Plastics are everywhere. And while we’ve known for a long time that plastics and our environment aren’t a good mix, it's becoming apparent that they’re massive climate polluters too. The production of plastics alone produces about 4% of global greenhouse gas emissions. After what is often a single use, the resulting waste continues releasing the greenhouse gasses ethylene and methane as it breaks apart.

Yet, as petrochemical companies pay lip service ending fuel production, they are pouring resources into plastics production. How do we wrap up our reliance on plastics? 

This episode originally aired on May 10, 2024, following the fourth negotiating session of the Global Plastics Treaty. This update includes a new interview with David Azoulay on the latest treaty negotiations.

Guests: 

Diane Wilson, Founder and Director, San Antonio Bay Waterkeeper

Jane Patton, U.S. Fossil Economy Campaign Manager, Center for International Environmental Law 

Susannah Scott, Professor of Chemistry, University of California, Santa Barbara 

David Azoulay, Director of Environmental Health, Center for International Environmental Law

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2024 set new records for extreme heat around the world in what is already the warmest decade on record. According to the World Meteorological Organization, sea-level rise and ocean heating are accelerating along with the loss of ice from glaciers. We continue to see extreme weather of all kinds wreak havoc on communities across the world. In spite of the growing disruption, countries continue to miss their self-imposed climate targets. And in November, the U.S. re-elected Donald Trump to the presidency, a move that will almost certainly slow the transition to cleaner forms of energy.

And yet, the transition continues. As the year winds down, Climate One hosts Greg Dalton and Ariana Brocious look back upon recent climate progress and pitfalls and revisit some of our most illuminating interviews of 2024.

Guests:

Karen Hao, Contributing Writer, The Atlantic

Shelley Welton, Presidential Distinguished Professor of Law and Energy Policy, University of Pennsylvania Carey School of Law and the Kleinman Center for Energy Policy

Justin J. Pearson, District 86 State Representative, Tennessee General Assembly

Aja Barber, Author, “Consumed: The Need for Collective Change: Colonialism, Climate Change and Consumerism”

Jamie Beard, founder of Project InnerSpace

Mitzi Jonelle Tan, Climate Justice Activist

Tzeporah Berman, Chair, Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty

John Morales, Hurricane Specialist, WTVJ NBC6 Miami

Rob Bonta, Attorney General of California

Emily Raboteau, Author, “Lessons for Survival: Mothering Against ‘the Apocalypse’”

Jane Goodall, Ethologist, conservationist

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For over a century, coal fueled much of the country and served as the economic backbone for many rural communities. But with the rise of more affordable wind and solar energy, coal is in decline, leaving these towns increasingly vulnerable. As jobs disappear, coal-dependent communities are faced with the threat of economic collapse and depopulation. 

To adapt, many are working to diversify their economies, seeking new industries and opportunities for the future. Today, we’ll visit coal communities across the country, where locals and leaders are actively exploring ways to rebuild and ensure no one is left behind in the energy transition.

This episode also features field reporting from Climate One and Caitlin Tan of Wyoming Public Media on the transition from coal to nuclear power in Kemmerer, Wyoming.

Guests:

Chris Levesque, CEO, TerraPower

Brian Muir, Kemmerer City Administrator

Tony Skrelunas, Executive Director of the Division of Economic Development, Navajo Nation

Mike Eisenfeld, Energy and Climate Program Manager, San Juan Citizens Alliance

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On the surface, climate policy couldn’t face a worse future than under a second Trump administration. As a candidate, Trump said on his first day back in office: “I want to drill, drill, drill.” So, what are environmental organizations, including those aligned with the Republican party, doing to keep making progress on addressing climate change? And what do Trump’s cabinet picks say about the incoming administration’s attitude toward energy policy? 

Guests: 

Abigail Dillen, President, Earthjustice

Heather Reams, President, Citizens for Responsible Energy Solutions

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A brief correction was made to this episode on 29 December 2024.

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Globally, one-third of food produced every year is wasted. That’s enough to feed about 2 billion people — twice the number of people who are undernourished. The global food system also accounts for a whopping one-third of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions. These two problems — waste and emissions — are intricately linked: Climate disruption exacerbates food insecurity. And industrial food production contributes to the climate crisis. When food is wasted, it’s also a waste of land, water and energy.

In this episode, we talk with experts about how to fix the broken system and hear from some of the people on the ground recovering food before it goes to waste. How can we address both climate and food insecurity at the same time? 

This episode also features a news story produced by Harvest Public Media contributor Peter Medlin, a reporter with WNIJ Northern Public Radio.

Guests:

Dawn King, Senior Lecturer, Brown University

Lisa Moon, CEO, The Global Food Banking Network

Norma Alonso, ABACO, Cooperation Manager 

James Leyson, Managing Director for Global Impact and Operations, Scholars of Sustenance

🎟️ Join Climate One live in San Francisco on December 9 for our celebration of 2024 Schneider Award Winner Leah Stokes! Tickets are on sale now.

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🦃 Happy Thanksgiving!

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Climate advocacy is a dangerous business. According to Global Witness, every week, somewhere in the world, between three and four environmental activists are killed. And even when they don’t suffer bodily harm, they are routinely arrested and jailed for speaking out. They are also sued in civil cases, bogging them down for years or even bankrupting them and their families. 

Each personal story in this episode is unique, but the physical threats and legal weapons fossil fuel companies and governments wield against them are eerily similar. And yet, the voices of climate defenders will not be silenced.

Guests: 

Alfred Brownell, Founding President, Global Climate Legal Defense (CliDef) 

Laura Furones, Senior Advisor, Land and Environmental Defenders Campaign, Global Witness

Nicole Figueiredo de Oliveira, Executive Director, Arayara

Sarah Benn, Medical Doctor and Climate Activist

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For the third year in a row, the world’s most important climate conference is taking place in a country whose largest source of export revenue is fossil fuel. This year, over 190 countries are assembling in Baku, Azerbaijan. And despite nearly 30 years of pledges and promises, the UN’s recent Emissions Gap Report shows virtually every country failing to deliver on its promises.

Ever since the Paris Agreement was signed at the 21st Conference of Parties (COP), the focus of this annual meeting has been implementation: How can the nations of the world possibly deliver on their promises to cut emissions when the economic interests in doing so aren’t aligned? In the meantime, the poorest countries, who contributed least to the problem, are getting hit hardest by devastating climate impacts, like droughts, floods, and the resulting poverty and civil unrest. COP29 is being billed as “the finance COP.” So, what do the richest owe the poorest?

Guests: 

Mitzi Jonelle Tan, Climate Justice Activist

Todd Stern, Former United States Special Envoy for Climate Change

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When it comes to communicating climate science, weathercasters are uniquely positioned to connect the facts to viewers’ experiences. TV meteorologists are trusted members of their communities, and they’re often the only scientists the general public hears from regularly. How they communicate can shape public understanding and depoliticize a topic that has become disturbingly divisive.

But in some parts of the country, politics continues to get in the way of the facts. So how do weathercasters effectively communicate weather and climate information in a way that resonates across political lines? 

Guests:

John Morales, Hurricane Specialist, WTVJ NBC6 Miami

Bernadette Woods Placky, Climate Central Chief Meteorologist, Climate Matters Director; VP of Engagement

Chris Gloninger, Senior Climate Scientist, Woods Hole Group, Inc.

Amber Sullins, Chief Meteorologist, ABC15 Phoenix

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Artificial intelligence can do some pretty amazing things, including for the climate. AI can help optimize the electric grid, make heating and cooling buildings more efficient, and pinpoint exactly where greenhouse gas emissions are coming from all around the world. 

On the other hand, the energy use of AI is massive and growing. A recent study estimates that in just a few years, the extra energy needed will equal whole countries the size of Sweden or Argentina. How do we make sure the benefits of AI outweigh its energy costs?

Guests: 

Karen Hao, Contributing Writer, The Atlantic 

Gavin McCormick, Cofounder and Executive Director, WattTime; Cofounder, Climate TRACE

Priya Donti, Assistant Professor, MIT; Co-founder and Chair of Climate Change AI 

Amy McGovern, Professor of Computer Science, University of Oklahoma

🎟️ Join Climate One live in San Francisco on December 9 for our celebration of 2024 Schneider Award Winner Leah Stokes! Tickets are on sale now.

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This episode originally aired on April 19, 2024.

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If you’re a climate-conscious person, you likely already know some of the main ways you can reduce your contribution to greenhouse gasses: buy less, eat less meat, ride your bike. But there are other, less obvious methods we don’t always think of: voting, having climate conversations, engaging with your local government, changing where your money is invested. And while our role as individuals does matter, we’re more powerful when we work together in collective action.

Guests: 

Jon Foley, Executive Director, Project Drawdown

Eliza Nemser, Executive Director, Climate Changemakers

This episode also features excerpts from Cory Booker, Anna Lappé, Frances Moore Lappé, Saul Griffith, Monique Figueiredo, Jonathan Chapman, Jennifer Anderson, Tanya Gulliver Garcia, Vernon Walker, Abrar Anwar, Slater Jewell-Kemker, Kyle Gracey and Alec Loorz.

🎟️ Join Climate One live in San Francisco on December 9 for our celebration of 2024 Schneider Award Winner Leah Stokes! Tickets are on sale now.

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California has one of the most ambitious and highly engineered water delivery systems on the planet, and it’s being eyed for a new extension. The Delta Conveyance Project is Governor Gavin Newsom’s proposal for a 45-mile underground tube that would tap fresh water from its source in the north and carry it beneath a vast wetland to users in the south.

The Delta is the exchange point for half of California’s water supply, and the tunnel is an extension of the State Water Project, which was built in the 1960s. It’s a 700-mile maze of aqueducts and canals that sends Delta water from the Bay Area down to farms and cities in Central and Southern California.

This is a local story about a global issue, the future of water. In a three-part series of field reports and podcasts, Bay City News reporter Ruth Dusseault looks at the tunnel’s stakeholders, its engineering challenges, and explores the preindustrial Delta and its future restoration.

Ruth is joined by Felicia Marcus, the Landreth Visiting Fellow in Stanford’s Water in the West program and former chair of the California Water Resources Control Board.

This is a production of Bay City News, presented in collaboration with Climate One and Northern California Public Media. For more on this story and other news in the Greater Bay Area, visit localnewsmatters.org.

Special thanks to Dan Rosenheim, Kat Rowlands, Jonathan Westerling, Monica Campbell, Marco Werman, Katharine Meiszkowski, Kurt, Max, Quinn and Nick Wenner.

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