Climate One

Our food and agricultural systems are helping fuel the climate emergency. But climate isn’t the only harm; these systems also impact local economies, human dignity, and animal welfare. The upcoming Farm Bill presents an opportunity to infuse more climate-smart practices in American agriculture, which accounts for about 10% of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions. But doing so involves confronting industrial practices that focus on short-term gains and commodity subsidies that have deep support in both parties. 

Senator Cory Booker has a plan to address our broken food system. He introduced legislation that would challenge large industrial beef and pork packagers and tilt the balance of power in our industrial agriculture system, giving family farmers, ranchers, and workers a better deal. But what chance do these elements have of passage? And what other options are there for decreasing the concentration of power in Big Ag?

Guest: 

Cory Booker United States Senator, New Jersey

Contributor:

Elizabeth Rembert

For show notes and related links, visit our website.

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Who cleans up and rebuilds our communities after floods, fires, and hurricanes? COVID redefined America's definition of “essential workers,” but many who help communities recover from climate disasters remain underpaid and overlooked. 

In 2006, labor organizer Saket Soni got an anonymous call from an Indian migrant worker in Mississippi who had scraped together $20,000 to apply for the “opportunity” to rebuild oil rigs after Hurricane Katrina. The caller was only one of hundreds lured into Gulf Coast labor camps, surrounded by barbed wire, and watched by armed guards. Since then, the frequency and intensity of climate-related disasters has only increased – and disaster recovery has become big business. How are the lives of people displaced by disasters intertwined with those helping to rebuild?

Guests:

Saket Soni, Founder and Director, Resilience Force

Daniel Castellanos, Director Of Workforce Engagement, Resilience Force

For show notes and related links, visit https://www.climateone.org/watch-and-listen/podcasts

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Extreme heat kills more people per year than any other climate disaster. It preys on the poor, exacerbates racial inequalities, and there is a growing body of evidence that shows women and girls are increasingly susceptible to heat-health effects. Globally, women and girls represent 80% of climate refugees. They are more likely to be displaced, suffer violence and die in natural disasters. As temperatures rise, children’s test scores decrease, gender violence increases, and miscarriage rates go up. But preventing heat deaths is possible. From Europe to Africa, Chief Heat Officers throughout the world are implementing projects to make cities more climate-adaptive. 

Guests:

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

Eleni Myrivili, Global Chief Heat Officer, UN Habitat

Eugenia Kargbo, Chief Heat Officer, Freetown, Sierra Leone 

Freelance piece from Hellen Kabahukya on mud wattle construction in Uganda

For show notes and related links, visit our website.

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Land use, pollution and the climate crisis are driving what may be the largest mass extinction event since the dinosaurs. The World Wildlife Fund estimates that the planet has seen an average 68% drop in mammal, bird, fish, reptile and amphibian populations since 1970. In order to help address species collapse, over 190 countries – signatories to the United Nations Framework Convention on Biodiversity – recently agreed to an ambitious new plan, called 30x30, which aims to conserve 30% of the world’s land and waters by 2030. Will the framework be enough to bring biodiversity back from the breaking point? 

This episode is supported in part by Resources Legacy Fund.

Guests:

Tanya Sanerib, International Legal Director, Center for Biological Diversity

Ian Urbina, Director and Founder, The Outlaw Ocean Project 

Jennifer Tauli Corpuz, Managing Director of Policy, Nia Tero 

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

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Many on the left say that the growing climate crisis is the inevitable result of unbridled capitalism – industries seeking profits above all else. In “The Big Myth,” Naomi Oreskes (who brought us “Merchants of Doubt”) points to a concerted effort from American business groups to propagate the myth that only markets free of government regulation can generate prosperity and protect political freedom. 

“If we actually had appropriate regulations, appropriate rules of the road, we wouldn't be in this position of having to beg corporate leaders not to destroy the planet,” Oreskes says.

This myth has grown so pervasive that American citizens now put more faith in CEOs than in religious leaders, according to David Gelles, author of “The Man Who Broke Capitalism.” What should be done to change the narrative?

Guests:

Naomi Oreskes, Professor of the History of Science, Harvard 

David Gelles, Reporter, The New York Times

Kate Khatib, Co-Director, Seed Commons

For show notes and related links, visit https://www.climateone.org/watch-and-listen/podcasts

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Making the necessary changes to address climate disruption will take massive collective action. But sometimes, a single individual can make an extraordinary difference. At age nine, Nalleli Cobo, suffering headaches, heart palpitations, nosebleeds, and body spasms, became an activist, driven to fighting to shut down the local oil well responsible for her ailments. Separately, Marjan Minnesma brought a historic lawsuit holding the Dutch government accountable for its failure to protect its citizens from climate change. For these activists, addressing climate disruption isn’t just about preventing future harm, it’s about instigating change now. 

Guests: 

Nalleli Cobo, Cofounder, People Not Pozos

Marjan Minnesma, Founder, Urgenda Foundation

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

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Amy Westervelt has made a career out of exploring the underbelly of the oil industry through complex and compelling storytelling. Through her investigative series Drilled, including her latest season Light Sweet Crude, focused on the new wave of oil colonialism, Westervelt dives deep into the true crimes of the fossil fuel industry’s biggest players, including their misinformation and PR campaigns about the climate emergency, their unfair dealing and record of environmental disasters. Her narrative podcasts shine a light on stories oil companies would rather keep in the dark, and on those individuals who try to hold them accountable. 

Guest:

Amy Westervelt, Investigative Journalist; Executive Producer, Critical Frequency Podcast Network

For show notes and related links, visit https://www.climateone.org/watch-and-listen/podcasts

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From the Boston Tea Party to the Civil Rights Movement to Black Lives Matter, activists have long sought to bring pressing issues into the public consciousness. Climate activism is no different. This past Earth Day spawned a new ripple of climate activism. Activists protested at the headquarters of BlackRock in New York City, smeared paint on the casing around an Edgar Degas statue and even tried to block the entrance of the White House Correspondents dinner in DC. But that’s not the only style of activism that’s happening. Some are working from within big institutions to effect change. So what actions really move the needle?

Guests: 

Dana Fisher, Professor of Sociology, University of Maryland 

Rose Abramoff, Earth Scientist and Climate Activist  

Ilana Cohen, Lead Organizer, Fossil Fuel Divest Harvard

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

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Hollywood has been slow to include climate in its stories. Executives fear it won’t sell – that it’s too overwhelming or depressing. Apple TV+ has just released the series Extrapolations, which revolves entirely around the climate crisis. But it’s an outlier. We ask writer, producer and director Scott Z. Burns – who also worked on the films Contagion and Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth – and Anna Jane Joyner of the climate story consultancy Good Energy about why climate doesn’t play a more prominent role in scripted entertainment. 

Guests:

Scott Z. Burns, Writer, Director, Producer

Anna Jane Joyner, Founder and CEO, Good Energy

For show notes and related links, visit https://www.climateone.org/watch-and-listen/podcasts

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Thousands of renewable energy projects are ready to be built and start producing fossil-free power, but they’re stuck in a long limbo for one essential piece of the puzzle: getting connected to the grid. A slow and inefficient federal permitting process and insufficient transmission capability are prohibiting renewable energy projects from going online. To make matters even more difficult, the U.S. lacks a centralized grid. That means adding layers of complexity to an already slow process. The Biden administration is focused on streamlining the permitting process, boosting funding and helping navigate this new energy future. What will it take to modernize our multiple grids?

Guests:

Pat Wood III, CEO, Hunt Energy Network

Jennifer Gardner, Vice Chair, Western Energy Imbalance Market

José Zayas, Executive Vice President of Policy and Programs, American Council on Renewable Energy

L. Michelle Moore, CEO, Groundswell

For show notes and related links, visit https://www.climateone.org/watch-and-listen/podcasts

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