2025 has been a doozy in so many ways. And climate news has been no exception. Climate One hosts Ariana Brocious and Kousha Navidar look back at what the year has meant for climate progress: the good, the bad, the ugly — and the joyful.

According to the World Meteorological Organization, 2025 will go down as one of the top three warmest years in the 176-year observational record. Climate-change-fueled extreme weather continues to wreak havoc on communities across the world. And yet, it’s not all bad news.  As Bill McKibben points out, we now live on a planet where the cheapest form of energy basically comes from pointing a piece of glass at the sun. And globally, renewable energy surpassed coal for the first time ever.

Despite the federal government’s attacks on climate science and policy, local climate action is still happening across the country and globe, and each of us holds power to make change.

Guests:

Adrienne Heinz, Clinical Research Psychologist, Stanford University School of Medicine

Roxanne Brown, Vice President at Large, United Steelworkers

Pattie Gonia, Drag Queen and environmentalist
For show notes and related links, visit ClimateOne.org

Highlights:

00:00 - Intro

02:00 – 2025 has been the year of AI

04:30 – Trump admin attack on science, climate and environmental regs and rules

06:45 – Good news on renewables and the rise of China as an electrostate

08:30 – New York implements congestion pricing

10:00 – US has removed itself from global climate negotiations

12:45 – Remembering Jane Goodall

15:30 – Adrienne Heinz on how to support yourself and others after a weather disaster

25:30 – Roxanne Brown on how Trump’s pullback of IRA, BIL and CHIPS acts have hurt American workers and industry

34:00 – Growing threat of disinformation in climate conversations

36:30 – Pattie Gonia on how drag performance fits in with their climate and environmental activism

51:00 – How joy is strategic

53:30 – A look ahead at 2026

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