Climate One

Strategic Adviser for National Geographic, Andrew Revkin, has been writing about climate change since the 1980s, including 21 years for The New York Times. So what are some things he’s learned in those three decades? How has he learned to best tell the story? As New Yorker writer Elizabeth Kolbert knows all too well, covering climate change is journey that can be a challenge. “On some level it’s the worst story ever. It’s sort of everything and nothing and so finding the narrative is very, very difficult,” says Kolbert. This is a conversation with those telling the story of our climate. Guests: Andrew Revkin Strategic Adviser for Environmental and Science Journalism, National Geographic Society Elizabeth Kolbert Journalist, The New Yorker David Roberts Staff Writer, Vox

Electric scooters, skateboards and bicycles are popping up all over in cities all over the country. Ride-hailing companies are also moving to two wheels. Uber bought the bike sharing company Jump, and Lyft followed suit by scooping up Motivate, which operates bike sharing services in San Francisco, Boston, Chicago, New York and other cities. Is an electric skateboard company next? As companies jockey to offer a suite of transportation options what is the future of urban mobility? Are these new urban toys really solving the notorious first-mile and last-mile problem? Guests: Stuart Cohen, Executive Director, TransForm Sanjay Dastoor, Co-Founder, Boosted Boards and CEO, Skip Scooters Megan Rose Dickey, Senior Reporter, TechCrunch This program was recorded live at The Commonwealth Club in San Francisco on June 20, 2018.

When you think of climate activism, Wall Street doesn’t immediately come to mind. But as investors are coming to realize, they do have a voice – and a vote – when it comes to corporate environmental action. Responsible investing is a concept that’s been around for many years, but it’s only recently that companies have begun to take notice. And who’s driving that change? Shareholders. Greg Dalton talks with three experts about the ways that market forces can turn the ship, inspiring awareness, transparency and in some cases, even change, in seemingly immovable corporations. Guests: Betty Cremmins, Director, Carbon Disclosure Project West Danielle Fugere, President & Chief Counsel, As You Sow John Streur, President & CEO, Calvert Research and Management Portions of this program were recorded at The Commonwealth Club in San Francisco.

It’s a summer movie special as Climate One talks to the directors/producers of four recent documentaries that bring human drama to the climate story: Hillbilly, which explores the myths and realities of life in the Appalachian coalfields; My Country No More, the story of one rural community divided by the North Dakota oil boom; Saving the Dark, which focuses on the battle of dark-sky enthusiasts to fight light pollution; and Point of No Return, in which two pilots risk their lives flying around the world in a solar-powered plane that is as delicate as a t-shirt. Guests: Rita Baghdadi, Co-Director, My Country No More Noel Dockstader, Co-Director, Point of No Return Jeremiah Hammerling, Co-Directo, My Country No More Quinn Kanaly, Co-Director, Point of No Return Sriram Murali, Director/Producer, Saving the Dark Sally Rubin, Co-Director, Hillbilly Portions of this program were recorded at The Commonwealth Club in San Francisco.

Are GMOs the answer to our planet’s food shortage? Or do they jeopardize our health, crops and climate by creating a destructive cycle of Roundup resistance? Like many issues these days, it depends on who you believe. Supporters of genetically modified organisms say that altering the DNA of corn and other crops is just another tool in the farmers’ toolbox - an innovation that will help feed a world whose food production has been disrupted by climate change. Opponents maintain that modified crops are dangerous to our health and are resistant to pesticides such as Monsanto’s Roundup, which has been linked to cancer. Join us for a lively conversation about the science and facts behind growing and eating GMOs. Guests: Marcia Ishii-Eiteman, Senior Scientist, Director Grassroots Science Program, Pesticide Action Network Scott Kennedy, Filmmaker, Food Evolution John Purcell, VP and Global R&D Lead, Monsanto Company Austin Wilson, Environmental Health Program Manager, As You Sow This program was recorded live at The Commonwealth Club in San Francisco on May 25, 2017.

The new climate reality means that even those living on a hill will be affected by flooding in the valley, and those living in the North will be affected by droughts in the South. There are many factors to consider how you will be affected by climate change. “I think this question of inequity is also really, really important,” states Katharine Mach. “And the flipside of that is that wealth is not necessarily protection.” Who will win and lose as climate disruption impacts agriculture, employment, crime, storms and human mortality. Do you live in the right place to come out ahead? Guests: Solomon Hsiang, Chancellor's Associate Professor of Public Policy, UC Berkeley Katherine Mach, Senior Research Scientist, Stanford University This program was recorded live at The Commonwealth Club in San Francisco on May 30, 2018.

Looking for a movie that takes climate science to the masses? In the first part of this week’s episode, former Vice President Al Gore joins Climate One along with co-directors Bonni Cohen and Jon Shenk to talk about the making of their 2017 movie AN INCONVENIENT SEQUEL: TRUTH TO POWER and the solutions that it offers. In the second part, TV’s Bill Nye is joined by director Jason Sussberg, who shadowed Nye as he goes toe-to-toe with outspoken climate deniers and travels the world to show the causes and effects of climate change in the 2017 documentary BILL NYE: SCIENCE GUY. Guests: Al Gore, former Vice-President of the United States Bonni Cohen, Filmmaker, An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power Jon Shenk, Filmmaker, An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power Bill Nye, Television Host, Science Educator Jason Sussberg, Filmmaker, Bill Nye: Science Guy Portions of this program were recorded live at the Marines' Memorial Theater in San Francisco.

Mark Kurlansky and Anna Lappé are two of the country’s most prolific and influential authors writing about feeding a crowded planet with a destabilized climate. The connection between global warming and the dinner table isn’t always obvious when we go to the grocery store. But our choices about how we put food on our plates, and what we do with the waste, contribute to as much as one third of total greenhouse-gas emissions. How can we continue to feed the planet without destroying it in the process? A conversation about the climate costs of global food production – and some possible solutions. Guests: Mark Kurlansky, Author, "MILK! A 10,000-Year Food Fracas" (Bloomsbury, 2018) Anna Lappé, Author, "Diet for a Hot Planet: The Climate Crisis at the End of Your Fork" (Bloomsbury, 2011) This program was recorded live at The Commonwealth Club in San Francisco on May 16, 2018.

For fifteen years, California Governors Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jerry Brown charted a steady bi-partisan course as climate leaders. Their combined legacies include reduced carbon emissions, a clean energy economy and forward-thinking electric transportation. During that time, the effects of climate disruption -- rising seas, shrinking aquifers, wildfires and drought - have become increasingly clear. Greg Dalton sits down with three of the leading gubernatorial candidates to ask them how they plan to take on California’s biggest environmental challenge. Guests: Travis Allen, California State Assemblyman (R-Huntington Beach) Gavin Newsom, California Lt. Governor; former mayor, San Francisco (D) Antonio Villaraigosa, former mayor, Los Angeles (D) Felicia Marcus, Chair, California State Water Resources Control Board Portions of this program were recorded live at The Commonwealth Club in San Francisco in 2018.

Over a century ago, the industrial revolution brought wealth and opportunity to a generation of American innovators. It also brought us dirty coal power and a sky clogged with carbon emissions. The good news? There’s a new generation of entrepreneurs eager to make their fortune by fighting global warming. Creative start-ups are coming up with fresh, climate-friendly ideas for getting around town, powering your cell phones, and even eating breakfast. And there is a growing number of forward-thinking venture capitalist firms eager to seek out and nurture those innovative thinkers. A discussion about clean tech startups and how they could help save the world. Guests: Lidiya Dervisheva, Associate, G2VP Davida Herzl, CEO and Co-Founder, Aclima Gabriel Kra, Managing Director, Prelude Ventures This program was recorded live at The Commonwealth Club in San Francisco on May 14, 2018.

In June 2017, President Trump announced his plan to withdraw the country from the 2015 Paris Climate Accord, claiming it disadvantaged the United States. The symbolism of the American government’s retreat overshadowed the reality that the U.S. business community has embraced a low-carbon future. “We committed under Paris to do nothing we weren’t gonna do anyway and that we aren’t doing anyway,” says former Sierra Club chairman Carl Pope. Many countries have also reaffirmed their commitments to the Paris agreement. But how much progress has really been made, both at home and abroad? Guests: Gil Duran, Former Spokesman for Gov. Jerry Brown and Sen. Dianne Feinstein Bill Hare, Founder and CEO, Climate Analytics Amy Myers Jaffe, Executive Director, Energy and Sustainability, UC Davis Graduate School of Management Carl Pope Former Executive Director, Sierra Club Jim Sweeney, Director, Precourt Energy Efficiency Center, Stanford University Portions of this program were recorded at The Commonwealth Club in San Francisco.

Climate change isn’t just an environmental problem – it’s also a health hazard. Air pollution and changing weather patterns give rise to heat-related illnesses, asthma and allergic disorders. Disasters like Superstorm Sandy and Hurricane Irma leave hospitals scrambling to save patients without power and resources. According to the Centers for Disease Control, insect-borne diseases have tripled in the United States in recent years – and warmer weather is largely to blame. Guests: Jonathan Patz, Director, Global Health Institute Su Rynard, Filmmaker, Mosquito Chuck Yarling, Engineer, Triathlete Jessica Wolff, U.S. Director of Climate and Health, Health Care Without Harm This program was recorded at The Commonwealth Club in San Francisco.

The scientific consensus is that human activity is cooking the planet and disrupting our economies. Yet many people still don’t believe that climate change will affect them personally, or they deny the urgency of the problem. Can better communication help sell the science of climate change? “Only the repetition of simple messages changes public opinion and affects the brain,” says David Fenton, a four-decade veteran of PR campaigns for the environment, public health and human rights. “If you are not using effective messages that you repeat, repeat, repeat and are simple, then you get nowhere.” Guests: David Fenton, Founder and Chairman, Fenton Communications Renee Lertzman, Climate Engagement Strategist, Author and Speaker Michael Mann, Distinguished Professor of Meteorology, Penn State University Cristine Russell, Freelance Science Journalist Portions of this program were recorded at The Commonwealth Club in San Francisco.

In 1968, the best-seller “The Population Bomb,” written by Paul and Anne Ehrlich (but credited solely to Paul) warned of the perils of overpopulation: mass starvation, societal upheaval, environmental deterioration. The book was criticized at the time for painting an overly dark picture of the future. But while not all of the Ehrlich’s dire predictions have come to pass, the world’s population has doubled since then, to over seven billion, straining the planet’s resources and heating up our climate. Can the earth continue to support an ever-increasing number of humans? On its 50th anniversary, we revisit “The Population Bomb” with Paul Ehrlich. Guest: Paul R. Ehrlich, President, Center for Conservation Biology, Bing Professor of Population Studies, Stanford University; co-author, “The Population Bomb” (Ballantine, 1968) This program was recorded at Stanford University.

In an emergency, we’re told to “break the glass” and grab the fire extinguisher. If we’re in the midst of a climate emergency, is there a firehose we could spray into the sky to cool down our atmosphere? It may sound like science fiction, but some climatologists endorse research into such techniques known as geo-engineering. But could tinkering with the stratosphere in this way lead to a new ice age – or worse? What group of people could be trusted with such God-like powers? Join us for a discussion of the scientific, moral, economic and technological dimensions of geo-engineering. This program was recorded live at the Commonwealth Club of California in San Francisco.