In This Climate: Recent Episodes
In This Climate
We’re a podcast from Indiana University’s Environmental Resilience Institute and The Media School. We’re here to bring you the scientists working toward solutions, the legislation to watch and the ways you can remain resilient.
Gabe talks with Barbara Buffaloe, mayor of Columbia, MO, about climate challenges and success in her community.
Elizabeth Hillborn's book " Restoring Eden" chronicles her search to discover what was poisoning her wetland.
A discussion with journalist Ryan Martin (State Affairs) about the impact of coal on energy pricing in indiana.
For Climate Week, Gabe interviews climate scientist and communicator Michael Mann about his current activities as a climate communicator.
Gabe talks with journalist Lauen Silverman about her experiences after learning that her child had elevated lead levels.
Kristina Marusic's book "A New War on Cancer" tells stories of those who are working to reduce exposure to cancer-causing chemicals in the enviroment.
The Anthropocene, a period in which environments are fundamentally changed by humans. Jason Kelly, Professor of History (IUPUI) and Director of the Indiana Arts and Humanities Institute explains.
Many projects and policies that could help with climate change stumble on too many decision points, places where ideas can be shot down. Francis Fukuyama discusses his idea of "vetocracy" in relation to climate.
Insects can provide protein, and increased use of them as feed and food may have beneficial climate effects. Gabe Filippelli interviews IUPUI's Christine Picard about her research.
Are top-down solutions the best way to achieve environmental improvements? Author Todd Myers discusses ways to incentivize change at the individual level.
A discussion with Erin Posthumus from the National Phenology Network. They track the seasons through "phenology," the study of cycles and seasons in nature. She tells us if "spring" is really early, and by how much.
As the Forest Service's plan for forest restoration in the Buffalo Springs moves ahead, some citizens are opposed. A conversation with Andy Mahler.
An update about the Buffalo Springs Forest Restoration project in Southern Indiana, with US Forest Service reps Chris Thornton, Marion Mason, and Todd Ontl.
A discussion with David Konisky (O'Neill School, IU) about how the energy transition is proceeding in Indiana.
A discussion of cooperatives and public-owned utilities as a way to provide rural energey, with author Michelle Moore.
Jim talks to Gabe about environmental resilience issues in Indiana, mainly Indianapolis. Urban heat, green insfrastructure, the White River.
Does the history of Indiana shape how Hoosiers relate to the environment today? Conversation with Eric Sandweiss, Professor of History at IU Bloomington
Ellen Ketterson is the founder of the Environmental Resilience Institute at Indiana University. She discusses her chapter in the new book Climate Change and Resilience in Indiana and Beyond.
We talk with Ben Kravitz about downscaled climate models, especially those that are focused on the Midwest and Indiana.
Gabe talks about strange weather and climate chaos. What can we do; what is being done?
To open our fourth season, we chat with Northeastern University professor of sustainability science and policy Jennie Stephens about climate movement leadership and how it needs to shift if we want to see transformative change.
https://www.jenniecstephens.com/
We're just getting into the fall semester here at IU, so what better time to share an episode that examines methods of environmental education. We revisit conversations about infusing contemplative practice into college sutainability courses, about teaching and learning science with high schoolers, about the potential for music to teach lessons about empathy and sustainability and the potential for visual art to bring ecological data to life.
Featured episodes:
Supporting the change agent: https://open.spotify.com/episode/4OgiTMzeQo2jbE5MJ7DGoA?si=-EQV8V4USSmUmzBu9FtIlA
Educating (virtually) for Environmental Change: https://open.spotify.com/episode/4OgiTMzeQo2jbE5MJ7DGoA?si=-EQV8V4USSmUmzBu9FtIlA
Empathy through environmental music: https://open.spotify.com/episode/4OgiTMzeQo2jbE5MJ7DGoA?si=-EQV8V4USSmUmzBu9FtIlA
Engaging with climate through art: https://open.spotify.com/episode/4OgiTMzeQo2jbE5MJ7DGoA?si=-EQV8V4USSmUmzBu9FtIlA
When we think of this summer's deadly heatwaves and each rollout of temperature projections, it's hard to argue that there's anything more obviously horrifying.
So we wanted to go back through some heat-centric conversations from our archive. They're not not sad, but they all circle around the whys and hows of getting here and being here and going forth. We'll hear about migration histories, participatory design, Indigenous knowledge, and how heat interacts with carceral structures, like prisons.
A future for Las Vegas, part 1: https://open.spotify.com/episode/1ufBmcqampB8wIpGswddpQ?si=0b580da9d34e402e
Building resilience through parks, part 1: https://open.spotify.com/episode/6AEA7QXcLRqHHk7CGOYQjb?si=11f5294b83044e4f
The fire season is far from over, part 1: https://open.spotify.com/episode/5VdidRKyRAQ0OgEc3Jqwv6?si=18c2387714cf4b4f
Prison Ecology: the law and beyond: https://open.spotify.com/episode/4UJl8w739LifH2MvQbH5cu?si=3b4de8a4152149b9
"We do have the technology," Shanti tells Jim in this interview. "What we need to do now is to put in place the policy to enable reaching these goals."
Shanti Gamper-Rabindran is the author of America’s Energy Gamble: People Economy and Planet and works at University of Pittsburgh to analyze the economic, legal, and political barriers and opportunities for the energy transition to renewable energy and for economic diversification of fossil fuel-reliant communities in the United States and globally.
The people who form Appalachians Against Piplelines have been resisting the Mountain Valley Pipeline and other extractive, environmentally dangerous projects since 2018, continuing the long tradition of care for the earth and all beings among the mountains.
In this sound-rich audio documentary about AAP's work, Appalachian-grown filmmaker Laura Saunders brings together the stories of folks who have dedicated years of labor, risked arrest, and continue to fight for the wellbeing of their communities.
The ITC team is deeply grateful to all of the storytellers who shared their time, energy, and selves in this episode. See links at the bottom of the show notes to learn more about them.
Thanks also goes to IU's Environmental Resilience Institute for offering High Impact grant funding to pay storytellers like the ones you hear in this episode — those working on the ground toward environmental justice. While our High Impact funding has now come to an end, we at ITC are always happy to collaborate in telling generative environmental justice stories that feel true and useful to the people living them. If you're interested in working together, email itcpod@iu.edu.
AAP Twitter: https://twitter.com/stopthemvp
AAP Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/appalachiansagainstpipelines/
AAP Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/appalachiansagainstpipelines/
Laura Saunders: http://www.saundersdocumentary.com/
Over the past three years (150 episodes!) of In this Climate, some themes and lessons have emerged. One of those is the necessity of more sustainable food systems.
So, this episode, we're pulling interviews from different moments and tying them together for a multidimensional look at how we grow and distribute and consume. We'll hear about Californian water use, local nutrient cycling, unfair coffee trade, and Panamanian campesino land defenders.
Camille Pannu: https://www.law.uci.edu/faculty/lecturers/pannu/
Jason Bradford: https://open.spotify.com/episode/1OBMe3A8erIUcLXCd5TDXZ?si=99d4fadb103d4504
Jessica Eise: https://open.spotify.com/episode/0gLExd4TnGgaRmhKlskcOh?si=75904fcd93f7477d
Marvin Wilcox: https://open.spotify.com/episode/5xj8w9PljHE0z8oUf8Cl3c?si=ab64598768524a49
Wrapping up our tour of community gardens, Curtis Whittaker tells us the story of Faith Farms in the Emerson neighborhood of Gary, Indiana. Over the past nine years, a team from Progressive Community Church has turned a small patch of land into an expansive collection of year-round growing spaces that produce thousands of pounds of produce for a food-insecure community. They've also organized a Junior Master Gardner program and CSA box subscription.
IER story: https://www.indianaenvironmentalreporter.org/posts/from-blight-to-light
Faith Farms Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/faithcdc/
The 2017 and 2024 solar eclipse paths cross over Carbondale, Illinois, a college town in a largely rural region with the highest poverty rate in the state. For some here, in the midst of intensifying climate change and ongoing environmental racism, this moment between eclipses is an opportunity to focus on building dynamic resilience and nurturing community care networks. One element of this resilience is food autonomy, which hinges on a group of community gardens and chicken coops affiliated with Carbondale Spring.
In this episode, we explore the plants, critters, and distribution channels involved in Carbondale Spring's Food Autonomy initiative.
Partisan Gardens: http://www.partisangardens.org/podcast/december-2020-carbondale-spring/
Chicken Tenders (documentary about Carbondale Spring’s chicken coop project): https://vimeo.com/499285968
The Brownfield Between Us (documentary telling the environmental justice story of the tie yard plant in Carbondale Illinois, and its impact on the health and land of local black families): https://carbondalekoppersjustice.com/documentary/
About a year ago, Senate Bill 389 became law, stripping protections for more than 400,000 acres of Indiana wetlands. In contrast, a recent poll commissioned by Audubon Great Lakes reveals that 94% of Hoosiers believe state leaders should either strengthen or maintain Indiana’s current wetland protections.
So, what can be done?
In this episode, we ask why wetlands are important and how we can take action to protect them. Our guest Cassie Hauswald, a freshwater ecologist with The Nature Conservancy, describes the varieties of Hoosier wetlands, the life that thrives within them, how they operate in the hydrologic cycle, and how we can work toward supporting these ecosystems that support us.
The 2017 and 2024 solar eclipse paths cross over Carbondale, Illinois, a college town in a largely rural region with the highest poverty rate in the state. For some here, in the midst of intensifying climate change and ongoing environmental racism, this moment between eclipses is an opportunity to focus on building dynamic resilience and nurturing community care networks. One element of this resilience is food autonomy, which hinges on a group of community gardens and chicken coops affiliated with Carbondale Spring.
In this episode, we learn about how Carbondale’s community gardens have come to be and how they nourish a diversity of beings.
Partisan Gardens: http://www.partisangardens.org/podcast/december-2020-carbondale-spring/
Chicken Tenders (documentary about Carbondale Spring’s chicken coop project): https://vimeo.com/499285968
The Brownfield Between Us (documentary telling the environmental justice story of the tie yard plant in Carbondale Illinois, and its impact on the health and land of local black families): https://carbondalekoppersjustice.com/documentary/
This series of episodes grew out of our January series on year-round local food, in which Stewart from Cedar Valley Permaculture suggested we can meaningfully shift our food system by growing more of our own food.
So how are people making this happen? How are people already coming together to grow both food and new food systems?
Throughout this series, we’ll look at a couple helpful Midwestern stories — one in Carbondale, Illinois and one in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Together, they reveal a breadth of approaches to community gardening that have taught me a heck of a lot and that I hope will inspire you.
This episode, we’re in conversation with Kirk Jones of Project Grow.
Partisan Gardens - Carbondale Spring: http://www.partisangardens.org/podcast/december-2020-carbondale-spring/
Chances are, you've heard the famous call of the loon. In this special release, we introduce the work of Indiana University student Mackenzie Bowlen, who has spent the past semester researching the complex vocalizations of loons.
With agriculture accounting for 10 percent of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, it's easy to argue that farmers need to be involved in our work to mitigate and adapt to intensifying climate change. Hot Farm, a new podcast from the Food & Environment Reporting Network hosted by Eve Abrams, travels across the Midwest, learning from farmers about what they're doing, or could be doing, to improve our relationship with the earth and fellow inhabitants.
Listen to Hot Farm: https://thefern.org/podcasts/hot-farm/
How are Hoosier forests shifting, and what can we do to ensure our cities maintain healthy canopies? In this episode, Jim talks with Burney Fischer, former state forester and co-lead of the Bloomington Urban Forestry Research Group, about the dynamics of urban forestry.
In this show, taped live at Hopscotch Coffee, we talk with Jane Martin, Anagha Gore, and Amy Thompson about the work of ERI and how we can coordinate to improve our relationships with each other and our environment.
ERI Crowdfunding Campaign: https://crowdfunding.iu.edu/climate-change-internships
Recommended Indiana-Native Plants for Attracting Pollinators: https://extension.entm.purdue.edu/publications/POL-6/POL-6.html
Bridging spiritual ecology with urban forestry, we find themes of emergence and the voice of Kyle Lemle. In this episode, he tells us about fasting in the desert as a teenager, turning guns into shovels, supporting community forestry in Bhutan, and training people of many faiths to know and build collective power. Through these stories and more, he helps us understand how land stewardship and social justice work can be acts of love.
Here in Indiana, we talk often about wind and solar, but what could renewable marine energy development mean for people from the Hoosier State to small remote island?
Andrea Copping, a scientist with the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory's Marine Sciences Laboratory, helps us understand the science, collaborations, and potential of several varieties of marine energy.
If you like this, you might want to listen to Just Energy: https://open.spotify.com/show/1IkLxMbUL3EeYTWPjnDlt2?si=2b904bd5d59a414a
Host Gabe Filippelli talks with Paul Harvey about his book and project Plasticology, microplastics in the environment, and how we can deal with our legacy of plastics pollution—which, like most things, is a climate problem.
In this episode, host Gabe Filippelli talks with Laurate Professor Ravi Naidu at the University of Newcastle about environmental contamination, emerging issues, and how to work with industries in a constructive way to help solve environmental problems.
As institutions of higher education aim to prepare students of sustainability and support environmental research, what are we missing? And what does it take to turn our knowledge of chemistry and physics into new ways of relating with the earth? In this episode, Lissy Goralnik and Laurie Thorp of Michigan State University share what they've learned through teaching with contemplative practices.
We've been talking a lot about ecological anxiety and grief, vague and muddy feelings that they are. In this episode, climate emotions researcher Panu Pihkala helps us name and explore what these wide terms hold. An insightful episode from Panu's new podcast: https://climatechangeandhappiness.com/episodes/episode-03-eco-anxiety-demystified
We talk with Ashlee Cunsolo, founding dean of the School of Arctic and Subarctic Studies at the Labrador Campus of Memorial University, about the connective capacity of grief, the role of land in Inuit mental health research, and the relationship between agency and letting go.
Ashlee's site: https://ashleecunsolo.ca/
While we're not in the business of pathologizing feelings toward our changing environment, we recognize those emotions can be difficult to work with. So, in this episode, Leslie Davenport helps us understand what climate-aware therapy is, why it matters, and how we can tend the interactions between our brains and the structures in which we exist.
Leslie's website: https://lesliedavenport.com/
What if the science story and the emotion story are the same story? What could we do if we were to deconstruct the dualism of feeling and acting? In this episode, Sarah Jaquette Ray and Jennifer Atkinson walk us through their research on and experience with climate feelings, from grief to guilt to hope. We work on understanding how we can engage with emotions together to help us get into ever-better relationship with each other and the earth. Sarah Jaquette Ray's reflection on The Unbearable Whiteness of Climate Anxiety: https://gendread.substack.com/p/sarah-jaquette-ray-on-the-unbearable?utm_source=url&s=r Jennifer Atkinson's Facing It podcast: https://www.drjenniferatkinson.com/facing-it
In this episode, Jim talks with Michael Hamburger, a professor of earth and atmospheric sciences, about the letter that Concerned Scientists at Indiana University-Bloomington recently sent to University admonistrators. It includes requests for a formal climate action plan and an implementation planning taskforce of diverse stakeholders. We reached out to IU Director of Media Relations Chuck Carney for comment and received a statement, which Jim reads at the end of the episode.
Stephanie Kaza—a long-time lover of trees, practicing Zen Buddhist, and environmentalist—walks us through some of the teachings and practices of Zen Buddhism that can help us get into right relationship with the earth and ourselves, which as we learn, are not one and not two.
In this series, we ask, how can spiritual connection with our environment help us enter into right and restorative relationship with the earth, including human and nonhuman inhabitants? In this episode, we ask James Keys about his experience and study of wonder, about the many ways we can access, experience, and use this emotion.
In this series, we ask, how can spiritual connection with our environment help us enter into right and restorative relationship with the earth, including human and nonhuman inhabitants? In this episode, we talk with Lisa Sideris about wonder as it relates with science, religion, Rachel Carson, and policy change. We also return to a discussion on the importance of religious and ethical approaches to environmental issues.
In this series, we ask, how can spiritual connection with our environment help us enter into right and restorative relationship with the earth, including human and nonhuman inhabitants? In this episode, we ask environmental ethicist and religious studies scholar Willis Jenkins about the significance of understanding religion in the process of building a better relationship with our environment. We talk about the Lynn White Thesis, Laudato si', understanding Yellowstone as sanctuary, and more.
Back in December 2020, we talked with environmental sociologist Stephanie Malin about the ins and outs of natural gas leasing. Like, how is it that a company obtains rights to drill in the middle of farmland? How do farmers feel about that? And as always, how does money flow and motivate and determine access to political processes? More about Stephanie: https://www.libarts.colostate.edu/people/samalin/ More of her work: https://theconversation.com/profiles/stephanie-malin-318393/articles
There's a new podcast we think you'll want to hear! “Just Energy” is a collaboration between Sanya Carley, an energy justice professor at Indiana University’s O’Neill School, and her master of public affairs students. They explore what energy (in)justice is, its racial and social dimensions, and how to make future energy policy more inclusive by design. Because it’s never just about energy. It’s about people. Here's a link to the first episode of the show: https://open.spotify.com/episode/7moq93E1leU1eq3c7x0pGK?si=4btlrDFkQT-8KXM60GiDew
In this episode, host Gabe Filippelli explains the science of lead's health effects and tells us the story of Thomas Midgley Jr. and Clair Patterson, who respectively put lead into and got lead out of gasoline.
Not all greenhouse gases work the same. While CO2 has a severe long term effect on our climate, methane has much more significant warming power in the near term. And where does methane often escape? Along the natural gas supply chain. In this episode, Jim talks with Environmental Defense Fund scientist Steven Hamburg about all things methane -- where we find leaks and how we can fix them while we move to renewables.
Host Jim Shanahan and David Polly, chair of Indiana University's Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, discuss the politics of preservation, national monuments, and paleontology.
Many of us here in Indiana wonder how we can access local food as the weather gets colder and warm-weather plants go dormant. So, in three parts, we're asking folks near Bloomington how they prepare for and operate in winter.
This episode, we meet Lauren Volpp, who nurtures Three Flock Farm, the Plant Truck Project, the People's Market, and much more. She explains how this distinct farmers market cultivates collective confidence and stability that can build capacity for future winter harvests.
Visit the market website here: https://www.peoplesmarketbtown.org/
Another podcast explaining markets and food justice work in Bloomington: https://blackprogressivespodcast.buzzsprout.com/1806789/9060825-food-justice-locally-ep-5-part-1
What is the health impact of urban heat islands? Is climate change a "cause of death"? How good is med school training on climate issues? Gabe talks with Dr. Jay Lemery of the Univ of Colorado.
Many of us here in Indiana wonder how we can access local food as the weather gets colder and warm-weather plants go dormant. So, in three parts, we're asking folks near Bloomington how they prepare for and operate in winter.
In this episode, we join Stewart Hamilton and Kelsey Campbell for a Friday harvest and chat through lettuce bagging. They talk about the value of local, sustainably grown food and what needs to change in order to build capacity for local growing and eating in future winters.
Gabe talks with Susan Anenberg of GWU about climate change, air quality, COVID and climate and other issues.
If you haven't yet listened to our discussion with Darren Bender-Beauregard, we recommend you do that here! It provides context for Darren’s relationship with the land, how he grows Andean crops in Indiana, the sorts of grants that help his family experiment and educate, and more.
Then, listen to this tour for concrete insights into how Darren and his family channel and encourage ecological abundance.
More on the farm here: https://www.brambleberrypermaculture.com/
Many of us here in Indiana wonder how we can access local food as the weather gets colder and warm-weather plants go dormant. So, in three parts, we're asking folks near Bloomington how they prepare for and operate in winter.
First up, we sit down at Brambleberry Farm with Darren Bender-Beauregard to talk through his family's iteration of permaculture/homesteading, experimentation with unconventional crops, and how we can engage with the many systems of which we're part.
Check out our co-released bonus to take a tour of the farm!
Gabe and Jim review the movie "Don't Look Up" from a scientist perspective. Also a discussion of Midwest tornadoes.
A show about how environmental policy dealt with acid rain, and the beneficial effects in the Adirondacks.
A discussion with Chris Clayton of Progressive Farmer/DTN about ag and climate provisions in the Build Back Better bill. What is the future for those provisions?
A discussion about a proposed forest restoration project in the Hoosier NF.
2:23 Ranger Chris Thornton, HNF
24:00 Kyle Brazil, Central Hardwood Joint Venture
34:11 Steven Stewart, Save Hoosier National Forest
We talk with researcher Seth Wynes about how major league sport travel, affected by COVID, affects energy use. Also, does academic travel affect academic success?
In this episode, Gabe talks with climate and sustainability expert Imran Khalid about COP26, renewable energy, vehicle emissions, and more as they relate to Pakistan's position in a changing climate.
In this episode of our series on reimagining transportation, urban history expert John Fairfield helps us understand how our transportation infrastructure developed and what we can do to modify it in a sustainable direction.
ERI is grateful to our corporate sponsors, the Indianapolis Airport Authority, the McKinney Family Foundation, and Greenworks, which sponsored our recent Indiana Sustainability and Resilience Conference.
In this episode, Jesse Kharbanda sits down with host Gabe Filippelli to talk about the nuances, challenges, and opportunities in Indiana environmental legislation and action. Jesse built this knowledge over more than a decade of leading the Hoosier Environmental Council.
ERI is grateful to our corporate sponsors, the Indianapolis Airport Authority, the McKinney Family Foundation, and Greenworks, which sponsored our recent Indiana Sustainability and Resilience Conference.
When you come across a challenge, what is your first impulse? To add or subtract? And what does it really mean to subtract?
In this episode, University of Virginia professor Leidy Klotz helps us understand the human tendency toward addition and what that means in the context of the relationship between humans and the rest of the earth.
Also, the next event in our Resilience Speaker Series is Friday, November 12, 2021, featuring Dawn O’Neal, executive director of Audubon Delta. We're grateful to Wild Birds Unlimited for making events like this possible by supporting ERI's work and sponsoring this event.
Dawn O’Neal talk: https://eri.iu.edu/news-and-events/events/environmental-resilience-speaker-series.html
Wild Birds Unlimited: https://www.wbu.com/
ERI is grateful to our corporate sponsors, the Indianapolis Airport Authority, the McKinney Family Foundation, and Greenworks, which sponsored our recent Indiana Sustainability and Resilience Conference.
In the 1990s, you could see one bumper sticker across the capital of Azerbaijan: "Happiness is multiple pipelines." Amid ever-complicating conversations about environmental resilience, the themes of diversification, redundancy, and (inter)dependence of energy infrastructure remain relevant. In this episode, we talk with Dr. Adam Stulberg, Sam Nunn Professor and Chair in the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs, about the history of conflict and collaboration surrounding natural gas infrastructure -- and how it all remains relevant today.
In this episode, we dive deep into the history of infrastructure to uncover elements of both hardware and knowledge systems that hold us back from resilience to climate change.
Guest Mikhail Chester provides theoretical insight and lots of tangible examples of people who are figuring out how to improve infrastructure for a world of decreasing stability.
Dr. Chester's book: The Rightful Place of Science: Infrastructure in the Anthropocene
NYT article on Room for the River: To Avoid River Flooding, Go With the Flow, the Dutch Say
In this conversation with researcher, meteorologist, and science communicator Dr. Marshall Shepherd, we cover a lot of ground, connecting inequities in academia to environmental injustices associated with infrastructure and intensifying storms.
Want to tell us what you think? Leave a review and shoot us an email at itcpod@iu.edu!
Did you know that a Koch-funded university think tank actually justified inaction on climate change by arguing that smog serves as a skin-cancer-reducing sunblock?
In this co-produced episode, the UnKoch My Campus team tells the story of working alongside students at George Washington University to push their school administration to address the Regulatory Studies Center, which has been linked to climate disinformation and deregulation — while the university attempts to tout a climate justice initiative agenda.
Hurricane Ida knocked the main New Orleans transmission tower into the Mississippi River, spurring a long-term power outage. Since then, persistent heavy rains have flooded New York subway stations and cascaded to reveal countless vulnerabilities in our critical infrastructure systems.
To explain these vulnerabilities and how we can grow in resilience, we talk with Vanderbilt University infrastructure, risk, and resilience expert Hiba Baroud.
In a splendid blend of art and science, Monika Mondal pulls together sound, perspectives, and quantitative data to explain how changing monsoon patterns and economic pressures are shaping agriculture in Muzaffarnagar, known for its sugar farms and mills in the sugar bowl of India, Uttar Pradesh.
Thanks to grant funding from the Environmental Resilience Institute, ITC is able to pay those working toward environmental justice to tell your own stories, with as much or as little production help as you'd like. Want to pitch or learn more? Email Emily at itcpod@iu.edu or find our DMs @thisclimatepod on Twitter and Instagram.
Season 3 of In This Climate is right around the corner! In anticipation, we're sharing one of our favorite interviews from spring 2021. It's a wide-ranging conversation with person-of-many-hats adrienne maree brown. We discuss connection with place, love, just transition, and more.
In this Air Check, the team dives into the mysterious disease affecting birds in the Eastern U.S. and discusses media rhetoric around extreme weather events in the context of climate change. They focus in on headlines about recent deadly heat in the Northwest.
In this Air Check, the team discusses excitement and concerns in relation to the Ford F-150 Lightning Electric Truck. They also check in on the status of Brood X cicadas.
This episode, we talk with Marion Hourdequin, professor of philosophy at Colorado College. We take our time how and if we can ethically pursue geoengineering research and implementation.
If you want to connect with us, you can find us on social media with the handle @thisclimatepod. Or you can send an email to itcpod@iu.edu. We’d really love to hear from you.
In this week's Air Check, we check in with cicada expert Keith Clay to learn about the emergence of the 17-year Brood X cicada.
Gabe explains how Public Law 180 in Indiana, which operates to restrict the ability of local governments to regulate fuel sourcing and other sustainability measures, fits into a larger pattern of state governments hampering cities' and towns' efforts to engage in climate change solutions.
New Law Restricts Local Governments’ Ability to Address Climate Change: https://www.indianaenvironmentalreporter.org/posts/new-law-restricts-local-governments-ability-to-address-climate-change
In this episode, Jess Dallman introduces us to the transpersonal counseling dynamic and helps us take a look at how we can slow down and move intentionally with the earth. We explore how we can support each other in accessing our inherent wisdom through experience, and through connection with the natural world.
Jess's site: http://www.naturalwisdomcounseling.com/jessica-dallman
Joanna Macy: https://www.joannamacy.net/main
Richard Louv: http://richardlouv.com/books/last-child/
Queer Nature: https://www.queernature.org/
This week, we zero in on U.S. water infrastructure and the legislation and community-engaging projects aiming to eliminate lead pipes from the system.
Biden’s infrastructure plan targets lead pipes that threaten public health across the US: https://theconversation.com/bidens-infrastructure-plan-targets-lead-pipes-that-threaten-public-health-across-the-us-158277
In this episode, we run all over the place, from EPA administration votes in Washington, D.C. to spring in Bloomington to scientific collaboration in the Arctic. But as with our ecosystem, it all turns out to be connected.
In this special Earth Day live show, we discuss food systems from the global to the hyperlocal. Hosts Gabe Filippelli and Jim Shanahan are joined by Cherilyn Yazzie, who helps run Coffee Pot Farms in Navajo Nation, agrarian political economy researcher Shreya Sinha, and Robert Williamson and Victoria Montaño, who work on the Sogorea Te’ Land Trust’s land team.
Coffee Pot Farms: https://www.facebook.com/coffeepotfarms/
Shreya's Twitter: https://twitter.com/phirkie
Sogorea Te’ Land Trust: https://sogoreate-landtrust.org/
When you hear the word leadership, you may think about hierarchy. But it doesn't have to be that way.
In this episode, Laura Calandrella, author of Our Next Evolution: Transforming Collaborative Leadership to Shape Our Planet’s Future, helps us understand the importance of connection and relationship, dialogue and consensus. Her strategy is attentive to history and power dynamics. You know. The sort of long-term principles we need as climate change intensifies and demands greater collective resilience.
Laura's website: https://www.lauracalandrella.com/
This week, Jim and Gabe discuss their reaction to the American Jobs Plan, which claims to aim to "unify and mobilize the country to meet the great challenges of our time: the climate crisis and the ambitions of an autocratic China." They talk budget sufficiency, electric vehicles, and more.
They also lament the brown goo that a late frost made of their magnolia blossoms.
The American Jobs Plan Fact Sheet: https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/03/31/fact-sheet-the-american-jobs-plan/
Dr. Jason Bradford, board president of the Post Carbon Institute and co-host of the Crazy Town podcast, joins us to talk about their third season and his work in/around sustainable agriculture.
We discuss humor's role in dealing with environmental harms, hidden drivers like discount rate, and what it'll take to get more of us involved in local sustainable agriculture.
Crazy Town podcast: https://www.postcarbon.org/crazytown/
What does it mean for policy to be quiet, for policy to successfully tip-toe its way through the U.S. legislative system and contribute to greater sustainability and resilience? Which parts can or should make more noise, and what informs our understanding of what is pragmatic and reasonable?
In this Air Check, Jim and Emily try to work through the concept of quiet climate policy, recently outlined in the context of a post-Covid world by the Breakthrough Institute (https://thebreakthrough.org/articles/saying-the-quiet-part-loud).
We kick off our mental health series with Dr. Susan Clayton, professor of psychology and environmental studies and chair of the psychology department at the College of Wooster. Together, we work to complicate our understanding of emotional engagement with climate, within and beyond the frame of grief and anxiety.
Watch the conversation on Facebook: https://fb.watch/4bJ0fGhrqe/
In this Air Check, professor and biogeochemist Gabriel Filippelli joins us again to talk about what a year in the pandemic has taught us about greenhouse gas emissions and our capacity to change systems. From the graphs to the big ideas, we cover a lot of ground in 15 minutes.
In this Air Check, professor and biogeochemist Gabriel Filippelli joins us again to talk about ice, ocean currents, and what makes the Arctic so different from the Antarctic. We also briefly discuss lobsters. Listen to find out how it's all connected!
Our next live show explores the intersection of climate change and mental health: https://fb.me/e/3zP82ubFf
As utility operators across the country move to weatherize power grids and projections show another dry year for the Western U.S., what should we look out for? What questions should we be asking? Jim and Emily start the conversation.
How do you understand freedom and connection? Responsibility and the anthropocene? And how can we explain them to future generations?
Nathaniel Popkin, author of To Reach the Spring: From Complicity to Consciousness in the Age of Eco-Crisis, helps us think about these questions and more, offering moral, social, and psychological potential for a path to a future spring.
Nathaniel's website: http://nathanielpopkin.net/
What does climate change have to do with freezing temperatures, heavy snows, and overwhelmed utilities? Professor and biogeochemist Gabriel Filippelli joins us to explain.
An Arctic Blast from the Polar Vortex | IUPUI Explains: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4AcubjRHzwY
Jim Shanahan and guest host Ben Kravitz talk with environmental law expert Michael Gerrard and climate engineering researcher Douglas MacMartin about the ins and outs of geoengineering.
See the video: https://www.facebook.com/thisclimatepod/videos/765649801024000
It's almost Valentine's Day, a time for love and examining yet another lifecycle analysis of environmental effects. We also dig into the United States's energy mix and projections.
US energy stats: https://www.eia.gov/
Vox on roses: https://www.vox.com/the-goods/2019/2/12/18220984/valentines-day-flowers-roses-environmental-effects
Wilding Flowers CSA: https://www.wilding-flowers.com/flower-csa
We bring you eight points about the Biden Administration's early work on climate in approximately eight minutes. We also talk about where Janet is and make some recommendations.
Atmos Magazine's Biden climate guide: https://atmos.earth/joe-biden-climate-policy-laws-list/
The Phoenix: https://thephoenix.substack.com/
Imagine 2200: https://grist.submittable.com/submit?utm_source=internalgrist&utm_medium=sitepost&utm_campaign=clifi
Danielle Doggett, founder & CEO of SAILCARGO INC., tells us about the zero-emission ocean cargo ship Ceiba. From mitigating underwater noise pollution to sourcing food for shipbuilders, their sustainability considerations move far beyond what fuel propels the ship.
The SAILCARGO site: https://www.sailcargo.org/
What does a fossil fuel boom town feel like for those living in it? And what's possible once the coal's burned and the wells are dry? In this episode, Rock Springs-raised J.J. Anselmi shares what he's seen and heard in collecting oral histories of the Wyoming boom town. J.J.'s piece in The New Republic: https://newrepublic.com/article/160689/rise-fall-fracking-boom-town-oral-history
Our big question for the series is, why do we extract and burn natural gas? To answer this question, we’re addressing smaller questions around the physical science of hydraulic fracturing/emissions/health effects, ownership of and responsibility for assets, and conflicts (hyperlocal and international) around natural gas.
In this live episode: Keith Hall teaches us about environmental and property law surrounding fracking, Anne Spice explains the context of the Unist'ot'en Village oil and gas resistance, and Sammy Roth runs through some of the biggest natural gas stories in the Western U.S.
Watch the episode on Facebook: https://fb.watch/370C4IJu-S/
Just checking in and looking forward to 2021.
RSVP for our next live show: https://fb.me/e/1UuQB0dwk
Learn more about Grist's cli-fi writing contest: https://grist.submittable.com/submit/
Kristina Marusic, who covers environmental health and justice issues in Pittsburgh and Western Pennsylvania for Environmental Health News, helps us understand how fracking and natural gas affect community health and how one community has responded. Find Kristina's work here: https://www.ehn.org/u/kristinamarusic1
"You're not all that is." In this episode of our spiritual ecology series, Rabbi Sandy Eisenberg Sasso shares stories and wisdom connecting our spiritual existence with our physical environment.
More about Rabbi Sasso: https://jwa.org/rabbis/narrators/sasso-sandy
In this Air Check, Senator-Elect DeAndrea Newman Salvador joins us to talk about North Carolina's 39th District, which she flipped in the most recent election. As the founder of Renewable Energy Transition Initiative (RETI), she also helps us understand high energy burdens and offers insight into lowering them.
Resources:
https://salvadorfornc.com/meet-deandrea/
http://www.energyhero.org/
In this series, we ask, how can spiritual connection with our environment help us enter into right and restorative relationship with the earth, including human and nonhuman inhabitants? Deborah McGregor, who is Anishinaabe from Whitefish River First Nation and a scholar of law and the environment at York University, helps us understand how spirituality and ecology intertwine in ways more complex than we typically articulate.
For further learning: https://iejproject.info.yorku.ca/
In this week's Air Check, Janet explains how and why the EPA is hurrying to finalize rules before a shift in administration.
In this series, we ask, how can spiritual connection with our environment help us enter into right and restorative relationship with the earth, including human and nonhuman inhabitants? By talking with folks from different faith traditions, we investigate what spiritual connection is and how it happens, the composition of the environment, and the potential for spiritual connection to meaningfully affect the destructive human systems responsible for climate change.
In this episode, the Rev. Mitch Hescox discusses his work with the Evangelical Environmental Network, understandings of creation care, and so much more.
Now deep in the holiday season, even in 2020, we have much to celebrate. But, in the U.S. especially, celebration can lead to a spike in emissions and waste from travel (despite CDC recommendations), obligatory gift-giving, temporary decorations, and feasts.
In this episode, we don't tell you to sit alone in a dark room and gnaw on the stems from your windowsill herb garden. Mental and physical health are inseparable and important, so we outline ways to think and act more sustainably while still having a wonderful holiday time.
Some resources!
Priya Cooks a Minimal-Waste Thanksgiving
Reducing food’s environmental impacts through producers and consumers
Composting Is Way Easier Than You Think
In this extended Air Check, political scientist Thea Riofrancos joins us to discuss the historical context of Chilean lithium mining and how it relates to the global movement for a renewable energy future. We touch on the Latin American pink tide, the rise of Indigenous environmental movements, and how supporters of a Green New Deal could effectively maintain pressure on the Biden administration.
Want to let us know what you think? Email us at itcpod@indiana.edu, review us, or message us on your favorite social media platform by searching @thisclimatepod.
In this bonus episode, we share just a little bit of The EPA at 50, an online event sponsored by the O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs and the Integrated Program in the Environment here at IU. It featured host Janet McCabe, Gina McCarthy, Jim Barnes, and Jody Freeman.
The program is edited for time, but you can find the full recording on the O’Neill School Youtube channel.
Also, coming up on December 2, we have a Facebook live show on the topic of spiritual ecology. This one is at 10 a.m. ET, and you can RSVP by going to our Facebook page.
Do you also have questions? Do you have answers? Because we want to know! You can email us at itcpod@indiana.edu or message us on your preferred social media @thisclimatepod.
In the third episode of our post-election series, Bob Perciasepe explains how the Biden administration and the private sector could work together to decarbonize and build resilience. Bob is president of the nonprofit Center for Climate and Energy Solutions and former Deputy Administrator of the EPA.
If you have any thoughts or questions about the show, you can tweet at us or send an email to itcpod@iu.edu.
Jacob and Emily talk through the record-breaking catastrophic hurricanes Eta and Iota, which hit Central America only two weeks apart. We zero in on the why and the what now that could lead to a more resilient future.
Resources:
‘The Ixil helping the Ixil’: Indigenous people in Guatemala lead their own Hurricane Eta response
Storm Eta damage pushes small, indigenous farmers in Central America into hunger
Humanitarian emergency in Central America
In the second episode of our post-election series, Claudia Jimenez discusses how participatory design has led to sustained community investment from Colombia to the Bay Area. As a new Richmond City Council member, she also speaks specifically to the California city's environmental challenges and potential.
If you have any thoughts or questions about the show, you can tweet at us (@thisclimatepod) or send an email to itcpod@iu.edu.
In this Air Check, host Janet McCabe talks with IU professor and recently-named chair of the EPA's Science Advisory Board John D. Graham about his experience in the SAB and what he foresees for the Biden Administration's environmental work, including cost-benefit analysis and the electrification of motor vehicles.
In the first episode of our post-election series, we go live with Robinson Meyer of The Atlantic, Yessenia Funes of Atmos Magazine, Britt Wray of Gen Dread, Dharna Noor of Earther, and independent reporter/consultant Mythili Sampathkumar to discuss the environmental news you need to watch (and how to cope with the associated anxiety) as we move forward.
If you have any thoughts or questions about the show, you can tweet at us or send an email to itcpod@iu.edu.
We voted, and we hope you did, too! On this election night Air Check, we only prognosticate a little bit. We otherwise discuss climate ghost towns, climate refuges or "havens," and the columns on Emily's future home spreadsheet.
Access to fresh, affordable produce varies widely across the U.S., with some of us enjoying yards with soil safe for gardening and others miles from a grocery store. But one thing remains consistent: every tomato, chickpea, and grain of rice carries with it a full lifecycle of environmental impacts.
In this Air Check, we talk about food from seed to landfill (or compost) and where we can look to improve the ways we engage with agriculture on micro and macro levels.
Where strong Alabama activist roots meet inadequate wastewater infrastructure, you find the work of Catherine Coleman Flowers. What began as a fight for improved environmental health in Lowndes County has stretched to connect those fighting for environmental justice across the nation with necessary resources.
In this episode, Catherine talks with host Janet McCabe about the pervasive issue of wastewater, how it intersects with climate change, and what it's going to take to solve these problems.
Check out her new book, Waste: One Woman's Fight Against America's Dirty Secret
If you have any thoughts or questions about the show, you can tweet at us or send an email to itcpod@iu.edu.
In this week's Air Check, we talk about a couple of ballot propositions (Nevada energy and Colorado wolves), why Apple isn't packaging charging adapters with the iPhone 12, and the derecho that swept through Iowa.
If you have any thoughts or questions about the show, you can tweet at us or send an email to itcpod@iu.edu.
Merav Ben-David is a wildlife ecologist at the University of Wyoming. Her specialty? The effects of global environmental change on animals and their ecosystems. Her next move? A run for the U.S. Senate.
In this episode, host Janet McCabe talks with Dr. Ben-David about what it means for a climate scientist to run for office in a state whose economy has long relied on coal.
If you have any thoughts or questions about the show, you can tweet at us or send an email to itcpod@iu.edu.
Does this U.S. election season have your head spinning? In this episode, Grist reporter Zoya Teirstein and LA Times reporter Sammy Roth take us from the national to the local on what's important in terms of the environment.
If you have any thoughts or questions about the show, you can tweet at us or send an email to itcpod@iu.edu.
In this week's Air Check, special guest James Bruggers talks with us about U.S. Senate races in Kentucky, South Carolina, Alabama, and Georgia.
If you have any thoughts or questions about the show, you can tweet at us or send an email to itcpod@iu.edu.
In this bonus episode, we talk with organizers and participants from the award-winning Educating for Environmental Change program. Kirstin Milks, Adam Scribner, Michael Hamburger, LaStelshia Speaks, and Catherine Boileau explain how they've adapted their practices for the challenges we face today.
If you have any thoughts or questions about the show, you can tweet at us or send an email to itcpod@iu.edu.
In this week's Air Check, we talk about propane's cold-weather demand spike, other COVID-environmental backslides, the Affordable Clean Energy Rule, and prolonged Midwestern dryness.
If you have any thoughts or questions about the show, you can tweet at us or send an email to itcpod@iu.edu.
With early voting opening around the U.S. and Election Day just about a month away, we want to dive into the races and issues to watch this season.
In the first episode of our pre-election series, we go live with policy expert Julian Brave NoiseCat and energy/politics reporter Ben Geman to discuss what this year's elections could mean for climate, resilience, and environmental justice.
If you have any thoughts or questions about the show, you can tweet at us or send an email to itcpod@iu.edu.
Not yet registered to vote? If you can, please do that!
In this week's Air Check, we talk about the (former) acting director of the Bureau of Land Management who served unlawfully for 424 days, the scientist running for Senate in Wyoming, and International Coffee Day.
Resources:
Judge removes Trump’s public lands boss, William Perry Pendley, after governor sued
Meet the climate expert running to be the first female scientist in the Senate
Rebuilding the coffee system for resilience
We’ve talked a lot about the ways we incarcerate people and subject them to environmentally unsafe conditions. We’ve told stories and shared statistics and legal arguments. We’ll do some of that in this episode, too.
But the reason we reached out to Mei Azaad with the Campaign to Fight Toxic Prisons, and the reason she called on Malik Washington, is because improving conditions requires action. Mei and Malik know a lot about how to make that happen.
The Campaign to Fight Toxic Prisons: https://fight-toxic-prisons.org/
The San Francisco Bay View: https://sfbayview.com/
In our first Air Check (a short, weekly conversation on current events), we talk through the environmental implications of a changing supreme court, how long Bloomington has been without significant rain, and other weather events with climate change signatures.
This episode, we're taking a deeper look at environmental injustices in an around prisons. How are they sited, what do they emit, and what does all of this mean for people locked inside?
We start with the history of the St. Louis and Central Michigan correctional facilities with Dr. Elizabeth Bradshaw, move through trends with Candice Bernd and legal arguments with Taylor Carpenter, and start the discussion around what can be done to improve conditions.
America's Toxic Prisons: https://earthisland.org/journal/americas-toxic-prisons/
Taylor's legal note: https://mckinneylaw.iu.edu/ihlr/pdf/vol17p229.pdf
This summer, people in United States and beyond took to the streets to demand racial justice. One of the loudest calls was to defund and abolish the police, but not just the police. Abolitionists have long worked to dismantle the broader U.S. carceral state, which imprisons more people than any other nation.
"Abolition has to be 'green.'" Ruth Wilson Gilmore told Chenjerai Kumanyika for the Intercepted podcast. "It has to take seriously the problem of environmental harm, environmental racism, and environmental degradation."
In the first episode of our prison ecology series, we go live with critical environmental justice researcher David Pellow to discuss the intersection of mass incarceration and environmental justice.
If you have any thoughts or questions about the show, you can tweet at us or send an email to itcpod@iu.edu.
In the third and final episode of our land defender series, we talk with Eduardo Brondizio, David Rodríguez Goyes, and Stella Emery Santana about the international systems that have long exploited indigenous land and resources, as well as indigenous and peasant resistance efforts and opportunities to support land defenders.
If you have any thoughts or questions about the show, you can tweet at us or send an email to itcpod@iu.edu.
In the second episode of our land defender series, we talk with land defender Marvin Wilcox and Front Line Defenders representative Adam Shapiro. They walk us through Marvin's story, in which agricultural producers in Panama take on the state and a transnational fruit company to protect their land and health, as well as the patterns commonly encountered by land defenders around the world.
If you have any thoughts or questions about the show, you can tweet at us or send an email to itcpod@iu.edu.
Resources:
ASAMBLEA NACIONAL Ley Nº 55
2019 Dublin Platform Testimony - Marvin Wilcox, Panama
Banapiña: Espada de Damócles sobre los productores del Barú
In this bonus episode, Janet McCabe talks with Scott Russell Sanders, who Kathleen Dean Moore described as "an honest man in a time of lies, a wise man in a time of foolishness, a healer in a time of wounds, and a beautiful writer in a time of ugly rants." He taught English at Indiana University and is the celebrated author of more than 20 books including a collection of essays called The Way of Imagination.
We talk with him about that most difficult subject of solving our environmental challenges, about his most recent book, and about the wisdom he's accumulated over the years.
If you want to reach out with feedback on an episode or with an idea or a pitch, you can send an email to itcpod@indiana.edu. You can also follow us on social media. Our handle is @thisclimatepod. And last but not least, you can leave us a review! It not only helps us, but it helps other listeners find us, and everybody appreciates that.
According to UK-based Global Witness, 14 land and environment defenders were killed in Honduras over the course of 2019, three years after the murder of celebrated Indigenous land defender Berta Cáceres.
In the first episode of our land defender series, we go live with journalist Nina Lakhani to discuss the life of Cáceres and the long campaign against her. We also check in with Indiana Public Broadcasting's Rebecca Thiele, who covers environmental issues in ITC's home state.
If you have any thoughts or questions about the show, you can tweet at us or send an email to itcpod@iu.edu.
In the finale of our first season, we talk with environmental attorney Barbara Freese about her new book Industrial Strength Denial and learn about the mechanisms behind corporate climate change denial.
Positioned in the driest desert in the United States, Las Vegas is one of the nation's fastest-warming cities. In our third episode on its past and future, we focus on the time from 2000 to present, paying close attention to the ways its extractive industries have intersected with each other and examining the possibility of shrinking the city. In this episode: Nicole Huber and Ralph Stern, authors of Urbanizing the Mojave Desert: Las Vegas
Machine learning's potential to assist in climate change mitigation and adaptation is vast, but as with any developing technologies, so are the challenges. In this episode, we talk with journalist David Silverberg and Parity CEO Brad Pilgrim about the ways we can use and improve artificial intelligence to fight climate change from all directions.
A year after Intense Tropical Cyclone Idai made landfall in southern Africa, communities in Zimbabwe continue to feel the storm's effects. For many, the trauma is physical, emotional, and spiritual, necessitating mental health care that has become increasingly inaccessible since the country's economic crash.
In this bonus episode, we talk with freelance journalist Ray Mwareya, who grew up in hard-hit Chimanimani and wrote a feature story on the subject.
Listeners, we have a question. How are you feeling about climate change, about the environment? You can let us know by emailing us at itcpod@indiana.edu.
In this episode, we examine just that—the emotions that can make commitment to climate action difficult and the strategies useful in supporting each other as we reimagine and create a more sustainable future.
In this episode:
Renée Lertzman
Shahzeen Attari
Robert Frank
Observing art can help us relate to environmental issues and move us emotionally, but what happens when we take the next step and begin creating art? In this episode, we look at the multi-level potential for art to help us engage in climate commitment.
4:00 - Patrick Chandler
24:30 - Jill Pelto
On the 50th anniversary of Earth Day, we went live on Facebook to reflect on historical Earth Days and discuss present issues in environmental health and climate communications. 6:45 - James Capshew and Ellen Ketterson 25:45 - Janet McCabe and Stephen Jay 39:30 - Jim Shanahan and Enrique Saenz
On the long list of lives changed by Arctic warming are sled dogs. This episode, we're featuring a story by Elisa Shoenberger that dives into how the sport of mushing is changing along with the climate. We also dip into our vault to take another look at the 2019 Arctic fire season, from Alaska to Siberia, from fire ecology to the politics of air quality. 2:00 - Sled dog feature by Elisa Shoenberger 10:15 - Nancy Fresco 15:00 - Petr Ivanov
In this bonus episode, IU O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs professor David Konisky helps us understand the modern environmental justice movement in the context of its history.
As early as the 1930s, lakes in the Adirondacks began registering fish loss. By the 1980s, visible forest dieback turned the attention of the United States to the acid rain crisis. Today, scientists are observing the biological recovery of the region.
This is the story of how it all happened.
In this episode:
Joe Goffman, Executive Director of the Harvard Environmental & Energy Law Program
Dan Josephson, long-time Cornell University Adirondack Fishery Research Program biologist
When we learned about the storm-resilient Hunter's Point South Park, we immediately took interest in the resilience potential of urban public space. Then came the questions. How can we manage public space to work in line with local ecology and protect residents from the effects of climate change, all while respecting neighborhood identity and keeping that space truly public? In this two-part series, we look for answers.
In this series:
Joe Jarzen, Keep Indianapolis Beautiful vice president of program strategy
Ethan Olson, Keep Indianapolis Beautiful director of native landscapes
Heather Reynolds, Indiana University biology professor and ecologist
Tom Balsley, SWA/Balsley landscape architect
Irene Ogata, Tucson Water urban landscape manager
Aaron Sawatsky-Kingsley, Goshen city forester and director of environmental resilience
When we learned about the storm-resilient Hunter's Point South Park, we immediately took interest in the resilience potential of urban public space. Then came the questions. How can we manage public space to work in line with local ecology and protect residents from the effects of climate change, all while respecting neighborhood identity and keeping that space truly public? In this two-part series, we look for answers.
In this series:
Joe Jarzen, Keep Indianapolis Beautiful vice president of program strategy
Ethan Olson, Keep Indianapolis Beautiful director of native landscapes
Heather Reynolds, Indiana University biology professor and ecologist
Tom Balsley, SWA/Balsley landscape architect
Irene Ogata, Tucson Water urban landscape manager
Aaron Sawatsky-Kingsley, Goshen city forester and director of environmental resilience
Positioned in the driest desert in the United States, Las Vegas is one of the nation's fastest-warming cities. In our second episode, we look past the current urban landscape to the potential of a redesigned city.
In this series:
Sondra Cosgrove, College of Southern Nevada history professor and League of Women Voters NV president
Chris Milly, USGS research hydrologist
Steffen Lehmann, UNLV School of Architecture director
Positioned in the driest desert in the United States, Las Vegas is one of the nation's fastest-warming cities. In our first episode, we focus on the intertwined environmental, indigenous, and settler histories of the region, with an eye on what might be informative for the future.
In this series:
Sondra Cosgrove, College of Southern Nevada history professor and League of Women Voters NV president
Chris Milly, USGS research hydrologist
Steffen Lehmann, UNLV School of Architecture director
The Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco hosted in late 2019 the Fed's first conference focused on climate change. There, researchers presented on topics ranging from the effects of climate change on the global workforce to the interaction between pollution and interest rate. But the day kicked off with one series of questions: why this and why now? In this episode, with the help of Reuters reporter Ann Saphir, we examine central banking's climate risks and the Fed's engagement with those issues.
The legacy of environmental (in)justice stretches beyond the commencement of the industrial revolution, and according to long-time community organizer Peggy Shepard, it remains among the greatest challenges of the next generation. This episode, we discuss the definition of environmental justice, how it tends to play out for regulators, and examples of communities around the world standing up for fair distribution of environmental burdens.
Millions of gallons of oil leaked into the ground under Greenpoint, adding a sheen to Newtown Creek and a substance like "black mayonnaise" to the yards of the neighborhood's working class residents. More than 20 years later, the Coast Guard officially discovered the spill. The chain of events that followed prompted the Just Green Enough strategy, which uncouples remediation and resilience from luxury development and contests the inevitability of displacement in green gentrification scenarios.
In our second episode on climate gentrification, we look at the case of the Greenpoint neighborhood in Brooklyn, including the history that got us to this point and what we can learn from the people there.
In this episode:
Winifred Curran, DePaul University
Trina Hamilton, University at Buffalo
Long-time residents of higher-elevation Miami neighborhoods have anticipated for decades an influx of wealthy people retreating from flood-prone areas. Then, as it finally began to happen, as households and businesses began to face displacement, as public understanding of climate change swelled, the long-time residents received little assistance. Despite the late 2018 adoption of a City resolution to study climate gentrification—the first of its kind in the U.S.—community activists continue to push the city for substantive action.
In our first episode on climate gentrification, we look at the case of Miami-Dade County, including the history that got us to this point and potential solutions moving forward.
In this episode:
Alex Harris, Miami Herald climate change reporter
Jesse Keenan, professor in the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University, with a joint appointment at the John F. Kennedy School of Government in Science, Technology and Public Policy
For thousands of generations, people have connected with their environments through music. They've developed ecological empathy, communicated with the divine, and passed their understandings through space and time.
Today, from Frank Waln's "Oil 4 Blood" to Billie Eilish's climate-tinged "All the Good Girls Go to Hell," popular artists continue to weave environmental activism into their art. Simultaneously, local artists foster space where people can engage collectively in the tradition of environmental music. In this episode, we continue to explore what all of that means, from Northern Indiana to rural Haiti.
2:00 - George Schricker, long-time music educator
11:30 - Rebecca Dirksen, ethnomusicologist
17:00 - Carrie Newcomer, American folk musician
For thousands of generations, people have connected with their environments through music. They've developed ecological empathy, communicated with the divine, and passed their understandings through space and time.
Today, from Frank Waln's "Oil 4 Blood" to Billie Eilish's climate-tinged "All the Good Girls Go to Hell," popular artists continue to weave environmental activism into their art. Simultaneously, local artists foster space where people can engage collectively in the tradition of environmental music. In this episode, we begin to explore what all of that means, from Northern Indiana to rural Haiti.
3:15 - Carrie Newcomer, American folk musician
8:45 - George Schricker, long-time music educator
15:30 - Rebecca Dirksen, ethnomusicologist
In our second episode covering this season's Australian bushfires, we discuss effects on wildlife and communities, whether in the fire zone or choked by smoke. Then, we turn to the generative and unifying role of artists near and far in times of crisis.
If you are interested in supporting the ongoing work to protect and recover Australia's wildlife, a couple options mentioned in the episode are Kangaroo Island Land for Wildlife and the Wildlife Information Rescue and Education Service (WIRES).
3:30 - Amy, who cares for lots of animals, including a Quaker parrot and his friends just outside Canberra
13:15 - Jessica Thomas, creator of Birdstrips
In our first episode covering this season's Australian bushfires, we speak with Arabella Douglas. She is a traditional owner who belongs to the Currie family of the Yugambeh and Bundjalung nations near the Gold Coast of Australia. She also researches behavioral economics and social impact investing at Griffith University.
As we entered 2020 and fires swelled, swallowing towns and protected bush, Arabella helped organize a fundraiser to help spread First Nations fire knowledge and land lore, which has protected patches of land this season and for thousands of years.
As cities viable for hosting the Winter Olympics dwindle, ski resorts face shorter seasons, and climbers work with less predictable terrain, the winter sports industry acts as a key site influencing climate policy.
2:00 - Auden Schendler of Aspen Skiing Company and Protect Our Winters
14:15 - Allen Hershkowitz of Sport and Sustainability International (SandSI)
In the new year, we're returning to our first episode, "How the Arctic caught fire." But this time, we focus in on the Gwich'in perspective. Edward Alexander, co-chair of the Gwich'in Council International, tells us how he and those around him are working with the Arctic Council to exchange information and resources in support of a collaborative and resilient Arctic future.
From the peaks of the Appalachians to a wave of Belgian plantations and the Louisiana shoreline, we explore how the age-old holiday tradition of tree decoration intertwines with the environment.
1:45 - holiday trees in Bloomington
6:45 - Al Eernisse of Greene County Trees on farming today
12:00 - Lauren Wood of Virginia Commonwealth University on the fate of the Fraser fir
19:30 - story about bird assemblages on Christmas tree plantations, featuring Robin Gailly of Liège University
23:45 - Karen Zraick of The New York Times on the real vs. artificial debate
30:30 - Bev Banks of E&E News on recycling trees to save the wetlands
When so many of us feel responsible for and powerless against climate change, it can be difficult to assess which actions are effective. In this episode, associate producer Jacob Einstein speaks with Chelsea Campbell about the environmental app she developed and explores the relationship between individual and collective action in the fight against climate change.
What does a Tesla have to do with red mud and white seaweed in Indonesia? What stands in the way of solid state batteries? How can you tell what's really powering your electric vehicle? In this episode, we work through trends and complications in the technology that could deliver transportation powered by renewable energy.
3:30 - Greg Less of the University of Michigan Energy Institute's Battery Lab
14:30 - Ian Morse with a story about nickel mining in Indonesia
The In This Climate team is thankful for a lot this year. Since our first episode at the beginning of September, we've covered wildfires as they relate to the Arctic, air quality, and wine. We've explored birds and coffee and a little bit of the intersection. We've featured stories about communities standing up for their health and talked with experts about topics ranging from hurricane communications to environmentally sustainable beer brewing. In this episode, we walk back through it all. Enjoy the walk? Wish it were different? Please, let us know!
As climate changes, so do pieces of culture. Pieces like car ownership, outdoor sports, and the drinks we share. This is the final episode in our beverage series, and it's all about coffee. We follow guests to Colombia, El Salvador, and Costa Rica to learn about the systems preventing coffee farmers from building climate resilience and possibilities for improvement.
In this episode:
James Harper of the Filter Stories podcast
Jessica Eise of the Purdue University Brian Lamb School of Communication
Thaleon Tremain of Pachamama Coffee Cooperative
As climate changes, so do pieces of culture. Pieces like car ownership, outdoor sports, and the drinks we share. This is the second episode in our beverage series, and it's all about wine. We start at a vineyard and winery in California, take a look at the growing wine industry in China, go back to 2003's Europe, and finally return to the present day with challenges and opportunities in resilience.
3:30 - Matt Brain of Chamisal Vineyards in San Luis Obispo, California
13:15 - Yingkun Hou of Southern Illinois University Carbondale
23:15 - Robert Pincus of University of Colorado Boulder
30:30 - Iñaki García de Cortázar-Atauri of the National Institute of Agronomic Research in Avignon, France
As climate changes, so do pieces of culture. Pieces like car ownership, outdoor sports, and the drinks we share. This is the first episode in our beverage series, and it's all about beer. From field to glass, we explore challenges for barley farmers, options in sustainable brewing, and the willingness of the public to invest in more environmentally friendly beer.
4:30 - Steven Davis of University of California Irvine
11:30 - Sanya Carley of Indiana University
19:00 - Clay Robinson of Sun King Brewing in Indianapolis and Matthew Steinberg of Exhibit 'A' Brewing in Framingham
We took a trip to Fort Collins, Colorado, for the annual Society of Environmental Journalists conference, and we want to tell you about it. Between the Rocky Mountains and the short-grass prairie, topics surrounding public lands flowed easily — as did connections with journalists, researchers and other attendees. In this episode, we dig into the conversations, moods, and trends that emerge when environmental journalists converge. Special guests this episode include Meera Subramanian and Lyndsie Bourgon.
Late September in the U.S. saw a host of abnormal weather events: record heat in the Southeast, a Category 5 hurricane in an odd location, and five feet of snow in Montana. This episode, the team zeroes in on the early, heavy snows that could have a long-term effect on farmers in the Northern Plains.
2:00 - Gerald Wagner, director of the Blackfeet Environmental Office
14:00 - Ray Wolf, science and operations officer, NOAA/NWS Quad Cities
20:45 - Ben Thomas, director of the Montana Department of Agriculture
Like many of us, Bathsheba Demuth grew up seeing the human world and the natural world as separate. Then, she spent a couple years between high school and college in Old Crow, Yukon. There, she developed a sense of a social world that contains more than human beings. Emily talks in this episode with Demuth, now a Brown University Assistant Professor of History & Environment and Society, about her new book Floating Coast: An Environmental History of the Bering Strait.
In fewer than 50 years, North America has lost 2.9 billion birds, nearly a third of the 1970 population. In this episode, the team explores the significance of birds, the story of one unloved variety and the ways people can work to bring back our feathered friends. Hint: a big one is birding.
2:15 - black vulture story with Katie Fallon from the Avian Conservation Center of Appalachia
11:00 - interview between Janet McCabe and IU's own Ellen Ketterson
24:00 - bird loss vox pop with Jacob Einstein and Emily Miles, featuring voices from around the IU campus
29:30 - interview between Jim Shanahan and Wesley Hochachka from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology
With rising and warming ocean waters, hurricanes are on track to intensify. This change means greater risk for people in the path and greater need for effective long- and short-term risk communication. But the story of the hurricane doesn't stop with the radar, or the rescues, or la renuncia, or the rebuild. To understand the chatter around hurricane season, the team talks this week with a meteorologist, a risk communications specialist and a podcast host whose family lived through Hurricane Maria.
2:45 - Update on "Huracán Maria changed my family's life" with Paola Marizán from ¿Qué Pasa, Midwest?
16:45 - interview between Jim Shanahan and Gina Eosco from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
27:45 - interview between Jim Shanahan and Jeff Berardelli from Columbia University and CBS News
September 20 is the first day of the Global Climate Strike. It's an event that follows the rise of youth organizations like the Sunrise Movement and Zero Hour, a full year of Fridays for Future school strikes and CNN's 7-hour climate change town hall marathon. At every level of society, people have gotten involved in the politics of the environment. In this episode, the team talks with activists, a communication scientist and journalists to find out how much of a difference any of it can make.
4:30 - Louisville, Kentucky, Global Climate Strike and Extinction Rebellion story, featuring Alice Melendez
12:15 - interview between Janet McCabe and IU environmental communications scientist Nathan Geiger
20:15 - interview between Janet McCabe, Zahra Hirji of BuzzFeed News and Nathanael Johnson of Grist
The billowing black factory smoke may be gone, but there remains much work to be done in U.S. and global air quality. As the earth warms, ozone worsens and wildfire particulate matter threatens communities. Janet, Jim and Emily delve into these issues and more with a host of seasoned air quality experts and one community group fighting for quality of life.
3:30 - Dale, Indiana coal to diesel refinery story, featuring Mary Hess, Rock Emmert, John Blair and Randy Vaal
17:00 - interview between Janet McCabe and David Hawkins of the National Resources Defense Council, with contributions from Janice Nolen of the American Lung Association
34:30 - interview between Janet McCabe and Dan Greenbaum of the Health Effects Institute, with contributions from Janice Nolen
The World Meteorological Organization labeled summer 2019's arctic and boreal wildland fires "unprecedented." In the first episode of In This Climate, Janet, Jim and Emily explore with scientists and policy experts how and why this circumpolar fire season was so significant and what we can do moving forward.
7:00 - Siberian wildfire story, featuring Mark Parrington, Angelina Davydova and Kate Birdy
13:15 - interview between Janet McCabe and Joel Clement, with contributions from Edward Alexander
28:15 - interview between Jim Shanahan and Nancy Fresco
The Amazon catches fire every year, but 2019 is different. Eduardo Brondizio, an expert on rural and urban populations and landscapes in the Amazon, knows why. In this bonus episode, he explains the political trajectory that brought a group of land-grabbers and farmers to coordinate a day of coordinated fires — the same trajectory that's now bringing indigenous groups, researchers and people across the globe to push back.