The Climate Minute

Environmental Injustice in Puerto Rico: The Climate Minute Podcast

Climate-assisted hurricanes Irma and Maria have devastated the lives of American citizens in Puerto Rico. Reports tell of an entire American island of three million people without either power or fresh water some six days after the storm. This circumstance has set up a test of our national character. Will we turn our backs on our own citizens, or will we meet the challenge of new climate driven weather patterns? Listen in as we discuss.

San Francisco sues Big Oil: The Climate Minute Podcast

This was a big week for climate news! Cities are leading the way to curb dangerous fossil fuel emissions. Two cities in California, San Francisco and Oakland, are suing five major oil companies to recoup the damage inflicted on their cities by carbon pollution. After the devastation following climate assisted hurricanes Irma and Harvey, we can’t help but wonder - will the cities of Houston and Florida decide to jump on this bandwagon? Boston’s Mayor Marty Walsh announced that the international climate change conference will be held in Beantown sometime in 2018, likely close to the US Conference of Mayors in June.

An article in Commonwealth Magazine discussed the importance of framing, specifically as it relates to carbon pricing. Thoughtful framing has a dramatic effect on how people will perceive carbon pricing and whether they will support it. The Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) reaped many benefits from their carbon pricing approach, and are ratcheting up their efforts to reduce 132 million tons of carbon by 2030; RGGI has already reduced their emissions by 40 percent over the last nine years. There is bi-partisan support for carbon pricing at the federal level, but history has shown that this support can be wishy-washy, so we are not holding our breath.

The lobbying day on September 19, 2017 was a great success. Thank you to all of those that supported the event!

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!