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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
Wednesday Mar 16, 2022
Voices from the ’Fasting for a Future’ hunger strike
Wednesday Mar 16, 2022
Wednesday Mar 16, 2022
On March 15, six activists began a hunger strike to protest the construction of the Peabody peaker plant. The six have protested, rallied, marched, lobbied, or even gotten arrested, without halting the juggernaut of business as usual. So they are taking this more extreme step. Listen in as we hear the stories of the motivation, intention and hopes of these courageous citizens.
Sunday Mar 13, 2022
Got a cell phone? Then get a virtual home energy assessment
Sunday Mar 13, 2022
Sunday Mar 13, 2022
In this modern age of on-line meetings, you can even get a MassSave home energy assessment using your phone. The assessment will begin the journey to energy and cost savings. Listen in as we talk to an expert on just how virtual home energy assessments work. Welcome to the future!
Sunday Mar 06, 2022
Acting on climate in New Hampshire
Sunday Mar 06, 2022
Sunday Mar 06, 2022
The Granite State is on its own path to addressing the climate crisis. We talk to an expert about what is going on.
Sunday Feb 27, 2022
Building for Net Zero: The Climate Minute
Sunday Feb 27, 2022
Sunday Feb 27, 2022
Buildings like your home emit significant greenhouse gases. Better building codes could make new homes green, with #netzero carbon emissions. The new state roadmap for 2030 and 2050 calls for aggressive building codes, but MA DOER recently proposed revisions that fall short of mark
Wednesday Feb 23, 2022
Down the MOPR rabbit hole: The Climate Minute
Wednesday Feb 23, 2022
Wednesday Feb 23, 2022
ISO-NE (whoever they are) extended the life of the obsolete MOPR rule (whatever that stands for.) The decision makes it harder for renewable energy systems to get on the grid for several more years- thru 2025 and 2026. Why and how was this decision made? Follow our guest down the rabbit hole of the FERC Docket E22-391. Instead of the Mad Hatter, we encounter the Internal Market Monitor and the External Market Monitor who collectively monitor…stuff.
Sunday Feb 20, 2022
Rigged auctions may delay MA renewables: The Climate Minute
Sunday Feb 20, 2022
Sunday Feb 20, 2022
The people who manage New England’s electrical grid seem to have rigged important auctions to favor fossil fuel interests. The alphabet soup of committees and commissions make it hard to understand, but ISO-NE should rescind the MOPR, and FERC should make them. Listen to hear an expert de-mystify that jargon. You can email FERC at customer@ferc.gov
Wednesday Feb 16, 2022
Looking at gas leaks through an environmental justice lens: The Climate Minute
Wednesday Feb 16, 2022
Wednesday Feb 16, 2022
A new peer reviewed study shows that methane leaks in environmental justice communities take longer to repair than in other communities. What can be done to lessen this inequity? Listen to the report’s authors discuss some pragmatic recommendations.
Sunday Feb 13, 2022
A closer look reveals inequities in gas leaks: The Climate Minute
Sunday Feb 13, 2022
Sunday Feb 13, 2022
Gas leaks at the distribution level (that is, under your street) are related to overlapping issues. Activists recognize methane as a greenhouse gas leaking from long-lived infrastructure, but real people live with immediate impacts. By matching leak location data to a community’s population characteristics, a recent paper provides new facts. The observations are not surprising- environmental justice communities live with larger leaks that wait longer for repair. We speak to the authors of the paper to learn more.
Wednesday Feb 09, 2022
Following the roadmap: The Climate Minute
Wednesday Feb 09, 2022
Wednesday Feb 09, 2022
Massachusetts released two revised climate policies recently. They are each meaningful even if somewhat imperfect steps forward. They should be viewed in light of the decade long process of making the 2030 climate roadmap a success. Climate activists need to pay attention to the proposals and provide good feedback to the state as it tries to follow the roadmap to a clean future.
Sunday Feb 06, 2022
Scare campaigns vs scary facts: The Climate Minute
Sunday Feb 06, 2022
Sunday Feb 06, 2022
Here in Massachusetts, the fossil fuel lobby is pursuing its annual scare campaign about methane supplies, conjuring up images of Texas style blackouts. If you look past the hyperbole, there is an industry desperate to maintain its profits at the expense of people and planet. On the other hand, a recent study confirmed a truly scary, if common sense, expectation: the gas stove in your kitchen is leaking, at least in the moment you turn on the burner if not continuously from loose piping connections. Pollution in your kitchen is more real and frightening than the freeze-in-the-dark scenarios painted by gas apologists.