How to Save a Planet

Food waste accounts for 6% of global greenhouse gas emissions. But it turns out composting — the mystical art of turning your food scraps into nutritious organic material that can be used to grow even more food — can help to reduce those emissions. We talk to Domingo Morales of Compost Power about how he found composting, how he’s trying to make it cool, and why he’s building compost sites at public housing developments all over New York City.This episode contains a description of suicide, so please take care while listening. And if you or someone you love is having thoughts of suicide, you can call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1- 800-273-TALK.Guest: Domingo Morales Calls to Action If you have food scraps…compost them! Domingo recommends finding your local food scrap drop off to start – just separate your waste, freeze it so it doesn’t smell, and bring it to a drop off bin If you want to learn how to compost at home, check out: the Compost Power Instagram, the EPA, and SodGod for your classic aerobic compost pile, and Loop Closing to learn about worm bins  And if you’re already composting, share it with the people around you Listen to Domingo’s compost rap!Check out our Calls to Action archive for all of the actions we've recommended on the show. Send us your ideas or feedback with our Listener Mail Form. Sign up for our newsletter here. And follow us on Twitter and Instagram.This episode of How to Save a Planet was produced by Anna Ladd. The rest of our reporting and producing team includes Kendra Pierre-Louis, Rachel Waldholz, Daniel Ackerman, and Hannah Chinn. Our supervising producer is Katelyn Bogucki. Our editor is Caitlin Kenney. Our intern is Nicole Welch. Sound design and mixing by Peter Leonard with original music from Peter Leonard and Emma Munger. Our fact checker for this episode was Claudia Geib.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You’ve probably heard of coral bleaching; if you live near a coral reef, maybe you’ve even seen the impacts of climate change on that reef up close. But what — if anything — can we do to keep coral alive? This week, we talk to Julia Baum, a marine ecologist who’s made the unlikely journey from climate despair to climate optimism… and ask her what finally changed her mind about the future of coral reefs.Also: we're planning a special Earth Day episode, and we'd love to hear about the actions YOU'VE taken in response to climate change. Did you plant a tree? Call your representative? Investigate the refrigerants used at a grocery store near you? We want to hear about it! Fill out this form and send us a voice memo about what you did... you might hear your own voice featured on the show!Guests: Dr. Julia Baum, Dr. Dave Vaughan Dr. Dave Vaughan’s book, Active Coral Restoration: Techniques for a Changing Planet Dr. Julia Baum’s study about how she saw corals survive the massive marine heat wave on Christmas How to Save a Planet is a Spotify original podcast and Gimlet production hosted by Alex Blumberg. This episode was produced and co-hosted by Hannah Chinn. The rest of our reporting and producing team includes Kendra Pierre-Louis, Rachel Waldholz, Anna Ladd, and Daniel Ackerman. Our supervising producer is Katelyn Bogucki. Our editor is Caitlin Kenney. Our intern is Nicole Welch. Sound design and mixing by Peter Leonard, with original music by Peter Leonard, Emma Munger, Catherine Anderson, Bobby Lord, and Marcus Bagala.Our fact checker for this episode is James Gaines. Special thanks to Kelson Poepoe and Julia’s team at the University of Victoria. And of course, thanks to all of you for listening. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Whether you consider yourself a fashion maven or not one thing is true: you wear clothes. It's a basic rule of most societies. But in recent years, it's become clear that the clothes that keep us warm in winter and protect us from the sun in summer are also harming the planet. According to the EPA in the United States we threw out close to 13 million tons of clothing in 2018 alone. One factor? Clothes have gotten really cheap. And that's partly because these days much of it is made from fossil fuels. We take a deep look at our clothes, their climate impact, how they got so much oil in them and what we can do about it. Calls to Action Try the Fashion Detox, it's a 10 week break from buying clothes with deep reflection.  Learn How to Buy Clothes that are Built to Last Check out the Guppy Friend washing bag Learn more about Extended Producer Responsibility regulations. You can see what is happening in the UK here, and about the concept more broadly here.  You can check out FabScrap to learn more about what they're doing around textile waste. Check out our Calls to Action archive for all of the actions we've recommended on the show. If you take an action we recommend in one of our episodes, do us a favor and tell us about it! We’d love to hear how it went and what it felt like. Record a short voice memo on your phone and send it to us via our Listener Mail Form. We might use it in an upcoming episode. Find all the actions we’ve recommended on our show here!Sign up for our newsletter here. And follow us on Twitter and Instagram.Episode GuestsCora Harrington (Instagram: @thelingerieaddict Twitter: @lingerie_addict), Mike Kaback, Jessica Schreiber (Instagram @fab_scrap Twitter: @fab_Scrap)CreditsHow to Save a Planet is a Spotify original podcast and Gimlet production. It's hosted by me, Alex Blumberg. This episode was produced by Kendra Pierre-Louis. The rest of our reporting and producing team includes Rachel Waldholz, Anna Ladd, Hannah Chinn, and Daniel Ackerman. Our supervising producer is Katelyn Bogucki. Our editor is Caitlin Kenney. Our intern is Nicole Welch. Sound design and mixing by Peter Leonard with original music by Peter Leonard, Emma Munger, Bobby Lord and Billi Libby. Our fact checker for this episode is Claudia Geib. Special thanks to Jesse Feitel. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

When we think about what’s heating up the planet, we may picture CO2 from smokestacks and tailpipes. But there are other greenhouse gases that are even more dangerous. And some of these are hiding in garages and sheds all over the country. We’re talking about refrigerants. They’re the secret sauce behind how refrigerators and air conditioners keep things cool. But they’re heating up the planet. This week, in collaboration with NPR’s Planet Money, we take a ride with a couple of guys who tackle these climate threats with a pair of extremely high-tech tools: a van, and some cold hard cash. Then, we talk about the climate solution you could be interacting with every time you buy ice cream. This episode originally aired on October 22, 2020.Also, sign up for our newsletter if you haven’t already! Calls to action Find out what refrigerant your local grocer uses at climatefriendlysupermarkets.org. Check out how the big supermarket chains are doing on HFCs using the Supermarket Scorecard. As for your own household fridge, if you're in the market or know someone who is, choose an HFC-free model. Learn more about how to properly dispose of your fridge, freezer, air conditioners, and other such appliances at the end of their useful lives. Of course, you can always call Tim and Gabe to help with disposal too! Check out their work at Tradewater and Refrigerant Finders. Sign Green America’s Cool It! Campaign petition. While you’re there, find a climate friendly supermarket near you and thank them! If you’re a business owner, submit a letter to the Trump Administration asking them to ratify the Kigali Amendment, the international treaty that sets the phase down schedule for HFCs globally. You would be joining many states, major industry refrigerant suppliers, and elected officials from both sides of the aisle. The AIM Act is a bipartisan bill, supported by both the House and the Senate, that effectively would enforce the same HFC phase down schedule as the Kigali Amendment without needing to ratify it – it would cut HFC use by 85% by 2035! However, it’s likely to be vetoed by the current President. So….vote, specifically, #VoteClimate. And when it comes to local candidates those really matter too for things like public transit and composting and bike lines, so please do a little digging of your own on local candidates. Finally, if you do end up taking one of these actions — do us a favor and tell us about it! We’d love to hear about what you did and what it felt like. So if you do something, record a short voice memo on your phone and send it to us at howtosaveaplanet@spotify.com. We might use it in an upcoming episode. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Back in 2003, Dar-Lon Chang took a job as an engineer at ExxonMobil — a job he thought would be focused on transitioning beyond fossil fuels. But over a 16-year career, he found it harder and harder to reconcile the threat of climate change with Exxon’s role as an oil and gas producer. We talk to Dar-Lon about what it was like to work inside the oil giant, what finally compelled him to leave, and what his story means for millions of oil and gas workers as the transition to a low-carbon economy picks up steam.Guests: Dar-Lon ChangCalls to Action Check out the Blue Green Alliance and the Just Transition Fund for ways to support a Just Transition in the US Read Dar-Lon’s profile in Inside Climate News Check out our Calls to Action archive for all of the actions we've recommended on the show. Send us your ideas or feedback with our Listener Mail Form. Sign up for our newsletter here. And follow us on Twitter and Instagram.This episode of How to Save a Planet was produced by Anna Ladd. The rest of our reporting and producing team includes Kendra Pierre-Louis, Rachel Waldholz, Hannah Chinn, and Daniel Ackerman. Our supervising producer is Katelyn Bogucki. Our editor is Caitlin Kenney. Our intern is Nicole Welch. Sound design and mixing by Peter Leonard and Lonnie Ro with original music from Peter Leonard and Emma Munger. Our fact checker for this episode was Claudia Geib.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Today, we’re sharing an episode from another Gimlet Media podcast, Science Vs. This episode fact-checks some claims made in a recent episode of the Joe Rogan Experience, featuring Dr. Robert Malone. As you may know, this episode has caused an uproar: Many scientists have called out the show for spreading false information about the Covid-19 vaccines and some 270 scientists and medical professionals called on Spotify (our employer!) to adopt better policies to mitigate misinformation. Our colleagues at Science Vs jumped in to, in their words, “fact check the bejesus out of it.”This issue is close to home for us at How to Save a Planet because, as a podcast about climate change, we’re acutely aware of the impact of false information and misinformation in muddying the waters and confusing the public – for instance, about climate science.So we’re proud to share this episode from our colleagues, which not only digs into some of the claims made in the Malone interview, but also zooms out to talk about the bigger picture: how misinformation works, and what to watch for if you’re worried about getting sucked in by false information online. It’s also just a great, informative, fun listen. We hope you enjoy it, and we’ll be back next week with a new episode of How to Save a Planet. You can check out more episodes of Science Vs. for free on Spotify. You can also find the full transcript of this show, including footnotes listing all the studies cited in the episode, here.UPDATE 2/11/22: When Science Vs first published this episode, they said that in more than 60 papers they'd gone through, they'd found only one reported case of someone dying from myocarditis after a Covid-19 vaccine. Some listeners questioned this, and they re-checked their work and found several more deaths. The episode has been updated — and thanks to the listeners who picked this up. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

How do you get people to care about climate change? Simple: Make a blockbuster movie about it, packed full of the biggest stars in Hollywood. At least, that was Adam McKay’s approach. The writer and director of ‘Don’t Look Up’ joins the show this week to discuss the film, which parodies society’s tepid response to impending disaster. ‘Don’t Look Up’ shattered Netflix viewership records, earning more than 152 million hours streamed in its first week. In making the film, McKay channeled his climate anxiety into action. We ask McKay about his own climate change journey, how he sold Hollywood on his message, and how the rest of us non-movie stars can still make a difference. Also: What’s the deal with the General charging for free snacks??Guest: Adam McKayCalls to Action: Show us your Climate Venn Diagrams! And just for fun, a list of all the movies we mention in the episode: Don’t Look Up The Day After Tomorrow Waterworld Snowpiercer The Tomorrow War Solarbabies The Ice Storm Breaking the Waves Hoosiers The Mighty Ducks Check out our Calls to Action archive for all of the actions we've recommended on the show. Send us your ideas or feedback with our Listener Mail Form. Sign up for our newsletter here. And follow us on Twitter and Instagram.This episode of How to Save a Planet was produced by Rachel Waldholz and Daniel Ackerman. The rest of our reporting and producing team includes Kendra Pierre-Louis, Anna Ladd, and Hannah Chinn. Our supervising producer is Katelyn Bogucki. Our editor is Caitlin Kenney. Our intern is Nicole Welch. Sound design and mixing by Peter Leonard Lonnie Ro with original music from Emma Munger. Our fact checker for this episode was James Gaines. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Dr. Pet, a climate detective, discusses linking climate change to extreme weather events like Hurricane Harvey. Scientists reveal challenges in connecting current weather to climate change, emphasizing the need for discussions. Dr. Freddie Otto's team accelerates climate impact analysis using innovative methods. The podcast explores linking extreme weather events to climate change to prepare for future occurrences and holds utility companies accountable for their emissions.

Today we’re sharing an episode from TED Radio Hour on NPR, which explores the biggest questions of our time with the help of the world's greatest thinkers. The host Manoush Zomorodi speaks with four ocean experts, including our former co-host Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson, about how to grocery shop for seafood sustainably, how much the ocean has changed over the last century, and how beautiful whale poop is.  You can check out more episodes of TED Radio Hour on Spotify, or wherever you listen. This episode was produced by Katie Monteleone, Fiona Geiran, Matthew Cloutier and Christina Cala. It was edited by Sanaz Meshkinpour. Our production staff at NPR also includes Jeff Rogers, Rachel Faulkner, Diba Mohtasham, James Delahoussaye, J.C. Howard and Janet Woojeong Lee. Our audio engineer is Daniel Shuhkin. Our intern is Harrison Vijay Tsui. Our theme music was written by Ramtin Arablouei. Our partners at TED are Chris Anderson, Colin Helms, Anna Phelan, Michelle Quint and Micah Eames.Check out our Calls to Action archive for all of the actions we've recommended on the show. Send us your ideas or feedback with our Listener Mail Form. Sign up for our newsletter here. And follow us on Twitter and Instagram. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Martin Watters from ClientEarth discusses how oil companies use deceptive ads to greenwash their image and hinder climate action. The podcast explores the impact of these ads on public perception and efforts to hold ad creators accountable through campaigns like Clean Creatives. It also covers ways for ad professionals and companies to take action against greenwashing.