The Climate Divide

Do wealthier neighborhoods have more trees? Recent studies have shown that they do. The nonprofit American Forests is helping people visualize this reality with their Tree Equity Score, an online mapping tool that combines tree cover, race and socioeconomic data in the District and other cities around the country. This season finale features an interview with Alana Tucker, the senior director of the Tree Equity Alliance at American Forests. Tucker speaks with Hola Cultura’s executive director Christine MacDonald about how cities can use the Tree Equity Score, zoning code changes that could help preserve urban forests and how tree preservation doesn’t have to come at the cost of affording housing.

Cover art credit: Ted Eytan (via Flickr) 

Music (all tracks provided by Blue Dot Sessions)

• Gale
• Heather
• Thread of Clouds 

For the latest updates on episodes, follow us on all major social media platforms @holaculturadc. Additionally, don't forget to rate, review, and subscribe to our podcast, "The Climate Divide." For more, visit holacultura.com.

As trees move to the forefront of planning for climate change, U.S. cities are urgently setting tree canopy goals to make sure residents can continue to benefit from this resource that takes decades to grow. But development and other pressures aren't making it easy. In this week’s episode, host Marcelo Jauregui-Volpe speaks with members from the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments, which recently set a tree canopy goal of 50% for the D.C. region. The episode will also feature interviews with leading experts that study deforestation and how the pollution and heat in cities uniquely affect tree growth. 

Music (all tracks provided by Blue Dot Sessions)

• Gale
• Heather
• Kresson
• Thread of Clouds 
• In Passage

For the latest updates on episodes, follow us on all major social media platforms @holaculturadc. Additionally, don't forget to rate, review, and subscribe to our podcast, "The Climate Divide." For more, visit holacultura.com.

D.C. utility company Washington Gas wants to continue replacing hundreds of miles worth of underground gas pipes over the next 30 years. Washington Gas says this plan, called PROJECTpipes, will reduce dangerous gas leaks and the methane emissions that sprout from them. But local council members, climate advocates and District agencies have questioned the effectiveness of this project, whose end date is nearly a decade after the city is supposed to be nearly fossil fuel free. Today’s episode will cover recent developments with PROJECTpipes and feature an interview with Tom Holen, a program manager at the London-based think tank InfluenceMap, which studies the advocacy strategies of oil and gas companies such as AltaGas Ltd., a Canadian utility that bought Washington Gas in 2017. 

Music (all tracks provided by Blue Dot Sessions)

• Gale
• Heather
• Kresson
• Thread of Clouds 

For the latest updates on episodes, follow us on all major social media platforms @holaculturadc. Additionally, don't forget to rate, review, and subscribe to our podcast, "The Climate Divide." For more, visit holacultura.com.

With over a month left of summer, D.C. has already surpassed its yearly average of 90-degree days. As climate change causes longer and more intense heat waves, weather alerts are changing to better communicate the dangers of extreme heat to vulnerable populations. In this first episode of season 4, host Marcelo Jauregui-Volpe speaks with Jessica Lee, a public program coordinator at the National Weather Service, about HeatRisk, the agency’s new heat forecasting tool that informs heat sensitive populations when hot and muggy weather can be dangerous. The episode also features an interview with climate scientist Casey Ivanovich, about why she and her colleagues introduced the term “stickiness” to better understand extreme humid heat. 

Link to HeatRisk: https://www.wpc.ncep.noaa.gov/heatrisk/ 

Link to HeatRisk survey: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/ExpNWSHeatRisk_2024 

Music (all tracks provided by Blue Dot Sessions)

• Gale
• Heather
• Kresson
• Thread of Clouds 

For the latest updates on episodes, follow us on all major social media platforms @holaculturadc. Additionally, don't forget to rate, review, and subscribe to our podcast, "The Climate Divide." For more, visit holacultura.com.

The District has made ambitious commitments to expanding tree cover and transitioning away from fossil fuel use. The dates for some of these milestones may seem far away, but how the city plans and builds today will determine if we actually hit those targets. This fourth season of “The Climate Divide” will explore the important choices our government needs to make now to be climate resilient and protect the residents most vulnerable to extreme weather. The episodes will report on this historically hot summer, a controversial gas pipe replacement plan and the challenges faced by trees growing in cities. 

New episodes coming August 7. 

Cover art credit: Duane Lempke Photography (via Wikimedia Commons)

Music (all tracks provided by Blue Dot Sessions)

• Gale 

For the latest updates on episodes, follow us on all major social media platforms @holaculturadc. Additionally, don't forget to rate, review, and subscribe to our podcast, "The Climate Divide." For more, visit holacultura.com.

Some cities around the U.S. are responding to the growing threat of more extreme heat and intense storms with resilience hubs equipped with backup energy and offering supplies and information for residents during a disaster. 

In this season finale, we cover the District’s first resilience hub at the FH Faunteroy Community Enrichment Center in the Deanwood neighborhood. The second part of the episode will feature an interview with Dr. Sacoby Wilson, the director of the Center for Community Engagement, Environmental Justice and Health (CEEJH) at the University of Maryland School of Public Health. 

Music (all tracks provided by Blue Dot Sessions)

• Gale
• Thread of Clouds 

For the latest updates on episodes, follow us on all major social media platforms @holaculturadc. Additionally, don't forget to rate, review, and subscribe to our podcast, "The Climate Divide." For more, visit holacultura.com.

The National Park Service owns most of the District’s parkland. How does this unique predicament affect our parks and green spaces? In this episode, host Marcelo Jauregui-Volpe speaks with Rachel Clark, the lead author of a report that explored the challenges and inequities that arise due to the Park Service’s management of D.C.’s parks and its D.C. maintenance backlog surpassing $1 billion. The episode also includes an update on plans to rehabilitate the Rock Creek Park Golf Course, a Park Service property where more than 1,000 trees are slated to be removed. 

Photo credit: GPA Photo Archive / Ward 8 Woods / Facebook

Music (all tracks provided by Blue Dot Sessions)

• Gale
• Heather
• Thread of Clouds 

For the latest updates on episodes, follow us on all major social media platforms @holaculturadc. Additionally, don't forget to rate, review, and subscribe to our podcast, "The Climate Divide." For more, visit holacultura.com.

This week, we’re featuring an interview with Brenda Richardson, the coordinator for the Anacostia Parks & Community Collaborative, which focuses on making the Anacostia River and surrounding natural areas more accessible for residents in Wards 7 and 8. In this conversation, Richardson discusses her concerns about flooding and extreme heat, the impacts of D.C.’s tighter budget and how she informs residents about climate change and resilience. 

Music (all tracks provided by Blue Dot Sessions)

• Gale
• Thread of Clouds 

For the latest updates on episodes, follow us on all major social media platforms @holaculturadc. Additionally, don't forget to rate, review, and subscribe to our podcast, "The Climate Divide." For more, visit holacultura.com.

 Earlier this week, residents, advocates and officials testified at a D.C. Council hearing about the impact Mayor Muriel Bowser’s recently proposed budget will have on local climate programs. This week’s episode covers concerns that the budget will defund climate equity programs that aim to make home energy upgrades more affordable for low and moderate income households. We’ll also share highlights from one fair that aims to inform residents about numerous electric appliances and the different incentives and rebates that could make these products more affordable.  

Music (all tracks provided by Blue Dot Sessions)

• Cases to Rest
• Gale
• Heather
• In Passage
• Thread of Clouds 

For the latest updates on episodes, follow us on all major social media platforms @holaculturadc. Additionally, don't forget to rate, review, and subscribe to our podcast, "The Climate Divide." For more, visit holacultura.com.

D.C. has been in the midst of a development boom fueled by rising demand for market rate housing and a need for more affordable housing. This has come at a cost for the District’s trees. In the first episode of season 3, we see how the tree protection nonprofit Casey Trees qualifies the state of the city’s trees in their annual Report Card and take a look at a bill that attempts to make changes to D.C.’s tree preservation laws. 

Music (all tracks provided by Blue Dot Sessions)

• Heather
• Thread of Clouds 
• Gale
• The Onyx

For the latest updates on episodes, follow us on all major social media platforms @holaculturadc. Additionally, don't forget to rate, review, and subscribe to our podcast, "The Climate Divide." For more, visit holacultura.com.