The Sweaty Penguin

Monkeypox — a zoonotic disease native to tropical rainforest regions of central and west Africa — has spread outside its usual range, reaching Europe and North America. Seeing the global reaction to this new pathogen prompted a few questions. How serious is monkeypox? Why were we not discussing monkeypox when it was causing dozens of deaths in the Democratic Republic of Congo earlier this yea...

In March, news outlets everywhere rang alarm bells after the collapse of the Conger Ice Shelf — a mass of ice the size of Rome in East Antarctica. But what is an ice shelf? And why are they so important? This week, we explore what purpose ice shelves serve, why they collapse, and where we go from here. With special guest Dr. Peter Neff: Assistant Research Professor of Soil, Water, and Climate at t...

Following last year’s UN Climate Change Conference in Glasgow, The Guardian did a five-month investigation piecing together as clear a picture as possible of planned future oil and gas exploration and production. They found that the world’s biggest fossil fuel firms are quietly planning 195 projects nicknamed carbon bombs, due to the fact that they would emit over a billion tons of carbon from sta...

Outdoor cannabis cultivation can have several environmental benefits, from sequestering carbon to remediating polluted soil. But most U.S. cannabis is grown inside greenhouses with sophisticated climate-control systems and high-powered lights that require a lot of energy — over 1% of total U.S. electricity use. Seeing as cannabis is projected to have a $70 billion market by 2028, this energy issue...

Last week, the World Meteorological Organization issued a report stating that there is a 50:50 chance that at some point in the next five years, the global annual temperature could spike past 1.5°C hotter than preindustrial times. The goal that nearly every country in the world has agreed upon is to keep global warming under a threshold of 1.5°C by 2100, making the possibility of breaching it in t...

For many people, sustainable housing brings to mind either show heads and toilets with zero water pressure or futuristic buildings that look like a spaceship. In reality, sustainable houses can actually look quite normal, and achieve carbon emission cuts, water conservation, and long-term cost savings. But what will it take to make millions of houses sustainable? Today, we explore what sustainable...

Last week, Politico published a leaked draft opinion in the Mississippi abortion case facing the Supreme Court, showing the majority of justices in favor of overturning Roe v. Wade’s precedent of a constitutional right to abortion. In the climate world specifically, this draft sparked many conversations about how sexual and reproductive health is, in fact, a climate issue. So what do these two see...

Located in northeastern Puerto Rico, El Yunque National Forest is the only tropical forest in the United States, the home to many rare species such as the critically endangered Puerto Rican parrot, and the source of 50% of the water supply for the San Juan metro area. It also is one of the most important destinations in the Caribbean for ecotourism, hosting one million visitors and contributing $5...

In an unprecedented move, Southern California officials declared a water shortage emergency last week and ordered outdoor water usage be restricted to just one day a week for about 6 million people in parts of Los Angeles, Ventura and San Bernardino counties. From a policy perspective, the move may make sense. But when climate change clearly shows water availability in Southern California is only...

When rain or other precipitation runs off to a new location, it usually picks up a lot of gunk along the way. In fact, an estimated 10 trillion gallons of untreated stormwater runoff, containing everything from raw sewage to trash to toxins, enters U.S. waterways from city sewer systems every year. This polluted water can ruin water quality, erode streambanks, and cause algal blooms that devastate...

The first Earth Day was April 22, 1970, and it turned out to be an extremely unifying cause during a time of deep social and cultural division in the United States. 52 years later, as climate change becomes more and more serious, has Earth Day lost a bit of its charm? Ethan shares some reflections on Earth Day 2022 in this week’s “Tip of the Iceberg.” The Sweaty Penguin is presented by Peril and P...

People have always migrated due to changes in their environment, but as climate change has exacerbated droughts, floods, hurricanes, wildfires, crop failures, and more, increasing numbers of people are being forced to move rather than choosing it for themselves. Climate migration disproportionately affects many developing countries in the Global South, but is also increasingly prevalent within the...

Over 1,000 scientists in over 25 countries took part in climate protests last week, risking their careers and reputations in the process. Ethan breaks down why this is not normal, why scientists would be compelled to turn to activism, and why these protests are a reminder that climate change CAN be addressed in this week’s “Tip of the Iceberg.” The Sweaty Penguin is presented by Peril and Promise:...

Ethan sits down with The Sweaty Penguin’s newest team members Hallie Cordingley, Isabel Plower, and Maddy Schmidt to recap season 4. They’ll share what they do behind the scenes, some takeaways from the season, favorite episodes, and then face off in the third ever Sweaty Penguin finale bonus episode Kahoot! See how much you remembered from season 4 and listen to us crown the next Sweaty Penguin K...

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released the third part of their Sixth Assessment Report last week, titled “Mitigation of Climate Change,” and with it, came the usual doom and gloom reactions. But the report itself was overflowing with reasons to be hopeful, and even excited. Ethan breaks down why he came away from the report feeling more optimistic about the climate than ever before...

In 1991, 78 percent of Americans identified as environmentalists. By 2021, it had dropped to 41 percent. Why, in the last few decades, has environmentalism experienced this steep decline in popularity? In the final deep dive of season 4, we consider some of the reasons why environmentalism might have rubbed people the wrong way and where the movement might go from here as it works to generate swif...

After pressure from both Democratic and Republican senators, President Biden is invoking the Defense Production Act to encourage domestic production of the minerals used in batteries for electric vehicles and long-term energy storage, minerals such as lithium, nickel, cobalt, and graphite. This move has major implications for U.S. national security and the global climate, and also serves as a remi...

Although most experts agree that carbon capture and storage strategies cannot combat climate change on their own, carbon capture absolutely has the potential to offset some of the “tough-to-get” emissions and possibly even make the world carbon negative. In order to achieve that potential though, each method of carbon capture has some challenges to overcome. Today, we break down ten methods of car...

Last week was a big one for the poles of the Earth, with record-shattering heatwaves in both the Arctic and Antarctica followed by the collapse of the Conger Ice Shelf in Eastern Antarctica. Many headlines suggested scientists were surprised, even flabbergasted! Ethan breaks down why these events were surprising, and why surprise does not mean doom-and-gloom in this week’s “Tip of the Iceberg.” Th...

Solar energy is clean, cheap, renewable, and surprisingly land-efficient, making it a really exciting technology to scale up. But to do that as effectively as possible, solar has some challenges to confront, from human rights and geopolitical dilemmas in the manufacturing process to siting challenges to the fact that people’s electricity use spikes in the evening when the Sun isn’t shining. Today,...

Gasoline prices have hit record highs over the last month, and understandably, people are not happy about it. But some of the theories floating around social media that it’s because of gas taxes, greedy oil CEOs, or climate policy are actually not all that relevant to today’s high prices. Ethan breaks down why these three explanations make no sense, what has actually caused the price swing, and so...

Unlike plant-based proteins like Beyond Meat or Impossible Burgers, lab-grown meat is actually meat. Scientists take stem cells from a cow, chicken, or any other animal, culture them in a lab, and create anything from steak to seafood to leather to egg whites. The process hasn’t been perfected yet, and Americans can’t buy lab-grown meat in the supermarket, but startups and investors have flooded t...

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released part two of the 6th Assessment Report, leading to several doom-and-gloom headlines and soundbites saying variations of “we need to act now or it’ll be too late.” But haven’t we been hearing that for decades? When is this supposed time that’s “too late?” Turns out, it’s a lot more nuanced than that, and this IPCC report actually helps clarify t...

According to measurements from NASA’s GRACE satellites going back to 2002, the Greenland and Antarctica ice sheets are losing 427 billion metric tons of ice per year, equivalent to eight Olympic swimming pools per second. That melting—driven by climate change—is the number two driver of global sea level rise, it harms nearby corals and shellfish, and more. Today, we explore how we know the ice she...

Between malaria and a long list of other diseases, mosquitoes are responsible for a million global deaths per year, making mosquitoes the most deadly animal in the world. And due to climate change, among other factors, mosquito populations are on the rise. Today, we explore what threats mosquitoes present, why their populations are increasing, and what we might be able to do about it. With special...