Reversing Climate Change

Young people on BOTH sides of the aisle want to see action on climate change. And Quillan Robinson believes that the will for action is a more powerful force than the disagreements we may have over policy. So, how does a conservative approach like the American Climate Contract differ from the progressive Green New Deal? And how do the principles of conservatism inform right-of-center climate solutions? Quill is the Vice President of Government Affairs with the American Conservation Coalition, a nonprofit dedicated to empowering young conservatives to reengage in environmental conversations. Today, Quill joins Ross to explain how his involvement in the I-732 campaign in Washington shaped his thinking and shifted his politics. He introduces us to the conservative thinkers who inspire him, walking us through the best principles of the conservative intellectual tradition and how they apply to climate policy. Quill goes on to discuss why oikophilia (love of place) is not exclusive to rural contexts and offer his t

The political process is complex and difficult to follow, no matter how deeply we care about climate policy. And yet, without federal clean electricity standards, energy companies are unlikely to change their behavior. So, what does good environmental policy look like? And what can we do as individuals to advocate for laws that reverse climate change? Dr. Leah C. Stokes is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science at UC Santa Barbara and the author of Short Circuiting Policy: Interest Groups and the Battle Over Clean Energy and Climate Policy in the American States. Today, Leah joins Ross to discuss what makes for good environmental policy and why we need federal clean electricity standards. She weighs in on how public utilities abuse the political system, introducing us to the idea of intervener compensation programs as the most promising way to advocate for the public interest. Leah goes on to share her criticism of Planet of the Humans, describing the film’s failure to address the nuanc

Concrete is an incredibly useful and highly resilient building material. And with population growth and urbanization, we are on pace to double everything we’ve ever built in the next 40 years. At the same time, concrete production accounts for as much as 8% of global emissions. So, how can we continue to reap the benefits of concrete in a way that complies with our climate goals? Robert Niven is the Founder and CEO of CarbonCure, a company that recycles waste carbon dioxide to make stronger and greener concrete. They are also one of the four companies chosen by Stripe for its first negative emissions purchases. Today, Rob joins Ross and Christophe to explain how concrete is traditionally produced and what CarbonCure does differently to permanently mineralize carbon in concrete, both improving its quality and reducing its carbon footprint. Rob weighs in on embodied carbon, sharing the benefits of CarbonCure’s solution in terms of scalability and cost, and discusses the potential for his process to eventually u

Emily Atkin's June 1st issue of HEATED caught our attention with the headline "The climate movement's silence" regarding the Black Lives Matter protests taking place all over the United States and the lack of a substantial response from climate organizations. One of the long-running debates that shows up on the podcast is "to what degree should climate change policy be focused exclusively on decarbonization and drawdown vs. a more comprehensive suite of related issues?" On the one hand, ostensibly there is less room for disagreement when policy is unbundled. On the other hand, big change may be possible within moments like this and it seems myopic at best to focus only on the former and ignoring ongoing harms or negligence. What is an organization to do? Here's a beginning to that conversation, with more programming on the topic to come. Mellina White, who has been moonlighting as a Norinaut, wrote the article, "Attention white people: Your #BLM memes are not enough", that inspired this conversation. Mellina

What is the best approach to solving the climate crisis? Should we leverage science and technology to ‘produce’ our way out of the problem? Or aspire to live in Hobbiton and radically reduce our human footprint? Charles C. Mann is the New York Times bestselling author behind 1491, 1493 and The Wizard and the Prophet and a regular correspondent for The Atlantic, WIRED and Science Magazine. Today, Charles joins Ross to discuss the two major schools of thought he identified in the environmental movement—wizards and prophets—and introduce us to the scientists he uses to represent each camp in his book. Charles walks us through the fundamental differences between the two groups, describing their values, blind spots and radically different ways of seeing the world. Listen in for Charles’ insight on a third school of thought that dismisses both wizards and prophets and find out where he falls on the wizard-prophet spectrum in light of the current global health crisis. Connect with Ross Nori Nori on Patreon Email pod

Dr. Elizabeth Segran is a Senior Staff Writer at Fast Company. Today, Liz joins Ross and guest host Lorraine Smith to discuss how fashion works, explaining how the industry has evolved over the last 150 years to a system in which clothes are disposable. She explores the environmental cost of fast fashion, describing the dangers of using synthetic material and the tremendous waste associated with producing inventory well beyond what consumers are likely to buy. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/reversingclimatechange/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/reversingclimatechange/support

Evan Hynes is the founder of Climate.Careers, a job site dedicated to helping talented jobseekers find high-impact, high-paying jobs at organizations working to address climate change. On this bonus episode of Reversing Climate Change, Evan joins Ross to discuss why he built the Climate.Careers platform, explain what qualifies a job to be listed on the site, and how a listener might be able to land a job in climatetech. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/reversingclimatechange/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/reversingclimatechange/support

Koen van Seijen is the host of the Investing in Regenerative Agriculture Podcast, where he talks to pioneers in the regenerative food and agriculture space about putting money to work to regenerate the soil. Today, Koen joins Ross and Christophe to discuss the many different flavors of financing for regenerative agriculture and explain the distinction between investing in regenerative agriculture and what is sometimes called "regenerative financing" which innovates in terms of deal structure and beyond. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/reversingclimatechange/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/reversingclimatechange/support

Kate Knibbs is a Senior Writer at WIRED covering culture, and is the author of ‘The Hottest New Literary Genre is Doomer Lit.’ Today, Kate joins Ross to explain what inspired her conception of the new (sub)genre, discussing what differentiates doomer lit from cli-fi and how Jenny Offill’s new novel Weather functions as a mood piece on climate change. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/reversingclimatechange/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/reversingclimatechange/support

Phoebe Yu and Kat Dey are the cofounders of ettitude, a sustainable lifestyle brand that uses CleanBamboo fabric to produce bedding, bath, and sleepwear. On this bonus episode of Reversing Climate Change, they join Ross to walk us through the process ettitude uses to turn bamboo into fabric, sharing the benefits of using bamboo as a raw material in terms of carbon capture and storage. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/reversingclimatechange/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/reversingclimatechange/support

John Elkington is an internationally recognized authority on corporate responsibility and sustainable development, bestselling author, and serial entrepreneur. He currently serves as Chief Pollinator at Volans, a future-focused business working at the intersection of the sustainability, entrepreneurship, and innovation movements. Today, John joins Ross and Paul to discuss his most recent book, Green Swans: The Coming Boom in Regenerative Capitalism. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/reversingclimatechange/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/reversingclimatechange/support

Dr. David Grinspoon is the author of Earth in Human Hands: Shaping Our Planet’s Future. He is also part of the team working with NASA on a proposed mission to Venus! On this bonus episode of Reversing Climate Change, David is back on the show with Ross to discuss the basic units of the geological time scale and explain why he proposes calling this new time marked by human impact and self-awareness the Sapiezoic Eon rather than the Anthropocene Epoch. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/reversingclimatechange/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/reversingclimatechange/support

Julia Pyper and Shane Skelton are two of the three cohosts of Political Climate, a bipartisan podcast on energy and environmental politics in America. Today, Julia and Shane join Ross to discuss how their show is working to normalize the conversation on climate change (on both sides of the aisle) and explore what’s behind the increasing polarization in DC and what role the media plays in perpetuating our political divisions. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/reversingclimatechange/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/reversingclimatechange/support

J. Maarten Troost is the travel writer behind such titles as The Sex Lives of Cannibals, Getting Stoned with Savages and Headhunters on My Doorstep. He spent multiple years in Kiribati in the Equatorial Pacific as well as Fiji and Vanuatu. On this episode of the Reversing Climate Change, Maarten joins Ross to explain how he came to spend time in the region of Oceania and offer insight around the provocative titles for his books and the egalitarian nature of island culture. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/reversingclimatechange/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/reversingclimatechange/support

Ethan Soloviev is the coauthor of Regenerative Enterprise and Levels of Regenerative Agriculture and co-owner of High Falls Farm,  a multi-enterprise farm in the Hudson Valley of New York that aims toward regenerative principles and practices. On this bonus episode, Ethan joins Ross to introduce us to the Jewish idea of shmita, as well as his attempts to learn from Irish/Celtic and indigenous North American agricultural traditions as well. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/reversingclimatechange/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/reversingclimatechange/support

Dr. Lauren Gifford is a critical geographer exploring the intersections of global climate policy, conservation, markets, and justice. She is also the host of Carbon Social Club and the author of a recent paper entitled “‘You Can’t Value What You Can’t Measure’: A Critical Look at Forest Carbon Accounting.” On this episode, we dig into avoided deforestation credits, REDD/REDD+, and the dynamics at play when carbon is commoditized in forestry and in general. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/reversingclimatechange/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/reversingclimatechange/support

Dr. Greg Dipple is a Professor of Geology in the Department of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences at the University of British Columbia—Vancouver,and a podcast alumnus! On this bonus episode of Reversing Climate Change, Greg joins Ross to give us an update on his research around carbon mineralization in mine tailings, reminding us how the process works and explaining why it’s not already common practice. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/reversingclimatechange/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/reversingclimatechange/support

Dr. Jane Zelikova is the Chief Scientist at Carbon180, a carbon removal think tank on a mission to fundamentally rethink carbon, and cofounder of 500 Women Scientists, a nonprofit dedicated to transforming the leadership, diversity, and public engagement in science.  On this episode of the Reversing Climate Change, Jane joins Ross and Christophe to discuss the challenges of measuring the carbon content of soil and the projections around how much CO2 we can sequester with improved management practices. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/reversingclimatechange/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/reversingclimatechange/support

Maria Streshinsky is the Executive Editor of Wired, a science and technology magazine devoted to exploring technology’s potential to shape the world for the better. On this bonus episode of Reversing Climate Change, Maria joins Ross to discuss the forthcoming issue of Wired, walking us through its sections on carbon capture, food and land, transportation and renewable energy. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/reversingclimatechange/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/reversingclimatechange/support

Dr. Roger Aines is the Chief Scientist of the Energy Program at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and coauthor of the LLNL report Getting to Neutral: Options for Negative Carbon Emissions in California. On this episode of the Reversing Climate Change, Roger joins Ross and Christophe to discuss how the California study came about and walk us through the three carbon removal strategies outlined in the report—natural solutions, waste biomass and direct air capture. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/reversingclimatechange/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/reversingclimatechange/support