How We Survive

Bill McKibben, a seasoned climate writer and activist, discusses his new book on solar power. He highlights the explosive growth of solar energy and the barriers to its adoption in the U.S. compared to countries like China and Pakistan. McKibben shares inspiring grassroots initiatives and the emotional landscape of the climate crisis, blending hope with the challenges we face. He emphasizes the need for significant shifts in climate policies and showcases Texas's strides in renewable energy, presenting a vision for a sustainable future.

Shannon Osaka, a climate zeitgeist reporter at The Washington Post, dives into the implications of the recently signed 'One, Big, Beautiful Bill Act' on clean energy. She discusses how this law drastically reduces incentives for renewable energy, setting back efforts against climate change. Osaka also highlights the urgency for consumers to act quickly to benefit from remaining tax credits, while analyzing the challenges of bipartisan support for climate legislation. Tune in for insights on navigating the political landscape and fostering action in the renewable energy sector.

June marks the start of hurricane season but thanks to the climate crisis we’re dealing with extreme weather year-round. Just in the past month, deadly storms have devastated Kentucky and a brutal heat-wave is surging across the country. With the recent cuts to NOAA and the National Weather Service, weather stations are understaffed and weather forecasting might be impacted. In this episode of Burning Questions, host Amy Scott talks with former National Weather Service Director Louis Uccellinni to find out how the cuts to NOAA impact all of us. 

Can we invest our way out of the climate crisis? That’s the question we started this series with, and in this episode, we try to answer that question. Host Amy Scott pops the hood of her own retirement investments to look at how to reduce their carbon impact, and she shows you how you can too. We visit a battery storage farm in the Bronx to see how New York City is leveraging its shareholder power to accelerate the energy transition. Finally, we look at a phenomenon that has emerged in the wake of backlash against environmental, social and governance investing — something called “greenhushing.”

Dive into the dramatic downfall of ESG investing, exploring how it transformed from a respected strategy to a contentious issue. Discover the political forces and legislative moves in Texas that have sparked a backlash against it. Hear insights from key players in the fossil fuel sector who challenge supposed financial discrimination against them. Unpack the intertwining of industry motives with anti-ESG sentiment, alongside concerns about the implications for renewable energy and public health. An engaging investigation into a cultural and economic battleground.

To understand the fierce and widespread backlash to environmental, social and governance investing — and more specifically, climate-conscious investing — it helps to first understand its humble origins. Part of that history began about as far from Wall Street as possible, spiritually anyway, with faith-based investors.  In this episode of “How We Survive,” we travel to the hub for religious investors: the God Box in New York City, aka The Interchurch Center. We trace the parallel tracks of religious investors and Wall Street stakeholders back in time to find out how ESG became the polarizing strategy it is today.

Can capitalism save us? In 2020, it seemed like the answer was “possibly.” That year, BlackRock CEO Larry Fink shook up the investment world in his annual letter to companies, in which he made climate change a major focus. On CNBC he stated, “We believe a portfolio that focuses on sustainability and climate change will be a portfolio that outperforms … and it will also help the planet.” But that was before a fierce backlash ensued.In this season of “How We Survive,” we follow the money — from a gathering of religious investors in New York City to a yacht in the Port of Houston — to trace how climate-conscious investing (the E in ESG) evolved from a small corner of the market, to a mainstream strategy, to a bogeyman of the right. We uncover the ways climate-conscious investing lives on today and ask: Can we invest our way out of the climate crisis?

Since early January, historic wildfires have been burning across Los Angeles. Over two dozen people have died, and more than 10,000 homes have been destroyed. Insured losses may exceed $20 billion. In the months prior to the fires, thousands of Los Angeles homeowners were dropped by insurers. Some moved over to the state-funded insurance FAIR plan while many others remained insurance-less. In this episode of “Burning Questions,” the How We Survive team surveys the devastation on the ground in the Pacific Palisades and host Amy Scott talks with Carolyn Kousky from the Environmental Defense Fund to find out if the future is insurable and what that might mean for the housing market.

This week, we’re sharing another podcast we like from our friends at Outside Magazine.A quarter of the money at the world’s largest banks goes directly to funding fossil fuel projects. But what if it didn’t? In this episode of “Outside Podcast,” reporter Cat Jaffee calls customer service at her bank — one of the world’s largest financial institutions — to ask them if they might consider investing her money differently. It goes about as well as you’d expect.

Last week’s elections delivered climate wins and setbacks. What will a second Donald Trump presidency mean for climate policy going forward? What can President Joe Biden accomplish in the remainder of his term? And how did state climate measures perform? Host Amy Scott talks with Washington Post climate reporter Shannon Osaka to unpack it all.