Climate Hour

CLIMATE HOUR – Climate issues are clearly on everyone’s minds. The constant weather disasters, disruption of our food systems, sea level threats to coastal communities. Yet in the face of what we see every time we open our front doors, climate denialism continues to flourish. People continue to deny that the climate is changing or that our lifestyle choices are contributing to that change.

And there’s plenty of disinformation to help the deniers. Scientists in the oil & gas industry were accurately predicting today’s global warming issues as far back as the 1950s. And the petroleum industry spent millions of dollars to deny their own climate research and to reposition global warming as a theory, not a science-based fact. In 2022, they spent over a quarter billion dollars on U.S. media, lobbying and political campaigns to deny accepted climate science.

That’s a lot of money paying for a lot of climate disinformation. So, how do we talk about climate issues with friends and family who are constantly exposed to this disinformation? How do we understand and constructively speak truth to climate deniers?

Join host, Bob Grove, and guests to discuss the Reasons For Climate Denialism: How To Speak The Truth. Guests include:

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CLIMATE HOUR – The study of volcanoes and rocks help scientists chart our planet’s history of warming and cooling. These studies provide quantifiable data that is accurate, objective, and results in a high degree of consensus among scientific communities. Consensus among geologists who study our planet’s rocks and the minerals and processes that shape and form them. Consensus among geomorphologists who study our planet’s surface, why landscapes look the way they do, and how they evolved. And consensus among volcanologists who study the lava and magma beneath our planet’s surface.

Together, these hard sciences provide solid data that leads to testable climate science predictions. But, perhaps more importantly, the study of volcanoes and rocks give us a baseline for comparison to today’s accelerated period of climate change. And current rates of volcanic and geomorphic change may help our scientists predict and prepare us for the climate change coming down the road.

Join host, Bob Grove, and guests to discuss the study of Volcanoes and Rocks, climate’s ultimate hard science. Guests include:

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CLIMATE HOUR – Today’s electric vehicles out-perform gas vehicles on every front. A study at Michigan’s Transportation Research Institute found that the average cost to operate an EV in the U.S. was $485 per year, compared to an average cost of $1,117 to operate a gas vehicle. That’s a 56% savings in EV operating costs. A U.S. Department of Energy study found that scheduled maintenance on an average EV costs 6.1 cents per mile compared to a cost of 10.1 cents per mile for an average gas vehicle. That’s a 40% savings in EV maintenance. And our friends at the Union of Concerned Scientists report that, over the lifetime of your car, the average emissions of an EV is 28 metric tons compared to a gas vehicle’s 57 metric tons. That’s a 51% reduction in EV greenhouse gas emissions.

Electric Vehicles now cost the same as equivalent gas-powered cars, and a single charge will take you the same distance as a single tank of gas. Electric vehicles are cost-effective, healthy, and great for the planet. There’s no reason not to own one today.

Join host, Bob Grove, and guests to discuss how electric vehicles make practical sense under multiple scenarios. Guests include:

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CLIMATE HOUR – You can make trees. You can plant them, watch them grow, and they will automatically fight climate change for you. Trees are made out of cellulose and cellulose is carbon. There are literally six atoms of carbon in every molecule of cellulose. And all of the carbon going into trees come out of the air. So make a tree, and that tree will fight climate change for you.

Trees look good. They smell wonderful and they produce fruit and nuts. Planting trees is certainly easier than mowing grass. And the more trees you have around your house, the cooler and cleaner your air will be. So plant a tree.

Or plant a forest. Teams in India and other places around the world are growing home pocket forests with as many as 300 trees in an area the size of six parking spaces. That’s 300 trees growing in around 900 square feet. That’s a full on ecosystem in your backyard. You can plant a forest.

Join host, Bob Grove, and guests to discuss How To Make Trees Fight Climate Change. Guests include:

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CLIMATE HOUR – Generation Z is now the world’s largest demographic group, representing over 20% of U.S. population and 25% of world population. Members of GenZ, born around 1997 to 2012, have grown up in a period of political unrest and social change, climate crisis and covid pandemic, during the Great Recession of 2007 and the creation of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. They’ve also grown up with life-changing technologies like mobile computing and social media. GenZ is the most tech-savvy generation in history. GenZ received their first smartphone around the age of 12 and have had continuous access to streaming content and social media since. Well over half of GenZ will earn University degrees, and GenZ is already 27% of the U.S. work force.

Climate issues are a major concern for GenZ. Early political movements, like the School Strike for Climate modeled after Greta Thunberg skipping school to protest outside the Swedish Parliament, brought millions of young people around the world out to protest in favor of greater climate action. GenZ has sued the United Nations and U.S. states, winning climate cases in places like Montana and Hawaii. Yet, the failure of governments to take meaningful action on climate change has caused GenZ to report more depression and anxiety than any previous generation.

Join host, Bob Grove, and guests to discuss GenZ Perspectives On The World Of Climate Change. Guests include:

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CLIMATE HOUR – Prospering may sound like it has financial overtones, but there’s more to it than that. A prosperous life is one filled with joy and love; full of friends and community. We’re prosperous when we have our health and can enjoy fresh air & water. Prosperity is measured by the wealth of our daily activities and not by the balance of our bank account.

Scientists started blowing whistles about climate change in the 1980s. That’s over half-a-century ago, far too long ago to avoid or stop climate change now. The climate has already changed and it’s going to continue to change. The question is can we be prosperous in this POST climate change world.

The United States has withdrawn from the Paris Climate Accord … withdrawn from the World Health Organization. The U.S. is restricting offshore wind and renewable energy production on public lands, declaring a national energy emergency to increase extraction of fossil fuels. And it’s not just the United States. Governments are backing away from climate goals all over the world.

Given the current political trends toward climate denialism, how DO we prosper in a post-climate change world. Join host, Bob Grove, to discuss prospering in a post-climate change world.

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CLIMATE HOUR – Many people are experiencing climate-related disasters on a regular basis. This can lead to climate anxiety; a type of emotional anxiety which may express itself as distress about future climate disasters, or even distress over the long-term existence of humanity and the survival of our friends and family.

Worry about climate is not the same as climate anxiety. We all need to be worried about climate issues. This is a healthy response to real problems. But when worry becomes anxiety, it can lead to physiological symptoms like a racing heart or shortness of breath, and can get in the way of healthy relationships and good performance at work and school.

Especially today, as the world experiences a growing political shift toward climate denialism, it is far too easy for those of us worried about climate issues to cross over into climate anxiety. We need to understand the difference, the symptoms, and the ways to emotionally cope with today’s very real climate issues.

Join host, Bob Grove, and guests to discuss the how the growth of climate anxiety is impacting mental health. Guests include:

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CLIMATE HOUR – Current political trends are making it harder and harder to express climate optimism. Not only are countries failing to meet their Paris Climate Treaty commitments, but recent elections have given climate deniers control of many governments. The prospect for significant climate action through legislation is dimming. But the potential for economic solutions to climate change are growing. Electricity produced from renewable wind and solar is now cheaper than that from fossil fuels. The operation and maintenance of electric vehicles now costs significantly less that traditional cars and trucks. It is no longer just a question of health and sustainability. It is now also a question of profitability.

Join host, Bob Grove, and Tam Hunt to discuss the case for climate optimism and green energy law.

Tamlyn Hunt is a public policy lawyer and green energy law & policy writer. He has taught at the graduate level at the University of California Santa Barbara’s Bren School of Environmental Science and Management, and at the University of Hawaii Manoa’s Richardson School of Law. Tam is a part-time academic at UC Santa Barbara’s METALAB where he studies consciousness and psychology.

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CLIMATE HOUR – Women are deeply effected by the climate crisis. They repeatedly demonstrate that they have the strength, ideas and skills to make crucial decisions about how we live with the Earth and with each other. Women around the world direct their family’s lifestyle and consumption habits. Women farmers feed the world, producing as much as 80% of food in the Global South. Indigenous women in particular hold invaluable traditional knowledge on regenerative farming and the preservation of our waters and lands.

Women vote more often. They work harder to get out the vote. And they lead on enacting, environmental legislation when elected to office. Women are more willing and able to unite across party lines and other boundaries. Studies repeatedly show that countries with more women in government, ratify more international environmental treaties. Women’s voices are key to the political and ecological changes needed to slow the climate crisis and to create a sustainable future.

Join host, Bob Grove, and guest Osprey Orielle Lake, Founder and Executive Director of the Women’s Earth and Climate Action Network, and author of The Story is in Our Bones: How Worldviews and Climate Justice Can Remake a World in Crisis, to discuss the opportunities women’s voices offer in world climate actions.

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CLIMATE HOUR – We as individuals know that we can do things that reduce our personal carbon footprint – things that make us healthier, more secure, save us money – all while helping the environment and reducing climate change. But we also know that it’s going to take collective action to fight the most egregious impacts of climate. And to act collectively, we must engage with our governments to create positive climate legislation and then engage with that legislation to make real-world change.

A good example of this is the United States’ 2022 Inflation Reduction Act. As the name implies, the goal of the legislation is to reduce inflation. But it does that by investing in domestic clean energy production. Analysis by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office says that the Inflation Reduction Act raises $738 billion dollars from tax and prescription drug reform, and then spends $783 billion dollars on new clean energy infrastructure and climate change mitigation. This is the largest climate investment in U.S. history. If fully implemented, the law is projected to cut U.S. greenhouse gas emissions to 40% by 2030.

So how do we, as individuals, engage with this legislation to turn these goals into reality? Join host, Bob Grove, and guests to discuss the how to policy work through collective climate action. Guests include:

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