The United Nations Climate Change Conference in Warsaw, Poland last year achieved modest progress toward an international agreement on reducing carbon pollution. In 2015, the heads of nearly 200 nations will again meet, this time in Paris, and the hope is that they can seal a deal that would take effect in 2020. But rich and developing countries are still far apart on who should bear responsibility for increasing human impacts of severe weather. Even some of the most vigorous proponents of moving away from fossil fuels doubt the UN process will ever produce a treaty with teeth. Ambassador Todd Stern is US Special Envoy for Climate Change, a position he also held during the Clinton administration. Stern started his talk at the Commonwealth Club with a summary of where we are in a process that started two years ago: “[At the] Conference of the Parties, the COP in South Africa, there was a decision to start a new negotiation that would cover the period of the 2020s, in which the parties would negotiate an agreement, legal in some way.” And its due date is 2015. “As it turns out, the big climate meeting at the end of 2015 is going to be in Paris. So we sit right in the middle of that process, about halfway through.” Todd Stern, United States Special Envoy for Climate Change This program was recorded in front of a live audience at The Commonwealth Club in San Francisco on February 19, 2014 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Swelling sea levels used to be a concern associated with future generations and faraway lands. Then Superstorm Sandy poured the Atlantic Ocean into the New York subway. Here on the west coast, we’re no less vulnerable to the rising tide, and it’s not only our coastal communities that will be affected. From shoreline to bay to Delta and beyond, California’s economy is bound together by highways, railways and airports. Cities and states are beginning to realize they need to start planning now for tides heading their way. The citizens of Redwood City have already made the issue of rising sea levels a priority. But as Alicia Aguirre, that city’s former mayor, points out, the problem is not limited to one community. “It's not just fixing what's happening in Redwood City, it's fixing what's happening all along the bay and along the coast as well. How do you work with developers and politicians and county government…and say, "This is what we can do?” Larry Goltzband, Executive Director of the Bay Conservation and Development Commission, agrees that for Californians, focusing on one area is short-sighted. “Those ships you see…docking at the port of Oakland, many times carry product that employs people in Redding or employs people in Tulare County…. So, it is in the best interest of all of California, whether you touch the bay, whether you see the bay on a daily basis, to actually invest in the bay for economic and environmental reasons.” Adding to the big picture, Julian Potter of San Francisco International Airport points out the ripple effect that damage to the region’s airports would cause worldwide. “The economic impact is not singular to any one side -- everybody gets impacted by it, whether or not you’re near water. Chicago will be impacted by it, any of these hub cities.” Goltzband says retreating from the shoreline is not an option. “People will always want to build near the water,” he says. “I think that's probably just part of our DNA after thousands of years. The question that we…have to figure out is, how do we ensure that as the water rises, economic vitality and our community's vitality continues to grow?” Whether it’s due to a hurricane, tsunami or just the slowly rising tide, it’s inevitable that our coastline will be changing dramatically in the coming decades, and with it our economy, our environment and our way of life. Sandbags and levees aren’t enough – Californians must come together to create and enact real solutions, or we’ll all be in over our head. Laura Tam, Sustainable Development Policy Director, San Francisco Planning and Urban Research Association Larry Goldzband, Executive Director, Bay Conservation and Development Commission Alicia Aguirre, member of the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, former Mayor, Redwood City Julian Potter, Chief of Staff, San Francisco International Airport This program was recorded in front of a live audience at The Commonwealth Club of California on February 11, 2014 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The United Nations Climate Change Conference in Warsaw, Poland last year achieved modest progress toward an international agreement on reducing carbon pollution. In 2015, the heads of nearly 200 nations will again meet, this time in Paris, and the hope is that they can seal a deal that would take effect in 2020. But rich and developing countries are still far apart on who should bear responsibility for increasing human impacts of severe weather. Even some of the most vigorous proponents of moving away from fossil fuels doubt the UN process will ever produce a treaty with teeth. Ambassador Todd Stern is US Special Envoy for Climate Change, a position he also held during the Clinton administration. Stern started his talk at the Commonwealth Club with a summary of where we are in a process that started two years ago: “[At the] Conference of the Parties, the COP in South Africa, there was a decision to start a new negotiation that would cover the period of the 2020s, in which the parties would negotiate an agreement, legal in some way.” And its due date is 2015. “As it turns out, the big climate meeting at the end of 2015 is going to be in Paris. So we sit right in the middle of that process, about halfway through.” Ambassador Todd Stern, United States Special Envoy for Climate Change This program was recorded in front of a live audience at The Commonwealth Club of California on February 19, 2014 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Who should take responsibility for reducing the amount of plastic debris that litters our cities, waterways and oceans? While many consumers have given up their plastic grocery bags, most still rely on the convenience of plastic water bottles, liquid soap and fast food in styrofoam containers. “Many of our companies are looking at bio-based materials and other kinds of plastics,” says Keith Christman of the American Chemistry Council. “High density polyethylene, made from sugarcane, is one of the largest uses today of bioplastics.” But is plant-based plastic the answer? As Molly Morse of Mango Materials points out, without oxygen to break them down, bioplastics can last as long as or longer than conventional plastic. Her company is working to create plastic out of methane gas harvested from wastewater treatment plants. “It can break down in the ocean,” she says. Bridgett Luther, President of Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute, helps steer companies toward more responsible solutions for design, manufacturing and packaging their products. She points out that this approach led to market success for one company that eschewed the use of non-recyclable foam in their chairs. “ [Herman Miller] developed one of the fastest selling office chairs ever, the Aeron Chair. The end of use of that Herman Miller chair was a lot of super valuable materials that can be easily recycled.” The household cleaning company Method Products has been harvesting discarded plastic from beaches in Hawaii to produce their Ocean Plastic bottle. “Using the plastic that's already on the planet is a solution that we have today,” says co-founder Adam Lowry. “So I tend to favor solutions that we can employ right now rather than saying, “Yes. The technology is coming.” Despite these promising steps, all agree that it’s going to take a village -- manufacturers, consumers and legislators -- to work together if we’re going to rid our world of plastic waste. Keith Christman, Managing Director for Plastics Markets, American Chemistry Council; Co-chair, Global Action Committee on Marine Litter Adam Lowry, Co-founder and Chief Greenskeeper, Method Products PBC Bridgett Luther, President, Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute Molly Morse, CEO, Mango Materials This program was recorded in front of a live audience at The Commonwealth Club of California on January 30, 2014 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

“For us, a drought means human misery, economic devastation to some natural assets and certainly an unproductive living standard for the majority of our people,” said California state senator Jean Fuller ®, who represents the Central Valley. With the state’s rainfall hitting record lows in 2013, California’s drought is a pressing issue in this election year. The shortage will be felt most by farmers in the San Joaquin Valley, and while many fields have been converted to water-conserving drip irrigation, “there’s still a large percentage of crops in California that are irrigated by flood irrigation,” according to Matt Weiser, senior writer at The Sacramento Bee. But conservation can’t be limited to agriculture – all sectors need to recognize that water is a limited resource, according to state senator Lois Wolk (D). “If you tie the amount of water to the price, you create an immediate incentive for conservation,” Wolk said. Experts debate management and policy opportunities as California faces its third year of drought. Lois Wolk, California State Senator (D-Davis) Jean Fuller, California State Senator (R-Bakersfield) Matt Weiser, Senior Writer, The Sacramento Bee This program was recorded in front of a live audience at The Commonwealth Club of California on January 10, 2014 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

“For us, a drought means human misery, economic devastation to some natural assets and certainly an unproductive living standard for the majority of our people,” said California state senator Jean Fuller (R), who represents the Central Valley. With the state’s rainfall hitting record lows in 2013, California’s drought is a pressing issue in this election year. The shortage will be felt most by farmers in the San Joaquin Valley, and while many fields have been converted to water-conserving drip irrigation, “there’s still a large percentage of crops in California that are irrigated by flood irrigation,” according to Matt Weiser, senior writer at The Sacramento Bee. But conservation can’t be limited to agriculture – all sectors need to recognize that water is a limited resource, according to state senator Lois Wolk (D). "If you tie the amount of water to the price, you create an immediate incentive for conservation," Wolk said. Experts debate management and policy opportunities as California faces its third year of drought. Lois Wolk, California State Senator (D-Davis) Jean Fuller, California State Senator (R-Bakersfield) Matt Weiser, Senior Writer, The Sacramento Bee This program was recorded in front of a live audience at The Commonwealth Club of California on January 10, 2014 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

"A clean-energy economy, I think, is the future,” according to 75th U.S. Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus, who leads America’s Navy and Marine Corps. One of the world’s largest fuel consumers, the Navy has committed to obtaining 50 percent of its total energy consumption from alternative sources by 2020. Mabus said he's “absolutely convinced” that goal will be met. “Now is exactly the time that we have to do this,” Mabus said. “A tightening budget situation makes it even more urgent, even more critical.” He discussed concerns about sea level rise in the Pacific, melting ice in the Arctic and the Navy’s power to help move the market into a lower carbon future. "We don't pick and choose what we protect right now – we protect the world," Mabus said. This conversation covers the Navy’s outlook on the road toward a cleaner energy economy, as well as its political challenges. “I have been sort of honored by the push back," Mabus said about the Navy’s move to use biofuels. "What it says to me is that what we're doing is working." U.S. Navy Secretary Ray Mabus This program was recorded in front of a live audience at The Commonwealth Club of California on January 6, 2014 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

“We could start by being rational about how we spend the money that we have,” said U.S. Secretary of Interior Sally Jewell about taking care of national parks. She discussed programs for engaging youth and veterans on public lands, and how to balance our energy needs and carbon reduction goals. According to Jewell, climate change is everywhere and it’s very real. “This is a job where you actually have an opportunity to do something about it,” Jewell said. “And it’s important for all of us to do something.” She covered Obama’s plans to mitigate global warming, her opinions on fracking, water problems in California, and fielded a long line of live audience questions. “I’ve had nothing but support from my boss and the administration broadly on the conservation agenda,” Jewell said. “There’s tremendous interest in doing what’s right for the American people.” Sally Jewell, U.S. Secretary of the Interior This program was recorded in front of a live audience at The Commonwealth Club of California on November 7, 2013 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

"We could end up being part of the problem, even when we're right," said Jim Hoggan, co-Founder of the DeSmog Blog and chair of the David Suzuki Foundation. "Self-righteousness is like a virus, and a lot of the time, it's so subtle you don't know you have it." Hoggan discussed the challenges of communicating climate science and bridging the chasm between skeptics and supporters. "I think we're at a real risk of furthering the information gap," said Bud Ward, editor of the Yale Forum on Climate Change & The Media. Skeptical Science founder John Cook said climate change denial isn't the result of lack of knowledge; it's driven by cultural factors and political ideology. “I tend to examine the behavior, rather than the motive behind it,” Cook said. “If someone’s misinforming people, you can’t comment on whether they’re lying or whether they genuinely believe it.” In this conversation on climate change media, experts discuss current coverage and how to address global issues for a clean energy future. Bud Ward, Editor, Yale Forum on Climate Change & The Media Jim Hoggan, Co-Founder, DeSmog Blog Chair, The David Suzuki Foundation John Cook, Founder, Skeptical Science; Co-Author, Climate Change Denial: Heads in the Sand This program was recorded in front of a live audience at The Commonwealth Club of California on December 10, 2013 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

“I wish more companies would come out of the closet, so to speak, and talk about what they’re doing,” said Sissel Waage, director of biodiversity and ecosystem services at Business for Social Responsibility. Climate change is happening and carbon-emitting businesses need to hold themselves accountable, she said. Some companies are getting on board by investing in forests and their communities. "It's the least expensive way for us to reduce emissions today," said Mike Korchinsky, project developer for REDD+ (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation), and founder and CEO of Wildlife Works. Microsoft made a pledge to be carbon neutral in July 2012 and "the organization got behind it very quickly," said TJ DiCaprio, senior director of environmental sustainability at Microsoft Corporation. "We're driving efficiency." This discussion looks at how some business leaders are overcoming risks to take a stand for the trees. Mike Korchinsky, Project Developer, REDD+ (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation); Founder and CEO, Wildlife Works TJ DiCaprio, Senior Director, Environmental Sustainability, Microsoft Corporation Sissel Waage, Director of Biodiversity & Ecosystem Services, Business for Social Responsibility This program was recorded in front of a live audience at The Commonwealth Club of California on December 4, 2013 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices