Resources Radio

This week, host Daniel Raimi talks with Dawn Carr, executive director of the Canadian Parks Council, a network of national, provincial, and territorial parks across Canada. Raimi and Carr discuss why connecting with nature is important, how the Canadian Parks Council works to enhance access to the natural world, how climate change is affecting the ways that governments need to manage their parks into the future, and strategies of making access to parks more equitable. Editor’s Note: Next week, we’ll release the first episode of our month-long spin-off series, “Big Decisions: The Future of US Environmental and Energy Policy.” For this series, which will air in our same Resources Radio time slot every Tuesday in October, RFF President Richard G. Newell and RFF Board of Directors Chair Sue Tierney will share guest-hosting duties; they will talk with leading decisionmakers, analysts, researchers, and reporters about the big decisions that will impact US environmental and energy policy in the years to come. Stay tuned for more. References and recommendations: "The Vanishing Half" by Brit Bennett; https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/576782/the-vanishing-half-by-brit-bennett/ “Public Land Conflicts and Controversies: The Designation of National Monuments in the Western United States” by Margaret Walls; https://www.rff.org/publications/journal-articles/public-land-conflicts-and-controversies-designation-national-monument-journal-publication/

This week, host Daniel Raimi learns more about space mining with Alex Gilbert, a fellow at the Payne Institute for Public Policy at the Colorado School of Mines. In their discussion of the fundamentals of space mining, Gilbert and Raimi address key questions like the following: What resources are people interested in mining? What technologies are necessary to extract resources? How is the ownership of space resources governed? What environmental risks might we encounter—or create—in outer space? References and recommendations: “Life on Venus? Astronomers See a Signal in Its Clouds” by Shannon Stirone, Kenneth Chang, and Dennis Overbye; https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/14/science/venus-life-clouds.html “Phosphine gas in the cloud decks of Venus” by Jane S. Greaves , Anita M. S. Richards , William Bains, Paul B. Rimmer, Hideo Sagawa , David L. Clements, Sara Seager, Janusz J. Petkowski, Clara Sousa-Silva, Sukrit Ranjan, Emily Drabek-Maunder, Helen J. Fraser, Annabel Cartwright, Ingo Mueller-Wodarg , Zhuchang Zhan, Per Friberg , Iain Coulson, E’lisa Lee, and Jim Hoge; https://www.nature.com/articles/s41550-020-1174-4.pdf “The Space Force has a horse, for some reason” by Kathryn Krawczyk; https://theweek.com/speedreads/927152/space-force-horse-some-reason

This week, host Kristin Hayes talks with George Kamiya, an analyst at the International Energy Agency (IEA) and an expert on the emissions of information and communications technology. Kamiya leads the IEA's analysis on the energy impact of digital technologies and coordinates cross-agency efforts on tracking clean energy progress, digitalization, and automated and shared mobility. Kamiya and Hayes discuss the environmental footprint of the many digital technologies that have now become fixtures of many of our lives. The discussion focuses on energy consumption—Kamiya's primary area of expertise—but also touches on other broader issues and impacts, along with some technologies that most people probably don't use on a daily basis, such as Bitcoin mining. While some recent sensational media coverage has suggested otherwise, Kamiya emphasizes that the environmental impacts of digital technologies still pale in comparison to those of bigger sectors, such as transportation and industry. References and recommendations: “Factcheck: What is the carbon footprint of streaming video on Netflix?” by George Kamiya; https://www.carbonbrief.org/factcheck-what-is-the-carbon-footprint-of-streaming-video-on-netflix “Calculate your emissions” data tool, from the International Energy Agency; https://www.iea.org/commentaries/the-carbon-footprint-of-streaming-video-fact-checking-the-headlines “Bitcoin energy use—mined the gap” by George Kamiya; https://www.iea.org/commentaries/bitcoin-energy-use-mined-the-gap “Digitalisation and Energy” from the International Energy Agency; https://www.iea.org/reports/digitalisation-and-energy Carbon Brief newsletter; https://www.carbonbrief.org/daily-weekly-briefing-sign-up "The Citizen’s Guide to Climate Success" by Mark Jaccard; https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/citizens-guide-to-climate-success/49D99FBCBD6FCACD5F3D58A7ED80882D “The AI Revolution: The Road of Superintelligence” from the Wait But Why blog by Tim Urban; https://waitbutwhy.com/2015/01/artificial-intelligence-revolution-1.html “Tackling Climate Change with Machine Learning” interactive summary; https://www.climatechange.ai/summaries

This week, Daniel Raimi talks with Tim Latimer, cofounder and CEO of Fervo Energy, a geothermal energy developer. Geothermal is a relatively small source of energy in the United States, but it has the potential to grow substantially. Latimer and Raimi discuss how the technology works, where it’s deployed in the United States and around the world, how it might grow in the years ahead, and its environmental risks. And, along the way, they make very bad puns about hot rocks. References and recommendations: "GeoVision" report by the US Department of Energy; https://www.energy.gov/eere/geothermal/downloads/geovision-harnessing-heat-beneath-our-feet The Broken Earth trilogy by N.K. Jemison; https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/articles/n-k-jemisin-broken-earth-trilogy-books-in-order/ “How the World’s Largest Garbage Dump Evolved Into a Green Oasis” by Robert Sullivan; https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/14/nyregion/freshkills-garbage-dump-nyc.html

This week, host Daniel Raimi talks with Resources for the Future Fellow Matthew Wibbenmeyer. Wibbenmeyer provides an update on the recent spread of wildfires in California. He and Raimi discuss the severity of the fires; the impacts of the fires on people and places; and the causes of these fires, including the role of climate change. They also talk about how public policies can help reduce the risks of wildfires, including the roles of prescribed burning and housing policy. References and recommendations: “The Ongoing Trauma of California’s Wildfires, in ‘Last Days at Paradise High’” by Rachel Riederer; https://www.newyorker.com/culture/the-new-yorker-documentary/the-ongoing-trauma-of-californias-wildfires-in-last-days-at-paradise-high “How Prosperity Transformed the Falklands” by Larissa MacFarquhar; https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/07/06/how-prosperity-transformed-the-falklands

This week, host Kristin Hayes talks with Jon Krosnick, a university fellow at Resources for the Future (RFF) and professor in humanities and social sciences, communication, and political science at Stanford University, where he directs the Political Psychology Research Group. In his spare time, Krosnick is a professional jazz drummer who tours a third of the year with his band, the Charged Particles—but during the day, Krosnick is a social psychologist who researches survey methods and the psychology of political behavior. Krosnick has collaborated with RFF for a number of years on his work related to surveying American public opinion on global warming, and the partnership continues with additional key collaborators this year. Today's discussion focuses on the overall trend results from the "Climate Insights 2020" survey. For more information on the survey, visit rff.org/climateinsights for an interactive web tool that shows the comprehensive findings in robust detail. References and recommendations: "Climate Insights 2020: Surveying American Public Opinion on Climate Change and the Environment" by Jon A. Krosnick and Bo MacInnis; https://www.rff.org/publications/reports/climateinsights2020 Climate survey data tool; https://www.rff.org/publications/data-tools/climate-insights/ "The Rational Public" by Benjamin I. Page and Robert Y. Shapiro; https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/R/bo3762628.html "Uninformed" by Arthur Lupia; https://global.oup.com/academic/product/uninformed-9780190263720?cc=us&lang=en

This week, host Daniel Raimi talks with Eva Lyubich, a PhD student in the Economics Department at the University of California, Berkeley, and at the Energy Institute at Haas. Lyubich recently released a fascinating working paper on the gap in household energy spending between white and black households. Lyubich and Raimi discuss this new working paper: how big that race gap is, whether it’s changed over time, and what might account for its origin. The long-ranging conversation includes not just energy, but also the history of discriminatory housing policies in the United States. References and recommendations: "The Race Gap in Residential Energy Expenditures" by Eva Lyubich; https://haas.berkeley.edu/wp-content/uploads/WP306.pdf "Drilled" podcast; https://www.criticalfrequency.org/drilled "Merchants of Doubt" by Naomi Oreskes and Erik M. Conway; https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/merchants-of-doubt-9781596916104/ "There’s Something in the Water" by Ingrid Waldron; https://fernwoodpublishing.ca/book/there8217s-something-in-the-water "There’s Something in the Water" documentary; https://www.netflix.com/title/81206890 "The Case for Reparations" by Ta-Nehisi Coates; https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2014/06/the-case-for-reparations/361631/ "What Drives Racial and Ethnic Differences in High Cost Mortgages? The Role of High Risk Lenders" by Patrick Bayer, Fernando Ferreira, and Stephen L. Ross; https://www.nber.org/papers/w22004 "Housing Discrimination and the Toxics Exposure Gap in the United States: Evidence from the Rental Market" by Peter Christensen, Ignacio Sarmiento-Barbieri, and Christopher Timmins; https://www.nber.org/papers/w26805 "A community-based approach to low-income residential energy efficiency participation barriers" by Tony Gerard Reames; https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13549839.2015.1136995 "Targeting energy justice: Exploring spatial, racial/ethnic and socioeconomic disparities in urban residential heating energy efficiency" by Tony Gerard Reames; https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0301421516304098 "Resources Radio" episode: “The Economics of Environmental Justice, with Samuel Stolper and Catherine Hausman”; https://www.resourcesmag.org/resources-radio/economics-environmental-justice-samuel-stolper-and-catherine-hausman/

This week, host Daniel Raimi talks with Varun Sivaram, a visiting senior fellow at Columbia’s Center on Global Energy Policy. Sivaram is an expert on all things energy and recently spent two years working in India on solar energy. Sivaram and Raimi discuss the evolution of India’s power grid, including its rapid expansion of energy access and its historical dependence on coal; the rise of solar, wind, and storage; and the challenges that lie ahead. References and recommendations: "Taming the Sun: Innovations to Harness Solar Energy and Power the Planet" by Varun Sivaram; https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/taming-sun "The Next Phase of India's Renewable Energy Transition" by Varun Sivaram; https://www.aspeninstitute.org/blog-posts/the-next-phase-of-indias-renewable-energy-transition/ "Short-Circuiting Policy" by Leah C. Stokes; https://www.leahstokes.com/book "Columbia Energy Exchange" podcast; https://energypolicy.columbia.edu/podcast/columbia-energy-exchange "Our Daily Planet" newsletter; https://www.ourdailyplanet.com/ "After Coal: Stories of Survival in Appalachia and Wales" by Tom Hansell; https://aftercoal.com/book/

This week, host Daniel Raimi talks with Chris Bataille, associate researcher at the Institute for Sustainable Development and International Relations in Paris. Steel accounts for almost 10 percent of the world's greenhouse gas emissions, and Bataille considers the potential for reducing and perhaps eliminating carbon dioxide emissions from the steelmaking process. Bataille also discusses how the industry currently works, which approaches and technologies can reduce emissions, and how policy can help drive innovation. References and recommendations: "The Entrepreneurial State" by Mariana Mazzucato; https://marianamazzucato.com/entrepreneurial-state/ "Doughnut Economics" by Kate Raworth; https://www.chelseagreen.com/product/doughnut-economics-paperback/ "U.S. renewable energy consumption surpasses coal for the first time in over 130 years" from the US Energy Information Administration’s "Today in Energy;" https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=43895

This is the third episode in an ongoing webinar series, which is providing Resources Radio listeners the chance to listen to a podcast recording live and ask guests their own questions about pressing energy, environment, and economics issues. In this episode, host Kristin Hayes talks with Abel Brodeur about how the coronavirus lockdown orders have affected the transportation sector. Brodeur, an associate professor at the University of Ottawa's Department of Economics, talks about his recent research on the decrease in car collision incidents during the lockdowns, along with his recently coauthored literature review about the economic impacts of the pandemic across a range of other dimensions. References and recommendations: "On the Effects of COVID-19 Safer-At-Home Policies on Social Distancing, Car Crashes and Pollution" by Abel Brodeur, Nikolai Cook, and Taylor Wright; http://ftp.iza.org/dp13255.pdf "A Literature Review of the Economics of COVID-19" by Abel Brodeur, David M. Gray, Anik Islam, and Suraiya Jabeen Bhuiyan; https://ideas.repec.org/p/iza/izadps/dp13411.html "English Passengers" by Matthew Kneale; https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/93872/english-passengers-by-matthew-kneale/