Climate One

Cradle to California William McDonough, Architect and Author, Cradle to Cradle Greg Dalton, Founder of Climate One American architect McDonough and German chemist Michael Braungart started the Cradle to Cradle revolution in manufacturing and design. Now they want to drive that integrated thinking deeper into the heart of capitalism. How? By creating a startup in Silicon Valley. The Green Products Innovation Institute, which McDonough and Governor Schwarzenegger christened last spring, aims to transform the “making and consumption of things into a regenerative force for the planet.” The institute will certify products to inform consumers and encourage corporations to use cleaner and more sustainable materials and processes. Does the world need another green seal of approval? McDonough says it’s about much more than that. He’s thinking big about architecture, manufacturing and transportation. And with his track record, he has the ear of captains of industry as well as activists including Brad Pitt. Join us for a conversation with one of the leading lights of the sustainability movement. This program was recorded in front of a live audience at The Commonwealth Club in San Francisco on September 7, 2010 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The evolving status of women in the world today will be explored at The Commonwealth Club throughout the month of August in the series The Ascent of Woman. Through speakers, panels, films and art, we will examine this transformational period in women's history, this dramatic shift from the expectation of our mothers' choices, to how we work and live today in ways that reach out through our families and communities to reverberate throughout the nation. The Ascent of Woman series will illuminate women's lives today, where women are redefining what a 'woman's place' will be. Women Changing the Way We Eat Spin It Green: The Story of Marissa Muller Marissa Muller, Solar-Powered Bicycle Pioneer After graduating from business school in Spain, Muller returned home to California and worked with her family in building her vision: a solar powered electric bike. During her 1,000-mile solo adventure on the roads of California, she visited 14 high schools, offering a seminar on solar and electric vehicles, and sparking a dialogue with the students to start brainstorming ways to combat our energy and environmental challenges. Though the ride is over, her goal of reaching 1,000 clean ideas is ongoing. Meet this amazing young woman and hear her message of clean power. This program was recorded in front of a live audience at The Commonwealth Club on August 19, 2010 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Power Shift: The U.S. Navy and Global Energy Reform Ray Mabus, Secretary of the U.S. Navy Greg Dalton, Founder of Climate One Within 10 years, the United States Navy will get one-half of all its energy needs, both afloat and ashore, from non-fossil fuel sources,” Navy Secretary Ray Mabus says. He believes that the US military can jump-start the clean energy revolution. “If we can begin to get this energy from different places and from different sources, then I think you can flip the line from ‘Field of Dreams’: If the Navy comes, they will build it. If we provide the market, then I think you’ll begin to see the infrastructure being built, the price per kilowatt-hour come down.” The Navy’s carbon footprint is vast – it consumes about 1 percent of all the energy used in the United States – and last fall announced an ambitious plan to slash fuel use and carbon emissions by buying hybrid vehicles, moving away from petroleum, and constructing energy efficient buildings. Mabus also serves as President Obama’s point person for recovery in the Gulf. Work is needed, he says, to modernize the technology by which oil companies respond to spills, and to update the legal structure under which they operate. “Obviously, the cap that was placed on oil companies, which was $70 million, did not anticipate anything remotely like this incident. The legal structure … needs to be updated to take into account realities as they exist today,” Mabus says. Asked by Climate One’s Greg Dalton what an appropriate dollar figure for the liability cap might be, Mabus replied: “I’m not sure there needs to be a cap.” This program was recorded in front of a live audience at The Commonwealth Club in San Francisco on August 16, 2010 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Rep. Ed Markey (D-MA) Undaunted by the death of climate legislation in the Senate this summer, U.S. Representative Edward Markey (D-MA) vows to reintroduce comprehensive legislation next year and guarantees its passage within a few years. “We have a responsibility to the rest of the world,” Markey says, “most of the CO2 which is up there is red white and blue.” Markey, chairman of the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming, concedes that events in the spring, including the health care reform push and Deepwater Horizon disaster, conspired to distract attention nationally from the importance of climate legislation. But its demise was assured, he says, when Republican Senate leaders used the threat of filibuster “as a way of engaging in obdurate, obstinate opposition to this legislation passing – and time was their friend.” Markey also urges Californians to defeat Proposition 23. “You cannot lose this issue out here. It’s an imperative for you to beat back these two Texas oil companies. If you win here, I think we can win everywhere. If they lose here, they can lose everywhere.” This program was recorded in front of a live audience at The Commonwealth Club in San Francisco on August 13, 2010 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

After BP: Climate Progress? Joe Romm, Editor, Climate Progress Senior Fellow, Center for American Progress It is “morally unconscionable” for the fossil fuel industry, and the politicians who carry their water in Congress, to stand in the way of action on climate change, says Climate Progress blogger Joe Romm. A Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress and former US Department of Energy official, Romm says California voters have an opportunity this November to defeat the forces seeking to delay action on climate change by rejecting an attack on AB 32. “There isn’t anything more important Californians can do than kill Proposition 23 by as large a margin as possible to send a message. Anybody who wants to save the climate in this country, who wants to pass legislation, is going to have to transform politics in this country so that there is a political cost to trying to destroy the climate. ” Confronted by such a grave threat, we need to act now, he says. Which means we can’t wait for technologies yet to be invented. More R&D funding for clean energy would be wonderful, he says, but “We need to deploy every last piece of low-carbon technology we have today if we’re to give the next generation a fighting chance.” This program was recorded in front of a live audience in San Francisco at The Commonwealth Club on July 19, 2010 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Shai Agassi: A Better Model? Founder and CEO, Better Place In conversation with Greg Dalton, Founder, Climate One INFORUM’s Next 21st Century Visionary Award Shai Agassi wants to tip a $3 trillion market – the market for miles. Agassi, the CEO and Founder of Better Place, said he plans to end oil’s stranglehold on the global economy by offering consumers access to miles in electric cars that will be cheaper,and more convenient, than the gasoline-powered cars they replace. Most large and startup automakers are scrambling to make electric cars but Better Place is taking a decidedly different, and risky, approach. It is partnering with Renault and China’s Chery to deliver electric cars with batteries that can be swapped at new robot-powered stations. By taking the battery out of the up-front purchase price and essentially leasing it to drivers as a monthly service, he aims to offer electric cars that are at least $3,000 to $5,000 less to purchase than a comparable gas car and will be cheaper to drive each mile. “The price of oil keeps going up, the price of batteries keeps going down, the life of batteries is improving,” Agassi said. A few cars are on the road now in Tokyo and dozens are slated to be tested in Israel later this year. Will battery swapping take off? Will it flop? Or will it be just another niche? Agassi forwards his bold vision for the arrival of electric cars for the mass market. This program was recorded in front of a live audience at The Commonwealth Club in San Francisco on July 12, 2010 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hot, Wet and Uncertain Wieslaw Maslowski, Research Professor, Naval Post Graduate School Will Travis, Executive Director, Bay Area Conservation and Development Commission Andrew J. Gunther, Executive Director, Center for Ecosystem Management and Restoration Greg Dalton, Commonwealth Club VP, Founder of Climate One, Moderator What do scientists predict the Earth will be like in a few decades? While imperfect and complex, computer models using historic data and forward projections suggest deterioration of agricultural land, crumbling bridges and flooded roads, and population shifts away from low-lying cities such as Miami and Amsterdam. How fast will Arctic ice melt? What does that mean for the rest of the world? What are governments and businesses doing in the Bay Area and elsewhere to prepare for new water patterns that paradoxically may bring too much water at times in some areas and drought in others? Join experts for a discussion of what the past and present can tell us about our future. This program was recorded in front of a live audience at The Commonwealth Club of California on July 9, 2010 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

America’s Climate War Eric Pooley, Deputy Editor, Bloomberg BusinessWeek Why is the national conversation about America’s energy future so polarized? Who are the true believers, power brokers and climate-change deniers working the halls of power in Washington? The political story of global warming includes colorful characters from activists chaining themselves to bulldozers and powerful lobbyists in the West Wing of President Obama’s administration. Pooley had extensive access to Al Gore in writing his new book, The Climate War. He offers his take on the forces battling it out in the big climate change showdown. Join him for a conversation about villains, heroes and the fight to save the earth. This program was recorded in front of a live audience at The Commonwealth Club on June 24, 2010 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Merchants of Doubt Erik Conway, Historian, California Institute of Technology What do tobacco and fossil fuels have in common? A handful of scientists were able to obscure the truth about both threats to public well-being, according to author Conway. “Doubt is our product,” one tobacco executive reportedly said. Oil and coal companies borrowed a page from that playbook and have used it effectively to cast a cloud over climate science. The result? Opinion polls show that a falling percentage of Americans think climate change is urgent and, as the economy faltered, it has plunged as a national priority. Conway, an expert on the history of carbon dioxide measurement and climate science, offers a peek into the campaign against the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and the global scientific consensus that human activity is adversely impacting the Earth. This program was recorded in front of a live audience in San Francisco at The Commonwealth Club on June 11, 2010 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Corporate Sustainability: A Sprint or Marathon? Dan Hesse, CEO, Sprint When every company claims to be a green leader, how can consumers know which ones really are? Hesse will share his insights on why sustainable growth is sound business and can offer a competitive edge in an industry expanding rapidly around the world. What are the energy and environmental impacts of the global wireless revolution? Sprint has introduced eco-friendly phones and placed in the top 20 of Newsweek magazine’s 2009 Green Rankings of 500 U.S. corporations. How is it going to stay ahead of the green curve? This program was recorded in front of a live audience in San Francisco on June 8, 2010 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices