Not Cool Ep 19: Ilissa Ocko on non-carbon causes of climate change

Carbon emissions account for about 50% of warming, yet carbon overwhelmingly dominates the climate change discussion. On Episode 19 of Not Cool, Ariel is joined by Ilissa Ocko for a closer look at the non-carbon causes of climate change — like methane, sulphur dioxide, and an aerosol known as black carbon — that are driving the other 50% of warming.  Ilissa is a senior climate scientist with the Environmental Defense Fund and an expert on short-lived climate pollutants. She explains how these non-carbon pollutants affect the environment, where they’re coming from, and why they’ve received such little attention relative to carbon. She also discusses a major problem with the way we model climate impacts over 100-year time scales, the barriers to implementing a solution, and more.

Topics discussed include:

-Anthropogenic aerosols

-Non-CO2 climate forcers: black carbon, methane, etc.

-Warming vs. cooling pollutants

-Environmental impacts of methane emissions

-Modeling methane vs. carbon

-Why we need to look at climate impacts on different timescales

-Why we shouldn't geoengineer with cooling aerosols

-How we can reduce methane emissions