Reversing Climate Change

By Ross KenyonScience Earth Sciences

Reversing Climate Change episodes

May 21, 2025 How Will Carbon Dioxide Removal Fit into Compliance Markets?—w/ Mike Azlen, Carbon Cap Management LLP
Everyone's focused on carbon credit offtakes and Voluntary Carbon Market purchases, but the compliance markets represent the vast majority of carbon assets in circulation. How do these markets work, and how might carbon removal interact with them in the future?
Mike Azlen is the CEO and CIO of Carbon Cap Management LLP, a firm which trades within various compliance markets.
We discuss why private traders like his company can help price discovery in compliance markets, and address some common criticisms of market-based approaches to climate change (both VCM and compliance markets.)
Carbon removal is going to figure into various compliance markets in the future, but how exactly will that work? Might that be the demand boost that carbon removal needs to scale?
There is also bonus content from this episode about some of Mike's observations about VCM failures. It will be released on Saturday, May 24th. Become a paid subscriber to access it when it is published!
This Episode's Sponsor
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My other show, Climate Workers Anonymous
1 hr 1 min
May 14, 2025 Is a Lack of Open Science Holding Carbon Removal Back?—w/ Freya Chay & Tyler Kukla of CDRXIV & CarbonPlan
Seemingly everyone in carbon removal says they want more data transparency and the sharing of scientific results. Why isn't open science more present, and how can we get more of it? Could a pre-print server for CDR be part of the solution?
Today is the official launch of CDRXIV ("cee-dee-archive"), a new initiative from CarbonPlan that aims to spur scientific conversations within the carbon removal community.
On this episode, Freya Chay (the CDR Program Lead at CarbonPlan and a Member of the Advisory Board to CDRXIV) and Tyler Kukla (a CDR Research Scientist at CarbonPlan and the Content Manager for CDRXIV) are on the show to explain how pre-print servers drive progress in other scientific fields, why CDR needs one, and how it may change our industry.
If you'd like to submit data and/or a paper for publication to CDRXIV, please email [email protected], or visit their submission portal here.
This Episode's Sponsor
⁠⁠⁠Arbonics⁠⁠⁠
⁠⁠⁠Listen to the RCC episode with Lisett Luik from Arbonics⁠⁠⁠
Become a sponsor by emailing carbon.removal.strategies[at]gmail.com
Use this affiliate link to use Riverside to record your podcasts
Resources
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CarbonPlan
CDRXIV
Submit research to CDRXIV
335: How Nori Created a Direct Air Capture+Storage Methodology: A Case Study—w/ Radhika Moolgavkar & Rick Berg
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My other show, Climate Workers Anonymous
48 min
May 07, 2025 This Entrepreneur Holds the Record for Two Exits in Carbon Removal. What Does He Think Is Next for CDR?—w/ Jim McDermott, Rusheen Capital Management LLC
Carbon removal only has a few exits. Today’s guest was involved in two of them, and he’s bringing his lessons.
Jim McDermott is the founder and CEO of Rusheen Capital Management, LLC, an investment firm that makes a few early-stage bets and works with companies much more closely than most investors do. He's had a long and storied career in energy and as the founder and CEO of Stamps.com.
Jim shares his lessons from exiting 1PointFive and Carbon Engineering to Occidental Petroleum (who also just bought Holocene, another direct air capture company). He lays out his case for alternatives to the classical venture approach, and proposes a new philanthropic model he believes has a chance of filling in carbon removal’s (in)famous demand gap.
Listen in to lessons for entrepreneurs during tough times and Jim's predictions for direct air capture and the carbon removal sector as a whole.
This Episode's Sponsor
⁠⁠Arbonics⁠⁠
⁠⁠Listen to the RCC episode with Lisett Luik from Arbonics⁠⁠
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Rusheen Capital Management, LLC
1PointFive
Carbon Engineering
Occidental Petroleum
Holocene
"Why Oxy’s Acquisition Of Holocene Signals A Maturing Carbon Removal Industry" at Forbes, by Phil de Luna
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My other show, Climate Workers Anonymous
50 min
April 30, 2025 How Structure Climate Financed Carba’s Biochar Offtake Agreement with Microsoft—w/ Andrew Jones of Carba & Matt Schmitt of Structure Climate
In carbon removal, landing a major offtake agreement—like Microsoft’s purchase of 44,000 credits from Carba—is often seen as the holy grail. But what happens next? How does the money flow, and can debt financing bridge the gap between signature and scale?
In this episode of Reversing Climate Change, host Ross Kenyon unpacks the deal between Microsoft and Carba, a waste-to-value biochar company turning landfill-bound biomass in Minnesota into durable carbon removal.
With credits to be delivered over five years, Carba needed capital to ramp up production. Enter Structure Climate, which is financing the deal to help Carba meet its commitments—showcasing a compelling model for how debt finance can unlock climate impact.
Guests Andrew Jones, CEO and Cofounder of Carba, and Matt Schmitt, Founder and CEO of Structure Climate (where Ross serves as an advisor), walk us through the mechanics of the deal, the role of debt vs. equity, and what this means for the future of carbon removal finance.
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"Carba Announces 5-Year Carbon Removal Credit Purchase Agreement with Microsoft" announcement
Structure Climate
Carba
Microsoft's carbon removal program
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This episode's page on the web
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My other show, Climate Workers Anonymous
1 hr 1 min
April 23, 2025 Why Too Many TV Antiheroes May Be Bad for the Climate
Fair warning: this episode spoils a lot of (older) media.
Antiheroes make for great television. But why are we obsessed with them? Why are they in nearly all prestige dramas? Is this a result of our cultural beliefs, or is it (re)producing a culture of cynical realism? What impacts might it have for politics and climate change?
This ascendancy of the antihero is a trend I've been watching (and often enjoying) since my teen years. Shows like The Sopranos helped bring television to its lofty artistic status, but it did so by confusing the natural empathy that good storytelling generates. The longer one watches shows like The Sopranos, the more one ends up rooting for bad guys to be successful. In a world that is ever more mediated by media, could a similar trend be happening in politics?
Today's show is an attempt to make sense of the antihero through a number of prestige dramas, and look for some ways of telling stories that don't lead us into the abyss of constant moral ambiguity.
Today we're going to talk about hope, reclaiming moral authority, and why it's cool to believe in things. I hope you'll join me in that ambition.
This Episode's Sponsors
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"The judge speaks in the name of justice; the priest speaks in the name of pity, which is nothing but a more lofty justice."
- Victor Hugo, Les Misérables

"Then came Peter to him, and said, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times? Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven."
- Matthew 18:21-22, KJV

'Breaking Bad's Vince Gilligan Says We Need More Good Guys on Screen as Bad Guys Have “Taken Over the World” article on MSN
The Sopranos (here's a clip where Anthony Jr. steals sacramental wine from the church and the shot lingers for a few extra seconds on St. Jude, the patron saint of lost causes—perfection)
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band on Wikipedia
"Antihero" article on TVTropes (my favorite repository of writings on archetypes and common storytelling devices)
Littlefinger Tells Varys That Chaos Is A Ladder | Game of Thrones | HBO
Breaking Bad
Ted Lasso
The Last of Us
The scene between Michael and Kay in The Godfather
"Default to Good" article on TVTropes (the unnamed archetype of "the redeemed rogue." I'm glad it already had a name! It deserved one!)
The Act of Killing
The All We Can Save Project
What If We Get It Right? by Dr. Ayana Johnson
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
49 min
April 15, 2025 The Optimal Number of Travel Deaths Is Non-Zero: Carbon Removal Trade-Offs in Scale & Quality
It's a jarring phrase. There's an even more jarring version of it in this episode. You've been warned.
Economists are well-known for gnomic sentences that can sound cruel. For some, that's one of the job's many perks. But that doesn't mean that there isn't some truth in representing decisions as trade-offs.
Today is a bonus monologue episode where I am going to unpack this phrase (and its nastier cousin) and explain what it has to teach the carbon removal industry as it grapples with the tension between scale and quality.
This Episode's Sponsors
⁠Offstream⁠
⁠Arbonics⁠
⁠Listen to the RCC episode with Lisett Luik from Arbonics⁠
Resources
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"There ain't no such thing as a free lunch" Wikipedia page
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Resources
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My other show, Climate Workers Anonymous
26 min
April 08, 2025 Two Climate People Talk about Their Feelings: Heidi Lim’s New YouTube Channel
You should know about my friend Heidi Lim. She's a leading voice of carbon removal on TikTok.
She's been making short-form content for ages but today's show is her first foray into long-form. I have the honor of being her first guest and co-releasing the episode.
It is my sincere honor to help Heidi launch her new content on YouTube!
We get real in this show, talking about the difficult and sometimes unsung work of climate communications, why our world feels so screwed up, and the black hole of tech jobs that suck so much talent into its brain drain.
Best wishes, Heidi! So glad you're now doing this. Count me as a big fan!
This Episode's Sponsors
⁠Offstream⁠
⁠Arbonics⁠
⁠Listen to the RCC episode with Lisett Luik from Arbonics⁠
Resources
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Heidi's TikTok
The full video on Heidi's YouTube channel
329: The "Faustian Bargain" in Climate Rhetoric: Goethe's Faust and Modern Occultism—w/ Daniel Backer, author
326: Confronting Our Shadow: Jung, The Vietnam War, & Climate Change—w/ Karl Marlantes, author
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"And if thy right hand offend thee, cut it off, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell."
- Matthew 5:30, KJV
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
1 hr 11 min
April 02, 2025 How I Got Into Climate Work and Carbon Removal
If only there were a podcast that broke down all of the ways climate professionals broke into their industry...
Michael Gold is a communications expert and consultant at Word Clouds Consulting and the host of the new podcast, Climate Swings. This show traces guests' stories and explains how they landed a job working on one of humanity's most significant problem sets.
Check out the episode of Climate Swings I did with Michael retelling my odyssey into climate work here! Be sure to subscribe to his show, give it a great rating and review, and send it to a friend trying to come join us.
Also, a special thank you to 9Zero for serendipitously facilitating our connection and to Terra.do for helping Michael do what he does!
Resources
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"From PhD Dropout to Carbon Removal Comedian", the episode of Climate Swings I did with Michael
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Resources
This episode's page on the web
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Books from the show, at Bookshop
My other show, Climate Workers Anonymous
3 min
April 01, 2025 Carbon Removal & Appropriations: The US Budget During Trump 2—w/ Erin Burns, Executive Director of Carbon180
Sometimes, we skip right over the life stories of guests. Othertimes, it's everything. Today, it's everything.
Returning to the show after several years is Carbon180's Executive Director, Erin Burns.
Erin grew up in a coal mining family in West Virginia, got her start in Joe Manchin's Senate office, and has had a long and impactful career in carbon removal.
Today, Erin (re)explains how the budgeting process works in the United States federal government and how the appropriations process intersects with it. What is the difference, and where can voters get involved?
This is truly an improvised masterclass in civics education. Listen up for what you missed in high school, and how it will impact the future of carbon removal.
This Episode's Sponsors
Offstream
Arbonics
Listen to the RCC episode with Lisett Luik from Arbonics
Resources
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Carbon180
Scrip
Company town
"The Appropriations Process: A Brief Overview", a CRS Product
Carbon180's Carbon Removal Funding Tracker
"The Ghost of Tom Joad" by Bruce Springsteen
"Which Side Are You On?" by Pete Seeger
"There is Power in a Union" by Utah Phillips (originally by Joe Hill)
Harlan County, U.S.A.
Resources
This episode's page on the web
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Books from the show, at Bookshop
My other show, Climate Workers Anonymous
1 hr 2 min
March 25, 2025 The War Below: Critical Minerals, YIMBY for Mining, & the Trade War—w/ Ernest Scheyder, author & journalist
The clean energy transition sure needs a heck of a lot of mining. What do we do when there are environmental or spiritual costs to getting the materials we need for EVs and batteries?
Ernest Scheyder is a Reuters reporter covering critical minerals, and the author of The War Below: Lithium, Copper, and the Global Battle to Power Our Lives.
His reporting strives to let audiences draw their own conclusions about where the line should be on environmental extraction, which is a rarer approach than maybe meets the eye.
Tune in to also learn where the political battles of the second Trump Administration over critical minerals in Ukraine and clean energy politics at home may lead, and what we should keep our eyes on in the future.
Resources
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Ernest Scheyder's website
Ernest's reporting at Reuters
The War Below: Lithium, Copper, and the Global Battle to Power Our Lives
The Irresponsible Pursuit of Paradise by Jim L. Bowyer
⁠Follow the Reversing Climate Change podcast on LinkedIn
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
27 min

About Reversing Climate Change

From the publisher's feed

Reversing Climate Change is a podcast about carbon removal and climatetech that keeps wandering off into literature, history, philosophy, theology, and geopolitics on the theory that the technical and scientific questions stop making much sense without them. Hosted by Ross Kenyon, who did not go past a year of political philosophy PhD coursework and has visibly not let it go.