Episodes

  • Climate change means extreme weather, shifting landscapes, and generally more instability. More and more, you can feel the impacts of climate disruption in your wallets. Drought is pushing up the cost of candy and leading to shipping delays in the Panama Canal. 
    Globally, researchers say climate could add one percent to inflation every year until 2035. The costs of car insurance, health insurance and property insurance are rising. And whether it’s tea in the morning or wine in the evening, disrupted climate patterns and extreme weather are making certain foods more expensive. 
    This week, we unpack how climate change drives inflation.
    Guests:
    Nicholas Stern, IG Patel Chair of Economics and Government, London School of Economics
    Jeremy Porter, Head of Climate Implications Research, First Street Foundation
    Avery Ellfeldt, Reporter, E&E News
    Lea Borkenhagen, Senior Vice President, EDF+Business
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    For show notes and related links, visit our website.
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  • The places that most people call home are coming under increasing threat from climate change. From rising seas and more frequent floods to stronger hurricanes and cyclones, to more devastating droughts and wildfires, the most habitable parts of our world are becoming far less so. Over time, our cities will be forced to transform — and hundreds of millions will have to move.
    People who have the means are already starting to relocate to places that market themselves as climate-proof. But not everyone will be able to leave. And many won’t want to. How do we handle the next great waves of migration?
    Guests: 
    Abrahm Lustgarten, author, “On the Move: The Overheating Earth and the Uprooting of America”
    Sonia Shah, author, “The Next Great Migration: The Beauty and Terror of Life on the Move”
    This episode also features reported pieces by MPR reporter Dan Kraker on “Climate Proof Duluth” and KUOW Public Radio in Seattle reporter ​​John Ryan on “How a Northwest tribe is escaping a rising ocean.”
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  • As heat waves, storms, droughts and wildfires continue to worsen, talking can seem like a seriously insufficient climate solution. It’s fair to ask: Are we just engaged in blah, blah, blah?
    Too often, talking is one sided – more of a lecture aimed at conveying information or solely stating one's own point of view. And yet, when done right, real conversations and true listening can help us find common ground, which can then lead to collective action and change. So how do we make those conversations really count? In this week’s episode, we delve into some of our most insightful interviews, looking for the answer.
    Guests:
    Katharine Hayhoe, Chief Scientist, The Nature Conservancy  
    Meera Subramanian, Journalist
    Faith Kearns, Scientist, California Institute for Water Resources; Author, “Getting to the Heart of Science Communications”
    Anand Giridharadas, Author, “The Persuaders” 
    Chloe Maxmin, Co-Executive Director, Dirt Road Organizing
    John Cook, Senior Research Fellow, Melbourne Centre for Behaviour Change 
    For show notes and related links, visit our website.
    📞 Have you moved within the United States for climate-related reasons? Tell us about it! 
    For the chance to have your climate migration story shared on Climate One, give us a call at 650 382-3869. Please keep your voicemail under two minutes and include your name and contact information so we know how to reach you if we decide to feature your story.
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  • Kumi Naidoo is a world renowned activist and climate leader. Before going on to lead Greenpeace International then Amnesty International, Naidoo was a 15 year old anti-apartheid activist in South Africa. The boycotts he organized led to him being a target of the Security Police. He fled South Africa and lived in exile in the UK. 
    As a climate activist, Naidoo has been arrested for scaling oil rigs, has negotiated with heads of state, and rubbed shoulders with the most powerful people at the World Economic Forum in Davos. Now he’s a visiting scholar at Stanford’s Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law, where he’s focusing on how activism can win bigger and faster. 
    Guests: 
    Kumi Naidoo, Human Rights and Environmental Justice Activist
    Alex Ajose Nixon, Spoken Word Poet
    Mystic, Hip Hop Artist and Educator
    Dana R. Fisher, Professor of Sociology, University of Maryland
    Tamara Toles O’Laughlin, President and CEO, Environmental Grantmakers Association
    📞 Have you moved within the United States for climate-related reasons? Tell us about it! 
    For the chance to have your climate migration story shared on Climate One, give us a call at 650 382-3869. Please keep your voicemail under two minutes and include your name and contact information so we know how to reach you if we decide to feature your story.
    Support Climate One by going ad-free! By joining Climate One on Patreon, you’ll receive exclusive access to all future episodes free of ads, opportunities to connect with fellow Climate One listeners, and even periodic engagements with Climate One staff. Join today for just $5/month.
    For show notes and related links, visit our website.
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  • If you’re a climate-conscious person, you likely already know some of the main ways you can reduce your contribution to greenhouse gasses: buy less, eat less meat, ride your bike.
    But there are other, less obvious methods we don’t always think of: voting, having climate conversations, engaging with your local government, changing where your money is invested. And while our role as individuals does matter, we’re more powerful when we work together in collective action. 
    Guests: 
    Jon Foley, Executive Director, Project Drawdown
    Eliza Nemser, Executive Director, Climate Changemakers
    This episode also features excerpts from Cory Booker, Anna Lappé, Frances Moore Lappé, Saul Griffith, Monique Figueiredo, Jonathan Chapman, Jennifer Anderson, Tanya Gulliver Garcia, Vernon Walker, Abrar Anwar, Slater Jewell-Kemker, Kyle Gracey and Alec Loorz.
    📞 Have you moved within the United States for climate-related reasons? Tell us about it! 
    For the chance to have your climate migration story shared on Climate One, give us a call at 650 382-3869. Please keep your voicemail under two minutes and include your name and contact information so we know how to reach you if we decide to feature your story.
    For show notes and related links, visit our website.
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  • 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. And in a bit of irony, those technological advances came from the oil and gas industry.

    Guests: 
    Amanda Kolker, Laboratory Program Manager for Geoscience and Geothermal Technologies, NREL
    Jamie Beard, founder of Project InnerSpace
    Lauren McLean, Mayor of Boise
    Contributing Producer: David Condos

    For show notes and related links, visit our website.
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  • As fossil fuels are phased out, shuttered coal plants, contaminated landfills, and abandoned mine lands across the U.S. are finding new life as renewable energy projects. More than 23 states have 100% clean energy goals, and in order to reach those goals, some states are starting to convert what was once considered “dirty” into “clean” energy generation.
    But what happens to the infrastructure, workers, and community after a coal plant shuts down? And as billions are dispersed through policies like the Inflation Reduction Act, what is being done to ensure that the same communities who have been historically left behind are included in the energy transition?
    Guests: 
    Mary Anne Hitt, Senior Director, Climate Imperative
    Thomas Ramey, Commercial Home Evaluator, Solar Holler
    Nick Mullins,  Energy Systems Technology Instructor, Tri-County Technical Center and Former Coal Miner
    Delmar Gillus, COO, Elevate
    This episode also features a reported piece by Jordan Gass-Pooré from the "Hazard NJ" podcast, an investigative podcast and multimedia project from NJ Spotlight News.
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  • A settlement for the largest civil penalty resulting from the Clean Air Act has just been reached. The EPA, DOJ and the State of California have agreed to a $1.7 billion fine for engine maker Cummins Inc. The fine is the result of Cummins being caught using “defeat devices” to fool emissions testers into thinking the engines pollute less than they really do.
    Does that sound familiar? It’s exactly what Volkswagen was caught doing nearly 10 years ago. VW and Cummins aren’t the only ones; it’s an industry wide problem. So how do we stop the deception? What have we learned since the infamous VW “Dieselgate” scandal? 
    Guests: 
    Rachel Muncrief, Acting Executive Director, ICCT
    Hector De La Torre, Member, California Air Resources Board
    Margo Oge, Former Director, Office of Transportation and Air Quality, U.S. EPA
    Alberto Ayala, Executive Director, Sacramento Metropolitan Air Quality Management District
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  • Jane Fonda has spent the last several decades fighting for Indigenous peoples' rights, economic justice, LGBTQ rights, peace, gender equality and more. Now, she is devoting herself to the climate emergency, beginning with Fire Drill Fridays, the national movement to protest government inaction on climate change she started in October 2019. 
    Through the Jane Fonda Climate PAC, she is focused on defeating political allies of the fossil fuel industry. At 85, Fonda continues to fight for the most vulnerable among us, consistently pointing out the intersection between the myriad of causes. What keeps the iconic Jane Fonda going strong? Revisit our discussion with this activist icon today.
    Guest:
    Jane Fonda, actor, activist
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    For show notes and related links, visit our website.
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  • We often talk about a “just transition” from dirty to clean energy as if the term means the same thing to everyone. Indigenous people have seen their resources extracted and exploited to further the wealth of others for centuries. Now renewable energy is looking to expand to Indigenous land.
    How can renewable energy help Tribes leapfrog the twentieth century technologies that put them at the end of the line for corporate-controlled electricity? How can we, as Chéri Smith, Founder of the Alliance for Tribal Clean Energy, says, “make sure that Tribes are not only having a seat at the table, but they're building the table and inviting everyone else to it?”
    Guests:
    Chéri Smith, President & CEO, Founder at Alliance for Tribal Clean Energy
    Steven Wadsworth, Vice Chairman, Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe
    Raylene Whitford, Founder, Canative Energy
    Maui Solomon, Executive Chairman, Moriaori Imi Settlement Trust
    For show notes and related links, visit our website.
    This episode was produced in collaboration with On Shifting Ground with Ray Suarez, featuring Suarez as a guest host. Additionally, Sarah Howard provides field reporting.
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  • What we wear defines us in so many ways. But in recent decades we’ve moved away from long-lasting, quality pieces in favor of disposable fast fashion, with major consequences for our climate and environment. From mechanized farming and pesticides to grow fiber crops, to energy for manufacturing and transportation, fossil fuels are embedded in the clothing industry at every step of the process.
    Companies large and small are working against this trend, with some setting lofty goals for reducing carbon emissions and water use. But achieving those goals is hard. So what are the solutions? Buy less? Design new fibers and materials? Thrifting and repurposing existing clothing? New business models? How can we make low-impact clothing?
    This episode was supported by BMO.
    Guests: 
    Aja Barber, Author, “Consumed: The Need for Collective Change: Colonialism, Climate Change and Consumerism”
    Jason Kibbey, President and Founder, Worldly
    Molly Morse, CEO, Mango Materials
    Jonathan Chapman, Professor, Carnegie Mellon University School of Design
    For show notes and related links, visit our website.
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  • The climate crisis can feel distant — like it’s someone else’s problem — until your town is flooded, your home is damaged by storms, or you're struggling to pay electricity bills as the summers get hotter. Figuring out the specifics of how a region is vulnerable to climate impacts can be the difference between adaptation or disaster, especially for communities that don’t have a lot of climate or environmental expertise among their members.
    Community science — defined as communities and scientists working together to address climate and environmental threats — can protect local communities before disaster strikes.
    Guests: 
    Natasha Udu-gama, Director, Thriving Earth Exchange
    Daniel Wildcat, Professor, Haskell Indian Nations University; Rising Voices Steering Committee
    Angela M. Chalk, Executive Director, Healthy Community Services 
    For show notes and related links, visit our website.
    This episode was produced in collaboration with the American Geophysical Union (AGU) and features a segment from Contributing Producer Graycen Wheeler.
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  • From the climate movement’s earliest days, young people have been at the forefront of activism. But the first major international climate conferences took place 30 years ago. The first cohort of youth activists are now adults, some with children of their own. The emotional cost of seeing so little payoff for years spent fighting can be agonizing at any age, but perhaps more so for young people who put so much of themselves into the effort.
    Many youth activists burned out along the way, frustrated by participating in actions that rarely led to meaningful and lasting change. How do former youth activists now view the work of their younger selves? And what advice do they have for the next generation?
    Guests:
    Alec Loorz, Writer, Photographer, former youth climate activist
    Slater Jewell-Kemker, Director, “Youth Unstoppable;” former youth climate activist
    Victoria Loorz, Founder, Center for Wild Spirituality; Author, “Church of the Wild: How Nature Invites Us into the Sacred” 
    Abrar Anwar, Chief Technology Officer, Rebel Force Tech Solutions; former youth climate activist
    Kyle Gracey, Strategy Consultant, Future Matters; former youth climate activist
    For show notes and related links, visit our website.
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  • Can you imagine if everything you needed in your everyday life was just a walk or bike ride away? That’s the goal of the 15-minute city, a new name for an old idea. Reducing the need for cars cuts emissions and gets autos off of the roads, which is a boon for safety, air quality and the climate.
    But, as is often the case, good ideas become a lot more difficult when you have to implement them in real places, with real people, who don’t always share the enthusiasm for the idea. What will it take to make compact, walkable cities a reality in the U.S., where the car is king?
    Guests: 
    Beth Osborne, Director, Transportation for America
    David Miller, Former Mayor of Toronto
    Justin Bibb, Mayor of Cleveland
    Henry Grabar, Author of Paved Paradise: How Parking Explains the World.
    For show notes and related links, visit our website.
    📞 Call us at (650) 382-3869 to share your clothing story for a chance to be featured on an upcoming episode!
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  • Ben Santer has spent decades researching and identifying the human fingerprints on the climate system changes we’re now all seeing. He was lead author on the historic 1995 conclusion of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which proclaimed that “the balance of evidence suggests a discernible human influence on global climate.” That was the first time the IPCC authoritatively stated humans are causing climate change.
    At the time, Stephen Schneider told Ben Santer that the sentence he wrote would change the world. Santer’s foundational work also laid the groundwork for the expanding field of attribution science, which enables activists and lawyers to ascribe proportionate blame to specific polluters in lawsuits demanding damages for climate-disrupting emissions. Climate One is delighted to present the 2023 Stephen H. Schneider Award for Outstanding Climate Science Communication to atmospheric scientist Ben Santer.
    Guests:
    Ben Santer, Fowler Distinguished Scholar in Residence, Woods Hole; Visiting Researcher, UCLA
    Kassie Siegel, Director, Climate Law Institute, Center for Biological Diversity
    For show notes and related links, visit our website.
    📞 Call us at (650) 382-3869 to share your clothing story for a chance to be featured on an upcoming episode!

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  • It’s been a year of weather extremes — again. But there’s also been cause for  renewed hope about our climate future. On the heels of this year’s international climate conference held in the oil-rich Middle East, Climate One hosts Greg Dalton and Ariana Brocious review major climate stories of the year, both lows and highs.
    This special episode features excerpts from some of Climate One’s most surprising, moving and compelling interviews of 2023, including conversations with luminaries Rev. Lennox Yearwood and Rebecca Solnit, White House Climate Advisor Ali Zaidi, climate activist Nalleli Cobo and U.S. Sen. Cory Booker.
    A previous version of this episode incorrectly stated that the COP28 agreement includes a transition from fossil fuels this decade. While the deal calls for the transition to happen in “a just, orderly and equitable manner,” it does not include a timeframe. We regret the error.
    Guests: 
    Rev. Lennox Yearwood, Jr., CEO, Hip Hop Caucus 
    Kathy Baughman-McLeod, Director, Adrienne Arsht-Rockefeller Foundation Resilience Center; Senior VP, Atlantic Council 
    Ali Zaidi, White House Climate Advisor
    Jane Fonda, Activist, Actor
    Nalleli Cobo, Cofounder, People Not Pozos
    Ralph Chami, Assistant Director, Western Hemisphere Division, Institute for Capacity Development, IMF
    Bernie Krause, Soundscape Ecologist
    Paolo Bacigalupi, author
    John Curtis, U.S. Representative (R-UT)
    Cory Booker, United States Senator, New Jersey
    Rebecca Solnit, Writer, Historian, Activist
    For show notes and related links, visit our website.
    📞 Call us at (650) 382-3869 to share your clothing story for a chance to be featured on an upcoming episode!
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  • This week, we’re reporting from Dubai, where the 28th UN climate change conference (COP28) is now underway. Ever since the Paris Agreement was signed at COP21, the central issue has remained the same: How do the nations of the world keep global heating to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels? 
    This year marks the first “global stocktake,” where the data on how well we’re collectively doing on meeting the Paris targets are front and center. Across the board, countries are failing. How much will this harsh dose of reality affect the negotiations? Perhaps more importantly, how does what happens at these international summits affect the people most at risk for flooding and extreme heat?
    Guests:
    Claire Stockwell, Senior Climate Policy Analyst, Climate Analytics
    Nisreen Elsaim, Sudanese Climate Activist; Former Chair, UN Secretary General’s Youth Advisory Group
    Abigael Kima, Host and Producer, Hali Hewa Podcast
    Chautuileo Tranamil, Co-Founder, Indigenous Liberation and Aralez
    Myrna Cunningham, Chair, Guiding Committee, Pawanka Fund
    For show notes and related links, visit our website.
    📞 Call us at (650) 382-3869 to share your clothing story for a chance to be featured on an upcoming episode!
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  • The 28th annual Conference of the Parties, COP28, opens this week in Dubai. For the 28th time, the nations of the world have gathered to see what progress they can make on addressing the increasingly global climate crisis. It’s fair to wonder why, after three decades, we still haven’t taken the collective action necessary. And it’s equally fair to wonder why diplomats continue to bother with what Greta Thunberg famously called “blah, blah, blah.”
    This year’s COP marks the first “Global Stocktake,” an assessment of how the nations of the world are doing compared to the emissions-cutting commitments they made in Paris. The answer? Not well. And with COP28 being hosted by a major oil and gas producing nation and led by an industry executive, what hope is there for progress?
    Guests:
    Daniel Esty, Professor of Environmental Law & Policy, Yale Law School
    Ben Stockton, Investigative Reporter
    Aisha Khan, Chief Executive, Civil Society Coalition for Climate Change
    This episode features a segment from Contributing Reporter Rabiya Jaffrey.
    For show notes and related links, visit our website.
    📞 Call us at (650) 382-3869 to share your clothing story for a chance to be featured on an upcoming episode!
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  • Most Americans support climate action, but you wouldn’t know it from Congress or the courts – or from most of the media. People on both the left and the right experience the same devastating floods, the same life-threatening heatwaves and the same catastrophic wildfires. Yet individuals tend to socialize within insulated political tribes, operate in completely different information bubbles and see the problems and solutions through different lenses.
    How can we learn to bridge ideological divides, develop trust, and find the common ground needed to rebuild respectful civil discourse?
    📞 Call us at (650) 382-3869 to share your clothing story for a chance to be featured on an upcoming episode!
    Guests:
    John Curtis, U.S. Rep., Utah (R)
    Joan Blades, Co-founder, LivingRoomConversations.org
    John Gable, Co-founder, AllSides.com
    For show notes and related links, visit our website.
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  • From The Coolest Show:
    The City of Atlanta has leased 381-acres of Weelaunee Forest, stolen Muscogee land, to the Atlanta Police Foundation for a police military facility funded by corporations. This would be the largest police training facility in the US in a primarily Black community who overwhelmingly oppose the project. Despite over fifteen hours of public comments against the project, the City Council has approved $67 million in public funding for Cop City. The plans include military-grade training facilities, a mock city to practice urban warfare, dozens of shooting ranges, and a Black Hawk helicopter landing pad.
    Residents have petitioned the municipal court of Atlanta to gather signatures for a binding referendum. With enough signatures, this would put whether or not Cop City gets built up for a vote on November’s ballot box. In this 2 part episode of The Coolest Show, Rev Yearwood speaks with community organizer Rev. Keyanna Jones, economist Dr. Gloria Bromell Tinubu, and community advocate Shar Bates. They discuss the history of the area surrounding the Weelaunee forest, the legacy of environmental racism, the community’s work to get signatures, and “the Atlanta Way.”
    Support the Stop Cop City movement: https://www.copcityvote.com/
    For more from The Coolest Show: https://thecoolestshow.com/
    This episode was originally produced by The Coolest Show, a Hip Hop Caucus Think 100% production, and was used by Climate One with permission.
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