Climate Break

Decreasing society’s reliance on single-use plastics The use of plastic has major environmental, social, and health consequences. Across the globe, one million plastic bottles are purchased every minute, with over half of the plastic produced worldwide being thrown away after one use. Upon disposal, plastics are often left in landfills where they can break down into smaller microplastic particles,...

What is nuclear fusion? Nuclear fusion produces energy by fusing atoms together. Atomic cores (nuclei) merge together to form a heavier—though unstable—nucleus, releasing mass to regain stability. This mass release corresponds to an energy release, given Einstein’s equation E=mc2, which says in part that mass and energy can be converted into each other. The sun, along with all other stars, uses nu...

Climate Education for Youth Climate education has the potential to drive the public towards climate science literacy , an individual’s understanding of their influence on climate and climate’s influence on them and society. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, a climate-literate person:  understands the essential principles of Earth’s climate system, knows how to asses...

Carbon Sequestration Carbon sequestration is the process of capturing and storing atmospheric carbon dioxide to slow the pace of climate change. There are two major types of carbon sequestration: geologic and biologic. Geological carbon sequestration injects carbon dioxide captured from an industrial or energy-related source into underground geologic formations. Biological carbon sequestration ref...

Climate change is increasing flood risk worldwide.   Climate change is intensifying flood risk around the world, with potentially devastating consequences for communities and infrastructure.  As the planet gets hotter, the atmosphere's capacity to hold water vapor increases, leading to more frequent and intense precipitation events in certain regions.  Extreme rainfall events can overwhelm stormwa...

What is the GeoGrid? The Geo Grid is a network of heating pumps that harnesses the geothermal energy stored under the Earth’s surface to heat and cool buildings. It operates through a network of pipes that go deep into the ground and connect houses to each other. These pipes are filled with water, which brings the constant underground temperature up to the Earth’s surface, and into the buildings....

How does transitioning to renewable energy challenge the electric grid? As of 2022, renewable and non-greenhouse gas emitting sources accounted for 52% of California's in-state electricity generation with the remaining 48% fueled by natural gas. Legislation passed in 2018 mandates that the state must reach at least 60% renewable energy by 2030 which California is quickly on its way to meet. The 60...

What are Art and Music Activism? Art activism refers to the use of artistic expression and creative endeavors to advocate for and educate others on social, political, environmental, or cultural issues. This form of activism employs the creative power of art as a medium to move us emotionally, raise awareness of certain issues, and provoke thought. At its core, art activism brings audiences through...

  What is the IMF? The International Monetary Fund (IMF) provides aid to developing countries to promote global economic and monetary growth.  IMF investments and loans can significantly impact the ability of developing countries to improve climate resilience. Most directly, reforms to the IMF can allow developing countries to invest more in climate resilience and disincentivize fossil fuel produc...

Why Community? It’s easy to feel despair about climate change and environmental destruction. But despair can make it hard to forge connections and take action. According to emotion researchers, hope means believing that you have the power to improve problems, rather than ignoring them. One possible source of hope? Community building events, where diverse groups of activists can find common ground....

The Vital Role of Wetlands Wetlands are critical ecosystems that play a fundamental role in maintaining the stability and well-being of both local and global environments.  Coastal salt marshes , flooded and drained by tides, and often composed of deep mud and peat, provide a wide range of ecosystem services that contribute to biodiversity, water quality, carbon storage, and climate regulation.  B...

What are “Resilience Hotspots”? Technology and high-tech solutions are not the only responses to climate change. Nature can also be a powerful form of climate resilience. Resilience hotspots are small pockets of nature that, when restored and maintained, act as barriers to climate impacts. For instance, wetlands can insulate shores from storm surges and trees can provide shade in urban heat island...

What is “Green Ammonia”? Ammonia is a vital chemical that sustains half of all food production around the world (through the creation of agricultural fertilizer), but the process we use to make it results in significant greenhouse gas emissions. Ammonia, which is made up of nitrogen and hydrogen, requires extreme heat and pressure and large amounts of energy (usually from fossil fuels) in order to...

What is CRISPR? DNA contains the fundamental information about an organism, and is used as an instruction manual to guide organism structure and function. Until CRISPR (short for Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats) technology was developed by Jennifer Doudna and Emmanuelle Charpentier , editing DNA sequences was very difficult. Here’s the short version of the CRISPR process...

What is Geothermal Energy? Geothermal energy is heat generated in the earth. It is a renewable source of energy, and it is extracted from the inner earth for energy use. Typically, geothermal energy is harnessed through holes that are drilled allowing hot water or steam to be extracted. These resources then drive a turbine to generate electricity and energy. Harnessed in this way, geothermal energ...

Zero-Emissions Public Transportation: Demand and Supply Globally, transportation accounts for approximately one quarter of all CO2 emissions and grew by 3% in 2022 . “Buses and other heavy-duty vehicles are responsible for a disproportionate share of the carbon and air pollution emissions from the transportation sector.” As a result, many governments are focusing policies and financial assistance...

Carbon-Free Trucks The European Green Deal , passed in 2020, sets policy initiatives approved by the European Commission to boost efficient use of resources to green, clean, circular economy and stop climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution. Reducing emissions from the transportation sector is an important part of the EU’s 2050 zero-emission goal, as the transportation sector accounts for 2...

Lithium Batteries While the use of lithium to power electric vehicle batteries has been around for close to a decade, and while car manufacturers and scientists have been on the hunt for a more efficient battery, today most manufacturers rely on lithium batteries as their primary go-to for power. This leads to a higher demand for lithium mining. Traditional alkaline batteries cannot be repeatedly...

Editorial Note The interview for this episode was recorded in June 2021. The basic point of the episode remains relevant, but the mentioned campaign is no longer active. ClimateVoice’s current campaign is Escape the Chamber , which calls on companies to leave the US Chamber of Commerce and to speak up and lead on climate policy at local, state, and federal levels.    What is Corporate Lobbying for...

What is the “30 by 30” Movement? The 30 by 30 movement is a global initiative aimed at conserving 30 percent of the Earth’s land by the year 2030. In October 2020, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed executive order N-82-20, which committed California to this movement. The state aims to protect 30 percent of its lands and coastal areas by 2030.  With an investment of $11 billion, California is...

What are the problems with current beer production methods? Beer is primarily composed of water—making up about 90 percent of its content. Annually, over 100 billion gallons of beer are produced and shipped, meaning nearly 90 billion gallons of water are being transported in the form of beer. This is significant because approximately 20 percent of a beer’s carbon footprint is attributed to transpo...

Educating Girls is a Climate Solution Today, an estimated 80 percent of people displaced by climate disasters are women and girls, and women living below the poverty line are as much as 14 times more likely to die in a climate disaster. An already more at-risk population, women and girls are especially vulnerable to the effects of climate change, particularly if they live in economically disadvant...

Background on Luxembourg Luxembourg is a tiny country in Western Europe wedged between Belgium, France, and Germany. It has one of the highest vehicle densities in the EU, with nine out of ten people relying on personal vehicles. The country is currently facing rapid population growth, stressing its mobility infrastructure and complicating efforts to meet emission goals in line with the European G...

Youth-Led Climate Litigation Worldwide, litigants are turning to the courts as a forum for fighting climate change, filing lawsuits against governments in an attempt to force climate action. Plaintiffs in these lawsuits are often children and young adults, who represent those most affected by government climate inaction. A notable early example of youth-led litigation related to climate change was...

What is plastic?  Plastic is a material derived primarily from carbon-based sources like natural gas, oil, and even plants. It is created by treating these organic materials with heat and catalysts to form various polymers .  Producing plastic is energy-intensive, often relying on the combustion of fossil fuels such as coal and natural gas, both for power and as a primary source. As a product of f...