sink in. Recent studies indicate that vulnerability to changing tides is starting to be reflected in property markets around the country. And now cities are grappling with how to build roads, airports and other infrastructure for a very uncertain future. How fast and how high will the tides rise? No one knows for sure but every new forecast tends to be faster and higher than scientists predicted just a few years ago. Elain...
Aug 25, 2018•51 min•Transcript available on Metacast 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•Transcript available on Metacast 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•Transcript available on Metacast 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•Transcript available on Metacast 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•Transcript available on Metacast 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•Transcript available on Metacast 
