Cool Solutions: Recent Episodes
Wendy Ring
This year's Farm Bill will determine whether US agriculture cuts its greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2030. Republicans want to divert $20 billion away from agricultural climate solutions. Farmers who've adopted these practices say they increase soil carbon and climate resilience.
We hear stories from farmers about compost, cover crops, prescribed grazing, and more. Sustainable agriculture advocates Renata Brillinger of the California Climate and Agriculture Network and Erik Kamrath from the Union of Concerned Scientists advise us what to tell our Congresspeople. (It's simple).
The David who fought Goliath had two sisters. This is the modern day story about two women taking on a giant. They started alone, standing up against a huge multinational petrochemical corporation, and won. Diane Wilson, a fisherwoman from Seadrift Texas, won the largest ever penalty in a citizen clean water lawsuit, defending her bay from plastic pollution. Sharon Lavigne of St James Parish, Louisiana, stopped the same company, Formosa Plastics, from building the largest petrochemical plant in the world in her small Black community.
This is an updated story first broadcast in 2021
When we fix what we have, we reduce emissions, and strengthen communities. 80% of the carbon pollution from our laptops, cell phones, and appliances is embodied carbon, emitted before we even open the box. A return to repair means changing our culture and challenging corporate monopoly. We have stories about a repair cafe in Chicago and about a coalition of Minnesota techies and farmers who overcame corporate lobbies to win passage of the nation's strongest Right to Repair law.
Smartphone repairability scores
Right to Repair State bills
Find or Start a Repair Cafe
iFixIt
80% of the buildings that will be here in 2050 are already here, producing 30% of our greenhouse gas emissions. Uber sustainable new construction is cool, but the big carbon reductions will come from electrifying old buildings. Chicago plans to retrofit 80,000 homes in the next 7 years. A research collaboration between the city, community organizations, a utility, and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory is working out a plan that will minimize emissions, maximize justice and lower peoples' energy bills. The results convinced me that, at least in Chicago, it's far better to eliminate fossil fuel heating in lots of homes than to spend the same amount of money completely decarbonizing a lesser number. We need to do it all eventually, but this is the way to make big change fast.
A pilot study replacing gas stoves with induction stoves in a public housing building in the South Bronx did the expected and decreased indoor air pollution. Two unexpected discoveries were the popularity of the induction stoves and that the building's old wiring could only deliver enough juice to replace stoves in a fraction of the apartments. Replacing all the gas stoves with induction stoves and the building's broken boiler with heat pumps will require an expensive electrical upgrade. To avoid those costs in the future, NYCHA used its purchasing power to get manufacturers to build heat pumps which use less electricity, plug into 110 outlets and install easily in their buildings' windows.
Contributors:
Story: Annie Carforo, Michelle Feliciano, Vlada Keniff, Mary Rivera, Angela Morales
Music:
Scott Holmes, Kevin McLeod, Maarten Schellekins, Jason Shaw, and Jahzzar
"When I read in 2020 that Colorado ran a pilot program to give away just 13 e-bikes, I scoffed. What difference could that possibly make? Now I have to eat my bike helmet."- Wendy Ring, Cool Solutions Producer and Host. Turns out that mini-pilot laid the foundation for Denver's wildly successful e-bike program by proving that e-bikes cut car trips and emissions and that low income folks want to ride them. Denver's program became the model for a statewide program. And e, by the way, also stands for equity. The consistent emphasis on removing economic barriers to bikes is building pressure to address unsafe street conditions in low income neighborhoods.
Guest Storytellers:
Christian Willis, Colorado Energy Office
Rachel Hultin, Bicycle Colorado
Frieda Mitchell & Darnell Robinson, Can Do CO participants
Mike Salisbury Denver Office of Climate Action Sustainability and Resilience
Ash Lovell, People for Bikes
With growing conflicts over solar development on farm land, dual use may provide middle ground and enough income to help small farmers keep farming. That's how Byron Kominek found himself putting a solar garden on one of his hay fields and hosting teams of agrivoltaic researchers.
Colorado farmers Byron Kominek and Liza McConnell and Jordan Macknick, head of agrivoltaic research at the National Renewable Energy Lab, are finding some crops grow better under solar panels and use less water.
Meet a retiree in rural OR and a group of millennials in WA who are spreading community owned solar projects across their states.
We don't have to wait for utilities or for-profit solar developers to expand solar power in our communities and, if we do it right, we can keep the dollars local. Activists from a small town in OR and the mid sized city Olympia,WA are spreading their successful models for community owned solar.
Community solar is commonly defined as a system where subscribers in one place get bill credits from a shared solar project somewhere else, but most community solar in the US benefits corporations more than communities.
A group of young people in Olympia WA figured out how to work around the state's lack of virtual net metering and install community funded solar on non-profit and community buildings.
A retired scientist in Talent, OR organized the first participant owned community solar project in his state. Both groups are now working statewide on projects with partners including tribes, high schools, fire departments, county governments, and irrigation districts.
Mason Rolph, Dan Orzech, and Ray Sanchez Pescador talk about how they got started, overcoming obstacles, and why we don't have to wait for utilities, big investors, or politicians to expand solar access in our communities.
Wage theft was endemic in California's garment industry until a small group of workers, mostly women and immigrants, organized and passed a law forcing clothing brands to guarantee their pay. Raising garment worker wages is one way to put fast fashion out of business.
Part One of a mini-series exploring potential pathways to a sustainable garment industry.
We explore some routes to slow fashion: restoring regional wool production in Pennsylvania, curbside pickup of used clothes in Massachusetts, second hand clothes, and raising garment worker wages
A Michigan environmental justice coalition is putting the "public" back in their state's Public Service Commission; closing coal plants, stopping new gas plants, and elevating the welfare of low income communities.
For decades university departments, liberally lubricated with fossil fuel dollars, have been turning out research that adds a scholarly veneer to the industry's policy agenda. First that was opposing the regulation of oil and gas; now it's promoting carbon capture so they can keep selling their product. Students and faculty are shining a light on fossil fuel infiltration of academia and organizing to ban fossil fuel dollars from climate and energy research.
We talk with undergrads and PhD students at Stanford and George Washington University about their research showing how fossil fueled research is skewing climate policy and how they are organizing to stop it.
Solar coops bridge the partisan divide, raising panels on rooftops and building a broad movement to transform our energy system. Solar United Neighbors provides the technical know how, community groups do the organizing, and together they're removing the practical and political barriers to a clean energy transition. It's a movement which brings together conservatives and progressives and they're winning battles against powerful utilities.
With federal climate policy blocked by Congress and the Supreme Court, we look at opportunities to advance climate action at state and local levels. Caroline Spears explains how the Climate Cabinet uses big data to find pivotal elections and help pro climate candidates win. Nathaniel Stinnett of the Environmental Voter Project explains why state and local elections are a great opportunity for the climate movement to strengthen its political muscle. And we meet Lauren Kuby, who the Climate Cabinet is supporting in her race for the AZ Corporation Commission, which regulates the state's utility monopolies.
This is what it took to get the wealthiest university in the world to break its ties with the fossil fuel industry.
The inter-tribal charging network will connect upper midwest reservations with jobs, opportunities, healing, and each other. Project leaders Robert Blake of Native Sun (Red Lake Ojibwe) and Joseph McNeill of SAGE (Standing Rock Sioux) talk about connections: to environmental and economic justice, clean energy, eagles, dreams, and more. We explore other barriers to rural EV adoption with Matt Fitzgibbon of the Tri States Electrical Cooperative.
Activists accelerate states' switch to clean big rigs. A story about the power of coming together and speaking out for climate and justice.
Bill McKibben launches new climate group for seniors. Doctors devoting their retirement years to climate action talk about what motivates them and how they found their place in the movement. Their activities range from registering low income patients to vote to getting arrested over pipelines. Bill McKibben introduces Third Act, a new climate organization for seniors, and explains why this demographic is key to climate action.
We talk with former contract farmers for Tyson, Perdue, and Pilgrim's Pride; the founder of a farmers' cooperative that outperforms Big Meat by a mile, and an animal welfare organization turning chicken houses into grow houses.
Two January diet challenges are remarkably effective at enticing people to try (and keep eating) more plant based meals.
A 31 day vegan pledge gives our co-hosts a push to try new things.
We take a deep dive into dairy digesters: their impact on farms, climate, and communities; and the intersections between Big Gas, Big Ag, and government programs which are driving their proliferation. To get to the bottom of this complex topic, we had to talk to a lot of people.
Storytellers:
John Hanselman -Vanguard Renewables
Natasha Duarte -Composting Association of Vermont
Brenda Platt- Institute for Local Self Reliance
Mary Beth Kirkham- KSU Professor of Agronomy
J Jordan-Leadership Counsel for Justice and Accountability
Rebecca Wolf- Food and Water Watch
Mike McCully- The McCully Group
Maria Payan -Socially Responsible Agriculture Project.
Part 2 of a mini-series within a series on food and agriculture
In Vermont it's now illegal to throw your apple core in the trash. Vermont's Universal Recycling Law aka "the landfill ban" went into effect last year. It cuts landfill methane by diverting food to feed the hungry and the soil, as well as banning other recyclables.
How did they do that? How is it going? What does it matter where that apple decomposes? A soil scientist, 2 farmer-composters, the head of Vermont's Food Cycle Coalition and the guy in charge at the state will tell you.
Storytellers:
Tom Gilbert-organic farmer, Black Dirt Farm
Josh Kelly-Chief of Materials Management for Vermont's Department of Environmental Conservation
Chuck Wooster, organic farmer, Sunrise Farm
Sintana Vergara- Assistant Professor Environmental Engineering, Humboldt State University
Natasha Duarte- Food Cycle Coalition, Composting Association of Vermont
An innovative community energy center, cities with natural gas bans, and a crusading HVAC contractor are all on a mission to electrify our homes. To be zero carbon by 2050, we have to start now and retrofit millions of buildings each year.
There's a movement to close accounts at big Wall Street banks and move money to smaller banks with better values.
Most folks don't want to get down and nerdy about climate solutions, but what if we could make it fun? Co host Wendy Ring decides to make a game. She talks with a climate scientist, a professional game designer and a mechanical engineer who are each designing other climate games, to get previews and explore how games could mobilize players into action. Co host Brian Curtis joins a group playing Wendy's game and hilarity ensues.
Sliding scale electric car shares and rising numbers of used EVs are making them more accessible. A startup is answering the question: How good is that used EV battery?
Slow Streets barricades triggered trauma in Black East Oakland. Activists get city to address dangerous intersections instead.
Brytanee Brown, Marquita Price, Warren Logan
Personal stories from 3 activists fighting to preserve slow and car free streets in San Francisco. A little known federal manual is keeping streets car-centric while pedestrians and cyclists die in record numbers. While activists battle for improvements block by block, Pete Buttigieg has a chance to rewrite the whole book and spur nationwide transformation. So far, he's going with the Trump version. Find out what you can do.
Storytellers:
Activists Matt Brezina, Peter Belden, and Olivia Gamboa; Mike McGinn of America Walks, and Meredith Glaser of the Urban Cycling Institute
3 stories about the power of community to raise and multiply funding for climate action. A town taxes itself for free transit. Communities crowdfund for composting (and more). A Green Bank spurs 400 MW of solar.
Storytellers: Robert Pollin-Political Economy Research Institute, Clark Gilman- Mayor ProTem Olympia WA Ann Freeman Manzanares- InterCity Transit, Abe Salorio- Sustainable CT, Bryan Garcia- Connecticut Green Bank
There's a lot of farmland about to change hands. We can make sure it's distributed fairly to good stewards. This show looks at agricultural land trusts and conservation easements aimed at helping young and under-resourced farmers get access to land, and at the history of Black land loss and the Justice for Black Farmers Act. We also explore an anti trust provision in that land grant bill that would break up consolidation in the meat packing industry. Storytellers: Holly Ripon Butler, National Young Farmers Coalition Suzan Erem, Sustainable Iowa Land Trust Jordan Clasen, Grade A Gardens Farm Michelle Sheehan, Rhode Island Farm Land Access Program Savi Horne, North Carolina Black Land Loss Prevention Project Austin Frerick, Thurman Arnold Project
00:58 Young farmers need land
03:05 Sustainable Iowa Land Trust
10:37 One farmer's SILT story
14:37 Rhode Island buys farm land to save it.
17:23 A history of Black land loss
20:16 The USDA "the last plantation"
22:30 Justice for Black Farmers Act
23:16 Carver and Whatley: Regenerative pioneers
24:18 Breaking up meat packer monopolies
Meet the women defending their Texas and Louisiana communities from petrochemical pollution; in the courtroom, on the water, and in the streets.
When Teaneck NJ Girl Scouts saw pictures of birds tangled in plastic bags, they got to work and sparked a movement that led to the strongest state plastic ban in the US.
This is an engaging story about how big change happens when local efforts add up; with side trips into the chemistry of plastics, the importance of plankton poop, and comics as a metaphor for life.
Storytellers:
Judith Enck Beyond Plastics
John Weber Surfrider Foundation
Steve Jasiecki Sustainable Downbeach
Monica Coffee Sustainable Downbeach
Eliza Stilletto NJ Girl Scout Troop 19
:11 How big a deal is plastic for climate?
1:46 Science nerd minute: the chemistry of making plastic from fossil fuel
2:26 Ocean plastic’s impacts, from plankton to people
5:15 The dramatic rise in plastic production and greenhouse gas emissions
5:44 Why giving up your straw won’t solve the problem.
7:55 Monica and Steve in Downbeach, NJ decide to work on a bag ban
10:35 Political pushback and a detour by balloon
12:32 Victory in Downbeach
13:11 Teaneck Girl Scout Troop 19 gets passionate about plastics
15:26 Girl Scouts go to Teaneck City Council and get a pat on the head.
18:48 Victory in Teaneck
19:11 Municipal bans spread to other towns and the campaign for a statewide ban begins.
21:00 The girls’ Plastic Bag Monster meets a real plastic lobbyist, and they do some lobbying of their own.
25:52 Monica and Eliza share the big lessons
Links:
Beyond Plastic
South Jersey Surfrider, Rise Above Plastics
Banning Plastic Bags Town by Town, a guide
Food hubs are not just for foodies. These homegrown networks provide markets for farmers moving beyond corn,soy, and CAFOs to regenerative modes of farming. This past spring, when supply chains failed, those lifelines kept communities fed. Founders of two Virginia food hubs tell their stories.
How do we turn farming from climate pollution to climate solution? In Part 1 of this mini-series we learn how changes in farming and ranching could remove gigatons of carbon from the atmosphere. A carbon farmer and rancher tell their stories and we begin our search for ways to spread these farming innovations across the country. First we talk with the directors of two startups helping farmers sell soil carbon credits. But farmers and soil carbon experts tell us that turning carbon into a commodity crop won't create the change we hope to see. In Part 2 ( the next episode) we'll be looking at the Green New Deal and the Farm Bill, and breaking up the power of Big Ag. Episode One includes interviews with rancher Chris Prevatt, winner ofe 2020 Carbon Cup, Jeff Creque of the Carbon Cycle Institute, Aldyen Connelly of Nori, Ed Smith from Indigo Carbon, Jim Goodman of the National Family Farm Coalition and Steven Woods, a soil ecologist at the Nature Conservancy.
You don't need solar panels to be part of greening the grid. Our refrigerators, hot water heaters, and air conditioners can shift energy use to when the sun is shining and decrease the need for fossil fuel.
Climate and science super PACs are a donor's best bet for getting climate leaders elected to public office. While 50% of direct progressive campaign contributions go to waste, these super PACs focus resources where they can do the most good, training and supporting climate candidates.
We talk with RL Miller of Climate Hawks Vote, Shaunessy Naughton of 314 Action, and Mary Lynn Cesar of Blueprint about the need to replace Democrats who are beholden to fossil fuel interests, the trials of teaching scientists how to talk like regular people, and the importance of downballot races and community organizing for a healthy democracy.
There are millions of Americans who care deeply about climate change but rarely cast their ballots. A home-based army of volunteers is changing that.
The Environmental Voter Project and Vote Forward both target and motivate these infrequent voters. Their founders, Nathaniel Stinnett and Scott Forman, explain how this began, why it's working, and how you can join in.
The best way to store more carbon in forests is to stop cutting down big trees. Families own more US forest land than timber companies or the government. A new program pays them not to log their big trees and to help new trees grow.
Reclaim Our Vote volunteers are sending millions of postcards to people purged from voting rolls in recent years, often in error and without their knowledge. NextGen America's young organizers look for ways to find and register young voters online while campuses are closed by the pandemic.
Salt marshes absorb carbon and blunt climate impacts but we must heal them before they can protect us. Local governments, non profits, and volunteers are racing sea level rise to get it done.
Future hot streets will fry more than eggs and solutions won't come on their own. Los Angeles is using its streets as laboratories to test out new cool pavements.
1500 electric school buses in Virginia will power the grid when parked, in the first US commercial application of vehicle to grid technology.
In the face of rising temperatures and heavier rain, citizens wielding pry bars and thermometers turn parking lots into rain gardens and change city building standards to favor green space over asphalt.
The lower income east side of Portland is the hottest part of town. Citizen action is making it cooler.
Part 1. We follow DePave Portland on one of their projects as they pry up asphalt and install a rain garden on 122nd Street.
Part 2. Citizens using an urban heat mapping tool developed at Portland State University gather data which led cooler building standards in East Portland.
Two men treat their fear of climate change by sharing it with their entire cities. They got their towns of Hoboken and Gainesville to declare a climate emergency. We hear the stories of their journeys from anxiety to activism, and explore the psychology of climate apathy and the limits of asking nicely.
For the 3 out of 4 Americans who can't put solar panels on their roofs, community solar gardens are a way to save money now and be part of building our clean energy future.
When Minnesota enacted policy to promote solar gardens, it became the national leader, unleashing 600 megawatts of community solar development, but obstacles persist in parts of the state where those policies don't apply.
We compare what it takes to create a solar garden in both regions and ensure low income access, by looking at two programs: solar cooperatives in rural southern MN, and solar gardens on the Leech Lake Reservation, the first in the country to integrate community solar with low income energy assistance.
The solar cooperative movement began with two teenagers going door to door in their neighborhood in Washington DC. Their work grew into a national organization helping neighbors around the country go solar together, and building a grassroots movement for clean energy for all.
Solar United Neighbors works alongside community organizations, providing the technical expertise to simplify solar for property owners and the political savvy to overcome obstacles.
The League of Women Voters is SUN's main collaborator in Florida, where the two groups together have organized more than 50 solar cooperatives around the state.
We talk with Anya Schoolman, Director of Solar United Neighbors, Mary Dipboye of the Florida League of Women Voters, and Warren Clark of the St Johns County Solar Cooperative.
Vermont's ultra rural Northeast Kingdom and small towns in Sonoma County California find that fare free is the way to go. It's filling bus seats; connecting residents to jobs, healthcare, education, shopping, and social opportunities; and even enticing drivers out of their cars.
You don't have to be an extrovert to do something big for the planet. Food Rescue US is a smartphone app developed by a pastor and a programmer that harnesses our collective good intentions to solve the difficult problem of food waste.
The app connects businesses and farms with food to donate, agencies feeding the hungry, and volunteers into efficient community networks that direct edible food away from landfills and into people's bellies.
This reduces landfill methane, a potent short lived climate pollutant and prime target for rapid climate action, while bringing disparate parts of the community together.
We talk with co founder Kevin Mullins about the spiritual aspects of food rescue, learn about the digital nuts and bolts from computer programmer Jim Reeseman and hear first hand accounts of food rescue missions organized by the app and the reactions of donors, recipients, and volunteers.
Health researchers are planting 8000 trees in Louisville, one of the fastest warming cities in the US, in an effort to discover why trees appear to prevent heart disease.
We talk with members of the research team from the University of Louisville, the City of Louisville's urban forester, the Nature Conservancy, and Louisville Grows, a local group which plant some of the trees.
Our own preconceptions of who is "on our side" and the mistaken idea that we are alone may be one of the biggest obstacles to climate action. That's the big takeaway from this story about how neighbors, longshoremen, small businesspeople, tribes and environmentalists in Washington State got together and stopped a massive oil by rail terminal.
Linda Garcia is a passionate activist who just wouldn't stop reaching out, and that brought a bunch of unlikely folks together. They found common ground at the intersection of climate action, workers' rights, environmental justice, and local self determination and won a 5 year battle to stop the biggest oil by rail terminal in N America. They also became friends.
Guests: Don and Alona Steinke Sierra Club, Linda Garcia of the Fruit Valley Neighborhood Association, Cager Clabough ILWU, Don Orange and Eric LaBrant Port of Vancouver Commissioners.
Story of how residents of South Portland Maine, a town of 25,000, stopped the export of tar sands from their port. We follow the story from a few people in a living room to overflow attendance at city council and the council's vote to ban tar sands and stand firm against Big Oil's lawsuit. Moving testimony by children, grandparents, fishermen and others. A legal expert explains Home Rule and how a city at the end of a pipeline has the power to protect itself from harm.
Solar streetlights are hyperlocal clean energy that can help US cities survive extreme weather events and break free of utility monopolies. We visit 3 cities where solar street lights do a fine job lighting the streets, but also do much more.
In a struggling rustbelt city, they're a beacon of hope for sustainable development. In a high end housing development, they attract buyers of luxury estates. In a working class town, they save the city money. And in all locations, they're protecting the climate and helping remodel our energy system from a centralized for profit model, to a more dispersed, democratic, and resilient system.
We talk with a community activist, a real estate developer, and a street light electrician from these communities about their experiences with solar street lights.
How many people does it take to change what runs a city's light bulbs? In Norman Oklahoma and Hanover New Hampshire, they started with 12 and ended up with everyone. Adrienne Gautier, Janna Horn and Judi Colla talk about organizing "for" instead of "against", and tell how they got their towns to vote unanimously for 100% clean energy.
We talk with Jodie Van Horne from the Sierra Club about the national movement of cities for climate action and how cities can speed the transition to clean energy. She explains how their Ready for 100 Campaign helped over 100 US cities commit to 100% clean energy.
We already have too much parking. Getting rid of requirements to build more is something any town can do. It cuts carbon, boosts business, and helps affordable housing. Here's the story of 2 cities that did it.
Matthew Petty, a city councilman in Fayetteville, Arkansas, and Nadine Marrero, Director of Planning and Zoning for the City of Buffalo talk about why cities should drop parking from their zoning codes, how they did it, and how its working.
Norman Garrick, professor at the University of CT, gives a mini history lesson on how parking killed urban downtowns.
Kevin Meindl of the Buffalo Sewer Department talks about the problem of pavement storm runoff.
Daniel Herriges of Strong Towns explains how to bring this solution to your town.
Gene Boyd of Farmers Assisting Returning Military explains how farming a former parking lot helps soldiers re enter civilian life.
Transit expansion leads to gentrification so often that some folks have started calling new light rail, the "Gentrification Train". A community land trust in Denver takes land near new stations permanently off the market and turns it into affordable housing.
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People in Macon, GA got tired of waiting and made their own bike lanes. Progress ensued. Josh Rogers of New Town Macon and Rachel Hollar of Bike Walk Macon tell their story. Tactical urbanist Mike Lydon and epidemiologist Neil Maizlish help us look deeper into DIY street redesign and the health and safety benefits of protected bike lanes.
The average household has more than 40 electronic appliances that suck energy when they're off. We help you find and tame yours. Along the way: the dining habits of vampire bats and spiders, a home energy audit with a vampire, and a psychologist explains why its so hard to unplug.
Two California counties help wildfire victims rebuild zero carbon homes. Its more affordable than you think. Hear one family's story, meet super efficient appliances, and learn something about your gas stove that will change the way you cook.
Meet Food Service Directors from 2 public school districts serving vegetarian lunches once a week and producing long lasting benefit in students' diets and health. Topics along the way include Farm to School, climate impacts of various meats, and tips on shifting to a more plant based diet.
Small entrepreneurs across the country are creating jobs and local food by composting food waste locally. We get down to the nitty gritty with eco-entrepreneurs in Boston, Chicago, and San Diego, talk with a soil scientist about the benefits of composting, and learn from a lawyer about overcoming the barriers to diverting food from landfills.
Diesel exhaust is bad for child and planetary health, but change is on the way. We talk with the transportation director of Twin Rivers Unified School District and meet the people transforming the nation's biggest public transit program, including clean air advocates, electric bus builders, parent activists, and a guy called the Electric Bus Evangelist. We talk about everything from the economics to what's under the hood, and how states can use funds from Volkswagen's legal settlement to speed the transition to clean buses.
Stories of 3 cities where battery stored solar beat out power plants. An environmental justice victory in Oxnard, CA; an economic boon in Sterling, MA; and storm resilient power in Rutland, VT.