The Climate Pod

The climate crisis presents us with a number of moral challenges. We all produce emissions, but there are massive differences and inequities in how much pollution each individual is responsible for and who is harmed the most by the consequences. As the very real impacts of the crisis only become more obvious and deadly, we continue to ask ourselves: what is our responsibility? In this week's show, we dig into some of the tough ethical considerations for living in a climate crisis. To do so, we talk to Travis Rieder, an associate research professor at the Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics. Rieder is the author of multiple books including In Pain: A Bioethicist's Personal Struggle with Opioids. His latest book is Catastrophe Ethics: How to Choose Well in a World of Tough Choices. We discuss the conversations around individual responsibility vs. collective action, how to determine our best path for fighting climate change, and what it means to exist between purity and nihilism. Read Catastrophe Ethics: How to Choose Well in a World of Tough Choices 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 2021, Greta Thunberg spoke to the youth climate movement at an event leading up to COP26. Her famous "Blah, Blah, Blah" speech contrasted all of the things world leaders had said about the climate crisis and what those same leaders had actually done to reduce emissions and create policies to mitigate and adapt to the climate crisis. Three years later, very little has changed. Of the 128 countries that set Net Zero goals, only five percent have taken the required first steps toward achieving those goals. Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Elizabeth Kolbert joins the podcast this week to discuss how the climate crisis gets talked about by world leaders, activists, scientists, and the media may differ from the actual facts of the world's warming situation. Her new book "H is for Hope: Climate Change from A to Z" is a collection of 26 essays on various aspects of the climate crisis which tell the complete picture of what's going on, what's led us to this point, and where we could go from here. Like Elizabeth's previous books, such as "Field Notes from a Catastrophe", "The Sixth Extinction", and "Under a White Sky", "H is for Hope" is an insightful and sobering book from one of today's great climate writers. Read "H is for Hope" 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.

Professor Giorgos Kallis discusses degrowth economics, challenging the relentless pursuit of GDP growth. They explore Thomas Malthus' flawed ideas and the importance of societal structure for a sustainable future. The podcast also covers the subjective nature of limits, ancient Greek societal structures, and the need for a shift towards degrowth to address climate change.

It's incredible how dramatic climate science can be. That was my first thought after I watched the new documentary, Canary, which chronicles the life and career of Dr. Lonnie Thompson. This week, the subject behind the film, Dr. Thompson, and the co-directors of the documentary, Danny O'Malley and Dr. Alex Rivest, explain how the film came together and the thrilling story behind its development. We discuss how to tell compelling climate stories, what motivates their work, and what decades of glacier science can teach us about the climate crisis. Lonnie G. Thompson, a Distinguished University Professor at The Ohio State University, and senior research scientist, specializes in paleoclimatology, ice cores, and climate change. Alex Rivest is a Massachusetts Institute of Technology-trained PhD Neuroscientist. Having worked alongside Nobel Prize winner Dr. Susumu Tonegawa, his research has been published in two of the most highly renowned scientific journals, Science and Nature Neuroscience. Danny O'Malley is a Grammy nominated and James Beard nominated film director. Best known for his work on Netflix's Chef's Table, where he serves as co-executive producer and a director. 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. Rent Canary

Who can the climate movement turn to for real change? Politicians? Business leaders? International negotiators? The reality, as Professor Dana Fisher argues, is that despite major gains for climate action in recent years, none of our leaders are adequately advancing solutions at the speed and scale neccessary to meet the actual crisis we face. And because we need change to happen much faster, the climate movement needs to build its own power in order to help solve the biggest problems in ever sector of society. So how do we actually do that? We explore that on today's show and discuss Professor Fisher's new book Saving Ourselves - From Climate Shocks to Climate Action. We discuss what the climate movement can learn from international efforts like the Paris Agreement and the Kyoto Protocal, how the successes of the Civil Rights Movement and other social movements can guide climate activists, and how climate activism is changing as we approach major elections in 2024. Dana R. Fisher is the director of the Center for Environment, Community, and Equity and a professor at the School of International Service at American University. Read Saving Ourselves - From Climate Shocks to Climate Action 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.

Dr. Matt Bowen discusses the challenges and potential of nuclear energy in decarbonizing the global economy. The podcast explores the financial investment needed for nuclear capacity to double by 2050, as well as international trends in nuclear energy export and advancements in nuclear technology. Additionally, it delves into the comparison between renewable energy cost declines and nuclear technology innovations, and the obstacles in managing spent fuel in the US.

In 2015, representatives from all countries attending COP21 agreed to limit global average temperature rise to well below 2.0 degrees Celsius above pre-Industrial levels and to aim for a 1.5 degree rise. Flash forward less than a decade, and the United Kingdom Meteorological Office is forecasting the average annual temperature for 2024 to likely be more than 1.5 degrees warmer than pre-Industrial levels. As the world continues to break annual, monthly, and daily temperature records, what does it mean that we're now exceeding the 1.5 degree threshold so soon after the Paris Agreement? To help us understand the importance of this forecast, Dr. Nick Dunstone, leader of the Climate Dynamics Group at the Met Office and one of the scientists that conducted the forecast, joins the show to discuss what it means that 2024 may exceed the 1.5 degree threshold, the factors causing the record-breaking temperature, and what people and policymakers should take away from this historic milestone. Dr. Richard Betts, Head of the Climate Impacts Strategic Area at the Met Office, is also on today's episode to discuss his team's recent forecast of CO2 concentration in the atmosphere. As CO2 emissions continue to rise, it's no surprise that temperatures continue to rise as well. Dr. Betts helps explain the factors that contribute to 2024's record increase in CO2 concentration and provide context to this year's forecast. Read The Met's 2024 Temperature Forecast Read The Met's 2024 CO2 Concentration Forecast 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 witness the climate crisis every day. Unfolding on our news feeds, impacting our communities, and undeniably causing unfathomable, inequitable harm across the planet. We lament the lack of urgency in our political leaders and even find ourselves frustrated by complacency in the public's push for climate action. But we truly are in a transformative moment - though how we meet this moment remains uncertain. The changing politics of our time is the focus of Ajay Singh Chaudhary's new book, The Exhausted of the Earth: Politics In A Burning World. He joins the show to discuss some of the big philosophical and social considerations as the climate crisis continues to change everything. Ajay Singh Chaudhary is the executive director of the Brooklyn Institute for Social Research and a core faculty member specializing in social and political theory. Read The Exhausted of the Earth 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.

Discussing the immediate health benefits of decarbonization, Dr. Drew Shindell highlights the reduction in premature deaths from air pollution in various regions. The podcast explores the economic implications of reducing emissions and the urgency of cutting methane emissions for climate and health benefits. Ongoing research on methane reduction and climate damages is also discussed, emphasizing the positive impacts of transitioning away from fossil fuels.

As global temperatures continue to rise, fossil fuel production continues to increase, forests continue to be cut down, and species are becoming extinct at rates faster than previous mass extinctions, it's hard to find any hope for a sustainable, or even habitable, future. But giving up is not an option. There are billions of people now and in the near future whose lives depend on solving the multitude of human-caused environmental and health crises plaguing the planet today. The good news is, even though things are not good right now, they've been much worse. And they're better today because we finally know how to power our lives, feed our families, and grow our economies without destroying our environment. Dr. Hannah Ritchie, the Deputy Editor and Lead Researcher at Our World in Data, joins the show today to talk about her new book "Not the End of the World: How We Can Be the First Generation to Build a Sustainable Planet". Dr. Ritchie has studied the data and believes that for the first time in human history, there is no longer a tradeoff between human and environmental wellbeing. After researching the climate crisis, air pollution, deforestation, biodiversity loss, world hunger, and plastic pollution, Dr. Ritchie has come away with the understanding that things are bad now, but they're better than they were, and we have the real possibility of making them much better in the future. Read "Not the End of the 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.