Climate One

America's latest oil boom began with a bang, literally, on Earth Day, 2010. That’s when an offshore oil rig owned by BP exploded, killing eleven workers and spilling nearly five million barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico. John Hofmeister, co-founder of Citizens for Affordable Energy, was in Washington D.C. at the time.“We simply have to get what are called negative emissions. The oil and gas industry, I think, is supremely qualified to have the scale, to have the engineers, to have this expertise, to undertake problems like that.” But can this tiger change its stripes? Heather Richards, who follows the oil industry for Energy & Environment News, is not so sure.“Even though [the oil and gas business] has expertise, I don't think it's necessarily quite as easy to shift this industry,” she says. “It's difficult I think from this seat to say with great confidence ‘we’re just gonna move into the offshore wind, we’ll just do that.’”Visit climateone.org/watch-and-listen/podcasts for more information on today's episode.Guests: John Hofmeister, Former President, Shell Oil Company; Founder and Chief Executive, Citizens for Affordable Energy William K. Reilly, Former U.S. EPA Administrator; Co-Chair, National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill Heather Richards, Energy Reporter, Energy & Environment NewsThis program was recorded via video on May 19, 2020. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How do we go about feeding a planet that’s hotter, drier, and more crowded than ever? The connection between global warming and the dinner table isn’t always obvious when we go to the grocery store. But our choices about how we put food on our plates, and what we do with the waste, contribute to as much as one third of total greenhouse-gas emissions. How can we continue to feed the planet without destroying it in the process? Can a clean, climate-resilient food system be built to distribute calories in a way that is efficient and equitable? Visit climateone.org/watch-and-listen/podcasts for more information on today's episode. Guests (Part 1): Twilight Greenaway, Contributing Editor, Civil Eats Amanda Little, Professor of Journalism, Vanderbilt University Guests (Part 2): Mark Kurlansky, Author, MILK! A 10,000-Year Food Fracas Anna Lappé, Author, Diet for a Hot Planet: The Climate Crisis at the End of Your Fork) Part 1 was recorded in front of a live audience at The Commonwealth Club of San Francisco on June 18, 2019. Part 2 was recorded in front of a live audience at The Commonwealth Club of San Francisco on May 16, 2018. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

After decades of relying on imported oil, the U.S. achieved the unthinkable and became the world’s largest producer. Production has doubled over the past decade, and in February reached its highest level ever - thirteen million barrels a day. But as it turns out, all of that overabundance has led to a different kind of oil crisis. “We’re producing more oil and gas than ever,and this industry’s stocks are tanking,” says Amy Harder, energy reporter for Axios. Meanwhile, renewables are experiencing unprecedented growth. What will be the lasting impact of the COVID-19 recession? What is the future of energy in a post-pandemic world? Visit climateone.org/watch-and-listen/podcasts for more information on today's episode. Guests: Amy Harder, Energy Reporter, Axios Jason Bordoff, Founding Director, Center on Global Energy Policy, Columbia University Scott Jacobs, CEO and Co-founder, Generate Capital Julia Pyper, Host and Producer, Political Climate Podcast Additional interview: Chris Rawlings, founder of Veteran L.E.D. This program was recorded via video on May 6, 2020. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How do we confront the reality of a future that will be hauntingly different from today? Some authors are using fiction to create relatable narratives while sparing us from a deluge of sobering facts that can make audiences feel detached. The dystopian worlds in the films Mad Max and The Hunger Games do the same to both entertain and distance viewers from the realities of an increasingly destabilized climate. Can fiction give access to hopes and fears that we can’t handle in our daily lives? How are authors like Jenny Offill and Roy Scranton using stories that let readers experience climate change, while also keeping it at arms’ length? Visit climateone.org/watch-and-listen/podcasts for more information on today's episode. Guests: Jenny Offill, Author, Weather Roy Scranton, Author, Learning to Die in the Anthropocene This program was recorded via live stream on April 10, 2020. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Can we solve the climate crisis by reimagining our cities? Climate activists have long envisioned the zero-carbon cities of the future. Now, with COVID-19 shutting down congested urban areas, city dwellers from Los Angeles to New Delhi are getting a rare taste of clean air and blue skies. But the view is also more clear of things more painful to see - social inequalities that have existed for generations. “This is an opportunity to think about what kind of systems do we actually want, what kind of future do we envision for our cities and for our economy,” says sustainability expert Eva Gladek. “And how do we actually try to address multiple challenges at once when looking toward that future.” Visit climateone.org/watch-and-listen/podcasts for more information on today's episode. Guests: Ani Dasgupta, Global Director, World Resources Institute, Ross Center for Sustainable Cities Eva Gladek, Founder and CEO, Metabolic Lauren Faber O'Connor, Chief Sustainability Officer, Office of Mayor Eric Garcetti, City of Los Angeles Additional interview: Lubna Ahmed, Director of Environmental Health, WE ACT for Environmental Justice This program is generously underwritten by ClimateWorks Foundation and was recorded via video on April 20, 2020. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When institutional investors divest from fossil fuel companies, does it make a difference, or is the impact merely symbolic? Some advocate keeping your stock and your influence, using investor dollars to encourage change from within. We’re not all managing billions in assets, but how can we use our nest eggs to help finance a green economy? Visit climateone.org/watch-and-listen/podcasts for more information on today's episode. Guests: Brian Deese, Managing Director, Global Head of Sustainable Investing, BlackRock Lori Keith, Portfolio Manager, Parnassus Investments Pratima Rangarajan, CEO, Oil and Gas Climate Initiative Anne Simpson, Director of Board Governance & Strategy, CalPERS This program was recorded via video on April 16, 2020. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The COVID-19 recession is unfolding at historic speed and depth. New jobless claims reached a record 10 million in just two weeks. Wall Street’s fear gauge closed at an all-time high in mid-March. Environmentally, though, the shutdown has come with some temporary benefits — decreased travel, cleaner water, a plunging demand for oil. But crashing the economy isn’t exactly a climate solution. How will the coronavirus recession reshape the economy and prospects for addressing climate in a post-pandemic world? How does this economic crisis compare to others in history? Visit climateone.org/watch-and-listen/podcasts for more information on today's episode. Guests: Kathleen Day, Finance Lecturer, Johns Hopkins University; Author, Broken Bargain: Banks, Bailouts, and the Struggle to Tame Wall Street Amy Myers Jaffe, Director, Energy Security and Climate Change Program, Council on Foreign Relations Matt Rogers, Senior Partner, McKinsey & Company Additional interviews: Shubhayu Saha, Health Scientist, Climate and Health Program at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Phil Ting, California State Assembly Member This program was recorded at the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco on April 15, 2020. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What can the spread of coronavirus teach us about the spread of climate change? Both crises have global reach, invisible perpetrators, and require aggressive, early action for containment. But while an infectious disease is acute and deeply personal, the impacts of a changing climate are systemic and vague. Scientists point out that the coronavirus family — which includes COVID-19 and SARS — originated as an animal disease that can be passed along to humans. With increased human development encroaching into wildlife areas, should communities be preparing for more pandemics? Visit climateone.org/watch-and-listen/podcasts for more information on today's episode. Guests: Brian Allan, Associate Entomology Professor, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Aaron Bernstein, Interim Director, The Center for Climate, Health, and the Global Environment, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health (Harvard C-CHANGE) Barbara Gottlieb, Director of Environment and Health, Physicians for Social Responsibility Additional interviews: Jason Rohr, Professor at the University of Notre Dame This program was recorded at the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco on April 3, 2020. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Nuclear power - revive it or allow a slow death? Today, about a hundred nuclear plants provide 20 percent of America’s electricity. Once touted as a modern power source, nuclear fell out of favor after a series of major accidents – most notably those at Three Mile Island, Chernobyl and Fukushima. A handful of the plants that once dotted the landscape have been shuttered because they can’t compete with cheaper sources of power. By the end of the century, the industry was languishing. But the urgency of climate change causes some to advocate giving nuclear a new lease on life. A discussion about the health of the nuclear power industry today, and the 21st century innovations that could point to a new path forward. Visit climateone.org/watch-and-listen/podcasts for more information on today's episode. Guests: Per Peterson, Professor of Nuclear Engineering, UC Berkeley Edwin Lyman, Acting Director, Nuclear Safety Project, Union of Concerned Scientists Ken Farabaugh, Former Employee, Vermont Yankee Jose Reyes, Co-Founder & Chief Technology Officer, NuScale Power Jacob Dewitte, CEO, Oklo Christine Parthemore, Chief Executive Officer, The Council on Strategic Risks Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Why does an invisible, life-threatening virus prompt a nationwide emergency, but invisible, life-threatening gases don’t? Experts have been emphasizing the dangers of unchecked climate change for years, underscoring the need for rapid, bold action early-on to avoid the worst impacts. Now health experts are pushing the same level of global mobilization to quell the spread of the novel coronavirus. Why are humans wired to respond to some fears and emergencies more than others? Can the reaction to the COVID-19 pandemic teach us anything about how humans respond to other invisible, global threats? Guests: Peter Atwater, Adjunct Professor of Economics, College of William & Mary Susan Clayton, Whitmore-Williams Professor of Psychology, College of Wooster Robert H. Frank, Henrietta Johnson Louis Professor of Management, Cornell SC Johnson College of Business Additional interviews: Shannon Osaka, Climate Reporter, Grist This program was recorded at the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco on March 24, 2020.For full show notes, visit our website. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices