In this week’s episode, host Daniel Raimi talks with Lara Aleluia Reis, a scientist at our sister institution, the RFF-CMCC European Institute on Economics and the Environment. Reis and her coauthors have recently released a new study in “Lancet Planetary Health” about the connection between air pollution and climate change. The study explores how policymakers can most effectively accomplish two important goals at the same time: reducing air pollution, which contributes to millions of deaths per year, and achieving our long-term objectives in mitigating climate change. References and recommendations: “Internalising Health-Economic Impacts of Air Pollution into Climate Policy: a Global Modelling Study” by Lara Aleluia, Laurent Drouet, and Massimo Tavoni; https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanplh/article/PIIS2542-5196(21)00259-X/fulltext “The Invisible Killer: The Rising Global Threat of Air Pollution—and How We Can Fight Back” by Gary Fuller; https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/608009/the-invisible-killer-by-gary-fuller/ PurpleAir, a personal monitor for real-time air quality assessments; https://www2.purpleair.com/

In this episode, host Daniel Raimi talks with Jennifer Haverkamp, director of the Graham Sustainability Institute at the University of Michigan, and Sarah Ladislaw, managing director of the US Program at RMI. This week is our annual year-in-review episode, in which we talk about what happened during the past year and what we’ll be watching for in the year to come. Haverkamp and Ladislaw highlight the most significant developments in energy and environmental policy during 2021, identify some important issues that may have been overlooked, and give a sense of what they’ll be watching closely in 2022. References and recommendations: “Under a White Sky” by Elizabeth Kolbert; https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/617060/under-a-white-sky-by-elizabeth-kolbert/ “The Invention of Nature: Alexander Von Humboldt’s New World” by Andrea Wulf; https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/227866/the-invention-of-nature-by-andrea-wulf/ “Speed & Scale: An Action Plan for Solving Our Climate Crisis Now” by John Doerr; https://speedandscale.com/ “Where the Deer and the Antelope Play” by Nick Offerman; https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/536915/where-the-deer-and-the-antelope-play-by-nick-offerman/

What’s a better strategy for incentivizing innovation: the existing patent system or flashy, high-dollar prizes? This year, Elon Musk (Person of the Year in 2021, according to “Time” magazine) inspired heated debate when he announced a $100-million prize for novel carbon removal technologies. Some environmentalists were enthusiastic, though Zorina Khan—a professor of economics at Bowdoin College and a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research—expressed skepticism in conversation with the “New York Times” and on an episode of “Resources Radio.” In this rebroadcasted episode, host Kristin Hayes talks with Khan about her research on the history of offering prizes for innovation. Khan contends that such contests historically have benefited elite members of society and that patent systems more regularly produce transformative technologies. Reflecting on Musk’s carbon removal prize, Khan concludes that such a contest could generate more awareness of climate issues but is unlikely to dramatically shift strategies for reducing carbon emissions. References and recommendations: “Carbon Capture and Storage 101” from Resources for the Future; https://www.rff.org/publications/explainers/carbon-capture-and-storage-101/ “$100M prize for carbon removal” from XPRIZE Foundation and Elon Musk; https://www.xprize.org/prizes/elonmusk “What’s Better, a Prize or a Patent?” by Peter Coy; https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/30/opinion/elon-musk-prize-patent.html “Inventing Ideas: Patents, Prizes, and the Knowledge Economy” by B. Zorina Khan; https://global.oup.com/academic/product/inventing-ideas-9780190936082 “Democratization of Invention” by B. Zorina Khan; https://books.bowdoin.edu/book/the-democratization-of-invention-patents-and-copyrights-in-american-economic-development-1790-1920/ “Unlocking history through automated virtual unfolding of sealed documents imaged by X-ray microtomography” by Jana Dambrogio, Amanda Ghassaei, Daniel Starza Smith, Holly Jackson, Martin L. Demaine, Graham Davis, David Mills, Rebekah Ahrendt, Nadine Akkerman, David van der Linden, and Erik D. Demaine; https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-21326-w

In this week’s episode, host Daniel Raimi talks with Paul Joskow, an economics professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a member of the President’s Council at Resources for the Future. Joskow has had a long and distinguished career that spans a wide range of energy and environmental topics. In his conversation with Raimi, Joskow discusses his new working paper about the challenges related to expanding the electricity grid. Growing the grid will be a critical component for achieving long-term decarbonization goals, but growth comes with a lot of hurdles. Joskow describes those hurdles, alongside what solutions might help knock them down. References and recommendations: “Facilitating Transmission Expansion to Support Efficient Decarbonization of the Electricity Sector” by Paul L. Joskow; http://ceepr.mit.edu/publications/working-papers/758 “Churchill: Walking with Destiny” by Andrew Roberts; https://www.andrew-roberts.net/books/churchill-walking-destiny/ “Franklin and Winston: An Intimate Portrait of an Epic Friendship” by Jon Meacham; https://www.jonmeacham.com/book/franklin-and-winston-an-intimate-portrait-of-an-epic-friendship/ Books by John le Carré; https://johnlecarre.com/ “Networks of Power: Electrification in Western Society, 1880–1930” by Thomas Parker Hughes; https://jhupbooks.press.jhu.edu/title/networks-power “A French Village” television series; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Un_village_fran%C3%A7ais “Come From Away” play; https://comefromaway.com/ “The Polio Crusade” documentary; https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/polio/

In this week’s episode, host Daniel Raimi talks with Casey Wichman, an assistant professor in the School of Economics at Georgia Tech and an RFF university fellow. Wichman and several coauthors recently published a working paper that uses a field experiment to estimate how smart thermostats and time-varying electricity pricing can help reduce household utility bills and demands on the power sector. As more and more of us install smart thermostats, Wichman discusses how much money these devices can help us save, how the devices affect the temperatures in our homes, and what smart thermostats might mean for the grid’s reliability and environmental impact. References and recommendations: “Smart Thermostats, Automation, and Time-Varying Prices” by Joshua Blonz, Karen Palmer, Casey Wichman, and Derek C. Wietelman; https://www.rff.org/publications/working-papers/smart-thermostats-automation-and-time-varying-prices/ “Savings Versus Comfort: How Smarter Thermostats Can Respond to Time-Varying Prices” by Karen Palmer; https://www.resources.org/common-resources/savings-versus-comfort-how-smarter-thermostats-can-respond-to-time-varying-prices/ “The New Climate War” by Michael E. Mann; https://www.publicaffairsbooks.com/titles/michael-e-mann/the-new-climate-war/9781541758223/ “Why Fish Don’t Exist” by Lulu Miller; https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Why-Fish-Dont-Exist/Lulu-Miller/9781501160349

In this week’s episode, host Daniel Raimi talks with Colin Jerolmack, a professor of sociology and environmental studies at New York University. Jerolmack recently published “Up to Heaven and Down to Hell: Fracking, Freedom, and Community in an American Town”—a book that Raimi insists is one of the best on the shale revolution that’s been written to date. Jerolmack lived for several months in a rural Pennsylvania county that had been experiencing the shale revolution; he documented what residents experienced over a span of eight years. The result is a thoughtful, nuanced, and human portrait of how shale development has affected one community—for better and for worse. References and recommendations: “Up to Heaven and Down to Hell: Fracking, Freedom, and Community in an American Town” by Colin Jerolmack; https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691179032/up-to-heaven-and-down-to-hell “Not in Your Backyard! Organizational Structure, Partisanship, and the Mobilization of Nonbeneficiary Constituents against “Fracking” in Illinois, 2013–2014” by Fedor A. Dokshin and Amanda Buday; https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/2378023118783476 “They Couldn’t Drink Their Water. And Still, They Stayed Quiet.” by Colin Jerolmack; https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/17/opinion/sunday/fracking-pennsylvania-water-contamination.html “This Is Chance! The Great Alaska Earthquake, Genie Chance, and the Shattered City She Held Together” by Jon Mooallem; https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/565952/this-is-chance-by-jon-mooallem/ “Scene on Radio” Season 5, “The Repair,” with hosts John Biewen and Amy Westervelt; https://www.sceneonradio.org/the-repair/

In this week’s episode, host Daniel Raimi talks with Kim Stanley Robinson, acclaimed author of many books, most recently “The Ministry for the Future.” Robinson’s books vividly illustrate some of the most devastating potential consequences of climate change, but that’s not all they do—the books also offer innovation and optimism, imagining the ways in which we can prevent some of the worst impacts of climate change and adapt to the impacts that are unavoidable. Robinson discusses his recent visit to COP 26 and his views on climate economics, modern monetary theory, space opera, and more. References and recommendations: “The Ministry for the Future” by Kim Stanley Robinson; https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/kim-stanley-robinson/the-ministry-for-the-future/9780316300162/ “The Price of Peace: Money, Democracy, and the Life of John Maynard Keynes” by Zachary D. Carter; https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/563378/the-price-of-peace-by-zachary-d-carter/ “Improving Discounting in the Social Cost of Carbon” by Brian Prest, William Pizer, and Richard Newell; https://www.resources.org/archives/improving-discounting-in-the-social-cost-of-carbon/ “Doughnut Economics: Seven Ways to Think Like a 21st-Century Economist” by Kate Raworth; https://www.chelseagreen.com/product/doughnut-economics-paperback/ The concept of “carbon currency” by Delton Chen; https://globalcarbonreward.org/carbon-currency/ “Hypothesis for a Risk Cost of Carbon: Revising the Externalities and Ethics of Climate Change” by Delton B. Chen, Joel van der Beek, and Jonathan Cloud; https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-03152-7_8 “Breaking Boundaries: The Science of Our Planet” by David Attenborough and Johan Rockström; https://www.netflix.com/title/81336476

In this week’s episode, host Daniel Raimi talks with Shelie Miller, a professor at the University of Michigan’s School for Environment and Sustainability. Miller describes her recent research, which investigates whether reusable products like straws and coffee cups are really more sustainable than their single-use counterparts. In part because manufacturing these products and then keeping them clean over their lifetimes can be water intensive, Miller says that consumers need to reuse alternatives to plastics many times if they want to minimize their environmental impacts. Today’s episode is very much news-you-can-use when you’re trying to decide whether you should buy that reusable sandwich wrapper or straw, or take home that canvas bag from the latest conference you’ve attended. References and recommendations: “Environmental payback periods of reusable alternatives to single-use plastic kitchenware products” by Hannah Fetner and Shelie A. Miller; https://www.springerprofessional.de/en/environmental-payback-periods-of-reusable-alternatives-to-single/19334396 “Five Misperceptions Surrounding the Environmental Impacts of Single-Use Plastic” by Shelie A. Miller; https://css.umich.edu/sites/default/files/publication/CSS20-33.pdf “Green Porno” with Isabella Rossellini; https://www.sundancetv.com/shows/green-porno--1001041

In this week’s episode, host Kristin Hayes talks with Billy Pizer, the Vice President for Research and Policy Engagement at Resources for the Future. The episode was recorded on the second-to-last day of COP26, closing out our three-part COP-focused podcast series. Pizer joins Resources Radio live from Glasgow, where he has been RFF’s eyes and ears, to discuss how this critical negotiating session has unfolded. He shares his reflections on the conference proceedings and outcomes, along with what needs to happen next. References and recommendations: “Fixing the Climate: Strategies for an Uncertain World” by Charles F. Sabel and David G. Victor; https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691224558/fixing-the-climate

In this week’s episode, host Kristin Hayes talks with Suzi Kerr, chief economist at Environmental Defense Fund. Kerr’s areas of expertise include emissions pricing, climate change policy, land use, and—most relevant for this podcast episode—international climate cooperation. Kerr originally hails from New Zealand, where she helped found Motu, an economics and public policy research institution that serves the needs of Kiwi decisionmakers. Kerr is the second podcast guest in our three-part series on COP26. She shares her reflections on the action at COP26 to date—major agreements that already have been forged, deals that have been scuttled, and key issues still on the negotiating table—with a particular lens on developing-country interests. References and recommendations: “Tears of Rangi: Experiments Across Worlds” by Anne Salmond; https://aucklanduniversitypress.co.nz/tears-of-rangi/