The climate movement faces mounting pressure in 2024. Record-setting temperatures and extreme weather disasters continue to devastate over a turbulent summer. Prominent plans to roll back environmental regulations and stiffle climate mitigation and adaptation initiatives have movement leaders pushing back on attacks. Is the climate movement able to handle the pressure at this critical moment? 

Few people are as equipped to answer that question as Rev. Lennox Yearwood Jr. Over his decades of climate and progressive leadership, Rev. Yearwood has advanced climate solutions with policymaking, culture change, direct action, and more. And he's part of a new initiative to educate people on critical issues like climate change during this transmorative year. 

The "2024 & Beyond: Creating Our Shared Future" campaign is reaching out with open town halls to educate and debate on key political issues and building a network of experts and organizations like Center for Climate Justice, Center for Popular Democracy, Hip Hop Caucus, Greenpeace, and Center for Oil and Gas Organizing.  

Rev. Yearwood Jr. joins the show this week to discuss his life and work, how change actually happens in the climate movement, why the climate movement needs to address its own weaknesses, and what strategies will be most effective in advancing progress and fighting off attacks. 

Rev. Yearwood Jr. is the President & CEO of Hip Hop Caucus. He is the host of the award-winning climate and environmental justice podcast The Coolest Show, Senior Advisor of Bloomberg Philanthropies Beyond Petrochemicals Campaign, and one of the most innovative advocates and strategists for racial justice and climate justice. He is a White House Champion of Change for Climate leadership and according to Rolling Stone he is a "New Green Hero."

Related Links:

2024 & Beyond: Creating Our Shared Future

Hip Hop Caucus

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 YouTube channel! Join our Facebook group.

In 2008, the world economic system was rocked by a financial crisis that stemmed from risky mortgages being securitized and sold as safe investments to unknowing investors.  Misaligned incentives, unpriced risk, deceptive selling practices, and a lack of regulatory scrutiny throughout the financial industry led to the Great Recession, the consequences of which we're still feeling in a variety of ways today.

While somewhat different from what preceded the 2008 financial crisis, there are clear parallels with what's happening in the home insurance and mortgage markets in areas most at risk to damage from climate-worsened storms.  As large, traditional insurance companies are leaving states like Florida, California, and Louisiana because the damages from hurricanes, floods, and wildfires have become too large, new insurance companies are replacing them. These companies are smaller, less diverse, and rely on a ratings agency known to provide good ratings to underserving companies. Unsurprisingly, when climate catastrophes hit, these insurers often go bankrupt, leaving home owners and their banks with a destroyed home and asset without the funds to rebuild or even repair.  And the implications of this aren't isolated to the local level, because most of these mortgages are securitized and sold at the national level.

This week, Prof. Pari Sastry joins the show to discuss her recent paper "When Insurers Exit: Climate Losses, Fragile Insurers, and Mortgage Markets".  This paper explains how the home home mortgage, insurance markets, and global economy are interconnected and how the climate crisis is impacting all three.  As the world is still recovering from the 2008 financial crisis, it's shocking to see the early stages of what appears to be some of the same causes play out today.  And we know that the climate crisis is only going to increase the number of severe weather events, which will put an even greater strain on insurance and mortgage companies, further worsening an already fragile relationship.

Prof. Pari Sastry is an Assistant Professor of Finance at Columbia Business School where she focuses her research on climate finance.

Read "When Insurers Exit": https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4674279

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 YouTube channel! Join our Facebook group.

Over the past five years, there have been several studies showing how the climate crisis is impacting major life decisions.  Whether it's where to live, how to invest, or what to study, young people today are being forced to confront a climate-worsened future and decide what's best for their personal situation given the very public failures of leaders to limit global warming.  One particular decision that has received a lot of public attention is whether or not to have a child in the middle of a climate crisis.  These studies are appearing more frequently than ever before as the climate crisis becomes more apparent than ever, but almost all of these studies fail to incorporate how this decision is impacted by the respondent's race.

Dr. Jade Sasser joins the podcast this week to talk about how climate anxiety is affecting some of life's biggest decisions. Dr. Jade Sasser is an Associate Professor at the University of California Riverside and the author of the new book "Climate Anxiety and the Kid Question: Deciding Whether to Have Children in an Uncertain Future."  Not only does this book explore the anxieties and hesitations that people have about bringing children into a world in the midst of a climate crisis, but it also looks at how the climate crisis exacerbates other social inequities and how climate anxiety affects people of different races differently.

Read "Climate Anxiety and the Kid Question"

Listen to Dr. Sasser's podcast "Climate Anxiety and the Kid Question"

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 YouTube channel! Join our Facebook group.

If we have any chance of staying under 2 degrees Celsius of warming above pre-industrial levels, the United States and China will have to act aggressively to reduce emissions in the next few decades and support the rest of the world as it decarbonizes. And to achieve that, both nations will have to work together effectively, which has become increasingly uncertain in recent years. So how do we change the current trajectory and steer away from escalating conflict?

In his new book, The Avoidable War: The Dangers of a Catastrophic Conflict between the US and Xi Jinping's China, former Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, who currently serves as President of the Asia Society, outlines a detailed plan for how the two global superpowers can establish strategic competition with each other without resorting to catastrophic war. He also weighs in on how the United States and China can work more effectively on the climate crisis and what we should learn in the breakdown in talks following Speaker Nancy Pelosi's visit to Taiwan. Lastly, Mr. Rudd gives his thoughts on the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act in the United States and Australia's plan to reduce emissions by 43% by 2030 from 2005 levels. 

Buy The Avoidable War here

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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. Check out our updated website!

It's our 200th episode with David Roberts on the day the Inflation Reduction Act is signed into law! This is a very special one for us. One of our favorite guests, who was very cool to us early on when we were just getting started, is back to the talk about the biggest climate legislation in US history. Roberts is a longtime climate/energy writer that now runs the newsletter/podcast Volts, about clean energy and politics. He joins the show to unpack the Inflation Reduction Act, what he thinks will be the major benefits of the bill, how Democrats got the biggest investment in US climate history passed, how this compares to the Waxman-Markey failure, and what happens to the climate movement next. 

You can subscribe to Volts here.

Subscribe to our Substack newsletter "The Climate Weekly": https://theclimateweekly.substack.com/

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. Check out our updated website!

On today's show, we're having some fun with one of our first in-person interviews with Adam Gardiner, guitarist/vocalist for Guster and co-founder of REVERB, which has helped lead the music climate revolution since 2004. We discuss why Adam started using his rock fame to promote climate action, how artists can green venues and help unite the music community to address the climate crisis, and what campaigns REVERB is focused on now. We recorded this live a few months ago, just hours before Guster took the stage and it's fantastic. 

More on REVERB:

REVERB is a nonprofit dedicated to empowering millions of individuals to take action toward a better future for people and the planet. REVERB partners with musicians, festivals, and venues to green their concert events while engaging fans face-to-face at shows to take environmental and social action. Check out their current campaigns, ways to take action, and help volunteer. Follow REVERB on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. 

Subscribe to our Substack newsletter "The Climate Weekly": https://theclimateweekly.substack.com/

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. Check out our updated website!

This week, Dr. Sabine Hossenfelder, a theoretical physicist, a research fellow at the Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies, and the author of the new book "Existential Physics: A Scientist's Guide to Life's Biggest Questions", joins us to discuss how understanding science can help us better understand the meaning of our own existence. We also talk about whether everything is actually happening all at once, if humans can create new universes, and whether or not human behavior is truly predictable.

Check out Dr. Hossenfelder's YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/SabineHossenfelder

Subscribe to our Substack newsletter "The Climate Weekly": https://theclimateweekly.substack.com/

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. Check out our updated website!

Dr. Paul Krugman, Nobel Prize in Economics recipient and Distinguished Professor of Economics at City University of New York, joins the show to talk about what's driving the world's rising inflation rates, how investments in climate solutions would impact inflation and the economy, and the prospects of Congress passing a climate spending bill. Dr. Krugman also provides his thoughts on the Federal Reserve increasing interest rates, whether or not the US is in a recession, and what all of this means for climate investments.

Plus, co-hosts Ty and Brock Benefiel discuss the importance of environmental and climate advocates building political power and the urgency to elect policymakers who will support climate solutions.

Further Reading:

Paul Krugman "I Was Wrong About Inflation"

Paul Krugman "Climate Politics Are Worse Than You Think"

Nathaniel Stinnett "Climate Movement Must Stop Hoping for Political Heroes"

Subscribe to our Substack newsletter "The Climate Weekly": https://theclimateweekly.substack.com/

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. Check out our updated website!

Last week, Sen. Joe Manchin may have ended the possibility of new federal spending on climate provisions. Or at least it seems that way. What we know is that for the last year and half, people all over the world have waited and watched to see what Manchin would accept to push the United States toward meeting it's commitments in the Paris Agreement. And now, that answer may be nothing. In his recent piece, Joe Manchin's Fickleness Is a Needless Catastrophe, The Atlantic's Robinson Meyer unpacks the saga and why this time feels different. He joins the show to discuss his piece as well as explain the very real implications for the Senate's massive failure and what could happen next. 

Subscribe to our Substack newsletter "The Climate Weekly": https://theclimateweekly.substack.com/

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. Check out our updated website!

Solving the climate crisis is about more than just swapping out fossil fuels with renewables. Though renewable energy is required for a sustainable planet, understanding the political, social, and economic structures that have allowed for fossil fuels to be burned long after global warming reached dangerous levels is essential for attacking the root causes of the crisis. Professor Aviva Chomsky addresses these issues in her new book Is Science Enough? Forty Critical Questions About Climate Justice. In this conversation, Professor Chomsky explains why social, racial, and economic justice is just as crucial as science in determining how humans can reverse climate catastrophe. We also discuss the Green New Deal, the Degrowth movement, tension between unions and the environmental movement, and why climate change is a democracy problem. 

Read Is Science Enough?

Subscribe to our Substack newsletter "The Climate Weekly": https://theclimateweekly.substack.com/

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. Check out our updated website!

This week, Adrienne Buller joins the show to discuss her new book "The Value of a Whale: On the Illusions of Green Capitalism". While the book covers many issues with "green capitalist solutions", we focus on our conversation on ESG investing and sustainable finance in general.

Plus, co-hosts Ty and Brock Benefiel briefly discuss the Supreme Court's ruling on West Virginia v. EPA and the need for more regulations to end the burning of fossil fuels.

Read "The Value of a Whale": https://manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/9781526162632/

Learn more about Common Wealth: https://www.common-wealth.co.uk/

Subscribe to our Substack newsletter "The Climate Weekly": https://theclimateweekly.substack.com/

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. Check out our updated website!

Popular films have massive influence over our culture. It's where we go to see the biggest stories on the biggest screen. It's where we go to see Nicole Kidman do that weird commerical before the film starts. Movies are really, really important.

So, why isn't the climate crisis, one of the defining issues of our time, on the silver screen more often. That's a question Anna Jane Joyner and Matthew Schneider-Mayerson are investigating. Together, they put together a new report, Climate Reality On-Screen: The Climate Crisis in Popular Films, 2013–22, which outlines how often the climate crisis is showing up in famous flicks and how often we see characters aware of its existence on screen. This week, Anna Jane and Matthew explain their findings, what it means for the industry, our politics, and how filmmakers can do better going forward. 

Anna Jane Joyner is a climate story consultant and the founder and director of Good Energy.  Matthew Schneider-Mayerson is an associate professor of English and environmental studies at Colby College. Read their report, Climate Reality On-Screen: The Climate Crisis in Popular Films, 2013–22 here. 

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 YouTube channel! Join our Facebook group.

We can't fully appreciate the world around us without trying to understand the vastly different experiences of other animals on our shared planet. That is exactly what Ed Yong explores in his new book, An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal The Hidden Realms Around Us. He joins the show this week to explain the complex nature of our senses and the senses of other animals, how this reveals important parallels to the climate fight, and how we limit damage caused by noise and light pollution and consider animals when decarbonizing. We also discuss the state of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2022 and what he's learned covering the pandemic. 

Co-hosts Ty and Brock Benefiel also discuss the Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade and the hypocrisy and cruelty of the court as it looks to limit pollution and emissions regulations. 

Ed Yong is a science writer at The Atlantic. He won the Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Reporting for his coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic. He is previously the author of I Contain Multitudes: The Microbes Within Us and a Grander View of Life.

Read An Immense World

Subscribe to our Substack newsletter "The Climate Weekly": https://theclimateweekly.substack.com/

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. Check out our updated website!

Further Reading:

Tayhlor Coleman's Twitter thread on building political power to fight rightwing movements

Rep. Sean Casten's Twitter thread on breaking the filibuster to protect reproductive rights

Former Obama Administration official Brandi Colander on Research Connecting Climate Change to Pregnancy Complications (47:30)

Clayton Thomas-Müller has spent decades fighting for justice and climate action as an organizer, facilitator, public speaker and writer on environmental and economic justice. In his powerful new memoir, Life in the City of Dirty Water: A memoir of healing, he details the life he experienced that inspired him to take such action and what inspires him to fight now. This week, he joins us on the show to talk about his career in environmental justice and climate action, how raising kids has informed his own work, and what he has seen succeed and fail in the climate movement, and what he hopes to do in his role as a Senior Campaign Specialist with 350 Canada.

Subscribe to our Substack newsletter "The Climate Weekly": https://theclimateweekly.substack.com/

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. Check out our updated website!

Gina McCarthy currently serves in the Biden Administration as the first ever White House National Climate Advisor. On June 6th, President Biden invoked the Defense Production Act to drive domestic manufacturing of clean energy technologies. McCarthy joins the show to explain how this Executive Action will increase the production of clean energy in America, what technologies are included in this decision, how this can advance environmental justice, and why President Biden felt now was the right time to take this action. 

Subscribe to our Substack newsletter "The Climate Weekly": https://theclimateweekly.substack.com/

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. Check out our updated website!

Bill McKibben needs no introduction. The legendary author, educator, organizer, and activist has spent decades in the climate fight. He is the co-founder of 350.org, the first global grassroots climate campaign, and founder of Third Act, a new organization focused on empowering people over 60 to fight for progressive action.

In his latest book The Flag, the Cross, and the Station Wagon: A Graying American Looks Back at His Suburban Boyhood and Wonders What the Hell Happened, McKibben reinvestigates his hometown and learns lessons that apply to his entire generation and the nation. He discusses what he learned, why it matters now, and how to inspire Baby Boomers and older Americans to reclaim the social justice momentum of their youth. He also lends his thoughts on the Biden administration and what he hopes to see with climate action in 2022.

Read The Flag, the Cross, and the Station Wagon

Subscribe to our Substack newsletter "The Climate Weekly": https://theclimateweekly.substack.com/

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. Check out our updated website!

Jamie Henn pulls no punches when he criticizes Big Oil's role is high prices at the gas pump. As he explains in this week's episode, skyrocketing energy costs can be attributed to oil companies price gouging and war profiteering during the current crisis with the war in Ukraine. And his organization, Fossil Free Media has a new campaign to confront the issue. The organization recently launched STOP, which stands for Stop the Oil Profiteering and is working with members of the U.S. Congress and advocacy groups to pass the Big Oil Windfall Profits Tax. On this episode, Henn explains exactly what the tax would do, who would benefit from passing it, and why he believes Big Oil companies are preying on consumers. We also discuss the state of climate activism in 2022, why going after Big Oil is good politics, and how to fight burnout after a number of political setbacks and ongoing crises.

And be sure to check out Clean Creatives and People vs Fossil Fuels.

Subscribe to our Substack newsletter "The Climate Weekly": https://theclimateweekly.substack.com/

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. Check out our updated website!

Facing up to a climate crisis is a lot to handle. We have to push for the rapid deployment of solutions to mitigate more warming and greater damage. We have to adapt to warming that has already occurred and will be coming soon. And we need to repair loss and damage that people around the globe have already suffered. But as denial and inaction still blocks necessary efforts and planetary destruction is constantly on display in our news feeds, how do we process the complex emotions that inevitably follow? In her new book, Dr. Britt Wray aims to answer that question. Dr. Wray is a Human and Planetary Health Postdoctoral Fellow at the Stanford Center for Innovation in Global Health, Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment and London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Centre on Climate Change and Planetary Health. She the creator of the weekly newsletter about "staying sane in the climate crisis" Gen Dread and author of the new book, Generation Dread: Finding Purpose in an Age of Climate Crisis. She joins the show this week to help us unpack many of the complexities that are unfolding in the climate community and beyond - focusing on how we deal with the litany of emotions in the healthiest ways possible and use our emotions to fight for a better future and fight against doomerism. 

Read Generation Dread: Finding Purpose in an Age of Climate Crisis 

Subscribe to our Substack newsletter "The Climate Weekly": https://theclimateweekly.substack.com/

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. Check out our updated website!

This week, Prof. Jeffrey Sachs joins the show to give his thoughts on the international diplomacy he says is needed to end the Russia-Ukraine War. In April 2022, Professor Sachs and the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network issued a statement calling on the United Nations Security Council to increase diplomatic efforts to bring a swift end to the war in Ukraine. Professor Sachs also explains how this war has diverted resources and attention away from solving the climate crisis at a time when the world can't afford not to transition to a more sustainable future.

Check out Book Club with Jeffrey Sachs

Subscribe to our Substack newsletter "The Climate Weekly": https://theclimateweekly.substack.com/

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. Check out our updated website!

Further Reading:

The U.S. pledged billions to fight climate change. Then came the Ukraine war

This is Part Four of our four-part series, Waves of Change, in collaboration with Oceana. In March, at the UN Environment Assembly (UNEA-5) in Nairobi, world leaders and representatives from UN Member States endorsed a historic resolution to End Plastic Pollution. By 2024, leaders will create an international legally binding agreement to fight the plastic problem with a global treaty. So what exactly is this treaty and what should it include? Christy Leavitt, Oceana's Plastics Campaign Director, joins the show to explain the efforts and why it was pursued. Then, Christopher Chin, Executive Director of the Center for Ocean Awareness, Research, and Education (COARE), joins the show to take us behind the scenes of negotiations and help us understand what comes next as details of the legal binding agreement are hammered out. 

Subscribe to our Substack newsletter "The Climate Weekly": https://theclimateweekly.substack.com/

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. Check out our updated website!

This is Part Three of our four-part series, Waves of Change, in collaboration with Oceana. This week, we shift our focus from offshore drilling to the devastating impacts that plastics and plastics production facilities are having on communities around the world. First, we speak with Yvette Arellano, the founder and Executive Director of Fenceline Watch, a Houston-based organization dedicated to the eradication of toxic multigenerational harm on communities living along the fenceline of industry. Then we speak with Oceana's Plastics Campaign Director, Christy Leavitt, about the health impacts of plastics and what Oceana is doing to stop plastic pollution.

Subscribe to our Substack newsletter "The Climate Weekly": https://theclimateweekly.substack.com/

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. Check out our updated website!

In his new book, Paradise Falls, New York Times bestselling author Keith O'Brien details the true story of a working-class neighborhood in western New York that is suddenly confronted with a wide-spread environmental crisis in the late 1970s. O'Brien joins the show to discuss how he researched his book, why he wanted to revisit this story that made national headlines for years, how the tragedy that unfolded almost 50 years ago is still incredibly relevant today, and what we can learn from the ordinary people in western New York that took on the responsibility to become environmental heroes to fight for justice in their community.  

Buy Paradise Falls: The True Story of an Environmental Catastrophe 

Subscribe to our Substack newsletter "The Climate Weekly": https://theclimateweekly.substack.com/

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.

The American Climate Corps, an initiative that will employ 20,000 Americans in its first year to combat the climate crisis, is launching this week as the Biden Administration delivers on another campaign promise. Learning from previous national service programs such as FDR's Civilian Conservation Corps and AmeriCorps, the American Climate Corps will give young people the opportunity to learn new skills, build a pathway to a career in the clean energy economy, and earn a competitive wage.

On this special Earth Day 2024 episode, White House National Climate Advisor Ali Zaidi joins us to explain how the American Climate Corps works, how people can participate, and why more money should be invested in growing the program to expand its reach and impact. We also talk about President Biden's Solar For All announcement which will fund $7 Billion in clean energy grants.

Learn more about the American Climate Corps at www.ACC.gov

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 YouTube channel! Join our Facebook group.

This is Part Two of our four-part series, Waves of Change, in collaboration with Oceana. This week, we examine how offshore drilling for oil disproportionately impacts Black and Brown communities living near the coasts and what can legally be done to prevent future disasters. First, we speak with Dr. Gabriella Meltzer about the environmental justice impacts of oil spills and climate-fueled weather disasters and how the health of children in those communities are impacted by facing multiple fossil fuel-driven catastrophes in their lifetimes. Then, Chris Eaton, a senior attorney with the Oceans Program at Earthjustice, joins the show to talk about the legal strategies his organization has employed to help environmental justice organizations sue governments and businesses in order to protect their communities from fossil fuels. 

Check out Dr. Meltzer's papers:

Adverse Physical and Mental Health Effects of the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill Among Gulf Coast Children: An Environmental Justice Perspective

The Effects of Cumulative Natural Disaster Exposure on Adolescent Psychological Distress

Environmentally Marginalized Populations: the perfect storm for infectious disease pandemics, including COVID19

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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. Check out our updated website!

Introducing a new four-part series, Waves of Change, in collaboration with Oceana. Over the next four weeks, we'll explore the climate, economic, and environmental justice impacts of offshore drilling and plastics.

12 years after the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill, fossil fuel companies are drilling deeper than ever before off of America's coasts. Lawmakers seem to have learned little from the oil rig explosion that killed 11 people and spilled more than 200 million gallons of oil into the Gulf over 87 days. However, today's guests are pushing regulators and businesses to do more to prevent the next offshore oil disaster.

Cynthia Sarthou is the Executive Director of Healthy Gulf, which is focused on protecting the Gulf and everyone and everything that calls the Gulf home.

Diane Hoskins is Oceana's Campaign Director focused on stopping offshore drilling.

Vipe Desai is serial entrepreneur dedicated to protecting the ocean and coastal communities by sitting on the boards of organizations like Lonely Whale and AltaSea.

Subscribe to our Substack newsletter "The Climate Weekly": https://theclimateweekly.substack.com/

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. Check out our updated website!

In her brilliant new book, The Intersectional Environmentalist: How to Dismantle Systems of Oppression to Protect People + Planet, activist and eco-communicator Leah Thomas put forth a helpful introduction to understanding the intersection between environmentalism, racism, and privilege. She joins the show this week to talk about the book, how she first got inspired to study environmentalism, how her activism took off with post championing "Environmentalists for Black Lives Matter," and why the climate and environmental movements desperately need to improve with an intersectional approach to action and justice. 

Read The Intersectional Environmentalist: How to Dismantle Systems of Oppression to Protect People + Planet

Subscribe to our Substack newsletter "The Climate Weekly": https://theclimateweekly.substack.com/

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. Check out our updated website!

As a warming planet makes extreme weather worse, some communities are more vulnerable and less capable to react than others to hurricanes, heat waves, floods, fires, and more. Dr. Marshall Shepherd describes this as the "Extreme Weather Gap", and he joined The Climate Pod to discuss the systemic inequities that have led to the disproportionate impacts of climate-worsened weather. Dr. Shepherd also discusses his incredible career, why the murder of George Floyd motivated him to write a book on justice, and the work he and his colleagues are doing to help cities adapt to the effects of urban heat islands.

Dr. Marshall Shepherd is the Director of the University of Georgia's Atmospheric Sciences program, where he is also the Distinguished Professor of Geography and Atmospheric Sciences. He previously held the position of President of the American Meteorological Society. 

Read "The Race Awakening of 2020"

Listen to Weather Geeks

Subscribe to our Substack newsletter "The Climate Weekly": https://theclimateweekly.substack.com/

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. Check out our updated website!

This is Part Four of our four-part series, Climate Citizen, in collaboration with Global Citizen. This week, we look at the critical need to preserve biodiversity, protect natural ecosystems, and leverage nature-based solutions for decarbonization. To discuss this topic, we have three amazing guests. First, Dr. Stephanie Roe, the World Wildlife Fund's Global Climate & Energy Lead Scientist and Lead Author of the third installment of the IPCC's Sixth Assessment Report, joins the show to discuss the report and the current state of global biodiversity concerns. Then, Max Almeida, a program project manager at the Center For Environmental Peacebuilding, where he is responsible for the partnerships and projects going on in Brazil, joins the show to discuss the impacts of deforestation and desertification, and ongoing issues with biodiversity loss and land degradation in Brazil. Finally, Dr. Will Turner, Senior Scientist and Senior Vice President For Natural Climate Solutions at Conservation International, joins the show to discuss big solutions that we can tackle with nature-based strategies and what can be accomplished in the near-term and for decades to come. 

Subscribe to our Substack newsletter "The Climate Weekly": https://theclimateweekly.substack.com/

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. Check out our updated website!

About Global Citizen

Global Citizen is the world's largest movement of action takers and impact makers dedicated to ending extreme poverty now. With over 10 million monthly advocates, our voices have the power to drive lasting change around sustainability, equality, and humanity. Global Citizen posts, tweets, messages, votes, signs, and calls to inspire those who can make things happen to act — government leaders, businesses, philanthropists, artists, and citizens — together improving lives. By downloading the Global Citizen app, Global Citizens learn about the systemic causes of extreme poverty, take action on those issues, and earn rewards with tickets to concerts, events, and experiences all over the world. Global Citizens have taken over 28.4 million actions since 2009. Today, these actions, in combination with high-level advocacy work, have led to over $35.4 billion being distributed to our partners around the world, impacting 1.09 billion lives in the fight to end extreme poverty. Check out Global Citizen's Climate Work and follow on Twitter,  YouTube, and Instagram.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's (IPCC) latest report, Mitigation of Climate Change, provides an update on the planet's current trajectory for global warming, the failings of governments to live up to their climate promises, and the solutions that need to be rapidly implemented to drastically reduce emissions and limit future warming. This is part three of its Sixth Assessment Report.

Dr. Paulina Jaramillo joins us to discuss the report and the section of the report which she was the Coordinating Lead Author, the decarbonization of transportation.

If you haven't already, listen to our conversation here with IPCC lead author Dr. Ed Hawkins on part one of Sixth Assessment Report, Climate Change 2021: The Physical Science Basis. And be sure to check our interview with Prof. Jörn Birkmann on part two of the Sixth Assessment Report, Climate Impacts, Adaptations, and Vulnerability.

Subscribe to our Substack newsletter "The Climate Weekly": https://theclimateweekly.substack.com/

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. Check out our updated website!

The world is populated by almost 8 billion people. Is overpopulation actually a problem? As climate change disrupts and destroys the livelihoods of so many of those 8 billion people, how will countries react to the growing need for more welcoming immigration policies?

This week, we spoke with Dr. Jennifer Sciubba about her new book 8 Billion and Counting: How Sex, Death, and Migration Shape Our World. Dr. Sciubba is an associate professor in the Department of International Studies at Rhodes College and a Global Fellow with the Environmental Change and Security Program at the Woodrow Wilson Center.

Subscribe to our Substack newsletter "The Climate Weekly": https://theclimateweekly.substack.com/

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. Check out our updated website!

This is Part Three of our four-part series, Climate Citizen, in collaboration with Global Citizen. This week, we look at the critical need to reckon with the loss and damage created by the climate crisis and hold accountable the nations most responsible for human-caused climate change as a result of the massive rise in greenhouse gas emissions. To discuss this topic, Professor Saleemul Huq, who has many roles including the Director of the International Centre for Climate Change and Development (ICCCAD) in Bangladesh, Professor at the Independent University Bangladesh (IUB) and Associate of the International Institute on Environment and Development (IIED) in the United Kingdom. He explains what the Global North needs to do in order to address loss and damage, why the conversation on loss and damage has never been more critical, and what's happening in ongoing international negotiations in 2022. 

Subscribe to our Substack newsletter "The Climate Weekly": https://theclimateweekly.substack.com/

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. Check out our updated website!

About Global Citizen

Global Citizen is the world's largest movement of action takers and impact makers dedicated to ending extreme poverty now. With over 10 million monthly advocates, our voices have the power to drive lasting change around sustainability, equality, and humanity. Global Citizen posts, tweets, messages, votes, signs, and calls to inspire those who can make things happen to act — government leaders, businesses, philanthropists, artists, and citizens — together improving lives. By downloading the Global Citizen app, Global Citizens learn about the systemic causes of extreme poverty, take action on those issues, and earn rewards with tickets to concerts, events, and experiences all over the world. Global Citizens have taken over 28.4 million actions since 2009. Today, these actions, in combination with high-level advocacy work, have led to over $35.4 billion being distributed to our partners around the world, impacting 1.09 billion lives in the fight to end extreme poverty. Check out Global Citizen's Climate Work and follow on Twitter,  YouTube, and Instagram.

David Sirota is a journalist, author, founder and Editor in Chief of The Lever, podcast narrator, and now an Oscar nominee for his work co-writing Don't Look Up with Adam McKay. He joins us on the show days before the Oscars to discuss the importance of having a climate change film at the Academy Awards, how he came up with the idea for Don't Look Up, and how the film is even more relevant now during the rightwing push for more fossil fuel extraction. 

Subscribe to our Substack newsletter "The Climate Weekly": https://theclimateweekly.substack.com/

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. Check out our updated website!

This is Part Two of our four-part series, Climate Citizen, in collaboration with Global Citizen. This week, we look at the critical need for greater climate funding to help mitigate carbon emissions in the Global South and help the most vulnerable populations to adapt to climate impacts and why climate justice is only possible through fair, adequate financing. To discuss this topic, Harjeet Singh, senior adviser on climate impacts with Climate Action Network International and a strategic advisor on global partnerships with the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Initiative, and Mwandwe Chileshe, a Global Citizen Campaigner focused on food security, agriculture, and nutrition issues. We talk about why inadequate climate financing can't be tolerated, what the Global North needs to deliver now, and how climate impacts our food system and food security and what we should do about it. 

Subscribe to our Substack newsletter "The Climate Weekly": https://theclimateweekly.substack.com/

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. Check out our updated website!

About Global Citizen

Global Citizen is the world's largest movement of action takers and impact makers dedicated to ending extreme poverty now. With over 10 million monthly advocates, our voices have the power to drive lasting change around sustainability, equality, and humanity. Global Citizen posts, tweets, messages, votes, signs, and calls to inspire those who can make things happen to act — government leaders, businesses, philanthropists, artists, and citizens — together improving lives. By downloading the Global Citizen app, Global Citizens learn about the systemic causes of extreme poverty, take action on those issues, and earn rewards with tickets to concerts, events, and experiences all over the world. Global Citizens have taken over 28.4 million actions since 2009. Today, these actions, in combination with high-level advocacy work, have led to over $35.4 billion being distributed to our partners around the world, impacting 1.09 billion lives in the fight to end extreme poverty. Check out Global Citizen's Climate Work and follow on Twitter,  YouTube, and Instagram.

Further Reading:

How Can We Transform the Global Food System?

For years, we've watched as Bill Weir has brought climate storytelling to one of the biggest news networks on television. On CNN, Bill has traveled the world to cover everything from extreme weather disasters to cutting-edge climate solutions. And throughout an incredibly eventful career, he's learned life lessons he hopes his children and others will consider to preserve what we love most on this warming planet. Bill joins the show this week to explain why chose this career path, what he enjoyed most about his early days as a sports reporter and actor, and what he sets out to accomplish every day on the climate beat. 

Bill Weir is the Chief Climate Correspondent at CNN. He's an Emmy Award-winning journalist, who has reported from all fifty states and more than 50 countries on every continent. His new book is Life as we Know it (Can Be) - Stories of People, Climate, and Hope in a Changing World. 

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 YouTube channel! Join our Facebook group.

Introducing a new four-part series, Climate Citizen, in collaboration with Global Citizen. Over the next four weeks, we will be discussing some of the biggest issues we face as we combat the climate crisis in 2022 and beyond. This week, we look at halting climate change and limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. To discuss this critical topic, Dr. Simon Evans, deputy editor and policy editor of Carbon Brief, and Azeez Abubakar, Global Citizen Fellow and Policy and Advocacy Chair of the Commonwealth Youth Climate Change Network, join the show. We talk about the current projections for global warming, how world leaders need to act in 2022, how activists and organizers can push policymakers, businesses, and individuals to do more, and how increased warming is driving inequality and deadly impacts across the globe. 

Subscribe to our Substack newsletter "The Climate Weekly": https://theclimateweekly.substack.com/

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. Check out our updated website!

About Global Citizen

Global Citizen is the world's largest movement of action takers and impact makers dedicated to ending extreme poverty now. With over 10 million monthly advocates, our voices have the power to drive lasting change around sustainability, equality, and humanity. Global Citizen posts, tweets, messages, votes, signs, and calls to inspire those who can make things happen to act — government leaders, businesses, philanthropists, artists, and citizens — together improving lives. By downloading the Global Citizen app, Global Citizens learn about the systemic causes of extreme poverty, take action on those issues, and earn rewards with tickets to concerts, events, and experiences all over the world. Global Citizens have taken over 28.4 million actions since 2009. Today, these actions, in combination with high-level advocacy work, have led to over $35.4 billion being distributed to our partners around the world, impacting 1.09 billion lives in the fight to end extreme poverty. Check out Global Citizen's Climate Work and follow on Twitter,  YouTube, and Instagram.

Further Reading:

COP26: Key outcomes agreed at the UN climate talks in Glasgow

I Went to COP26 to Speak Up for Africa's Youth. I Had Big Expectations, This Was the Reality.

Analysis: Which countries are historically responsible for climate change?

In recent weeks, as tragedy has unfolded in Ukraine, a disturbing trend has emerged: climate misinformation flooding major media coverage of the war. Evlondo Cooper, senior writer with the climate and energy program at Media Matters, joins the show to discuss many of the bizarre, false claims that are circulating and why some are trying to use this tragedy to lock in fossil fuel use for decades. We also discuss the recent media coverage of the IPCC Report On Adaptation, Vulnerability, And Impact and why the connection was not made between climate change and the Russian invasion of Ukraine. 

Check out Evlondo Cooper's author page and recent reporting:

National TV news' coverage of the latest IPCC report missed a key opportunity to connect climate inaction to the war in Ukraine

Fox is using the Ukrainian crisis to suggest the Biden administration's climate policies emboldened Putin

Listen to our recent episode on the IPCC report on adaptation, vulnerability, and impact with IPCC author Dr. Jörn Birkmann.

Subscribe to our Substack newsletter "The Climate Weekly": https://theclimateweekly.substack.com/

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. Check out our updated website!

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's (IPCC) latest report, Climate Change 2022: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability, provides another critical summary for policymakers on the growing threat of warming temperatures as well as the loss and damages that have already occurred. This is part two of its Sixth Assessment Report. Prof. Jörn Birkmann, one of the lead authors of the report, joins the show to discuss the IPCC latest findings, what it means for policymakers, and how the world needs to adapt to climate change, mitigate further climate risk, protect the most vulnerable communities around the globe, and recognize loss and damages. 

Listen to our conversation here with IPCC lead author Dr. Ed Hawkins on part one of Sixth Assessment Report, Climate Change 2021: The Physical Science Basis.

Read Climate Change 2022: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability

Subscribe to our Substack newsletter "The Climate Weekly": https://theclimateweekly.substack.com/

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. Check out our updated website!

The biggest hurdle to the mass adoption of electric vehicles seems to be the sticker shock of higher prices. But what is the true cost of an EV versus an internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicle? Nick Nigro, founder of Atlas Public Policy and Tom Taylor, policy analyst at Atlas Public Policy, have a new report out that answers this exact question. In this conversation, we explore the actual costs of maintenance and charging of EVs vs ICE maintenance and fuel, what wider EV adoption would mean for carbon emissions and cleaner air, the equity issues that prevent wider adoptions of EVs now, and what their analysis could predict for the next few years.  

You can read their full report here: Comparative Total Cost Analysis on Some of the Most Popular Vehicles in the Country 

Subscribe to our Substack newsletter "The Climate Weekly": https://theclimateweekly.substack.com/

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. Check out our updated website!

Further Reading:

How the Ukraine Conflict Looms as a Turning Point in Russia's Uneasy Energy Relationship with the European Union

The burning of fossil fuels has warmed our planet, polluted our air, and poisoned our water. On top of all of that, fossil fuel companies require billions of dollars in subsidies just to stay alive, and even with those government handouts they were on their last leg in 2016. So why did the Trump Administration focus so much of its efforts on bolstering the dying industry? And what are the long term effects of the pro-fossil fuel administration?

This week, we speak with Dr. Shanti Gamper-Rabindran about her new book "America's Energy Gamble". Dr. Gamper-Rabindran is an associate professor in the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Pittsburgh.

Buy "America's Energy Gamble"

Subscribe to our Substack newsletter "The Climate Weekly": https://theclimateweekly.substack.com/

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. Check out our updated website!

This week, we speak to one of the leading global experts on climate science to get straight to the most important facts in combating the climate crisis. Prof. Mark Maslin is a Professor of Earth System Science at University College London. He's a prolific author of several books and academic papers and his newest book "How To Save Our Planet: The Facts" is packed with essential knowledge of what you need to know about climate change - from Earth's early history, to how greenhouse gases rose to deadly levels, and how governments, individuals, and corporations can all work together to tackle the climate crisis. This conversation hits at the critical challenges we need to take on to protect our future. You're going to love it. 

Buy "How To Save Our Planet: The Facts"

Subscribe to our Substack newsletter "The Climate Weekly": https://theclimateweekly.substack.com/

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. Check out our updated website!

This week, Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) joins the podcast to discuss his new book "Dignity in a Digital Age: Making Tech Work for All of Us", as well as what he thinks will happen with President Biden's climate legislation in the Build Back Better Act. He also gives us a preview of what to expect with the upcoming House Oversight and Reform Subcommittee on Environment's hearings featuring representatives from America's biggest fossil fuel organizations.

Co-hosts Ty Benefiel and Brock Benefiel also discuss the importance of a federal judge rejecting the Biden Administration's sale of millions of acres in the Gulf of Mexico to be used for oil drilling.

Buy Dignity in a Digital Age 

Subscribe to our Substack newsletter "The Climate Weekly": https://theclimateweekly.substack.com/

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. Check out our updated website!

Further Reading:

Court Rejects Oil and Gas Leases, Citing Climate Change

In Davos Man, an excellent new book by New York Times' Global Economics Correspondent Peter S. Goodman, the case is clear: billionaires are making massive profits off extracting resources from the planet while social services are being gutted. From climate change to COVID-19, Goodman shows how decades of slashing taxes on the richest people and cutting social spending has accelerated the 21st century's greatest crises and threatened liberal democracy around the globe. How is this happening? Why is this happening? What can we do about it? In this in-depth, fascinating conversation, Goodman explains the path we took to get here and the direction we need to take now to better govern our societies and protect the future. 

Buy Davos Man

Subscribe to our Substack newsletter "The Climate Weekly": https://theclimateweekly.substack.com/

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.

This is one of the most wide-ranging, comprehensive episodes we've ever had. Simon Mundy, who serves as the Moral Money editor of the Financial Times, spent years traveling through 26 countries on six continents finding a diverse set of stories and people who represent many of the massive shifts underway around the globe. In his new book, Race For Tomorrow: Survival, Innovation, And Profit On The Front Lines Of The Climate Crisis, he details those travels and the vast disparities and outcomes people are experiencing as unjust global transformations occur. We talk about ancient Mammoth tusk hunting in Siberia, Cobalt mining in the Congo, breakthrough innovation in Iceland, climate displacement in the Philippines, and much, much more. 

Read Race For Tomorrow: Survival, Innovation, And Profit On The Front Lines Of The Climate Crisis

Watch the series of short films from Simon's journey

Subscribe to our Substack newsletter "The Climate Weekly": https://theclimateweekly.substack.com/

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 is the writer/director of some of our favorite films over the years - from Anchorman to The Big Short to Vice and more. So when we heard he was making a disaster film that serves as an allegory for climate change, we...um...freaked out. And we freaked even more when he was kind of enough to join us on the show to discuss the film, the power structures behind the climate crisis he wanted to satirize, and what he hopes people will take from the movie. This is a fantastic conversation.

Watch Don't Look Up on Netflix

Subscribe to our Substack newsletter "The Climate Weekly": https://theclimateweekly.substack.com/

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. 

Shannon Osaka has been one of our favorite climate journalists for years. So we were incredibly excited to have her on this week for a wide-ranging conversation on a variety of climate issues - like microplastics, extreme weather costs in the US, and covering climate change as we exceed 1.5 degrees of warming above pre-industrial levels. Shannon also explains how she got into climate journalism after studying the science of climate change, how she approaches her work, and the challenges of covering climate in 2024. 

Shannon Osaka is a climate reporter covering policy, culture, and science for The Washington Post. Read her recent pieces we discuss on this week's episode:

Why Americans pay so much more than anyone else for weather disasters

With microplastics, scientists are in a race against time

Earth breached a feared level of warming over the past year. Are we doomed?

Read more of Shannon's work here

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 YouTube channel! Join our Facebook group.

The world lost a legendary biologist and conservationist when Dr. Thomas Lovejoy passed away in December at the age of 80. Carter Roberts, president and CEO of World Wildlife Fund in the United States, knew Dr. Lovejoy well. So we asked him to join us on the podcast today to honor the memory of Dr. Lovejoy and share what he meant to WWF and talk about the legacy he leaves behind. Carter also discusses the recent passing of another conservation legend, Dr. E.O. Wilson, and what he meant as a luminary in his field and his contributions to WWF.

Later in the show, we replay our May 2020 interview with Dr. Thomas Lovejoy. 

Read Carter Roberts' "In Memoriam—Dr. Thomas Lovejoy"

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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. 

This week, we spoke with Dr. Richard Alley, a glaciologist and member of the International Thwaites Glacier Collaborative, about why this particular glacier - dubbed the 'Doomsday Glacier by Jeff Goodell - could raise sea levels beyond catastrophic levels and cause so much damage to coastal communities around the world. We also discuss how soon and how likely that might actually happen, and the latest findings that his group recently published.

Dr. Richard Alley is the Evan Pugh University Professor of Geosciences at Penn State, where he focuses on glaciology, ice sheet stability, and understanding how Earth's climate has changed by examining ice cores.

Check out the International Thwaites Glacier Collaborative's presentation to the American Geophysical Union in December 2021.

Subscribe to our Substack newsletter "The Climate Weekly": https://theclimateweekly.substack.com/

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. Check out our updated website!

Further Reading:

The Return of the Urban Firestorm. What happened in Colorado was something much scarier than a wildfire.

When Joe Biden defeated Donald Trump in 2020, it marked a massive shift for the direction of the United States' action on climate change. And once President Biden was inaugurated in 2021, his administration brought big expectations to the Oval Office for how it would combat the crisis.

So what would Joe Biden commit to through executive action? What would Congress pass to fight climate change? How would the United States repair its own reputation on climate action on the international stage?

We answer all of those questions and more in Part Two of The Climate Pod's 2021 Year in Review: The Biden Era Begins, featuring clips from interviews we've conducted with guests like Governor Jay Inslee, Dr. Jeffrey Sachs, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, Sen. Tina Smith, Dallas Goldtooth, Jane Kleeb, Rep. Sean Casten, Rep. Donald McEachin, Rep. Earl Blumenauer, Time's Justin Worland, Dr. Katharine Hayhoe, Dr. Michael Mann, and many more

Be sure to listen to Climate Pod's 2021 Year in Review: Denial And Consequences Part One here.

Check out the full length interviews of each guest featured in this episode:

Dr. Jeffrey Sachs

Governor Jay Inslee

Sen. Tina Smith

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse

Dallas Goldtooth 

Jane Kleeb

Rep. Donald McEachin

Rep. Sean Casten - Part One and Part Two

Rep. Earl Blumenauer

Justin Worland

Malcolm Turnbull

Dr. Katharine Hayhoe

Dr. Michael Mann

Tom Steyer

Michael Grunwald

Dr. Stephanie Kelton

Subscribe to our Substack newsletter "The Climate Weekly": https://theclimateweekly.substack.com/

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. Check out our updated website!

After decades of denial and delay tactics by the fossil fuel industry, in 2021, America was largely unprepared for multiple climate-fueled extreme weather disasters. Wildfires. Heatwaves. Hurricanes. Droughts. Floods. Tornadoes.

How did a warming planet impact these weather events? Why haven't America's leaders done more to combat the climate crisis? What are fossil fuel companies still doing to delay action? 

We answer all of those questions and more in Part One of The Climate Pod's 2021 Year in Review: Denial and Consequences, featuring clips from interviews we've conducted with guests like Dr. Katharine Hayhoe, Dr. Ed Hawkins, Dr. Michael Mann, Dr. Jane Goodall, Dr. Andrew Dessler, David Wallace-Wells, Dr. Maria Neira, Dr. Peter Hotez, Dr. Naomi Oreskes, Ben Franta, Kathy Baughman-McCloud, Alex Steffen, Scott Kelly, Jeff Berardelli, Dr. Park Williams, and Tim Jackson.

Subscribe to The Climate Pod and make sure you listen to Part Two next week!

Check out the full length interviews of each guest featured in this episode:

Dr. Katharine Hayhoe

Dr. Ed Hawkins

Dr. Michael Mann

Dr. Jane Goodall

Dr. Andrew Dessler

David Wallace-Wells

Dr. Maria Neira

Dr. Peter Hotez

Dr. Naomi Oreskes

Ben Franta

Kathy Baughman-McCloud

Alex Steffen

Scott Kelly

Jeff Berardelli

Dr. Park Williams

Tim Jackson

Subscribe to our Substack newsletter "The Climate Weekly": https://theclimateweekly.substack.com/

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. Check out our updated website!

This week, we talk to Jeffrey Ball, who lead the recent study "Hot money: Illuminating the financing of high-carbon infrastructure in the developing world." In this conversation, we ask: if renewables are so cheap, why is fossil fuel infrastructure still being built in the developing world? Ball helps us understand what is happening and, more importantly, where the money is coming from to power the nation's most in need of more energy resources. He also explains the possible solutions and what to watch for as the politics and economics of decarbonization evolve. 

Jeffrey Ball is the scholar-in-residence at Stanford University's Steyer-Taylor Center for Energy Policy and Finance, leads the The Stanford Climate of Infrastructure Project, and is a lecturer at Stanford Law School. He is a long-time writer on energy and climate issues and has appeared in Fortune, Foreign Affairs, Mother Jones, Texas Monthly, The New Republic, The New York Times, The Atlantic, The Wall Street Journal, and Slate. You can check out more of his work on his website here.

Subscribe to our Substack newsletter "The Climate Weekly": https://theclimateweekly.substack.com/

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. Check out our updated website!

Further Reading:

Revealed: Biden administration was not legally bound to auction gulf drilling rights

The Climate Fight Isn't About Morality. It's About Cold, Hard Cash.