President Trump has vowed to remove the United States from the historic Paris climate agreement, which every nation on Earth has now signed onto. Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden has said one of his first acts as president, should he win, will be to keep America in that accord. In this special episode of Climate 2020, the director of WWF's U.S. climate program and We Are Still In movement co-founder Elan Strait talks about the growing power of the sub-national movement in America - and what it means beyond this election cycle.

Climate 2020

Episode 44

In this special episode, we talk to Florida Democrat Kathy Castor, who chairs the Select Committee on the Climate Crisis in the House of Representatives.    Her committee issued a massive, 547-page blueprint in July. It outlines the ways in which the next Congress can address the climate crisis and the enormous opportunities it presents for a clean energy economy.   It is arguably the most comprehensive legislative report on climate ever, and will shape what Congress does on climate and clean energy next year. Dave Roberts at Vox called it “the most detailed climate plan in US political history.”   We talked to Rep. Castor about all of this, as well as the 2020 election.

The most detailed climate plan in U.S. history

In this Climate One episode, our co-host Jeff Nesbit joins podcast host Greg Dalton, Vanessa Hauc of Telemundo, and Nathaniel Stinnett of the Environmental Voter Project to explore the continuing relevance of climate to the November election.  

BONUS EPISODE: WITH COVID, RACE, AND AN ECONOMIC CRISIS, IS CLIMATE STILL AN ISSUE?

 When Gina McCarthy left her post as Obama’s EPA Administrator, she was ready to leave the sometimes grueling world of Washington politics behind. She went into academia. In 2018, she founded the Harvard Center for Climate, Health and the Global Environment (C-CHANGE). But after observing Trump’s chaotic first term from the sidelines, she realized she wasn’t content to sit this one out. Today, Gina is President of the Natural Resources Defense Council. There, she leads a multi-pronged approach to get climate champions elected into office — and elect Trump out. We got Gina’s perspective from the center of this historic fight to take back democracy and hit the reset button on national climate action. 

How Green Dems Take Back Washington w/ Gina McCarthy

Sociologist and Environmental Justice Activist Dr. Robert Bullard came of age during the Civil Rights Movement. Back then, the conversation around how racism and environmentalism intersected hadn’t gained much traction. But Dr. Bullard began to make those connections through his research. He began to notice in cities across the country — from his hometown of Houston to Alabama to Louisiana — the ways in which black neighborhoods were made to bear the brunt of industrial pollution. Dr. Bullard has dedicated his career to fighting environmental racism, and he believes that fight may have reached a turning point. We spoke to him about why the Black Lives Matter demonstrations that have taken place over the past few weeks feel unique — even from other racial justice milestones he’s witnessed. And he gives us his take on what a President Biden could do to turn hopeful words into concrete action. 

Making The Climate Movement Anti-Racist w/ Dr. Robert Bullard

At the start of 2020, Americans were becoming increasingly alarmed about climate change.  But then: A pandemic, record unemployment and now mass demonstrations over police violence and racism. The last time America faced such a turbulent political moment — during the Great Recession — public concern about climate change fell sharply. Now political winds are shifting again. Is climate still a political priority? The latest poll from the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication gives us clues. We discuss the results with the program's director, Dr. Tony Leiserowitz. And in this political moment how will Joe Biden and Donald Trump's very different stances on climate play out with voters? We focus on a group that may play a big role in 2020: swing voters. We speak to Rich Thau, a messaging expert who has conducted focus groups with swing voters in battleground states.   

How Do You Message Climate In This Turbulent Political Moment?

The Environmental Protection Agency hopes to finalize its new ‘Secret Science’ rule that would make it harder for lifesaving climate science to inform policy. If approved, it could be detrimental to studies that contain confidential data — including seminal public health findings related to air pollution. This is an especially critical area of research for black Americans who are dying in disproportionate numbers from Coronavirus, partially because of their exposure to harmful particles in the neighborhoods where they live. Michael Halpern and Professor Francesca Dominici tell us about the barrage of attacks on science that gained momentum under the Trump Administration but started decades before.  

Silencing Science: New EPA Rule Suppresses Pollution Research

 Jaime Kaiser 4:22 PM (39 minutes ago)       to me             Senator Sheldon Whitehouse on Climate's Stolen Decade Rhode Island Senator Sheldon Whitehouse made his debut in Congress in 2007. Back then, hopes for congressional action on climate change were high, and multiple proposals for viable carbon legislation were on the table. But within the last decade, enthusiasm for bipartisan climate solutions has come to a crawl. Corporate dollars have often set the agenda. In March, Marathon Petroleum and other oil and gas companies made out with millions of dollars in tax subsidies and debt relief. One of the Senate's leading voices on climate tells how the CARES Act bailout of the oil companies came to pass. He shares his inside view of the oil and gas industry's capture of the Republican Party, Obama's premature surrender on climate and why he thinks we’re finally ready for meaningful action on climate. 

Senator Sheldon Whitehouse on Climate's Stolen Decade

Unemployment is getting worse. Congress is under increasing pressure to pass more spending bills to rescue the economy. So far Congress has focused on immediate relief, but congressional leaders have signaled that future proposals could focus on infrastructure and jobs.  We talk to someone who’s trying to make sure that climate is a big part of those conversations. Mindy Lubber leads CERES, a non-profit which organizes corporations to take action on climate change. Last week, CERES rallied big-name brands -- like Nike, General Mills, Salesforce and Mars -- around a simple message for Congress: Now is the time to build back better. Mindy says that if Congress spends trillions of dollars on recovery, that money should go towards rebuilding a low-carbon economy, and that a carbon price should be part of that conversation. What’s driving these companies to put their political muscle behind climate action? And will their lobbying make a difference?

Will Business Go To Bat For Climate Policy?

Naomi Klein has had a long career as a journalist. Time and time again, she's seen capitalists take advantage of crises. She saw it when she was a reporter in Iraq, and noticed it again while reporting on the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Now, she's seeing the agents of capitalism rush in to profit off of the Coronavirus pandemic. Our hosts spoke with Naomi about how global "shocks" to the economy are giving the fossil fuel industry big policy wins, and what that means for the battle to reduce emissions going forward. She also comments on Biden's potential policy shift to the left ahead of the general election, and a new documentary that has sparked outrage in the climate community.  

Coronavirus Capitalism w/ Naomi Klein

Hurricane season starts in a few weeks, but officials across the country have their hands full managing COVID-19. Experts suggest we may be on the verge of another wave of infections as states end their stay-at-home orders. So what happens if a hurricane or other major natural hazard hits the US during the pandemic?   We hear from worried local officials as they try to prepare for threats on two fronts.    And with climate change exacerbating natural hazards and infectious diseases, what can the federal government do to be better prepared for an increasingly dangerous world? What does Joe Biden's climate messaging tell us about how he would handle the immediate impacts of the climate crisis? 

Disaster Squared: A Hurricane During the Pandemic

The pandemic continues to wreak havoc on public health and people’s livelihoods. But remember folks, there’s a Presidential election on the other side of all of this. New York Times Columnist Tom Friedman discusses whether Joe Biden will step up on climate if he makes it to the White House, and why mother nature doesn’t care about President Trump's ambitions for the stock market. He also talks about COVID-19's impact on oil prices and how America can wean itself off of foreign oil by becoming a "swing consumer."

Mother Nature vs. Father Greed w/ Tom Friedman

Youth climate organizers were deep in the process of planning a series of mass mobilizations for the 50th anniversary of Earth Day. Then, a global pandemic hit. So they had to completely rethink their approach. They needed to translate an event that included striking in the streets and other in-person actions into something totally digital. In just a few short weeks, would they be able to pull off this kind of Earth Day? And will this new online movement turn out climate voters in the general? Climate 2020 Producer Jaime Kaiser reported this story.

Streets to Screens: Activism in the Pandemic

Hospitals overcrowded. Frontline workers at risk. And everyone else stuck at home. The coronavirus outbreak has laid bare a nation woefully ill-equipped to meet this challenge. If we couldn’t find a way to work together in this moment of crisis — what hope do we have of uniting against the climate crisis? We sat down with Author David Wallace-Wells who describes the layers of government dysfunction that brought us to this one point and what’s waiting for us in the months ahead.

A Tale Of Two Crises w/ David Wallace-Wells

Bernie Sanders has officially ended his bid for the presidency and endorsed Joe Biden. Most of his other former Democratic challengers have now thrown their support behind him too.  But will Biden be able to earn the support of progressive voters and unify the party — and could climate be the lynchpin issue that wins their favor? We spoke to someone who knows a thing or two about this: Former Presidential Candidate and billionaire Tom Steyer. He tells us what he’s learned about prioritizing climate during the 2020 race — and how his money will continue to wield its influence.

Can Biden Unify Dems? Tom Steyer Thinks So

A podcast that makes the climate crisis the top issue of the 2020 presidential election. This podcast is hosted by Years Of Living Dangerously award-winning documentary producer David Gelber and ClimateNexus Founding Director Jeff Nesbit. Climate 2020 was co-created by The Planet Project, Inc., and BOOM, a division of John Marshall Media. It is produced in association with The Years Project, a 501(c)3 climate change communications nonprofit based in New York City.

hubhopper

Episode 44

hubhopper