Connect the Dots

In this episode of CPR’s Connect the Dots, host Rob Verchick and his guests explore how parents, families, and communities are adapting their lifestyles to the realities of climate change.
Our lives revolve around the weather: what we wear, where our kids play after school, where we go on vacation, what hobbies we partake in, and where we choose to live and work. Even what foods are available are often weather-dependent. 
With the climate crisis, the weather is changing dramatically, and our lives will likely follow suit. Last summer for example, 1 in 3 Americans were affected by climate-related disasters. Heat waves are on the rise, and 300 million people live under heat stress conditions.
Due to uncertainty and ominous conditions, some couples are opting not to have children. The thought of parenting brings more stress than in the past. What world will young people inherit? What lives will they lead? How soon will our lives be irrevocably changed by climate change? Rob and his guests explore these questions and more.

Guests in this episode include:

Dr. Kimberley Miner, scientist and systems engineer at the NASA Jet Propulsion Lab in California 

Lowell Chandler, a Montana renewable energy attorney 

Kristy Dahl, senior climate scientist at the Union of Concerned Scientists 

Christian Møller-Holst, founder and CEO of Goodwings

In Season 6 of CPR's Connect the Dots podcast, we’re discussing climate resiliency — that is, our ability to handle the stresses caused by climate disruption and adapt to changing conditions. The crisis may be stark, but there are solutions and pathways to a viable, sustainable future. 

Kicking off the season, host Rob Verchick digs into resiliency, real estate, and how climate change is beginning to impact people's decisions on where to live — or move. 

For years, scientists and environmental activists have warned that many of America’s most beloved cities are going to sink. Climate models predict how sea level rise will destroy places like Miami and New Orleans. Meanwhile, out West, wildfires are ravaging towns along the coast and spewing clouds of smoke inland. 
Our neighborhoods are drowning, burning, and running dry. Few places seem safe from the sting of climate change, especially because weather events don’t discriminate by status or income. All this begs the question: Where should we all be living? Join Rob and his guests as they seek to answer this question and discuss climate resiliency solutions.

Rob is joined by:

Daryl Fairweather, chief economist at Redfin 

Philip Mulder, a researcher at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business

Matt Kahn, Provost Professor of Economics at the University of Southern California and the author of Adapting to Climate Change

Sean Hecht, CPR Member Scholar and Evan Frankel Professor of Policy and Practice at UCLA School of Law

CPR’s Connect the Dots has been distilling complex policy issues for listeners for five seasons. In Season 6, coming early 2022, we’ll explore climate resiliency—that is, our ability to handle the stresses caused by climate disruption and adapt to changing conditions. The crisis may be stark, but there are ways we can create viable systems that look towards the future.

President Biden put climate policy front and center on his campaigning platform and wasted no time in pushing his agenda when he took office. The president has proposed $14 billion in spending on initiatives to fight the crisis in the nation’s 2022 budget, and he has appointed cabinet officials with informed backgrounds to offer guidance. He’s also altered tax incentives to favor clean energy over fossil fuels and promised to spur a job revolution that will protect workers in this sector.  But the U.S. is operated by three branches of government and federal powers are limited. It’s often the case that the "real work" is done on state and local levels. So, how do those plans coalesce with national strategy? Some states may take a different approach or "drive" a little slower, others prefer the fast lane — how does it all add up?

In this episode of CPR's Connect the Dots, host Rob Verchick explores energy policy at different levels of government and who's leading the way in the clean energy journey. 

Joining Rob Verchick in this episode are: 

Alice Kaswan, CPR Board Member and professor and associate dean at the University of San Francisco

Hannah Wiseman, CPR Member Scholar and professor at the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences and Institutes of Energy and the Environment at Penn State University

Laura Zapata, founder and CEO of Clearloop 

Flozell Daniels, Jr., CEO and President of the Foundation for Louisiana

Wendy Gao, an environmental activist and co-founder of the youth environmental nonprofit, Earth Uprising

A couple weeks ago, Elon Musk hosted Saturday Night Live, a gig typically reserved for A-list movie stars, Grammy Award winners, and stand-up legends. But Musk has risen to fame through his electric vehicle and clean energy company Tesla.  Musk and Tesla have become a social, political, and cultural force in our country, driving an interest in environmental business, investing, and innovation. Through his company, Musk has put renewable energy on the map. His creations may be notoriously expensive, exclusive, and well beyond the reach of many Americans, but the movement he’s leading is growing. And mainstream investors are starting to put money behind it.  When it comes to innovation and clean energy, there’s a wide range of players building new technology and sourcing terrains to scale renewables. Funding for those projects comes from a host of financiers, from banks to private equity firms to, perhaps, everyday consumers.  In this episode of Connect the Dots, host Rob Verchick and his guests discuss the fiscal complexities of successfully transitioning to renewable energy and achieving energy justice. They note that the newfound drive to do so results from a dedicated consortium of political agendas, business prerogatives, and consumer demand.  When the stakes get high, supply moves fast, and hopefully, it moves forward to a clean, equitable energy future for us all. 

Joining host Rob Verchick in this episode are: 

Lawrence Early, engineering graduate at Yale University

Pete Hellwig, co-founder of Atmos

Alice Kaswan, CPR Board Member and professor and associate dean at the University of San Francisco

Hannah Wiseman, CPR Member Scholar and professor at the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences and Institutes of Energy and the Environment at Penn State University

Laura Zapata, founder and CEO of Clearloop 

Companies using fossil fuels like oil, natural gas, and coal are facing heavy pressure to reduce their carbon footprint. If they don't, they could get hit with financial penalties or be completely shut down. In response, these corporations have come up with a treatment of sorts — it's called carbon capture and sequestration, or CCS for short.  The idea is that the industry can continue operating as it always has, but as a caveat, it will install a system to strip carbon from emissions. The carbon will be funneled through pipelines deep into the ground, where it will be buried forever. As a result, plants can keep running, businesses rally on as usual, there's less pollution in the air, everyone wins. Right? Not exactly. As Connect the Dots host Rob Verchick and his guests discuss in this episode, CCS is not nearly comprehensive enough to reduce emissions at a level and rate necessary to make a difference. Also, the logistics are complex and questionable, and the whole process could end up burning more energy than it saves.  Should we really be using a strategy that relies on fossil fuels when there are better alternatives available? Are we banking on the "old way" instead of trying something new? Rob and his guests discuss these questions and more. 

Joining host Rob Verchick in this episode are: 

Flozell Daniels, Jr., CEO and President of the Foundation for Louisiana

Alice Kaswan, CPR Board Member and professor and associate dean at the University of San Francisco

Alex Kolker, associate professor for the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium

Karen Sokol, CPR Member Scholar and associate professor of law at Loyola University in New Orleans

Hannah Wiseman, CPR Member Scholar and professor at the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences and Institutes of Energy and the Environment at Penn State University 

In 2020, the world banded together to fight the COVID-19 pandemic. Now, in 2021, the world continues to change, and we seem to be progressing forward. In turn, the spotlight shifts to another great calamity: climate change. The environmental crisis has made headlines with the Biden administration making climate mitigation and renewable energy top priorities.  With these advancements, researchers, corporations, innovators, and activists around the world are being tasked to follow suit. To stay united and take on another challenge: the transition to clean energy. But what does that entail exactly? How does a shift to renewables affect the average American household?  Scientists and engineers are hard at work creating systems that run efficiently, withstand various constraints, and won’t pollute the air. However, as this episode of Connect the Dots explains, it's also important to look at how we implement these new innovations in a way that’s equitable and purposeful to all. 

Joining host Rob Verchick in this episode are:

Flozell Daniels, Jr., CEO and President of the Foundation for Louisiana 

Lawrence Early, an engineering graduate at Yale University 

Wendy Gao, an environmental activist and student at the University of Virginia 

Cheryl Johnson, Executive Director of People for Community Recovery in Chicago 

Hannah Wiseman, CPR Member Scholar and professor at the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences and Institutes of Energy and the Environment at Penn State University

In this episode of Connect the Dots, host Rob Verchick discusses one of the more perplexing challenges facing those working to mitigate climate disruption: industrial workers, the people laboring in factories, farms, coal mines, and other businesses directly affecting or affected by the climate crisis. 

On the one hand, industrial workers need jobs. They depend on these jobs to feed their families and support themselves. On the other hand, they’re suffering because of it. So is our planet. The industrial worker tends to work long hours under harsh conditions. Many struggle to make ends meet. Due to climate breakdown, these working conditions and spaces have become grave. They’re hot, toxic, and frequently unregulated. Going to work can be unbearable at times, and as a result, not only livelihoods but lives are at stake.  The conflict of the industrial worker presents a tough duality: an appeal to restore health and salvage the Earth versus the need to sustain a living. Can both be achieved? The answer is yes, with some caveats and conditions. Listen now to find out more. Joining Rob in this episode are:

Neza Xiuhtecutli, Research Coordinator for the Farmworkers Association of Florida

Leslie Fields, Senior Director of Environmental Justice and Healthy Communities at the Sierra Club

Maxine Burkett, Member Scholar of Center for Progressive Reform and Professor of Law at the University of Hawaii

Vicki Arroyo, Executive Director of the Georgetown Climate Center

Dr. Aaron Bernstein, Interim Director of the Center for Climate, Health, and the Global Environment at Harvard University

In this episode of Connect the Dots, host Rob Verchick explores the ways the climate crisis drives raging wildfires like the ones that have scorched the western United States, killing dozens of people and destroying thousands of homes and businesses. Joining him are firefighter Sam Perkins, Vicki Arroyo of the Georgetown Climate Center, and Cinthia Moore of Moms Clean Air Force.

As of mid-October, unprecedented blazes have destroyed more than 4.1 million acres across California, with firefighters facing up to 40 new blazes across the state on extreme days. Further north, in Oregon, wildfires ruined two cities, killed 23 people, and demolished 600 homes and 100 commercial buildings in September alone. The same month in Washington, a canyon fire torched 76,000 acres, shutting down a major highway, burning several homes to the ground, and causing hundreds of families to evacuate. There’ve been nearly 100 known wildfires in the West since April, and the scorecard is still in play. 
 
Wildfires are the latest cataclysm amplified by climate disruption, burning rapidly and haphazardly across the western part of this nation, along with countries around the world. And unfortunately, many of us are in the line of fire. 

In this episode of Connect the Dots, host Rob Verchick talks about how the climate crisis hurts children – and presents ideas for possible solutions. He's joined by CPR Member Scholar Maxine Burkett, Sierra Club Senior Director of Environmental Justice and Healthy Communities Leslie Fields, mother and NRDC advocate Gina Ramirez, mother and Moms Clean Air Force member Leah Barbor, and Aaron Bernstein, Interim Director of the Center for Climate, Health, and the Global Environment at Harvard University. If you're a parent, you know the value of a backyard playdate or afternoon outing in the park. Fresh air, a space to run wild and free, open terrain with nothing to knock over or stain. Your kids can explore, and perhaps you can get a moment of respite, as well. Unfortunately, outdoor learning and fun isn’t a reality for many families. These days, in neighborhoods around the country, pollution fogs the air, heat penetrates spaces and surfaces, and a deadly alchemy of the two results in terrible contamination. In some parts of our country, sending the kids outside can be dangerous, even deadly. Due to the impacts of the climate crisis, children are getting sicker, heavier, and less mobile. They may be forced to stay inside, avoid exercise, or eat poor-quality foods. In more catastrophic instances, they’re losing their childhoods to destructive natural disasters. Either way, the physical and mental consequences of the climate crisis have long-term effects on their futures – and the future of our planet.