The Climate Minute

A Poem for the IPCC

The unsettling IPCC report inspires a poetic response. Then we discuss some climate related reports.: Astroturf off Martha’s Vineyard? Why re-wild the planet? How about daylighting rivers?  What could go right? Listen in here for all the latest.  Check our showpage at massclimateactiondotorg/blog for the hot links.

A better question: “What could go right?”

In his new book, our guest invites listeners to ditch the cynical narratives we’ve become accustomed to, urges us to envision an ideal future, and offers the tools to build it.  Listen in for a fun conversation. Check our showpage at massclimateactiondotorg/blog for the hot links.

Hydrogen for home heating is a dead end solution.

Massachusetts’ natural gas distribution companies (Eversource and National Grid) want to add hydrogen to your home heating gas supply. A new report makes plain this is a bad idea. Using our state’s shiny new wind turbines to produce enough green hydrogen to allow us to put that H2 gas into the utilities’ pipelines and then burn it to heat our homes is “a dead-end climate solution that will fail to meet our state mandated emissions reduction goals at huge costs to ratepayers.”  Listen to the report’s authors discuss the issue.

The Zero Carbon Renovation Fund

Massachusetts must renovate 500,000 homes in the next seven years if we want to meet our climate goals. How to accomplish this enormous task? We speak with the Interim Executive Director of MCAN to learn about an elegant proposal- the Zero Carbon Renovation Fund- that would jump-start a commercial market to meet the challenge.

Senior voices say “Stop the Money Pipeline”

America’s senior citizens hold most of the wealth and have released most of the carbon. Now some of those seniors are calling for change, by demanding big banks stop financing fossil fuel expansion. Recently ‘Third Act' led a day of protest in Boston at Chase and Bank of America to call for divestment from fossil fuels. We talks to some of the marchers.  Check our showpage at massclimateactiondotorg/blog for the hot links.

#StopCopCity

Plans to build a police training facility (AKA Cop City) in Atlanta’s Weelaunee urban forest, over local protests, encapsulates many issues of racial, environmental and climate justice.  We get an update on why ‘Cop City’ is important, why you should care, and what you can do about it from two climate activists.

Reducing the climate impact of health care

Providing health care in the US generates about 8% of our annual carbon emissions. That is a big number! We were joined by the Sustainability Program Manager at a hospital in Boston We discuss how hospitals are working to reduce their carbon impact.

”Fixing the Grid” through transparency at ISO-NE

We talk to the campaign manager of the “Fix the Grid” effort about a recent rally for clean energy.  “The people who run our regional electric system, called ISO-New England, are keeping us hooked on fossil fuels and costing residents money. And the worst part is, we ratepayers who fund this whole system have no seat at the table! They make their decisions behind closed doors, without any accountability. We're calling on our new Governor Maura Healey to demand reform from ISO-New England” 

From flood plains to climate grief

In this Making Sense of Climate episode we were joined by the Town of Franklin Conservation Agent and as you’ll hear, we had a great discussion. We go from flood plain, to the water cycle, to dealing with climate grief..

The Clean Heat Report is a breath of fresh air

The Clean Heat Commission report presents a bold vision for how to go about the task of decarbonizing buildings, from homes to skyscrapers, here in Massachusetts. We get the perspective of an expert working on the issues.