The Climate Minute

Paris, India, Houston, San Juan: The Climate Minute Podcast

Listen in as we discuss the global warming news of the week!

How would a Climate Hawk rebuild Houston? The Climate Minute Podcast

As our nation contemplates the rebuilding of Houston and South Florida, what principles of sustainability and clean energy should be included? The price tag will be discussed as trillions. Is this a time to push new ways of thinking? Listen in.

 

Capitalism, corporations, consumerism and climate: The Climate Minute Podcast

Can we have capitalism and a stable environment? Is capital at war with the planet? Which is the problem- consumers or corporations? These are big questions, so we look to recent article by Klein and Monbiot to help us figure out what to think. She writes “In short, climate change detonates the ideological scaffolding on which contemporary conservatism rests. To admit that the climate crisis is real is to admit the end of their political and economic project. That’s why the right is in rebellion against the physical world.“ He write “Even the social democratic (Keynesian) kind (of capitalism) depends on perpetual growth on a finite planet: a formula for eventual collapse.” Listen in.

Harvey+Irma=what? The Climate Minute Podcast

This episode focuses on the economic impact of repeated hurricanes, the need for a new rating system for these climate-assisted “unnatural disasters,” and the new head of NASA who claims that climate change ended ten years ago.

Dreaming of a better world: The Climate Minute Podcast

We discuss the connection of DACA to climate change. Dreamers have helped, and died doing so, in Houston even as it’s undocumented hide in shattered homes for fear of ICE agents. These events are a dress rehearsal for a warming world with increasing numbers of refugees. Climate Hawk recognized the link to all the progressive issues of our time. It’s the shared vision of a better world, and the need to support each other’s efforts. Listen in!

Who's ready for a Harvey? The Climate Minute Podcast

For part two of our Hurricane Harvey coverage, we explore the aftermath and future of this and other “climate-assisted catastrophes.” We probe how Boston would fare in the face of a similar hurricane, and how the country as a whole could function if catastrophes like Hurricane Harvey occurred regularly.

A Climate Assisted Catastrophe: The Climate Minute Podcast

Of course, our focus is on Houston, Texas and the devastation incurred from Hurricane Harvey. Due to the enormity of the event, we will cover this topic in two podcast sessions—this week we focus on the human scale of the suffering, what you can do to help, the climate change assist given to this storm, and the implications of what is happening. We state, unequivocally, that Hurricane Harvey and its destructive nature is the sort of extreme weather event that climate scientists have warned about for decades. It is important to recognize the human scale of the suffering, but at the same time, we need to speak frankly about the underlying causes and the implications of what is happening. What we see unfolding in front of us is a climate event, and we need to make that point in real time. Eric Holthaus wrote an article for Politico “This is What Climate Change Looks Like.” Around the same time that Eric Holthaus published this article, David Leonhardt of the New York Times also published an article titled “Harvey, the Storm that Humans Helped Cause,” in which he explained the physics of why this happened—warmer weather causes heavier rainfall and the oceans are warmer due to ocean acidification traced to carbon pollution; therefore we have this deluge. We think it is a profound moral tragedy that both Politico and the New York Times are two publications that ran these great reports but also have had a history of running denialist screeds, in fact, the New York Times gave us Bret Stephens who pretends that this sort of stuff is not real. It is very, very real and profoundly deadly. One of the things we need to be clear on at the beginning is the connections between this storm and climate change.

100% Renewables Now! The Climate Minute Podcast

Bill McKibben makes a clear declaration in his new article on how we can get to a sustainable future:
It’s the call for the rapid conversion of energy systems around the country to 100 percent renewable power—a call for running the United States (and the world) on sun, wind and water. What Medicare for All is to the healthcare debate, or Fight for $15 is to the battle against inequality, 100% Renewable is to the struggle for the planet’s future. It’s how progressives will think about energy going forward—and though it started in northern Europe and Northern California, it’s a call that’s gaining traction outside the obvious green enclaves.
Listen in as we discuss!

Winter is coming: The Climate Minute Podcast

It seemed that fact was stranger than fiction in our discussion. We covered the climate implications of the solar eclipse, Geoffrey Supran and Naomi Oreskes’ new paper about ExxonMobil’s climate change communications, and Game of Throne’s “CliFi” subtext.

The Baker Plan on the Climate Minute Podcast

We investigate Baker’s true climate motives, which are heroic in comparison to the clandestine efforts to sabotage the EPA that Scott Pruitt is undertaking. We salute a conservative Texas Mayor whose city runs on renewables. Tune in for those details.