The Climate Realist

The Earth is covered in water, yet only a tiny fraction of it is fresh water, and even less is fit for human consumption. In this episode, we discuss ways of ensuring we all have plentiful clean domestic water

Small villages in Europe are a model for sustainable, low carbon living. Crowded urban city living is not always the answer. In this episode, we discuss the low carbon lifestyle of an island village in Croatia along with the Canadian equivalent, the Gulf islands of British Columbia.

The people mandating the electrification of our transportation do not seem to be communicating well with the people who regulate the licensing and operation of vehicles. In this episode, we cover several examples of well meaning rules and regulations that make it more difficult to acquire and operate some types of low carbon transportation that are in common use in Europe and other parts of the wo...

This episode, we’re going to discuss the housing crisis in Canada, and how we could do much better by simply getting out of the way and allowing people to build their own homes from used materials. As with most contemporary problems, the solution often is hidden in the past.

Getting from where you are, to where you want to be. Our transit systems do not need to be huge buses that are either full, or nearly empty. Let’s take a lesson from Uber, and rethink the whole concept of public transit.

Will single family homes soon become a rarity? Condos are not necessarily the lowest carbon alternative. In this episode, we compare the carbon footprint of living in houses, townhouses and condos.

In this episode, we talk about about a carbon capture and storage initiative by the oil sands companies, called “The Pathways Alliance”. A group of companies have banded together to develop carbon capture and storage systems, as part of their march towards net-zero emissions from their operations. The key word here is ”operations”. They are not attempting to make their fossil fuel products net-zer...

In this episode, we discuss how difficult it is to be a pedestrian in many towns and cities, and what we can do about it. Our towns and cities are built around using vehicles. It doesn’t have to remain this way. We discuss many ways to improve pedestrian access without costing a fortune.

This week, we’re going to discuss the subject of declining fertility rates, and the potential impacts that will have on climate change and society.

Have you noticed that over the last few decades, there are far fewer of these creatures around, and much less variety? In this episode, we’ll go over what I’ve noticed, and discuss why this is happening.

Heat pumps typically only work when the outside temperature is above -25 C or so. Today, we're tackling heat pumps, and how they handle the winter.

Imagine a world powered by clean, abundant energy. No more fossil fuels, no more dams. This is the promise of nuclear fusion, a technology that harnesses the power of the sun right here on Earth. In this episode of The Climate Realist, we're diving into the world of fusion. We'll explore how it works, compare it to traditional nuclear fission, and discuss the challenges and opportunities that lie...

The food that we all waste turns out to be a major contributor to climate change. This episode of The Climate Realist podcast goes over how you can personally help, and save money at the same time by reducing your grocery bills. Some good articles to read on the subject are: From the UN food and Agriculture Organization (FAO): Food wastage footprint From the World Wildlife Fund (WWF): Fight climat...

In the next year or two, all of these brands will have electric trucks available for sale in North America. As you can see around you, we North Americans love our trucks. It’s heartening to see that Electric models are becoming a practical reality.. But, they still have their limitations. Listen in to find out. We’ll compare and contrast: Ford’s conservative but practical approach to electrificati...

Today, December 13, the COP28 climate conference in Dubai wrapped up. We’ll discuss what came of this conference, compared to the 27 conferences before it.

In this episode, we examine what caused the ice ages, glacial/interglacial periods, and previous global warming events. How do we know our current climate change isn’t just a natural cycle? Natural climate change is affected by a combination of atmospheric chemistry, solar radiation, ocean currents, and most relevant to today’s conversation, something called the Milankovitch effect.

In this episode, we examine the potential of trees and forests to naturally absorb more CO2. We discuss a recent study published in the scientific journal Nature on the subject. It turns out that forests worldwide could absorb about 7 years of worldwide Carbon emissions, if we just got out of the way and let them do it.

This episode, we’ll talk about how we could use hydro electric dams, and pumped hydro as gigantic storage batteries, enabling all of western Canada to be powered by renewable solar and wind power.

Governments around the western world are setting electric vehicle mandates, where a certain percentage of the new vehicles supplied by each manufacturer need to be zero emission by some arbitrary year. Some governments are setting ambitious goals of 90% of new vehicles by 2030. Is this realistic?

With my AI co-host Sophie, we have a wide ranging discussion of food security in our time of changing climate. We talk about the 100 mile diet and all sorts of related technologies and systems, ranging from local gardens, indoor growing, and commercial scale vertical gardens and storage systems.

In this episode will discuss how drones can be used to fight wildfires. We’ll talk about how a proposed new type of hybrid electric vertical takeoff and landing drone aircraft could be an ideal fit for helping with climate change.

In this episode, we’ll describe the effect of beef and dairy on the climate, and ways for you reduce your consumption without major changes in your diet

With my AI co-host Sophie, we have a wide ranging discussion of the many problems, advantages, and disadvantages of carbon taxes. We discuss how to better motivate and engage the public. We talk about how to make carbon taxes more effective and understandable. We consider how social justice can fit into climate policy.

In this episode, will discuss all of the hoops that you’re going to need to go through to charge your electric vehicle at home.

This week, we’ll talk about the material that goes into all these new electric vehicles. The case for using the steel and aluminum in our existing fleet of cars to build the new ones. Mining and refining new steel is far far more carbon intensive than re-using the existing steel all around us.