Reversing Climate Change

Seems like a new book on climate-friendly cooking is constantly being released. Do they matter, or do they unfairly place the burden of political economy and social change on the lowly consumer? What type of cooking might actually be impactful, and why? Why do we even bother cooking anyway?

In today's Reversing Climate Change podcast, Nori Cofounder and Director of Creative & Marketing, Ross Kenyon, is joined by Tamar Adler, a James Beard awardee and author of several books, including An Everlasting Meal: Cooking with Economy and Grace, The Everlasting Meal Cookbook: Leftovers A-Z, and Something Old, Something New: Classic Recipes Revised.

Tamar shares her unique approach to cooking which emphasizes the beauty of the endless transformation of ingredients, utilizing and elevating leftovers, and making food an enduring lifestyle rather than a collection of discrete meals.

This focus on transformation, leftovers, and creatively utilizing so many of the parts we often throw away, has an obvious climate angle. But Tamar isn't convinced that's the best reason to pursue her way of cooking, and in fact, doing it for political purposes may make it hard to sustain for the same reasons that diets are hard to sustain: if it isn't joyful, it's a burden. And if it's a burden, it is so much harder to sustain.

Do yourself a favor and pick up a copy of An Everlasting Meal, and subscribe to Tamar's new Substack, The Kitchen Shrink, where you can ask her all of the cooking questions you've kept locked in your root cellar.

Connect with Nori

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Resources

Tamar's website

An Everlasting Meal: Cooking with Economy and Grace

The Everlasting Meal Cookbook: Leftovers A-Z

Something Old, Something New: Classic Recipes Revised

The Kitchen Shrink

The Supper of the Lamb: A Culinary Reflection by Robert Farrar Capon

The River Cottage Meat Book by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall

Resources

This episode's page on the web
Subscribe to the Reversing Climate Change Substack
Books from the show, at Bookshop
My other show, Climate Workers Anonymous

Off-world settlements are sometimes proposed as an insurance policy for Earthlings. Or as an escape for the super-rich. Is it actually either of those things? How should we be considering humanity's relationship to the cosmos and off-world civilization? And is the Overview Effect worth a damn?

On today's episode of the Reversing Climate Change podcast, Nori carbon removal marketplace Cofounder Ross Kenyon is joined by Zach Weinersmith and Dr. Kelly Weinersmith, science educators and authors all. Zach is also the person behind the long-running internet comic SMBC (Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal). They are the authors of the new book, A City on Mars: Can We Settle Space, Should We Settle Space, and Have We Really Thought This Through?

Zach and Kelly are both sympathetic to space exploration, being avowed geeks of the subject matter. And yet, the further they dug into basically every facet of life off-world, the less likely it seems our species is ready for the challenges.

Whether it be the ease of hurling celestial objects back at Earth, the collapsing bone density of space denizens, the uncertainty of reproduction in low-gravity environments and therefore the necessity of experimenting without consent upon children, the cost, the geopolitics, the near-term impossibility of independence from Earth, and an entire book's worth of other concerns, it just doesn't seem like becoming a trans-Earth civilization is the solution or problem that its supporters or critics, respectively, have believed it is.

These are all worthy areas of research. Tune in to learn more and why Zach & Kelly are still exuberant space nerds, and how to keep space in mind with regard to climate change.

Connect with Nori

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Resources

Kelly's website

Zach's website

Soonish: Ten Emerging Technologies That'll Improve and/or Ruin Everything

A City on Mars

Mars One

David Grinspoon's Earth in Human Hands

David Grinspoon on Reversing Climate Change

The Right Stuff

Bryan Caplan on Reversing Climate Change talking about his book Open Borders, which Zach illustrated.

Resources

This episode's page on the web
Subscribe to the Reversing Climate Change Substack
Books from the show, at Bookshop
My other show, Climate Workers Anonymous

Nutrients on Earth are essential for life on Earth. But they aren't evenly distributed. How do they end up in different places, and how does that affect life on Earth? How does life even work?!

In this episode of the Reversing Climate Change podcast, Nori Cofounder Ross Kenyon is joined by Dr. Joe Roman, a conservation biologist and author of Eat, Poop, Die: How Animals Make Our World.

An established view of how ecosystems emerge and change is through bottom-up processes, e.g. through chemistry or microorganisms. In this view, animals are often seen more as visitors passing through rather than as transformative agents themselves. Joe challenges this concept, arguing that much research has shown just how much mammals can change ecosystems, as well as carbon and nitrogen cycles! This has impacts for carbon removal, from ecosystem restoration to iron fertilization of the Southern Ocean.

The conversation also explores the complex relationship humans have with predators and rewilding, and our desire to simplify our environments, often to our peril. This legibility and safety, however, can often mean ecological sterility. Ross shares his experience raising urban chickens in an environment filled with raccoons.

Joe also talks about his ongoing research project on whales and the Great Whale Conveyor Belt, and his interest in studying invasive species as a source of food for humans.

This is one of those episodes that touches so much about our shared world!

Connect with Nori

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Resources

Joe Roman's website

Eat, Poop, Die: How Animals Make Our World

Resources

This episode's page on the web
Subscribe to the Reversing Climate Change Substack
Books from the show, at Bookshop
My other show, Climate Workers Anonymous

What does it mean to farm regeneratively? Or to farm conventionally, for that matter? Is regenerative agriculture size-dependent? What are its benefits and how does it work?

Today's Reversing Climate Change podcast episode has Jada Dormaier, Supply Account Manager at the Nori carbon removal marketplace, join Nori Cofounder and Director of Creative & Marketing, Ross Kenyon, to discuss regenerative ag.

Like our recent show reintroducing carbon removal generally, we thought it was a good idea to go back to basics on regenerative agriculture. We've put out lots of shows on the topic, but sometimes you need to redo the 101 and catch those newer to the topic up to speed.

In this show, Jada talks about growing up on a farm, working in farm insurance, and then at Nori for the last several years. She has a huge amount of experience with farmers working to change their practices and just make sure their businesses stay afloat. There are plenty of misconceptions about food, farming, rural communities, and agriculture, and Jada shares her experience of what to keep in mind on the topic.

Connect with Nori

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Resources

312: Nori's collab with the Texas Climate-Smart Initiative—w/ Dr. Julie Howe, Professor of Soil Science & Project Director of TCSI

S2E57: Farming While Black: race and regenerative agriculture—w/ Leah Penniman of Soul Fire Farms

309: Will Harris's Legendary Regenerative Agriculture Journey, AKA A Bold Return to Giving a Damn

S2E44: Can permaculture scale?-w/Mark Shepard, author of Restoration Agriculture

Resources

This episode's page on the web
Subscribe to the Reversing Climate Change Substack
Books from the show, at Bookshop
My other show, Climate Workers Anonymous

Does liberalism's attempt to let us all pursue different visions of the good life ironically make the good life even harder to achieve? Should there be an established church? Are the people who hold these ideas politically ascendent, or likely to remain part of a small counter-revolutionary fringe?

In this episode of Reversing Climate Change, Nori Cofounder Ross Kenyon invites Dr. Kevin Vallier, Associate Professor and Director of the Philosophy, Politics, and Economics program at Bowling Green State University, on to discuss the rise(?) of Catholic integralist thought, with which he engages in his latest book, All the Kingdoms of the World: On Radical Religious Alternatives to Liberalism.

Vallier provides a comprehensive overview of integralism, a formerly default ideological perspective derived from various religious traditions (but especially Catholicism), which advocates for religious governance and the intertwining of church and state. He lays out its history, core ideas, and some speculation on its sociology.

Critics of modernity argue that free choice has led to a libertinism that has lowered standards and made us less happy and that we should return to an explicitly religiously ordered society with established churches and codes of behavior. Liberalism, in trying to be all things to all people, has made it adaptive but offering very little public meaning. That, it turns out, is the responsibility of the private person.

Vallier steelmans these ideas to the best of his ability in an attempt to reckon with them as a a devout member of the Orthodox Church, while also defending the importance of the liberal tradition.

Of course, were liberalism to be replaced by such a tradition, there are huge open questions of how that might impact world politics and climate action. Vallier predicts (and maybe even hopes) it remains a small intellectual insurgency rather than becoming what its advocates desire.

Connect with Nori

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Resources

Kevin Vallier's website

All the Kingdoms of the World: On Radical Religious Alternatives to Liberalism

The Priestly Fraternity of Saint Peter (FSSP)

Vatican II

Crypto-Judaism

The Young Pope

The Book of Common Prayer

Dorothy Day

Edmund Burke

Rod Dreher

Adrian Vermeule

Patrick Deneen

Sedevacantism

The Great Schism

Filioque

Old Believers

Byzantine Rite

Desert Fathers

Resources

This episode's page on the web
Subscribe to the Reversing Climate Change Substack
Books from the show, at Bookshop
My other show, Climate Workers Anonymous

When people think about innovation in carbon removal, they're probably thinking about physics or materials science. How do we make CDR faster, cheaper, more durable, or use less energy? What if we told you that a lot of the innovation that is coming is financial and/or contractual?

In this episode of the Reversing Climate Change podcast, Nori Cofounder Ross Kenyon and Nori CEO Matt Trudeau are joined by Racheal Notto, Director of Carbon Markets Engagement at Kita, and James Kench, the Head of Insurance at Kita. Their conversation explores how insurance can play a key role in managing risks within the carbon markets, and why it isn't already more of a player. Insurance companies are the professed masters of risk management. Carbon markets have a fair amount of risk. Shouldn't there be a bigger crossover?!

Kita, a London-based insurance company focusing specifically on insuring carbon projects, explains their goal of derisking high-quality carbon projects, and what that can add to all players in the space.

The discussants weigh the pros and cons of buffer pools vs. insurance and get answers for why some high-quality carbon removal projects may actually be uninsurable.

Insurance is important for any industry to grow. This could be a sign of another step in the carbon removal sector's growing maturity.

Connect with Nori

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Resources

Kita's website

"Buffers and Insurance in the Voluntary Carbon Market: A Comprehensive Overview" by Kita

"Could VCM buffer pool design risk a "bank run"?" by Matt Trudeau

Resources

This episode's page on the web
Subscribe to the Reversing Climate Change Substack
Books from the show, at Bookshop
My other show, Climate Workers Anonymous

Everyone right now is talking about regenerative agriculture. What does it look like when major cash crops work to improve their practices? How can the Department of Agriculture and agricultural science programs at universities support the changes so that major commodity operations can derisk their transition?

In today's episode of Reversing Climate Change, Nori Cofounder Ross Kenyon is joined by Nori Supply Account Manager, Jada Dormaier, to discuss Nori's partnership with the Texas Climate-Smart Initiative. Dr. Julie Howe, Project Director of the program and Soil Scientist at Texas A&M, joins the show to talk about her work trying to understand nutrient cycling and change the way we farm.

The conversation delves into Dr. Howe's background and what led her to focus on soil chemistry and eventually agricultural sustainability, which is a hot topic even in places some might not expect. It isn't all about yield!

They explore the complexities of agricultural research within an open system with countless variables, which hurts Ross's brain, before moving into a discussion about carbon credits and how farmers can consider these opportunities and additional government programs for ecosystem services.

Dr. Howe emphasizes the importance of implementing climate-smart farming practices, not only for the environment but also for the sustainability and profitability of farming operations. Listen in to get a glimpse inside Nori and the Texas Climate-Smart Initiative.

Timestamps

00:00 Introduction and Guest Introduction

00:38 Dr. Julie Howe's Journey into Agriculture

02:09 The Intersection of Agriculture and Environmental Sustainability

03:34 The Challenges and Risks in Farming

11:20 The Role of Climate Smart Initiative in Agriculture

16:53 The Process and Benefits of Joining Climate Programs

24:52 The Science and Challenges of Agricultural Research

37:27 Encouraging Farmers to Join Climate Programs

40:42 Conclusion and Final Thoughts

Connect with Nori

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Resources

⁠Texas Climate-Smart Initiative⁠

⁠Dr. Julie Howe's website

Resources

This episode's page on the web
Subscribe to the Reversing Climate Change Substack
Books from the show, at Bookshop
My other show, Climate Workers Anonymous

Reversing Climate Change is many things: a repository of deep dives into carbon removal, a way to intimately understand the thought processes of the folks at Nori working to build a scalable carbon removal marketplace, and a massive catalogue of the infinite number of climate-adjacencies that tickle host Ross Kenyon's brain. And sometimes you've got to get back to basics and reintroduce a topic to catch new listeners up. To that effect, today's show is twenty minutes on the basics of carbon removal.

In this episode, Ross Kenon, Cofounder of and Director of Creative & Marketing at the Nori carbon removal marketplace, chats with Nori's Head of Supply and Methodology, Radhika Moolgavkar, about carbon removal—what it is and why it's necessary.

They discuss the differences between open and closed CDR systems, the need for a combination of all carbon removal technologies, and why carbon accounting is so complex. They also touch on the intersection of carbon removal technologies with the oil and gas industry and the geopolitical considerations involved in carbon removal strategies.

The episode serves as a resource for listeners who are new to the concept of carbon removal! If you are new to CDR, start here!

Timestamps:

00:00 Introduction

00:41 Understanding Carbon Removal

03:18 The Importance of Carbon Removal

05:40 Types of Carbon Removal

14:02 Challenges in Carbon Accounting

18:16 The Role of Oil and Gas in Carbon Removal

19:55 Conclusion

Connect with Nori

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Carbon Removal Memes on Instagram

Resources

If you want to deep dive into carbon removal and are considering a career change, AirMiners Boot Up is a great place to start.

Resources

This episode's page on the web
Subscribe to the Reversing Climate Change Substack
Books from the show, at Bookshop
My other show, Climate Workers Anonymous

What does it mean to work "in Product", let alone at a company working on climate change? What is the difference between Product and Engineering? And what the hell are they building in there anyways?!In this conversation, Nori cofounder Ross Kenyon is joined by Nori's Head of Product, Patrick Tsao, to discuss Patrick's role in scaling climate action. How much of this work is strategy, how much is building tools, and are we meant to be empirical or aprioristic "first principles" thinkers? What are the risks of each?Patrick emphasizes the struggle of understanding and meeting customers' goals in the constantly evolving #carbonmarket, and when and how to work on education beyond the norm.We aim to be doing more regular Product updates moving forward!

Connect with Nori

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Resources

Patrick Tsao's LinkedIn profile

Nori's Net-Zero Tonnes (NZT)

Resources

This episode's page on the web
Subscribe to the Reversing Climate Change Substack
Books from the show, at Bookshop
My other show, Climate Workers Anonymous

What does regenerative agriculture mean to you? Whither Big Regen?

To Will Harris, author of A Bold Return to Giving a Damn, One Farm, Six Generations, and the Future of Food,it means restarting the cycles of nature—making them healthy again. This week on Reversing Climate Change, Ross Kenyon and Jada Dormaier from Nori are joined by Will Harris to discuss his remarkable journey from industrial to regenerative farming.

The conversation is simultaneously a beginners introduction, and a deep dive into regenerative farming practices.

The conversation covers the shift from efficiency, the complexities of greenwashing in agriculture, the role of big food companies, the challenges in balancing local and national food production, and the intricacies of feeding the world while considering the environmental consequences of commercial farming. Oh, and don’t forget carbon credits.

Tune in to explore the nuanced goal of creating food systems that are good for the planet, animals, and eaters.

Connect with Nori

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Carbon Removal Memes on Instagram

Resources

White Oak Pastures 

Bluffton, Georgia 
A Bold Return to Giving a Damn: One Farm, Six Generations, and the Future of Food
University of Georgia Animal and Dairy Science

Resources

This episode's page on the web
Subscribe to the Reversing Climate Change Substack
Books from the show, at Bookshop
My other show, Climate Workers Anonymous