The Climate Pod

Dr. Peter Gleick, one of the world's leading scientists and communicators on water and climate crisis issues, returns to The Climate Pod to talk about his new book "The Three Ages of Water: Prehistoric Past, Imperiled Present, and Hope for the Future." This conversation highlights human history's inextricable links with water - how water influenced the evolution of homo sapiens, water's central role in nearly every religion's origin story, the science and technology created in response to waterborne diseases, and so much more. Plus, Dr. Gleick outlines a path forward from our current relationship with water, one of mindless extraction and pollution to feed the insatiable appetite of a growth-focused economy, toward a more sustainable future where everyone has access to clean drinking water and ecosystems can thrive in unpolluted waters. Buy "The Three Ages of Water" 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.

Not all climate activism has been popular. Some of the most viral, disruptive protests have been met with backlash, even by some in the climate movement itself. As Dr. Margaret Klein Salamon notes, these activists are operating in "emergency mode," serving as a reminder that the climate crisis is a crisis and nothing should be prioritized above it. In the latest edition of her book Facing the Climate Emergency: How to Transform Yourself with Climate Truth, Dr. Klein Salamon argues that too few of us are operating in emergency mode, even in the climate fight. So how do we get there? On today's show, we discuss what emergency mode looks like, the data-driven approach to understanding the role of protest in raising awareness and leading to electoral success, and the emotional benefits to honestly reckoning with the climate crisis. Read Facing the Climate Emergency: How to Transform Yourself with Climate Truth 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 the Earth warms and many parts of America become uninhabitable, where will Americans go to find new homes? How will the communities built by American-born climate migrants be different from those they left? What can turn the hope of a new beginning into the nightmare they had been trying to flee? This week, we talk to Michelle Min Sterling, author of the new book "Camp Zero". Set in 2049, "Camp Zero" tells the story of two American settlements, one government-funded and one privately-funded, trying to establish new communities now that America has been ravaged by droughts, storms, and floods fueled by an ever-worsening climate crisis. Buy "Camp Zero" 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.

In order for the United States to hit its Net Zero Emissions Goal by 2050, it's estimated that 3,100 gigawatts of wind and 3,500 gigawatts of solar capacity will be need across America. If clean energy developers continue to site and build as they are doing now, the land required to host all of that solar and wind generation will be larger than the state of Texas! In addition to the massive amount of land required for these critical clean energy resources, we also need new transmission lines that bring the electricity generated back to the communities and homes that can actually use it. All of this development can be harmful to the nearby lands, waters, and ecosystems if careful planning isn't undertaken. That's why The Nature Conservancy released their latest report "Power of Place: National". This week, we spoke with Jessica Wilkinson, North American Renewable Energy Team Lead at The Nature Conservancy, and Nels Johnson, Senior Advisor for Renewable Energy for the Nature Conservancy, to talk about this report and explain the strategies and technologies necessary to reduce the impacts of America's clean energy transition by as much as 70%. 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.

More than four years after it was first introduced, the Green New Deal has been extraordinarily influential in public policy around the globe. Though as a binding resolution it has not been enacted into law in the US, President Biden has referenced it as a crucial framework for his own climate plans. And many of the principles of the Green New Deal - centering climate justice, economic rights, and robust public investments - are certainly evident in many of the policies included in the Inflation Reduction Act. But the complete plans of the Green New Deal are from realized. And as Professor Mark Paul notes, that's a mistake. In order to adequately combat the climate crisis, a number of economic rights need to be established to deliver a more sustainable, just, and thriving economy - one that prioritizes human flourishing. It's these economic rights that Paul puts forth in his new book, The Ends of Freedom: Reclaiming America's Lost Promise of Economic Rights. This week, he joins the show to discuss the long history of fighting for economic freedom in America, how the neoliberal era has warped our sense of what's possible, and the Green New Deal and other movement efforts have revitalized the fight. Dr. Mark Paul is an assistant professor of the Bloustein School at Rutgers University and is also a member of the Rutgers Climate Institute. Read The Ends of Freedom: Reclaiming America's Lost Promise of Economic Rights. 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.

Over the next 30 years, it's expected that thirteen million Americans living on the coasts will be forced to leave their homes as a result of rising sea levels, devastating floods, and worsening storms. How those cities prepare for and adapt to a warmer world will determine who will be displaced and what alternatives will be available to them. If America's history is an indicator of who will be protected and who won't, the white, rich neighborhoods will likely be prioritized while the black, brown, and poor communities are sacrificed and their residents left with little relocation assistance. We can expect this to be the case because this is already happening now in Charleston, South Carolina, a city that played an instrumental role in America's slave economy and is still shaped today by racist zoning laws that are over a century old. This week we speak with Susan Crawford, former special assistant for science, technology, and innovation policy for President Obama and the author of the new book "Charleston: Race, Water, and the Coming Storm". This conversation focuses on the problems and potential solutions facing Charleston, but lessons from Charleston can and should be applied to coastal cities across America and the globe. Read "Charleston: Race, Water, and the Coming Storm" 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.

When Adam Nayman reflects on what makes There Will Be Blood so resonate, it's one of the central questions Paul Thomas Anderson's 2007 film asks that serves as a timeless themes in American culture. "What does it look like when you're appetite simply cannot be sated?" Nayman asks. "Your eyes are not bigger than your stomach. You literally need to have everything." On today's show, Nayman, the author of Paul Thomas Anderson: Masterworks joins to break down the film. We discuss how Daniel Plainview reflects the feeling of living through the Bush Administration and War On Terror, why Paul Thomas Anderson uses our oil addiction as a motif in films, and what There Will Be Blood a mirror of a number of American businessmen throughout the country's history. Adam Nayman is a contributing editor for Cinema Scope and writes for The New Yorker, The Ringer, Sight and Sound, Reverse Shot, and Little White Lies. He has written books on the Coen Brothers, Showgirls and the films of Ben Wheatley, and lectures on cinema and journalism at the University of Toronto and Toronto Metropolitan University. Read Paul Thomas Anderson: Masterworks 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.

In this installment of The Climate Pod's Climate Book Club (a new thing, maybe?), we revisit Upton Sinclair's 1927 classic Oil! with Professor Michael Tondre, who wrote the introduction to the recently released new edition of Sinclair's novel. Michael Tondre is an Associate Professor at Stony Brook University and an expert in Victorian studies. In this conversation, we look back at the corruption in the fossil fuel industry that Sinclair explored in the early 20th century and how it remains relevant today. We also discuss the novel through our current understanding of the climate crisis and what Sinclair's work can teach us about the our fight for a better future. Read the new edition of Upton Sinclair's Oil! 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.

The latest publication from the IPCC, AR6 Synthesis Report: Climate Change 2023, outlines a grim future if we don't decarbonize faster and prevent more unnecessary warming. In recent years, there have been major steps taken to accelerate decarbonization, including last year's Inflation Reduction Act passed in the United States to incentivize green energy investments. But even while carbon-free energy infrastructure continues to get a boost, new fossil fuel infrastructure isn't exactly slowing down either. And with the controversy over the Biden Administration's approval of ConocoPhillips' "massive" Willow oil drilling project on Alaska's North Slope, the question remains: why are fossil fuel projects still getting the green light? To talk about the policy and politics behind fossil fuel expansion in the United States and across the globe, we've got two experts on today's show. Tim Donaghy, a Senior Research Manager for Greenpeace USA, and Danielle Deiseroth, Interim Executive Director at Data for Progress. We discuss the biggest takeaways from the IPCC report, the controversy behind the Willow Project, what voters want to see with energy expansion, and much more. 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.

There are an estimated 1.4 billion cars in use around the world. Despite the fact that cars and trucks are a major contributor to global warming, pollute the air, kill over 1.3 million people a year, and cost thousands to own, maintain, and drive each year, most modern societies are built in a way that makes it necessary to own a car. And while traffic seems to be an ever present problem in most cities, adding lanes and more roads has only exacerbated the problem. Daniel Knowles, Midwest correspondent for The Economist, joined our show to talk about his new book "Carmageddon: How Cars Make Life Worse and What to Do About It" and explains that life doesn't have to be this way. In fact, cities like Amsterdam, Copenhagen, and Paris have shown that it's possible to reverse the reliance on cars while making it easier and more enjoyable to walk, bike, and take public transportation to just about anywhere you want to go. Solving the climate crisis requires solving the car crisis, and this book and conversation go a long way in helping you understand where it came from and how to fix it. Buy "Carmageddon" 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.