Rising interest in clean power is presenting electric monopolies with competition for the first time. Community choice aggregation (CCA) gives towns and cities the opportunity to get in on the energy market and decide where their energy will come from. More than a thousand communities across the country are taking electric power into their own hands. Supporters say that is a great way for communities to get greener electricity. San Francisco’s proposed community power option has a goal of 100% renewables and may be provided by a unit of Shell Oil. That juice could cost up to 40 percent more than the local monopoly, PG&E. Skeptics are wary of such cost premiums and say local power may not be as green as people think. A conversation with four experts on local and clean power nationally and in the San Francisco Bay Area. Kim Malcolm, Director, CleanPowerSF Shawn Marshall, Mill Valley Council Member; Executive Director, Local Energy Aggregation Network Marcie Milner, Senior Regulatory Manager, Shell Energy North America Hunter Stern, Business Manager, Brotherhood of Electrical Workers This program was recorded in front of a live audience at The Commonwealth Club of California on June 17, 2013 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Humans have been using their ingenuity to deal with sea level rise, floods, and fluctuating coasts for the past 15,000 years, and recent extreme events have emphasized the need to adapt. “There are no easy solutions to adaptation,” says Brian Fagan, author of “The Attacking Ocean”, but we can learn from historic sea walls in the Netherlands, cyclones in the Indian Ocean, and other major oceanic events over the last 10,000 years. “The global ocean has actually done us this incredible favor by buffering us from a variety of effects of climate change and our fossil fuel addiction,” says Meg Caldwell, Executive Director of the Center for Ocean Solutions at Stanford. However the combination of warming waters, acidification, and lower oxygen levels have have the oceans at their limit. A conversation with an archaeologist and a lawyer on sea level rise, climate refugees, and the impact of climate change on the world’s oceans. This program was recorded in front of a live audience at The Commonwealth Club of California on June 18, 2013 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the wake of the Fukushima disaster, the U.S. is struggling to define its nuclear energy future. The film “Pandora’s Promise” asks whether we should use nuclear energy to deal with global warming. Michael Shellenberger, President of the Breakthrough Institute and featured in the film, says you can’t be an “anti-nuclear activist and an anti-fracking activist.” Nuclear is an invaluable power source that is both scalable and produces no greenhouse gasses, says Shellenberger. However, says Severin Borenstein, Co-Director of the Energy Institute at UC Berkeley, the movie fails to address cost. In order for nuclear to remain a viable part of the energy mix it must become less expensive. The developing world, he says, won’t be willing to adopt something that isn’t “as cheap or cheaper than burning coal.” A Climate One Cinema post-screening conversation on the documentary “Pandora’s Promise” and the future of nuclear power. This program was recorded in front of a live audience at The Commonwealth Club of California on June 15, 2013 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The documentary “Rebels with a Cause” follows “ordinary citizens who did extraordinary things” in the second half of the 20th century to preserve the natural landscape of Point Reyes, California from urbanization. Point Reyes National Seashore in the San Francisco Bay Area was the first national park of major size that was created from private land, says the round table. Over the course of the 1960s and 70s activists brokered an agreement between ranchers and environmentalists that created a model to preserve the land and the ranches on it. The importance of having nature close to home became a topic of national conversation and sparked the creation of parks in numerous states. Today smart urban growth is increasingly important with rapidly expanding populations putting increased pressure on natural resources. Climate change means sea level rise, changing habitats, and extreme weather are straining the ecosystems of the parks. “Activism still matters a lot,” say panelists. A Climate One Cinema post-screening conversation on a local conservation movement with national implications. Nancy Dobbs, President and CEO, KRCB Nancy Kelly, Director, Rebels with a Cause Trent Orr, Staff Attorney, Earthjustice Will Rogers, President and Chief Executive Officer, The Trust for Public Land This program was recorded in front of a live audience at The Commonwealth Club of California on June 9, 2013 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Google's Eric Schmidt and Jared Cohen In the next decade, five billion more people should be able to access most of the world’s information through a mobile device. “The internet is going to wire up the entire world,” says Eric Schmidt, Executive Chairman of Google. “The change to people who have no information, no political freedom, no healthcare…is going to be extraordinary.” With this increase of technology comes privacy concerns, greater risks from cyber espionage, and important conversations on how to teach the next generation about data permanence and online privacy. “When you talk about privacy you need to also talk about security. The two concepts are deeply intertwined,” says Jared Cohen, Director of Google Ideas who points out the importance of parents talking to their children about digital privacy. A conversation with two architects of our digital future on innovation and the implications of a connected world. This program was recorded in front of a live audience at The Commonwealth Club of California on June 4, 2013 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Walmart. Emit Less. Live Better Walmart and other large companies are pushing their suppliers to reduce packaging, waste and energy use to save companies money and reduce carbon pollution. The goals of zero waste and 100 percent renewable energy are big and audacious. According to Aron Cramer, CEO of Business for Social Responsibility such goals are also necessary. “We won’t be able to maintain economic growth if the environment starts to get in the way,” he says. Along with important steps towards a more sustainable supply chain Walmart has an emphasis on energy. “Energy efficiency has to go hand in hand with renewable energy,” says Andrea Thomas, Senior Vice President of Sustainability at Walmart. To Walmart renewable energy is a business opportunity and she says they now in a position to start scaling. Aron Cramer agreed with the significance of renewables saying distributed energy could “be a business opportunity for retailers.” A conversation with two top executives on sustainable capitalism. This program was recorded in front of a live audience at The Commonwealth Club of California in San Francisco on May 6, 2013 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Environmental journalists representing Brazil, China, Nigeria and the Philippines tackle the climate news of a developing world. Climate issues have not always been news in these countries. In China it has taken a growing middle class and protests to bring attention to Beijing’s pollution issues, Lican Liu, water director at Greenovation Hub in China, tells the audience. Food and agriculture have also been impacted by climate change, says Michael Simire, Deputy Editor of the Sunday Independent in Nigeria, which has required an adjustment in the planting season in Nigeria. Imelda Abano, President of the Philippine Network of Environmental Journalists, says this has undermined food prices in Philippines. Brazil’s home environmental issues typically revolve around the Amazon, says Gustavo Faleiros, Environmental Journalist and Knight Fellow, but this takes away from equally important urban environmental issues. A conversation with four international journalists on the trials and triumphs of environmental journalism in the developing world. This program was recorded in front of a live audience at The Commonwealth Club of California on May 3, 2013 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The urgency of the climate crisis has compelled writers such as Bill McKibben and Antonia Juhasz to cross the line into advocacy. “Often facts can be disempowering” if it feels like there is nothing you can do, says Juhasz. “Understanding the direct human impact right now, the real facts, and the sense that you can do something about it” is what you need to get people to change she says. But convincing people is no longer the main battle, according to McKibben who says that “75% of Americans know that climate change is real and want something done about it.” The issue is making their voices heard against the influence of the resources of the fossil fuel industry. The answer to this, he says, is divestment. “We’re not going to bankrupt Exxon,” he says, “but we are going to start morally bankrupting them.” Juhasz agrees that “you can’t undermine the significance of the symbolism of divestment.” A discussion with two of the environmental movement’s leading communicators on speaking up and being heard. This program was recorded in front of a live audience at The Commonwealth Club of California on May 3, 2013 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Climate change is “real” and requires action, says Marvin Odum, President of Shell Oil Company. But that doesn’t change his belief that “there is a pretty clear understanding that fossil fuels will be required for quite some time.” Biofuels are an option, says Odum, but corn ethanol is too carbon intensive and sugar cane biofuel from Brazil has more potential to become a viable fuel in America’s transportation fleet. Alternative energy sources aside, Odum says the most impactful thing that can be done over the next decade is “to drive natural gas in and drive coal out.” Odum joins Climate One founder Greg Dalton for a conversation on powering America’s future in a carbon constrained world. This program was recorded in front of a live audience at The Commonwealth Club of California on April 29, 2013 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Are the Canadian tar sands and Keystone XL pipeline huge economic drivers or climate killers? Pipeline supporters such as Canadian diplomat Cassie Doyel say it’s better for America to get its energy from Canada than unfriendly nations. But Sam Avery, Author of The Pipeline and the Paradigm, warns that there’s enough carbon in the tar sands “to send Earth’s climate into an irreversible tailspin.” Dan Miller, Managing Director of the Roda Group, looks at the long term saying “as a price on carbon kicks in, and it starts to build over time, the tar sands will be the first things that will be knocked off the list.” Greg Croft, Lecturer at St. Mary’s College of California, points out that “the carbon problem is global and we haven't solved any problem on a global basis.” A conversation on matching energy supply and demand in a carbon constrained world This program was recorded in front of a live audience at The Commonwealth Club of California on April 26, 2013 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices