How to Save a Planet

It's one of the most important Supreme Court cases you may never have heard of: Massachusetts v. Environmental Protection Agency. The ruling held that the U.S. government could regulate greenhouse gases. Today we’re sharing the wild backstory of this critical Supreme Court case, from a podcast we love,“Outside/In,” from New Hampshire Public Radio. If you don’t believe a legal case in all its intimate details can be riveting, take a listen.And be sure to check out all the other great episodes from Outside/In.We'll be back next week with a new episode of How to Save a Planet. In the meantime, check out our Calls to Action archive here 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.How to Save a Planet is reported and produced by Kendra Pierre-Louis, Rachel Waldholz and Anna Ladd. Our intern is Ayo Oti. Our senior producer is Lauren Silverman. Our editor is Caitlin Kenney. Sound design and mixing by Peter Leonard with original music from Emma Munger. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A quarter of global greenhouse gas emissions come from agriculture and land use – and a big portion of those emissions come from producing meat. Adopting a plant-based diet is one of the biggest steps an individual can take to reduce their own carbon footprint. So, should we all stop eating meat? Or is it more complicated than that? This week, we take a tour through the bodily functions of cows, millions of acres of corn, and the hidden policy that shapes the American food system to answer that question once and for all.Guests: Marco Springmann, Tom Philpott and Matthew HayekCalls to Action Sign up to track the latest U.S. Food & Agriculture bills, and contact Agriculture Committee members (House and Senate) about supporting a climate-friendly Farm Bill. Contact the places you eat regularly about providing beef-less options – maybe it’s the cafeteria at work or school, or a community gathering space. Meatless Monday has resources for institutions that want to provide more climate-friendly meals. Get involved with a local organization fighting food insecurity, a mutual aid group, a community garden, or a co-op. We also talk about mutual aid in our Unnatural Disasters episode! Learn More Read the World Resources Institute’s report on Creating a Sustainable Food Future. Read this study about regenerative methods in beef production. Read this study about red seaweed reducing methane in beef production. Check out this data visualization on land use in the U.S. Listen to the Science Vs. episode on vegan diets. Check out our Calls to Action archive here 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 and Felix Poon. Our intern is Ayo Oti. Our senior producer is Lauren Silverman. Our editor is Caitlin Kenney. Sound design and mixing by Peter Leonard with original music from Emma Munger.Update 4/13/21An earlier version of this episode incorrectly said that the regenerative practices described by researcher Paige Stanley require more than twice as much land as we already use for grazing. While it is true that this regenerative grazing method requires more land to produce the same amount of beef that is conventionally grazed and later fed at a feedlot, there is a trade off – regenerative grazing would result in more healthy soil that sequesters carbon, and less cropland growing corn that releases it. The episode has been updated. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Environmental experts and authors Katharine Wilkinson and Anthony Leiserowitz, along with sustainability advocate Steve Westlake, debate the impact of individual actions on climate change. They discuss the importance of systemic changes over personal choices and explore practical environmental solutions like wind energy conversion. The podcast emphasizes empowering individual actions aligned with values to inspire collective change.

If you put a plastic bag in a bin outside your grocery store - will it really end up being recycled? Are some utilities trying to sabotage the solar industry? We've got answers to these questions and more incredible info about kelp (we are glad you love it as much as we do!) If you have a burning climate-themed question, send us a voice memo to our Listener Mail Form!Guests: Tatiana HomonoffCalls to Action Find a drop off location for the plastic bags collecting under your sink by visiting PlasticFilmRecycling.org (and where possible, refuse new plastic bags and bring your own) Look up if your city or state has a plastic bag ban or tax legislation in the works through PlasticBagLaws.org and share your thoughts with your representative(s) Register for the The Climate Reality Project free virtual training centering ecojustice in climate leadership to engage with climate change on a broader level Learn More Listen to our original episode about recycling on Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts Listen to 99% Invisible’s episode on China’s National Sword policy to learn more about the plastic recycling market Home or business owner? The Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy has a Homeowners guide to going solar, as well as a calculator that can help you estimate the costs of going solar North Carolina State University's Database of State Incentives for Renewables & Efficiency can help you figure out what solar incentives and tax credits are available where you live If you want to learn more on the policy side, the National Conference of State Legislators has a Solar Policy Toolkit that covers fees (and incentives), net metering (it's under rates), and financing among other topics   Check out our Calls to Action archive here for all of the actions we've recommended on the show. Sign up for our newsletter here. And follow us on Twitter and Instagram. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Presenting: A Matter of DegreesWhat happens if your electric utility starts doing things you don’t agree with? What if they start attacking solar and proposing to build more and more fossil gas plants? What if they actively resist clean energy progress? Today we’re sharing an episode of a podcast we love, called “A Matter of Degrees.” Co-hosts Dr. Leah Stokes and Dr. Katharine Wilkinson detail how Arizona Public Service became the Darth Vader of electric utilities — and how public pressure forced APS to come clean.Calls to Action Get involved with your local public utility commission: Figure out what the heck they're doing and how you can support more climate friendly policies.We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again! get involved with your local public utility commission, figure out what the heck they're doing and how you can support more climate friendly policies.Please check out other episodes from A Matter of Degrees: Co-hosts Dr. Katharine Wilkinson and Dr. Leah Stokes have done a bunch of interesting and compelling reporting. You can find their show on Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts. Check out our Calls to Action archive here 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

So, what do you do with 579 pounds of seaweed? In our last episode, we ventured into the ocean to learn how seaweed farming can help solve climate change. In part II, we ask: What do we do with all that kelp? Plus our team does some seaweed R&D of its own and discovers...green scones?Calls to action Check out the New York State Assembly Bill A4213 on seaweed cultivation and for residents of New York, check out the petition. Encourage innovation with kelp: Whether you work in fertilizers, plastics, cosmetics, or any industry, you can encourage your company to do R&D with kelp. Maybe it could serve as a substitute for less climate-friendly ingredients and materials. And if you need a middleman to source from, check out The Crop Project, founded by Casey Emmett whom we interviewed this episode. Consider kelp products: If you are interested in making any kelp flour recipes, do a search for online retailers and don’t forget to share what you make! Send photos, video or audio to howtosaveaplanet@spotify.com Learn more Read Dune Lankard’s amazing piece in the GreenWave newsletter, A Native Perspective on Regenerative Ocean Farming. Also check out Dune’s organization, Native Conservancy. Emily Stengel, Bren Smith’s co-founder and co-executive director of GreenWave, also wrote about regenerative ocean farming in Ayana’s anthology All We Can Save. Go have a read (or listen)! Watch “The Future of Seafood,” a discussion that Ayana moderated with Bren Smith and Sean Barrett of Dock to Dish. Check out our Calls to Action archive here 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.Special thanks to our guests: Bren Smith and Casey EmmettThis episode of How to Save a Planet was produced by our senior producer Lauren Silverman. The rest of our reporting and producing team includes Kendra Pierre-Louis, Rachel Waldholz and Anna Ladd. Our intern is Ayo Oti. Our editor is Caitlin Kenney. Sound design and mixing by Peter Leonard with original music from Emma Munger. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Seaweed and giant kelp are sometimes called “the sequoias of the sea.” Yet at a time when so many people are talking about climate solutions and reforestation — there aren’t nearly enough people talking about how the ocean can be part of that. In part one of our two-part series, we go out on the water to see how seaweed can play a role in addressing climate change, and how a fisherman named Bren Smith became kelp’s unlikely evangelist.Guests: Bren Smith and Casey EmmettCalls to action: Check out Bren Smith's book called “Eat Like a Fish”Check out Bren’s nonprofit GreenWave: A simple and direct way to help is to support GreenWave’s work, whose team is building 10 reefs and sponsoring 500 farms in the next five years.Start your own hatchery, farm, or underwater garden: Check out the University of Connecticut and Ocean Approved manuals and GreenWave’s Regenerative Ocean Farming toolkit. Study ocean agriculture through the Algae Technology Education Consortium (ATEC) at the community college level or through Coursera courses Intro to Algae and Algae Biotechnology.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.Check out our Calls to Action archive here for all of the actions we've recommended on the show. Sign up for our newsletter here. And follow us on Twitter and Instagram.This episode of How to Save a Planet was produced by our senior producer Lauren Silverman. The rest of our reporting and producing team includes Kendra Pierre-Louis, Rachel Waldholz and Anna Ladd. Our intern is Ayo Oti. Our editor is Caitlin Kenney. Sound design and mixing by Peter Leonard with original music from Emma Munger. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Dr. Leah Stokes discusses achieving 100% clean electricity by 2035. Topics include clean electricity standards, zero-carbon grid, decarbonizing electricity, challenges of transitioning to renewables, land footprint of solar energy, and moonshot solutions for a carbon-neutral grid.

The Yurok tribe is reversing centuries of ecological damage to their land and making it more resilient to climate change by marrying two systems that might seem contradictory: indigenous land management practices and modern Western economics.In this episode we talk to Yurok Tribe Vice-Chairman Frankie Myers about how the Tribe recovered stolen land with the help of a carbon offset program, the creative ways they're bringing the salmon back, and the role beavers play in the ecosystem.Guests: Frankie MyersCalls to Action Check out Save California Salmon and their advocacy work for Northern California’s salmon and fish dependent people. Check out the Klamath River Renewal Corporation to learn more about the dam removals and restoration efforts on the Klamath River. Look up your address on native-land.ca to find out what land you live on, and learn more about how and why you can use land acknowledgements to insert an awareness of Indigenous presence and land rights into everyday life. If you own land you can donate, contact a local tribe to find out how you can donate land to them. Check out and support the work of Indigenous organizations like the NDN Collective and their #landback campaign, the Native American Land Conservancy, Indigenous Environmental Network, and Indigenous Climate Action. Study the history of Indigenous people – read Custer Died for Your Sins, The Indian Reorganization Act, and other books by Vine Deloria, Jr., and read A Brief History of American Indian Military Service. 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.Check out our Calls to Action archive here for all of the actions we've recommended on the show. Sign up for our newsletter here. And follow us on Twitter and Instagram.This episode of How to Save a Planet was produced by Felix Poon. The rest of our reporting and producing team includes Kendra Pierre-Louis, Rachel Waldholz and Anna Ladd. Our senior producer is Lauren Silverman. Our editor is Caitlin Kenney. Sound design and mixing by Peter Leonard with original music from Emma Munger. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

When loggers with chainsaws headed into the Willamette National Forest on Easter Sunday in 1989, they found a line of protesters blocking their way. Some buried themselves in front of bulldozers. Others spent months sitting in trees, among the world’s tallest. The ensuing battle would help catapult old-growth forests into a national issue, and become known as the “Easter Massacre.” Today, we’re sharing an episode of the podcast Timber Wars, which tells the story of how this fight over old-growth trees erupted into a national conflict that influenced environmental policy. You can find Timber Wars, from Oregon Public Broadcasting, wherever you get your podcasts, or at opb.org/timberwars.Want even more? Don’t forget to subscribe to our newsletter!  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices