Climate One

True to his campaign promise, President Biden dove right into the climate crisis on Day One, signing a stack of executive orders that signaled his determination. But how effective are they? 

“Executive orders, I think, are often very splashy when they're introduced, and they get a lot of attention,” notes Axios reporter Ben Gemen. “I think the better way to look at an executive order is sort of firing a starting gun for an extraordinarily long race.” But while he faces certain blowback from Republicans in Congress, there are signs that when it comes to conservative thought, the wind may be changing.

What can the Biden Administration accomplish using existing authority? How much will conservatives and businesses step in and step up on climate?

Guests:

Rep. Kathy Castor (D-FL), Chair of House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis

Rich Powell, Executive Director, ClearPath

Ben Geman, Energy Reporter, Axios

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Just two months into 2021, deadly winter temperatures left millions of Texans without water and power. Meanwhile, California is preparing for another year of intense drought, and Wall Street millionaires are moving their remote work to Florida, ground zero for flooding and sea-level rise.

“We think about the Earth as a system,” says Marshall Shepherd, director of Atmospheric Sciences Program at the University of Georgia, “so we can't understand climate change unless we understand changes in the Arctic, or in the ocean circulations, or in the biosphere, and so forth.”

“Hope or waiting and seeing is no longer a valid risk mitigation strategy."

Guests:

Katharine Mach, Associate Professor, Marine Ecosystems and Society, University of Miami

Marshall Shepherd, Director, Atmospheric Sciences, University of Georgia

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“The long-term energy future of America is not going to be written in fossil fuels,” declared John Kerry last April. President Biden recently appointed the former Secretary of State to a top position in his climate cabinet - United States Special Presidential Envoy for Climate.

Joe Biden did not start his campaign as the “climate candidate.” But as he starts his second month as president, he is looking at everything through a climate lens – from jobs and infrastructure to international diplomacy, public health and social justice.

“He really is a person who was engaged somewhat in climate, but I don't think it was as yet sort of ingrained into him,” said former EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy. “Well, it is now!”

McCarthy and Kerry are just two of the climate leaders that President Joe Biden has tapped to put his ambitious climate plan into action. In this program, we revisit conversations with these and other Climate One guests from the past year that have been named to prominent roles in the Biden-Harris administration.

Speakers:

Jay Inslee, Governor of Washington

Gina McCarthy, Former President & CEO, NRDC Action Fund

John Kerry, Former U.S. Senator and Former Secretary of State

Sonia Aggarwal, Former Vice President of Energy, Energy Innovation

Brian Deese, Former Managing Director, Global Head of Sustainable Investing, BlackRock

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In the past decade, narratives of a dystopian climate future have helped connect people with heroes in worlds decimated by climate disruption and industrial expansion. In today’s real world, scientists are looking to geo-engineering and other human innovations to preserve the wellbeing of life on Earth. “What we’re missing is a way to galvanize people to support policies that are actually gonna change,” says Jeff Biggers, founder of The Climate Narrative Project.

So how can climate storytelling help us reckon with our changing environment? Do we need a new climate narrative to help us understand and solve the climate emergency?

Guests:

Jeff Biggers, Founder, The Climate Narrative Project

Elizabeth Kolbert, Staff Writer, The New Yorker

Kim Stanley Robinson, Science Fiction Author

Related Links:

Climate Narrative Project

Resistance: Reclaiming an American Tradition

The Ministry for the Future

Under a White Sky: The Nature of the Future

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Experts have warned us that COVID-19 is just one example of climate change-related diseases on the rise. And while climate disruption, environmental health and the current pandemic may seem like three distinct problems, to those in the health and environmental justice field, that’s not the case.

"All of them are connected," says Adrienne Hollis of the Union of Concerned Scientists. "And the underlying cause is systemic racism."

"If you want to address pandemics, and you want to address climate change, you’ve got to focus on equity," agrees Aaron Bernstein of the Harvard Chan School of Public Health. "And the solution, and the great news in some ways, is that these actions you need to take are one and the same."

How are heat, lack of sanitation, and other environmental issues killing Americans in underserved communities? A conversation on what happens when climate, health, and poverty converge.

Guests:

Catherine Coleman Flowers, Founder, Center for Rural Enterprise and Environmental Justice; Author, Waste: One Woman’s Fight Against America’s Dirty Secret  (The New Press, 2020)

Adrienne Hollis, Senior Climate Justice and Health Scientist, Union of Concerned Scientists

Aaron Bernstein, Interim Director, Center for Climate, Health, and the Global Environment at the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health 

For complete show notes, visit our website.

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With a new pro-science, pro-climate action administration in the White House, there are more pathways — and far greater political will — than ever before for the clean energy transition. The question is now less about what can be done to act on climate, and more about how soon. 

“We have the best opportunity in more than a decade now to see federal climate action through legislation,” says Leah Stokes from UC Santa Barbara. So how quickly can a new administration turn around a gutted EPA, myriad environmental law rollbacks, and a legacy of climate denial from fossil fuel companies?

Guests:

Michael Mann, Distinguished Professor of Atmospheric Science, Penn State University

Leah Stokes, Assistant Professor of Political Science, UC Santa Barbara

Related Links:

Executive Order on Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad

The New Climate War: The Fight to Take Back Our Planet

Short Circuiting Policy: Interest Groups and the Battle Over Clean Energy and Climate Policy in the American States

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A decade ago, a nationwide survey showed that only around twelve percent of Americans were seriously concerned about climate change. Today, public perceptions have changed. 

“The alarmed are between a quarter and 30% of the public,” says Edward Maibach. “That makes them the largest single segment of Americans…as their name implies, they’re alarmed about climate change.”

How does understanding the perceptions of a broadly concerned public enable our leaders to create lasting change? How do climate concerns break down across political, economic, and regional divides?

A conversation with Anthony Leiserowitz and Edward Maibach, recipients of the tenth annual Stephen H. Schneider Award for Outstanding Climate Science Communication. At a time when understanding climate perceptions has never been more important, Dr. Leiserowitz and Dr. Maibach have exemplified the ability to be both scientists and powerful communicators through their work on the public’s understanding of climate change, including the seminal Global Warming’s Six Americas project.

Guests:

Anthony Leiserowitz, Director and Senior Research Scientist, Yale Program on Climate Change Communication

Edward Maibach, Director, George Mason University Center for Climate Change Communication

Host: Greg Dalton

Related Links:

Global Warming’s Six Americas

Yale Climate Connections Podcast

Climate Matters – Jim Gandy

Climate Matters in the Newsroom

White House Fact Sheet: President Biden’s Executive Actions on Climate Change

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Hopes and expectations are high for President Biden’s first weeks in office. His recovery plans promise to take on COVID-19, a battered economy, and a rapid clean energy transition in a way that doesn’t leave communities behind. But Navajo Nation, which until recently was home to the largest coal-fired power plant in the U.S., has been left out of economic and energy plans for a long time.

“The community that has been the provider is the one that has the most homes that don't have access to electricity,” notes Wahleah Johns, Co-Founder and Director of Native Renewables. Can the incoming administration improve energy access for all Americans while phasing out fossil fuels?

Guests

Loretta Lynch, Former President, California Public Utilities Commission

Wahleah Johns, Co-Founder & Director, Native Renewables

Paula Glover, President, Alliance to Save Energy; former President and CEO, American Association of Blacks in Energy

Jeremiah Baumann, Director of Federal Policy, Energy Innovation

Visit our website for more information on today's episode.

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Incoming President Biden faces an unimaginable set of challenges, including the COVID-19 pandemic, a gutted economy and a nation reeling from the recent capital attack. With all of that and more on his plate, what of Biden’s plans to fight climate change?

“This President-elect has shown that he is absolutely committed to addressing the issue of climate,” says former EPA Administrator Christine Todd Whitman. “Because it affects everything.”

Advancing a bipartisan climate agenda will be a hard sell. But in his nearly four decades in the Senate, Biden has made friends and earned respect from his Republican peers.

“That isn’t gonna fix everything, of course not,” admits former Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel. But if you start with that...there are enough Republicans in the Senate who will respond to that.”

Visit climateone.org/watch-and-listen/podcasts for more information on today's episode.

Guests:

Christine Todd Whitman, former Governor of New Jersey, former EPA Administrator

Chuck Hagel, former U.S. Secretary of Defense; former Republican Senator from Nebraska

John Podesta, Founder, Center for American Progress; former Hillary Clinton Campaign Chairman

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Questioning science, funding vocal climate denial groups, and encouraging the focus on personal carbon footprints are corporate America’s preferred tools for shifting the responsibility for action on climate from industry to the individual. “Companies that are very much pro-climate action, that are acting in their own operations, are mostly silent on public policy,” says Bill Weihl, former Sustainability Director at Facebook.

But with more workers holding their employers accountable and the start of a departure from shareholder-first capitalism, is the role of the corporation shifting?

Visit our website for more information on today's episode.

Guests: Mike Toffel, Senator

John Heinz Professor of Environmental Management, Harvard Business School; Founder, Climate Rising Podcast

Emily Atkin, Climate Journalist, Heated Newsletter & Podcast

Bill Weihl, Founder and Executive Director, ClimateVoice; Former Sustainability Director, Facebook

Barbara Freese, Author, Industrial-Strength Denial: Eight Stories of Corporations Defending the Indefensible, from the Slave Trade to Climate Change

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