The Elephant

By Kevin Caners

What's The Elephant about?

Welcome to The Elephant! An interview and storytelling podcast investigating up-and-coming solutions to one of the greatest challenges of our time: climate change. Supported by Climate-KIC

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The Elephant episodes:

07.06.2021
The $100 Million Prize for Carbon Dioxide Removal
Elon Musk this year partnered with The X-Prize to create a $100 million prize for the best solutions for removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere or ocean. This $100 million represents the biggest incentive prize in history, and likely the...
06.30.2020
Peter Eisenberger on The Promise of Direct Air Capture
In this episode we speak to Peter Eisenberger the co-founder of Global Thermostat - one of the leading direct air capture companies in the world. In the interview we talk about how we could create what Peter calls the...
06.10.2020
'Scales of Change' - Technosalvation
Today we're featuring an episode from one of our favourite podcasts Future Ecologies, and their new mini-series "Scales of Change." In the series, hosts Mendel and Adam take a deep dive into the various "Dragons of Climate Inaction," the psychological...
05.13.2020
Inside the Plastisphere
It’s the recommendation show! With all the new time many of us have on our hands, we wanted to tip our hat to some of our favourite things we think you should know about. In this episode we speak with...
04.07.2020
The "100% Solution" to Climate Change
Solomon Goldstein-Rose is a climate activist and former Massachusetts state representative. In his new book, "The 100% Solution" he breaks down what it will take in his view for society to come up with a complete systemic solution to climate...
08.27.2019
Updates: Exciting News in Direct Air Capture
Since we first started looking at the science of CO2 removal with our podcast series on direct air capture, a huge amount has happened. So In this episode, we take you inside all the exciting news and developments that have...
07.19.2019
Iceland and the Surprising Science of Turning CO2 into Rock
Imagine we overcame the many obstacles and successfully built the giant infrastructure that would be needed to directly capture billions of tons of CO2 back out of the air each year. You might reasonably think that we would have...
07.03.2019
Envisioning a Future with Large-Scale CO2 Removal
Carbon dioxide removal does already exist, but only at the tiniest of scales. But what could a future where we're successfully capturing billions of tons of carbon dioxide from the air each year, actually look like? Where would all the CO2...
06.19.2019
Money, Controversy and Magical Thinking: The Many Challenges of CO2 Removal
Taking carbon dioxide out of the air - as we learned in our last episode - is technically possible. And different researchers and start-ups are experimenting with the best ways to do just that. But there's much more than engineering...
06.12.2019
Has This Scientist Found The Way To Save The World From CO2?
For over the past two decades scientist Klaus Lackner has dedicated himself to finding potential ways of taking CO2 back out of the atmosphere, all in a bid to help the world avoid the worst consequences of climate change. In...
11.08.2017
S2 Episode 1: How Did We Get Here?
Look pretty much anywhere on our planet and it’s clear that human beings are having an outsized impact on the Earth. And it’s not just climate change. There’s our enormous land footprint, our rapidly growing numbers, our thirst for resources,...
05.10.2017
Can Conservatives and Progressives Agree on Climate Action?
Conservatives, especially in America, are known for doubting the scientific basis of man-made climate change, and the need to do anything about it. But earlier this February something surprising happened - several elder Republican statesmen released a proposal for what...
03.08.2017
Ex-Irish President Mary Robinson on Hope, Climate Change & Women's Day
March 8th marks international women's day, an annual celebration of the achievements of women across the globe. And this year’s campaign is: Be Bold For Change. To discuss climate change and equality, and how it intersects with the role of...
11.20.2016
Voices of Youth at #COP22
The Elephant has been in Marrakech Morocco the past week for COP 22. And on Friday, on the last day of the conference, we caught up with a few youth groups from around the world to find out what motivated...
11.19.2016
Nicolas Haeringer: With Trump’s Election, What Does the Climate Movement Do Now?
Last week Donald Trump's election sent shockwaves around the world - particularly within the climate community. Trump has long denied that climate change even exists and has vowed to roll back all federal action. So what should those of us...
08.12.2016
An Astronaut's View: Spacewalking, Climate Change, and Life on our Pale Blue Dot
When humanity first travelled into space, it didn’t just mean exploring new worlds and frontiers. It also meant for the first time seeing our home planet in an entirely new light. What from the ground seemed infinite and indestructible -...
06.17.2016
Storms, Isolation, and Endless Days: Investigating Greenland’s Changing Ice Sheet
The Greenland ice-sheet is massive. So massive that if it were to melt completely global sea-levels would rise by more than 6 meters. So it's critical that scientists understand how the ice-sheet is changing because of climate change. Liam...
05.23.2016
Noam Chomsky, 'The Human Species Has Never Faced A Question Like This’
For decades Noam Chomsky has been one of the most important political dissidents and intellectuals in the world. Now in an exclusive new interview with The Elephant, Chomsky reflects on the incredible period in human history we currently find...
04.20.2016
Why Climate Change is Wreaking Havoc on The World's Coral Reefs
The Great Barrier Reef in Australia is right at this moment suffering from what is the most devastating bleaching event in its entire fossil history, with 93% of its reefs experiencing at least some degree of bleaching. Many of these...
04.04.2016
The Co-Founder of Occupy Wall Street on Bringing About Social Change
The Occupy movement of 2011 was one of the most successful activist actions of the last few decades. It changed the discourse, raised the issue of income inequality world-wide, and it galvanized a new generation of activists. But its co-founder,...
03.10.2016
How Canada's Biggest City Reduced Its Emissions
Toronto is Canada's biggest city, and it's also one of its biggest successes when it comes to acting on climate thus far. While the average emissions for the country have been going up, Toronto has managed to not only meet...
03.04.2016
How Cities Are Leading The Way on Climate
How our cities are run and designed can have a huge impact on the carbon footprint we have as individuals. Is there convenient and affordable transit available for example? Or are the buildings heated and cooled efficiently? But fortunately...
02.24.2016
The U.S. Supreme Court v. The Future of The Planet
If you care about climate, then it's been a wild couple of weeks on the U.S. supreme court. First, in a surprise decision the court issued a stay against the EPA's Clean Power Plan - dealing a devastating blow to...
02.12.2016
The Unforgiving Math For Staying Under 2 Degrees
In the Paris accord, 195 countries agreed that they would collectively keep average global temperatures from rising more than 2 degrees. But what does science have to say on actually keeping that goal? And how fast, and by how much,...
02.04.2016
Ex President of Costa Rica - 'Creating Low Carbon Economies is an Opportunity'
Jose Maria Figueres is the President of the Carbon War Room, an organization that supports initiatives by private companies to reduce their carbon emissions. And previously he was the president of Costa Rica. We talked with Figueres about why he...
01.30.2016
George Monbiot - 'Climate Change is Bigger Than Capitalism'
Guardian columnist and journalist George Monbiot is one of the foremost political and environmental thinkers in Britain today and for decades he has been putting a spotlight on ecological issues of critical importance. He joins us to talk about how...
01.18.2016
When The Heirs to Big Oil Divested
In 2014 a surprising announcement was made that ricocheted around the world - the heirs to the Rockefeller oil fortune would be divesting their entire $860 million dollar philanthropic organization of fossil fuel holdings. The announcement marked a turning...
12.14.2015
D12 Protest Coverage ft. Naomi Klein & Bill McKibben
On Saturday Dec 12th, as the final hours of the Paris agreement were coming together, a mass mobilization of over 10,000 climate activists gathered near the Arc de Triomphe and marched to the Eiffel Tower to push governments to take...
12.11.2015
New Business Models for a Sustainable Future? A Look at Climate-KIC
The economy hasn't exactly done a great job of taking care of our planet's climate. And one might say that business models oriented towards profit while ignoring externalities are part of the problem, not the solution. But can companies that...
12.07.2015
Naomi Klein on Why Climate Change is ‘Threatening To Our Elites’
We sit down with Naomi Klein to speak about Paris, why climate change is threatening to elite power, and why when it comes to dealing with the crisis, we need to temper our fears with hope for the future.
12.05.2015
Climatologist James Hansen - 'We’re already at a level of emergency'
Former NASA scientist Dr. James Hansen is one of the most respected climate scientists in the world. In fact he's famous for helping first-bring the issue of climate change to wide-spread public attention way back in 1988 when he testified...
11.30.2015
Power, Hope and Sleepless Nights - Elizabeth May on COP 21
Nearly 150 world leaders have assembled here in Paris for the start of COP 21, the UN climate summit. And whatever may come out of it over the course of the next two weeks, it's hard to overstate the crucial...
11.29.2015
The Long Walk to Paris - An Interview with Yeb Saño
Yeb Saño for years was the lead negotiator at UN climate talks for the Philippines. But he first came to worldwide prominence in 2013 when he delivered an emotional speech at COP 19 in Warsaw, urging countries to set aside...
11.27.2015
The Insider’s Guide to the Climate Talks in Paris
The United Nations climate summit in Paris - or COP 21 - is just around the corner. But there's a lot to get a handle on with how these negotiations actually work. You might wonder, why have they failed in...
11.23.2015
Can Economics Save Climate Change?
With the birth of the industrial revolution and the creation of the modern world, economics helped us in a sense get into the mess we're in today with the climate. But what role could economics play in helping us solve...
11.06.2015
How Antarctica Is Changing and Why It Matters
Antarctica's ice sheet contains enough water to rise sea-levels by over 60 meters, yet we know surprisingly little about the frozen continent to our south. In fact we know more about the surface of Mars than we do the topography...
10.26.2015
Meet The Climate Scientist Behind Pope Francis
John Schellnhuber is one of the world's most influential climate scientists, advising politicians, governments, and influential figures on the numbers behind our warming planet. Not only was he the principal climatologist to the pope for the Encyclical, he’s also the...
10.08.2015
Action 2: Bodies On The Line
During the dark early hours of a morning this past July, 13 Greenpeace protesters descended off a bridge as part of an ingenious and daring plan that placed their bodies between Shell and its controversial plans to drill in the...
09.18.2015
Action 1: Yale & The Story of a Sit-In
The first in our short series highlighting inspiring on the ground climate actions taking place around the world. What happened earlier this year when 50 students from Fossil Free Yale occupied the administration building on campus. Story by Phoebe Petrovic
09.12.2015
Noam Chomsky on Activism and Social Change
Noam Chomsky shares his insights into the threat of climate change, what can be done by ordinary citizens to combat it, and reflects on why it's so "crucial that those with the most privileged get involved."
08.28.2015
Uncovering The Secret Climate Denial Machine
We’ve all encountered those who passionately deny climate change is real. But given the overwhelming consensus of the scientific community, where does this doubt held by such a large proportion of the public stem from? Turns out, it’s not there...
08.13.2015
How Humans are Causing a 'Sixth Extinction'
We typically think of global warming in terms of the consequences it has for humanity. But it also has huge and troubling impacts on the other species we share our planet with. In this episode we speak with Elizabeth Kolbert...
07.31.2015
Climate Change and the Media
Climate change is in some ways a surprisingly old story, but it's also one that some of the finest minds in journalism have struggled to tell effectively. We speak with Ira Glass, Alan Rusbridger, and Max Boykoff about the ins...
07.16.2015
The Growing Political and Social Fight
Climate change is not just about science. It's also about politics and power. And 2015 is the year that the fight to take on climate change is really heating up, with movements around the world battling the power of the...
07.16.2015
Inside the Science of Climate Change
By now we've all heard that the climate is warming, but how do climate scientists study the problem and how do they know the current warming is unlike anything in the past? What tools do they use, and what can...
07.09.2015
A Sneak Peek of The Elephant
On July 16th, The Elephant, a brand new podcast series journeying into our changing climate and our changing world launches here. But it's about much more than just the climate. From international politics and rising seas, to pipelines and how...

What's The Elephant about?

Download our free app to listen on your phone

The Elephant episodes:

The $100 Million Prize for Carbon Dioxide Removal

Peter Eisenberger on The Promise of Direct Air Capture

'Scales of Change' - Technosalvation

Inside the Plastisphere

The "100% Solution" to Climate Change

Updates: Exciting News in Direct Air Capture

Iceland and the Surprising Science of Turning CO2 into Rock

Envisioning a Future with Large-Scale CO2 Removal

Money, Controversy and Magical Thinking: The Many Challenges of CO2 Removal

Has This Scientist Found The Way To Save The World From CO2?

S2 Episode 1: How Did We Get Here?

Can Conservatives and Progressives Agree on Climate Action?

Ex-Irish President Mary Robinson on Hope, Climate Change & Women's Day

Voices of Youth at #COP22

Nicolas Haeringer: With Trump’s Election, What Does the Climate Movement Do Now?

An Astronaut's View: Spacewalking, Climate Change, and Life on our Pale Blue Dot

Storms, Isolation, and Endless Days: Investigating Greenland’s Changing Ice Sheet

Noam Chomsky, 'The Human Species Has Never Faced A Question Like This’

Why Climate Change is Wreaking Havoc on The World's Coral Reefs

The Co-Founder of Occupy Wall Street on Bringing About Social Change

How Canada's Biggest City Reduced Its Emissions

How Cities Are Leading The Way on Climate

The U.S. Supreme Court v. The Future of The Planet

The Unforgiving Math For Staying Under 2 Degrees

Ex President of Costa Rica - 'Creating Low Carbon Economies is an Opportunity'

George Monbiot - 'Climate Change is Bigger Than Capitalism'

When The Heirs to Big Oil Divested

D12 Protest Coverage ft. Naomi Klein & Bill McKibben

New Business Models for a Sustainable Future? A Look at Climate-KIC

Naomi Klein on Why Climate Change is ‘Threatening To Our Elites’

Climatologist James Hansen - 'We’re already at a level of emergency'

Power, Hope and Sleepless Nights - Elizabeth May on COP 21

The Long Walk to Paris - An Interview with Yeb Saño

The Insider’s Guide to the Climate Talks in Paris

Can Economics Save Climate Change?

How Antarctica Is Changing and Why It Matters

Meet The Climate Scientist Behind Pope Francis

Action 2: Bodies On The Line

Action 1: Yale & The Story of a Sit-In

Noam Chomsky on Activism and Social Change

Uncovering The Secret Climate Denial Machine

How Humans are Causing a 'Sixth Extinction'

Climate Change and the Media

The Growing Political and Social Fight

Inside the Science of Climate Change

A Sneak Peek of The Elephant