Climate Break
159 episodes - English - Latest episode: 13 days ago - ★★★★★ - 4 ratingsClimate change is upon us. Fires, droughts, hurricanes, sea level rise, and melting ice caps are all part of our new normal. But something else is happening as well. Scientists, innovators, organizations, cities, companies, and citizens are taking action, making progress, and finding solutions.
Climate Break brings you stories of climate progress and interviews with climate innovators from California and around the world, in under 2 minutes. Our solution-oriented, radio-ready shows are produced by students and climate law and policy experts at the University of California, Berkeley.
Climate Break is a co-production of the Center for Law, Energy, and Environment at UC Berkeley Law and KALW 91.7 FM San Francisco Bay Area, in conjunction with the Berkeley School of Journalism.
(For a transcript of the trailer, visit https://climatebreak.org/about-climate-break/)
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Episodes
Rerun: Using Concrete for Carbon Removal with Dr. Erica Dodds
July 02, 2024 16:45 - 1 minute - 1.62 MBWhat is Carbon Mineralization Carbon mineralization is a naturally occurring chemical process that occurs when carbon dioxide becomes “mineralized” through a chemical reaction. The chemical reaction occurs when certain rocks, most often in deep underground igneous and metamorphic formations, are exposed to carbon dioxide. Carbon mineralization holds greater amounts of carbon than carbon storage in sedimentary reservoirs, as the chemical reactions in carbon mineralization create new carbonat...
Mass Mobilization for Climate, with Dana Fisher
June 27, 2024 01:53 - 1 minute - 1.6 MBMass mobilization in climate activism By the mid 2000s, the climate justice movement was beginning to gain momentum across the world. Through organized rallies and marches, the public has begun to see an increased recognition of climate justice issues amidst various other social movements. The existential threat of the climate crisis has given rise to an increased potential for transformational movements to ignite change. Mass mobilization thus provides a tactic of community organizing and ...
Rerun: Raising the Bar: Brewing a Greener Future with Concentrated Beer, with Gary Tickle
June 19, 2024 16:04 - 1 minute - 1.6 MBWhat are the problems with current beer production methods? Beer is primarily composed of water—making up about 90 percent of its content. Annually, over 100 billion gallons of beer are produced and shipped, meaning nearly 90 billion gallons of water are being transported in the form of beer. This is significant because approximately 20 percent of a beer’s carbon footprint is attributed to transportation. In response, Sustainable Beverage Technologies (SBT) has proposed a new type of beer t...
Generating Electricity from Air, with Jun Yao
June 11, 2024 14:13 - 1 minute - 1.6 MBA Need for Clean Energy Energy harvesting from environmental sources is key to mitigating the harm associated with fossil fuels. Renewable energy is generated from naturally replenishing resources, and common sources include solar, wind, and water. Currently, renewable energy only makes up roughly 20% of all U.S. electricity, and many of these sources are intermittent – they do not produce continuous energy on a 24/7 basis. These sources of clean energy often require a large amount of land ...
Rerun: Equitable Policy for Energy Efficient Homes with Dr. Steve Cliff
June 04, 2024 14:12 - 1 minute - 1.6 MBCalifornia is the first state to ban the sale of new gas furnaces and water heaters, which will begin in 2030. In efforts to fight climate change, all homes will be required to use zero-emission electric appliance alternatives. The Sierra Club and American Lung Association have supported this move to reduce the building sector’s carbon footprint and improve public health. The building sector accounts for 5% of California's nitrogen-oxide pollution, a key component in producing smog. The Ca...
Adapting Coffee Production for Climate Resilience, with Catherine Kiwuka
May 28, 2024 13:23 - 1 minute - 1.6 MBThe Environmental Impacts of Coffee Production For most of us, coffee is a part of our daily lives. 62% of Americans drink coffee every day, with 7 in 10 drinking coffee every week. In 2024, the coffee market amounted to over $86.7 billion in gross revenue, with numbers only predicted to rise. Americans consume over 400 million cups of coffee each day, leading many to wonder of the harms of such rapid consumption. Unfortunately, for coffee-lovers, the reality is that coffee has a poor envir...
Improving Lithium-Ion Batteries: the Magnesium Solution
May 21, 2024 15:42 - 1 minute - 1.6 MBLithium Ion Batteries Lithium ion batteries are a popular type of rechargeable battery, used in a variety of devices from laptops and cell phones to hybrid and electric vehicles. Lithium ion batteries have grown in use due to their light weight, high energy density, and ability to recharge. While these batteries are used to store electricity and, therefore, as an element of alternative to fossil fuels, the process to mine and obtain lithium has harmful effects on the environment. Lithium ...
Alleviating Urban Heat Traps, with Jeff Goodell
May 14, 2024 21:41 - 1 minute - 1.6 MBWhat Does Extreme Heat Do? Since the pre-industrialized era, the global temperature has increased by about one degree Celsius. Although one degree may not seem significant, the consequences are increases in the intensity of heatwaves and drier conditions. In addition, in dense urban settings buildings trap and absorb this heat and cause even a higher area of heat relative to surrounding areas. The heat island effect is also exacerbated by the lack of greenery. With current fossil fuel emiss...
Rerun: Corporate Lobbying as an Ally in the Fight Against Climate Change
May 07, 2024 10:59 - 1 minute - 1.63 MBEditorial Note The interview for this episode was recorded in June 2021. The basic point of the episode remains relevant, but the mentioned campaign is no longer active. ClimateVoice’s current campaign is Escape the Chamber, which calls on companies to leave the US Chamber of Commerce and to speak up and lead on climate policy at local, state, and federal levels. What is Corporate Lobbying for Climate Action? While lobbying—and corporate lobbying in particular—can often have negative ...
Converting Food Waste into Energy Through Anaerobic Digestion, with Brett Reinford
April 30, 2024 14:11 - 1 minute - 1.6 MBIf you’ve ever been near a farm with livestock, you might agree that farm odors can be carried far from the farm itself. Farms often face criticism from nearby residents over the offensive odor of manure. While manure is an unavoidable part of raising livestock, there is one technological innovation that can remove the smell from manure. Anaerobic digesters are a simple concept—instead of leaving manure rotting outside, the digester encloses the manure as bacteria decompose it, keeping the o...
E-Mobilization and Renewable Energy in Kenya, with Daniel Ngumy
April 23, 2024 13:37 - 1 minute - 1.6 MBRenewables and E-mobility E-mobility, the use of electric powertrain technologies in-vehicle transformation, allows for the use of electricity to enable the electric propulsion of various forms of transportation. Powertrain technologies refer to full electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles, which can be less carbon-intensive than conventional diesel counterparts. Such technologies provide countries an opportunity to reduce their total emissions while still meeting transportation demands. As e-...
Designing Road Infrastructure to Promote Active Mobility, with Lina Lopez
April 17, 2024 12:51 - 1 minute - 1.62 MBZero-Emission Transport Electric vehicles and other transportation-based climate solutions have made a big splash in recent years, and for good reason – transportation accounts for about a fourth of global carbon dioxide emissions. In the U.S, it’s the economic sector with the single largest contribution to greenhouse gas emissions. With such a large global impact, sustainable transportation has become an issue of international importance, and no-emission methods of transport, like walking ...
Rerun: Cool surfaces: Reflecting heat and reducing emissions, with Ronnen Levinson
April 09, 2024 15:42 - 1 minute - 1.61 MBWhat is a cool surface? Cool surfaces are roofs, walls, or pavements that are generally light-colored and highly reflective. When sunlight hits a white surface, its rays bounce off the surface rather than being absorbed, and are reflected back into space. Darker surfaces tend to absorb sunlight, trapping heat. Cool surfaces release this heat back into the atmosphere and space. What are the benefits of switching to a cool surface? Something as simple as painting the roof white has the pot...
Using Climate Journalism to Connect Weather Events and Climate, with Jonathan Vigliotti
April 03, 2024 13:57 - 1 minute - 1.6 MBStaying Educated About Climate Change As climate change intensifies, the heightened frequency of natural disaster weather-related events is quickly becoming the new reality. Whether it be prolonged wildfire seasons in Northern California or destructive hurricanes off the Florida coast, citizens across the country are beginning to bear the burden of a changing climate. For those of us yet to experience the full force of such events, our primary means of gathering information on natural disas...
Advancing Sustainable Steel Production, with Adam Rauwerdink
March 26, 2024 14:56 - 1 minute - 1.6 MBSteel Production Globally, 1.9 billion metric tons of crude steel were produced in 2022. Over the past 15 years, the global demand for steel production has nearly doubled, as this versatile product can be found in nearly all modern infrastructure such as buildings, ships, vehicles, machines, and appliances. Conventionally, steel is made from iron ore (the world’s third most produced commodity by volume), which is a compound derived from iron, oxygen, and other minerals. Through a blast or e...
Tracking Emissions with Remote Sensing, with Gavin McCormick
March 20, 2024 00:42 - 1 minute - 1.6 MBThe Need to Accurately Quantify Emissions As we begin to come to terms with the reality of the fossil fuel industry’s role in climate change, many policymakers are looking towards market-based mechanisms to curb the level of emissions released by harmful polluters. Market-based mechanisms include taxing pollution directly (through a carbon tax) or implementing a cap and trade system. Under the Clean Air Act and other laws, power plants must report air emissions from their operations. Unfort...
Rerun: Tackling the Plastic Crisis, with Martin Bourque
March 13, 2024 20:34 - 1 minute - 1.6 MBWhat is plastic? Plastic is a material derived primarily from carbon-based sources like natural gas, oil, and even plants. It is created by treating these organic materials with heat and catalysts to form various polymers. Producing plastic is energy-intensive, often relying on the combustion of fossil fuels such as coal and natural gas, both for power and as a primary source. As a product of fossil fuels, plastic itself is unsustainable because of its fundamental connection to nonrenewa...
Calculating Threats from Rising Temperatures Using Heat Indexing, with Professor David Romps
March 05, 2024 15:01 - 1 minute - 1.61 MBExtreme Heat: More Dangerous Than We Think? Extreme heat, one of the adverse consequences of climate change, exacerbates drought, damages agriculture, and profoundly impacts human health. Heat is the top weather-related killer in the United States, contributing to deaths that arise from heart attacks, strokes, and other cardiovascular diseases. As temperatures are projected to increase, so will the risk of heat-related deaths. Urban heat islands, cities with large numbers of buildings, road...
Bidirectional Charging: Vehicles as a Portable Battery, with Ellie Cohen
February 29, 2024 17:31 - 1 minute - 1.6 MBRenewable Energy is The Future California is no stranger to power outages. In 2019, for example, over 25,000 blackout events were recorded across the state, leaving homeowners and businesses without electricity. In recent years, most blackouts are the result of wildfire, wildfire risk (leading to utility shutdowns), and extreme heat (leading to high electricity usage). When the electricity grid is stressed, California relies primarily on gas-powered peaker plants and diesel generators to k...
Pedaling Towards A Sustainable Future, with Manuel de Araujo
February 20, 2024 13:46 - 1 minute - 1.6 MBIncreasing Sustainable Modes of Transportation In 2022, global emissions from transportation reached nearly 8 gigatons of carbon. To achieve the Net Zero Scenario, transportation emissions need to drop by nearly 25% by 2030. Within the Global South, auto-centric planning, transport authorities’ structures, and alternatives to cars and buses are some of the challenges in sustainable transportation. Transforming transportation is Mayor Manuel de Araújo’s vision for his city, Quelimane, Moza...
Making Electric Heating Accessible and Affordable for Low-Income Residents, with Sarah Moskowitz
February 16, 2024 01:29 - 1 minute - 1.61 MBElectric Heat: A Hot Topic in Chicago In cold winter months, many people have to rely on fossil gas to heat their homes and power cookstoves. Yet all-electric appliances, including heat pumps to heat homes, are quickly becoming a cheaper alternative over the long term, though they often entail higher upfront costs compared to gas appliances. In Chicago, the switch from natural gas to electricity is moving forward, but it is also revealing unintended challenges for low-income residents that...
Restoring Urban Waterways to Create Climate Resiliency, with Nick Wesley
February 07, 2024 20:18 - 1 minute - 1.6 MBWhat’s interesting about urban rivers? Urban rivers play many important roles in our cities. They maintain the health of coastal and estuarine ecosystems and they are part of larger catchment ecosystems that are nested within wider, interconnected systems. Urban rivers are also essential to the quality of our drinking water, playing central roles in cultural and traditional preservation. Urban rivers offer an ecological record of what was in place before excessive human impacts as they main...
Solar Power On Farms, with Byron Kominek
February 01, 2024 14:42 - 1 minute - 1.59 MBSolar Power on Farms Many farmers, ranchers, and landowners are beginning to consider using their farmland not just for agricultural purposes, but for solar power as well. This combination of agriculture and solar is known as agrivoltaics, which offers an innovative approach to land management particularly in arid regions of the world. Solar panels on farms are often paired with regenerative agricultural practices as a way to increase the capacity of solar output, carbon sequestration, and ...
Reducing Plastic Pollution with Bioplastics, with Raegan Kelly
January 23, 2024 15:18 - 1 minute - 1.61 MBDecreasing society’s reliance on single-use plastics The use of plastic has major environmental, social, and health consequences. Across the globe, one million plastic bottles are purchased every minute, with over half of the plastic produced worldwide being thrown away after one use. Upon disposal, plastics are often left in landfills where they can break down into smaller microplastic particles, thereby acting as carriers of environmental toxins that threaten human health. More than 10 mi...
RERUN: The Clean Energy Potential of Nuclear Fusion, with Annie Kritcher
January 16, 2024 16:38 - 1 minute - 1.63 MBWhat is nuclear fusion? Nuclear fusion produces energy by fusing atoms together. Atomic cores (nuclei) merge together to form a heavier—though unstable—nucleus, releasing mass to regain stability. This mass release corresponds to an energy release, given Einstein’s equation E=mc2, which says in part that mass and energy can be converted into each other. The sun, along with all other stars, uses nuclear fusion to generate energy, which is released as heat and light. The 2022 Fusion Breakth...
Educating Kids about Climate Change through Musical Storytelling
January 10, 2024 01:42 - 1 minute - 1.61 MBClimate Education for Youth Climate education has the potential to drive the public towards climate science literacy, an individual’s understanding of their influence on climate and climate’s influence on them and society. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, a climate-literate person: understands the essential principles of Earth’s climate system, knows how to assess scientifically credible information about climate, communicates about climate and climate c...
Rerun: Sequestering Carbon using Compost and Grasslands, with Whendee Silver
January 03, 2024 15:04 - 1 minute - 1.6 MBCarbon Sequestration Carbon sequestration is the process of capturing and storing atmospheric carbon dioxide to slow the pace of climate change. There are two major types of carbon sequestration: geologic and biologic. Geological carbon sequestration injects carbon dioxide captured from an industrial or energy-related source into underground geologic formations. Biological carbon sequestration refers to the storage of atmospheric carbon in vegetation, soils, woody products, and aquatic envi...
Rerun: Recharging Aquifers with Flood Waters, with Daniel Swain
December 27, 2023 13:45 - 1 minute - 1.6 MBClimate change is increasing flood risk worldwide. Climate change is intensifying flood risk around the world, with potentially devastating consequences for communities and infrastructure. As the planet gets hotter, the atmosphere's capacity to hold water vapor increases, leading to more frequent and intense precipitation events in certain regions. Extreme rainfall events can overwhelm stormwater and other drainage systems and result in dangerous flash flooding. A 2021 study published b...
Rerun: Using Groundwater to Heat and Cool Buildings
December 19, 2023 16:36 - 1 minute - 1.62 MBWhat is the GeoGrid? The Geo Grid is a network of heating pumps that harnesses the geothermal energy stored under the Earth’s surface to heat and cool buildings. It operates through a network of pipes that go deep into the ground and connect houses to each other. These pipes are filled with water, which brings the constant underground temperature up to the Earth’s surface, and into the buildings. The pipes that connect the buildings to each other are then used to exchange energy between bui...
Balancing the Grid: California's Shift to Renewable Energy Sources
December 14, 2023 11:46 - 1 minute - 1.62 MBHow does transitioning to renewable energy challenge the electric grid? As of 2022, renewable and non-greenhouse gas emitting sources accounted for 52% of California's in-state electricity generation with the remaining 48% fueled by natural gas. Legislation passed in 2018 mandates that the state must reach at least 60% renewable energy by 2030 which California is quickly on its way to meet. The 60% goal adds ambition to the emissions reduction goals set by SB 32, the 2016 update to prior la...
Hip Hop 4 Change: Using Art Activism to Combat Climate Change
December 05, 2023 17:59 - 1 minute - 1.6 MBWhat are Art and Music Activism? Art activism refers to the use of artistic expression and creative endeavors to advocate for and educate others on social, political, environmental, or cultural issues. This form of activism employs the creative power of art as a medium to move us emotionally, raise awareness of certain issues, and provoke thought. At its core, art activism brings audiences through an emotionally resonant experience that empowers audiences to change the way they think and be...
International Monetary Fund Reform, With Kelly Varian
December 01, 2023 12:30 - 1 minute - 1.61 MBWhat is the IMF? The International Monetary Fund (IMF) provides aid to developing countries to promote global economic and monetary growth. IMF investments and loans can significantly impact the ability of developing countries to improve climate resilience. Most directly, reforms to the IMF can allow developing countries to invest more in climate resilience and disincentivize fossil fuel production. How does the IMF affect the climate crisis? According to critics, the IMF’s Climate ...
RERUN: Community as antidote to climate despair, with Teo Grossman
November 27, 2023 19:21 - 1 minute - 1.63 MBWhy Community? It’s easy to feel despair about climate change and environmental destruction. But despair can make it hard to forge connections and take action. According to emotion researchers, hope means believing that you have the power to improve problems, rather than ignoring them. One possible source of hope? Community building events, where diverse groups of activists can find common ground. What is Bioneers? Climate Break spoke with Teo Grossman, Senior Director of Programs and Res...
Salt Marshes: Ecosystem Powerhouses in Climate Regulation and Biodiversity
November 08, 2023 14:44 - 1 minute - 1.6 MBThe Vital Role of Wetlands Wetlands are critical ecosystems that play a fundamental role in maintaining the stability and well-being of both local and global environments. Coastal salt marshes, flooded and drained by tides, and often composed of deep mud and peat, provide a wide range of ecosystem services that contribute to biodiversity, water quality, carbon storage, and climate regulation. Biodiversity and Habitat Connectivity Salt marshes are incredibly diverse habitats and serve as...
Resilience Hotspots: Nature's Role in Urban Climate Adaptation
November 01, 2023 14:09 - 1 minute - 1.6 MBWhat are “Resilience Hotspots”? Technology and high-tech solutions are not the only responses to climate change. Nature can also be a powerful form of climate resilience. Resilience hotspots are small pockets of nature that, when restored and maintained, act as barriers to climate impacts. For instance, wetlands can insulate shores from storm surges and trees can provide shade in urban heat islands. In this way, climate adaptation can go hand-in-hand with integrating nature into our cities....
Green Ammonia: Pioneering a Sustainable Future in Food Production
October 25, 2023 14:21 - 1 minute - 1.6 MBWhat is “Green Ammonia”? Ammonia is a vital chemical that sustains half of all food production around the world (through the creation of agricultural fertilizer), but the process we use to make it results in significant greenhouse gas emissions. Ammonia, which is made up of nitrogen and hydrogen, requires extreme heat and pressure and large amounts of energy (usually from fossil fuels) in order to synthesize. “Green ammonia” production reduces this reliance on emission-intensive energy by u...
RERUN: Could We Use CRISPR to Fight Climate Change? with Professor Kris Niyogi
October 17, 2023 15:53 - 1 minute - 1.6 MBWhat is CRISPR? DNA contains the fundamental information about an organism, and is used as an instruction manual to guide organism structure and function. Until CRISPR (short for Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats) technology was developed by Jennifer Doudna and Emmanuelle Charpentier, editing DNA sequences was very difficult. Here’s the short version of the CRISPR process. First, a CRISPR enzyme is guided by an RNA strand to a DNA strand researchers want to edit. The...
Geothermal Power: Tapping Earth's Heat for a Carbon-Free Future
October 10, 2023 15:34 - 1 minute - 1.58 MBWhat is Geothermal Energy? Geothermal energy is heat generated in the earth. It is a renewable source of energy, and it is extracted from the inner earth for energy use. Typically, geothermal energy is harnessed through holes that are drilled allowing hot water or steam to be extracted. These resources then drive a turbine to generate electricity and energy. Harnessed in this way, geothermal energy has significantly fewer environmental impacts than fossil fuels. The Pros and Cons of Geoth...
Matching Demand for Zero-Emissions Public Transportation in Scotland, with Ed Thomson
October 03, 2023 22:17 - 1 minute - 1.61 MBZero-Emissions Public Transportation: Demand and Supply Globally, transportation accounts for approximately one quarter of all CO2 emissions and grew by 3% in 2022. “Buses and other heavy-duty vehicles are responsible for a disproportionate share of the carbon and air pollution emissions from the transportation sector.” As a result, many governments are focusing policies and financial assistance on transitioning heavy-duty vehicles from diesel to zero-emissions vehicles. In the United State...
Carbon-Free Trucks on the Road to Zero Emissions, with Sophie Defour
September 26, 2023 15:23 - 1 minute - 1.62 MBCarbon-Free Trucks The European Green Deal, passed in 2020, sets policy initiatives approved by the European Commission to boost efficient use of resources to green, clean, circular economy and stop climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution. Reducing emissions from the transportation sector is an important part of the EU’s 2050 zero-emission goal, as the transportation sector accounts for 25% of emissions in the EU. New carbon emission reduction targets approved by the European Commi...
Lithium mining in Southern California’s Salton Sea geothermal system, with Dr. Pat Dobson
September 20, 2023 19:29 - 1 minute - 1.61 MBLithium Batteries While the use of lithium to power electric vehicle batteries has been around for close to a decade, and while car manufacturers and scientists have been on the hunt for a more efficient battery, today most manufacturers rely on lithium batteries as their primary go-to for power. This leads to a higher demand for lithium mining. Traditional alkaline batteries cannot be repeatedly recharged, while lithium batteries can be reused and recharged efficiently. Another traditional...
Corporate Lobbying as an Ally in the Fight Against Climate Change
September 12, 2023 13:33 - 1 minute - 1.63 MBEditorial Note The interview for this episode was recorded in June 2021. The basic point of the episode remains relevant, but the mentioned campaign is no longer active. ClimateVoice’s current campaign is Escape the Chamber, which calls on companies to leave the US Chamber of Commerce and to speak up and lead on climate policy at local, state, and federal levels. What is Corporate Lobbying for Climate Action? While lobbying—and corporate lobbying in particular—can often have negative ...
The “30 by 30” Conservation Movement, with Jennifer Norris
September 05, 2023 14:18 - 1 minute - 1.63 MBWhat is the “30 by 30” Movement? The 30 by 30 movement is a global initiative aimed at conserving 30 percent of the Earth’s land by the year 2030. In October 2020, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed executive order N-82-20, which committed California to this movement. The state aims to protect 30 percent of its lands and coastal areas by 2030. With an investment of $11 billion, California is among the first jurisdictions to implement a comprehensive 30 by 30 strategy. As of 2020, Ca...
Raising the Bar: Brewing a Greener Future with Concentrated Beer, with Gary Tickle
August 29, 2023 15:48 - 1 minute - 1.6 MBWhat are the problems with current beer production methods? Beer is primarily composed of water—making up about 90 percent of its content. Annually, over 100 billion gallons of beer are produced and shipped, meaning nearly 90 billion gallons of water are being transported in the form of beer. This is significant because approximately 20 percent of a beer’s carbon footprint is attributed to transportation. In response, Sustainable Beverage Technologies (SBT) has proposed a new type of beer t...
Educating Girls to Address Gendered Impacts of Climate Change
August 22, 2023 15:20 - 1 minute - 1.62 MBEducating Girls is a Climate Solution Today, an estimated 80 percent of people displaced by climate disasters are women and girls, and women living below the poverty line are as much as 14 times more likely to die in a climate disaster. An already more at-risk population, women and girls are especially vulnerable to the effects of climate change, particularly if they live in economically disadvantaged communities. Low-income countries tend to be “young” countries with a large under-15 popul...
Learning from Luxembourg's Approach to EVs with Minister of Mobility Francois Bausch
August 18, 2023 16:13 - 1 minute - 1.62 MBBackground on Luxembourg Luxembourg is a tiny country in Western Europe wedged between Belgium, France, and Germany. It has one of the highest vehicle densities in the EU, with nine out of ten people relying on personal vehicles. The country is currently facing rapid population growth, stressing its mobility infrastructure and complicating efforts to meet emission goals in line with the European Green New Deal. Luxembourg’s green mobility goals include increasing the number of EVs on the ro...
Climate Change Litigation on Behalf of Young People, with Julia Olson (extended version)
August 15, 2023 18:34 - 34 minutes - 31.9 MBYouth-Led Climate Litigation Worldwide, litigants are turning to the courts as a forum for fighting climate change, filing lawsuits against governments in an attempt to force climate action. Plaintiffs in these lawsuits are often children and young adults, who represent those most affected by government climate inaction. A notable early example of youth-led litigation related to climate change was in the Philippines in the 1990s, where forty-three students sued the Philippine government to ...
Tackling the Plastic Crisis, with Martin Bourque
August 15, 2023 15:00 - 1 minute - 1.6 MBWhat is plastic? Plastic is a material derived primarily from carbon-based sources like natural gas, oil, and even plants. It is created by treating these organic materials with heat and catalysts to form various polymers. Producing plastic is energy-intensive, often relying on the combustion of fossil fuels such as coal and natural gas, both for power and as a primary source. As a product of fossil fuels, plastic itself is unsustainable because of its fundamental connection to nonrenewa...
Hydrogen Fuel’s Potential to Decarbonize Aviation
August 08, 2023 21:07 - 1 minute - 1.61 MBThe Carbon Cost of Aviation Transportation is a leading contributor to global greenhouse gas emissions, with air travel playing a significant role. In the United States, the transportation sector accounted for 29 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions in 2021. Commercial airplanes and large business jets contributed ten percent of U.S. transportation emissions, and three percent of the nation’s total greenhouse gas emissions, according to the U.S. EPA. Despite reduced travel during the COV...
Using Mobile Apps to Improve Air Quality Awareness in Ghana, with Dr. Collins Gameli Hodoli
August 01, 2023 15:21 - 1 minute - 1.6 MBWhat’s the state of air quality in Ghana? Over the last century, environmental pollution and air quality have been worsening in Africa. An estimated 28,000 deaths in Ghana and 780,000 deaths across the continent each year are associated with poor air quality. The World Health Organization found air pollution in 2020 to be the second highest risk factor for premature death in Ghana. Vehicle emissions, industrial waste, slash-and-burn farming methods, industrial pollution, and biomass burning...