The impacts of climate change may come fast or slow. A wildfire amplified by drought may rip through a town in a matter of hours, or rising seas may take years to destroy a neighborhood. Health impacts may show up in months, or take the form of devastating cancer rates that rise over a decade. Regardless of speed or intensity, the climate emergency will impact us all. How do we live alongside climate disruption? This story is part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Climate One

Living with Climate Disruption

For many of us, the story of the American wilderness begins when Europeans arrived on these shores and began conquering it. The wide open spaces of the American West loom large in our country’s mythology. But what often gets written out is the history and culture of those native societies who were here to begin with - and whose relationship to this land is very different. And while one-percenters have contributed generously to preserve and protect the pristine wilderness they love, the people who work for them are often struggling, working two or three jobs. How are public and private land interests competing in the American West? Can conservation and recreation coalesce in a way that is inclusive of all communities? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

REWIND: Billionaire Wilderness

Speakers: Julian Brave NoiseCat, Vice President of Policy and Strategy, Data for Progress  Julie Pullen, Director of Product, Jupiter Intelligence  Alicia Seiger, Managing Director, Sustainable Finance Initiative, Precourt Institute for Energy, Stanford University The COVID-19 shutdown has hit women and minorities hardest: four times as many women as men dropped out of the workforce in September 2020, with Latina and Black women seeing the highest levels of unemployment. The Biden Administration’s COVID recovery plans promise to prioritize climate and equity alongside economic growth—can those values carry over to a post-pandemic workforce that doesn’t leave anyone behind? “The solutions to climate expand far beyond simple carbon math,” says Alicia Seiger of Stanford University. How will climate resilience be built into America's economic recovery? Related Links: The American Rescue Plan Data for Progress Jupiter Intelligence Precourt Institute for Energy The All We Can Save Project Waterfront Alliance Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Investing in a Clean and Equitable Recovery

Guests: Sandra Kwak, CEO and Founder, 10Power Donnel Baird, CEO, BlocPower Andreas Karelas, Author, Climate Courage: How Tackling Climate Change Can Build Community, Transform the Economy, and Bridge the Political Divide in America  Summary: As the spring of 2021 arrives, it would be hard to design a more challenging — or more promising — moment for implementing climate solutions. Americans are reeling from an economic shutdown that’s pushed many out of the workforce, and widened the gap between the wealthy and the poor. In this brave new post-Covid world, can President Biden step up where Obama couldn’t?  “I'm delighted about what I'm seeing from the Biden-Harris team,” notes Donnel Baird, CEO of BlocPower. “Climate justice and racial equality are wedded together alongside employment, alongside public health and working our way out of these kinds of four simultaneous crises we’re dealing with.” From big tech to clean energy, what are the opportunities for scaling new solutions — and where do inequity and politics continue to set us back? Related links: 10Power BlocPower Climate Courage Re-volv Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Entrepreneurs Creating an Inclusive Economy

Warmer, shorter winters may sound like an impact of climate change that would inspire more joy than despair. But rising temperatures and decreasing snowpack won’t just transform water supplies and species ranges. It will also disrupt a multi-billion dollar winter sport industry, including the jobs and local economies associated with them.  “If we're not able to ski or snowboard anymore,” says Mario Molina, CEO of Protect Our Winters, “the least of our concerns will be the activities that we participate in.” So how are winter sports enthusiasts and others preparing to weather the storm? Speakers: Elizabeth Burakowski, Assistant Professor, Earth Systems Research Center, University of New Hampshire Kit DesLauriers, National Geographic Explorer; Skimountaineer  Geraldine Link, Director of Public Policy, National Ski Areas Association  Mario Molina, CEO, Protect our Winters Related Links: Protect Our Winters Higher Love: Climbing and Skiing the Seven Summits National Ski Areas Association Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Weird Winters

Guests: Céline Cousteau, Explorer and Filmmaker Davis Guggenheim, Director, An Inconvenient Truth; Founder, Concordia Studio  Cristina Mittermeier, National Geographic Photographer; Co-Founder, SeaLegacy While IPCC risk assessments and emission projections can help us understand climate change, they don’t exactly inspire the imagination or provoke a personal response to the crisis. But a growing league of storytellers is using photographs, films and the human experience to breathe life into the cerebral science of climate change and conservation. So how can films, photographs, and the human experience convey the urgency of the climate story?  “15 years ago we needed to convince people that it was real,” notes director and producer Davis Guggenheim, “and then we need to convince people that humans are causing it. And then you want to convince people that this is the most urgent story of our time.” Guggenheim’s documentaries include He Named Me Malala, Waiting for Superman, and a certain Academy award-winning film with former Vice-President Al Gore. Over the years he’s learned that good climate storytelling requires a delicate balance between a compelling character and a path to action. “We always thought the An Inconvenient Truth was a redemption story about a politician who lost an election,” he says, “and it was his mission in life to tell this truth that he knew.” Sometimes the compelling character in a climate narrative is the filmmaker herself. In Tribes on the Edge, a new documentary that explores the threats to the land, rights, and health of the Indigenous Peoples of the Javari Valley in the Brazilian Amazon, explorer and filmmaker Céline Cousteau reluctantly made herself part of the story.  “I did place myself in front of the camera so that I would create a bridge,” Cousteau says, “so that the audience would follow me as somebody perhaps more familiar, more accessible, the neighbor, and follow me into this adventure.” Other visual artists, like photographer Cristina Mittermeier, try to let the images speak for themselves.  “I don't like photographing indigenous people as if they were encapsulated in the past in a romanticized way that no longer exist,” she says, “they live and walk amongst us and they look like us.” Whatever their methods, these storytellers share a goal of trying to create a more equitable relationship with nature through images and sound. “Do not ever forget that one of your main focus and goals is to shift consciousness,” explains Céline Cousteau, “and you may never know exactly what your films or stories have done, but you need to believe in what you're doing.” RELATED LINKS: He Named Me Malala My Octopus Teacher SeaLegacy Tribes on the Edge Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When Words Aren’t Enough: The Visual Climate Story

Guests: Céline Cousteau, Explorer and Filmmaker Davis Guggenheim, Director, An Inconvenient Truth; Founder, Concordia Studio  Cristina Mittermeier, National Geographic Photographer; Co-Founder, SeaLegacy While IPCC risk assessments and emission projections can help us understand climate change, they don’t exactly inspire the imagination or provoke a personal response to the crisis. But a growing league of storytellers is using photographs, films and the human experience to breathe life into the cerebral science of climate change and conservation. “It's not the blockbuster, big-splash film,” says explorer and filmmaker Céline Cousteau, “It's truth, it’s intimacy, and some of it is ugly and some of it is beautiful.” So how far can images and sound go to inspire a global climate response? Related Links: He Named Me Malala My Octopus Teacher SeaLegacy Tribes on the Edge Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

True to his campaign promise, President Biden dove right into the climate crisis on Day One, signing a stack of executive orders that signaled his determination. But how effective are they?  “Executive orders, I think, are often very splashy when they're introduced, and they get a lot of attention,” notes Axios reporter Ben Gemen. “I think the better way to look at an executive order is sort of firing a starting gun for an extraordinarily long race.” But while he faces certain blowback from Republicans in Congress, there are signs that when it comes to conservative thought, the wind may be changing. What can the Biden Administration accomplish using existing authority? How much will conservatives and businesses step in and step up on climate? Guests: Rep. Kathy Castor (D-FL), Chair of House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis Rich Powell, Executive Director, ClearPath Ben Geman, Energy Reporter, Axios Related Links: House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis ClearPath The Energy Act of 2020 is a step in the right direction (EESI) Biden administration sharpens focus on climate risks to financial system (Axios) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Political Reality of Climate Action

Just two months into 2021, deadly winter temperatures left millions of Texans without water and power. Meanwhile, California is preparing for another year of intense drought, and Wall Street millionaires are moving their remote work to Florida, ground zero for flooding and sea-level rise. “We think about the Earth as a system,” says Marshall Shepherd, director of Atmospheric Sciences Program at the University of Georgia, “so we can't understand climate change unless we understand changes in the Arctic, or in the ocean circulations, or in the biosphere, and so forth.” “Hope or waiting and seeing is no longer a valid risk mitigation strategy." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Temperature Check: Science, Texas, and Climate Chaos

“The long-term energy future of America is not going to be written in fossil fuels,” declared John Kerry last April.  President Biden recently appointed the former Secretary of  State to a top position in his climate cabinet - United States Special Presidential Envoy for Climate. Joe Biden did not start his campaign as the “climate candidate.” But as he starts his second month as president, he is looking at everything through a climate lens – from jobs and infrastructure to international diplomacy, public health and social justice. “He really is a person who was engaged somewhat in climate, but I don't think it was as yet sort of ingrained into him,” said former EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy. “Well, it is now!” McCarthy and Kerry are just two of the climate leaders that President Joe Biden has tapped to put his ambitious climate plan into action.  In this program, we revisit conversations with these and other Climate One guests from the past year that have been named to prominent roles in the Biden-Harris administration.

John Kerry, Gina McCarthy and Biden’s Climate Team

In the past decade, narratives of a dystopian climate future have helped connect people with heroes in worlds decimated by climate disruption and industrial expansion. In today’s real world, scientists are looking to geo-engineering and other human innovations to preserve the wellbeing of life on Earth. “What we’re missing is a way to galvanize people to support policies that are actually gonna change,” says Jeff Biggers, founder of The Climate Narrative Project. So how can climate storytelling help us reckon with our changing environment? Do we need a new climate narrative to help us understand and solve the climate emergency? Guests: Jeff Biggers, Founder, The Climate Narrative Project Elizabeth Kolbert, Staff Writer, The New Yorker Kim Stanley Robinson, Science Fiction Author Related Links: Climate Narrative Project Resistance: Reclaiming an American Tradition The Ministry for the Future Under a White Sky: The Nature of the Future Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Climate Narratives with Jeff Biggers, Elizabeth Kolbert and Kim Stanley Robinson

Experts have warned us that COVID-19 is just one example of climate change-related diseases on the rise. And while climate disruption, environmental health and the current pandemic may seem like three distinct problems, to those in the health and environmental justice field, that’s not the case. "All of them are connected," says Adrienne Hollis of the Union of Concerned Scientists. "And the underlying cause is systemic racism." "If you want to address pandemics, and you want to address climate change, you’ve got to focus on equity," agrees Aaron Bernstein of the Harvard Chan School of Public Health.  "And the solution, and the great news in some ways, is that these actions you need to take are one and the same." How are heat, lack of sanitation, and other environmental issues killing Americans in underserved communities? A conversation on what happens when climate, health, and poverty converge. Guests: Catherine Coleman Flowers, Founder, Center for Rural Enterprise and Environmental Justice; Author, Waste: One Woman’s Fight Against America’s Dirty Secret  (The New Press, 2020) Adrienne Hollis, Senior Climate Justice and Health Scientist, Union of Concerned Scientists Aaron Bernstein, Interim Director, Center for Climate, Health, and the Global Environment at the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health  Related Links: Waste: One Woman’s Fight Against America’s Dirty Secret (Catherine Coleman Flowers) Center for Rural Enterprise and Environmental Justice Mapping Environmental Justice in the Biden-Harris Administration (Center for American Progress) C-Change – Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health Welcome to “Cancer Alley” (ProPublica)

Killer Combination: Climate, Health and Poverty

Experts have warned us that COVID-19 is just one example of climate change-related diseases on the rise. And while climate disruption, environmental health and the current pandemic may seem like three distinct problems, to those in the health and environmental justice field, that’s not the case. "All of them are connected," says Adrienne Hollis of the Union of Concerned Scientists. "And the underlying cause is systemic racism." "If you want to address pandemics, and you want to address climate change, you’ve got to focus on equity," agrees Aaron Bernstein of the Harvard Chan School of Public Health. "And the solution, and the great news in some ways, is that these actions you need to take are one and the same." How are heat, lack of sanitation, and other environmental issues killing Americans in underserved communities? A conversation on what happens when climate, health, and poverty converge. Guests: Catherine Coleman Flowers, Founder, Center for Rural Enterprise and Environmental Justice; Author, Waste: One Woman’s Fight Against America’s Dirty Secret  (The New Press, 2020) Adrienne Hollis, Senior Climate Justice and Health Scientist, Union of Concerned Scientists Aaron Bernstein, Interim Director, Center for Climate, Health, and the Global Environment at the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health  Related Links: Waste: One Woman’s Fight Against America’s Dirty Secret (Catherine Coleman Flowers) Center for Rural Enterprise and Environmental Justice Mapping Environmental Justice in the Biden-Harris Administration (Center for American Progress) C-Change – Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health Welcome to “Cancer Alley” (ProPublica) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

With a new pro-science, pro-climate action administration in the White House, there are more pathways — and far greater political will — than ever before for the clean energy transition. The question is now less about what can be done to act on climate, and more about how soon.  “We have the best opportunity in more than a decade now to see federal climate action through legislation,” says Leah Stokes from UC Santa Barbara. So how quickly can a new administration turn around a gutted EPA, myriad environmental law rollbacks, and a legacy of climate denial from fossil fuel companies? Guests: Michael Mann, Distinguished Professor of Atmospheric Science, Penn State University Leah Stokes, Assistant Professor of Political Science, UC Santa Barbara Related Links: ﻿Executive Order on Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad The New Climate War: The Fight to Take Back Our Planet Short Circuiting Policy: Interest Groups and the Battle Over Clean Energy and Climate Policy in the American States

This Moment in Climate with Michael Mann & Leah Stokes

A decade ago, a nationwide survey showed that only around twelve percent of Americans were seriously concerned about climate change. Today, public perceptions have changed.  “The alarmed are between a quarter and 30% of the public,” says Edward Maibach. “That makes them the largest single segment of Americans…as their name implies, they’re alarmed about climate change.” How does understanding the perceptions of a broadly concerned public enable our leaders to create lasting change? How do climate concerns break down across political, economic, and regional divides? A conversation with Anthony Leiserowitz and Edward Maibach, recipients of the tenth annual Stephen H. Schneider Award for Outstanding Climate Science Communication. At a time when understanding climate perceptions has never been more important, Dr. Leiserowitz and Dr. Maibach have exemplified the ability to be both scientists and powerful communicators through their work on the public’s understanding of climate change, including the seminal Global Warming’s Six Americas project. Guests: Anthony Leiserowitz, Director and Senior Research Scientist, Yale Program on Climate Change Communication Edward Maibach, Director, George Mason University Center for Climate Change Communication Host: Greg Dalton Related Links: Global Warming’s Six Americas Yale Climate Connections Podcast Climate Matters – Jim Gandy Climate Matters in the Newsroom White House Fact Sheet: President Biden’s Executive Actions on Climate Change

Varying Degrees: Climate Change in the American Mind

Greg Dalton is changing the conversation on energy, economy and the environment by offering candid discussion from climate scientists, policymakers, activists, and concerned citizens. By gathering inspiring, credible, and compelling information, he provides an essential resource to change-makers looking to make a difference.