The Climate Pod

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 mak...

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. N...

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 commun...

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 obsta...

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 fun...

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 wo...

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 frig...

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 W...

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 C...

Modern infrastructure has the ability to make our lives better.   Instant access to power and clean water. The ability to communicate with friends and family around the world. The freedom to quickly get where we want when we want. But today's infrastructure is still very flawed. Not everyone has access to that infrastructure, which means not everyone has the agency and abilities that infrastructur...

In his latest book, Our Fragile Moment - How Lessons From Earth's Past Can Help Us Survive The Climate Crisis , Professor Michael Mann makes it clear: uncertainty, when it comes to climate change, is not our friend. The famed climate professor is back on the show this week to discuss how looking back through Earth's paleoclimate record shows how fragile our current moment really is, but why we als...

Every year, billions of dollars are spent worldwide on carbon offsets, and the size of the market is expected to grow substantially over the next decade. But do carbon offset projects actually do what they're intended to do in the first place, which is lower carbon dioxide emissions and help communities around the world avoid worsening climate disasters from a warming planet?  Researchers at Corpo...

The perpetual extraction by those striving for limitless wealth has set our planet on a trajectory that could make living here impossible for billions of humans by the end of this century. Marjorie Kelly, founder of Business Ethics Magazine and currently a Senior Fellow at the Democracy Collaborative, argues that in order to overcome the capital bias that has been so destructive to our society, we...

Last weekend, we recorded some great conversations at Farm Aid 2023 in Noblesville, Indiana! Given that Farm Aid 2023 was focused on how the climate crisis is impacting family farmers and how farmers are also working on necessary solutions through regenerative agriculture, we wanted to talk to some of the folks at the center of the event. On this episode, we speak to Indiana farmers DeAnthony and...

As one of the architects of the Green New Deal, Rhiana Gunn-Wright has been a part of a fundamental shift in how climate policy is shaped and the discourse around it. But as she writes in her latest piece, " Our Green Transition May Leave Black People Behind ," there are a number of ways that current climate policy is falling short on racial justice. She joins the show this week to share her criti...

In her 2022 book, "Cannibal Capitalism", Professor Nancy Fraser argues that "capitalism harbors a deep-seated ecological contradiction that inclines it non-accidentally to environmental crisis."  Like the contradictions of capitalism that Karl Marx predicted would lead to crises and capitalism's ultimate downfall, Professor Fraser compelling lays out even more contradictions of capitalism that hav...

Every year, humans generate over 2 billion metric tons of solid waste worldwide. Where does it go after you're done with it? How does it impact communities and economies and ecosystems around the world? How can we solve such an enormous and growing problem? Oliver Franklin-Wallis dives deep into these questions and more in his new book " Wasteland : The Secret World of Waste and the Urgent Search...

At the time of publishing, the devastating wildfires in Maui have left hundreds missing, already more than one hundred people confirmed dead, and extraordinary damage visible throughout the town of Lahaina. As recovery gets underway, the fight for justice is only starting. Maui leaders are working to ensure an adequate federal government response and fighting against private industry from buying u...

When Ty talked to Kurt Andersen back in 2020 upon the release of his exceptional book Evil Geniuses , we never thought it would lead to a sci-fi comedic series. Nevertheless, Andersen and Steven Soderbergh have co-created and recently released a new series, Command Z , which is a hilarious adaptation that addresses not only the major themes of  Evil Geniuses but also explores how we might all thin...

Jeff Goodell is the author of more than a few books on climate change, but none are more timely than his most recently release, The Heat Will Kill You First: Life and Death on a Scorched Planet . Heat is not only the most deadly extreme weather event, but has also dominated news cycles for months as waves of scorching temperatures have hit across the globe. Jeff joins the show to discuss 2023's ex...

David Wallace-Wells is back on the podcast to talk about the extreme heat waves, off-the-charts ocean temperatures, massive wildfires, and other climate-worsened disasters that have plagued the first seven months of 2023. The New York Times columnist and author of the 2019 book "The Uninhabitable Earth" returns to The Climate Pod to discuss what has happened since he was on the show back in 2021 a...

Throughout all of human history, we've been changing and adapting our landscape to advance our species. Obviously, this has often come at a great cost to the natural world and in more recent centuries, come with an extraordinary waste. So what can we learn from the long history of environmental consequences of human advancement?  In Professor Mark Stoll's new book, Profit: An Environmental History...

Legendary TV weatherman Al Roker joins the show this week! He discussed the escalation of extreme weather events, the disproportionate impacts of the climate crisis on frontline communities, and how we can all act to help mitigate the worst impacts of global warming. This is a wide-ranging, fun conversation with one of the most beloved figures in television news. How cool?! This interview was reco...

Years into the COVID-19 pandemic, we've learned an extraordinary amount about how governments and economies can respond during prolonged global health crisis. We've also learned in this volatile world...there's a lot we don't know. In the rapidly changing reality, author Felix Salmon put forth a call for humility and optimism in his new book The Phoenix Economy: Work, Life, and Money in the New No...

Centuries of systematically racist American policy has pushed Black communities into enduring the worst impacts of fossil fuel pollution and climate change. In her new book, Before the Streetlights Come On: Black America's Urgent Call for Climate Solutions , Heather McTeer Toney outlines how Black Americans experience these injustices - from extreme heat to petrochemical toxins and many more. But...