How to Save a Planet

In the coming years, we'll need millions of batteries: batteries to store renewable electricity and power a massive fleet of electric vehicles. But those batteries will require certain metals, and those metals have to be mined. And the mining industry can be a mess, sometimes associated with deforestation, child labor, and deadly floods of toxic waste. Is there a better way? Today we journey to the bottom of the ocean to find out. Along the way, we discover a massive government conspiracy and meet an adorable octopus. Calls to Action: Keep up to date on deep-sea mining news with the Deep-Sea Mining Observer. Learn more about calls for a moratorium on deep-sea mining with the Deep-Sea Mining Science Statement. Check out the Ocean Forum's Ocean Justice Platform (shout-out to our former co-host, Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson!) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcribed - Published: 6 October 2022

Have you ever wondered if you were on the right side of an argument about climate change? Or just want to understand what everyday climate battles are worth fighting? A panel of expert climate judges take on the infamous Reddit thread ‘Am I The A**hole’ to issue judgments on climate-themed dilemmas. Along the way, we debate the ethics of roommate spats, office politics, baby showers and personal finances. Guests: Rollie Williams Calls to Action Better understand how much electricity the various appliances in your home are using. Check out this electricity calculator, to tell you how much electricity you’re using and how much it will cost you depending on where you are within the U.S. If you're in the market for a new heat pump, check out this Forbes article to get a better understanding of cost. Check out this video from This Old House to understand how heat pumps work. Also check out The Database of State Incentives for Renewables and Efficiency. Check out our Calls to Action archive for all of the actions we've recommended on the show. Send us your ideas or feedback with our Listener Mail Form. Sign up for our newsletter here. And follow us on Twitter and Instagram. This episode was produced by Janae Morris. The rest of our reporting and producing team includes Anna Ladd, Kendra Pierre-Louis, Rachel Waldholz, and Daniel Ackerman. Our supervising producer is Matt Shilts. Our editor is Caitlin Kenney. Our intern is Janae Morris. Sound design and mixing by Hansdale Hsu with original music by Peter Leonard and Emma Munger. Our fact checker for this episode is James Gaines. Special thx to Climate ethicist William Lynn. Thanks to all of you for listening. See you next week! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcribed - Published: 29 September 2022

Today we’re sharing an episode of The Carbon Copy, a climate change podcast produced by Canary Media. The topic is extremely timely: heat waves. This summer saw extreme heat blanketing almost every region of the northern hemisphere. And these heat waves aren’t just uncomfortable or inconvenient. They’re deadly. In most years, extreme heat kills more people in the U.S. than any other weather-related disaster. This episode asks: how can we better prepare for these heat waves? Some of the answers are surprisingly simple–and they could help address problems beyond extreme heat. Check out the rest of the series on Spotify or CanaryMedia.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcribed - Published: 22 September 2022

It’s How to Save a Planet’s second birthday! To celebrate, we’re sharing stories of climate action taken by our very own listeners. We'll hear from a listener who ran for an unexpected office, a grandmother who helped save her county’s recycling program, a mom who was inspired to launch a whole new business, and a group of students who took on one of the biggest oil companies in the world – and won. Calls to Action: Do your climate action Venn diagram! You can find a template and other resources here. Send us pictures of your Venn diagram – and when you take action, tell us about that too! Check out our Calls to Action archive for all of the actions we've recommended on the show. Send us your ideas or feedback with our Listener Mail Form. Sign up for our newsletter here. And follow us on Twitter and Instagram. This episode of How to Save a Planet was produced by Anna Ladd and Janae Morris. The rest of our reporting and producing team includes Kendra Pierre-Louis, Rachel Waldholz, and Daniel Ackerman. Our supervising producer is Matt Shilts. Our editor is Caitlin Kenney. Our intern is Janae Morris. Sound design and mixing by Hansdale Hsu with original music from Peter Leonard and Emma Munger. Our fact checker for this episode was Claudia Geib. Special thanks to Sarah Seidschlag and Soham Ray. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcribed - Published: 15 September 2022

America loves its lawns. Altogether, grass lawns in the U.S. cover an area the size of Georgia. So, what does that mean for the climate? And can we do better? To find out, we’re joined by lawn expert and social ecologist Dr. Peter Groffman. He shares some surprising findings from his 20 years studying lawns and the people who tend them. Plus, we address one listener's pet peeve: artificial turf. And we share tips on how to make your yard as climate-friendly as possible. Calls to Action: 1. Check out the Guide to Passing Wildlife-Friendly Property Maintenance Ordinances from the National Wildlife Federation. 2. Ready to tear out your grass lawn? Your state’s university extension service or a local non-profit probably have tips. See examples here from Maryland and Colorado. Check out our Calls to Action archive for all of the actions we've recommended on the show. Send us your ideas or feedback with our Listener Mail Form. Sign up for our newsletter here. And follow us on Twitter and Instagram. This episode of How to Save a Planet was produced by Daniel Ackerman. The rest of our reporting and producing team includes Kendra Pierre-Louis, Anna Ladd, and Rachel Waldholz. Our supervising producer is Matt Shilts. Our editor is Caitlin Kenney. Our intern is Janae Morris. Sound design and mixing by Peter Leonard with original music from Peter Leonard and Emma Munger. Our fact checker for this episode was Claudia Geib. Special thanks to Dr. Cristina Milesi. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcribed - Published: 8 September 2022

In recent years more and more people from Central America have tried to emigrate north to Canada, Mexico, and the United States. Many leave home not because they want to, but because they have to: Droughts, brought on by climate change, have forced many to choose between staying home – and risking starvation – or migrating. But a different way of farming could change that calculus. We look at how climate change is driving immigration, and how climate smart agriculture could help families stay on their land. Learn more about the work that Catholic Relief Services is doing on climate smart ag. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcribed - Published: 1 September 2022

Today we’re sharing an episode of Catalyst, a podcast hosted by Shayle Kann and produced by Canary Media. The topic is a controversial one: solar geoengineering — the idea that we can quickly cool the planet by blocking a small amount of sunlight from reaching Earth. Doing so could have uncertain ripple effects throughout the world’s ecosystems, so very few climate scientists advocate solar geoengineering. Still, learning about these ideas reminds us, for better or worse, how much power we humans have to radically reshape life on Earth. This episode dives into the science and ethics of it all. Check out the rest of the series on Spotify or canarymedia.com Check out our Calls to Action archive for all of the actions we've recommended on the show. Send us your ideas or feedback with our Listener Mail Form. Sign up for our newsletter here. And follow us on Twitter and Instagram. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcribed - Published: 25 August 2022

Work. School. The grocery store. We all need to get somewhere. But how we get there has huge implications for the climate. In the United States, transportation - mainly from cars - makes up roughly a quarter of greenhouse gas emissions. It's true, Electric vehicles help reduce emissions. But experts say that to truly give the climate (and humanity) a chance, we need fewer people reliant on cars of any kind. And that means using alternatives like mass transit, walking, and bicycles. But for a long time in the United States, cycling has gotten a bad rep. They're seen as toys and recreation - not transportation. So, we take a look at how cycling developed its dorky reputation. And, then, we counter it with some propaganda of our own. Because bicycling is not just better for the planet, it's fun, and freeing, and accessible for way more people than you might think. If you like Peter's jingle from the episode, you can download it here. Guests Justin Gonzalez, Bike New York Chantal Hardy,Bike New York Louis Quinones, Bike New York Peter Leonard, Gimlet/Spotify April Streeter, Author, Women on Wheels: The Scandalous Untold Histories of Women in Bicycling Anders Swanson, Plain Bicycle Project Anna Zivarts, Disability Rights Washington Calls to Action: Go for a bike ride. if it's been awhile since you've ridden a bike, go ride a bike - it's ok to take it slow. If you can't ride a bike, Learn to Ride A Bike. In the United States, The League of American Cyclists has resources on where you can find classes. Bike shops and a quick search through your favorite search engine are also great ways to find classes. For people with disabilities, iCan Bike an offshoot of the nonprofit iCanShine offers 5 day bike camps around the United States. If you're willing to try on your own, Bicycling Magazine has a guide. Push for better bike infrastructure. People for Bikes has an online "Advocacy Academy," on about on how to advocate for better bike infrastructure. The whole series is worth watching but we especially want to highlight two videos: Making a Better Bike Lane and Slow Streets are Safe Streets. The League of American Cyclists also has advocacy tools, Bicycling magazine also published this advocacy guide. Dig into your auto club. If you have an auto club membership, like AAA, make sure they are supporting cycling. According to news reports AAA has lobbied against public transit and cycling infrastructure. If you're a member, reach out to let them know you're pro cycling. If you're looking to jump ship altogether - there are alternatives. You can try contacting your auto insurance for roadside assistance or try a third party like Better World Club. They, like AAA, also offer roadside assistance for bikes. Further Reading and Listening The nonprofit AdaptAbility works to get adaptive bicycles in the hands of people with disabilities who could not otherwise afford them. The National Association of Transportation Officials has a guide on designing bicycle infrastructure for all ages and abilities. If you take an action we recommend in one of our episodes, do us a favor and tell us about it! We’d love to hear how it went. Record a short voice memo on your phone and send it to us via our Listener Mail Form. We might use it in an upcoming episode. You can find all the actions we’ve recommended on our show here! How to Save a Planet is a Spotify original podcast and Gimlet production. It's hosted by Alex Blumberg, and this week by me, Kendra Pierre-Louis. This episode was produced by Kendra Pierre-Louis. The rest of our reporting and producing team includesDaniel Ackerman, Anna Ladd, and Rachel Waldholz. Our supervising producer is Matt Shilts. Our editor is Caitlin Kenney. Our intern is Janae Morris. Sound design and mixing by Hansdale Hsu(“she”)with original music by Peter Leonard, and Emma Munger. Our fact checker this episode is James Gaines. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcribed - Published: 18 August 2022

Well, wow. Congress is on the verge of passing the most ambitious climate legislation in U.S. history! Don’t be fooled by its name: the Inflation Reduction Act is a massive investment in clean energy and climate initiatives, aimed at boosting the transition to a low-carbon economy. It also includes some profound compromises. So we called up the smartest climate experts and activists we know to break down this plan – what’s good, what’s not and what’s next? Guests: Dr. Leah Stokes, Professor of Environmental Politics, UC Santa Barbara Rhiana Gunn-Wright, Director of Climate Policy, The Roosevelt Institute John Paul Mejia, National Spokesperson, the Sunrise Movement Calls to Action: If you’re listening to this before the House of Representatives has passed the Inflation Reduction Act - call your member of Congress! You can find information on how to call and sample scripts at Call4Climate.com Interested in the Sunrise Movement? You can check them out at sunrisemovement.org. They’re training organizers this fall for two new campaigns: The Green New Deal for Communities, and the Green New Deal for Schools. If your politics lean more conservative and you’re thinking, “Hang on, why did zero Republicans vote for major climate action?” check out the American Conservation Coalition. They’re focused on convincing Republican office-holders to take climate change seriously. A little older? Maybe headed towards retirement? Check out the new group Third Act started by the journalist and activist Bill McKibben. Look around in your community! Who’s running for town council or the state legislature – or the public utility commission? Ask them where they stand on climate. And if you like what they stand for – get involved! Further Reading & Listening: Check out our episodes How 2020 Became a Climate Election and The Green Wave for more on the Green New Deal and the climate movement Take a listen to Party Like It’s 2035 to nerd out on what it would take to build a zero-carbon power system Want to dig into the details on the Inflation Reduction Act? You can find reports from Energy Innovation, the Rhodium Group and the REPEAT Project, who modeled the emissions impact of the bill Check out our Calls to Action archive for all of the actions we've recommended on the show. Send us your ideas or feedback with our Listener Mail Form. Sign up for our newsletter here. And follow us on Twitter and Instagram. This episode of How to Save a Planet was produced by Rachel Waldholz. The rest of our reporting and producing team includes Kendra Pierre-Louis, Anna Ladd and Daniel Ackerman. Our supervising producer is Matt Shilts. Our editor is Caitlin Kenney. Our intern is Janae Morris. Sound design and mixing by Hansdale Hsu and Peter Leonard with original music by Peter Leonard, Catherine Anderson, and Emma Munger. Our fact checker this episode is Claudia Geib. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcribed - Published: 11 August 2022

WSJ’s Fashion Director Rory Satran explains how Shein-- now valued at $100 billion-- rose to dominate the fast-fashion industry via social media, and why it's now facing intense criticism from sustainable shoppers. To learn more about the climate impacts of fast fashion and ways to mitigate them, be sure to check out our episode Fast Fashion’s Dirty Little Secret (Hint: It’s Oil). Check out our Calls to Action archive for all of the actions we've recommended on the show. Send us your ideas or feedback with our Listener Mail Form. Sign up for our newsletter here. And follow us on Twitter and Instagram. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcribed - Published: 4 August 2022

A listener called in with a dilemma: What's the most climate-friendly thing she can do with her family farm? Her family owns 126 acres of land in the Willamette Valley in Oregon, which she’s going to inherit one day. And she wondered…should I put up solar panels? Try climate-smart ag? Plant trees? So we flew out to investigate, and found people doing some amazing work – from a regenerative bee ranch to reforesting 400 acres of farmland. Tag along on the very first How to Save a Planet House Call. Guests: John Herman from Lazy Z Ranch, Claire Fox from Greenbelt Land Trust, Paul West from Project Drawdown Calls to Action If you want to learn more about regenerative agriculture, check out the Soil Health Institute, this blog post from the World Resources Institute, and our episode Soil: The Dirty Climate Solution The Farm Bill (the big bill that lays out agricultural subsidies in the US) is up for a new version in 2023. If you think the US should offer more incentives to encourage regenerative agriculture, reach out to the House and Senate Agriculture Committees and let them know! If you’re interested in conservation, get to know your local land trust, watershed council, or other conservation organizations and find a way to get involved! They likely have volunteer opportunities, educational programming, activities like tours and hikes, and exciting conservation projects that need your help. Check out our Calls to Action archive for all of the actions we've recommended on the show. Send us your ideas or feedback with our Listener Mail Form. Sign up for our newsletter here. And follow us on Twitter and Instagram. This episode of How to Save a Planet was produced by Anna Ladd and Rachel Waldholz. The rest of our reporting and producing team includes Kendra Pierre-Louis and Daniel Ackerman. Our supervising producer is Matt Shilts. Our editor is Caitlin Kenney. Our intern is Janae Morris. Sound design and mixing by Peter Leonard with original music from Emma Munger. Our fact checker for this episode was Claudia Geib. Special thanks to Laurie Hutchinson. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcribed - Published: 28 July 2022

This week we’re sharing an episode from another Gimlet podcast called Science Vs. When a little girl, Ella Kissi-Debrah, suddenly got sick and landed in the hospital, doctors were stumped. In this episode, her mom, Rosamund, takes on the fight to find out what exactly happened to Ella. And the answer has BIG implications — for us all. We’ll hear from Rosamund Adoo-Kissi-Debrah and Professor Stephen Holgate. Check out GreenRoots to learn more about fighting for clean air. Check the air quality where you live. Check out our Calls to Action archive for all of the actions we've recommended on the show. Send us your ideas or feedback with our Listener Mail Form. Sign up for our newsletter here. And follow us on Twitter and Instagram. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcribed - Published: 21 July 2022

Look inside your retirement savings and you may find some surprises: oil and gas companies, pipeline operators, utilities with coal-fired power plants. It can feel like no matter what you’re doing to combat climate change in your daily life, your money is working against you. So how do you invest without wrecking the planet? Is there such a thing as green investing? And why isn’t this easier to figure out? This week we ask: What does it mean to try to put your money where your values are? Calls to Action First, if you do have a retirement account — find out what you’re invested in! You can go to FossilFreeFunds.org and plug in the names of the funds in your portfolio. They’ll give you a breakdown of the fossil fuel exposure you have right now. Then: Demand better! If you want to go fossil fuel free and you have a retirement account at work that doesn’t offer good options, tell your HR department that you want climate-friendly or fossil fuel free funds added to your retirement plan. The shareholder advocacy group As You Sow put together a 401(k) Toolkit with advice for getting fossil fuel free options added to your retirement plan, and Green Century also created a handy guide. You can do the same if you have an individual retirement account. Tell your asset manager you want high-quality fossil fuel free investing options. The more they hear from their customers, the more seriously they take these things! If you take an action we recommend in one of our episodes, do us a favor and tell us about it! We’d love to hear how it went. Record a short voice memo on your phone and send it to us via our Listener Mail Form. We might use it in an upcoming episode. You can find all the actions we’ve recommended on our show here! This episode of How to Save a Planet was produced by Rachel Waldholz. The rest of our reporting and producing team includes Kendra Pierre-Louis, Anna Ladd, and Daniel Ackerman. Our supervising producer is Matt Shilts. Our editor is Caitlin Kenney. Our intern is Janae Morris. Sound design and mixing by Peter Leonard with original music from Emma Munger and Peter Leonard. Our fact checker for this episode was Claudia Geib. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcribed - Published: 14 July 2022

More than a million soccer fans will travel to Qatar this fall for one of the biggest sporting events on Earth: The FIFA World Cup. The event sounds like it will be a climate nightmare, thanks to all the flights, air conditioned outdoor fields, docked cruise ships and brand new stadiums. But despite all this – the organizers claim this month-long event will be carbon neutral. How can they say that? Thanks to carbon offset credits. On this episode we dive deep into the murky world of carbon offset credits to find out how they work, who makes the rules and what all this means for the World Cup. Guests Suzi Kerr, Chief Economist, Environmental Defense Fund Danny Cullenward, Policy Director, (carbon)plan Derik Broekhoff, Senior Scientist, Stockholm Environment Institute Calls to Action Check out the Carbon Credit Quality Initiative’s handy guide to carbon offsets Curious about the carbon offsets offered by airlines these days? Find out more about where that money is actually going with these guides from Business Traveller and The Points Guy. Check out our Calls to Action archive for all of the actions we've recommended on the show. Send us your ideas or feedback with our Listener Mail Form. Sign up for our newsletter here. And follow us on Twitter and Instagram. This episode of How to Save a Planet was produced by Lonnie Ro. The rest of our reporting and producing team includes Kendra Pierre-Louis, Rachel Waldholz, Anna Ladd, and Daniel Ackerman. Our supervising producer is Lauren Silverman. Our editor is Caitlin Kenney. Our intern is Janae Morris. Sound design and mixing by Peter Leonard with original music from Emma Munger. Our fact checker for this episode was Claudia Geib. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcribed - Published: 7 July 2022

Storage! ...Exciting, right? Ok, we’ll prove it to you. Each day, more and more of our electricity comes from intermittent renewables like wind and solar. To balance out our electric grid in the future, we’ll need new ways of storing extra energy, so we can still turn on our lights when the wind isn’t blowing and the sun isn’t shining. This week, with help from Dr. Leah Stokes and Shayle Kann, we explore the wild world of energy storage, from a hidden underground lair to a piping hot thermos full of poison. And did we mention it’s a gameshow? Guests Dr. Leah Stokes, Professor of Climate and Energy Policy at University of California, Santa Barbara Shayle Kann, Climate Tech Investor at Energy Impact Partners Len Greene, Director of Government Affairs and Communications, FirstLight Power Curtis VanWalleghem, CEO of Hydrostor Dr. Cristina Prieto, Professor of Engineering at the University of Seville Calls to Action Learn more about energy storage Pumped Hydro Compressed Air Molten Salts And for a really wild one: check out Energy Vault Learn more about our electric grid, with our episodes How We Got our Grid and How We Get a Better One and Party Like It’s 2035 We still want to see your climate Venn diagrams! For inspiration, check out ClimateVenn.info. Post your diagram to Instagram and tag us at @how2saveaplanet. We’ll be reposting examples listeners share with us! Check out our Calls to Action archive for all of the actions we've recommended on the show. Send us your ideas or feedback with our Listener Mail Form. Sign up for our newsletter here. And follow us on Twitter and Instagram. This episode of How to Save a Planet was produced by Daniel Ackerman. The rest of our reporting and producing team includes Kendra Pierre-Louis, Rachel Waldholz and Anna Ladd. Our supervising producer is Matthew Shilts. Our editor is Caitlin Kenney. Our intern is Janae Morris. Sound design and mixing by Peter Leonard with original music from Emma Munger. Our fact checker for this episode was James Gaines. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcribed - Published: 30 June 2022

It’s a question we get all the time: “What can I do to address the climate crisis?” This week, our one and only original co-host, Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson, pays us a visit and offers her advice on how to find your place in the climate movement. We’re sharing her TED Talk, “How to find joy in climate action,” given this spring at TED2022 in Vancouver. Plus, Alex and Ayana catch up, and we hear all about what Ayana has been up to since she left the show. Hint: She did always say policy is her love language! Guest: Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson Calls to Action: Make your own climate action Venn diagram! Trying to figure out what you can do to address climate change? Ask yourself: What are you good at? What is the work that needs doing? And what brings you joy? “This is an invitation,” Ayana says. “Find your role, if you haven't already… Averting climate catastrophe: this is the work of our lifetimes.” Need inspiration? Check out climatevenn.info for simple instructions, a template, and examples of climate action Venn diagrams other people have made. When you’re done – tell us about it! Post your Venn diagram to Instagram and tag Ayana at @ClimateVenn – plus tag us at @how2saveaplanet. We’ll be reposting examples listeners share with us! Have you used a climate action Venn diagram to inspire your own climate work? Tell us about it! Send us a voice memo via our Listener Mail Form. We might use it in a future episode! Further Reading / Watching / Listening: You can watch Ayana’s full TED Talk here. To hear the origins of the climate action Venn diagram, listen back to our episode, Is Your Carbon Footprint BS? For more info on the policy efforts Ayana talked about in the episode, check out the Urban Ocean Lab and Ocean Justice Forum You can find more info on Ayana’s collaboration with artists to explore climate futurism via the Headlands Center for the Arts For more climate-related TED Talks, check out TED Countdown. To hear the rest of the talks from the TED2022 conference, follow TED Talks Daily. Check out our Calls to Action archive for all of the actions we've recommended on the show. Send us your ideas or feedback with our Listener Mail Form. Sign up for our newsletter here. And follow us on Twitter and Instagram. This episode of How to Save a Planet was produced by Rachel Waldholz. The rest of our reporting and producing team includes Kendra Pierre-Louis, Anna Ladd, and Daniel Ackerman. Our supervising producer is Matt Shilts. Our editor is Caitlin Kenney. Our intern is Janae Morris. Sound design and mixing by Peter Leonard with original music from Peter Leonard and Emma Munger. Special thanks to TED2022 for sharing this talk with us! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcribed - Published: 23 June 2022

This week we’re sharing an episode from a new podcast called Hot Farm. It’s from our friends at the Food & Environment Reporting Network. The podcast is about what farmers are doing – or could be doing – to take on climate change. In this episode, we’ll hear about the crops farmers actually grow. And we’ll explore the question, Can that change? Because as the world gets hotter and the weather more extreme, we’ll have to reimagine what we sow and harvest — and also what we eat. It won’t be easy. Check out the rest of the series on Spotify or thefern.org. Check out our Calls to Action archive for all of the actions we've recommended on the show. Send us your ideas or feedback with our Listener Mail Form. Sign up for our newsletter here. And follow us on Twitter and Instagram. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcribed - Published: 16 June 2022

In our episode Fast Fashion’s Dirty Little Secret (Hint: It’s Oil), we made the call to action: buy less clothing, and keep your clothing for longer. Some of you may have heard that and thought – “yeah, sure.” It sounds great, but it’s really hard to do, given the ecosystem of desire creation that is social media. How can you buy less when your feed is encouraging you to buy more, more, more? To find out, we talk to beauty influencer Hannah Louise Poston about how social media sucked her into overspending, what it was like to spend a year buying nothing at all, and how she makes beauty content that doesn’t suck people in too. Guest: Hannah Louise Poston Calls to action You’ve heard this one here before: shop less, and keep the things you have for longer. Here are Hannah’s tips for giving that a try: If you see something you want to buy, wait. Put it on a wishlist and revisit it later. Some desires may fade slower than others, but she found during her no-buy year that almost all of those desires faded eventually. Before you buy something, think about what it will look like in 6 months. What will an article of clothing look like after it's been washed 10 times? What will a lipstick look like when it’s covered in bronzer dust at the bottom of your bag? Revel in what you already have. If you want to buy clothes, dress up in something you already own and love. If you want to buy makeup, play with your own collection. Chances are, you already have something similar, or can have a similar experience to buying something new. Hannah’s video goes into detail about these strategies. Check out our Calls to Action archive for all of the actions we've recommended on the show. Send us your ideas or feedback with our Listener Mail Form. Sign up for our newsletter here. And follow us on Twitter and Instagram. This episode of How to Save a Planet was produced by Anna Ladd. The rest of our reporting and producing team includes Kendra Pierre-Louis, Rachel Waldholz, and Daniel Ackerman. Our supervising producer is Matt Shilts. Our editor is Caitlin Kenney. Our intern is Janae Morris. Sound design and mixing by Bobby Lord and Enoch Kim with original music by Peter Leonard, Emma Munger, Bobby Lord, Catherine Anderson, and Billy Libby.. Our fact checker for this episode was Claudia Geib. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcribed - Published: 9 June 2022

Nate Johnson didn’t plan to switch careers. But since he did he’s gone from just writing about the energy transition, to actually making it happen. In this episode, find out what it’s like to become an electrician — and the challenges that could be holding back the decarbonization of our grid. And hear from one company, Solar Holler, that came up with a surprising solution to the issues they were facing. Guests: Nate Johnson, Trainee Electrician Dan Conant, CEO of Solar Holler Calls to Action: Become an electrician! Here's where to start: National Electrical Contractors Association Electrical Training Alliance International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Electrical School Apprenticeships Already an electrician? Become Nate’s instructor at the Peralta Community Colleges. Here’s where to apply: https://peraltaccd.peopleadmin.com/postings/5588 https://peraltaccd.peopleadmin.com/postings/5974 Check out our Calls to Action archive for all of the actions we've recommended on the show. Send us your ideas or feedback with our Listener Mail Form. Sign up for our newsletter here. And follow us on Twitter and Instagram. This episode of How to Save a Planet was produced by Meg Driscoll. The rest of our reporting and producing team includes Kendra Pierre-Louis, Anna Ladd and Daniel Ackerman. Our supervising producer is Matthew Shilts. Our editor is Caitlin Kenney. Our intern is Janae Morris. Sound design and mixing by Peter Leonard with original music from Emma Munger. Our fact checker for this episode was Stephanie Abramson. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcribed - Published: 2 June 2022

Electronics — smartphones, computers, televisions — exact a hefty toll on the planet. One way to lighten their load? Use them for longer. And yet, for decades now, manufacturers have made replacing our gadgets easier than repairing them. But Kyle Wiens, co-founder of the repair website iFixit, has been working to reverse that. He talks to us about why repair matters, why our devices are so hard to repair, and the policies that could change that. Calls to Action Read up on the "Freedom to Repair Act", the proposed federal right to repair bill. Talk to your state or federal representatives (or both) about supporting Right to Repair legislation. Visit yourstatename.repair.org (i.e. california.repair.org or montana.repair.org) to locate your reps and learn more about state actions. Have an old phone gathering dust? Check out websites like Backmarket or Swappa. There you can sell your old phone - our first call to action that might earn you some cash - extending its life. You can also try donating it in your community. Domestic violence shelters in particular sometimes have a need for old phones. If you take an action we recommend in one of our episodes, do us a favor and tell us about it! We’d love to hear how it went and what it felt like. Record a short voice memo on your phone and send it to us via our Listener Mail Form. We might use it in an upcoming episode. Find all the actions we’ve recommended on our show here! How to Save a Planet is a Spotify original podcast and Gimlet production. It's hosted by Alex Blumberg. This episode was produced by Kendra Pierre-Louis. The rest of our reporting and producing team includes Rachel Waldholz, Daniel Ackerman and Anna Ladd. Our supervising producer is Matt Shilts. Our editor is Caitlin Kenney. Sound design and mixing by Peter Leonard with original music by Peter Leonard, Catherine Anderson and Emma Munger. Our fact checker for this episode is Claudia Geib. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcribed - Published: 26 May 2022

We’re bringing you an episode of another Gimlet podcast, Not Past It, which looks at a moment from that week in history and explores how it shapes our world today. On Earth Day, April 22nd, 1971, a commercial debuted starring a crying American Indian. The image stuck in the country’s consciousness. But there were surprising forces behind the ad. Not Past It digs into the powerful players who helped shape how we think about environmental action. You can hear more episodes of Not Past It on Spotify. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcribed - Published: 19 May 2022

“We’re all doomed.” If you’ve ever thought this to yourself while looking down at the remnants of your paper straw floating in your plastic coffee cup (just me?), you may be experiencing climate anxiety. Climate feelings, like anxiety and grief, are on the rise all over the world. And researcher Britt Wray started feeling them herself when she was newly married and started thinking about having children. So she started to study these feelings to learn more about the roots of her climate anxiety, how common it was, and why learning to cope with it is an important step towards taking climate action. Guest: Britt Wray Calls to Action If you’re looking for climate related mental health treatment, the Climate Psychology Alliance has a directory of climate-aware therapists in North America and the UK If you’re looking to connect with others over climate anxiety, check out some Climate Cafe directories here and here, or search “my city + climate cafe” to find one near you. If you want to host your own Climate Cafe, here’s a discussion guide. The Good Grief Network and Climate Awakening also host virtual ways to connect. If you want to try some of the mindfulness techniques that Britt mentioned as a way of stretching your window of tolerance, check out the Free Mindfulness Project and Headspace If you want to check out Britt’s work on climate anxiety, you can subscribe to her substack Gen Dread or check out her book Generation Dread Check out our Calls to Action archive for all of the actions we've recommended on the show. Send us your ideas or feedback with our Listener Mail Form. Sign up for our newsletter here. And follow us on Twitter and Instagram. This episode of How to Save a Planet was produced by Anna Ladd. The rest of our reporting and producing team includes Kendra Pierre-Louis, Rachel Waldholz, Daniel Ackerman, Hannah Chinn, and Meg Driscoll. Our supervising producers are Katelyn Bogucki and Matt Shilts. Our editor is Caitlin Kenney. Sound design and mixing by Peter Leonard with original music from Peter Leonard and Emma Munger. Our fact checker for this episode was Stephanie Abramson. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcribed - Published: 12 May 2022

A quarter of global greenhouse gas emissions come from agriculture and land use – and a big portion of those emissions come from producing meat. Adopting a plant-based diet is one of the biggest steps an individual can take to reduce their own carbon footprint. So, should we all stop eating meat? Or is it more complicated than that? This week, we take a tour through the bodily functions of cows, millions of acres of corn, and the hidden policy that shapes the American food system to answer that question once and for all. (This episode first aired March 25, 2021.) Calls to action: Sign up to track the latest U.S. Food & Agriculture bills here, and contact Agriculture Committee members (House and Senate) about supporting a climate-friendly Farm Bill. Contact the places you eat regularly about providing beef-less options – maybe it’s the cafeteria at work or school, or a community gathering space. Meatless Monday has resources for institutions that want to provide more climate-friendly meals. Get involved with a local organization fighting food insecurity, a mutual aid group, a community garden, or a co-op. For more information: Read the World Resources Institute’s report on Creating a Sustainable Food Future. Read this study about regenerative methods in beef production. Read this study about red seaweed reducing methane in beef production. Check out this data visualization on land use in the U.S. Listen to the Science Vs. episode on vegan diets. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcribed - Published: 5 May 2022

All across the United States, industrial polluters are emitting toxic air... and people who live near those polluters are breathing it in. Kendra spoke to journalists from investigative newsroom ProPublica about the communities most affected by carcinogenic air pollution, often referred to as “sacrifice zones”: where they are, why they matter, and how you can find out if you and your loved ones are living in one. Guests: Al Shaw, Maya Miller, John Beard Jr. Calls to Action: If you want to learn more about Propublica’s series and the sacrifice zones they studied, you can see the entire project on their site here. If you’re interested in finding out whether the place YOU live is on ProPublica’s map, you can see that, too— just search this map by address, city, or zipcode, and see the industrial pollution risks in your area. The EPA data that Propublica’s investigative team used when they made the site is from the Risk-Screening Environmental Indicators model. You can check it out for yourself here. Finally, if you’re interested in going beyond just industrial pollution, Al recommends looking at a database called the National Air Toxics Assessment, put out by the EPA. Check out our Calls to Action archive for all of the actions we've recommended on the show. Send us your ideas or feedback with our Listener Mail Form. Sign up for our newsletter here. And follow us on Twitter and Instagram. This episode was produced by Hannah Chinn. Our star moderator, is Kendra Pierre-Louis. The rest of our reporting and producing team includes Anna Ladd, Rachel Waldholz, Daniel Ackerman, and Meg Driscoll. Our supervising producer is Katelyn Bogucki. Our editor is Caitlin Kenney. Our fact checker for this episode is James Gaines. Sound design and mixing by Peter Leonard. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcribed - Published: 28 April 2022

What can you do if someone you know – or an entire town – isn’t on board with renewable energy? This was the dilemma facing The West Kootenay Eco Society in Trail, a small city in British Columbia. The Eco Society wanted to gain support for an energy pledge, but couldn’t gain traction within the community. Until the Eco Society’s Executive Director got the idea (from a podcast) to send volunteers door-to-door, to have personal conversations about climate solutions. To date, they’ve had over a thousand conversations and they’ve proven that a simple discussion can yield a lot of action. Guests: Montana Burgess, Rebecca Richards, Kade Moroney Calls to Action If you want to give deep canvassing a try, check out the West Kootenay Eco Society, the Deep Canvass Institute, and the People’s Action Campaign If there isn’t a deep canvassing campaign near you, but there’s a local organization you think could use the technique, reach out to them and the New Conversation Initiative, who helped the West Kootenay Eco Society develop their script Check out our Calls to Action archive for all of the actions we've recommended on the show. Send us your ideas or feedback with our Listener Mail Form. Sign up for our newsletter here. And follow us on Twitter and Instagram. This episode of How to Save a Planet was produced by Anna Ladd. The rest of our reporting and producing team includes Kendra Pierre-Louis, Rachel Waldholz, Hannah Chinn, Daniel Ackerman, and Meg Driscoll. Our supervising producer is Katelyn Bogucki. Our editor is Caitlin Kenney. Sound design and mixing by Peter Leonard with original music from Peter Leonard and Emma Munger. Our fact checker for this episode was Nick DelRose. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcribed - Published: 21 April 2022

We're bringing you an episode from a podcast called Threshold. If you've been listening to How to Save a Planet for a while, you know that our focus is exploring what communities, businesses and governments can do to address the climate crisis. But, we do get a lot of listener questions about actions they can personally take and a lot of those questions have been about decarbonizing homes. So, we've decided to share this episode with you. It's called 'Extreme Home Makeover: Threshold Edition' and it follows a couple different people from Livingston, Montana to New York City on their journeys to make their homes more environmentally friendly. You can learn more about Threshold by visiting thresholdpodcast.org. Credits: This episode of Threshold was produced and reported by Nick Mott, with help from Amy Martin and Erika Janik. The music is by Todd Sickafoose. The rest of the Threshold team is Caysi Simpson, Deneen Wiske, Eva Kalea, Sam Moore, and Shola Lawal. Our intern is Emery Veilleux. Thanks to Sara Sneath, Sally Deng, Maggy Contreras, Hana Carey, Dan Carreno, Luca Borghese, Julia Barry, Kara Cromwell, Katie deFusco, Caroline Kurtz, and Gabby Piamonte. Special thanks to Donnel Baird, Elizabeth Yeampierre, Katherine Janda, Joanne Huang, Shamim Graff, and Rebekah Morris. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcribed - Published: 14 April 2022

Militaries around the world emit a lot of carbon, but they aren’t required to report these emissions directly…plus they aren’t exactly known for prioritizing climate change in their projections. Still, if we want to lower emissions and limit global warming, we’re going to need their help. So how exactly do you get an institution whose focus is national protection, to care about climate protection? This week we spoke with retired general Richard Nugee about when he first realized the dangers of climate change, his efforts to put it on the UK military’s agenda, and what it’s like to try and change an organization from the inside out. Guest: Richard Nugee Further Reading Go through Richard’s report and learn more about how the UK Ministry of Defense is approaching climate change and sustainability. Look at the US Department of Defense’s Climate Adaptation Plan, and the US Army’s plan to be carbon neutral by 2050. Calls to action Check out militaryemissions.org, it’s a website dedicated to putting an end to the discrepancies in today’s military emissions reports. If you are in the US military and looking for ways to make a difference, check out the US Army Environmental Command, whose goal is to provide environmental solutions for the Army and the nation as a whole. You can read more about what they do, internship opportunities, and upcoming events. Check out our Calls to Action archive for all of the actions we've recommended on the show. Send us your ideas or feedback with our Listener Mail Form. Sign up for our newsletter here. And follow us on Twitter and Instagram. This episode of How to Save a Planet was produced by our intern Nicole Welch. The rest of our reporting and producing team includes Kendra Pierre-Louis, Rachel Waldholz, Anna Ladd, Daniel Ackerman, and Hannah Chinn. Our supervising producer is Katelyn Bogucki. Our editor is Caitlin Kenney. Sound design and mixing by Peter Leonard with original music from Peter Leonard and Emma Munger. Our fact checker for this episode was James Gaines. Special thanks to Dr. Neta Crawford. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcribed - Published: 7 April 2022

Seaweed and giant kelp are sometimes called “the sequoias of the sea.” Yet at a time when so many people are talking about climate solutions and reforestation — there aren’t nearly enough people talking about how the ocean can be part of that. In part one of our two-part series, we go out on the water to see how seaweed can play a role in addressing climate change, and how a fisherman named Bren Smith became kelp’s unlikely evangelist. (This episode originally aired Feb 18, 2021.) Calls to action: Check out Bren Smith's book, “Eat Like a Fish.” A simple and direct way to help kelp farmers like Bren is to support GreenWave’s work, whose team is building 10 reefs and sponsoring 500 farms in the next five years. Want to start your own hatchery, farm, or underwater garden? Check out the University of Connecticut and Ocean Approved manuals and GreenWave’s Regenerative Ocean Farming toolkit. Finally, if you take an action we recommend in one of our episodes, do us a favor and tell us about it! We’d love to hear how it went and what it felt like. Record a short voice memo on your phone and send it to us at [email protected]. We might use it in an upcoming episode. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcribed - Published: 31 March 2022

To avoid the worst impacts of climate change, we need to stop digging up fossil fuels. But the switch to renewables doesn’t mean we stop digging altogether. Wind turbines contain literal tons of copper and iron. Batteries for electric vehicles contain lithium, cobalt and nickel. All those materials come out of the ground—and we need to dig up more of them to power the switch to renewables. In other words, we need more mining. But mines can wreak havoc on the environment and on communities living nearby. One group of unlikely allies is trying to change that. Today on the show: the global push to make mining cleaner and safer. Guests: Aimee Boulanger, Executive Director of the Initiative for Responsible Mining Assurance Nuskmata, Land Defender, Nuxalk and Secwepemc Nations Jon Samuel, Global Head of Responsible Business Partnerships at Anglo American Jessica Duran, Social Responsibility Coordinator for Carrizal Mining The U.S. Department of the Interior is working to strengthen mining regulations. In the coming months, you can provide public comment on these efforts and make your voice heard! Check out this map of mines—past, present and proposed—from the U.S. Geological Survey. So many mines! Check out our Calls to Action archive here for all of the actions we've recommended on the show. Send us your ideas or feedback with our Listener Mail Form. And follow us on Twitter and Instagram. How to Save a Planet is a Spotify original podcast and Gimlet production hosted by Alex Blumberg. This episode was produced by Daniel Ackerman. The rest of our reporting and producing team includes Kendra Pierre-Louis, Rachel Waldholz, Anna Ladd and Hannah Chinn. Our supervising producer is Katelyn Bogucki. Our editor is Caitlin Kenney. Our intern is Nicole Welch. Sound design and mixing by Peter Leonard, with original music by Peter Leonard and Emma Munger. Our fact checker for this episode is Claudia Geib. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcribed - Published: 24 March 2022

Food waste accounts for 6% of global greenhouse gas emissions. But it turns out composting — the mystical art of turning your food scraps into nutritious organic material that can be used to grow even more food — can help to reduce those emissions. We talk to Domingo Morales of Compost Power about how he found composting, how he’s trying to make it cool, and why he’s building compost sites at public housing developments all over New York City. This episode contains a description of suicide, so please take care while listening. And if you or someone you love is having thoughts of suicide, you can call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1- 800-273-TALK. Guest: Domingo Morales Calls to Action If you have food scraps…compost them! Domingo recommends finding your local food scrap drop off to start – just separate your waste, freeze it so it doesn’t smell, and bring it to a drop off bin If you want to learn how to compost at home, check out: the Compost Power Instagram, the EPA, and SodGod for your classic aerobic compost pile, and Loop Closing to learn about worm bins And if you’re already composting, share it with the people around you Listen to Domingo’s compost rap! Check out our Calls to Action archive for all of the actions we've recommended on the show. Send us your ideas or feedback with our Listener Mail Form. Sign up for our newsletter here. And follow us on Twitter and Instagram. This episode of How to Save a Planet was produced by Anna Ladd. The rest of our reporting and producing team includes Kendra Pierre-Louis, Rachel Waldholz, Daniel Ackerman, and Hannah Chinn. Our supervising producer is Katelyn Bogucki. Our editor is Caitlin Kenney. Our intern is Nicole Welch. Sound design and mixing by Peter Leonard with original music from Peter Leonard and Emma Munger. Our fact checker for this episode was Claudia Geib. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcribed - Published: 17 March 2022

You’ve probably heard of coral bleaching; if you live near a coral reef, maybe you’ve even seen the impacts of climate change on that reef up close. But what — if anything — can we do to keep coral alive? This week, we talk to Julia Baum, a marine ecologist who’s made the unlikely journey from climate despair to climate optimism… and ask her what finally changed her mind about the future of coral reefs. Also: we're planning a special Earth Day episode, and we'd love to hear about the actions YOU'VE taken in response to climate change. Did you plant a tree? Call your representative? Investigate the refrigerants used at a grocery store near you? We want to hear about it! Fill out this form and send us a voice memo about what you did... you might hear your own voice featured on the show! Guests: Dr. Julia Baum, Dr. Dave Vaughan Dr. Dave Vaughan’s book, Active Coral Restoration: Techniques for a Changing Planet Dr. Julia Baum’s study about how she saw corals survive the massive marine heat wave on Christmas How to Save a Planet is a Spotify original podcast and Gimlet production hosted by Alex Blumberg. This episode was produced and co-hosted by Hannah Chinn. The rest of our reporting and producing team includes Kendra Pierre-Louis, Rachel Waldholz, Anna Ladd, and Daniel Ackerman. Our supervising producer is Katelyn Bogucki. Our editor is Caitlin Kenney. Our intern is Nicole Welch. Sound design and mixing by Peter Leonard, with original music by Peter Leonard, Emma Munger, Catherine Anderson, Bobby Lord, and Marcus Bagala. Our fact checker for this episode is James Gaines. Special thanks to Kelson Poepoe and Julia’s team at the University of Victoria. And of course, thanks to all of you for listening. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcribed - Published: 10 March 2022

Whether you consider yourself a fashion maven or not one thing is true: you wear clothes. It's a basic rule of most societies. But in recent years, it's become clear that the clothes that keep us warm in winter and protect us from the sun in summer are also harming the planet. According to the EPA in the United States we threw out close to 13 million tons of clothing in 2018 alone. One factor? Clothes have gotten really cheap. And that's partly because these days much of it is made from fossil fuels. We take a deep look at our clothes, their climate impact, how they got so much oil in them and what we can do about it. Calls to Action Try the Fashion Detox, it's a 10 week break from buying clothes with deep reflection. Learn How to Buy Clothes that are Built to Last Check out the Guppy Friend washing bag Learn more about Extended Producer Responsibility regulations. You can see what is happening in the UK here, and about the concept more broadly here. You can check out FabScrap to learn more about what they're doing around textile waste. Check out our Calls to Action archive for all of the actions we've recommended on the show. If you take an action we recommend in one of our episodes, do us a favor and tell us about it! We’d love to hear how it went and what it felt like. Record a short voice memo on your phone and send it to us via our Listener Mail Form. We might use it in an upcoming episode. Find all the actions we’ve recommended on our show here! Sign up for our newsletter here. And follow us on Twitter and Instagram. Episode Guests Cora Harrington (Instagram: @thelingerieaddict Twitter: @lingerie_addict), Mike Kaback, Jessica Schreiber (Instagram @fab_scrap Twitter: @fab_Scrap) Credits How to Save a Planet is a Spotify original podcast and Gimlet production. It's hosted by me, Alex Blumberg. This episode was produced by Kendra Pierre-Louis. The rest of our reporting and producing team includes Rachel Waldholz, Anna Ladd, Hannah Chinn, and Daniel Ackerman. Our supervising producer is Katelyn Bogucki. Our editor is Caitlin Kenney. Our intern is Nicole Welch. Sound design and mixing by Peter Leonard with original music by Peter Leonard, Emma Munger, Bobby Lord and Billi Libby. Our fact checker for this episode is Claudia Geib. Special thanks to Jesse Feitel. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcribed - Published: 3 March 2022

When we think about what’s heating up the planet, we may picture CO2 from smokestacks and tailpipes. But there are other greenhouse gases that are even more dangerous. And some of these are hiding in garages and sheds all over the country. We’re talking about refrigerants. They’re the secret sauce behind how refrigerators and air conditioners keep things cool. But they’re heating up the planet. This week, in collaboration with NPR’s Planet Money, we take a ride with a couple of guys who tackle these climate threats with a pair of extremely high-tech tools: a van, and some cold hard cash. Then, we talk about the climate solution you could be interacting with every time you buy ice cream. This episode originally aired on October 22, 2020. Also, sign up for our newsletter if you haven’t already! Calls to action Find out what refrigerant your local grocer uses at climatefriendlysupermarkets.org. Check out how the big supermarket chains are doing on HFCs using the Supermarket Scorecard. As for your own household fridge, if you're in the market or know someone who is, choose an HFC-free model. Learn more about how to properly dispose of your fridge, freezer, air conditioners, and other such appliances at the end of their useful lives. Of course, you can always call Tim and Gabe to help with disposal too! Check out their work at Tradewater and Refrigerant Finders. Sign Green America’s Cool It! Campaign petition. While you’re there, find a climate friendly supermarket near you and thank them! If you’re a business owner, submit a letter to the Trump Administration asking them to ratify the Kigali Amendment, the international treaty that sets the phase down schedule for HFCs globally. You would be joining many states, major industry refrigerant suppliers, and elected officials from both sides of the aisle. The AIM Act is a bipartisan bill, supported by both the House and the Senate, that effectively would enforce the same HFC phase down schedule as the Kigali Amendment without needing to ratify it – it would cut HFC use by 85% by 2035! However, it’s likely to be vetoed by the current President. So….vote, specifically, #VoteClimate. And when it comes to local candidates those really matter too for things like public transit and composting and bike lines, so please do a little digging of your own on local candidates. Finally, if you do end up taking one of these actions — do us a favor and tell us about it! We’d love to hear about what you did and what it felt like. So if you do something, record a short voice memo on your phone and send it to us at [email protected]. We might use it in an upcoming episode. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcribed - Published: 24 February 2022

Back in 2003, Dar-Lon Chang took a job as an engineer at ExxonMobil — a job he thought would be focused on transitioning beyond fossil fuels. But over a 16-year career, he found it harder and harder to reconcile the threat of climate change with Exxon’s role as an oil and gas producer. We talk to Dar-Lon about what it was like to work inside the oil giant, what finally compelled him to leave, and what his story means for millions of oil and gas workers as the transition to a low-carbon economy picks up steam. Guests: Dar-Lon Chang Calls to Action Check out the Blue Green Alliance and the Just Transition Fund for ways to support a Just Transition in the US Read Dar-Lon’s profile in Inside Climate News Check out our Calls to Action archive for all of the actions we've recommended on the show. Send us your ideas or feedback with our Listener Mail Form. Sign up for our newsletter here. And follow us on Twitter and Instagram. This episode of How to Save a Planet was produced by Anna Ladd. The rest of our reporting and producing team includes Kendra Pierre-Louis, Rachel Waldholz, Hannah Chinn, and Daniel Ackerman. Our supervising producer is Katelyn Bogucki. Our editor is Caitlin Kenney. Our intern is Nicole Welch. Sound design and mixing by Peter Leonard and Lonnie Ro with original music from Peter Leonard and Emma Munger. Our fact checker for this episode was Claudia Geib. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcribed - Published: 17 February 2022

Today, we’re sharing an episode from another Gimlet Media podcast, Science Vs. This episode fact-checks some claims made in a recent episode of the Joe Rogan Experience, featuring Dr. Robert Malone. As you may know, this episode has caused an uproar: Many scientists have called out the show for spreading false information about the Covid-19 vaccines and some 270 scientists and medical professionals called on Spotify (our employer!) to adopt better policies to mitigate misinformation. Our colleagues at Science Vs jumped in to, in their words, “fact check the bejesus out of it.” This issue is close to home for us at How to Save a Planet because, as a podcast about climate change, we’re acutely aware of the impact of false information and misinformation in muddying the waters and confusing the public – for instance, about climate science. So we’re proud to share this episode from our colleagues, which not only digs into some of the claims made in the Malone interview, but also zooms out to talk about the bigger picture: how misinformation works, and what to watch for if you’re worried about getting sucked in by false information online. It’s also just a great, informative, fun listen. We hope you enjoy it, and we’ll be back next week with a new episode of How to Save a Planet. You can check out more episodes of Science Vs. for free on Spotify. You can also find the full transcript of this show, including footnotes listing all the studies cited in the episode, here. UPDATE 2/11/22: When Science Vs first published this episode, they said that in more than 60 papers they'd gone through, they'd found only one reported case of someone dying from myocarditis after a Covid-19 vaccine. Some listeners questioned this, and they re-checked their work and found several more deaths. The episode has been updated — and thanks to the listeners who picked this up. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcribed - Published: 11 February 2022

How do you get people to care about climate change? Simple: Make a blockbuster movie about it, packed full of the biggest stars in Hollywood. At least, that was Adam McKay’s approach. The writer and director of ‘Don’t Look Up’ joins the show this week to discuss the film, which parodies society’s tepid response to impending disaster. ‘Don’t Look Up’ shattered Netflix viewership records, earning more than 152 million hours streamed in its first week. In making the film, McKay channeled his climate anxiety into action. We ask McKay about his own climate change journey, how he sold Hollywood on his message, and how the rest of us non-movie stars can still make a difference. Also: What’s the deal with the General charging for free snacks?? Guest: Adam McKay Calls to Action: Show us your Climate Venn Diagrams! And just for fun, a list of all the movies we mention in the episode: Don’t Look Up The Day After Tomorrow Waterworld Snowpiercer The Tomorrow War Solarbabies The Ice Storm Breaking the Waves Hoosiers The Mighty Ducks Check out our Calls to Action archive for all of the actions we've recommended on the show. Send us your ideas or feedback with our Listener Mail Form. Sign up for our newsletter here. And follow us on Twitter and Instagram. This episode of How to Save a Planet was produced by Rachel Waldholz and Daniel Ackerman. The rest of our reporting and producing team includes Kendra Pierre-Louis, Anna Ladd, and Hannah Chinn. Our supervising producer is Katelyn Bogucki. Our editor is Caitlin Kenney. Our intern is Nicole Welch. Sound design and mixing by Peter Leonard Lonnie Ro with original music from Emma Munger. Our fact checker for this episode was James Gaines. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcribed - Published: 3 February 2022

For years, we were told it wasn’t possible to link specific weather events to global warming — and that made communicating about climate change difficult: When extreme weather events were in the news, climate change was often left out of the story. This week, we tell the story of how that changed. We talk to the scientists who figured out how to model the role of climate change in events like Hurricane Harvey — the climate detectives who blew the case of extreme weather wide open. Guests: Dr. Peter Stott, UK Met Office; Dr. Friederike (Fredi) Otto, Grantham Institute for Climate Change and the Environment; Dr. Stephanie Herring, NOAA Calls to Action: Help out climate scientists from your couch! Climate scientists rely on accurate weather data to produce and test their models. But lots of historical weather data is still locked away in handwritten records from the 1800s, like old ships’ logs. Now, you can help rescue that data — by transcribing old temperature and weather logs! Check out the project Weather Rescue, which connects volunteers with documents that need transcribing. Especially good if you're a pro at deciphering cursive handwriting... Talk about the weather! If an extreme weather event linked to climate change occurs in your region, talk to your friends and family about how climate change is affecting the weather they’re experiencing. One goal of scientists like Fredi Otto is to help get climate science into the conversation — and that only works if people HAVE that conversation. People like you! Further Reading: You can find more information and recent studies on extreme weather events online at World Weather Attribution Check out Dr. Fredi Otto's book about the development of rapid event attribution, Angry Weather, or Dr. Peter Stott's memoir about his experiences as a climate scientist, Hot Air The American Meteorological Society publishes an annual round-up of the most interesting extreme weather event attribution studies, edited by Drs. Stephanie Herring and Peter Stott. If you liked this episode, you might like some of these past shows: Unnatural Disasters and How TV Weathercasters Went from Climate Skeptics to Champions. If you take an action we recommend in one of our episodes, do us a favor and tell us about it! We’d love to hear how it went and what it felt like. Record a short voice memo on your phone and send it to us via our Listener Mail Form. We might use it in an upcoming episode. Find all the actions we’ve recommended on our show here! Credits: How to Save a Planet is a Spotify original podcast and Gimlet production. It's hosted by Alex Blumberg. This episode was produced by Rachel Waldholz with help from Daniel Ackerman, Hannah Chinn and Nicole Welch. The rest of our reporting and producing team are Kendra Pierre-Louis and Anna Ladd. Our supervising producer is Katelyn Bogucki. Our editor is Caitlin Kenney. Sound design and mixing by Peter Leonard and Lonnie Ro with original music by Peter Leonard, Emma Munger, and Billy Libby. Our fact-checker this episode is Claudia Geib. Special thanks to Dr. Stephanie Herring at NOAA for explaining a lot of this science to us so that we could explain it to you! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcribed - Published: 27 January 2022

Today we’re sharing an episode from TED Radio Hour on NPR, which explores the biggest questions of our time with the help of the world's greatest thinkers. The host Manoush Zomorodi speaks with four ocean experts, including our former co-host Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson, about how to grocery shop for seafood sustainably, how much the ocean has changed over the last century, and how beautiful whale poop is. You can check out more episodes of TED Radio Hour on Spotify, or wherever you listen. This episode was produced by Katie Monteleone, Fiona Geiran, Matthew Cloutier and Christina Cala. It was edited by Sanaz Meshkinpour. Our production staff at NPR also includes Jeff Rogers, Rachel Faulkner, Diba Mohtasham, James Delahoussaye, J.C. Howard and Janet Woojeong Lee. Our audio engineer is Daniel Shuhkin. Our intern is Harrison Vijay Tsui. Our theme music was written by Ramtin Arablouei. Our partners at TED are Chris Anderson, Colin Helms, Anna Phelan, Michelle Quint and Micah Eames. Check out our Calls to Action archive for all of the actions we've recommended on the show. Send us your ideas or feedback with our Listener Mail Form. Sign up for our newsletter here. And follow us on Twitter and Instagram. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcribed - Published: 20 January 2022

For decades, fossil fuel companies have fought action on climate change. They've done so directly – by challenging legislation that would help reign in emissions. But they've also done it indirectly, by funding organizations who lobby congress, launching fake grassroots campaigns, and perhaps most importantly, through advertising. These ads, according to Martin Watters at the nonprofit firm ClientEarth, are greenwashing. They help sow doubt about the fossil fuel industry's role in warming the planet. This week, we take a look at those ads and examine how they stymy the conversation on climate. We also talk to some people working hard to get rid of these types of ads. They aren't going after the fossil fuel companies directly. Instead, they're targeting the people who help fossil fuel companies greenwash their image: the ad creators. Guests: Martin Watters, Duncan Meisel, Adam Lerman Calls to action If you’re an ad professional, you can consider signing onto the Clean Creatives Pledge or even push your company to sign the pledge as well. You can learn more about the pledge here. If you work for a company that is a client of the influential PR firm Edelman, Clean Creatives is running a campaign to get Edelman clients to pressure the company to drop their fossil fuel work. Learn more about the #EdelmanDropExxon campaign here. Check out Ads Not Fit To Print, a campaign pressuring publications to stop running fossil fuel ads. To learn more, read How One Firm Drove Influence Campaigns Nationwide for Big Oil and check out ClientEarth’s The Greenwashing Files. If you want to go even deeper check out this review paper Climate Change Disinformation and How to Combat It. Check out our Calls to Action archive for all of the actions we've recommended on the show. If you take an action we recommend in one of our episodes, do us a favor and tell us about it! We’d love to hear how it went and what it felt like. Record a short voice memo on your phone and send it to us via our Listener Mail Form. We might use it in an upcoming episode. Find all the actions we’ve recommended on our show here! Sign up for our newsletter here. And follow us on Twitter and Instagram. This episode of How to Save a Planet was produced by Anna Ladd and Kendra Pierre-Louis. The rest of our reporting and producing team includes Rachel Waldholz, Hannah Chin, and Daniel Ackerman. Our supervising producer is Katelyn Bogucki. Our editor is Caitlin Kenney. Our intern is Nicole Welch. Sound design and mixing by Peter Leonard and Lonnie Ro with original music from Peter Leonard, Emma Munger, and Catharine Anderson. Our fact checker for this episode was James Gaines. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcribed - Published: 13 January 2022

We asked for your weirdest alternative energy ideas, and you delivered. This week, Alex — plus climate journalists and experts Brian Kahn and Amelia Urry — vet some wacky new ways we could power our planet in the future. Join us as we assess the good, the bad, and the viable… in our very first HTSAP game show. Oregon State University's wave energy testing site The Detroit Zoo’s biodigester updates (plus, this NPR segment on the Brooklyn wastewater treatment site Alex mentioned, and the EPA’s list of far digester projects) Adam Boesel’s Green Microgym initiative Miguel Wattson on Twitter Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcribed - Published: 6 January 2022

This week, we’re talking about oil pipelines. From the fight against Keystone XL to Standing Rock, pipeline protests have been central to the climate movement in the U.S. But they’ve always been about more than just the climate -- they’ve also been a battle for Indigenous rights, demanding that Native American people and Tribes should have a say over what happens in their historic territories. This week, we look back at how pipeline protests have transformed climate activism in the U.S., and we go to the front lines of the latest protests, where organizers are fighting, in their words, “For water. For treaties. For climate.” (This episode originally aired on April 15, 2021). Guests: Melina Laboucan-Massimo, Joye Braun, Jenni Monet, Jamie Henn and Tara Houska. Learn More • For more about Tara and her work, you can: • Check out the Giniw Collective on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram • Watch Tara’s TED Talk: The Standing Rock resistance and our fight for Indigenous rights • You can find more information, including ways to get involved from home, here: https://linktr.ee/stopline3 • You can find the link to a petition asking the Biden administration to step in and do what they can to stop this project here: https://www.stopline3.org/biden • You can find out about the divestment campaign aimed at companies that fund fossil fuel infrastructure here: https://stopthemoneypipeline.com/ Further Reading • You can read or listen to Tara’s essay in the anthology co-edited by Ayana, All We Can Save • Check out the ongoing reporting on Line 3 from Minnesota Public Radio and Indian Country Today. There’s also great reporting from The Guardian, and Emily Atkin at Heated. • Read Louise Erdrich’s essay about Line 3 in The New York Times Check out our Calls to Action archive for all of the actions we’ve recommended on the show. Sign up for our newsletter here. And follow us on Twitter and Instagram. This episode of How to Save a Planet was produced by Rachel Waldholz. The rest of our reporting and producing team includes Kendra Pierre-Louis and Anna Ladd. Our intern is Ayo Oti. Our senior producer is Lauren Silverman. Our editor is Caitlin Kenney. Sound design and mixing by Peter Leonard with original music from Emma Munger. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcribed - Published: 30 December 2021

A common piece of career advice is to bring your whole self to work. But what if your whole self includes a deep concern for the climate? Can you bring that part of yourself to work, even if it makes your workplace uncomfortable? This week we talked to a couple of people, Emily Cunningham and Eliza Pan, who had that same question. They were deeply concerned about the climate crisis and they felt that their workplace, Amazon - yes that one - was part of the problem. So they, along with some of their coworkers, decided to bring their concerns about climate change into the office. This week we learn how Amazon workers pushed the company to act on climate change, how effective it was, and what lessons the rest of us can learn from them. (This episode originally aired May 27, 2021). Guests: Emily Cunningham and Eliza Pan Take Action • Find out what your company is already doing to address climate change. How does what they are doing compare to other organizations in their space? Could they be doing more? • Start talking to your coworkers about climate change. Find the people in your organization who are interested in finding ways to help your company lower its carbon footprint. • Connect with groups in your area that are organizing about climate change. Some places to start looking might be your local chapter of 350.org, and check out this list for more suggestions. Learn More • Read the open that Amazon Employees for Climate Justice wrote to Jeff Bezos • Eliza recommends the book The Long Haul by Myles Horton (who we also mentioned in our episode, Where’s our Climate Anthem) • Check out Amazon Employee’s for Climate Justice’s efforts on their website. You can get in touch with Amazon Employees for Climate Justice at [email protected] • Read the full letter that former Amazon VP Tim Bray wrote about why he resigned in the wake of Amazon terminating some of its employees • Read Amazon’s climate pledge If you take an action we recommend in one of our episodes, do us a favor and tell us about it! We’d love to hear how it went and what it felt like. Record a short voice memo on your phone and send it to us via our Listener Mail Form. We might use it in an upcoming episode. Check out our Calls to Action archive for all of the actions we’ve recommended on the show. Sign up for our newsletter here. And follow us on Twitter and Instagram. Credits: This episode of How to Save a Planet was produced by Kendra Pierre-Louis. The rest of our reporting and producing team includes Rachel Waldholz and Anna Ladd. Our intern is Ayo Oti. Our senior producer is Lauren Silverman. Our editor is Caitlin Kenney. Sound design and mixing by Peter Leonard with original music from Emma Munger.Super special thanks to Rachel Strom for helping with this episode. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcribed - Published: 23 December 2021

At the end of every episode of this show, we give you all calls to action – things that you, our listeners, can do to address climate change. This week, we’re giving ourselves some calls to action, and setting climate action New Year's Resolutions. Oddly enough, they have to do with rats, poutine, Delia’s jeans, and more. Also, Mr. Beast is back with another environmental stunt, and we’ve got an update for you. Calls to Action Set your climate action New Years Resolution! If you’re not sure what to do, try making the climate action Venn diagram we talked about in the episode, Is Your Carbon Footprint BS?!. And once you’ve set one, send us a voice memo about it here! Mr. Beast is trying to raise 30 million dollars to remove 30 million pounds of trash from oceans, rivers, and beaches! Get involved at teamseas.org and check out our episode 20 Million Trees. You can also learn more about what the ocean and plastic have to do with climate change in our episodes An Origin Story of the Blue New Deal and Recyling! Is it BS? Check out our Calls to Action archive for all of the actions we've recommended on the show. Send us your ideas or feedback with our Listener Mail Form. Sign up for our newsletter here. And follow us on Twitter and Instagram. This episode of How to Save a Planet was produced by Anna Ladd. The rest of our reporting and producing team includes Kendra Pierre-Louis, Rachel Waldholz, and Hannah Chinn. Our supervising producer is Lauren Silverman. Our editor is Caitlin Kenney. Our intern is Nicole Welch. Sound design and mixing by Peter Leonard and Lonnie Ro with original music from Peter Leonard and Emma Munger. Our fact checker for this episode was James Gaines. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcribed - Published: 16 December 2021

In public opinion polls, one group of Americans stand out, telling researchers they are particularly skeptical about climate change: white Evangelical Christians. That skepticism has had a major influence on American politics and policy. So how do we bring more people of faith into the climate movement? We talk to a Christian climate scientist about how she became a climate skeptic whisperer, by convincing others not only that climate change is real, but that taking action should be central to their faith. We also talk to a young Evangelical who shares what it’s like to come to believe in climate change...and have to tell your parents. Guests: Katharine Hayhoe, Chief Scientist at The Nature Conservancy, Abigail Zoccola Calls to Action If you’re a Christian listener and you want to bring the conversation about climate change to your church, check out these resources and a bible study from YECA, as well as Katharine Hayhoe’s website Check out Katharine Hayhoe’s new book, Saving Us: A Climate Scientist’s Case for Hope and Healing in a Divided World Abigail recommends reading Laudato Si: On Care for Our Common Home by Pope Francis, and Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer Check out our episode Trying to Talk to Your Family About Climate Change? Here’s How. for tips on having conversations with people you disagree with Check out our Calls to Action archive for all of the actions we've recommended on the show. Send us your ideas or feedback with our Listener Mail Form. Sign up for our newsletter here. And follow us on Twitter and Instagram. This episode of How to Save a Planet was produced by Anna Ladd. The rest of our reporting and producing team includes Kendra Pierre-Louis, Rachel Waldholz, and Hannah Chinn. Our supervising producer is Lauren Silverman. Our editor is Caitlin Kenney. Our intern is Nicole Welch. Sound design and mixing by Peter Leonard and Lonnie Ro with original music from Emma Munger. Our fact checker for this episode was James Gaines. Special thanks to Kyle Meyaard-Schaap and Tori Goebel. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcribed - Published: 9 December 2021

For decades politicians and other leaders have said that acting on climate change comes at too high a cost — to jobs, to business, to the economy. And they've used economics, the dismal science, to support their argument. But some climate activists have long said that those politicians have it all wrong. That there are no jobs on a dead planet. And increasingly, some economists agree. They say that if we're going to have any hope of addressing climate change we need to rethink our relationship to the economy - which is often how we measure a country's well being. And to that, we have to rethink economics. To understand their argument, we talk to Kate Raworth, an Oxford economist, and author of the book Doughnut Economics, about what economics gets right, what it gets wrong, what it needs to do differently to help sustain human life on this planet. And speak with Lead Councillor Susan Aitken, the head of Glasgow, Scotland's city government who is working to take the economic ideas that Kate Raworth has put forward to help her city transition to a healthier more sustainable future. Calls to Action Check out the Doughnut Economics Action Lab to learn more about the work that Kate Raworth and her colleagues are trying to accomplish, or even how to try to bring some of that doughnut economics thinking to your community. Read the study that found that wealthy countries drained poorer countries of their wealth. Learn more about how increasingly, at least some researchers think, We’re Talking About The Cost Of Climate Change All Wrong or by watching Kate Raworth's Ted Talk. Check out our Calls to Action archive for all of the actions we've recommended on the show. Send us your ideas or feedback with our Listener Mail Form. Sign up for our newsletter here. And follow us on Twitter and Instagram. This episode was produced by Kendra Pierre-Louis. Our reporters and producers are Rachel Waldholz, Anna Ladd and Hannah Chinn. Our supervising producer is Lauren Silverman with help from Katelyn Bogucki. Our editor is Caitlin Kenney. Our intern is Nicole Welch. Sound design and mixing by Peter Leonard and Lonnie Ro with original music by Peter Leonard, Emma Munger, and Catherine Anderson. Our fact checker this episode is Claudia Geib. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcribed - Published: 2 December 2021

It’s important to talk about climate change. But how do you talk about it with friends and family who don't believe it's real, or don’t think we can do anything about it? We hear from a father and son who successfully navigated this conversation, and we bring you step-by-step tips from an expert on how to have a conversation where both sides actually hear each other. This episode originally aired in November of 2020. Call to action Talk about the climate! Here are the six steps outlined by Steve Deline with the New Conversation Initiative on how to have difficult conversations about climate change. Step 1 – Set realistic expectations for yourself! Your initial goal should be to lower the temperature around this issue. Even if you just succeed in attempting to talk to them one on one, or expressing a DESIRE to do so, that’s an important step forward! Do NOT set yourself an expectation that you will change how they feel about climate all in one go! Step 2 – Find a buddy! Find someone you trust and feel comfortable with who’s down to be your support before and after having a challenging conversation with a friend or family member. Talk to them about what your fears are, and name some goals for what you’re doing to make this one go different. Step 3 – Find a quiet moment to talk to your family member Ideally do it when you can be one on one, NOT surrounded by the whole family at the actual Thanksgiving table! Be direct and say “Hey, I’d love to find a time to talk more about this.” So that they have a chance to opt in. Step 4 – Listen! When the time comes to talk, start by letting them know that you really want to understand how they feel about climate change. Listen, and ask follow up questions “Tell me more? Why do you feel that way?” But importantly DON’T RESPOND. Don’t engage with the parts that you disagree with. Don’t try to debate or correct information, just give them a chance to talk it out and be heard. You don’t want this to go on forever, but you do want to let them get the crux of their feelings on the subject off their chest. Step 5 – Acknowledge that you disagree Let them know what you think. For example “Got it. So you’re probably not surprised to hear it but I think climate change is real and human-caused” or “I think we should be responding to it in x/y/z ways.” But then most importantly, say “BUT I really want to find a way to talk to you about it openly, and better understand what each other thinks, even if we don’t agree.” In other words, name the elephant in the room – that you disagree – and name it without being upset about it! This helps make it OK to disagree, and be honest and vulnerable, without having to argue. Step 6 – Make it personal. Turn the conversation away from talking points and dueling facts, and towards their life and experiences, and your life and experiences. For example, I might share a story about my friend Laurel, whose sister lost her home to a wildfire in Paradise, CA, and how hearing her story was the first time I felt a knot of fear in my stomach, that my own community in Southern California could be in danger of the same thing. The key here is to share vulnerably, and then talk about how it made you FEEL. And then (most importantly) invite them to do the same. Be prepared that their story could be about how environmentalists or Democrats have negatively impacted someone they know, like someone lost their job or is in danger of doing so. That’s OK too, as long as the story is specific and from their own life. Most importantly ask how that experience made them FEEL – bring emotion explicitly into the conversation. If you have a conversation about climate change, do us a favor and tell us about it! We’d love to hear how it went and what it felt like. Record a short voice memo on your phone and send it to us at how to save a planet dot show / contact. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcribed - Published: 24 November 2021

At the COP26 UN climate talks in Glasgow, Scotland, nearly 200 countries signed a deal aimed at increasing efforts to tackle climate change. The goal? "Keep 1.5 alive" — that is, set the world on a credible path to limit warming to 1.5°C and avoid the worst impacts of climate change. So, did countries succeed? We take you inside COP26: from the protests at the gates to the late night negotiations — and the single word that almost brought the whole deal down. Calls to action How do you get better results at the UN climate talks? By taking action at home! And if your home is the U.S., there’s a particularly effective action you can take right now: Call Congress! Yes, we know, we’ve said it before. But lawmakers are still, right this very moment, debating the “Build Back Better” plan, which includes major investments in renewable energy, electric vehicles and more — and would get the U.S. much closer to meeting its pledge to cut emissions in half by 2030. Not sure how to call? Check out call4climate.com where you can find contact information for your representatives and simple scripts to help when you call. Want to learn more? For more on the history of COPs, the Paris Agreement, and the 1.5°C goal check out our episode, “The Small Island Nations that Got Big Action on Climate” Check out our Calls to Action archive for all of the actions we've recommended on the show. Send us your ideas or feedback with our Listener Mail Form. Sign up for our newsletter here. And follow us on Twitter and Instagram. This episode of How to Save a Planet was produced by Rachel Waldholz. The rest of our reporting and producing team includes Kendra Pierre-Louis, Anna Ladd, and Hannah Chinn. Our supervising producer is Lauren Silverman with help from Katelyn Bogucki. Our editor is Caitlin Kenney. Our intern is Nicole Welch. Sound design and mixing by Peter Leonard and Lonnie Ro with original music by Peter Leonard and Emma Munger. Our fact-checker this episode is Claudia Geib. The man you heard singing in the Darth Vader suit is Jamen Shively. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcribed - Published: 18 November 2021

With flood risk increasing and flood insurance rates likely following suit, it seems like there’s got to be a better way to tackle the challenge. For example: could we make our homes float when the water comes? We’re sharing an episode of Life Raft from New Orleans Public Radio, who talked to an architect who has devoted her professional life to answering that question, and visited a Louisiana community where some people have decided that it makes more sense to temporarily float a house than to elevate it on stilts. You can check out more episodes of Life Raft on Spotify, or wherever you listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcribed - Published: 11 November 2021

The Yurok tribe is reversing centuries of ecological damage to their land and making it more resilient to climate change by marrying two systems that might seem contradictory: indigenous land management practices and modern Western economics. In this episode we talk to Yurok Tribe Vice-Chairman Frankie Myers about how the Tribe recovered stolen land with the help of a carbon offset program, the creative ways they're bringing the salmon back, and the role beavers play in the ecosystem. This episode originally aired in February of 2021. Guest: Frankie Myers Calls to Action Check out Save California Salmon and their advocacy work for Northern California’s salmon and fish dependent people. Check out the Klamath River Renewal Corporation to learn more about the dam removals and restoration efforts on the Klamath River. Look up your address on native-land.ca to find out what land you live on, and learn more about how and why you can use land acknowledgements to insert an awareness of Indigenous presence and land rights into everyday life. If you own land you can donate, contact a local tribe to find out how you can donate land to them. Check out and support the work of Indigenous organizations like the NDN Collective and their #landback campaign, the Native American Land Conservancy, Indigenous Environmental Network, and Indigenous Climate Action. Study the history of Indigenous people – read Custer Died for Your Sins, The Indian Reorganization Act, and other books by Vine Deloria, Jr., and read A Brief History of American Indian Military Service. If you take an action we recommend in one of our episodes, do us a favor and tell us about it! We’d love to hear how it went and what it felt like. Record a short voice memo on your phone and send it to us via our Listener Mail Form. We might use it in an upcoming episode. Check out our Calls to Action archive here for all of the actions we've recommended on the show. Sign up for our newsletter here. And follow us on Twitter and Instagram. This episode of How to Save a Planet was produced by Felix Poon. The rest of our reporting and producing team includes Kendra Pierre-Louis, Rachel Waldholz and Anna Ladd. Our senior producer is Lauren Silverman. Our editor is Caitlin Kenney. Sound design and mixing by Peter Leonard with original music from Emma Munger. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcribed - Published: 4 November 2021

In 2015, the landmark Paris Agreement was adopted. For the first time, nearly every country on Earth pledged to cut carbon emissions to tackle climate change. But in the years since, emissions have continued to rise. Now, an estimated 25,000 people are descending on Glasgow, Scotland for COP26, to hammer out the next steps after the Paris Agreement, and it’s fair to ask...do these climate talks even matter? We argue that yes, they do – and to show you how, we tell an incredible story: How small island nations took on the world’s biggest powers over climate change, and won – changing the world in the process. Guests: Former President of the Maldives, Mohamed Nasheed; Dr. James Fletcher, Former Saint Lucia Minister of Sustainable Development; Prof. Saleemul Huq, Director of the International Centre for Climate Change and Development (ICCCAD); Dean Bialek, COP26 Climate Champions Team Calls to Action Call Congress! Right now, the lawmakers are debating whether to pass what could be the most consequential climate legislation in U.S. history.. Scientists have warned that to keep warming below 1.5 °C, the world needs to cut carbon emissions 45% below 2010 levels by 2030. Congress is currently considering legislation that’s (mostly!) in line with those goals – but lawmakers face pressure to water it down. If you’ve ever thought about calling your member of Congress, now is the time! Not sure how? You can find contact information for your representatives and ideas for simple scripts to help you call at Call4Climate.com This article from the Guardian has more information on what’s currently in the climate package (but keep an eye on the news – it’s changing all the time!). You can find the full breakdown from the White House here. For more tips on calling your representatives (and to hear Alex and Ayana model how to do it!) check out our episode, Is Biden’s Jobs Plan a ‘Skinny Green New Deal’? Check out the Global Day of Action during COP26. Want to make your voice heard during COP26? Check out the Global Day of Action on Nov. 6, with events and rallies all over the world. Check out our Calls to Action archive for all of the actions we've recommended on the show. Send us your ideas or feedback with our Listener Mail Form. Sign up for our newsletter here. And follow us on Twitter and Instagram. This episode of How to Save a Planet was produced by Rachel Waldholz with help from Hannah Chinn. The rest of our reporting and producing team includes Kendra Pierre-Louis and Anna Ladd. Our supervising producer is Lauren Silverman. Our editor is Caitlin Kenney. Our intern is Nicole Welch. Sound design and mixing by Peter Leonard with original music from Peter Leonard and Emma Munger. Our fact checker this episode was Claudia Geib. Special thanks to Ian Fry and Bill Hare and to Mark Hertsgaard of Covering Climate Now. UPDATE 11/02/21: An earlier version of this episode incorrectly stated that in the 30 years since the UN first began negotiating on climate change, we have emitted more greenhouse gases than in all of human history before that. It should state that in the 30 years since the UN first began negotiating on climate change, we have emitted more carbon dioxide (from fossil fuels and industry) than in all the years before that. The episode has been updated. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcribed - Published: 29 October 2021