Climate One

From the climate movement’s earliest days, young people have been at the forefront of activism. But the first major international climate conferences took place 30 years ago. The first cohort of youth activists are now adults, some with children of their own. The emotional cost of seeing so little payoff for years spent fighting can be agonizing at any age, but perhaps more so for young people who put so much of themselves into the effort.

Many youth activists burned out along the way, frustrated by participating in actions that rarely led to meaningful and lasting change. How do former youth activists now view the work of their younger selves? And what advice do they have for the next generation?

Guests:

Alec Loorz, Writer, Photographer, former youth climate activist

Slater Jewell-Kemker, Director, “Youth Unstoppable;” former youth climate activist

Victoria Loorz, Founder, Center for Wild Spirituality; Author, “Church of the Wild: How Nature Invites Us into the Sacred” 

Abrar Anwar, Chief Technology Officer, Rebel Force Tech Solutions; former youth climate activist

Kyle Gracey, Strategy Consultant, Future Matters; former youth climate activist

For show notes and related links, visit our website.

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Can you imagine if everything you needed in your everyday life was just a walk or bike ride away? That’s the goal of the 15-minute city, a new name for an old idea. Reducing the need for cars cuts emissions and gets autos off of the roads, which is a boon for safety, air quality and the climate.

But, as is often the case, good ideas become a lot more difficult when you have to implement them in real places, with real people, who don’t always share the enthusiasm for the idea. What will it take to make compact, walkable cities a reality in the U.S., where the car is king?

Guests: 

Beth Osborne, Director, Transportation for America

David Miller, Former Mayor of Toronto

Justin Bibb, Mayor of Cleveland

Henry Grabar, Author of Paved Paradise: How Parking Explains the World.

For show notes and related links, visit our website.

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Ben Santer has spent decades researching and identifying the human fingerprints on the climate system changes we’re now all seeing. He was lead author on the historic 1995 conclusion of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which proclaimed that “the balance of evidence suggests a discernible human influence on global climate.” That was the first time the IPCC authoritatively stated humans are causing climate change.

At the time, Stephen Schneider told Ben Santer that the sentence he wrote would change the world. Santer’s foundational work also laid the groundwork for the expanding field of attribution science, which enables activists and lawyers to ascribe proportionate blame to specific polluters in lawsuits demanding damages for climate-disrupting emissions. Climate One is delighted to present the 2023 Stephen H. Schneider Award for Outstanding Climate Science Communication to atmospheric scientist Ben Santer.

Guests:

Ben Santer, Fowler Distinguished Scholar in Residence, Woods Hole; Visiting Researcher, UCLA

Kassie Siegel, Director, Climate Law Institute, Center for Biological Diversity

For show notes and related links, visit our website.

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It’s been a year of weather extremes — again. But there’s also been cause for  renewed hope about our climate future. On the heels of this year’s international climate conference held in the oil-rich Middle East, Climate One hosts Greg Dalton and Ariana Brocious review major climate stories of the year, both lows and highs.

This special episode features excerpts from some of Climate One’s most surprising, moving and compelling interviews of 2023, including conversations with luminaries Rev. Lennox Yearwood and Rebecca Solnit, White House Climate Advisor Ali Zaidi, climate activist Nalleli Cobo and U.S. Sen. Cory Booker.

A previous version of this episode incorrectly stated that the COP28 agreement includes a transition from fossil fuels this decade. While the deal calls for the transition to happen in “a just, orderly and equitable manner,” it does not include a timeframe. We regret the error.

Guests: 

Rev. Lennox Yearwood, Jr., CEO, Hip Hop Caucus 

Kathy Baughman-McLeod, Director, Adrienne Arsht-Rockefeller Foundation Resilience Center; Senior VP, Atlantic Council 

Ali Zaidi, White House Climate Advisor

Jane Fonda, Activist, Actor

Nalleli Cobo, Cofounder, People Not Pozos

Ralph Chami, Assistant Director, Western Hemisphere Division, Institute for Capacity Development, IMF

Bernie Krause, Soundscape Ecologist

Paolo Bacigalupi, author

John Curtis, U.S. Representative (R-UT)

Cory Booker, United States Senator, New Jersey

Rebecca Solnit, Writer, Historian, Activist

For show notes and related links, visit our website.

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This week, we’re reporting from Dubai, where the 28th UN climate change conference (COP28) is now underway. Ever since the Paris Agreement was signed at COP21, the central issue has remained the same: How do the nations of the world keep global heating to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels? 

This year marks the first “global stocktake,” where the data on how well we’re collectively doing on meeting the Paris targets are front and center. Across the board, countries are failing. How much will this harsh dose of reality affect the negotiations? Perhaps more importantly, how does what happens at these international summits affect the people most at risk for flooding and extreme heat?

Guests:

Claire Stockwell, Senior Climate Policy Analyst, Climate Analytics

Nisreen Elsaim, Sudanese Climate Activist; Former Chair, UN Secretary General’s Youth Advisory Group

Abigael Kima, Host and Producer, Hali Hewa Podcast

Chautuileo Tranamil, Co-Founder, Indigenous Liberation and Aralez

Myrna Cunningham, Chair, Guiding Committee, Pawanka Fund

For show notes and related links, visit our website.

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The 28th annual Conference of the Parties, COP28, opens this week in Dubai. For the 28th time, the nations of the world have gathered to see what progress they can make on addressing the increasingly global climate crisis. It’s fair to wonder why, after three decades, we still haven’t taken the collective action necessary. And it’s equally fair to wonder why diplomats continue to bother with what Greta Thunberg famously called “blah, blah, blah.”

This year’s COP marks the first “Global Stocktake,” an assessment of how the nations of the world are doing compared to the emissions-cutting commitments they made in Paris. The answer? Not well. And with COP28 being hosted by a major oil and gas producing nation and led by an industry executive, what hope is there for progress?

Guests:

Daniel Esty, Professor of Environmental Law & Policy, Yale Law School

Ben Stockton, Investigative Reporter

Aisha Khan, Chief Executive, Civil Society Coalition for Climate Change

This episode features a segment from Contributing Reporter Rabiya Jaffrey.

For show notes and related links, visit our website.

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Most Americans support climate action, but you wouldn’t know it from Congress or the courts – or from most of the media. People on both the left and the right experience the same devastating floods, the same life-threatening heatwaves and the same catastrophic wildfires. Yet individuals tend to socialize within insulated political tribes, operate in completely different information bubbles and see the problems and solutions through different lenses.

How can we learn to bridge ideological divides, develop trust, and find the common ground needed to rebuild respectful civil discourse?

📞 Call us at (650) 382-3869 to share your clothing story for a chance to be featured on an upcoming episode!

Guests:

John Curtis, U.S. Rep., Utah (R)

Joan Blades, Co-founder, LivingRoomConversations.org

John Gable, Co-founder, AllSides.com

For show notes and related links, visit our website.

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From The Coolest Show:

The City of Atlanta has leased 381-acres of Weelaunee Forest, stolen Muscogee land, to the Atlanta Police Foundation for a police military facility funded by corporations. This would be the largest police training facility in the US in a primarily Black community who overwhelmingly oppose the project. Despite over fifteen hours of public comments against the project, the City Council has approved $67 million in public funding for Cop City. The plans include military-grade training facilities, a mock city to practice urban warfare, dozens of shooting ranges, and a Black Hawk helicopter landing pad.

Residents have petitioned the municipal court of Atlanta to gather signatures for a binding referendum. With enough signatures, this would put whether or not Cop City gets built up for a vote on November’s ballot box. In this 2 part episode of The Coolest Show, Rev Yearwood speaks with community organizer Rev. Keyanna Jones, economist Dr. Gloria Bromell Tinubu, and community advocate Shar Bates. They discuss the history of the area surrounding the Weelaunee forest, the legacy of environmental racism, the community’s work to get signatures, and “the Atlanta Way.”

Support the Stop Cop City movement: https://www.copcityvote.com/

For more from The Coolest Show: https://thecoolestshow.com/

This episode was originally produced by The Coolest Show, a Hip Hop Caucus Think 100% production, and was used by Climate One with permission.

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One of the most common questions people ask about climate is: what can I do? Since time is one of our most valuable resources – and we spend so much of our time at work – changing jobs may be the most effective individual climate action a person can take. Those changes could be big or small: Leaving the oil and gas industry for geothermal, or helping to bring down the emissions where you already work. The truth is, almost any job can be a climate job. But how do people actually make the transition from dirty jobs to clean? What do climate positive job transitions really entail? 

Guests: 

Caroline Dennett, Director, CLOUT Ltd

Arvind Ravikumar, Co-Director, Energy Emissions Modeling and Data Lab, University of Texas, Austin

Jennifer Anderson, Carbon Removal Geologist, Charm Industrial

Emma McConville, Development Geoscience Lead at Fervo Energy

Nathanael Johnson, Electrician

For show notes and related links, visit our website.

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Climate affects everyone, but not equally. Those affected first and worst are often the same communities that suffer from housing and income inequality, and climate and societal injustice. Rev. Lennox Yearwood, Jr. has made striving for social, economic, and climate justice his lifelong pursuit. Rising to prominence in the Hip Hop community, Yearwood brought like-minded artists and creatives together to advocate for justice with the Hip Hop Caucus by harnessing the power of film, podcasts and comedy.

We discuss the role of his faith, his partnership with billionaire Michael Bloomberg, and the underlying belief in our human ability to keep improving that drives his activism.

Guests: 

Rev. Lennox Yearwood, Jr., CEO, Hip Hop Caucus

Jacqueline Patterson, Executive Director, Chisholm Legacy Project

For show notes and related links, visit our website.

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