In this week’s episode, host Daniel Raimi talks with Bathsheba Demuth, an associate professor at Brown University, about the history of the Bering Strait, which separates Alaska and northeastern Russia. Demuth discusses the ecosystems, peoples, and economic systems in the region and how interactions between Indigenous peoples and colonial settlers affected the local environment and social and political life around the Bering Strait. References and recommendations: “Floating Coast: An Environmental History of the Bering Strait” by Bathsheba Demuth; https://wwnorton.com/books/9780393635164 “Wolfish: Wolf, Self, and the Stories We Tell About Fear” by Erica Berry; https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250821621/wolfish

In this week’s episode, host Daniel Raimi talks with Gregory Nemet, a professor at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, about technologies and natural processes that can remove carbon dioxide from Earth’s atmosphere. Nemet discusses efforts in the public and private sectors to deploy new technologies, benefits and costs of different methods of carbon dioxide removal, and the risks and challenges of using carbon dioxide removal to reach global climate goals. References and recommendations: “The State of Carbon Dioxide Removal” by Stephen M. Smith, Oliver Geden, Jan C. Minx, and Gregory F. Nemet; https://www.stateofcdr.org/ “Scrubbing the Sky: Inside the Race to Cool the Planet” by Paul McKendrick; https://www.figure1publishing.com/book/scrubbing-the-sky/ “Purple Mountains” film; https://www.purplemountainsfilm.com/

In this week’s episode, host Daniel Raimi talks with Yanjun (Penny) Liao, a fellow at Resources for the Future, about the effect of weather-related disasters on local government finances. Liao discusses how municipalities, states, and the federal government provide disaster aid; how these disasters can affect tax revenues and the ability of local governments to provide community services; and how the fiscal impacts of natural disasters differ between higher- and lower-income communities. References and recommendations: “The Fiscal Impacts of Wildfires on California Municipalities” by Yanjun (Penny) Liao and Carolyn Kousky; https://www.rff.org/publications/journal-articles/the-fiscal-impacts-of-wildfires-on-california-municipalities/ “Extreme Weather Events and Local Fiscal Responses: Evidence from U.S. Counties” by Qing Miao, Michael Abrigo, Yilin Hou, and Yanjun (Penny) Liao; https://www.rff.org/publications/journal-articles/extreme-weather-events-and-local-fiscal-responses-evidence-from-us-counties/ “The Economic Incidence of Wildfire Suppression in the United States” by Patrick Baylis and Judd Boomhower; https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/app.20200662 “Social Vulnerability to Environmental Hazards” by Susan L. Cutter, Bryan J. Boruff, and W. Lynn Shirley; https://www.jstor.org/stable/42955868 “Devotions” by Mary Oliver; https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/536247/devotions-by-mary-oliver/ “Silent Spring Revolution: John F. Kennedy, Rachel Carson, Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, and the Great Environmental Awakening” by Douglas Brinkley; https://www.harpercollins.com/products/silent-spring-revolution-douglas-brinkley

In this week’s episode, host Margaret Walls talks with Ana Baptista, an associate professor at the New School in New York City and codirector of its Tishman Environment and Design Center. Baptista discusses the cumulative impacts of pollution on environmental justice communities; the sources of pollution in these communities; and the groundbreaking legislation and data tools that are being employed by state governments, researchers, and environmental justice groups to mitigate cumulative impacts in overburdened communities. References and recommendations: “Understanding the Evolution of Cumulative Impacts: Definitions and Policies in the U.S.” by Ana Isabel Baptista, Adrienne Perovich, Maria Fernanda Pulido-Velosa, Enrique Valencia, Marisa Valdez, and Jennifer Ventrella; https://www.tishmancenter.org/blog/new-research-understanding-the-evolution-of-cumulative-impacts-definitions-and-policies-in-the-us Articles by Rachel Morello-Frosch; https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=lSdMXgQAAAAJ&hl=en “Toxic Communities” by Dorceta Taylor; https://nyupress.org/9781479861781/toxic-communities/ “The Quest for Environmental Justice” by Robert D. Bullard and Maxine Waters; https://www.counterpointpress.com/books/the-quest-for-environmental-justice/

In this week’s episode, host Daniel Raimi talks with Aaron Bergman and Alan Krupnick—both scholars at Resources for the Future—about the technology and policy landscape of hydrogen fuel. Bergman and Krupnick discuss methods of hydrogen fuel production, the raft of new federal policies that incentivize the production of low-emissions hydrogen and build up the regional marketplaces known as “hydrogen hubs,” why some communities oppose hydrogen development, and how hydrogen can contribute to global warming. References and recommendations: “The Opposite of Butterfly Hunting” by Evanna Lynch; https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/677563/the-opposite-of-butterfly-hunting-by-evanna-lynch/ “Clue” movie; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clue_(film) “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery” movie; https://www.netflix.com/title/81458416

In this week’s episode, host Kristin Hayes talks with Maureen Leddy, who serves as director of the Office of Climate Change at the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation. Leddy discusses the state’s recently approved Scoping Plan, which proposes strategies for meeting the state’s emissions-reduction goals that are required by the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act of 2019. Leddy reviews how the plan was developed, the community engagement involved in the development process, and specific emissions-reduction strategies that are outlined in the Scoping Plan. References and recommendations: “New York State Climate Action Council Scoping Plan” from the New York State Climate Action Council; https://climate.ny.gov/ScopingPlan “Estimating the Value of Carbon: Two Approaches” by Resources for the Future and New York State Energy Research and Development Authority; https://www.rff.org/publications/reports/estimating-the-value-of-carbon-two-approaches/ “The Energy Gang” podcast; https://www.woodmac.com/market-insights/types/podcasts/the-energy-gang/

In this week’s episode, host Daniel Raimi talks with researchers Neha Khanna and Nick Kuminoff about the diversity of scholars in the field of environmental and resource economics. Khanna is a professor of economics at Binghamton University, and Kuminoff is an associate professor of economics at Arizona State University. Khanna and Kuminoff discuss the gender equity of authorship in environmental economics journals, equity in tenure-track academic jobs, how diversity in a research field contributes to the advancement of scientific knowledge, the state of the community of environmental economists, and prospects for early-career scholars. References and recommendations: “New Evidence on Diversity in Environmental and Resource Economics” by Nicolai V. Kuminoff, Katherine E. Ciaramello, Hanna M. Dooley, Martin D. Heintzelman, Neha Khanna, Lea-Rachel Kosnik, Lynne Y. Lewis, and Eric Trimble; https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/722907 “Don’t Look Up” film; https://www.netflix.com/title/81252357 “Is Climate Change like Diabetes or an Asteroid?” by Ted Nordhaus; https://thebreakthrough.org/articles/is-climate-change-like-diabetes “The Three-Body Problem” in the trilogy of novels called “Remembrance of Earth’s Past” by Liu Cixin; https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780765382030/thethreebodyproblem

In this week’s episode, host Margaret Walls talks with John D. Leshy, an emeritus professor at the University of California College of the Law, San Francisco, about the history of public lands in the United States. Leshy discusses the legislation that enabled the creation and conservation of public lands, common myths about public lands, and how the government may open up public lands for mining or clean energy projects in the future. References and recommendations: “Our Common Ground: A History of America’s Public Lands” by John D. Leshy; https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300235784/our-common-ground/ “The Mining Law: A Study in Perpetual Motion” by John D. Leshy; https://www.routledge.com/The-Mining-Law-A-Study-in-Perpetual-Motion/Leshy/p/book/9781138951877 “End of the Megafauna: The Fate of the World’s Hugest, Fiercest, and Strangest Animals” by Ross D. E. MacPhee; https://wwnorton.com/books/End-of-the-Megafauna/

In this week’s episode, host Daniel Raimi talks with Danae Hernández-Cortés, an assistant professor at Arizona State University, about a recent study that investigates how California’s cap-and-trade program affects levels of harmful pollutants in environmental justice communities. Hernández-Cortés discusses how carbon markets can shift concentrations of local air pollutants, environmental justice outcomes of the cap-and-trade program in California, and the need for policies that target issues of environmental justice. References and recommendations: “Do environmental markets cause environmental injustice? Evidence from California’s carbon market” by Danae Hernández-Cortés and Kyle C. Meng; https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0047272722001888 “Cracking the Case of the Vanishing Air Pollution Data, with Eric Zou” on Resources Radio; https://www.resources.org/resources-radio/cracking-the-case-of-the-vanishing-air-pollution-data-with-eric-zou/ “The Bat Man” episode of the “Radio Ambulante” podcast; https://radioambulante.org/en/audio-en/the-bat-man (English translation of the transcript: https://radioambulante.org/en/translation/the-bat-man-translation)

In this week’s episode, host Daniel Raimi recaps 2022 with Catherine Wolfram, a visiting professor at the Harvard Kennedy School and member of the board of directors at Resources for the Future, and John Larsen, a partner at Rhodium Group. Wolfram and Larsen offer insights on the year’s biggest stories in energy and environmental policy at the state, national, and international levels, including US climate legislation and how Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has affected energy markets. They also look ahead to the developments in energy and environmental policy that are likely to become important in 2023. References and recommendations: “Catalyst with Shayle Kann” podcast from Canary Media; https://www.canarymedia.com/podcasts/catalyst-with-shayle-kann “California Burning: The Fall of Pacific Gas and Electric—and What It Means for America’s Power Grid” by Katherine Blunt; https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/670012/california-burning-by-katherine-blunt/