Decouple

Dr. Kenneth Cassman joins to explore the state of innovation in agriculture. Where are the knowledge gaps? And what changes must take place if we hope to feed a growing and increasingly wealthy world population? Dr. Cassman stresses the need for open-access, high-quality climate data to accelerate not only farming technologies, but the knowledge base behind their design and implementation. Dr. Cassman is the Emeritus Robert B. Daugherty Professor of Agronomy at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, who among numerous other achievements is a Fellow at several leading research institutes relating to crop science and agronomy. If you enjoyed the topics covered in this interview, we recommend listening to Dr. Keefer's interview with Dr. Channa Prakash, "How to Feed a Warming Planet": https://anchor.fm/chris15401/episodes/How-to-Feed-a-Warming-Planet-feat--Dr--Channa-Prakash-e18ks0i

Rauli Partanen, an award-winning science communicator and energy analyst from Finland, comes on to discuss his new report, “One Billion Tons" on the wide-ranging consequences of Germany’s nuclear phaseout, and the benefits that would result from keeping the country’s last 6 reactors online. The title references the huge amount of added carbon dioxide emissions that will result from Germany’s nuclear phaseout between now and 2045. Rauli also provides a backgrounder on the German Energiewende and it’s impacts so far, including market aberrations such as negative pricing. Find the report here, available in both English and German: https://www.onebilliontons.org/

Dr. Hannah Bloomfield, a Climate Risk Analytics research associate at the University of Bristol, describes an extreme weather event that affected European energy output significantly this year: a wind drought. We discuss how unequal warming between the poles and the equator is potentially leading to a pattern of decreasing mid latitude wind speeds, a phenomenon known as global stilling and the consequences this will have for electric systems that are becoming increasingly reliant on the weather. Follow Dr. Bloomfield on Twitter.

In this very special episode, I am joined live in Berlin by the "Godfather of Climate Science," Dr. James Hansen. Dr. James Hansen is the former director of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, and is now the Director of the "Climate Science, Awareness and Solutions Program" at Columbia University's Earth Institute. He was one of the first to bring climate change to the public eye with his famous testimony before the U.S. congress in the 1980s. Since then, he has continued to be at the forefront of the climate debate.  We discuss a wide range of topics:  The emergence of the science on global warming from rising CO2 levels Dr. Hansen's experience as a high-caliber climate advocate The shift from climate deniers to climate lukewarmists The two most important climate actions for Dr. Hansen, a carbon tax and support for nuclear power Why Dr. Hansen didn't go to COP26 The anti-nuclear lobby The virtually unlimited government support for renewables Differential responsibility for climate change The contrast between German and Chinese approaches to climate action Fukushima, alarmism, and anti-nuclear NRC picks Reflections on geoengineering This interview was recorded live from Berlin. Watch the video! Watch Dr. James Hansen's TED Talk.

Dr. Vijaya Ramachandran is tracking the lastest in eco-colonialism. Numerous countries and investment banks have blocked the financing of fossil fuels and even hydroelectric projects in Africa, the continent most afflicted by serious energy poverty and the related problem of vulnerability to climate change. From an environmental perspective, it is counter-intuitive that an increased use of fossil fuels should be allowed anywhere. But with Africa accounting for just 1% of global carbon emissions, Dr. Ramachandran argues that policies forcing Africa to develop only with weather-based energy systems does more harm than good. Dr. Vijaya Ramachandran is the Director for Energy and Development at The Breakthrough Institute.  Read Dr. Ramachandran's article in Foreign Policy. Watch Princess Mthombeni and Shirly Rodriguez at COP26.

In this episode, Dr. Keefer and economist Edgardo Sepulveda cover a lot of ground: • Edgardo’s new website that includes the electricity profiles of 24 OECD countries and whether, using which tech and at what price they have lowered emissions over the last 60 years is at (https://edecarb.org/) • Edgardo noted the increasing recognition by many expert economists that "restructured" energy-only generation markets probably cannot facilitate the massive, long-term investment necessary for electrification, especially with the entry of (subsidized) renewables, is summarized here: (https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1389298276827021319.html) • Chris and Edgardo discussed the most recent global electricity investment data from the IEA, including that for 2020’s global $800 billion investment (including $300 billion of transmission and distribution), renewables made up 45% and nuclear only 5%. Nevertheless, the global total is less than half estimated ($2.3 trillion) amount for net zero by 2050 (https://www.iea.org/reports/world-energy-investment-2021) • Nevertheless, Edgardo’s preliminary statistical analysis suggests that renewables entry is associated with electricity price increases. One example is Germany’s residential renewables surcharge, which totaled 25.6 billion in 2018 (https://www.iea.org/reports/germany-2020), which households appear to support, while in Ontario voters revolted, booting out the political party that introduced the GEA, with the incoming Government revoked the legislation and started subsidizing electricity prices, including $3.1 billion/year just for renewables https://www.ontario.ca/page/expenditure-estimates-ministry-energy-northern-development-and-mines-2021-22#section-6 • Speaking of investment, Edgardo and Chris noted that Bruce had just announce the over-subscription of what is billed as the world’s first “Green” nuclear bond for CAD$500 million. The “Second Party Opinion” (SPO) was provided by Cicero, which out of their three shades of green, gave it a “medium green” rather than a “dark green” set aside for wind and solar and the like, because of residual risks on proliferation, waste and radiation accidents: https://www.brucepower.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/Second-Opinion-Bruce-Power-16July2021final.pdf • Edgardo noted that in his most recent blog looking at the cost-benefit of refurbishing Pickering Nuclear Generation Station (PNGS) versus going forward with the IESO replacement scenario (https://www.ieso.ca/en/Learn/Ontario-Supply-Mix/Natural-Gas-Phase-Out-Study), the refurbishment scenario is a better financial and cost abatement cost option (https://edecarb.org/analysis/ontario-ix)

The Dark Lord takes a break from singing 80s parodies outside the gates of COP26 to talk to us about his love for geoengineering. For an argument against Marine Cloud Brightening, here's a briefing from Geoengineering Monitor: www.geoengineeringmonitor.org/2021/04/marine_cloud_brightening/ Watch the video on Decouple's YouTube channel.

Mining underpins nearly everything in our modern lives. Essentially, if we didn't grow it, we mined it. Dr. Richard Herrington, an academic geologist and Head of Earth Sciences at the Natural History Museum in London, digs deep on the topic of mining. Yet in terms of public visibility, mining is perhaps even more hidden from view than agriculture in rich nations. Dr. Herrington offers a brief history of materials use, from a time when we used only a few minerals to the present, where we regularly use many dozens of different elements in a single product due to their varied and unique properties. We discuss the environmental and human impacts of mining as well as important processing stages, which often have hard-to-avoid impacts, such as the inherent formation of carbon dioxide in concrete making and iron smelting. Among Dr. Herrington's research interests are more environmentally-benign industrial processes, such as using lower temperatures or microbes. We move onto geological topics relevant to the energy transition, touching briefly on Deep Geological Repository for used nuclear fuel before discussing Cobalt, Lithium, and the utter certainty that renewable technologies will lead to increases in mining and mineral requirements. Other topics include why much of the mining and processing for rare earth metals and electric motors takes place in China and, finally, prospects for deep sea mining.

Eriel Tchekwie Deranger is a member of the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation and the Executive Director of Indigenous Climate Action. Eriel critiques pointing out that wealthy countries engaging in "climate action" tend to do so from a co-optive or colonial framework rather than one of "decolonizing." She argues this tendency has pervaded environmentalism from the outset, as a philosophy originating from the upper and middle classes that views nature as something external that must be protected from humans. From an indigenous perspective, Eriel says, nature is not an externality. She emphasizes the importance of solutions to environmental and climate issues "guided by relationships not only with each other but across species and with the natural world itself." We go on to discuss Eriel's personal grievances with the uranium mines in northern Canada, the impacts of uranium mining on indigenous communities, and how to balance the unavoidable mining requirements of energy production with the wellbeing of people and ecosystems. Eriel argues that by changing our attitudes on consumption, the land, language, culture, food systems, etc. to value relationships and reciprocity over extraction, we might become less dependent on the energy systems that many can't imagine living without. Learn more about Eriel's work with Indigenous Climate Action at https://www.indigenousclimateaction.com/

Special Decouple Studios mini-doc from inside the walls of COP26. Decouple's Jesse Freeston follows two young nuclear energy advocates, Shirly Rodriguez and Princess Mbthobeni, as they roam the conference searching for evidence of a meaningful plan to reduce emissions AND raise living standards in Africa and beyond. Shirly Rodriguez is a nuclear engineer, and Princess Mbthoneni is the Nuclear Stakeholder Management Advisor for South Africa's Department of Mineral Resources and Energy, as well as the founder of Africa4Nuclear. Watch the original video version here https://youtu.be/WjbvxwSy3O8