Latest Environmental solutions Podcast Episodes
Do wind turbines kill birds?
TILclimate - April 11, 2024 09:00 - 7 minutes ★★★★★ - 119 ratingsWind power is the largest source of clean, renewable energy in the United States. But the large turbines that create that power can endanger wildlife. MIT Professor Michael Howland returns to the podcast to answer a listener's question about the risks of wind energy to birds—and explain how wind...
Do wind turbines freeze up in the cold?
TILclimate - April 04, 2024 09:00 - 7 minutes ★★★★★ - 119 ratingsYou might have heard how wind turbines failed in Texas during a terrible cold front in 2021. Does this mean we can’t rely on this clean, renewable source of energy when the weather turns extreme? MIT Professor Michael Howland joins the podcast to explain how wind turbine operators prepare for fr...
Won’t more CO2 help plants grow?
TILclimate - March 28, 2024 09:00 - 8 minutes ★★★★★ - 119 ratingsPlants take in CO2 from the air to grow—and today’s atmosphere has about 50% more CO2 than it did before we started burning massive amounts of fossil fuels. So, is that great news for plants? Prof. David Des Marais, a plant ecologist at MIT, helps answer this listener question. For a deeper div...
Season 6 Preview: Something a Little Different
TILclimate - March 15, 2024 09:00 - 1 minute ★★★★★ - 119 ratingsThe sixth season of Today I Learned: Climate is coming in two weeks, and this time we’re doing something a little different. People all around the world write into our team with questions about climate change. So this season, we’re working with scientists and experts at MIT and beyond, to answer...
Why does it take five years to build a wind farm?
TILclimate - December 07, 2023 10:00 - 15 minutes ★★★★★ - 119 ratingsThe United States has a goal to power the country with 100% clean electricity by 2035. Unfortunately, our energy regulations are not set up to make this much change this quickly. Energy economist John Parsons of MIT joins the show to explain how much clean energy infrastructure we need to build,...
Energy storage: keeping the lights on with a clean electric grid
TILclimate - November 30, 2023 10:00 - 14 minutes ★★★★★ - 119 ratingsThe large majority of new energy we’re building today comes from clean, renewable wind and solar projects. But to keep building wind and solar at this pace, we need energy storage: technologies that save energy when the weather is favorable, and use it when wind and sun are scarce. Prof. Asegun ...
A public health expert’s guide to climate change
TILclimate - November 16, 2023 10:00 - 12 minutes ★★★★★ - 119 ratingsWe all want to live full, healthy lives. But climate change is threatening a growing number of people’s lives and well-being. Amruta Nori-Sarma, assistant professor of environmental health at Boston University School of Public Health, joins the show to help us see climate change not in tons of c...
TILclimate presents: What the heck is El Niño, anyway? (from Outside/In)
TILclimate - November 09, 2023 10:00 - 21 minutes ★★★★★ - 119 ratingsWe were going to produce an episode on El Niño, and its relationship to climate change. And then we found out that Outside/In, from New Hampshire Public Radio, already did that. And they did a really good job. So please enjoy this episode of Outside/In, where you'll learn what El Niño is, how to...
Wildfires and how we're changing them
TILclimate - November 02, 2023 09:00 - 13 minutes ★★★★★ - 119 ratingsIf you live in the U.S. Mountain West, the Pacific Coast of the Americas, or large parts of Australia or southern Europe, there’s a good chance a major wildfire has passed near you in the last five or six years—maybe one more intense than anything you’ve ever heard of in your area. But why exact...
Can desalination solve water scarcity?
TILclimate - October 26, 2023 09:00 - 14 minutes ★★★★★ - 119 ratingsToday we’re talking about desalination: turning saltwater into freshwater, so we can drink it or use it to grow crops. And we’re talking about this because, in many parts of the world, freshwater is getting harder to come by. So… is converting saltwater a good solution? Our guest Prof. John Lein...
Don’t throw away your refrigerator
TILclimate - October 19, 2023 09:00 - 14 minutes ★★★★★ - 119 ratingsRefrigerants are in every refrigerator, freezer and air conditioner, and the world is on track to make a lot more of them in the years to come. They’re also powerful greenhouse gases: often thousands of times more warming than carbon dioxide. Prof. Ronald Prinn, an expert in the physics and chem...
How tackling methane cools the planet fast
TILclimate - October 12, 2023 09:00 - 12 minutes ★★★★★ - 119 ratingsCarbon dioxide—CO2—is the greenhouse gas you’ve probably heard most about, on this podcast and elsewhere. But it turns out, methane is an incredibly important greenhouse gas too. Stopping methane emissions today is a powerful way to dampen climate change in the very near term—to keep the Earth c...
Wait, how do greenhouse gases actually warm the planet?
TILclimate - October 05, 2023 09:00 - 14 minutes ★★★★★ - 119 ratingsYou probably know that today’s climate change is caused by certain gases—what scientists call greenhouse gases—that human activity has been adding to our atmosphere. But—how do these gases actually keep heat from escaping into space? And why these gases in particular? To help answer these questi...
Coming Soon: TILclimate Season 5
TILclimate - September 21, 2023 09:00 - 2 minutes ★★★★★ - 119 ratingsThis is MIT’s climate change podcast, Today I Learned: Climate. If you're looking to get smart quick on climate change – without the jargon and without the politicking – this podcast is for you! In each episode, we work with experts at MIT and beyond to explain climate change science and solutio...
America’s Big Year of Climate Action
TILclimate - August 16, 2023 09:00 - 16 minutes ★★★★★ - 119 ratingsOn August 16, 2022, President Joe Biden signed into law the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). It was the largest of three bills signed over the course of 10 months that together make up the United States’ largest investment in addressing climate change… well, ever. Dr. Liz Reynolds, lecturer in MIT...
Announcing TILclimate's Live Event: "America’s big year of climate action"
TILclimate - April 11, 2023 09:00 - 1 minute ★★★★★ - 119 ratingsOn Wednesday, April 19, TILclimate will host its first live event at the MIT Museum in Cambridge, Massachusetts! Reserve your seat at tilclimate.org to watch a live recording and join the questions as your host Laur Hesse Fisher sits down with MIT lecturer and former Special Assistant to the Pre...
TIL about recycling
TILclimate - February 16, 2023 10:00 - 14 minutes ★★★★★ - 119 ratingsWe often hear about recycling as a way to make an impact on climate change right in your own home. But how big a difference are we really making when we recycle? For this episode, Anders Damgaard, senior researcher at the Technical University of Denmark, joins the TILclimate podcast to help us u...
TIL about winter storms
TILclimate - December 15, 2022 10:00 - 11 minutes ★★★★★ - 119 ratingsWinters are warming faster than any other season here in the U.S. So why are some winter storms getting even more intense? Today, we’re going to explore the connections between climate change and extreme winter weather. For this episode, we sat down with atmospheric science expert Dr. Jennifer F...
TIL about carbon offsets
TILclimate - November 17, 2022 10:00 - 14 minutes ★★★★★ - 119 ratingsWhat if you could pay someone else to cancel out your carbon emissions? As countries, organizations, and even individuals around the world commit to lowering their impact on the climate, many have been doing just that. So today, we’re going to look at how “carbon offsets” work and whether they a...
TIL about everyday travel
TILclimate - September 15, 2022 09:00 - 14 minutes ★★★★★ - 119 ratingsRoughly ten percent of the world’s CO2 emissions come from passenger vehicles: cars, pickups, motorcycles, buses, and taxis. So today, we’re going to zoom in on how people get around every day and what to consider when thinking about reducing carbon emissions from everyday travel. For this episo...
TIL about electric cars
TILclimate - August 25, 2022 09:00 - 13 minutes ★★★★★ - 119 ratingsElectric vehicles (EVs) are being touted as a major solution to climate change. But why is that? How do they work and what kinds of changes are needed as more EVs hit the road? To dig into this, we brought in MIT Sloan Prof. David Keith, who studies transportation technology. For a deeper dive...
TIL about hydrogen energy
TILclimate - July 14, 2022 09:00 - 14 minutes ★★★★★ - 119 ratingsHydrogen gas acts like a fossil fuel, but with no carbon emissions. Is it the silver bullet we’ve been waiting for? Prof. Svetlana Ikonnikova of the Technical University of Munich joins us to bring light to how hydrogen works and its potential in the energy transition. For a deeper dive and add...
TIL about the changing ocean (part 2)
TILclimate - June 02, 2022 10:00 - 10 minutes ★★★★★ - 119 ratingsThe ocean is a critical piece of the climate change puzzle. It's estimated that the ocean has absorbed about one third of the excess CO2 humans have added to the atmosphere and more than 90% of trapped heat in the atmosphere. So, today, we’re going underwater to talk about the ocean and climate ...
TIL about the changing ocean (part 1)
TILclimate - June 02, 2022 09:00 - 12 minutes ★★★★★ - 119 ratingsThe ocean is a critical piece of the climate change puzzle. It's estimated that the ocean has absorbed about one third of the excess CO2 humans have added to the atmosphere and more than 90% of trapped heat in the atmosphere. So, today, we’re going underwater to talk about the ocean and climate ...
Season 4 Preview
TILclimate - May 05, 2022 18:12 - 2 minutes ★★★★★ - 119 ratingsAt MIT, we have a commitment to sharing what we know about climate change. That’s why, this summer, we’ll be back soon with a fourth season of TILclimate, bringing you new episodes that dive into even more climate topics, like the role the ocean plays in our climate, solutions for reducing trans...
TIL what it costs
TILclimate - February 03, 2022 10:00 - 13 minutes ★★★★★ - 119 ratingsToday’s episode is about the money of climate change. When people talk about how much it costs to stop climate change, what are we paying for? And who’s paying, exactly? And if we don’t pay to stop climate change – how much will that cost us? To answer these questions, we spoke with Dr. Barbara ...
TIL about what I eat
TILclimate - January 20, 2022 10:00 - 13 minutes ★★★★★ - 119 ratingsToday we bring climate change to the dining room table. In this episode, we reinvited Dr. Cynthia Rosenzweig onto the TILclimate podcast to tell us just a little more about the connections between the food we eat and climate change. For a deeper dive and additional resources related to this epi...
TIL about farming a warmer planet
TILclimate - November 18, 2021 10:00 - 14 minutes ★★★★★ - 119 ratingsOver the last fifty years, our world has made remarkable progress in reducing hunger around the world. How can we keep our farms and food system resilient in a warming climate? Dr. Cynthia Rosenzweig, Senior Research Scientist at the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, joins host Laur Hess...
TIL about planting trees
TILclimate - October 07, 2021 09:00 - 13 minutes ★★★★★ - 119 ratingsIn our last episode, we talked about using technology to suck out extra carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. But you might also be thinking—don’t trees do that? Yeah, they do! In fact, some people have proposed that by planting enough trees, we could make a big dent on climate change. In this epi...
TIL about removing CO2 from the atmosphere
TILclimate - August 19, 2021 09:00 - 10 minutes ★★★★★ - 119 ratingsWe’ve had people ask us, if climate change is caused by adding too much CO2 into the atmosphere, can’t we just suck it back out? Won’t that solve our climate change problem? In this episode of TILclimate (Today I Learned: Climate), Professor Niall Mac Dowell of Imperial College London joins host...
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