The Climate Pod – Details, episodes & analysis

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We're coming up on the 10th anniversary of the Paris Agreement. In this new series from The Climate Pod, we're looking back on the global pact to determine: how have things changed since 2015 and what has the Paris Agreement accomplished?

To kick off the series, Dr. Kristina Dahl, vice president for Science at Climate Central and the co-author of the new report Ten Years of the Paris Agreement: The Present and Future of Extreme Heat, joins the show to talk about how our understanding and projections of extreme heat have changed over the course of the decade. We talk about the importance of the Paris Agreement's temperature targets set and how extreme weather events and the role of attribution science in understanding climate change's impact has radically changed since 2015. We look at the challenges of communicating extreme heat risks now, the need for transformative adaptation strategies, and the importance of addressing structural inequities in climate resilience that haven't been remedied since Paris was signed. Finally, we look at the real threat of extreme heat in the future, how our lives might change, and the deadliest outcomes that haven't yet been truly avoided.

Please consider becoming a paid subscriber to our newsletter/podcast, The Climate Weekly, to help support this show. Your contributions will make the continuation of this show possible. 

Our music is "Gotta Get Up" by The Passion Hifi, check out his music at thepassionhifi.com. Rate, review and subscribe to this podcast on iTunes, Spotify, and more! Subscribe to our YouTube channel.

Become a paid subscriber to our newsletter/podcast, The Climate Weekly, to help support this show! It's fun. All the cool kids are doing it!

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Are global leaders trying to solve the wrong climate problem? In this episode, Professor Jessica Green aruges that too often governments and institutions have misdiagnosed the core issues of the climate crisis and are going about solutions in all the wrong ways as a result. In her new book,  Existential Politics: Why Global Climate Institutions Are Failing and How to Fix Them, she focuses on the power dynamics between fossil fuel asset owners and green asset owners and why it's critical to understand this as the central fight at the heart of climate change. Green argues that we need to shift focus from managing greenhouse gas emissions to managing assets, highlighting the existential threat fossil fuel companies face in a carbon-free economy and the potential for green asset owners to thrive in the future. She also explains the role of vulnerable asset owners, the political challenges of carbon pricing, and the importance of green industrial policy. We discuss what the Paris Agreement has and hasn't accomplished and why we need to better understand the limitations of the IPCCC. 

Please consider becoming a paid subscriber to our newsletter/podcast, The Climate Weekly, to help support this show. Your contributions will make the continuation of this show possible. 

Our music is "Gotta Get Up" by The Passion Hifi, check out his music at thepassionhifi.com. Rate, review and subscribe to this podcast on iTunes, Spotify, and more! Subscribe to our YouTube channel.

Become a paid subscriber to our newsletter/podcast, The Climate Weekly, to help support this show! It's fun. All the cool kids are doing it!

This is an episode that fundamentally challenges the way I've thought about tackling climate change. I've always understood the history of energy as a history of transition. We went from burning a lot of wood to then burning a lot of coal, then moving from coal to mostly oil, then oil plus gas. But our guest today, Jean-Baptiste Fressoz, says that thinking is totally wrong. Instead of undergoing a series of energy transitions, where one form of energy largely replaces the other, history shows much more addition to substraction. The result: we keep burning and consuming more and more and more of everything. He argues the very idea of transition is a lie.

Jean-Baptiste Fressoz is a historian of science and technology. In his new book, More and More and More: An All-Consuming History of Energy, he argues not that an energy transition is impossible, but that we simply have never seen anything like it before. He notes that the relationship between different forms of energy is based on symbiosis, not competition, and as. a result greater consumption of all energy has just led to more of everything being used. So how did the idea of the energy transition take hold? Why is it still a salient concept in public energy discourse today? Jean-Baptiste explains. We also discuss how the fossil fuel industry has taken hold of this concept and used it to slow down action on climate change.

Jean-Baptiste Fressoz is a historian of science and technology at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique. He is the author of The Happy Apocalypse and The Shock of the Anthropocene. Read More and More and More.

Please consider becoming a paid subscriber to our newsletter/podcast, The Climate Weekly, to help support this show. Your contributions will make the continuation of this show possible. 

Our music is "Gotta Get Up" by The Passion Hifi, check out his music at thepassionhifi.com. Rate, review and subscribe to this podcast on iTunes, Spotify, and more! Subscribe to our YouTube channel.

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 megathreats at the same time.

Buy "How to Fix a Broken Planet"

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As always, follow us @climatepod on Twitter and email us at theclimatepod@gmail.com. Our music is "Gotta Get Up" by The Passion Hifi, check out his music at thepassionhifi.com. Rate, review and subscribe to this podcast on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, and more! Subscribe to our new YouTube channel! Join our Facebook group.

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 conversation only scratches the surface of everything they uncovered while trying to get to the origin of the market fundamentalism myth that has dominated American popular culture for the last 100 years, and how that myth has led to the climate crisis we're facing today.

Buy "The Big Myth"

Subscribe to our Substack newsletter "The Climate Weekly"

As always, follow us @climatepod on Twitter and email us at theclimatepod@gmail.com. Our music is "Gotta Get Up" by The Passion Hifi, check out his music at thepassionhifi.com. Rate, review and subscribe to this podcast on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, and more! Subscribe to our new YouTube channel! Join our Facebook group.

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 we  attempt to address these crises. 

In this wide-ranging conversation, Hawley talks about why he wanted to write Anthem, why climate change plays such a crucial role in his characters thoughts and the novel's environment, how we address conspiracy in our culture, the influence of Kurt Vonnegut, the battle of good and evil in Fargo, and much, much more. 

 Read Anthem here

Subscribe to our Substack newsletter "The Climate Weekly"

As always, follow us @climatepod on Twitter and email us at theclimatepod@gmail.com. Our music is "Gotta Get Up" by The Passion Hifi, check out his music at thepassionhifi.com. Rate, review and subscribe to this podcast on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, and more! Subscribe to our new YouTube channel! Join our Facebook group.

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. This is a wide-ranging and fascinating conversation with someone who has dedicated his career to deploying clean energy around the globe.

Subscribe to our Substack newsletter "The Climate Weekly"

As always, follow us @climatepod on Twitter and email us at theclimatepod@gmail.com. Our music is "Gotta Get Up" by The Passion Hifi, check out his music at thepassionhifi.com. Rate, review and subscribe to this podcast on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, and more! Subscribe to our new YouTube channel! Join our Facebook group.

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 pass, what Minnesota voters think of clean energy policy, and how other states can fill the void created by a federal government that's currently being held back from passing more climate legislation by Republicans unwilling to address the climate crisis.

Subscribe to our Substack newsletter "The Climate Weekly"

As always, follow us @climatepod on Twitter and email us at theclimatepod@gmail.com. Our music is "Gotta Get Up" by The Passion Hifi, check out his music at thepassionhifi.com. Rate, review and subscribe to this podcast on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, and more! Subscribe to our new YouTube channel! Join our Facebook group.

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 crisis in 2023, the role of entertainment and activists, and why getting people to understand that the climate crisis is an emergency is so critical. 

Take part in the auction here: https://www.charitybuzz.com/theme/MakeAdamMcKayRegretIt/lots

Check out Climate Emergency Fund

Follow Adam McKay on Mastodon

Subscribe to our Substack newsletter "The Climate Weekly"

As always, follow us @climatepod on Twitter and email us at theclimatepod@gmail.com. Our music is "Gotta Get Up" by The Passion Hifi, check out his music at thepassionhifi.com. Rate, review and subscribe to this podcast on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, and more! Subscribe to our new YouTube channel! Join our Facebook group.

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 Engineering at Stanford University, where he also serves as the Director of the Atmosphere/Energy Program, and Senior Fellow of both the Woods Institute for the Environment and Precourt Institute for Energy. Jacobson is also the co-founder of The Solutions Project and 100.org. 

Read No Miracles Needed: How Today's Technology Can Save Our Climate and Clean Our Air

Subscribe to our Substack newsletter "The Climate Weekly"

As always, follow us @climatepod on Twitter and email us at theclimatepod@gmail.com. Our music is "Gotta Get Up" by The Passion Hifi, check out his music at thepassionhifi.com. Rate, review and subscribe to this podcast on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, and more! Subscribe to our new YouTube channel! Join our Facebook group.