I first heard the idiom "worse things happen at sea" in Monty Python's Life of Brian, and it's true.

Ian Urbina has made a career of telling stories of the ocean. From piracy, illegal fishing, and sea slavery to seasteading and rogue carbon removal experiments, he's covered the gamut.

How does one continuously report on topics of concern to relatively intimidating people? As the old line goes, "Journalism is printing what someone else does not want printed; everything else is public relations."

In today's episode, Ian and host Ross Kenyon discuss these topics, but also broader questions of what is happening to journalism in a political environment where retaliation feels very possible.

Resources

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The Outlaw Ocean: Journeys Across the World's Last Untamed Frontier by Ian Urbina

The Outlaw Ocean Project

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For fans ages 21 and up!

It's often hard to know how sustainable or ethical an alcoholic drink is. Very little disclosure is required on most labels, and many of the recipes are proprietary. What is a conscientious drinker to do?

Shanna Farrell wrote A Good Drink: In Search of Sustainable Spirits in order to answer this exact question.

She and host Ross Kenyon discuss the strange world of amaros (or "amari" if you're really going for it!), whiskey, agave, and gin, and try to figure out how to even begin approaching this difficult consumptive choice.

N.B. If you really want to nerd out on amaro taxonomy, Brad Thomas Parsons's books on amaro and bitters are both quite useful; linked below.

Resources

⁠Become a paid subscriber of Reversing Climate Change

A Good Drink: In Search of Sustainable Spirits by Shanna Farrell

Shanna Farrell's website

Amaro: The Spirited World of Bittersweet, Herbal Liqueurs by Brad Thomas Parsons

Crushed: How A Changing Climate Is Altering the Way We Drink by Brian Freedman

Follow the Reversing Climate Change podcast on LinkedIn

What is geopolitics, and has it returned? Did it ever really leave? And how will this affect the future prospects of carbon removal?

Today's guest is Sarah Godek, a Washington DC-based international relations researcher. She and Grant Faber co-wrote an article on Carbon-Based Commentary called, "Carbon security and the geopolitics of carbon removal".

We discuss the tension between strategic liberalism and realism, how the world is changing under the second Trump Administration, as well as if and how the Great Game is currently being played and what implications that has for climate change and CDR.

N.B. Regarding the point about Eastern Europe in the introduction, much of my reading on the region has highlighted its former status as a bustling and fervent cultural mixing place. I think I was a bit too subtle in pointing to this understanding. See: A History of Eastern Europe from The Great Courses, or Shtetl by Eva Hoffman.

Resources

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"Carbon security and the geopolitics of carbon removal"

Graham Allison's Destined for War: Can America and China Escape Thucydides's Trap?

Robert Axelrod's The Evolution of Cooperation

Kevin Rudd's The Avoidable War: The Dangers of a Catastrophic Conflict between the US and Xi Jinping's China

John Pomfret's The Beautiful Country and the Middle Kingdom: America and China, 1776 to the Present

Tencent's CarbonX program

Raj M. Shah & Christopher Kirchhoff's Unit X: How the Pentagon and Silicon Valley Are Transforming the Future of War

Go watch In the Loop, Veep, and The Death of Stalin.

My podcasting editing platform Descript informed me of a new integration with ChatGPT where it would make me a custom video. I complied in perhaps the most annoying and meta way possible.

That video exists at the end of this podcast, but first, I have thoughts I'd like to share on what this process made me feel and think about.

I've heard so many takes on artificial intelligence and art, and I have several of my own that I don't often hear reflected. Mine pertain to the sociological purpose of art, and of developing aesthetic talent on the road to greatness.

Resources

⁠Become a paid subscriber of Reversing Climate Change

Use my referral link to become a user of Descript⁠⁠ for podcast editing, transcription, and now AI-generated video content.

When you take a major pay cut to work in government, you don't expect unceremoniously fired by the Department of Government Efficiency with a change in administration. But it happened to friend of the show, Grant Faber.

Grant Faber was the United States Department of Energy's Direct Air Capture Hubs Program Manager until he was let go as part of the recent firing of probationary federal employees.

In today's episode, Grant explains what he was working on, what it was like being at the DoE during this turbulent time of Trump 2 & DOGE, and what it means for carbon removal, the climate, and the United States moving forward.

Resources

Become a paid subscriber of Reversing Climate Change

Listen to The CDR Policy Scoop episode with Noah Deich

Grant's Substack

Grant's recent RCC episode on coproduction and additionality

Don't make me link to the ASMR deportation video

There are a bunch of episodes I've made with thoughtful conservatives. Poke around the catalog if you'd like. I'll add some more links later if I have the heart to do it.

Russell Vought, Director of the Office of Management and Budget (I mistakenly say OEM in the show):

"We want the bureaucrats to be traumatically affected... When they wake up in the morning, we want them to not want to go to work because they are increasingly viewed as the villains. We want their funding to be shut down so that the EPA can't do all of the rules against our energy industry because they have no bandwidth financially to do so...We want to put them in trauma."

There are a lot of companies that want to buy carbon removal and don't have the budget to participate in Frontier or Symbiosis. What are they to do?

Until now, they either had to pay expensive consultants or vet projects and contracts themselves and stand by their choices alone. No longer!

The new AirMiners Buyers Club could not be arriving at a better time. Federal policy for carbon removal is in an extremely turbulent moment. Buying momentum is not growing to the degree that we need to see. The AirMiners Buyers Club aims to solve for the missing middle of carbon removal buyers.

Do you work at (or know someone who works at) a company that could be passionate about supporting cutting-edge carbon removal companies? Are you a high-net-worth individual? Involved in philanthropy? If so, please reach out to Tito Jankowski directly (tito[at]airminers.com) and see how you can work together to grow CDR during its Dark Night of the Soul.

Additionally, if you personally want to support CDR in non-monetary ways, come join the so-called Rebel Alliance in AirMiners. We'd love to have you.

Thank you so much for your love and support of carbon removal!

Resources

⁠Become a paid subscriber of Reversing Climate Change

Join the AirMiners Buyers Club by emailing Tito Jankowski directly: tito[at]airminers.com.

Form to join the Rebel Alliance

AirMiners's website

Frontier

Symbiosis

Seemingly nothing generates hotter passions in carbon credits than forestry. Can credits count against fossil emissions? Is there enough of it to make a difference? What is the appropriate way of funding it?

Today's guest is Lisett Luik, Co-Founder and COO of Arbonics, an innovative forestry company in the Baltic that straddles the line between carbon removal and other services forests can provide.

We discuss if and how forestry can fit into carbon removal, help the planet avoid tipping points, and adequately motivate land managers to employ better practices.

We also play a quick game of bioenergy: friend or foe!

Always more to discuss on forestry, and I doubt this show will be the final word.

Resources

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Arbonics's website

How do registries create carbon removal methodologies? Who should be involved in the process, and to what degree? How does one balance all of the competing attributes and stakeholders?

Today's episode is a show in three parts:

First, Nori co-founder and host ofReversing Climate Changeintroduces the context for the main segment which was recorded the better part of a year before its airing. He explores whether or not the quasi-regulatory requirement for registries not to also be marketplaces leads to proprietary methodologies.

Secondly, as Nori has closed down since the recording of this episode, Ross chats with Anu Khan, the Founder and Executive Director of the Carbon Removal Standards Initiative to discuss her work of building an ark for carbon removal methodologies and how that work informs policy and the growth of carbon removal.

Thirdly, is the original body of the podcast where Ross speaks with Radhika Moolgavkar, formerly the VP of Supply & Methodology at Nori, and Rick Berg, formerly Nori’s Director of Methodology, about the development of Nori’s Direct Air Capture + Storage methodology.

They discuss the importance of open methodology development for transparency and trust, and ungating their work so that others can use it and adapt it under the right Creative Commons licensure.

The nuts and bolts of how the expert advisory panel and public comment period work, as well as how that feedback filters back into the methodology, is explained.

The podcast also covers the decision behind selecting DAC amongst all of the other CDR methodologies, the challenges in methodology harmonization across registries and geographies, and how to handle the future of methodological updates as the industry evolves and more is learned.

Resources

Become a paid subscriber toReversing Climate Change

Read Nori's DAC+S Methodology (coming soon!)

Carbon Removal Standards Initiative

Nori's Creative Commons license

Stationary bandit theory

"The Constitution of No Authority" by Lysander Spooner

ICROA andICVCM

Dear listener,

Thank you so much for being a fan of the show. You could be listening to anything with your one wild and precious life and I do not take that for granted. From the bottom of my heart, thank you!

Now that the show is independent, I am working to make it financially viable. Can I count on you to help support Reversing Climate Change by doing any of the following?

1. In your podcast app of choice, please give the show a full rating and/or review. The two most impactful are Apple Podcasts and Spotify, but if you use a different app that has ratings or reviews, please help me there with a great rating and/or review.
2. Will you please become a paid subscriber of Reversing Climate Change? For $5/month, you will get bonus content, ad-free listening, and more features as they get rolled out. This is very impactful and adds up!
3. If you are a podcaster or aspire to become one, here are referral links for the recording platform I use called Riverside, and the editing platform I use called Descript. I can recommend both without reservation.
4. Tell a friend about the show! If there is an episode you love, please tell someone, share it on social media, and just help me grow the show.

If you have feedback of any kind that you'd like to share, please send it to carbon.removal.strategies[at]gmail.com.

Thank you so much for helping the show. It is deeply meaningful to me.

Sincerely,

Ross

It is sometimes claimed that adoption could be a climate solution. After all, if there are kids needing parents and parents wanting kids, adopting might replace the desire to create more children. Is adoption something we should encourage to reduce environmental risk?

Today we have four(!) parents of adopted children on the podcast. Each of them tells their story at the start of the show, including:

Then we all discuss if and how adopting children could or should fit into one's vision of climate activism.

This was a fun and big show to do! I hope you enjoy the change-up in format.

Resources

Here are the verses from the Bible that are referenced:

"...work out your own salvation with fear and trembling."

- Philippians 2:12

"Take heed that ye do not your alms before men, to be seen of them: otherwise ye have no reward of your Father which is in heaven.

Therefore when thou doest thine alms, do not sound a trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.

But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth:

That thine alms may be in secret: and thy Father which seeth in secret himself shall reward thee openly.

And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.

But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly."

- Matthew 6:1-6

All quotes from the King James Version