Climate One

Climate advocacy is a dangerous business. According to Global Witness, every week, somewhere in the world, between three and four environmental activists are killed. And even when they don’t suffer bodily harm, they are routinely arrested and jailed for speaking out. They are also sued in civil cases, bogging them down for years or even bankrupting them and their families. 

Each personal story in this episode is unique, but the physical threats and legal weapons fossil fuel companies and governments wield against them are eerily similar. And yet, the voices of climate defenders will not be silenced.

Guests: 

Alfred Brownell, Founding President, Global Climate Legal Defense (CliDef) 

Laura Furones, Senior Advisor, Land and Environmental Defenders Campaign, Global Witness

Nicole Figueiredo de Oliveira, Executive Director, Arayara

Sarah Benn, Medical Doctor and Climate Activist

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For the third year in a row, the world’s most important climate conference is taking place in a country whose largest source of export revenue is fossil fuel. This year, over 190 countries are assembling in Baku, Azerbaijan. And despite nearly 30 years of pledges and promises, the UN’s recent Emissions Gap Report shows virtually every country failing to deliver on its promises.

Ever since the Paris Agreement was signed at the 21st Conference of Parties (COP), the focus of this annual meeting has been implementation: How can the nations of the world possibly deliver on their promises to cut emissions when the economic interests in doing so aren’t aligned? In the meantime, the poorest countries, who contributed least to the problem, are getting hit hardest by devastating climate impacts, like droughts, floods, and the resulting poverty and civil unrest. COP29 is being billed as “the finance COP.” So, what do the richest owe the poorest?

Guests: 

Mitzi Jonelle Tan, Climate Justice Activist

Todd Stern, Former United States Special Envoy for Climate Change

🎟️ Join Climate One live in San Francisco on December 9 for our celebration of 2024 Schneider Award Winner Leah Stokes! Tickets are on sale now.

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When it comes to communicating climate science, weathercasters are uniquely positioned to connect the facts to viewers’ experiences. TV meteorologists are trusted members of their communities, and they’re often the only scientists the general public hears from regularly. How they communicate can shape public understanding and depoliticize a topic that has become disturbingly divisive.

But in some parts of the country, politics continues to get in the way of the facts. So how do weathercasters effectively communicate weather and climate information in a way that resonates across political lines? 

Guests:

John Morales, Hurricane Specialist, WTVJ NBC6 Miami

Bernadette Woods Placky, Climate Central Chief Meteorologist, Climate Matters Director; VP of Engagement

Chris Gloninger, Senior Climate Scientist, Woods Hole Group, Inc.

Amber Sullins, Chief Meteorologist, ABC15 Phoenix

🎟️ Join Climate One live in San Francisco on December 9 for our celebration of 2024 Schneider Award Winner Leah Stokes! Tickets are on sale now.

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Artificial intelligence can do some pretty amazing things, including for the climate. AI can help optimize the electric grid, make heating and cooling buildings more efficient, and pinpoint exactly where greenhouse gas emissions are coming from all around the world. 

On the other hand, the energy use of AI is massive and growing. A recent study estimates that in just a few years, the extra energy needed will equal whole countries the size of Sweden or Argentina. How do we make sure the benefits of AI outweigh its energy costs?

Guests: 

Karen Hao, Contributing Writer, The Atlantic 

Gavin McCormick, Cofounder and Executive Director, WattTime; Cofounder, Climate TRACE

Priya Donti, Assistant Professor, MIT; Co-founder and Chair of Climate Change AI 

Amy McGovern, Professor of Computer Science, University of Oklahoma

🎟️ Join Climate One live in San Francisco on December 9 for our celebration of 2024 Schneider Award Winner Leah Stokes! Tickets are on sale now.

Support Climate One by going ad-free! By subscribing to Climate One on Patreon, you’ll receive exclusive access to all future episodes free of ads, opportunities to connect with fellow Climate One listeners, and access to the Climate One Discord. Sign up today for just $5/month.

This episode originally aired on April 19, 2024.

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If you’re a climate-conscious person, you likely already know some of the main ways you can reduce your contribution to greenhouse gasses: buy less, eat less meat, ride your bike. But there are other, less obvious methods we don’t always think of: voting, having climate conversations, engaging with your local government, changing where your money is invested. And while our role as individuals does matter, we’re more powerful when we work together in collective action.

Guests: 

Jon Foley, Executive Director, Project Drawdown

Eliza Nemser, Executive Director, Climate Changemakers

This episode also features excerpts from Cory Booker, Anna Lappé, Frances Moore Lappé, Saul Griffith, Monique Figueiredo, Jonathan Chapman, Jennifer Anderson, Tanya Gulliver Garcia, Vernon Walker, Abrar Anwar, Slater Jewell-Kemker, Kyle Gracey and Alec Loorz.

🎟️ Join Climate One live in San Francisco on December 9 for our celebration of 2024 Schneider Award Winner Leah Stokes! Tickets are on sale now.

Support Climate One by going ad-free! By subscribing to Climate One on Patreon, you’ll receive exclusive access to all future episodes free of ads, opportunities to connect with fellow Climate One listeners, and access to the Climate One Discord. Sign up today for just $5/month.

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California has one of the most ambitious and highly engineered water delivery systems on the planet, and it’s being eyed for a new extension. The Delta Conveyance Project is Governor Gavin Newsom’s proposal for a 45-mile underground tube that would tap fresh water from its source in the north and carry it beneath a vast wetland to users in the south.

The Delta is the exchange point for half of California’s water supply, and the tunnel is an extension of the State Water Project, which was built in the 1960s. It’s a 700-mile maze of aqueducts and canals that sends Delta water from the Bay Area down to farms and cities in Central and Southern California.

This is a local story about a global issue, the future of water. In a three-part series of field reports and podcasts, Bay City News reporter Ruth Dusseault looks at the tunnel’s stakeholders, its engineering challenges, and explores the preindustrial Delta and its future restoration.

Ruth is joined by Felicia Marcus, the Landreth Visiting Fellow in Stanford’s Water in the West program and former chair of the California Water Resources Control Board.

This is a production of Bay City News, presented in collaboration with Climate One and Northern California Public Media. For more on this story and other news in the Greater Bay Area, visit localnewsmatters.org.

Special thanks to Dan Rosenheim, Kat Rowlands, Jonathan Westerling, Monica Campbell, Marco Werman, Katharine Meiszkowski, Kurt, Max, Quinn and Nick Wenner.

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In the last two decades, China has made big commitments to renewable energy — and it’s delivered. Last year, China installed more solar panels than the U.S. has in its history. 

Solar panel exports increased 38%, and lower prices have all but killed solar manufacturing in the U.S. and EU. Chinese company BYD recently surpassed Tesla as the world's largest EV maker — with cars at just a fraction of the cost. This has leaders in the West fretting about competition, but isn’t this good news for the planet? How do we balance competition with global climate progress?

Guests: 

Emily Feng, International Correspondent, NPR

Alex Wang, Professor, UCLA School of Law; Co-Director; Emmett Institute on Climate Change and the Environment

James Sallee, Professor, Resource Economics, University of California, Berkeley

🎟️ Join Climate One live in San Francisco on December 9 for our celebration of 2024 Schneider Award Winner Leah Stokes! Tickets are on sale now.

Support Climate One by going ad-free! By subscribing to Climate One on Patreon, you’ll receive exclusive access to all future episodes free of ads, opportunities to connect with fellow Climate One listeners, and access to the Climate One Discord. Sign up today for just $5/month.

For show notes and related links, visit our website.

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In the face of hurricanes, wildfires, droughts and other fossil fueled disasters, it’s easy to feel hopeless about the future of the climate. But marine biologist, and co-founder of The All We Can Save Project, Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson asks us instead to focus on the question, “What if we get it right?” 

Johnson’s new book, also titled “What If We Get It Right?” features such climate luminaries as Third Act Founder Bill McKibben and Earthjustice President Abigail Dillen, whom we also feature in this week’s episode. In their different ways, they have all been at the forefront of enacting solutions at the nexus of science, policy and justice. 

Guests: 

Ayana Elizabeth Johnson, Marine Biologist; Co-founder, The All We Can Save Project

Bill McKibben, Author, Educator, Environmentalist

Abigail Dillen, President, Earthjustice

🎟️ Join Climate One live in San Francisco on December 9 for our celebration of 2024 Schneider Award Winner Leah Stokes! Tickets are on sale now.

Support Climate One by going ad-free! By subscribing to Climate One on Patreon, you’ll receive exclusive access to all future episodes free of ads, opportunities to connect with fellow Climate One listeners, and access to the Climate One Discord. Sign up today for just $5/month.

For show notes and related links, visit our website.

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Before Justin J. Pearson became a national voice for common sense gun regulation, he was a strong advocate for climate and environmental justice, having worked to defeat a multi-billion-dollar crude oil pipeline that could have poisoned Memphis’s drinking water and taken land from South Memphis residents. 

Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb is working to make climate a top priority in his traditionally fossil fuel-friendly city. From his first press conference where he discussed making Cleveland a “15-minute city,” to his current push to electrify municipal fleets and decarbonize the city “block by block,” Bibb is leading his city to advance climate solutions and close the racial wealth gap.

Support Climate One by going ad-free! By subscribing to Climate One on Patreon, you’ll receive exclusive access to all future episodes free of ads, opportunities to connect with fellow Climate One listeners, and access to the Climate One Discord. Sign up today for just $5/month.

For show notes and related links, visit our website.

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Environmental icon Jane Goodall is celebrating 90 years of life, and she’s not backing off of her passionate commitment to nature. The indefatigable Goodall is now focused on three intertwined crises: biodiversity loss, climate change, and environmental inequity. She has one important message for her audiences around the world: vote like your children’s lives depend on it — because they do. 

Jane Goodall is joined by Rhett Butler, founder of Mongabay, a nonprofit media organization that delivers news and inspiration from nature's frontline via a network of more than 900 journalists in about 80 countries. 

Guests:

Jane Goodall, Ethologist, conservationist

Rhett Butler, Founder, Mongabay 

For show notes and related links, visit ClimateOne.org.

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