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The Climate Minute examines current news on global warming, climate change, renewable energy and the prospects for progress on international negotiations, carbon taxes and clean energy policy.
Episodes
Tuesday Jul 18, 2017
Twenty five corporate scoundrels: The Climate Minute Podcast
Tuesday Jul 18, 2017
Tuesday Jul 18, 2017
This week we have three main topics: the CDP Worldwide (formerly the Carbon Disclosure Project) report that twenty-five fossil fuel companies are responsible for over half of the carbon pollution in the air since 1988; the actions that utilities are taking against renewable energy; and the 200th anniversary of the birth of Henry David Thoreau.
Friday Jul 14, 2017
The unintentional promotion of despair: The Climate Minute Podcast
Friday Jul 14, 2017
Friday Jul 14, 2017
This week we focus on a story in New York Magazine about the extremes of climate change and the media backlash to the article. Ironically, the story came out the same week as an ice sheet the size of Delaware calved off of Antarctica—a topic for another week!
On July 9, 2017, David Wallace-Wells penned a controversial article, “The Uninhabitable Earth,” for the New York Magazine. “The Uninhabitable Earth,” is a horror story of what terrors climate change will bring to us. The piece sums up Al Gore’s line about “a nature hike through the Book of Revelation.” Wallis-Wells based his article on the direst predictions from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change—the 8C rise in temperatures—presenting the bleakest possible scenario for global warming outcomes. A scan of Wallace-Wells headings provides the flavor of the article—Doomsday: Peering Beyond Scientific Reticence, Heat-Death: the Bahraining of New York, The End of Food: Paying for cornfields in the tundra, Climate Plagues: What happens when the bubonic ice melts?, and Perpetual War: The violence baked into heat. The theme and the tone of the piece suggest that Wallis-Wise believes that human destruction is the direction that we are going. It leaves little room for hope, which sent the cyber-world into a flurry of criticism. Across the board, the critiques of the article say that it is well-written, but inaccurate and works against the cause of climate action. Michael Mann, Professor of Meteorology and one of the scientists behind the hockey stick graph depicting the sharp temperature rise in recent decades, provided the most poignant eviscerations of the article. According to Mann, some specific areas of concern in the article are the exaggeration of the methane feedback loops (melting creates more methane that leads to more melting, which releases more methane and so forth), the misinterpretation of a dataset that was corrected and showed “data showing the globe warming…more than twice as fast as scientists had thought” when, in fact, the dataset had initially shown lower warming and the correction put it in line with all of the other datasets; and the extraordinary claims with little supporting evidence.
An article such as “The Uninhabitable Earth” places into the hand of climate deniers the perfect foil to scientists’ carefully researched and documented writings. It is only a matter of time before Breitbart, The Daily Caller, and similar media forces grab it and say look how alarmist and hysterical these tree-huggers are. We have to keep in mind the asymmetry of the media, particularly how certain sources will cherry-pick the inaccuracies in “The Uninhabitable Earth” to depict an alarmist agenda based on incorrect facts. Wallace-Wells’ article plays directly into that rhetoric due to poorly sourced data, lack of citations, hyperbolic claims, and sloppy research; these mistakes overshadow his discussion of key and actual effects that he presents.
An additional problem with the article is that when you suggest that we are past the point of no return, you spiral the human brain into despair. Fear may be a strong motivator in the immediate term, but it is a lousy long-term motivator. Responding to a threat that is insurmountable, as Wallace-Wells puts forth on climate change, may put people in an intellectual paralysis, believing that there is nothing they can do to stop the train. So they will keep polluting and curtail efforts to curb greenhouse gas emissions. People need to rage, rage against the dying light. The piece doesn’t hammer away at the fact that there are things we can do and technologies we have in our grasp that can keep us far away from this bleak vision of what the future is. This article focuses on the business-as-usual, do nothing scenario. We can still mitigate things and that is important to have in line with the presentation of alarm.
There is an upside to David Wallace-Wells article—it has engendered a flurry of discussion surrounding climate change again, such as we saw when Trump disavowed the United States participation in the Paris Climate Agreement; prior to these two occasions, climate change did not make the regular hot topic of the nightly news list. And perhaps this article will serve as a glass of ice water on the face to wake up folks who aren’t inclined to confront the ultimate grim consequences of climate change. We give Wallace-Wells credit for sparking this conversation and creating some teachable moments.
July 12th marked the fifth anniversary of Bill McKibben’s article, “Global Warming’s Terrifying New Math” featured in Rolling Stone Magazine. That was a piece that inspired the first People’s Climate March in New York. Wallace-Wells article attempted to do something similar. He was trying to say that climate action needs to be number one on the list of issues we care about—what Scott Pruitt is doing to the planet is far more dangerous than what Vladimir Putin is doing. But we can’t help but contrast Wallace-Wells’ messaging approach with Al Gore’s. Have you ever heard Gore present anything that could be construed as despair? Never. Because the moment that you start implying it is a hopeless situation, the bad guys win.
So please read the article but don’t give into the unintentional promotion of despair. Use it as a motivator for what we don’t want to happen to our world and raise your voice. Take Bob Marley’s advice, Get Up, Stand Up, Stand up for your rights…and don’t give up the fight!
Monday Jun 26, 2017
Mariah Tinger on pioneers and heroes: The Climate Minute Podcast
Monday Jun 26, 2017
Monday Jun 26, 2017
This week, we interviewed Mariah Tinger, co-author of the book, Protecting the Planet: Environmental Champions from Conservation to Climate Change, winner of the Green Book Festival’s 2017 Best General Non-Fiction Book Award.
Climate change is often associated with predictions of dire calamities. But in the past, heroic individuals have stepped forward to meet even the most ominous ecological challenges. This book tells an inspirational story--a story both of pioneering environmentalists who raised our collective consciousness regarding nature's value and heroes of today who are working to secure a sustainable future.
In this father and daughter collaboration, Mariah Tinger and Budd Titlow tracked down fifty of the nation’s most interesting climate change experts and wrote Protecting the Planet: Environmental Champions from Conservation to Climate Change to illuminate featured heroes’ lives and work. The heroes’ stories include hate mail, death threats, jail sentences, venomous spider bites and fantastic adventure. They also tell of beautiful moments that inspired their passion, love that keeps them hopeful and the exciting new solutions that are on the horizon. The text is uplifting, inspiring and highlights what the reader can do to join the effort.
Protecting the Planet brings climate change to the public in a digestible and optimistic way, pulling readers in through the connection to people. Part of the book includes a study and presentation of the leadership characteristics of past environmental champions. In today’s podcast, Mariah highlights characteristics of persistence, singleness of purpose, and devotion to nature from some of the books heroes including Harriet Lawrence Hemenway, William Temple Hornaday, John James Audubon, Howard Clinton Zahniser, as well as contemporary heroes such as Bill McKibben and James Balog. We have much to be inspired by from these individuals who maintained hopefulness for environmental issues despite pushback, rejection, and political hurdles.
Tinger and Titlow’s book also includes comprehensive background on climate science and a section devoted to things we can all do as citizens for climate action. We highly recommend their book for your reading enjoyment and as an excellent reference for your home libraries.
Protecting the Planet: Environmental Champions from Conservation to Climate Change (Prometheus Books ISBN: 9781633882263) is available on Amazon in hardcover and eBook versions and can be ordered through all major booksellers as well.
Friday Jun 23, 2017
What kind of nation do you want? The Climate Minute Podcast
Friday Jun 23, 2017
Friday Jun 23, 2017
How should a Climate Hawk deal with the madness of our times? Listen
Monday May 29, 2017
Paris, Bonn, Boston and Washington: The Climate Minute Podcast
Monday May 29, 2017
Monday May 29, 2017
Work on the Paris Accords continues with meetings in Bonn this week. Even though Governor Baker supports the US remaining, the question will be decided by our Tweeter-in-Chief. Will his demons or better angels prevail? Perhaps more importantly, will our leadership here in Massachusetts embrace a carbon price? The answer depends on you.
Tuesday May 02, 2017
Voices from the People’s Climate Mobilization:The Climate Minute Podcast
Tuesday May 02, 2017
Tuesday May 02, 2017
April 29, 2017 was the day of the People’s Climate Mobilization. It was a great day, with 150 to 200,000 people marching in DC and even more around the country. We had the good fortune to chat with people of all kinds, students from Salem State University, activists from California and Utah as well as concerned folks from all over. Listen in to just a few of the thousands of committed citizens in DC last Saturday.
Friday Apr 28, 2017
Friday Apr 28, 2017
The People’s Climate Mobilization is almost here. We can’t wait. Check out the events in both Boston (on the Common) and in Washington DC (on the Mall.) Just remember- we are mobilizing for the long term. Working toward Environmental Justice and rejecting destructive legislation are the kinds of topics we support. And of course, we must vote in November 2018. Listen in!
Monday Apr 17, 2017
Monday Apr 17, 2017
The People’s Climate Mobilization will happen on April 29th in DC and cities across the country. As this big day draws near, it is worthwhile tracing the history of public protests dedicated to climate issues. From the original ‘Step It Up’ in 2007 to the 2014 March in NYC, the people power of climate marches keeps growing. Listen in as we discuss.
Monday Apr 03, 2017
We’ll see you and raise you, Comrade Trump: The Climate Minute Podcast
Monday Apr 03, 2017
Monday Apr 03, 2017
The outrageousness of the misAdminstration’s Climate Executive Order calls for a creative response. Instead of fighting to salvage what was a stopgap plan in the first place, why not demand the kind of profound societal change that matches the scale of the climate problem? What would that look like? What will it take to achieve? Listen in!
Monday Jan 30, 2017
DAPL, the Zeitgeist, and Gandhi: The Climate Minute Podcast
Monday Jan 30, 2017
Monday Jan 30, 2017
Executive Orders were issued recently aimed at reviving both Keystone XL and the Dakota Access Pipeline. Does it still make sense? What does make sense is the eruption of “alt” Twitter accounts for National Parks, the EPA and other agencies.
Read as well Bill McKibben’s latest piece :
The zeitgeist can’t be rewritten by environmentalists alone. Though there’s no technical reason why environmental protection should be a “progressive” idea, it’s clear that in our day and age the Republican party and the conservative movement have chosen to go with the fossil fuel industry. (They’ve been bought, and they’ve stayed bought). That leaves those who care about the climate standing with those who care about the poor, about racial justice, about immigrants, about peace. And at bottom that’s the right fit: a renewably powered world would be far more localized, democratic, and fair. It’s the opposite of planet Koch in every way.
Finally, what can Mahatma (The Great Soul) Gandhi teach us about how to resist the authoritarian police state we appear headed for? Listen in.
Because we recognize the necessity of personal accountability for our actions, because we accept responsibility for building a durable future and because we believe it is our patriotic duty as citizens to speak out, we must insist that the United States put a price on carbon.
Thanks for listening.
…Ted McIntyre