The Climate Pod

It's been a long year and so much has happened in the fight for climate justice. How has it been covered in major US media outlets? What is needed as the global fight for climate action continues? Two expert guests join the show this week to weigh in on these critical topics as we close out the year. First, Evlondo Cooper, senior writer with the climate and energy program at Media Matters, discusses what he saw in media coverage in 2023, what we can learn about how climate and environmental justice issues are covered, and how media can improve in 2024. Then, Mitzi Jonelle Tan, a full-time climate justice activist based in Metro Manila, Philippines who is also the convenor and international spokesperson of Youth Advocates for Climate Action Philippines (YACAP), the Fridays For Future (FFF) of the Philippines, joins the show. We discuss some of the biggest issues we faced in 2023, where world leaders failed to act, and how to bring about more just outcomes next year. Read Evlondo Cooper's work at Media Matters Learn more about Mitzi Jonelle Tan's work 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.

As the planet warms, ecosystems are on the move. Biologists and climate scientists have observed the migration of forests toward the poles and even toward higher elevations as human-caused climate change forces species into more hospitable areas. And economists have known for centuries that countries rely on their natural resources for the raw materials needed for producing the goods that help make up their gross domestic product. So what happens to an economy when those natural resources leave? That's exactly what Dr. Bernie Bastien-Olvera and his colleagues set out to understand with their recent paper "Unequal Climate Impacts on Global Values of Natural Capital". While many may take issue with the concept of valuing nature for its economic benefits to humans, such an analysis is important as international leaders work to find ways to compensate countries most impacted by the climate crisis via a Loss and Damage fund and regulations are created that attempt to assign the real cost of carbon dioxide emissions to those that continue to pollute the planet. Dr. Bastien-Olvera joins the show this week to discuss the findings in this paper and its implications for such regulations. Co-hosts Ty and Brock also discuss the new Netflix film "Leave the World Behind". Read "Unequal Climate Impacts on Global Values of Natural Capital" Follow Dr. Bastien-Olvera on Twitter 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.

COP28 has come to a close. Since the final day of the conference, we've seen both a number of headlines noting a historic decision and news of climate injustices at this year's event. So what are the most critical takeaways from COP28? To answer, we brought on three guests that attended the conference to take a deep dive into the biggest issues, the decisions that were made, and what comes next. Nina Lakhani is a Senior Reporter for Guardian US, who spent the last two weeks covering COP28. Nina discusses what the final text of the decision means, what was and wasn't accomplished on addressing mitigation, adaptation, and loss and damage, and what this could mean for the COP process going forward. Then, Aderonke Ige and Rachel Rose Jackson join the show to discuss how the influence of the fossil fuel industry shaped COP28, what countries were most responsible for blocking progress, and why COP is still an essential event for activists, campaigners, organizers, and climate justice advocates to show up to and fight. Aderonke Ige is the Associate Director for Corporate Accountability & Public Participation Africa. Rachel Rose Jackson is the Director of Climate Research and Policy at Corporate Accountability. 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. Further Reading: Indigenous people and climate justice groups say Cop28 was 'business as usual' Cop28 landmark deal agreed to 'transition away' from fossil fuels

For the last four years, John Marshall and the team at Potential Energy Coalition have been testing more than 3 billion ads in 20 countries to determine what messages are the most effective at inspiring climate action. In this conversation, we discuss what it really takes to motivate someone to support climate policies, which policies are more popular than others, what principles of climate communication everyone can learn, and why clean energy jobs aren't always appealing. John Marshall is the founder and CEO of Potential Energy Coalition, a global, nonprofit marketing firm that's creating demand for climate solutions. The latest report is Later is Too Late - A comprehensive analysis of the messaging that accelerates climate action in the G20 and beyond. 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.

Rural voters are often overlooked or completely ignored when it comes to progressive campaigns, including ones centered on climate action. And yet, it is the vast land available in rural areas that offer the greatest opportunity to build out clean energy projects in America. But years of misinformation, crumbling political infrastructure, and Republican, one-party control has lead to a major obstacle obstructing the path to a decarbonized economy. So how do we change that? There may be no better expert to answer the question than Jane Kleeb. Kleeb is the Founder of Bold Alliance, author of Harvest the Vote, chair of the Nebraska Democratic Party, and most recently, a recipient of the 2023 Climate Breakthrough Award, which will be used to "build alliances among rural Americans and advocate clean energy development that is beneficial to local residents." She joins the show this week to discuss how to ensure that rural residents share in the wealth of clean energy projects, why we need more than a just transition, and the values that more conservative, rural voters share with progressives. Check out more on the 2023 Climate Breakthrough Award and read Harvest the Vote 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 week, we have two great guests on the show to explain what's at stake at COP28 and some of the biggest issues surrounding the conference. First, New York Times correspondent David Gelles joins to discuss what he'll be covering at COP28, why the recent US-China deal heading into the conference might provided a much needed jolt, and what to watch for when it comes to climate finance and the fund for loss and damage. Then, researcher and campaigner Pascoe Sabido joins the show to discuss a new analysis of the presence of fossil fuel lobbyists at UN climate talks and what it has meant to action on climate. David Gelles is a correspondent on the Climate desk at The New York Times, covering the intersection of public policy and the private sector. Follow David's work at The New York Times here. Pascoe Sabido is a researcher and campaigner at the Corporate Europe Observatory and a co-cordinator of the Kick Big Polluters Out coalition Further Reading: Fossil fuel lobbyists attend UN climate talks more than 7000 times What a US-China climate deal means for COP28 Coming Soon: More oil, gas and coal

Since 2000, the United States Global Change Research Program has periodically published a report on its assessment of the climate crisis, its current impacts, its potential threats, and the solutions available to mitigate the worst impacts and adapt as quickly as possible. Last week, the interagency program published the Fifth National Climate Assessment. Despite accounting for just 4% of the world's population, as a result of burning fossil fuels for more than a century, the US is responsible for approximately 17% of the global warming the planet is facing today. And while US emissions are falling, they're not falling fast enough to meet the 2050 Net Zero target established by the Biden Administration. The report explores the health, economic, environmental, and social impacts of the climate crisis that Americans are experiencing now and it clearly states that all of those will get worse if America and the world doesn't start cutting greenhouse gas emissions immediately. Allison Crimmins, the Director of the Fifth National Climate Assessment, joins the show to discuss the report's main findings, the extraordinary costs of the climate crisis that Americans are already facing, and the positive benefits that could be achieved today as soon as we start deploying sufficient mitigation and adaptation strategies. Read the full report here: https://nca2023.globalchange.gov/ Check out the companion podcast to the Fifth National Climate Assessment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w7EIxjQNbD8&t=8s 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.

Each year, scientists from around the world develop a comprehensive report on the state of the climate crisis. The report provides updates on dozens of the most important indicators of the progress humans are making to limit greenhouse gas emissions and the consequences of not doing so faster. This year's report, "The 2023 State of the Climate Report: Entering Uncharted Territory" presents a frightening picture, as many of Earth's vital signs are flashing red and the trajectory of climate progress is pointing in the wrong direction. Dr. Jillian Gregg, the Executive Director of Terrestrial Ecosystems Research Associates and a co-author of this year's report, joins the show to discuss the report's findings, what has surprised her and her colleagues most about what's happened in 2023, and the few indicators that are moving in the right direction. We also discuss the sense of urgency that can be felt in the words used by the scientists that wrote this report. 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.

Wouldn't it be nice if we could just escape to space? Just go live on Mars and leave all our Earthly problem behind. Despite the enthusiasm for space settlement, a lot of very big questions need to be answered before we can consider leaving this planet behind. And a lot of these questions, according to authors Dr. Kelly Weinersmith and Zach Weinersmith, aren't really turning up good answers. The Weinersmiths are the best-selling husband and wife writing team that have a new book out, A CITY ON MARS: Can we settle space, should we settle space, and have we really thought this through? This week, Zach joins the show to discuss the book, why climate change won't be solved by living in space, the biggest problems with living on Mars, the Moon, or a gigantic space station, and what we should do next. Zach Weinersmith is an author and illustrator. He makes the webcomic Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal. His work has been featured in The Economist, The Wall Street Journal, Slate, Forbes, Science Friday, Foreign Policy, PBS, and elsewhere. He is one half of the wife-and-husband research team whose debut collaboration, the book titled Soonish was a New York Times bestseller. Read A CITY ON MARS: Can we settle space, should we settle space, and have we really thought this through? 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've just passed the 50th anniversary of the 1973 Arab oil embargo, which kicked off almost a full decade of energy crises in around the globe. How has energy security changed since then? With war unfolding now in the Middle East, could it happen again? How are geopolitics shifting with the transition to clean energy? Jason Bordoff, the founding director of the Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs, joins the show this week to answer all of this and more. We discuss the relationship with China and the United States, why a clean energy transition could be more turbulent than a net zero economy, and why the IRA presents a number of foreign policy considerations. Bordoff also serves as professor of professional practice at Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs. He is the co-host of the Columbia Energy Exchange and his latest piece in the Wall Street Journal with Meghan O'Sullivan is titled "Lessons from the 1970s Energy Crisis Can Help Prevent the Next One." On this episode, Ty and Brock also pay tribute to the wonderful Professor Saleemul Huq and his legacy as a climate champion. You can listen to our past interview with Professor Huq 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.