Breakthrough Dialogues

Breakthrough has long argued that fighting climate change is mainly a matter of making clean energy cheap, and — thanks in large part to federal deployment subsidies — this is precisely what we've done for solar and onshore wind technologies. But since experts agree that they aren’t enough to fully decarbonize today's electric power grids, we need to focus subsidies on emerging sources of firm generation like advanced nuclear, while also investing in the energy storage and transmission infrastructure we need to support more solar and wind. The next few years mark a potential inflection point in the evolution of America's electric system. Smart action now will enable faster, cheaper decarbonization in the future. Today’s episode is a webinar recording that discusses the merits of this strategy. It’s a conversation moderated by Grist’s Zoya Teirstein, featuring our own Alex Trembath, Leah Stokes from UC Santa Barbara, and Varun Sivaram from Columbia University. For the accompanying visuals, check out our YouTube channel.

Kyle Bridgeforth is a fifth-generation farmer at Bridgeforth Farms, a row crop operation headquartered in Tanner, Alabama. We sat down with him in the fifth week of coronavirus quarantine — and after a tumultuous few years of international trade wars — to ask him about the challenges facing his operation and the agricultural industry. He shares the history and evolution of his family’s business, his thoughts on the importance of international trade to the stability of US agriculture, and what makes him optimistic about farming in an uncertain future.

At Breakthrough, we’ve long viewed climate as a problem that would be addressed obliquely with other challenges — making clean energy cheap, building modern infrastructure, growing affordable food, and the like. The ongoing COVID-19 crisis has rapidly upended our work priorities and climate politics more broadly, but we’re still committed to research on how federal stimulus bills could also, quietly, help decarbonize. So in the past couple of months, our intrepid team has begun churning out policy proposals. We recommend starting with the low-hanging fruit: focusing on infrastructure projects that we already know have bipartisan support. Today’s episode is a webinar recording that lays out specific proposals. It’s a conversation moderated by The Atlantic’s Robinson Meyer, featuring our own Lauren Anderson and Ted Nordhaus, Collin O'Mara from the National Wildlife Federation, and Brad Markell from the AFL–CIO. For the accompanying visuals, check out our YouTube channel.

Nils Gilman has a warning for us: watch out for the coming Avocado Politics. It’s a term the Berggruen Institute president uses to describe a (Brown Shirt) fascist politics wrapped in a (green) environmental layer. Despite popular opinion, Nils argues that climate action won’t necessarily be progressive – and there’s plenty of historical examples to prove the nationalist-environmentalist link. On today’s show: the consequences of alarmist rhetoric, the relationship between technocratism and trust in expert opinion, and how to re-establish strong institutions.

For more on Avocado Politics, find Nils Gilman's essay in the Breakthrough Journal here.

Leah Stokes is the author of the new book Short Circuiting Policy, a professor at UC Santa Barbara, and a widely-known voice on energy issues. We sat down with her right after Super Tuesday 2020 for her thoughts on what the results mean for climate. She shares ideas on making the transition to clean energy in a way that benefits people (rather than raise electricity bills), the value of primaries in generating productive conversation, and how to avoid climate solutions that act like “band-aids over an open artery.” Tune in for the political commentary, stay for the energy expertise.

A more innovative nuclear sector will require tilting the playing field away from large, incumbent firms and toward small, entrepreneurial startups. Today we sit down with Lenka Kollar, director of strategy and external relations at one of those innovators: NuScale, an advanced nuclear company widely considered to be the furthest along among its competition. NuScale designs and commercializes small modular reactors, the first of which is planned to open in Idaho by 2026. On today’s episode: what went wrong with big nuclear, the reception of advanced nuclear within the broader clean tech community, and how to engage the general public (hint: it requires community agency, and begins far before the tech is deployed).

The Impossible Burger launched in 2016, with celebrity chef David Chang at Momofuku. Since then, the product has exploded: now available nationally at Burger King, soon to hit the grocery shelves, on its 2.0 formula (now grillable), and an R&D team that’s twice as big as it used to be. So we were excited to sit down with Jessica Appelgren, VP of Communications at Impossible Foods, who’s been there since its early days. She sees the plant-based burger as a concept more than a product: this isn’t a slow, sneaky swap, it’s an explosive cultural shift. On today’s show: how the company thinks about public fears over lab-made “Frankenfoods,” why taste is the number one factor, and Impossible’s theory of change.