The Climate Pod

Extreme weather events have devastated communities across the globe in 2021. Wildfires, floods, and heatwaves have been made worse by human-caused climate change, just as climate scientists have warned us about for decades. This week, we talk to Dr. Andrew Dessler, one of those climate scientists who has been heeding those warnings and communicating the science and policy needed to address the climate crisis. He discusses both the extreme weather he and many others have predicted for decades and things he's seen in 2021 that he didn't expect. Dr. Dessler is the Reta A. Haynes Chair in Geosciences at Texas A&M University. He worked as the Senior Policy Analyst in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy under President Bill Clinton. He’s written books about both the science and the politics behind global warming. Subscribe to our Substack newsletter "The Climate Weekly": https://theclimateweekly.substack.com/ As always, follow us @climatepod on Twitter and email us at theclimatepod@gmail.com. Our music is "Gotta Get Up" by The Passion Hifi, check out his music at thepassionhifi.com. Rate, review and subscribe to this podcast on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, and more! Subscribe to our new YouTube channel! Join our Facebook group. Check out our updated website! Further Reading/Listening: Volts podcast: Rep. Sean Casten on Hot FERC Summer  

Washington Governor Jay Inslee made a big splash on the national stage centering his 2020 Democratic Presidential campaign on the climate crisis. Now, after his home state of Washington and much of the Pacific Northwest was devastated by a heatwave that was the deadliest weather-related disaster that area has ever experienced, he is continuing his decades-long advocacy for faster, more ambitious climate action. Governor Inslee joined us this week to talk about how he thinks about protecting his state from climate-related disasters. He also gave insights into how under his leadership Washington mounted one of the most successful efforts against COVID-19 in America. And finally, we talk about how Governor Inslee and his team have created the blueprints other local, state, and federal leaders (including President Biden) can use to successfully address the climate crisis and center environmental justice. Subscribe to our Substack newsletter "The Climate Weekly": https://theclimateweekly.substack.com/ As always, follow us @climatepod on Twitter and email us at theclimatepod@gmail.com. Our music is "Gotta Get Up" by The Passion Hifi, check out his music at thepassionhifi.com. Rate, review and subscribe to this podcast on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, and more! Subscribe to our new YouTube channel! Join our Facebook group. Check out our updated website!  

David Wallace-Wells is no stranger to contemplating the most disruptive and devastating outcomes of the climate crisis. His pivotal 2019 book, The Uninhabitable Earth, and 2017 article of the same name detailed some of the worst disasters that awaited humanity if action on climate was further delayed. Still, in 2021, even he's surprised by what he's seeing unfold. Record floods, out of control wildfires, and sweltering heatwaves are all placing constant pressure on nations and delivering tragic outcomes around the globe. "We are already not prepared for the warming we have today," Wallace-Wells told us.  In this wide-ranging conversation, Wallace-Wells talks about his new piece "How To Live In A Climate 'Permanent Emergency,'" how this year's unprecedented climate catastrophes should shape adaptation measures immediately, how his thinking has changed since the publishing of The Uninhabitable Earth, what he thought about the recent leaked IPCC report, and what he hopes global leaders will do to address climate change at the upcoming COP26 and beyond. Subscribe to our Substack newsletter "The Climate Weekly": https://theclimateweekly.substack.com/ As always, follow us @climatepod on Twitter and email us at theclimatepod@gmail.com. Our music is "Gotta Get Up" by The Passion Hifi, check out his music at thepassionhifi.com. Rate, review and subscribe to this podcast on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, and more! Subscribe to our new YouTube channel! Join our Facebook group. Check out our updated website!   Further Reading/Listening Dr. Thomas Lovejoy on Avoiding Catastrophic Biodiversity Loss in the Amazon Parts of the Amazon Go From Absorbing Carbon Dioxide to Emitting It The DeSmog Team on the COVID-19 and Climate Denial Connection

This is Part 2 of our two-part series covering the 1970s oil crises in America. You can listen to Part 1 with Jay Hakes here. Professor Meg Jacobs joins the show to discuss her fantastic book Panic At The Pump: The Energy Crisis and the Transformation of American Politics in the 1970s. We discuss the rise of young Conservatives in the 70s and how the decade empowered them to influence policy for a half century, what Americans were doing when panic set in, and how the experience impacted long-term trust of government in the United States. The 70s were pretty weird!  Meg Jacobs is a professor of history and public affairs at Princeton University. She is also the author of Pocketbook Politics: Economic Citizenship in Twentieth-Century America, which won the Organization of American Historians’ Ellis W. Hawley Prize and the New England Historical Association’s James P. Hanlan Book Award. She is also the coauthor of Conservatives in Power: The Reagan Years, 1981–1989. Buy Panic At The Pump: The Energy Crisis and the Transformation of American Politics in the 1970s  Subscribe to our Substack newsletter "The Climate Weekly": https://theclimateweekly.substack.com/ As always, follow us @climatepod on Twitter and email us at theclimatepod@gmail.com. Our music is "Gotta Get Up" by The Passion Hifi, check out his music at thepassionhifi.com. Rate, review and subscribe to this podcast on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, and more! Subscribe to our new YouTube channel! Join our Facebook group. Check out our updated website!

This is Part 1 of our two-part series covering the 1970s oil crises in America. The conversations in this series help us understand how the oil crises in the 1970s reshaped American politics and our ability to combat the climate crisis for the next 50 years. Jay Hakes joins the show to discuss his book Energy Crises: Nixon, Ford, Carter, and Hard Choices in the 1970s. Jay was the Administrator of the US Energy Information Administration under President Bill Clinton and the Director for Research and Policy for President Obama’s BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill Commission. Jay also served 13 years as the Director of Jimmy Carter’s Presidential Library. Be sure to check out "Energy Crises" Subscribe to our Substack newsletter "The Climate Weekly": https://theclimateweekly.substack.com/ As always, follow us @climatepod on Twitter and email us at theclimatepod@gmail.com. Our music is "Gotta Get Up" by The Passion Hifi, check out his music at thepassionhifi.com. Rate, review and subscribe to this podcast on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, and more! Subscribe to our new YouTube channel! Join our Facebook group. Check out our updated website!

This episode kicks off The Climate Pod's "Road To COP26", our months-long series of conversations with world leaders about the importance of the United Nations' COP26 in Glasgow, Scotland, and what must be accomplished in order to successfully combat the climate crisis happening around the globe. The United Kingdom's Shadow Secretary of State for Justice David Lammy joins our show to explain why international leaders at COP26 must include the voices of the Global South in all conversations about climate solutions and why racial justice must be addressed every step of the way toward a more sustainable planet. David Lammy has served in the UK Parliament for more than 20 years and is also the co-founder of The Sophia Point Rainforest Research Centre in Guyana. And be sure to check out David's book, "Tribes: How Our Need to Belong Can Make Or Break the Good Society" Subscribe to our Substack newsletter "The Climate Weekly": https://theclimateweekly.substack.com/ As always, follow us @climatepod on Twitter and email us at theclimatepod@gmail.com. Our music is "Gotta Get Up" by The Passion Hifi, check out his music at thepassionhifi.com. Rate, review and subscribe to this podcast on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, and more! Subscribe to our new YouTube channel! Join our Facebook group. Check out our updated website!

With a bipartisan agreement reportedly in place on a smaller Senate infrastructure package, President Biden has signaled he will not sign the bill without additional legislation to address climate change. Sen. Tina Smith (D-MN) joins to talk about why the clean electricity standard is essential to good climate policy and action on the crisis, how it can pass through the Senate's reconciliation process, and how the standard actually works.  Then, Allison Fisher, director of the climate and energy program at Media Matters, joins the show to talk about their new study on Special Report with Bret Baier and how Fox News' flagship news hour is using its platform to spread climate misinformation and doubt.  Subscribe to our Substack newsletter "The Climate Weekly": https://theclimateweekly.substack.com/ As always, follow us @climatepod on Twitter and email us at theclimatepod@gmail.com. Our music is "Gotta Get Up" by The Passion Hifi, check out his music at thepassionhifi.com. Rate, review and subscribe to this podcast on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, and more! Subscribe to our new YouTube channel! Join our Facebook group. Check out our updated website! Further Reading: 6 crucial climate actions the Senate left out of its infrastructure deal Biden Administration Backs Oil Sands Pipeline Project  

Malcolm Turnbull, the 29th Prime Minister of Australia, joins the show this week to discuss the growing threat of misinformation to liberal democracy, the role Rupert Murdoch and News Corp are playing to exacerbate the problem, the obstacles to international cooperation on reducing emissions, the responsibility and needed role of the United States and Australia on the global stage, and his hopes for what can be accomplished in 2021 to tackle climate change.  Co-hosts Ty Benefiel and Brock Benefiel also reflect on The Climate Pod's 2-year anniversary. Buy Malcolm Turnbull's memoir A Bigger Picture Subscribe to our Substack newsletter "The Climate Weekly": https://theclimateweekly.substack.com/ As always, follow us @climatepod on Twitter and email us at theclimatepod@gmail.com. Our music is "Gotta Get Up" by The Passion Hifi, check out his music at thepassionhifi.com. Rate, review and subscribe to this podcast on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, and more! Subscribe to our new YouTube channel! Join our Facebook group. Check out our updated website!

Dallas Goldtooth and Jane Kleeb have been fighting pipelines for years. Like so many others, opposing the Keystone XL pipeline has been a remarkable experience in their political and personal lives and part of an ongoing fight to bring about greater racial, economic, and environmental justice. As news last week confirmed TC Energy was finished with the Keystone XL pipeline and water protectors in Minnesota brought more attention to the construction of the Line 3 pipeline, Goldtooth and Kleeb joined the show to discuss how to continue to fight against pipelines, what President Biden needs to do now, and what's at stake as organizers keep up the pressure.  Dallas Goldtooth is a Keep It In The Ground Campaign Organizer for the Indigenous Environmental Network. Jane Kleeb is the author of Harvest the Vote, Chair of the Nebraska Democratic Party, and President of Bold Nebraska. Also, check out Pipeline Fighters and Stop Trump Pipelines. Subscribe to our Substack newsletter "The Climate Weekly": https://theclimateweekly.substack.com/ As always, follow us @climatepod on Twitter and email us at theclimatepod@gmail.com. Our music is "Gotta Get Up" by The Passion Hifi, check out his music at thepassionhifi.com. Rate, review and subscribe to this podcast on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, and more! Subscribe to our new YouTube channel! Join our Facebook group. Check out our updated website!

This week, Tim Jackson joins the podcast to discuss his new book, Post Growth: Life after Capitalism. He discusses how we reshape our economy to be in better balance with our natural world, prioritize our well-being, and truly value the aspects of our society that create real prosperity - and how we got so far off-track. Tim Jackson is the Director of the Centre for the Understanding of Sustainable Prosperity and Professor of Sustainable Development at the University of Surrey in the UK. His previous book, Prosperity without Growth, was a Financial Times book of the year and UnHerd’s book of the decade!  Subscribe to our Substack newsletter "The Climate Weekly": https://theclimateweekly.substack.com/ As always, follow us @climatepod on Twitter and email us at theclimatepod@gmail.com. Our music is "Gotta Get Up" by The Passion Hifi, check out his music at thepassionhifi.com. Rate, review and subscribe to this podcast on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, and more! Subscribe to our new YouTube channel! Join our Facebook group. Check out our updated website! Learn more about the Centre for the Understanding of Sustainable Prosperity