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 as we confront the long history of environmental racism, how do we empower the most impacted communities to lead on climate solutions? In this conversation, McTeer Toney puts forth a plan and an understanding of why we need to attack these injustices with the greatest sense of urgency.  Heather McTeer is the Executive Director of Bloomberg's Beyond Petrochemicals Campaign. She has also served as the mayor of Greenville, Mississippi and Southeast Regional EPA Administrator.  Read  Before the Streetlights Come On Learn more about the  Beyond Petrochemicals Campaign Subscribe to our Substack newsletter "The Climate Weekly" 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 new YouTube channel! Join our Facebook group.

Confronting Climate Change's Disproportionate Impacts On Black Communities (w/ Heather McTeer Toney)

The Climate Pod is a wide-ranging conversation with leading experts on the politics, economics, activism, culture, science, and social justice issues at the heart of the climate crisis. Hear from guests like Jane Goodall, Bill McKibben, Al Roker, David Wallace-Wells, Katharine Hayhoe, Adam McKay, Bill Nye, Robert Bullard, Catherine Coleman Flowers, Ted Danson, Gina McCarthy, Paul Krugman, and many more. Hosted by brothers Ty and Brock Benefiel.

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Hundreds of billions of dollars have already been invested in clean energy projects in America since the Inflation Reduction Act was passed in 2022. With that level of spending, clean energy jobs are on the rise, meaning there's never been a better time to start a career focused on combating the climate crisis. The variety of roles in clean energy jobs means there are plenty of ways you can become a "Climate Person" in your professional life, even if you've been one in your personal life for a while. Being a "Climate Person" also isn't restricted to just careers in clean energy, but also means incorporating climate solutions into whatever it is you do for a living. Tom Steyer, co-founder of Galvanize Climate Solutions, founder of NextGen Climate America, and 2020 Democratic Presidential Primary Candidate joins the show this week to discuss his new book "Cheaper, Faster, Better: How We'll Win the Climate War" and strategies for becoming a "Climate Person" at a time when the world needs more of them than ever. We also talk about how turning politicians, business leaders, and investors into climate people will be critical to the sustainability of human life on our planet. Read "Cheaper, Faster, Better" Subscribe to our Substack newsletter "The Climate Weekly": https://theclimateweekly.substack.com/ 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 new YouTube channel! Join our Facebook group. Check out our updated website!

We Need More Climate People (w/ Tom Steyer)

This week, two Pultizer Prize-winning reporters join the show to discuss their new investigative series, “The Drowning South," and how the threat of sea level rise is causing a number of complex problems in America's southern coastal cities. The Washington Post's Chris Mooney, a reporter covering climate change, energy and the environment, and Brady Dennis, a reporter focusing on environmental policy, public health issues and climate impacts, explain why the American south is facing an unusual amount of problems with sea level rise, what's happening in the region compared to other parts of the country, and how flooding is causing a variety of issues testing local areas' ability to adapt. The first three stories of “The Drowning South” series are available here:  The New Face of Flooding  A Hidden Threat    Where Seas are Rising with ‘Unprecedented’ Speed 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.

The Complex Threat Of Sea Level Rise (w/ Pulitzer Prize-winning reporters Brady Dennis and Chris Mooney)

In 2018, economist William Nordhaus won the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for his Dynamic Integrated Climate-Economy model, which was the first neoclassical growth model to incorporate the impacts of a warming planet on the global economy.  While celebrated for its economic innovations, the DICE model and its outputs have been criticized by climate scientists for not adequately considering the devastating impacts that a rapidly warming planet will have on the environment, human wellbeing, and the economy.  Conventional attempts of forecasting GDP impacts of a one degree increase in global temperatures using the DICE model typically produce estimates of little more than a 1% decrease in global GDP. Critics argue that by downplaying the future economic costs resulting from a warming planet, these types of economic models make it easier for policymakers to justify delaying actions now to reduce emissions and slow or even stop global warming. But in a new paper titled "The Macroeconomic Impact of Climate Change: Global vs Local Temperature", Dr. Adrien Bilal and Dr. Diego Kaenzig unveil a new model to predict the impact that global warming will have on the global economy. Their findings suggest previous studies were significantly off and, in fact, global GDP will be drastically reduced if the planet continues to warm on its current trajectory. Dr. Bilal and Dr. Kaenzig join The Climate Pod to discuss their new paper, how their approach differed from previous attempts at quantifying the economic impact of climate change, and what this means for policymakers. Dr. Adrien Bilal is an Assistant Economics Professor at Harvard University. Dr. Diego Kaenzig is an Assistant Economics Professor at Northwestern University. Read the paper here: https://www.nber.org/papers/w32450 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.

Groundbreaking Economic Study Suggests Greater Climate Damages (w/ Dr. Adrien Bilal and Dr. Diego Kaenzig)

Over the past five years, there have been several studies showing how the climate crisis is impacting major life decisions.  Whether it’s where to live, how to invest, or what to study, young people today are being forced to confront a climate-worsened future and decide what’s best for their personal situation given the very public failures of leaders to limit global warming.  One particular decision that has received a lot of public attention is whether or not to have a child in the middle of a climate crisis.  These studies are appearing more frequently than ever before as the climate crisis becomes more apparent than ever, but almost all of these studies fail to incorporate how this decision is impacted by the respondent's race. Dr. Jade Sasser joins the podcast this week to talk about how climate anxiety is affecting some of life's biggest decisions. Dr. Jade Sasser is an Associate Professor at the University of California Riverside and the author of the new book "Climate Anxiety and the Kid Question: Deciding Whether to Have Children in an Uncertain Future."  Not only does this book explore the anxieties and hesitations that people have about bringing children into a world in the midst of a climate crisis, but it also looks at how the climate crisis exacerbates other social inequities and how climate anxiety affects people of different races differently. Read "Climate Anxiety and the Kid Question" Listen to Dr. Sasser's podcast "Climate Anxiety and the Kid Question" 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.    

Is Climate Anxiety Keeping People From Having Children? (w/ Dr. Jade Sasser)

Popular films have massive influence over our culture. It's where we go to see the biggest stories on the biggest screen. It's where we go to see Nicole Kidman do that weird commerical before the film starts. Movies are really, really important. So, why isn't the climate crisis, one of the defining issues of our time, on the silver screen more often. That's a question Anna Jane Joyner and Matthew Schneider-Mayerson are investigating. Together, they put together a new report, Climate Reality On-Screen: The Climate Crisis in Popular Films, 2013–22, which outlines how often the climate crisis is showing up in famous flicks and how often we see characters aware of its existence on screen. This week, Anna Jane and Matthew explain their findings, what it means for the industry, our politics, and how filmmakers can do better going forward.  Anna Jane Joyner is a climate story consultant and the founder and director of Good Energy.  Matthew Schneider-Mayerson is an associate professor of English and environmental studies at Colby College. Read their report, Climate Reality On-Screen: The Climate Crisis in Popular Films, 2013–22 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.

Confronting Climate Change's Disproportionate Impacts On Black Communities (w/ Heather McTeer Toney)

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