Possibly: Recent Episodes
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Possibly looks at the science behind proposed environmental solutions - helping you cut through the noise and make choices that, possibly, will make a difference.
As we head into a new year, our Possibly team decided to think about all of our episodes, and how they might inspire our resolutions for 2025. Here’s what some of us had to say.
Britain recently announced the closure of the country’s last coal-fired power plant, as well as an ambitious new energy plan. This week on Possibly, we break down what happened.
If you've ever looked at the bottom of a plastic item, you may have seen a number surrounded by three arrows around it. Today we take a look into the meaning behind the numbers, and how they actually relate to recycling.
Our own Fatima Husain was looking to buy holiday lights and she wondered: which type should I buy? Is there really a big difference between incandescent and LED lights?
We played a climate game that is supposed to help you find the highest-impact changes you can make in your life to take effective climate action. Could games like this actually help address the climate crisis?
Turkeys are more than just a Thanksgiving meal, they're part of forest ecosystems across the country. In this episode of Possibly, we take a look at how they made a major comeback in New England after being driven to local extinction.
You probably know that coal power plants are bad for the climate, and for your health. But how do we know how much of an impact one coal power plant can have? Where does its pollution go?
Hospitals can be hotspots for greenhouse gas emissions. But Boston Medical Center is part of a movement of hospitals changing their anesthesia to cut their footprint.
On Possibly, we've talked about how we can cut out greenhouse gas emissions from our homes and cars. But we wondered, how are factories and manufacturers working on this problem?
Everyone knows that plastic pollutes our environment. But it’s less obvious why plastic would create a lot of emissions. Today, we break down why plastic use is a climate change issue.
There’s an urgent need to use less fossil fuel, and that includes cutting down on how much gasoline we put in our cars. Does that mean longstanding ideas about what counts as “good gas mileage” are out of date?
Plankton form the basis of the food web in oceans and new research shows that the level of phytoplankton in Rhode Island’s Narragansett Bay has dropped by half in the past 60 years. We wondered why.
If you’ve ever spent time in a library or art museum on a hot summer day, you might have felt way colder than you expected. On this episode of Possibly we break down the science of why libraries get so cold in the summer.
This week on Possibly we’re talking about landfills, the methane they create, and why some landfills are capturing it and using it as a source of energy.
Rhode Island's biggest landfill is expected to fill up by 2043. And there are about 100 inactive landfills across the state. This made us wonder, what can be done with closed landfills?
Students at the Lincoln School have a question: should they be using wooden pencils or plastic mechanical ones? This week on Possibly we explain the answer, and how to find it.
Today we're taking a look at what causes in-flight turbulence and how rising temperatures might be making your flight bumpier.
It turns out, student engineers, and one major car manufacturer are already trying the idea. But there are limits to how effective these panels can be.
More medical schools are training their students on climate change. This week on Possibly we're taking a look at how your visit to the doctor might be changing.
A new program at the Boston Medical Center says it prescribes solar panels to patients. But we wondered, what does that really mean?
The two sides just reached a settlement that will have a major impact on the state's carbon emissions.
A new technology promises to suck water vapor out of the air and turn it into water that we can drink. How do they work and are these worthy investments?
Brown University's gym recently installed machines that turn kinetic energy into electricity. Could these machines put a dent in our energy needs?
A new book by Possibly’s founder Stephen Porder titled Elemental: How Five Elements Changed Earth’s Past and Will Shape Our Future, explores the rare times in Earth’s past when organisms changed the world. Understanding how they did it might help us build a more sustainable future.
Paved surfaces like roads, sidewalks, and driveways send stormwater into our sewers, but engineering solutions that filter water through the ground can help keep our sewers and waterways clean.
During heavy rain, Providence's sewers used to get overwhelmed and dump untreated sewage into the Bay. But thanks to a project to increase the capacity of sewers, untreated sewage rarely makes it into our waterways anymore.
At Possibly we think a lot about how to make complicated climate science and policy easy to understand. And we’re not the only ones! Some comedians are playing an important role in re-thinking how we talk about climate change.
Despite what the packaging says, flushable wipes should never be flushed down the toilet! They can cause blockages in the sewer system and create all kinds of problems. Just toss ‘em in the trash instead!
For decades now, people have been installing solar panels, wind turbines and more to transition our energy to renewable sources – but we wondered, how’s it going? We turned to California's electric grid for answers.
For decades wilderness areas have provided access and protection to millions of acres of land. Today, climate change is shifting how we think about the importance and management of these places.
This episode is a rerun. It originally aired on February 27th, 2024.
Megan Hall: Welcome to Possibly, where we take on huge problems like the future of our planet and break them down into small questions with unexpected answers. I’m Megan Hall.
Today, we have a question from one of our reporters, Charlie Adams. What do you have for us, Charlie?
Charlie: Last summer I spent ten weeks working in the Bob Marshall Wilderness. It’s a slice of northwest Montana that’s over one million acres!
I’m from the east coast, so the word “wilderness” used to make me think of pristine landscapes free of humans. Now that I’ve experienced it first hand, I think that’s not exactly right. Which made me wonder- what do we mean when we say “wilderness”?
Megan: We had Iman Khanbhai from our Possibly team help Charlie look into this question.
Iman: Hello!
Megan: So what exactly do we mean when we say “wilderness”?
Charlie: It’s a big question with many answers. To get a better idea, I asked rangers, conservationists, and tribal leaders. Depending on who you ask- it’s either a great idea, flawed, or a bit of both.
Megan: Ok, let’s get into it!
Iman: We can start with The 1964 Wilderness Preservation Act. It calls wilderness “…an area where the earth and its community of life are untrammeled by man, where man himself is a visitor who does not remain.”
Charlie: Many of us think about wilderness in a similar way, I know I did- it’s the legendary American landscapes home to grizzly bears and wolves, and for a few nights the brave backpacker.
Megan: Right. Wide open spaces without humans. What’s wrong with that definition?
Iman: Well, it assumes that there’s a big divide between humans and nature- that we haven’t always co-existed in some way.
Charlie: And that some ways of interacting with the land are more “civilized” than others.
Iman: To learn more we spoke with Professor Bathsheba Demuth, an Environmental Historian at Brown University.
Bathsheba Demuth: “The idea of wilderness is deeply tied with the settler colonial project of displacing indigenous inhabitants in North America by saying, Oh, this land is empty. It’s not being used. No one’s really here. And if settlers come in and transform it through agriculture and industry, then it will be inhabited for real.”
Megan: So, the idea of wilderness assumes that nothing’s happening there, so settlers can take it and do whatever they want with it?
Charlie: That was the original thought. But eventually,conservationists like Teddy Roosevelt worried about losing all of that wilderness. So, they worked to protect certain areas and keep them “wild”.
Megan: Like the national parks?
Charlie: Right. First came the parks, and then came a slightly different form of protection- wilderness areas. The US Government created these spaces to “maintain the wild character of the landscape”andthey blocked humans from building or living there.
Iman: But there was one huge problem- humans already lived there. This land belonged to Native peoples. And the government often removed them to make the areas “wild.”
Charlie: In fact, theBob Marshall Wilderness Complex, where I spent my summer, was established on indigenous land. That was more than 80 years ago.
Iman: Smokey Rides At The Door, an educator and former Blackfeet Tribal council member, says native people are still deeply connected to the land they lost.
Smokey Rides At The Door: “The protein that’s available there from the meat is very important for our health. The picking of wild berries is very important to us. Those are part of our ceremonies.
Megan: So, where do we go from here?
Charlie: Well, we can start by reimagining what wilderness means. Maybe it’s not as clear-cut as civilization versus nature. Here’s Gabriel de Avilez Row-sha, professor of history at Brown with a thought experiment:
Gabriel de Avilez Rocha: “When are you ever not in wilderness? Even when you’re sitting in your car? Or in your living room? How are you in wilderness in those moments? How is nature there? When we look around us, we actually are seeing nature that’s been transformed in different ways.”
Iman: But on a more practical level, wilderness areas can rethink this idea of excluding humans.
Charlie: Some places are already doing this. Bathsheba from Brown says people can enter wilderness areas in Alaska to harvest or hunt food for their daily needs.
Iman: And some park and wilderness systems are starting to do more to acknowledge indigenous people and their connection to these lands.
Megan: Great. Thanks Charlie and Iman.
That’s it for today. For more information, or to ask a question about the way your choices affect our planet, go to the public’s radio dot org slash possibly. Or subscribe to us wherever you get your podcasts.
You can also follow us on social media at “ask possibly”
Possibly is a co-production of The Public’s Radio, Brown University’s Institute for Environment and Society, and Brown’s Climate Solutions Initiative
Megan Hall: Welcome to Possibly, where we take on huge problems like the future of our planet and break them down into small questions with unexpected answers. I’m Megan Hall.
Today we’re answering a question from listener Alexandra Hahn, who saw something a bit unusual:
Alexandra Hahn: I wrote to you guys, because last spring, I saw a bunch of dead fish in a river downtown. And I was wondering what they were doing there, what kind of fish they were? How did they die?
Megan Hall: Reporter Will Malloy talked to Possibly’s co-founder Professor Stephen Porder to tell us what’s going on. Hi Will!
Will Malloy: Hi Megan!
Megan Hall: So, why were there a bunch of dead fish in the river?
Will Malloy: There’s actually a name for the phenomenon Alexandra noticed – it’s called a fish kill. A fish kill is when a large number of fish die over a short period of time in the same area.
Megan Hall: That sounds smelly! But why does that happen?
Will Malloy: Like people, fish need oxygen to live – only instead of getting it from the air, like us, they breathe oxygen gas that’s dissolved in the water.
Stephen Porder: So they are actually breathing oxygen underwater the same way we’re breathing oxygen out here in the air.
Will Malloy: And basically, a fish kill can happen when the amount of oxygen in the water drops and there isn’t enough for fish to survive.
Stephen Porder: If you consume all that oxygen in the water, the fish will die. Just as if you consume all the oxygen in the air. We will die.
Megan Hall: Ok, that makes sense. But why would there be less oxygen in the water all of a sudden?
Will Malloy: It’s a bit of a complicated process, but one thing that can take oxygen out of the water is actually dead seaweed and algae decomposing.
Stephen Porder: If a dead piece of seaweed falls to the bottom of the bay, it gets decomposed, that consumes oxygen.
Will Malloy: You can think of it like the opposite of photosynthesis – when plants photosynthesize, there is a reaction that produces oxygen. When dead stuff breaks down, there are reactions that use up oxygen.
Megan Hall: Ok, sure, but isn’t stuff dying in the bay all the time?
Stephen Porder: So there’s always algae and seaweed in the water. But in order to get a fish kill, you need sort of a burst of growth of stuff followed by a die off
Will Malloy: So if there’s a surge of more life – more seaweed, more algae – after a little bit, you’ll actually see more death as some of these plants die, which eats up a bunch of oxygen.
Megan Hall: What causes this “surge of life’?
Will Malloy: It can come from a lot of factors, but often it comes after something like a big rainstorm.
Megan Hall: Why would rain create more algae and seaweed in the water?
Will Malloy: I wasn’t kidding when I said it was complicated! When there is a big rainstorm, the rain can wash fertilizer off of people’s lawns and down into storm drains.
Stephen Porder: If there’s too much rainfall, our sewage system can’t handle it.
Will Malloy: Meaning that the sewers overflow. And when some sewers overflow, they can spill out into bodies of water, like rivers, bays, or even the ocean. And that means all that fertilizer and the rest of our sewage ends up in the water.
Stephen Porder: And so you got a flush of sewage, all of that is nutrients. And those nutrients provide that bursts of life, of growth of stuff in the water
Megan Hall: And after that fertilizer encourages more stuff to grow in the water, those plants eventually die, which eats up the oxygen that fish need to live?
Will Malloy: Exactly! Now, this doesn’t happen every time it rains. I mean, the conditions have to be just right, but in general, it’s one big chain reaction that starts with a bunch of rain and ends with a bunch of dead fish.
Megan Hall: So, what can we do to prevent this from happening?
Will Malloy: In your own garden, try planting things that don’t need fertilizer. And in general, cities and towns can create more green spaces to break up paved surfaces. That way, stormwater can go into the soil instead of the bay.
Megan Hall: Thanks, Will! That’s it for today. For more information, or to ask a question about the way your choices affect our planet, go to thepublicsradio.org/possibly. Or subscribe to us wherever you get your podcasts.
You can also follow us on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn or X at “askpossibly”
Possibly is a co-production of The Public’s Radio, Brown University’s Institute for Environment and Society and Brown’s Climate Solutions Initiative.
Megan Hall: Welcome to Possibly, where we take on huge problems like the future of our planet and break them down into small questions with unexpected answers. I’m Megan Hall.
When’s the last time you took the bus? Taking public transportation can really cut down on your greenhouse gas emissions, and it’s way cheaper than buying an electric car. But, for most of us, driving is just more convenient. We wondered, does it have to be that way?
We had Nat Hardy and Juliana Merullo from our Possibly Team look into this.
Nat Hardy: Hi, Megan!
Juliana Merullo: Hello!
Megan Hall: So what’s the big picture here? Why are we talking about public transportation?
Nat Hardy: Well the transportation sector is the biggest contributor to greenhouse gas emissions in the US.
Juliana Merullo: On a national level, 23% of all emissions come from vehicles on the road.
Nat Hardy: And unsurprisingly, cars make up most of those emissions.
Juliana Merullo: What makes public transportation so important is that per person, the emissions are way lower than cars.
Nat Hardy: A bus full of people emits about 5 times less CO2 per person than a car with only one person in it! And electric or hybrid buses can emit even less.
Juliana Merullo: But of course, those emissions aren’t as great if the bus is nearly empty.
Megan Hall: So, let’s get everyone into buses!
Juliana Merullo: That’s easier said than done! Ridership decreased all over the country after COVID, and it still hasn’t fully recovered, 4 years later.
Megan Hall: Is there anything that could help ridership recover?
Nat Hardy: Great question! To answer it, we talked to Colleen Cronin, a reporter at ecoRI and host of their podcast Blab Lab.
Juliana Merullo: Colleen has been reporting on Rhode Island’s public bus system – RIPTA, and talking to riders about their experiences taking the bus.
Nat Hardy: To start, we asked Colleen about why people take the bus.
Colleen Cronin: I’d say there’s like two camps. There’s the people who can’t drive because maybe they can’t afford a car, or they can’t get a license. And then there’s the people who are choosing not to drive because they hate to drive or they want to try to do something good for the environment.
Megan Hall: Okay, but for people who don’t take the bus, why not?
Nat Hardy: Well, everyone’s got a different answer – did you take the bus to the studio today?
Megan: Um, I did not!
Nat Hardy: Why not?
Megan Hall: Well, I had to get my kids to school, and then the bus wasn’t coming for another half hour, which didn’t give me enough time to get here –
Nat Hardy: Exactly. Colleen says she hears these sorts of frustrations all the time.
Colleen Cronin: A car ride that would take you, you know, 20 minutes can take an hour or more on the bus, depending on where you go. So it’s just not as convenient.
Juliana Merullo: But this could feed into a pattern that some transportation experts call a “doom spiral.” The idea is that if fewer people are taking the bus, because it’s not convenient for them…
Colleen Cronin: The government agencies that run the public transit, say, oh, we should probably invest less in this, if fewer people are taking it. And the less you invest, the less people will take it because then it becomes less reliable.
Nat Hardy: And so the cycle repeats, and the bus becomes even less convenient.
Juliana Merullo: Advocates worry that this spiral could happen in Rhode Island – after a driver shortage and a budget deficit, RIPTA considered reducing bus service along a number of routes.
Nat Hardy: But there’s good news! The spiral can go in the opposite direction too!
Juliana Merullo: If public transit service becomes more frequent – studies have shown that ridership tends to increase too.
Colleen Cronin: So if it’s more reliable, and it’s better to use, more people will use it.
Megan Hall: So maybe driving to work wouldn’t feel like my only option?
Nat Hardy: Exactly!
Megan Hall: So how do we get there?
Nat Hardy: Rhode Island already has a plan for improving service. It’s called the Transit Master Plan and it’s a really ambitious, but also non-binding, plan to improve bus service.
Juliana Merullo: The plan would make buses more frequent, expand service areas, and build new infrastructure, like priority lanes, so buses can move through traffic faster than cars.
Nat Hardy: The goal is to make bus service a real option instead of driving. But RIPTA needs more funding before it can make the plan a reality.
Juliana Merullo: State legislators are trying to create new funding sources for Rhode Island’s bus system, but we’ll have to wait and see if they’re successful.
Megan Hall: Got it! Thanks, Nat and Juliana!
That’s it for today. For more information, or to ask a question about the way your choices affect our planet, go to askpossibly.org Or subscribe to us wherever you get your podcasts.
You can also follow us on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn or X at “askpossibly”
Possibly is a co-production of Brown University’s Institute for Environment and Society, Brown’s Climate Solutions Initiative, and the Public’s Radio.
And a special thank you to Colleen Cronin for joining us on this episode. To listen to ecoRI’s podcast, just search Blab Lab wherever you get your podcasts.
Megan Hall: Welcome to Possibly. Where we take on huge problems, like the future of our planet, and break them down into small questions with unexpected answers. I’m Megan Hall.
We’ve talked in past episodes about how cities, states and even countries are setting targets to reduce their carbon emissions. Our home city of Providence, Rhode Island has set the goal of being carbon neutral by 2050. And recently, the city government passed a new ordinance to help it meet that goal.
Juliana Merullo and Nat Hardy from our Possibly team are here to tell us more.
Juliana Merullo: Hiya Megan!
Nat Hardy: Hey!
Megan Hall: So what is this new ordinance?
Juliana Merullo: Basically, the city created a law that says all municipal buildings in Providence have to be carbon neutral by 2040.
Megan Hall: Got it. Can you define some terms for me? What counts as a municipal building?
Nat Hardy: That just means buildings that are owned by the city. We’re talking about just over 120 structures. More than 30% of them are public schools.
Megan Hall: And how does a building become carbon neutral?
Nat Hardy: In practical terms for this ordinance, it means that the city’s buildings have to be powered entirely by electricity. And that electricity has to come from sources that don’t create greenhouse gasses.
Juliana Merullo: To find out more about what that process actually looks like, we spoke with Priscilla De La Cruz. She’s the Director of Sustainability for the City of Providence. Priscillasays it will take a few steps to make Providence’s municipal buildings carbon-neutral.
Priscilla: “The first step is making sure that these buildings are as efficient as possible.
Nat Hardy: So,The city will start by doing energy audits of the buildings. They’ll look for how to use LESS energy by doing things like improving the insulation and sealing air leaks.
Priscilla: And then you look at how is this building being heated or cooled right, is it on oil? Is it on gas? What are the alternatives?
Juliana Merullo: Then they’ll try to figure out how cheaply and quickly they can run the buildings on electricity.
Nat Hardy: One of the biggest challenges will be changing the way the city heats its buildings. They’ll have to replace furnaces that rely on oil and gas with an electric option… heat pumps!
Juliana Merullo: Using electricity to heat and cool the buildings will reduce their carbon emissions, especially if the electricity is coming from renewable sources.
Nat Hardy: The state already set a goal to power the entire grid with renewable energy by 2033! The city is counting on that to make its buildings carbon-neutral.
Megan Hall: Does this city law only apply to the buildings that already exist?
Juliana Merullo: Nope! The ordinance also addresses new municipal buildings:
Priscilla: We will not be connecting any new buildings to fossil fuel systems like oil and gas.
Juliana Merullo: All these changes will cost a lot of money, but there are federal funds available to help.
Nat Hardy: The Inflation Reduction Act and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, include money for cities trying to reduce their carbon emissions.
Priscilla: that is something that we are collaborating day in and day out across city departments and really looking at the funding that’s out there and try to maximize how much of that we bring in to meet the requirements under this carbon neutral ordinance.
Megan Hall: Ok, but there are so many buildings in Providence that aren’t owned by the city. Do they also have to be carbon neutral by 2040?
Juliana Merullo: This ordinance doesn’t affect privately owned buildings. But Priscilla wants the city to lead by example.
Priscilla: With the city being able to show “Hey, we are already doing this with our buildings, there’s so much federal funding available, and resources you can tap into, it can be done.” So really showing what that pathway is for building owners.
Nat Hardy: 70% of Providence’s greenhouse gas emissions come from its buildings, both municipal and private. So even if the municipal buildings aren’t the biggest chunk of that, it’s still an important first step.
Megan Hall: Doing all this by 2040 is still pretty ambitious though, right?
Nat Hardy: Totally, but Priscilla says it’s also achievable. And unlike past resolutions, this ordinance has some teeth to it.
Juliana Merullo: Different city departments will have to report each year on the progress they’re making towards this target, and what their plans are for the following year.
Nat Hardy: Cities are going to play an important role in addressing the climate crisis. If we really want to slow the effects of climate change, we’re going to have to be ambitious!
Megan Hall: Got it! Thanks Juliana and Nat!
That’s it for today. For more information, or to ask a question about how your choices affect our planet, go to askpossibly.org. Or, find us on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn or X at “askpossibly” Possibly is a co-production of the Public’s Radio, Brown University’s Institute for Environment and Society, and the Brown Climate Solutions Initiative.
Megan Hall: Welcome to Possibly, where we take on huge problems like the future of our planet and break them down into small questions with unexpected answers. I’m Megan Hall.
A while ago, we asked if anyone had big, crazy ideas about how to slow down climate change. And a few of you wrote in with the same question – can we send an umbrella into space to block the sun and cool the planet?
Is that something we could really do? I’m here with Possibly reporters Will Malloy and Iman Khanbhai to find out.
Will Malloy: Hi Megan!
Iman Khanbhai: Hi!
Megan Hall: An umbrella in space? How would that even work?
Will Malloy: I know, the idea sounds almost impossible and even kind of silly – can you imagine how much fabric that would take!
Iman Khanbhai: How would you hold it up?
Megan Hall: Is anyone actually considering putting up an umbrella?
Will Malloy: We asked Possibly’s founder and Brown University’s Provost for Sustainability, Professor Stephen Porder
Stephen Porder: So an umbrella obviously, is not practical
Iman Khanbhai: But scientists are talking about something that isn’t too far off –
Will Malloy: Putting a whole bunch of dust particles very high up in the atmosphere.
Stephen Porder: So it’s like, a trillion little teeny umbrellas. The idea is, could we fly a bunch of airplanes, let out some particles into the very high atmosphere and let those particles reflect a little bit of sunlight.
Iman Khanbhai: You might hear ideas like this called “solar geoengineering” – the idea is that we could temporarily turn down the temperature on Earth by blocking some of the sunlight that comes into the atmosphere and warms the planet.
Megan Hall: How do we even know if something like this would work?
Will Malloy: Putting a bunch of dust into the atmosphere is basically what happens when a volcano erupts.
Stephen Porder: Nature has already done the experiment. We know that if you inject a huge amount of particles into the upper atmosphere it will cool the planet.
Will Malloy: Some scientists think it might be a good short-term way to bring down the temperature while we work on more permanent solutions.
Megan Hall: That sounds pretty extreme!
Iman Khanbhai: It is extreme. There’s even an open letter of over 400 scientists from around the world who are opposed to even researching this.
Megan Hall: Tell me more about that debate….
Will Malloy: For one, if you start putting particles in the atmosphere, you’d have to constantly refresh the supply. Just like the ash from a volcano erupting doesn’t last forever, the dust particles would only stay in the atmosphere for a short amount of time.
Stephen Porder: So you’d have to have this like network of planes. Putting particles up into the upper atmosphere continuously through good economic times, bad economic times, wars, whatever else
Megan Hall: And human beings are not great at being consistent…
Iman Khanbhai: Right – and stopping would have big consequences, which makes a lot of scientists worried about starting in the first place.
Megan Hall: What would happen if we did stop?
Will Malloy: Putting up particles- like putting up an umbrella – would block some of the sun’s rays. But if we keep burning fossil fuels, that’s like continuing to pile up blankets around the Earth.
Stephen Porder: Then you pull the umbrella away. And now you have all this blanket on top of you and you get the full effects of the sun, and this huge blanket and so you go from like, cooled down to very rapidly, very, very hot.
Iman Khanbhai: Also, we’re not totally sure who would implement this strategy. A single country? One really motivated billionaire?
Will Malloy: And, it could have effects we can’t even predict – like if we cooled the planet too much too quickly, it might impact agriculture or create strange weather conditions.
Megan Hall: You said could, but we know that climate change will definitely impact agriculture and the weather.
Iman Khanbhai: That’s exactly the core of this debate –
Stephen Porder: Does this strategy, buy us time…? Or does it present a false hope that we don’t need to transition off of fossil fuels and just continue to cook the planet until we accidentally or on purpose, stop putting these particles in the atmosphere and experience this giant whiplash?
Megan Hall: I would not have guessed that those questions about sending an umbrella into space would have such a serious answer!
Will Malloy: I’ll admit, I thought this question was a little unbelievable, too, but it turns out, the idea of blocking out the sun brings up some pretty interesting dilemmas.
Megan Hall: Well, Will and Iman, thanks for getting into it!
That’s it for today. For more information, or to ask a question about the way your choices affect our planet, go to thepublicsradio.org/possibly. Or subscribe to us wherever you get your podcasts.
You can also follow us on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn or X at “askpossibly”
Possibly is a co-production of The Public’s Radio, Brown University’s Institute for Environment and Society and Brown’s Climate Solutions Initiative.
Megan Hall: Welcome to Possibly, where we take on huge problems like the future of our planet and break them down into small questions with unexpected answers. I’m Megan Hall.
Climate change. If you listen to this show, I’m going to assume that you care about it, and you feel like you know, at least in a basic way, what it is. But have you ever had a hard time explaining climate change to a friend?
Well, we understand.
Today, Meg Talikoff and Juliana Merullo are here to walk us through how climate communication experts go about it. Hey there!
Meg Talikoff: Hey Megan!
Juliana Merullo: Hi!
Megan Hall: So who are we hearing from today?
Juliana Merullo: We talked to one climate scientist, two science journalists, and two professors who research climate communication.
Meg Talikoff: And we gave them a pretty tricky task: to explain climate change in two sentences or less.
Juliana Merullo: Then they told us why they chose the explanation they did.
Megan Hall: Alright, let’s do this! Who’s our first explainer?
Juliana Merullo: Let’s start with Dr. Anthony Leiserowitz. He runs the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication, and hosts a radio program called Climate Connections.
Meg Talikoff: He answered us with a poem.
Anthony Leiserowitz: “Climate change. Scientists agree. It’s real, it’s us, it’s bad, but there’s hope.”
Meg Talikoff: Anthony really wanted to get across that the vast majority of scientists agree the climate is changing.
Juliana Merullo: He also wanted to make clear that climate change is already causing lots of suffering.
Meg Talikoff: But it wasn’t an accident that he said there’s hope.
Anthony Leiserowitz: We know what to do. We have the solutions. They’re sitting on the shelf. We just need to accelerate the transition from fossil fuels to clean energy.
Megan Hall: Did the other experts focus on those same points?
Meg Talikoff: Sort of! Dr. Wändi Bruine de Bruin, a provost professor of public policy, psychology and behavioral science at the University of Southern California, came up with this:
Wändi Bruine de Bruin: “Most people in US are now concerned about climate change, but many don’t know what to do. One of the most climate-friendly actions you can take yourself is to eat less red meat, and together, we have the power to vote for a better climate.”
Juliana : That wasn’t exactly the same. But like Anthony she’s saying that we already have the power to fix the problem.She thinks it’s counterproductive to spend too much time making people feel bad.
Meg Talikoff: Our first science journalist, The Guardian reporter Dharna Noor, agrees. Her explanation helps take the blame off individuals.
Dharna Noor: Climate change is an existential threat we’re facing, primarily due to the actions of like a tiny minority of people who own companies. But taking on the crisis could also present the opportunity to make life much better for people all around the world.”
Juliana Merullo: She says it’s important to be clear that climate change is human-caused, but we need to remember which humans are doing mostof that causing.
Megan Hall: Did anyone actually talk about the science of why the climate is changing?
Meg Talikoff: Yeah! Dr. Baylor Fox-Kemper is a professor at Brown University in the department of Earth, Environmental and Planetary sciences. He also served as a coordinating lead author for a chapter of the sixth Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
Juliana Merullo: That’s basically the UN’s climate research group. And his explanation came straight from their report.
Baylor Fox-Kemper: Human influence has warmed the climate at a rate that is unprecedented in at least the last 2000 years. Future emissions cause future additional warming, with total warming dominated by past and future c02 emissions.
Meg Talikoff: He says those sentences went through over 250 rounds of revisions by lots of scientists.Besides, Baylor thinks non-scientists don’t need to know much more than that.
Juliana Merullo: Former NYT Science Editor Cornelia Dean had a similar take.
Cornelia Dean: “People have been burning fossil fuels like coal and oil for at least 150 years, and all the while, we have been using Earth’s atmosphere as a garbage dump for the waste gasses that result, chiefly, carbon dioxide. These waste gasses accumulate, and they trap heat, so Earth is getting warmer and warmer.”
Megan Hall: So that was everyone. What’s your takeaway? How should we try to explain climate change to ourfriends?
Juliana Merullo: First- keep it simple about the actual mechanics of climate change. Burning fossil fuels makes greenhouse gasses, and greenhouse gasses make our planet get warmer.
Meg Talikoff: Also point out that scientists are absolutely sure this is happening, that it is human caused, and that the warming is a major threat to all humans.
Juliana Merullo: But then remind your friends that they aren’t alone in being scared, and that a lot of the crisis is caused by bad policies and big corporations.
Meg Talikoff: And make sure to emphasize that real, effective solutions are already in reach. We have the tools – we just need to deploy them.
Juliana Merullo: One great place to start is by voting for the climate-friendly policies that will make life better for everyone.
Megan Hall: Got it. Thanks guys.
That’s it for today. For more information, or to ask a question about the way your choices affect our planet, go to thepublicsradio.org/possibly. Or subscribe to us wherever you get your podcasts.
You can also follow us on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn or X at “askpossibly”
Possibly is a co-production of The Public’s Radio, Brown University’s Institute for Environment and Society, and Brown’s Climate Solutions Initiative.
Megan Hall: Welcome to Possibly, where we take on huge problems like the future of our planet and break them down into small questions with unexpected answers. I’m Megan Hall.
We’ve celebrated Earth Day in the United States for more than 50 years. Today, we’re taking a look at what made the first Earth Day in 1970 such a big deal, and whether the modern version needs a reboot.
We had Janek Schaller and Will Malloy from our Possibly team tackle this question.
Janek Schaller: How’s it going, Megan?
Will Malloy: Happy belated Earth Day!
Megan Hall: Thank you! So, set the scene for us: what did the first Earth Day look like?
Will Malloy: It was huge! 20 million Americans participated in more than 10,000 events from New York City to small-towns in Kansas.
Megan Hall: Wow! How did this happen?
Janek Schaller: Believe it or not, Earth Day 1970 was set in motion by a US senator, Gaylord Nelson. He wanted to build a new environmental movement that used tactics that were similar to the anti-Vietnam War protests of the 1960s.
Megan Hall: A US senator leading a grassroots campaign? That seems like the opposite of grassroots…
Janek Schaller: Right. Senator Nelson knew that, so he hired a group of young organizers to coordinate the event.
Will Malloy: These organizers decided to have every community design their own Earth Day programming around the environmental issues that mattered the most to them.
Megan Hall: So there was no single set of demands?
Janek Schaller: That’s right! The national organizers did put a lot of effort into publicizing Earth Day, but they stopped short of telling people what to do.
Adam Rome: “A lot of people worked out their own theory of change, and then acted on it.”
Janek Schaller: That’s Professor Adam Rome, a historian of environmental movements. He says, the first Earth Day was special because…
Adam Rome: “It joined the organizing effort of the grassroots with the power of the Washington elite to accomplish more than either the grassroots activists or the Washington elite could have accomplished on their own.”
Will Malloy: That first Earth Day certainly made a big difference – it played an important role in the creation of both the Clean Water Act and the Clean Air Act. Plus, it motivated millions of people to take action together.
Janek Schaller: But the movement didn’t include everyone.
Megan Hall: What do you mean?
Janek Schaller: The organizers and participants in the first Earth Day were mostly white, and the topics that received the most attention were those that appealed primarily to white, affluent people.
Will Malloy: Some Black Americans were skeptical of the event. For example,the mayor of Cleveland at the time, Carl B. Stokes – who was Black –questioned whether Earth Day would do anything to reduce rates of poverty and homelessness in his city.
Janek Schaller: In the end, Mayor Stokes did support Earth Day protests against water pollution in Cleveland. His efforts actually helped pave the way for the modern environmental justice movement.
Megan Hall: Got it. How are people working to make Earth Day more inclusive now?
Janek Schaller: To find out, we talked to Caitlyn Carpenter, a coordinator of the Sunrise Movement hub at Brown University. Sunrise is an environmental justice organization with chapters across the country.
Will Malloy: To Caitlyn, Earth Day as it is promotes a form of environmentalism that doesn’t push for lasting change.
Caitlyn Carpenter: You’re giving out this like broad concept of, okay, we should care about the Earth. But that can be interpreted in ways that uphold these fundamental structures that are at the root of why we have environmental degradation in the first place.
Will Malloy: This year, Sunrise Brown is working with groups on over 80 college campuses to target those structures by reclaiming Earth Day.
Megan Hall: What does that look like?
Janek Schaller: The group is collaborating with other student organizations and academic departments to create events that encourage students to think about how environmental and social justice issues overlap.
Will Malloy: Their goal is to change the narrative of Earth Day so it focuses on the issues that are most important for people who have been excluded from the environmental movement.
Here’s Garrett Brand, the other Sunrise coordinator at Brown:
Garrett Brand: “We want there to be a new status quo, where when people think about something environmental, they’re thinking about environmental justice, thinking about getting rid of toxic polluters in Black communities instead of thinking about recycling.”
Janek Schaller: Basically, they believe Earth Day should be repurposed to unite environmental issues with their vision of social justice.
Megan Hall: That seems like a big rethinking of Earth Day.
Will Malloy: As you might suspect, it’s not a universally accepted approach. But it is gaining traction with this generation of environmental activists.
Janek Schaller: If you’d like to get involved in reclaiming Earth Day, there’s a good chance that a campus near you has scheduled events for this week.
Megan Hall: Got it – thanks, Janek and Will!
That’s it for today. For more information, or to ask a question about the way your choices affect our planet, go to thepublicsradio.org/possibly. Or subscribe to us wherever you get your podcasts.
You can also follow us on social media at “ask possibly”
Possibly is a co-production of Brown University’s Institute for Environment and Society, Brown’s Climate Solutions Initiative, and The Public’s Radio.
Megan Hall: Welcome to Possibly, where we take on huge problems like the future of our planet and break them down into small questions with unexpected answers. I’m Megan Hall.
Last week we talked about why individuals should use less water. It turns out, that conserving water at home is mostly about saving energy and reducing emissions. But where does most of our water go? And why should the people in charge of it save water too?
Meg Talikoff and Juliana Merullo from our Possibly team are here to explain.
Juliana Merullo: Hiya!
Meg Talikoff: Hey, Megan!
Megan Hall: So, who’s really using up all of our water, if it’s not people like me who take long showers?
Meg Talikoff: Well, the big water users in high-income countries like the US are the agriculture and industry sectors. Together, they use more than 80% of our water!
Megan Hall: And I assume if they use less water, they’ll also save energy?
Juliana Merullo: Definitely. But unlike us, they can run into other issues if they use too much.
Megan Hall: What do you mean by that?
Meg Talikoff: Well using up too much of the total water supply can cause a whole host of issues.
Megan Hall: Does that even happen in the Northeast? It always feels like we have plenty of water to go around.
Juliana Merullo: Sadly, yes. Our East Coast attitude towards water is called the “myth of abundance” according to UNC Greensboro professor Dr. Sarah Praskievicz –
Sarah Praskievicz: In climates that are generally wet, like in the Eastern US, there is a widespread perception among the public and even among many water managers that water is abundant. And, there are a couple of places where the myth of abundance starts to break down.
Megan Hall: In what ways does this myth break down?
Meg Talikoff: First, businesses and farms absolutely can overuse water in wet places. Sometimes big farms take too much water out of small local rivers or lakes. That threatens the wellbeing of all the plants and animals that live there.
Juliana Merullo: And if industries on the coast pump too much groundwater, saltwater can start seeping into underground places where freshwater used to be.That ends up contaminating whatever freshwater is left.
Meg Talikoff: Pumping too much groundwater in one area can even make land start to sink! New research shows that Boston is sinking at almost 4 centimeters per decade, in part because of groundwater extraction.
Juliana Merullo: And another issue is that if we use too much water, we could eventually lose the ability to be resilient in times of drought.
Megan Hall: I thought drought was mostly an issue in much drier climates.
Meg Talikoff: Well, dry places are definitely on the front lines. But the idea that the East Coast doesn’t have drought is part of the myth of abundance.
Sylvia Reeves: It’s periodic in nature. It’s not the continuous drought that you see and hear about from out West, but, very localized drought is possible, very widespread drought is possible in New England…
Meg Talikoff: That’s Sylvia Reeves, NOAA’s Drought Information Coordinator for the Northeast.
Juliana Merullo: Our East Coast droughts are usually manageable if we have enough water stored up to draw on when things start getting dry.
Meg Talkoff: But if we don’t, we can run into water scarcity. Sylvia told us about three counties in Western New York that started having a drought in the summer of 2023. By Thanksgiving, more than 100 homes had wells dry up.
Juliana Merullo: Drought can also make it so we can’t grow much as food as usual. One study found that farms without access to groundwater lost 13% of their crop value during dry years.
Megan Hall: If we don’t own farms, or big industries, what can we do about all this?
Meg Talikoff: Well, there are a few things to think about!
Juliana Merullo: You can eat less red meat, because cattle use a lot of water.
Meg Talikoff: You can also plant things in your yard that match well with our climate, or that don’t need watering.
Megan Hall: Alright, sounds good!
That’s it for today. For more information, or to ask a question about the way your choices affect our planet, go to thepublicsradio.org/possibly Or subscribe to us wherever you get your podcasts.
You can also follow us on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn or X at “askpossibly”
Possibly is a co-production of The Public’s Radio, Brown University’s Institute for Environment and Society, and Brown’s Climate Solutions Initiative.
Megan Hall: Welcome to Possibly, where we take on huge problems like the future of our planet and break them down into small questions with unexpected answers. I’m Megan Hall.
Have you ever wondered why we should save water when it feels like Rhode Island has enough to go around? Today, Meg Talikoff and Juliana Merullo are here to answer that question. Hi, guys!
Juliana Merullo: Hi!
Meg Talikoff: Hey, Megan!
Megan Hall: So, what’s the deal? Why should I worry about my ten-minute shower when we seem to be having a lot more floods than droughts around here?
Meg Talikoff: First, it’s important to clarify that water conservation has different benefits depending on who is using less water.
Megan Hall: What do you mean by that?
Juliana Merullo: Well, the amount of water people use at home is so small relative to other uses, that it basically doesn’t affect our total water use.
Meg Talikoff: So, the reason you personally should conserve water isn’t really related to how much water is available in Rhode Island. It mostly has to do with energy.
Megan Hall: Can you explain that a little more? How are water and energy connected?
Juliana Merullo: It just takes a lot of energy to get water from the environment, treat it, transport it to your house, heat it, clean it when you’re done, and repeat that cycle over and over again.
Megan Hall: Okay. But, is using energy really a bad thing?
Meg Talikoff: Well, most of our energy still comes from burning fossil fuels. Which means the more water we use, the more greenhouse gasses we emit.
Megan Hall: So, energy use contributes to climate change, but how much are we talking about? Is water a big contributor?
Juliana Merullo: It’s not the biggest home energy use, but it’s not small either.
Meg Talikoff: In the typical American house, water heating alone accounts for about 20% of all the energy use.
Juliana Merullo: That’s less than heating air, but more than all your electronics and appliances. And it adds up.
Meg Talikoff: In fact, the amount of energy the average American spends on home water services comes out to about one and a half tons of carbon dioxide per year.
Juliana Merullo: For reference, the average American car creates about four and a half tons of carbon dioxide a year.
Meg Talikoff: So if you wanted to offset your water use by not driving, you’d have to walk everywhere for over four months a year!
Megan Hall: So I shouldn’t be mindlessly using water. Do you guys have any specific tips on how to conserve?
Meg Talikoff: The most obvious answer is just to turn off the tap when you can. Cutting your shower time in half will naturally cut that shower’s emissions in half, too.
Juliana Merullo: You could try picking one song, and getting out of the shower when it’s over!
Meg Talikof: Also, something people don’t always realize is that about 95% of the energy cost of home water use comes from heating the water.
Juliana Merullo: So using cold water can save you a bunch of water-related emissions.
Meg Talikoff: One easy way to use more cold water is by running your laundry machine on the cold setting.
Juliana Merullo: If you’re brave, try a cold shower. One recent study found that spending five minutes in cold water (without your getting your head wet) could boost your mood.
Meg Talikoff: Though, I’m not going to try that one.
Megan Hall: If I’m not ready to commit to a cold shower in the morning, is there anything else I can do to save water?
Meg Talikoff: Definitely – That’s where you can look into buying water-efficient appliances. For example – front loading washers use much less water than top loaders.
Juliana Merullo: And ENERGY STAR appliances use about 20% less energy than traditional washers.
Meg Talikoff: Or you could make the heating process more efficient by warming your water with a hot water heat pump, instead of a water heater that burns gas or oil.
Megan Hall: Okay, I’ve got action items! But what about those “other uses” you mentioned? Who’s using up most of our water?
Meg Talikoff: We’ll talk more about that in our episode next week.
Megan Hall: Got it! Thanks Meg and Juliana!
That’s it for today. For more information, or to ask a question about the way your choices affect our planet, go to thepublicsradio.org/possibly. Or subscribe to us wherever you get your podcasts.
You can also follow us on Instagram, Facebook or X at “askpossibly”
Possibly is a co-production of The Public’s Radio, Brown University’s Institute for Environment and Society, and Brown’s Climate Solutions Initiative.
Megan Hall: Welcome to Possibly, where we take on huge problems like the future of our planet and break them down into small questions with unexpected answers. I’m Megan Hall.
Today, we’re revisiting food waste. As we’ve said in some of our other episodes, the best way to tackle food waste is to prevent it in the first place. But, when it does come time to toss your kitchen scraps, where should they go?
We had Fatima Husain and Ashley Junger from our Possibly Team look into this.
Fatima Husain: Hi, Megan!
Ashley Junger: Hello!
Megan Hall: So, Fatima, to start us off – where do our food scraps go when we toss them?
Fatima Husain: After scraping your plate or the cutting board, your food can end up in one of three places: your trash bin, the sink disposal, or in compost.
Ashley Junger: And each of these destinations are associated with different environmental impacts, like releasing greenhouse gases such as methane.
Megan Hall: We’ve spoken a bit about methane before on Possibly – can you remind us how it’s associated with food waste?
Fatima Husain: Of course, To do that, let’s think about landfills – the place where food ends up if you put it in the trash. After about a few weeks at the dump, that food gets buried and is no longer exposed to open air.
Ashley Junger: And when that happens, microbes break down that buried food into methane, a greenhouse gas which, in the short term, warms the planet 80 times more than carbon dioxide does.
Megan Hall: Got it. So, food waste in landfills eventually ends up as greenhouse gases in the atmosphere?
Fatima Husain: Yes, though at some landfills, some of that gas is collected and used for energy. In Rhode Island, for example, landfill gas from the Central Landfill is captured and converted to electricity.
Ashley Junger: In 2023, there were nearly 500 landfills with landfill gas energy projects in the United States, with about 100 more planned or underway.
Fatima Husain: But even a landfill with methane capture can’t catch all of it. A recent report from the EPA estimated that over sixty percent of methane produced by landfill food waste isn’t captured and still makes it to the atmosphere.
Megan Hall: Got it. So the trash isn’t a great option. What about sink disposal?
Ashley Junger: When your scraps go into your sink disposal, they’re shredded up and travel through sewer pipes to your local water treatment plant.
Fatima Husain: On the way to the plant, microbes can start breaking those shredded scraps down into methane.
Ashley Junger: And then at the treatment facility, food wastes become part of sewage sludge. Depending on where you live, that sludge can end up in your local landfill, burned, turned into fertilizer, or processed for methane capture.
Fatima Husain: But just like with landfill gas energy projects, not all wastewater facilities have systems in place to capture methane. In fact, most don’t.
Ashley Junger: A recent study out of Princeton showed that wastewater treatment plants in the US emit nearly two times more methane than scientists previously thought. It’s about the same amount of methane that landfills produce.
Megan Hall: Wow – so what about composting?
Fatima Husain: Compared to the methane emissions associated with landfilling or your kitchen sink, compost is by far the best place for your food waste to end up.
Ashley Junger: During the composting process, microbes interact with food in the presence of air, which contains oxygen. When oxygen’s around, microbes break down food into carbon dioxide, not methane.
Fatima Husain: More and more cities including New York, Seattle and San Francisco have implemented municipal composting.
Ashley Junger: And even more have pick-up composting available by third parties.
Fatima Husain: Of course, if you have a backyard, or even a bin under your sink, you can compost your own food waste, turn it into nutritious soil, and keep heat-trapping methane out of our air.
Megan Hall: Great! Thanks, Fatima and Ashley!
That’s it for today. For more information, or to ask a question about the way your choices affect our planet, go to thepublicsradio.org/possibly. Or subscribe to us wherever you get your podcasts.
You can also follow us on Instagram, Facebook or X at “askpossibly”
Possibly is a co-production of Brown University’s Institute for Environment and Society, Brown’s Climate Solutions Initiative, and the Public’s Radio.
Megan Hall: Welcome to Possibly, where we take on huge problems, like the future of our planet, and break them down into small questions with unexpected answers. I’m Megan Hall.
Today’s question comes from a listener here in Rhode Island. They’ve been following local efforts to pass a bottle bill- that’s where you get money back when you return your bottles and cans. They’re wondering, do these programs really work?
We had Juliana Merullo and Will Malloy from our Possibly team look into this question!
Juliana Merullo: Hiya Megan!
Will Malloy: Hey there!
Megan Hall: So, tell me more about these “bottle bills” How do they work?
Juliana Merullo: Bottle bills create what’s known as “Deposit recycling programs”. Right now they exist in 10 states across the US.
Will Malloy: Each state has a slightly different version, but it’s basically a law that establishes a deposit system for drink containers made of aluminum, plastic, or glass.
Juliana Merullo: When you buy one of these drinks in a store, the price includes a small deposit charge, anywhere from 5 to 15 cents. Then when you bring empty containers back to a store or return center for recycling, you get that deposit back!
Megan Hall: This sounds like a pretty good way to encourage people to recycle. Does it work?
Juliana Merullo: Good question! To find out, we spoke with Caroline Cecot. She’s a law professor at George Mason University who’s published studies looking into how effective these bills really are. She says,
Caroline Cecot: Studies show that bottle bills are an effective way to increase recycling of covered materials, and even sometimes uncovered materials.
Megan Hall: Uncovered materials?
Juliana Merullo: That means even products like paper that aren’t part of the deposit program get recycled more too!
Megan Hall: How big of a difference do these bills make?
Will Malloy: Well, recycling rates for glass bottles are more than 20% higher in states that have bottle bills versus states that don’t.
Megan Hall: Ok, but how do we know it’s actually the bottle bills that make the difference?
Juliana Merullo: We asked Caroline the same thing.
Caroline Cecot: One study that I like looked at those people who moved from a state without a bottle bill into a state that actually has a bottle bill, and that study found that their recycling increased by 41%, which is a big effect if you think about it. And this suggests that the law is what makes a difference.
Will Malloy: Another example comes from Oregon and Connecticut, which both had bottle bills, but expanded them in 2009 to include plastic water bottles.
Juliana Merullo: Researchers compared plastic bottle recycling rates before and after the law was changed, and found that there was a 15% increase in recycling once that small incentive was in place.
Will Malloy: And it turns out there are other benefits to these programs beyond just recycling rates!
Juliana Merullo: When you bring your containers to a redemption center, you feed them into a machine one by one. But they can get rejected if they’re dirty or not totally empty.
Will Malloy: This means that these recyclables are often cleaner than the same containers in curbside pickup, making them more likely to actually be recycled!
Juliana Merullo: These bills have also been found to reduce litter! Anyone can turn in containers to get the deposit back, even if they didn’t buy it in the first place. When I was a kid growing up in Massachusetts, I used to pick up cans and bottles on the side of the road to turn in for pocket money!
Megan Hall: So why don’t all states have these programs?
Will Malloy: Some people argue that curbside recycling programs are much more convenient for people, and therefore make it more likely that people will actually recycle at all!
Megan Hall: Is that true?
Will Malloy: Well, curbside recycling accepts more than just drink containers, and the two programs don’t have to be mutually exclusive!
Juliana Merullo: But the beverage industry is the loudest critic of bottle bills. They have outspent supporters of these programs 30 to 1 when these laws are brought to state or federal lawmakers.
Will Malloy: They argue that increasing the price of the bottles and cans with the deposit will reduce sales, and that it unfairly targets people who might not have the time or resources to bring the containers back for recycling.
Juliana Merullo: Butone study found that when you compared New England states with and without bottle bills, there was no difference in drink prices.
Will Malloy: Caroline did say it’s important for policy-makers to consider the impacts of the deposit on lower income individuals.
Juliana Merullo: But this can be addressed with education and by increasing the number of return centers.
Megan Hall: Ok, so overall it seems like these bottle bills are actually a pretty effective way to boost recycling and reduce litter!
Will Malloy: Definitely!
Megan Hall: That’s it for today. For more information, to find out more about the way your choices affect our planet, go to thepublicsradio.org/possibly.
You can also follow us on Instagram, Facebook or X at “askpossibly”
Possibly is a co-production of The Public’s Radio and Brown University’s Institute for Environment and Society, and Brown Climate Solutions Initiative.
Megan Hall: Welcome to Possibly, where we take on huge problems like the future of our planet and break them down into small questions with unexpected answers. I’m Megan Hall.
So-called “Natural gas”- the stuff a lot of us use to heat our homes and run our stoves- is basically methane, a powerful greenhouse gas. In the short term, methane is 80 times more potent than CO2 when it comes to warming the planet.
So, states are looking for ways to use less of this fossil fuel. And Massachusetts has a new plan to do just that.
Here to tell us more are our Possibly reporters Janek Schaller and Iman Khanbhai
Janek Schaller: How’s it going, Megan?
Iman Khanbhai: Hi!
Megan: So, tell me more about what’s happening in Massachusetts right now.
Iman: Ok, for the past 4 years or so, the Department of Public Utilities in Massachusetts has been exploring the future of natural gas.
Megan: And they’re doing this because they want to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions?
Janek: Exactly. Like other states across the country, Massachusetts made a pledge to bring its emissions down to zero by 2050. If it wants to reach that goal, the state will need to phase out natural gas.
Megan: Got it. And Massachusetts finally has a plan?
Iman: That’s right! It’s called the 20-80 order, and it’s kind of a big deal.
Dr. Michael Walsh: The 20-80 order rocked not only Massachusetts, it didn’t just rock New England, it rocked the entire country in terms of how a lot of states are thinking about the future of gas.
Janek: That’s Dr. Michael Walsh, a decarbonization and energy strategist who gave feedback on 20-80.
Megan: So why did this plan rock the country?
Iman: For starters, it discourages utility companies from investing in the infrastructure that brings natural gas to people’s homes and businesses.
Megan: In what way?
Janek: Well, before a company can do something like fix a natural gas pipeline, the 20-80 order now requires it to explore all of its other options.
Iman: That could include heating homes with electricity or geothermal energy instead of natural gas.
Megan: Does that mean Massachusetts is hoping to abandon its natural gas system altogether?
Iman: Well, this isn’t a complete ban on natural gas service in Massachusetts – the electric grid is limited and can’t reach everyone in the state, yet.
Janek: But, it’s a good time to start this process.
Megan: Why?
Iman: First, there are other ways of heating homes, like heat pumps. They’re reliable, run on electricity, and are three to four times as energy-efficient as gas-powered furnaces.
Janek: Also, the gas infrastructure in Massachusetts is getting old- some portions were put in more than 100 years ago. When those pipes leak, they release methane directly into the air.
Iman: But fixing those pipelines to eliminate leaks is expensive. Repairs to Massachusetts’s existing gas infrastructure is expected to cost $20 billion dollars.
Megan: So, why invest in a system that’s expensive and falling apart when there are better options out there?
Janek: Exactly.
Megan: But what happens to the houses that are using natural gas now?
Janek: That’s where Massachusetts’ plan really shines. It encourages gas and electric utilities to work together to find the best places to start this transition away from natural gas and towards electricity.
Iman: The order also says that these projects should prioritize communities with unreliable service and leak-prone pipes, as well as environmental justice populations.
Janek: Because the truth is, everyone is going to need to transition away from natural gas eventually. As Michael Walsh, the energy strategist says-
Dr. Walsh: “The question that’s ahead of us is how well will we manage this transition off of gas and on to a cleaner, more electrified future.”
Megan: How do we know the utility companies will follow this plan?
Iman: Starting in 2025, they have to submit reports detailing their plan to reduce emissions. And Massachusetts is working on creating financial incentives to make sure companies follow through on these plans.
Janek: It’s now up to other states, like Rhode Island, where policymakers are also considering the future of gas, to follow Massachusetts’ lead.
Megan: We’ll stay tuned on that – thanks, Janek and Iman.
That’s it for today. For more information, or to ask a question about the way your choices affect our planet, go to thepublicsradio.org/possibly. Or subscribe to us wherever you get your podcasts.
You can also follow us on Instagram, Facebook or X at “askpossibly”
Possibly is a co-production of The Public’s Radio, Brown University’s Institute for Environment and Society and Brown’s Climate Solutions Initiative.
Megan Hall: Welcome to Possibly, where we take on huge problems like the future of our planet and break them down into small questions with unexpected answers. I’m Megan Hall.
Recently, we got a question from one of our listeners. Matt from Providence wants to know – can we harness electricity from electric eels? We were intrigued! So we had Possibly reporters Iman Khanbhai and Janek Schaller look into this question.
Janek Schaller: Hi Megan!
Iman Khanbhai: Hello!
Megan Hall: So, electric eels? Tell me about them.
Janek Schaller: Electric eels are a type of freshwater fish. They have bad eyesight and can be as long as 8 feet!
Megan Hall: Ok, but what about the electric part? How does that work?
Iman Khanbhai: Right. Inside an eel’s body are a series of cells that generate electricity. Alone, those cells don’t create much of a charge, but when they’re stacked in a row, like batteries, they’re pretty powerful.
Megan Hall: How much electricity are we talking about?
Janek Schaller: It depends, but scientists have found eels that can generate up to 860 volts.
Megan Hall: 860 volts. Is that a lot?
Iman Khanbhai: Hang on – to answer that we need a quick high school physics refresher.
Janek Schaller: Voltage is basically pressure in an electrical current. A good way to think about it is to picture electricity kind of like a waterfall.
Iman Khanbhai: If the waterfall is high, the water falling over it has a lot of energy, and can do a lot of work.
Janek Schaller: Your home outlets are 120V, so electric eels can be several times higher voltage than those outlets. They can definitely give you quite a shock.
Megan Hall: Oh cool! So can humans use this electricity?
Janek Schaller: Well, that gets to the next part of the electricity refresher. To learn more, we talked to Professor Sean Sun.
Sean Sun: I’m a professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Johns Hopkins University. I’m also part of the Center for Cell Dynamics and Institute of Nanobiotechnology here.
Iman Khanbhai: Sean has actually done research into this exact question- can we harness electricity from eels?
Sean Sun: I think the short answer to your listener’s question is yes…There’s really quite a number of challenges, some of those logistic, some of it is scientific, they’re things that we just don’t know… it is definitely possible.
Megan Hall: What are the challenges Sean is talking about?
Janek Schaller: Well, eels can create electricity, but not for very long. They only give off those high-voltage shocks when they’re defending themselves or trying to stun their prey. Even then, their current only flows for about 2 milliseconds.
Iman Khanbhai: Remember the waterfall analogy? The high waterfall means the water will have a lot of energy by the time it hits the bottom, but there just isn’t much water- it runs out in 2 milliseconds.
Megan Hall: I see. So an electric eel isn’t going to power my electric car?
Janek Schaller: Not anytime soon. But Sean’s team wondered if they could get around this problem by making artificial eel cells.
Sean Sun: All you need is a small piece of tissue from a native eel, preferably young eel that you can then use to derive into stem cells. And then because they will self renewal if you can keep them alive, you essentially can have an indefinite number of cells, right?
Iman Khanbhai: Sean hoped to take those electric cells out of an eel’s body, and put them in the ideal environment. He thought you could get them to fire that electricity more often. And maybe, with genetic engineering, you could make those cells more powerful.
Sean Sun: This is, of course, this is what evolution does, right? You’re always looking for the next better thing.
Megan Hall: Interesting. So, how soon will these artificial eels start creating some serious electricity?
Janek Schaller: Unfortunately, not anytime soon. Sean’s project ended early because it ran out of funding. But he’s still excited about pursuing these questions.
Megan Hall: Got it. Thanks Iman and Janek.
That’s it for today. For more information, or to ask a question about the way your choices affect our planet, go to thepublicsradio.org/possibly. Or subscribe to us wherever you get your podcasts.
You can also follow us on Instagram, Facebook or X at “askpossibly”
Possibly is a co-production of The Public’s Radio, Brown University’s Institute for Environment and Society and Brown’s Climate Solutions Initiative.
Megan Hall: Welcome to Possibly, where we take on huge problems like the future of our planet and break them down into small questions with unexpected answers. I’m Megan Hall.
Today, we’re talking about textiles. In the past, we’ve covered how to give you gently used clothes a second life. But what about that ripped sweatshirt or pillowcase you accidentally bleached? We’re wondering – is it possible to recycle damaged clothes or fabrics?
We had Fatima Husain and Ashley Junger from our Possibly Team look into this. Welcome, Fatima and Ashley!
Fatima Husain: Hi, Megan!
Ashley Junger: Hello!
Megan Hall: So, Fatima: what can we do with these clothing items that are a little worse-for-wear?
Fatima Husain: Great question. If you can’t find ways to repurpose those fabrics at home, you don’t necessarily have to throw them into the trash.
Ashley Junger: In 2018, over 11 million tons of textiles, including damaged fabrics, made their way into US landfills – that’s nearly 8% of all municipal solid waste in the country- the kind of everyday trash you throw into the trashcan at home or work.
Fatima Husain: That waste has an impact. In addition to filling landfills, the breakdown of natural fiber-based fabrics such as cotton or wool can contribute to greenhouse gas emissions. When fabric is made from plastic fibers like polyester or nylon, they can break down into tiny pieces of plastic.
Ashley Junger: Textile recycling, on the other hand, keeps fabrics out of the dump. And in some places, it’s practically required – in 2022, Massachusetts made it illegal to throw out most textiles in landfills.
Megan Hall: Got it. So how does textile recycling work?
Fatima Husain: Here’s the gist: certain charities,, thrift stores, or for-profit companies collect these textiles and then the fabrics get sorted into grades with different destinations.
Ashley Junger: Fabrics that aren’t nice enough to sell might get exported and processed into wiping cloths, building insulation, or recycled back into fiber for other uses.
Fatima Husain: And once old textiles are no longer usable or recyclable, they may eventually get burned, or sent to the landfill.
Ashley Junger: Essentially, recycling textiles keeps them out of the waste stream longer. But the process for recycling them isn’t always transparent or air-tight, so fabrics at every stage of the process could still end up in a landfill.
Fatima Husain: That means, there still isn’t a perfect system for used textiles.
Ashley Junger: So if this is a topic that really matters to you, it’s best to start from the beginning: Buy clothes and fabrics that last, take care of them, and repair them instead of giving them away.
Megan Hall: But when I do have fabrics to recycle, what are my options like?
Ashley Junger: To learn more, we spoke with—
Jennifer McAuslin: I’m Jennifer McAuslin. I am the director of Donation Center Operations at Big Brothers Big Sisters of Rhode Island.
Fatima Husain: Big Brothers Big Sisters of Rhode Island has been collecting reusable clothing for decades, but they also take damaged textiles.
Jennifer McAuslin: We can take items that are ripped, stained, torn, mismatched, you know, give us your mismatched socks, give us you know, top half to your pajama set. As long as they’re clean and odorless, we can absolutely take them.
Ashley Junger: The money they earn from these textiles helps fund their local mentorship programs and nonprofit partners. Jennifer says that over 95% of the donations they collect, including damaged fabrics, can be recycled or resold one way or another.
Fatima Husain: In 2023, that meant the organization diverted nearly 2 thousand tons of cloth from the Rhode Island Central Landfill.
Megan Hall: Wow – 2 thousand tons! That’s a lot.
Ashley Junger: It is, but there’s still room for improvement.
Megan Hall: But what if I live somewhere else and I can’t donate to Big Brothers Big Sisters?
Ashley Junger: They’re just one organization that does this. A lot of nonprofits that collect used clothes also recycle textiles too.
Fatima Husain: And if you don’t have local non-profits or charitable organizations that accept damaged fabric, just search online. There’s a growing number of companies that have drop-off bins or mail-in programs.
Megan Hall: Got it! That’s it for today. For more information, or to ask a question about the way your choices affect our planet, go to thepublicsradio.org/possibly. Or subscribe to us wherever you get your podcasts.
You can also follow us on Instagram, Facebook or X at “ask possibly”
Possibly is a co-production of Brown University’s Institute for Environment and Society, Brown’s Climate Solutions Initiative, and the Public’s Radio.
Megan Hall: Welcome to Possibly, where we take on huge problems like the future of our planet and break them down into small questions with unexpected answers. I’m Megan Hall.
Today, we have a question from one of our reporters, Charlie Adams. What do you have for us, Charlie?
Charlie: Last summer I spent ten weeks working in the Bob Marshall Wilderness. It’s a slice of northwest Montana that’s over one million acres!
I’m from the East Coast, so the word “wilderness” used to make me think of pristine landscapes free of humans. Now that I’ve experienced it first hand, I think that’s not exactly right. Which made me wonder- what do we mean when we say “wilderness”?
Megan: We had Iman Khanbhai from our Possibly team help Charlie look into this question.
Iman: Hello!
Megan: So what exactly do we mean when we say “wilderness”?
Charlie: It’s a big question with many answers. To get a better idea, I asked rangers, conservationists, and tribal leaders. Depending on who you ask- it’s either a great idea, flawed, or a bit of both.
Megan: Alright, let’s get into it!
Iman: We can start with The 1964 Wilderness Preservation Act. It calls wilderness “…an area where the earth and its community of life are untrammeled by man, where man himself is a visitor who does not remain.”
Charlie: Many of us think about wilderness in a similar way, I know I did- it’s the legendary American landscapes home to grizzly bears and wolves, and for a few nights the brave backpacker.
Megan: Right. Wide open spaces without humans. What’s wrong with that definition?
Iman: Well, it assumes that there’s a big divide between humans and nature- that we haven’t always co-existed in some way.
Charlie: And that some ways of interacting with the land are more “civilized” than others.
Iman: To learn more we spoke with Professor Bathsheba Demuth, an Environmental Historian at Brown University.
Bathsheba Demuth: “The idea of wilderness is deeply tied with the settler colonial project of displacing indigenous inhabitants in North America by saying, Oh, this land is empty. It’s not being used. No one’s really here. And if settlers come in and transform it through agriculture and industry, then it will be inhabited for real.”
Megan: So, the idea of wilderness assumes that nothing’s happening there, so settlers can take it and do whatever they want with it?
Charlie: That was the original thought. But eventually,conservationists like Teddy Roosevelt worried about losing all of that wilderness. So, they worked to protect certain areas and keep them “wild.”
Megan: Like the national parks?
Charlie: Right. First came the parks, and then came a slightly different form of protection- wilderness areas. The US Government created these spaces to “maintain the wild character of the landscape”andthey blocked humans from building or living there.
Iman: But there was one huge problem- humans already lived there. This land belonged to Native peoples. And the government often removed them to make the areas “wild.”
Charlie: In fact, theBob Marshall Wilderness Complex, where I spent my summer, was established on indigenous land. That was more than 80 years ago.
Iman: Smokey Rides At The Door, an educator and former Blackfeet Tribal council member, says native people are still deeply connected to the land they lost.
Smokey Rides At The Door: “The protein that’s available there from the meat is very important for our health. The picking of wild berries is very important to us. Those are part of our ceremonies.
Megan: So, where do we go from here?
Charlie: Well, we can start by reimagining what wilderness means. Maybe it’s not as clear-cut as civilization versus nature. Here’s Gabriel de Avilez Row-sha, professor of history at Brown with a thought experiment:
Gabriel de Avilez Rocha: “When are you ever not in nature? Even when you’re sitting in your car? Or in your living room? How are you in wilderness in those moments? How is nature there? When we look around us, we actually are seeing nature that’s been transformed in different ways.”
Iman: But on a more practical level, wilderness areas can rethink this idea of excluding humans.
Charlie: Some places are already doing this. Bathsheba from Brown says people can enter wilderness areas in Alaska to harvest or hunt food for their daily needs.
Iman: And some park and wilderness systems are starting to do more to acknowledge indigenous people and their connection to these lands.
Megan: Thanks Charlie and Iman.
That’s it for today. For more information, or to ask a question about the way your choices affect our planet, go to the thepublicsradio.org/possibly. Or subscribe to us wherever you get your podcasts.
You can also follow us on Instagram, Facebook or X at “ask possibly”
Possibly is a co-production of The Public’s Radio, Brown University’s Institute for Environment and Society, and Brown’s Climate Solutions Initiative
Megan Hall: Welcome to Possibly, where we take on huge problems like the future of our planet and break them down into small questions with unexpected answers. I’m Megan Hall.
Today, we’re traveling to the Atlantic Forest, the second-largest rainforest in Brazil. Right now, it’s only 10% of its original size, but governments and nonprofits are working to change that.
One of our reporters, Ashley Junger, helped out with one of these projects over the summer. She’s here to tell us what she learned.
Ashley Junger: Hi, Megan!
Sounds of the Amazon rainforest, bird calls
Megan Hall: So tell us about this work you did over the summer!
Ashley Junger: I traveled to the Ecological Reserve of Guapiacu, also known as REGUA, about two hours away from Rio de Janeiro, for a project with my other job: Earthwatch Institute, a non-profit that pairs volunteers with scientists to conduct environmental research around the world.
Megan Hall: That sounds fun!
Ashley Junger: You know it! I worked with Manoel Muanis, a Brazilian scientist leading a restoration project in the Atlantic Rainforest. 500 years ago, it covered almost the entire east coast of Brazil, but land clearing, population growth, and deforestation made it almost disappear.
Megan Hall: So, you’re trying to grow it back?
Ashley Junger: That’s the plan! As Manoel said:
Manoel Muanis: “We need plants a lot of trees”
Ashley Junger: Manoel is not alone in this goal. A coalition of governments, companies, and the scientific community are all working together to reforest an area as big as the state of New York!
Megan Hall: I’ve always wondered, why don’t trees just grow back on their own?
Ashley Junger: Well, there is a natural process where eventually a mature forest comes back, but a lot of the land that used to be the Atlantic Forest is so degraded that trees won’t come back without some help.
Megan Hall: Why is that?
Ashley Junger: In some cases, the animals that spread the seeds are gone. In others, deforested land is too hot and dry for seeds that evolved to sprout on the shady rainforest floor.
Megan Hall: So what are people doing to help?
Ashley Junger: Well, REGUA collects seeds of native trees from the surrounding forest, starts growing them in their nursery, and then plants the seedlings in degraded areas. Afterwards, they monitor the saplings for a few years to make sure they’re growing properly.
Megan Hall: And they’re doing all of this so the trees can trap carbon from the atmosphere?
Ashley Junger: They’re definitely interested in the climate benefits, but that’s not the only focus. Manoel’s colleague, Julian Nicolas Wilmer, says-
Julian Nicolas Wilmer: The greatest value is not on carbon itself, but on the biodiversity. Because if you do not have biodiversity the microbes, the insects, everything, even the greatest restoration effort will be fated to failure.
Ashley Junger: In other words, they want to rebuild the entire ecosystem of the forest- not just plant trees.
Megan Hall: How can they tell if they’re on the right track?
Ashley Junger: That’s the part I helped with! To find out whether the replanted forests match the biodiversity and ecosystem of the original forests, I helped trap and track small mammals.
Manoel Muanis: For small mammals, we are using recapture methodology, which is basically with each animal that we capture we tagged with your individual number and then release.
Ashley Junger: Once the small mammals are tagged, researchers can count how many individuals are in the forests, and whether they’re sticking around.
Megan Hall: But how do small mammals tell you if a forest is supporting biodiversity?
Ashley Junger: If the number and diversity of small mammals in the newly reforested areas match what they’re finding in undisturbed, old-growth forests, then that’s a sign that the ecosystem is recovering well.
Megan Hall: Cool! Is there a way I can help?
Ashley Junger: Many of these types of tree-planting initiatives around the world are looking for volunteers. But if you don’t have the time or money to travel, you can still play an important role. Julian says:
Julian Nicolas Wilmer: I think is the duty of everyone to think of this issue. And think, what you can do for both planting trees and for restoration programs.
Ashley Junger: So figure out the way you can make the biggest impact. Whether that’s going to the Atlantic Forest yourself and getting your hands dirty or donating to support a reforestation project.
Megan Hall: Great! Thanks, or, as they say in Brazil, obrigada Ashley!
That’s it for today. For more information, or to ask a question about the way your choices affect our planet, go to the thepublicsradio.org/possibly. Or subscribe to us wherever you get your podcasts.
You can also follow us on Instagram, Facebook or X at “askpossibly”
Possibly is a co-production of The Public’s Radio and Brown University’s Institute for Environment and Society and Climate Solutions Initiative.
Megan Hall: Welcome to Possibly, where we take on huge problems like the future of our planet and break them down into small questions with unexpected answers. I’m Megan Hall.
Growing, harvesting, and making food creates greenhouse gas emissions. But some foods are responsible for more emissions than others. Red Meat is at the top of the list.
Lots of people want to reduce their emissions by eating more plants, but changing your eating habits can be hard.
So today, we’re taking a closer look at one idea of how we can drastically reduce the environmental impact of the meat we eat without actually changing our diets.
We had Ashley Junger and Fatima Husain from our Possibly Team look into this.
Ashley Junger: Hi, Megan!
Fatima Husain: Hello!
Megan Hall: So, what’s this magical way to keep eating meat AND reduce my greenhouse gas emissions?
Ashley Junger: It’s called cultivated meat or lab-grown meat.
Megan Hall: That sounds like something from science fiction. How does it work?
Ashley Junger: Good question. To learn more about cultivated meat and how it’s made, we talked with:
Elliot Swartz: “Elliot Swartz. I’m the Principal Scientist specializing in cultivated meat at the Good Food Institute.”
Fatima Husain: Elliot says the process of creating cultivated meat starts by taking a small piece from an animal….
Elliot Swartz:“Where those cells can be taken back to the lab, grown in a medium that contains all the nutrients that cells need to survive And they can multiply and create the tissues or cells that we need to form into future cultivated meat products.”
Ashley Junger: The end result is genuine animal meats that have been produced without killing an actual animal.
Image courtesy of The Good Food Institute. Megan Hall: Wow. But it sounds like a lot of trouble and expense to get the same thing we could get from a cow. Why bother?
Ashley Junger: According to the USDA, four percent of all US greenhouse gas emissions come from beef production. Cultivated meat could be a way to cut that number while still enjoying our burgers.
Fatima Husain: Depending on how it’s grown, on average, cultivated meat could use about one percent of the land that we need to create the same amount of conventional beef.
Ashley Junger: And scientists predict that cultivated meat could emit just 10% of the greenhouse gasses associated with producing traditional beef. And if labs use renewable energy, that could be as low as 2%.
Megan Hall: Wow, sounds like cultivated meat could solve a lot of problems.
Fatima Husain: Yeah, right now the emphasis is on could. Scientists are only making a small amount of cultivated meat, and these estimates are based on models of industrial-scale production. So we’ll have to wait and see how those numbers hold up.
Megan Hall: Ok, but wouldn’t it be easier to just not eat meat all together?
Ashley Junger: We asked Elliot the same question. He said:
Elliot Swartz: “People have been trying to, you know, tell people not to eat as much meat for many, many years. And so you really struggle to get people to shift their behavior by just telling them what to do, from a moral perspective.”
Megan Hall: Got it. But, how does it taste? Are meat eaters really going to want to try this stuff? It honestly sounds kind of unappealing.
Fatima Husain: Some people say it’s a little more uniform than conventional meat and doesn’t have those chewy, fatty bits. But most of the people who’ve reviewed it said it was extremely close to or indistinguishable from the real thing.
Megan Hall: Ok, I’ll give it a try. How can I get some?
Ashley Junger: Well, It’s still difficult and expensive to make, so right now the supply is only enough for some high-end restaurants.
Fatima Husain: But the industry is growing quickly. Investors have put more than 2 billion dollars into getting cultivated meat products on the market.
Ashley Junger: So only time will tell if cultivated meat companies will be able to compete with conventional meat.
Megan Hall: Got it! Thanks, Ashley and Fatima!
That’s it for today. For more information, or to ask a question about the way your choices affect our planet, go to the thepublicsradio.org/possibly. Or subscribe to us wherever you get your podcasts.
You can also follow us on Instagram, Facebook or X at “askpossibly”
Possibly is a co-production of The Public’s Radio, Brown University’s Institute for Environment and Society, and Brown’s Climate Solutions Initiative.
Megan Hall: Welcome to Possibly, where we take on huge problems like the future of our planet and break them down into small questions with unexpected answers. I’m Megan Hall.
Lead paint and leaded gasoline haven’t been used in American homes or cars for nearly 30 years. But researchers say that these sources of lead are still an environmental hazard. But why?
We had Nat Hardy and Will Malloy from our Possibly Team look into this question.
Nat Hardy: Hi, Megan!
Will Malloy: Hello!
Megan Hall: So, why are we still worried about lead?
Nat Hardy: Well, lead used to be in a lot of products. It was used to make paint more durable, and in gasoline to help engines run smoother.
Will Malloy: But it’s also really dangerous. If it gets into your body, it can harm brain development, especially in young children.
Nat Hardy: Because of the health effects of lead, the federal government started phasing it out in the 70s.
Megan Hall: Okay, but that was decades ago. Problem solved, right?
Will Malloy: Not quite! It’s still a problem, We talked to Gabe Filippelli, a professor of earth sciences at Indiana University, to figure out why.
Gabe Filippelli: Lead is one of these elements– it is an element, meaning, unless alchemy works at some point, we’re stuck with it.”
Nat Hardy: Once it’s been introduced into the environment, lead doesn’t break down or wash away. So even though we’re not adding any new lead into our environments today, it’s not going away either.
Will Malloy: These leftover sources of lead in the environment are called “legacy sources,” and they’re still a risk for people’s health today.
Megan Hall: Well that doesn’t sound good! Do we know where to find these legacy sources?
Nat Hardy: We do! The major legacy sources of lead are in soil and dust near where the lead was originally used.
Will Malloy: For example, when the paint on old houses peels or cracks, the soil around the house can be contaminated. Then that soil can get blown into the air as dust.
Nat Hardy: The exhaust from cars with leaded gas also contaminated the soil. Gabe still sees this when he tests for lead.
Gabe Filippelli: You will see a very definitive peak in soil lead near the roadway and a decline away from the roadway.”
Megan Hall: I didn’t realize lead could be in the soil. When I’ve heard people talking about lead these days, they’re mostly just talking about lead water pipes.
Nat Hardy: And they’re right about that too! Almost 10 million water pipes in the U.S. are made of lead.
Will Malloy: And when water quality is mismanaged, these pipes can corrode, allowing lead to enter drinking water.
Nat Hardy: But recently, the EPA announced a plan to replace every lead service line in the country over the next ten years.
Will Malloy: So we’re making great progress getting lead out of drinking water. But, research has shown that contaminated soil and dust can cause lead exposure just as much as pipes can
Nat Hardy: Especially for toddlers who spend a lot of time playing on the ground, and putting things in their mouths…
Megan Hall: So what can we do about this lead in the soil?
Will Malloy: Nationally, The EPA plans to update the country’s regulations around lead in soil. A change like this could encourage soil cleanup projects.
Nat Hardy: And at home, there are affordable options to keep your kids safe.
Megan Hall: Like what?
Will Malloy: You can get your home or yard tested for lead…
Nat Hardy: And If you find elevated levels, you can put down a thick layer of mulch to cover up contaminated dirt.
Megan Hall: I’m starting to feel overwhelmed…
Will Malloy: No, it’s okay! It’s not that bad. There’s a ton of reasons to be optimistic about cleaning up lead.
Nat Hardy: Children born in the last decade already have way lower lead levels than people born in the 70s.
Will Malloy: And Gabe says that cleaning up lead is something everyone can get behind.
Gabe Filippelli: It’s a little bit different than climate change, where we have so many embedded processes that use fossil fuels to emit carbon dioxide. Lead no longer has any embedded interest. Now we just need to clean it up.”
Megan Hall: Got it. Thanks, Nat and Will!
That’s it for today. For more information, or to ask a question about the way your choices affect our planet, go to thepublicsradio.org/possibly. Or subscribe to us wherever you get your podcasts.
You can also follow us on Instagram, Facebook or X at “askpossibly”
Possibly is a co-production of The Public’s Radio, Brown University’s Institute for Environment and Society, and Brown’s Climate Solutions Initiative.
Megan Hall: Welcome to Possibly, where we take on huge problems like the future of our planet and break them down into small questions with unexpected answers. I’m Megan Hall.
One of the great parts about living in the Ocean State is getting to eat fresh shellfish. But what happens to the shells after we slurp down those oysters? Possibly reporters and lifelong Rhode Islanders- Will Malloy and Iman Khanbhai looked into the options.
Will Malloy: Hi Megan!
Iman Khanbhai: Hi!
Megan Hall: So, what happens to the shells after we eat oysters?
Will Malloy: They can just go in the trash, but a number of coastal states have created programs to gather up those oyster shells and return them to the water.
Megan Hall: Cool! Is that to keep them out of the landfill?
Will Malloy: Yes, but there’s more to it than that.
Iman Khanbhai: Oyster shells can actually help rebuild wild oyster reefs.
Will Malloy: To learn more, we talked to Tim Mooney from The Nature Conservancy in Rhode Island. He says wild oysters are in danger.
Tim Mooney: we have lost about 85% of our wild oyster population compared to say 100 years ago … And so putting more shell in the water is a strategy to recreate self-sustaining wild oyster reefs.
Megan Hall: How do these oyster shells help rebuild those reefs?
Will Malloy: For one, they provide a good surface for baby oysters to settle and grow on.
Iman Khanbhai: Those babies need hard surfaces and old shells are perfect candidates.
Will Malloy: Plus, reefs based on fresh oyster shells make nooks and crannies that small fish can use as hiding spots from predators. Plus, they nurture diverse plant and animal communities.
Iman Khanbhai: Oysters are also really good at filtering water.
Tim Mooney:An adult oyster can filter 50 gallons of water in a day. And if you do that at scale, you’re gonna see changes in water quality and clarity.
Megan Hall: Cool! Let’s dump all of our oyster shells into the ocean!
Iman Khanbhai: It’s a little more complicated than that. These reefs can’t just get built anywhere, Oysters only survive and thrive under very particular conditions.
Will Malloy: Scientists at The Nature Conservancy in Rhode Island and at the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management are in the process of figuring out exactly where new reefs would be most likely to do well.
Iman Khanbhai: They’ve done some small-scale tests of potential locations to reestablish wild oyster populations locally. Right now, they have a couple dozen experimental reefs in ponds down in South County.
Will Malloy: While they’re still working out what locations are likely to be successful, they have their sights set on something much bigger.
Tim Mooney: Putting a little bit of shell here and a little bit of shell there, it’s not going to add up to enough to achieve the kind of water quality and fish habitat benefits that we’re looking for. Once we have the solid science on the best places to to build new reefs will be able to do this at scale.
Iman Khanbhai: In the meantime, the two organizations are working on building up a stockpile of shell so that when these plans are in place, they’re ready to drop.
Megan Hall: How can I help?
Will Malloy: Well, your oyster shells could do a lot of good, but Tim says…
Tim Mooney: that doesn’t mean everyone should go and start throwing oyster shells in the water wherever they are.
Will Malloy: Before shell can go in the water, it needs to sit outside and cure for a couple months to get rid of all the food waste or germs.
Iman Khanbhai: So don’t go chucking your shucked oyster shells off the dock!
Will Malloy: But if you want to support shell recycling efforts, think about eating at local restaurants or oyster festivals that donate their shell.
Megan Hall: As if I need an excuse to enjoy an oyster festival!
Thanks Will and Iman. That’s it for today. For more information, or to ask a question about the way your choices affect our planet, go to thepublicsradio.org/possibly. Or subscribe to us wherever you get your podcasts.
You can also follow us on Instagram, Facebook or X at “askpossibly”
Possibly is a co-production of The Public’s Radio, Brown University’s Institute for Environment and Society and Brown’s Climate Solutions Initiative.
Megan Hall: Welcome to Possibly. Where we take on huge problems, like the future of our planet, and break them down into small questions with unexpected answers. I’m Megan Hall.
Recently, I’ve had a lot of people knocking on my door trying to sell me solar panels. It happened just last week!
Salespeople: “We’re part of field marketing outreach, we actually go seek out homeowners and try to see if we can get them qualified for the no cost program that’s going on in this state right now”
Megan Hall: When I meet these door-to-door salespeople, I always wonder- are these solar panel programs legit? So I asked Juliana Merullo and Cameron Leo to look into this question.
Juliana Merullo: Hiya Megan!
Cameron Leo: Hi there!
Megan Hall: So can I trust these salespeople that keep knocking on my door?
Juliana Merullo: There’s nothing inherently fishy about these door-to-door salespeople. A lot of companies do this to spread the word about incentives for homeowners.
Cameron Leo: But, there’s the possibility these salespeople might exaggerate some parts of those incentives..
Megan Hall: What do you mean?
Juliana Merullo: Well, the federal government currently offers a tax credit for 30% of the purchase price of a solar panel system.
Megan Hall: And that’s legit, right?
Cameron Leo: Yes! But, not everyone qualifies for this tax credit.
Juliana Merullo: Door to door salespeople might say you’re guaranteed to receive the credit, or even call it a down payment, but that’s not really how it works.
Cameron Leo: To get the tax credit, there are a few conditions. You have to owe federal income tax for that year, and you have to be buying, not leasing, the solar panels.
Juliana Merullo: Plus, if the panels are going on your home, and you use part of your house as an office, that can also reduce the tax credit.
Cameron Leo: Andit doesn’t mean the solar panels are “no cost”. A tax credit just means that you don’t have to pay the full amount of your income tax at the end of the year.
Megan Hall: Got it! So what are some things I should ask these salespeople if I’m thinking about buying solar panels for my house?
Juliana Merullo: It’s really important to get a full breakdown of the cost of the project and the financing they might be offering. You can also ask for references, and talk to your friends and family to see if any of them have experience with that company.
Cameron Leo: And you shouldn’t feel rushed in the process. Even if you sign a contract with one of these companies, you have up to three days to cancel if you change your mind.
Juliana Merullo: For more advice, we spoke to someone who is working to help consumers make informed decisions about buying solar panels.
Peter Neronha: I’m Peter Neronha. I’m the attorney general for the state of Rhode Island.
Cameron Leo: The Attorney General’s office filed a lawsuitlast summer against Smart Green Solar, a company that they say was deceiving customers through door to door sale tactics.
Megan Hall: What did Smart Green Solar do?
Cameron Leo: Well, the case is still working its way through the system, but some customers said the company promised them the 30% tax credit, and didn’t tell them about the option to cancel within three days.
Megan Hall: That makes me think I shouldn’t talk to those people knocking on my door…
Juliana Merullo: A lot of people have that reaction. And the Attorney General says that’s a problem.
Peter Neronha: When solar companies engage in these kinds of practices, they taint all of the legitimate solar companies that are trying to sell solar to a Rhode Islander.
Cameron Leo: The truth is, transitioning to running our homes on renewable energy is a key part of how we can lower carbon emissions. And the attorney general says we can’t give up on that effort.
Peter Neronha: The office is heavily focused on this area because we believe it is something that Rhode Islanders need to consider to be part of our climate crisis solution.
Juliana Merullo: If you’re looking to buy solar panels, there are lots of legit companies, including ones that knock on your door, that can help you start the process.
Megan Hall: But if I want to get solar power for my home, how do I do it without getting scammed?
Juliana Merullo: The Attorney General says you should treat buying solar panels like you would treat any other big purchase.
Peter Neronha: I think it’s the rare Rhode Islander who walks into a car dealership without thinking about what kind of car they want, how much they’re prepared to pay…What make or model they’re looking for.
Megan Hall: But how do I get reliable information about solar panels?
Cameron Leo: To help with that, the Rhode Island attorney general’s office created a whole website for their Solar Panel Initiative with answers to consumers’ questions about who they should trust when they’re buying solar panels.
Juliana Merullo: The site also has a list of questions you can ask the salesperson to make sure they’re legit.So the next time someone knocks on your door, you’ll be prepared.
Megan Hall: Got it! Thanks, Juliana and Cameron.
That’s it for today. For more information, or to ask a question about the way your choices affect our planet, go to thepublicsradio.org/possibly. Or subscribe to us wherever you get your podcasts.
You can also follow us on Instagram, Facebook or X at “askpossibly”
Possibly is a co-production of The Public’s Radio and Brown University’s Institute for Environment and Society, and the Brown Climate Solutions Initiative.
Megan Hall: Welcome to Possibly, where we take on huge problems like the future of our planet and break them down into small questions with unexpected answers. I’m Megan Hall.
Last summer, I got a letter in the mail, welcoming me to the Providence Community Electricity Program.
If you live in Rhode Island, there’s a decent chance you got some version of this letter, too. That’s because last year, seven towns in Rhode Island launched brand new energy programs, called community choice aggregation.
We had Cameron Leo and Juliana Merullo from our Possibly Team look into the program to figure out how it works and what it means for Rhode Islanders.
Cameron Leo: Hey, Megan!
Juliana Merullo: Hiya!
Megan Hall: So, what is community choice aggregation? And what makes it different from the way I got my energy before?
Cameron Leo: The first thing to know is that Rhode Island has a deregulated energy grid.
Juliana Merullo: That means that even though Rhode Island Energy distributes all of the electricity across the state, residents can choose to get their energy from an outside company.
Megan Hall: So if I wanted to, I could opt out of Rhode Island Energy and get my electricity from somewhere else?
Cameron Leo: You could! But most people don’t choose to find a new provider on their own, because it’s a complicated process.
Juliana Merullo: This is where community choice aggregation, or CCAs, come in. Under these programs, towns can shop around for an outside energy supplier on behalf of all of their residents.
Cameron Leo: To learn more, we talked to Emily Koo, who was Providence’s Director of Sustainability when the city started developing this program. She says community aggregation has two main goals: lower prices, and more renewable energy.
Emily Koo: In contrast, an investor-owned utility, also has its own bottom line and fiduciary obligations to consider.
Megan Hall: Let’s start with the lower cost part of this. How does community aggregation cut my utility bill?
Juliana Merullo: Under community aggregation programs, towns purchase electricity for their residents in bulk.
Megan Hall: When you say “purchase in bulk,” my mind immediately goes to big-box stores like Costco.
Cameron Leo: And that’s actually a pretty great comparison! In the same way that you land a better deal when you buy big packages at those stores, towns with community aggregation programs aim to get lower costs by pooling together everyone’s electricity needs.
Megan Hall: Okay, so, bottom line – how much money am I actually saving through this program?
Juliana Merullo: So far, it’s varied by the season. Last summer, the program was 1 cent per kilowatt hour cheaper than Rhode Island Energy. That’s a 10% discount!
Cameron Leo: But this winter there’s been less of a difference. The CCA’s current rate is only one tenth of a cent cheaper per kilowatt hour than Rhode Island Energy, which isn’t much.
Megan Hall: Ok, so I’m likely to save, but not a lot. So, remind me why this is exciting?
Juliana Merullo: With community aggregation, towns can choose to select energy suppliers that will use more renewable sources, like wind and solar.
Cameron Leo: In Rhode Island, towns with the aggregation program are set to increase their renewable energy by 22 percent.
Megan Hall: That’s pretty good!
Juliana Merullo: It is! And nearly all of this new renewable energy is from sources in New England, which could help incentivize more renewables to come onto our local grid.
Megan Hall: So, everyone who got a letter, was automatically signed up for this program, but I saw that I also have the option to “opt up” and increase my renewable mix.
Cameron Leo: That’s right. You can do that by heading to your town’s Community Electricity website and filling out a quick form. It costs a bit more, but you can choose an electricity mix that’s 50 or even 100 percent renewable.
Megan Hall: So—what’s the catch? Are there any downsides to the program?
Juliana Merullo: Not really! But since the program is new, just how effective it is remains to be seen.
Cameron Leo: Still, it’s probably a step in the right direction to lower customer costs and drive more renewables onto the grid.
Megan Hall: Thanks, Cameron and Juliana! And thank you to Ella Spungen for helping with research for this episode.
That’s it for today. For more information, or to ask a question about the way your choices affect our planet, go to thepublicsradio.org/possibly. Or subscribe to us wherever you get your podcasts.
You can also follow us on Instagram, Facebook or X at “askpossibly”
Possibly is a co-production of The Public’s Radio, Brown University’s Institute for Environment and Society, and Brown’s Climate Solutions Initiative.
Megan Hall: Welcome to Possibly, where we take on huge problems like the future of our planet and break them down into small questions with unexpected answers. I’m Megan Hall.
Today, we have a question from one of our reporters, Kolya Shields. What do you have for us, Kolya?
Kolya Shields: I’ve learned so many great tips about saving energy and addressing climate change during my time at Possibly! But it’s hard to convince my friends to try something new, and sometimes even I forget to unplug my electronics or bring my reusable bags to the store.
So I was wondering, are there research-based ways to change our behaviors?
Megan Hall: We had CharlieAdams from our Possibly team help Kolya look into it. Welcome, Charlie and Kolya!
Charlie Adams: Hi, Megan!
Kolya Shields: Hello!
Megan Hall: So, how do we convince people to make climate-conscious decisions?
Kolya Shields: Well, it’s complicated! There’s a whole field of science dedicated to how people make decisions, behavioral science. To learn more, I spoke to Caroly Shumway:
Caroly Shumway: “I’m the director of the Center for Behavior and Climate”
Charlie Adams: She says behavioral science is
Caroly Shumway: “the collective term for those scientific disciplines seeking to understand the causes of individual group and organizational behavior”
Megan Hall: So what does this have to do with climate change?
Charlie Adams: Caroly says that climate change is not just a ‘science’ problem, but a people problem too. The science about our greenhouse gasses warming the planet has been clear for decades, but our behaviors and policies haven’t caught up.
Megan Hall: What can we do about that?
Kolya Shields: Caroly says much of our individual behavior is heavily influenced by habits. And…
Caroly Shumway: “It’s a challenge to change habits. All of us know how many new year’s resolutions fail… you have to do that habit, try that new thing, probably for… two weeks, maybe a month before it… solidifies”
Megan Hall: Ok, so once I get into a groove it gets much easier to remember to do things like take the bus and turn off the lights when I leave a room. But how do I make sure I don’t forget or quit?
Charlie Adams: Well, of course, there’s no perfect fix, but one helpful way to think about decision-making is through ‘social norms.’
Kolya Shields: For example, Caroly says framing sustainable habits as a popular choice, a trend, makes it easier for people to change their behavior.
Charlie Adams: This approach can have a big impact. For example, researchers at Stanford looked at how student eating habits changed after they read different anti-meat arguments.
Megan Hall: What did they learn?
Kolya Shields: Messages that said people have turned away from meat in the last 5 years were much more successful than vague statements about people eating less meat.
Megan Hall: How do I put that lesson into practice?
Kolya Shields: See if you can decide on a choice that your friend group can try together. When you have other people to hold you accountable and remind you why this change is important, it’s much easier to build new habits!
Megan Hall: Can we use these strategies on a larger scale?
Kolya Shields: Caroly says if you want to influence behaviors, incentives are much more effective than punishments.
Caroly: “if you can enable choice, and you make the better choice more available or more accessible, you’re more likely to increase change for the better than if you take a hard line.”
Charlie Adams: The way we talk about the climate is important too! Research shows messages that emphasize the economic and social benefits of addressing climate change, like new jobs in the green economy, increased the likelihood that people made more sustainable choices.
Caroly: “People already believe climate change is real… So we have to, rather than make people feel a sense of apathy and despair, give people a sense that things are getting better”
Charlie Adams: It’s also important to remember that no amount of personal behavior change can solve this problem by itself – climate change will require fundamental policy changes, and there is only so much we can do as individuals.
Kolya Shields: But on the flip side, policies don’t come from nowhere, they come from people.So talk to the people in your life about changes you can both try, the positive impact those actions make, and remember that people across the world are making similar changes every day! It’s not just a fun thing to do — it’s Behavioral Science!
Megan Hall: Thanks, Kolya and Charlie!
That’s it for today. For more information, or to ask a question about the way your choices affect our planet, go to the public’s radio dot org slash possibly. Or subscribe to us wherever you get your podcasts.
You can also follow us on Facebook and Instagram– at “ask possibly”
Possibly is a co-production of The Public’s Radio, Brown University’s Institute for Environment and Society and Brown’s Climate Solutions Initiative.
Megan Hall: Welcome to Possibly where we take on huge problems like the future of our planet and break them down into small questions with unexpected answers. I’m Megan Hall. As we head into a new year, our Possibly team decided to think about all of our episodes, and how they might inspire our resolutions for 2024. Here’s what some of us had to say.
Will Malloy: My name is Wil Malloy, I’m a reporter for Possibly, I was inspired by the episode about offsetting flights by giving up red meat. And my resolution for the new year is to give up red meat.
Juliana Merullo: My name is Juliana Merullo, and I’m a senior reporter with Possibly. I love to bird and I was inspired by our episode on bird migration and light pollution. So this spring, I’m going to make sure to close my curtains and turn off my lights at night during spring migration.
Stephen Porder: Hi, this is Steven Porder, co-founder of Possibly. It’s finally time to tackle dairy. I’ve cut out all meat. But we know the dairy has a big carbon footprint. I’m not quite ready to give up cheese. So my New Year’s resolution is to give up on all animal based milk, yogurt, and butter. Maybe next year for cheese, but that’s going to be a tough one.
Meg Talikoff: Hi, I’m Meg Talikoff. I’m a reporter at Possibly and this year my resolution is to look into how to become an intervener at my public utilities commission. It means that I would be able to give feedback officially to the Public Utilities Commission and give a perspective other than utility companies’ perspective.
Charlie Adams: Hello, My name is Charlie Adams. I’m a reporter for Possibly
Iman Khanbhai: Hi, my name is Iman Khanbhai. I’m a reporter for Possibly.
Charlie Adams and Iman Khanbhai: We’re gonna use less water when we shave.
Nat Hardy: Hi, my name is Nat Hardy, and I’m the managing producer at Possibly. We had an episode earlier this year about how to more sustainably make a cup of coffee. I don’t drink coffee, but I’m a really big tea drinker. This year, I want to research how to make a more sustainable cup of tea.
Megan Hall: Hi, my name is Megan Hall and I’m the host of Possibly. Two years ago I made a resolution that I was going to save money so I could buy an electric car. And I did it this year. So mission accomplished. For 2024, my resolution is to also try to limit the kinds of things I buy that I don’t need so I can save up money for heat pumps, which is another thing we talked about a lot on the show- it’s a more sustainable way to heat and cool your house.
Janek Schaller: Hi, my name is Janek Schaller. I’m a senior reporter here at Possibly and my resolution for the new year is to become more aware of the ways in which I can leverage my position as a student, and as somebody who cares with the climate, to affect change. Kind of along the lines of what we saw in our reporting on the Youth Climate suit in Montana.
Megan Hall: Anything else you want to say?
Nat Hardy: Happy New Year!
Stephen Porder: Happy New Year!
Megan Hall: Happy New Year!
That’s it for today. For more information or to ask a question about the way your choices affect our planet. Go to the public’s radio.org/Possibly.
You can also follow us on social media at Ask Possibly.
Possibly is a co-production of The Public’s Radio, Brown University’s Institute for Environment and Society, and Brown’s Climate Solutions Initiative.
Megan Hall: Welcome to Possibly, where we take on huge problems like the future of our planet and break them down into small questions with unexpected answers. I’m Megan Hall.
At the beach, we’re supposed to watch out for strong tides. Our oceans are powerful places. Could they also be power sources?
Here to tell us more are Charlie Adams and Kolya Shields from our Possibly Team.
Charlie Adams: Hi, Megan!
Kolya Shields: Hello!
Megan Hall: So how exactly could we use tides as a power source?
Charlie Adams: One method gaining some momentum is tidal turbines.
Rob Cavagnaro “From a physics perspective, it’s the same as a wind turbine. It’s fluid flowing past the blade that generates torque, that spins the rotor that turns the generator”
Kolya Shields: That’s Rob Cavagnaro, a mechanical engineer studying marine energy at the Pacific Northwest National Labs.
Megan Hall: How do they install these turbines?
Charlie Adams: They either float on the surface of the ocean or get anchored to the sea floor. And they generate power when water flows through them as the tide goes in and out.
Megan Hall: How much electricity are we talking here?
Kolya Shields: The Department of Energy estimates that all forms of tidal power could power more than 20 million homes in the US
Megan Hall: That sounds pretty good!
Charlie Adams: It’s something, but that’s still only about 5.4% of the electricity we currently use. And that’s before we all electrify our cars and home heating.
Megan Hall: So, don’t count on tidal power to be our main source of renewable energy’?
Kolya Shields: No, but there’s something tidal power offers that could make it a useful part of our energy grid- it’s extremely predictable.
Charlie Adams: To learn more, we spoke with Dr. Andrea Copping, a Senior Manager at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.
Dr. Andrea Copping: We know the tides come and go most places twice a day…we can predict what a tide will look like two and 300 years in the future.”
Kolya Shields: In other words, tidal energy is reliable.
Megan Hall: So, why don’t we have more of these tidal turbines?
Charlie Adams: First, there are a lot of places with small tides, and of course, in the middle of the country there are no tides at all.
Kolya Shields: And right now, these projects are pretty expensive to install and maintain.
Charlie Adams: There have been some successful demonstrations in New York, New Hampshire, and Maine, but no commercial-scale ones in the US, yet.
Kolya Shields: But Andrea says it doesn’t have to stay that way.
Dr. Andrea Copping: the US has several large sites of really big tidal power: Cook Inlet in Alaska, Puget Sound in Washington, coastal Maine, those are the big ones. But there’s a lot of smaller areas…They’re not megawatts and gigawattsbut they could very well serve many of those communities.”
Megan Hall: Ok. But, the idea of these tidal turbines makes me a little nervous. Won’t marine life get chopped up in those big blades?
Dr. Andrea Copping: Whale sushi, I hear it all the time, and it’s absolutely not correct.
Charlie Adams: Andrea says that’s a common fear- that these really fast blades will hurt fish and other sea creatures.
Kolya Shields: In reality, the turbines spin very slowly. Andrea says she hasn’t seen a single case of lethal collision with marine mammals.
Charlie Adams: Researchers have also monitored how tidal turbines contribute to underwater noise and electromagnetic radiation and have found, so far, they fall within appropriate levels.
Megan Hall: Ok, but back to the cost of these projects- are they worth the investment?
Kolya Shields: They’re not going to meet all of our needs for renewable energy, but they do have a role to play.
Charlie Adams: For example, when one village in Alaska installed a tidal turbine, they reduced their use of diesel fuel by 90%. Other remote coastal communities and island nations could do something similar.
Kolya Shields: Also, out at sea, Andrea says tidal power could be used for remote data collection, weather buoys, and even offshore aquaculture.
Megan Hall: So what does the future look like for tidal turbines?
Charlie Adams: In short, it’s likely to be a small, local solution that can be very effective in some places. And, with more research and development, it could play a bigger role in the future of renewable energy.
Megan Hall: Great. Thanks, Charlie and Kolya.
That’s it for today. For more information, or to ask a question about the way your choices affect our planet, go to the public’s radio dot org slash possibly. Or subscribe to us wherever you get your podcasts.
You can also follow us on Facebook and Instagram– at “ask possibly”
Possibly is a co-production of The Public’s Radio, Brown University’s Institute for Environment and Society, and Brown’s Climate Solutions Initiative.
This story originally aired in December 2022
Megan Hall: Welcome to Possibly, where we take on huge problems like the future of our planet and break them down into small questions with unexpected answers. I’m Megan Hall.
Today, we have a question from a listener named Susan. She wants to know about gift wrapping:
“Is it better for the environment to wrap Christmas gifts in fabric you can use over again rather than paper?”
We had Harrison Katz and Juliana Merullo from our Possibly team look into this question.
Harrison Katz: Hi, Megan!
Juliana Merullo: Hey there!
Megan Hall: So, should I be stocking up on paper or fabric this holiday season?
Harrison Katz: Well, wrapping paper is definitely the more popular choice. An estimated 4.6 million pounds of wrapping paper is produced in the U.S. each year.
Megan Hall: Woah! That’s a lot more than I thought. But most of it is recycled, right?
Juliana Merullo: Actually, about half of it ends up in landfills. While paper in general is very recyclable, wrapping paper is often an exception. Many wrapping papers have metallic finishes, glitters, or ribbons. Those are not recyclable.
Harrison Katz: In fact, putting too much of that metallic wrapping paper in the recycling bin can contaminate an entire truckload of recycling, which means everything in that load has to be thrown away.
Megan Hall: What’s the environmental impact of just normal paper without metallics or glitters?
Juliana Merullo: Normally, making a pound of wrapping paper emits about 3 and a half pounds of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
Harrison Katz: Recycling a sheet of paper saves about 60 percent of those emissions. That’s good, but still not 100 percent.
Megan Hall: And how do those numbers compare to fabric?
Juliana Merullo: Present wrapping with fabric is actually a lot more common than you’d think. It’s a Japanese tradition known as Furoshiki, which has been practiced for more than a millennium.
Harrison Katz: Furoshiki fabrics are usually silk or cotton, but can also be polyester.
Megan Hall: And which of those materials is best?
Juliana Merullo: They’re about the same in terms of emissions – roughly 20 pounds of carbon dioxide per pound of wrapping, so about 5 or 6 six times as much as paper.
Harrison Katz:That means fabric can be a good alternative, but only if you’re going to reuse it for many years.
Megan Hall: Paper is better than reusable fabric? That’s pretty counterintuitive.
Juliana Merullo:That’s only if you’re talking about NEW fabric. Re-using fabrics like old table cloths gives them a second life and doesn’t create new emissions.
Harrison Katz: It’s always better to repurpose than recycle, just like it’s better to recycle than throw something away.
Juliana Merullo: In fact, a lot of holiday items can be tricky to recycle, like tissue paper and some holiday cards.
Harrison Katz: Tissue paper doesn’t have the same contamination or greenhouse gas emissions as decorated wrapping paper, but the paper fibers are too thin to be used again, so it can’t be recycled.
Juliana Merullo: And while cards can usually be recycled, they often are coated with glitter. Glitter is definitely something to avoid.
Megan Hall: So, what do we tell Susan?
Harrison Katz: Re-using materials is the best choice. If she likes the look of fabric, Susan can go through her closets for old clothing or pillowcases that can be turned into festive wrapping!
Juliana Merullo: If she prefers paper, she can try decorating old paper bags from the supermarket.
Harrison Katz: If re-using is too much work, her best choice is buying recycled wrapping paper, just make sure to avoid the kind with metallic finishes or glitter.
Juliana Merullo: And for tissue paper and holiday cards, definitely reuse as much of the tissue paper as possible, and purchase holiday cards made only with paper.
Megan Hall: Great! Thanks, Harrison and Juliana!
That’s it for today. For more information, or to ask a question about the way your choices affect our planet, go to the public’s radio dot org slash possibly. Or subscribe to us wherever you get your podcasts.
You can also follow us on Facebook and Twitter- at “ask possibly”
Possibly is a co-production of the Institute at Brown for Environment and Society, Brown’s Climate Solutions Initiative, and the Public’s Radio.
Megan Hall: Welcome to Possibly, where we take on huge problems like the future of our planet and break them down into small questions with unexpected answers. I’m Megan Hall.
Today, we’re continuing our coverage of the future of energy in Rhode Island. Since the state burns too much natural gas to reach net-zero by 2050, it’s time to change our relationship to that energy source – but how?
We had Janek Schaller and Juliana Merullo from our Possibly team learn more about the potential solutions to this problem.
Janek Schaller: What’s up, Megan?
Juliana Merullo: Hi there!
Megan Hall: So, remind me, what’s the problem with natural gas?
Janek Schaller: Well, burning gas to heat homes and generate electricity accounts for about ⅓ of Rhode Island’s carbon emissions. That’s not even counting the gas that leaks without being burned, which warms the planet as well.
Megan Hall: So where do we go from here?
Juliana Merullo: An excellent question, and one that the stakeholder group organized by the Public Utility Commission, or PUC has been mulling over for more than a year now.
Megan Hall: What are they trying to figure out?
Janek Schaller: Essentially, the future of natural gas boils down to one main debate: Should we improve our existing gas infrastructure or should we abandon gas pipelines entirely and electrify our heating sector?
Megan Hall: So What’s the answer?
Juliana Merullo: They’re not sure yet, But, we can tell you what we know about those options…
Megan Hall: Let’s hear them!
Janek Schaller: Ok- option number 1 would be to update and improve gas infrastructure across the state. Natural Gas leaks in the United States happen roughly once every forty hours –so, the thinking is that if newer equipment can eliminate those leaks, we can keep up with our emissions targets.
Juliana Merullo: There’s one big problem here. If we sink money into improvements to the gas network, we’re more likely to use it for a longer time, and there is no way to reach our greenhouse gas reduction targets if we continue to burn gas to heat our homes.
Megan Hall: What if we weren’t burning natural gas?
Juliana Merullo: That’s another idea! We could use those pipelines for an alternative fuel source with less emissions.
Megan Hall: Does that alternative fuel source exist?
Janek Schaller: Not really. … Researchers are looking into blending hydrogen into natural gas pipelines, but as of right now, we don’t have a way to produce hydrogen without also releasing lots of carbon dioxide emissions.
Juliana Merullo: We might solve that problem someday, but it’s very unlikely to help by 2030, when our first reduction target has to be met.
Janek Schaller: Some people hope that biogas, which is made from decomposing organic matter like manure and sewage, could be a decent substitute for natural gas.
Juliana Merullo: But, unfortunately, it’s not really all that much better than natural gas, and it’s hard to produce it in large quantities.
Megan Hall: What about just abandoning natural gas and the pipelines that get it to our homes?
Janek Schaller: Some states are already looking into that.
Megan Hall: What does that process look like? You can’t just turn off the gas supply one day, right?
Juliana Merullo: It wouldn’t be quite that dramatic. Places that have abandoned their gas infrastructure use an approach that’s called “Trimming.”
Megan Hall: How does that work?
Janek Schaller: They start by shutting down aging sections of gas infrastructure, block by block. Then, all of the homes and businesses that were connected to those sections get electrified.
Megan Hall: Who has done this so far?
Juliana Merullo: California, for one! One of its major utility companies is working to retire and dismantle their own infrastructure.
Megan Hall: Could Rhode Island do this, too?
Janek Schaller: It’s certainly possible! So far, Rhode Island Energy hasn’t expressed much interest in this approach, but they are the main utility for gas AND electric in our state, so in theory, they wouldn’t lose any business by switching people over to electricity.
Megan Hall: Got it. So what happens next?
Juliana Merullo: The Public Utility Commission’s stakeholder group is still considering the best approach for reducing our emissions. They’ll report their final recommendations to the legislature in March of 2024
Megan Hall: We’ll definitely stay tuned on that front. Thanks, Janek and Juliana!
That’s it for today. For more information, or to ask a question about the way your choices affect our planet, go to the public’s radio dot org slash possibly. Or subscribe to us wherever you get your podcasts.
You can also follow us on Facebook and instagram at “ask possibly”
Possibly is a co-production of The Public’s Radio, Brown University’s Institute for Environment and Society and Brown’s Climate Solutions Initiative.
Megan Hall: Welcome to Possibly, where we take on huge problems like the future of our planet and break them down into small questions with unexpected answers. I’m Megan Hall.
It’s getting colder, and a lot of people are turning on their furnaces. Many of those run on “natural” gas, which is basically methane, a potent greenhouse gas.
So, what do we do about these emissions? We had Janek Schaller and Juliana Merullo, from our Possibly team, look into this tricky question.
Janek Schaller: Hey, Megan!
Juliana Merullo: Hiya!
Megan Hall: First off, why are we concerned about using natural gas?
Janek Schaller: Natural gas is used for both heating and electricity generation, and burning it is responsible for about ⅓ of all US emissions.
Megan Hall: Is Rhode Island doing anything to reduce those emissions?
Juliana Merullo: In fact, we have to! The 2021 Act on Climate requires the state to get to net-zero by the year 2050, so we’ll have to rethink our relationship with natural gas if we want to meet that target.
Megan Hall: So who’s responsible for figuring out what changes need to be made?
Janek Schaller: This is another job for our friends at the Public Utility Commission…
Megan Hall: Remind me who they are…?
Janek Schaller: The Public Utility Commission, or PUC, regulates the utility companies in each state and assesses the rates they charge consumers for water, electricity, and gas.
Megan Hall: Gas, as in natural gas?
Juliana Merullo: Exactly – so you can start to see how the utilities tie in to this. To meet the state’s emission goals, utility companies will need to make changes to the way they operate. And THOSE changes may affect the cost of energy.
Megan Hall: Which is where the PUC comes into play–
Janek Schaller: Right. One of their jobs is deciding whether utility companies are making “prudent investments.”
Megan Hall: What does that mean?
Juliana Merullo: That’s a really important question. We spoke with Todd Bianco, the Chief Economic and Policy Analyst for Rhode Island’s Public Utilities Commission, to get a better idea:
Todd Bianco: “The issue of prudence often comes to what a reasonable company would have done to serve its customers.”
Janek Schaller: Todd says if a utility can provide compelling evidence that a new investment – like repairs to its natural gas lines – would help them better serve their customers, then the PUC will let them increase their prices.
Juliana Merullo: In this case, the most piece of evidence is that Act on Climate that Rhode Island passed in 2021. It mandated emissions reductions for Rhode Island’s gas sector.
Janek Schaller: In other words, our state law has now officially made it “prudent” to reconsider our use of natural gas.
Megan Hall: Got it. So what does the future of gas look like, according to the Public Utilities Commission?
Juliana Merullo: Right now, they are still gathering information, since this is a pretty contentious issue.
Janek Schaller: Before making a final call, the PUC has decided to organize a stakeholder group to get more input on how best to decarbonize the gas sector. Todd says this buys everyone a little time.
Todd Bianco:“It would be too early for folks to begin to settle their differences. No one should feel the pressure that they need to begin to compromise on what they want yet.”
Megan Hall: But how long is this process going to take? I mean, we don’t have a lot of time when it comes to reducing our greenhouse gas emissions.
Janek Schaller: Todd says getting more opinions is a crucial part of the process. And besides, the biggest issue has already been resolved.
Megan Hall: And what would that be?
Juliana Merullo: Whether or not we have to transition to renewable energy at all. As Todd puts it,
Todd Bianco: “The question of is it prudent to eliminate emissions from the gas system has been answered already by the legislature: it is prudent and not only is it prudent, it must be done.”
Megan Hall: So what happens once the stakeholder group has done its thing?
Juliana Merullo: While they may not reach complete consensus, the group will eventually share their findings with the Public Utilities Commission, who will ultimately decide which course of action to take.
Janek Schaller: Those recommendations will largely be based on which approaches will create the most benefit for consumers while also minimizing cost for the utility, all while getting us to the emissions targets laid out in state law. We’ll have more on what those options might look like in a later episode.
Megan Hall: Keep us posted – thanks, Janek and Juliana!
That’s it for today. For more information, or to ask a question about the way your choices affect our planet, go to the public’s radio dot org slash possibly. Or subscribe to us wherever you get your podcasts.
You can also follow us on Facebook and Instagram- at “ask possibly”
Possibly is a co-production of The Public’s Radio, Brown University’s Institute for Environment and Society and Brown’s Climate Solutions Initiative.
Megan Hall: Welcome to Possibly, where we take on huge problems like the future of our planet and break them down into small questions with unexpected answers. I’m Megan Hall.
Today, we’re talking about the world’s largest annual climate conference. It’s coming up soon, so Meg Talikoff and Juliana Merullo are here to give us a preview. Hi guys!
Meg Talikoff: Hi!
Juliana Merullo: Hey, Megan.
Megan Hall: Let’s start with the basics. What’s this conference called, and when’s it happening?
Juliana Merullo: It’s called the Conference of the Parties, abbreviated as “COP.” It’s organized by the UN and it’ll be held in Dubai in early December.
Megan Hall: Why is it called a conference of “parties’?
Meg Talikoff: The “parties” are just delegations from a big group of countries who get together every year to try and do something about climate change.
Juliana Merullo: The conference started in 1995, and they’re still at it 28 years later.
Megan Hall: So COP has happened 27 times already! What has it accomplished so far?
Meg Talikoff: Well, all the international agreements about reducing emissions have come out of the conference.
Juliana Merullo: If you’ve heard of the Paris Agreement, that was the result of the 2015 meeting.
Meg Talikoff: In the Paris Agreement, the parties made non-binding commitments to keep global warming under one and a half degrees celsius, compared to pre-industrial levels.
Juliana Merullo: It’s an important goal because if we heat the planet more than that, there will be major consequences.
Megan Hall: How are we doing on that goal?
Juliana Merullo: Not well. So far, no country has agreed to make all the changes that would keep warming to 1.5 degrees.
Meg Talikoff: But taking stock of how much progress has been made is going to be a big focus of COP this year.
Megan Hall: So this conference is going be different in terms of how we’re monitoring our progress?
Meg Talikoff: Yeah! Basically, scientists have written a detailed report on how much progress we’ve made towards the 1.5 degree goal over the past 8 years.
Juliana Merullo: It’s the first time they’ve done that type of evaluation, so the delegations will have lots to discuss.
Megan Hall: Do we have any sense of what the results are yet?
Meg Talikoff: Yeah, we do! Unfortunately, they’re not great.
Juliana Merullo: According the UN, even if every country in the world does their current plan to curb emissions, greenhouse gasses would still increase 16% by 2030.
Meg Talikoff: Those emissions levels correspond to temperatures rising a whole 2.7 degrees celsius by the end of the century.
Megan Hall: So, why aren’t we meeting our goals?
Meg Talikoff: On some level, it just takes time to wean ourselves off fossil fuels. For example, it’ll be a little while before we have electric car infrastructure that most people trust.
Juliana Merullo: Also, experts say it’s easy for countries to say they’re cutting lots of emissions even if they aren’t.
Megan Hall: Why’s that?
Juliana Merullo: Dr. Amanda Lynch, Chair of the Research Board at the UN World Meteorological Organization, says whether countries meet their commitments or not, it won’t be traced back to them.
Dr. Amanda Lynch: It’s very hard to ascribe cause and effect of the macro trends, let alone did Argentina make their commitment.
Meg Talikoff: Countries also get bogged down over who should pay for the transition away from fossil fuels.
Megan Hall: What do you mean by that?
Juliana Merullo: For example, China is the world’s biggest emitter, so the U.S. doesn’t want to have to pay for lowering emissions if China doesn’t.
Meg Talikoff: But the U.S. emitted the most for a long time, and China doesn’t think it’s fair to have to clean up after us.
Megan Hall: Okay, so those are the challenges. Do these big conferences ever really accomplish anything or do they just talk a lot?
Juliana Merullo: Well, the progress is slow. But there are still concrete things happening this year.
Meg Talikoff: Probably the biggest highlight is that the parties are going to finalize the details of a “loss and damage” fund to help countries who are already suffering from climate change.
Juliana Merullo: And just a few days ago, President Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping publicly agreed to work together to “triple renewable energy capacity by 2030.”
Meg Talikoff: Experts say that deal will give this Conference of the Parties some momentum.
Juliana Merullo: Also, everything is a lot better than before the Paris Agreement. It used to be that we were going to heat the planet 4.5 degrees Celsius by the end of the century.
Meg Talikoff: So even though we’re haven’t met our goals, we’ve already made a big difference.
Megan Hall: That’s great to hear! Thanks for giving us a preview, guys.
That’s it for today. For more information, or to ask a question about the way your choices affect our planet, go to the public’s radio dot org slash possibly. Or subscribe to us wherever you get your podcasts.
You can also follow us on facebook and instagram at “ask possibly.”
Possibly is a co-production of The Public’s Radio, Brown University’s Institute for Environment and Society, and Brown’s Climate Solutions Initiative.
Welcome to Possibly, where we take on huge problems like the future of our planet and break them down into small questions with unexpected answers. I’m Megan Hall.
Megan Hall: If you’ve ever been to a car race, you know they are LOUD….
Megan Hall: But this summer, I went to a new kind of car race. And it sounded like…
Ryan Conaty: It’s quite peaceful. It’s kind of… it’s funny.
Megan Hall: That’s my husband Ryan. He goes to Daytona every year, he’s photographed a Formula 1 race….we even flew to France for the 24 hours of La-Mans…But he’s never been to something like this….
Ryan Conaty: I feel like we’re living in the future. Right now.
Megan Hall: We’re standing near a fence at the Portland International Raceway, watching cars zoom by on their qualifying laps. But, we can barely hear them. That’s because they’re electric.
Allen Brown: Oh, I miss the motor noise.
Megan Hall: That’s Allen Brown. He drove about 2 hours from Corvallis, Oregon to get to the race today.
Allen Brown: I’m a Formula One fan. And this is the first time Formula E’s been in this area of the country. So I figured hey, why not?
Megan Hall: This Formula E race borrows a lot from Allen’s favorite motorsport. Like Formula 1, these cars travel all over the world and race on different tracks and street circuits, competing for a championship at the end of the season.
Megan Hall: But, because the cars are electric, the drivers have an extra challenge-
Julia Palle: When they start racing, they have they’re missing 40% of the energy that they would need to finish the race.
Megan Hall: That’s Julia Palle, the sustainability director for Formula E. She says starting the race this way means the drivers can’t JUST focus on driving fast.
Julia Palle: Within Formula E it’s all about the energy management and how they can get their battery to last longer.
Megan Hall: The drivers mostly do this with their brakes, which are designed to recharge their batteries.
The extra challenge makes the race more interesting, but there’s also a practical purpose. Formula E is basically a laboratory for improving the electric cars we drive on the road.
Julia Palle: We are always trying to be ahead of the game of what will be the next need from a passenger vehicle perspective.
Megan Hall: Julia says that since the races started 9 years ago, they’ve managed to almost double the capacity of their car batteries. Now, they’re working on faster charging stations.
Julia Palle: because people don’t want to be spending hours even not any more 20 minutes, you know, like to recharge their cars.
Megan Hall: How close are you to something like that, that maybe consumers could use?
Julia Palle: I would say very close. But for the rest, I cannot comment any further.
Megan Hall: But Julia says these Formula E races aren’t just about improving technology, they’re about getting people excited about a future without fossil fuels.
Megan Hall: This approach is attracting a new audience to motorsports- like 18-year-old Rebecca Richey, who came here with her friends from Albany, Oregon.
Rebecca Richey: Yeah, I think eventually, they’re gonna outlaw gas. And then we’ll just all have electric cars, or we’ll all have, like public transportation…
Friends: That would be so much better. (yeah…)
Megan Hall: But what about the die-hard race car fans? The ones like Allen Brown from Corvallis, or my husband Ryan, who miss the roar and smell of the track?
Julia Palle: Well, I mean, first of all, some people will never be you know, convinced, but I think what is super interesting when you get to actually come and experience the race is that the cars do have a sound. It’s not as let’s say, overtaking which makes that you actually can have a conversation, you can bring young children with you because it’s bearable, literally in terms of decibels.
Megan Hall: When the actual race gets started, the loudspeakers and helicopters circling the track make up for the quiet electric motors. As we walk back to our car, I check in with Ryan. What did he think?
Ryan Conaty: More women and children than I’m accustomed to and a lot less tobacco use. But I’d say it’s a good event. I like it.
Megan Hall: That’s it for today. For more information, or to ask a question about the way your choices affect our planet, go to the public’s radio dot org slash possibly. Or subscribe to us wherever you get your podcasts.
Possibly is a co-production of The Public’s Radio, Brown University’s Institute for Environment and Society, and Brown’s Climate Solutions Initiative.
Megan Hall: Welcome to Possibly, where we take on huge problems like the future of our planet and break them down into small questions with unexpected answers. I’m Megan Hall.
Our lives are full of plastics. Bags, bottles, packaging, you name it. And all of those things can break down into tiny little pieces called microplastics.
Researchers at the University of Rhode Island are taking a close look at how many of those microplastics are in the Narragansett Bay. So, one of our Possibly reporters Will Malloy tagged along to learn more about their work.
Will Malloy: This September, I got to spend some time with Victoria Fulfer, a Ph.D. candidate at URI.
Victoria Fulfer: Right now we are at Rocky Point State Park up in Warwick, Rhode Island.
Will Malloy: Victoria did some of her research on microplastics here.
Victoria Fulfer: Microplastics are small plastic particles … about the size of a small bead down to the scale where you would have to use a microscope to see it.
Will Malloy: We already know that broken-down plastics get into our air and water, and even our food. But Victoria’s study was the first one to look at the Narragansett Bay.
Megan Hall: What did the study find out?
Will Malloy: I’ll let Victoria answer that question…
Victoria Fulfer: We did find a lot more microplastics than we really expected for this type of an estuary.
Megan Hall: Give me a sense – how much is “a lot more”?
Will Malloy: Well, The amount of plastic they found could make a solid object the size of a house. But the problem is, all that plastic is in tiny, tiny particles spread throughout mud and sand at the bottom of the bay.
Megan Hall: But are they doing something dangerous?
Will Malloy: The truth is, we don’t know for sure. But there are a lot of animals that filter through that mud and sand to eat.
Victoria Fulfer: So you have … clams, quahogs, oysters, things like that. You also have crabs, and then you have smaller organisms, such as worms.
Will Malloy: And studies have shown that microplastics can block mussels and oysters from feeding and play a role in developmental delays in crabs.
Megan Hall: So, does this mean I need to stop eating shellfish caught in the bay? Are my Rhode Island beach days a thing of the past?
Will Malloy: Whoa whoa whoa! Let’s start with the big picture. Unfortunately, microplastics are now everywhere – in the air, in the clouds, at the bottom of the ocean, and yes, in Narragansett Bay.
Megan Hall: This is not helping.
Will Malloy: We don’t really know what their effects are, but Victoria says, it’s ok to keep eating seafood because microplastics mostly end up in their guts.
Victoria Fulfer: If you’re eating, for example, a crab you wouldn’t necessarily be eating their gut. And so if the microplastics are only in the stomach of the crab, then it’s less of a concern. I don’t think there’s a cause for concern to say stop eating seafood.
Will Malloy: And swimming is probably totally fine too.
Victoria Fulfer: I don’t think there’s a large risk for exposure when you’re at the beach. If you’re not drinking the water or eating the sand, I hope… completely avoiding them is almost impossible at the levels of pollution we have now.
Will Malloy: So the beach is really the same amount of exposure as anywhere else.
Megan Hall: That’s a relief, I guess? But what if I am still worried about microplastics in general? What can I do?
Will Malloy: Microplastics are part of the larger issue of plastic pollution in general – So anything you can do to reduce plastic pollution will help, from using less, to better recycling, to being careful about how you throw it away.
Victoria Fulfer: Your Tupperware when you put it in the microwave is shedding microplastics into your food. Anything nonplastic is going to limit your exposure
Megan Hall: Ok! That sounds really reasonable. Thanks, Will!
That’s it for today. For more information, or to ask a question about the way your choices affect our planet, go to the public’s radio dot org slash possibly. Or subscribe to us wherever you get your podcasts.
You can also follow us on Facebook and Instagram- at “ask possibly”
Possibly is a co-production of The Public’s Radio, Brown University’s Institute for Environment and Society and Brown’s Climate Solutions Initiative.
Juliana Merullo: Welcome to Possibly, where we take on huge problems, like the future of our planet, and break them down into small questions with unexpected answers. I’m Juliana Merullo.
Janek Schaller: And I’m Janek Schaller. We’re in for Megan Hall to continue our youth takeover of the show.
Juliana Merullo: This week, we have more coverage of the climate lawsuit that was filed by a group of young people against the state of Montana. It was the first case like this in the US to go to trial, and the young people won!
Janek Schaller: In a past episode, we spoke to an expert witness from the trial about the legal background for the case. She said Montana is special because its constitution includes the right to a clean and healthy environment.
Juliana Merullo: So we’re going to start today’s episode with Montana itself. One small problem: Janek and I have never lived in Montana. Luckily, we just met someone who has spent her entire life there – in fact, her connection to Montana started before she was even born.
Grace Gibson-Snyder: My family has been in Montana for six generations, I was a fifth generation born in Montana.
Janek Schaller: That’s Grace Gibson-Snyder, who hails from Missoula, Montana. Even though she grew up in the city, she says she was never very far from the state’s beautiful outdoors. Right now, Grace is learning how to kayak.
Grace Gibson-Snyder: I can literally drive six blocks from my house to the river, get in, practice my roll a couple of times, and it takes like a total of 30 minutes.
Juliana Merullo: Grace said that one of the biggest parts of being a Montanan is enjoying and relying on its natural environment on a daily basis.
Janek Schaller: But Grace also knows Montana is a fossil-fueled state; much of the economy depends on extracting natural resources like coal and oil.
Juliana Merullo: And while there might have been a time when these two parts of Montana could coexist, Grace says climate change has shown that’s not the case anymore.
Grace Gibson-Snyder: The extractive industry is no longer compatible with this outdoors that we value so greatly in Montana.
Juliana Merullo: With this in mind, Grace got involved with environmental advocacy in her hometown. But she was also hoping to make change on a broader scale, so when a guest speaker at her high school mentioned an upcoming climate lawsuit, she knew she wanted to help.
Janek Schaller: Now might be a good time to mention that we didn’t meet with Grace to talk about kayaking.
Grace Gibson-Snyder: I am first and foremost a student but I’m also a plaintiff in the constitutional climate lawsuit Held vs State of Montana.
Juliana Merullo: Grace is 19 now, but she was just 16 when the case was first filed back in 2020.
Grace Gibson-Snyder: I remember talking to my parents, bringing it to them and saying what do you think about me getting involved legally in something at age 16. They were very supportive… But we didn’t expect it to go anywhere.
Juliana Merullo: I think a lot of people in our generation feel some responsibility to help fight the climate crisis. And because the young people who filed the case weren’t old enough to vote at the time, bringing a lawsuit like this was one of the only ways they could force their government to take action.
Janek Schaller: It took three years for the case to make its way to trial, and in the meantime, Grace had to balance her sense of responsibility with just being a regular teenager.
Grace Gibson-Snyder: We all want to be kids, like I was 16, I would much prefer to be thinking about like, prom than like, the end of the world, right. And it’s really hard to balance the intensity of that with regular life. And I won’t say that I’m particularly good at separating the two. (combined)
Janek Schaller: I think Grace is speaking to something a lot of people our age are dealing with. Especially when we’re thinking about our futures, it can be hard to avoid letting climate anxiety dominate our everyday lives.
Juliana Merullo: It’s so exciting to see these youth-led climate movements that are fighting back against that hopelessness. But at the same time, Grace says,
Grace Gibson-Snyder: I really don’t like that this movement is being led by youth. this whole concept of now let’s involve youth in the space and see what they want. Well, everyone knows what we want. We want you to stop burning fossil fuels, and give us like a nice, clean, healthy environment for the next forever, hopefully.
Janek Schaller: Even if we didn’t ask to be the generation leading this fight, Grace and the other youth plaintiffs clearly aren’t backing down. But sometimes I wonder whether our generation can succeed even when past generations haven’t. Grace is still optimistic:
Grace Gibson-Snyder: It’s super inspiring to see just how invested everyone is, because I think we know we have no other choice. I believe in our ability to have an impact. Not out of hope, but out of necessity.
Janek Schaller: The climate science and personal experiences they presented with their lawyers are now officially in the court record, and as a result, the state has to consider the climate impact of any new energy projects.
Juliana Merullo: But beyond that, Grace says she hopes this legal victory will help protect the Montana she loves for generations to come.
Grace Gibson-Snyder: Knowing that, no, my kids won’t experience Montana in the same way that I will, or knowing that the glaciers will be gone, you know, within a couple of decades, what I work for is just the possibility of giving the next generation an experience even remotely similar to mine, because mine has been so spectacular, and so unique and wonderful.
Janek Schaller: I think all of us are just trying to figure out how to navigate this climate crisis we’re living in. The youth climate movement, and young people like Grace, remind us why we should still have hope.
Juliana Merullo: That’s it for today. For more information or to ask a question about the way your choices affect our planet, go to the publics radio dot org slash possibly. Or you can follow us on facebook and Instagram at ask possibly
Janek Schaller: Possibly is a co-production of The Public’s Radio and Brown University’s Institute for Environment and Society and Brown’s Climate Solutions Initiative.
Juliana Merullo: Welcome to Possibly. Where we take on big problems, like the future of our planet, and break them down into small questions with unexpected answers.
I’m Juliana Merullo, in this week for Megan Hall. I’m normally a reporter for Possibly, but I’m also only 22, and today we’re doing a full youth-takeover of the show.
In a past episode, we talked about the climate lawsuit a group of young people won against the state of Montana.
They argued that the state failed its constitutional responsibility to provide a clean and healthy environment for Montana residents, and they brought in all sorts of climate science and policy experts to help prove their case.
But most of these young people also testified at the trial. What did they have to say?
So we’re going to bring you some of their testimonies, recorded live at trial.
These are people even younger than I am, telling the court what it’s like to grow up in a climate crisis.
A lot of the testimony at the trial focused on how the current climate in Montana is anything but clean and healthy. In the summers, wildfires and smoke have made it almost impossible to go outside. Claire Vlases is a 20 year old plaintiff from Helena, Montana.
Claire: “You can set the scene, right. It’s smoky, the world is burning, I can’t go outside unless I want my lungs to feel like they’re on my fire and my nose to be full of smoke. And it sounds like a dystopian horror film but it’s not it’s real life. I don’t remember a summer that didn’t involve smoke. When I think about summer in Montana I think about smoke. And that’s what us kids have to deal with.”
Juliana: I get Claire’s point. I used to feel lucky that we don’t have wildfires where I live in New England, but then last summer the air quality was so bad because of wildfires that I couldn’t exercise outside. I was frustrated that it was out of my control, and that was only for a couple of days.
Another plaintiff, Eva turned 14 years old the day the case was filed. Because she’s under 18, we’re not going to use her last name.
She and her family live next to the Yellowstone River, where there has been bad flooding in past years.
Eva: “On the day of the flood I helped fill sandbags, and after the fact I helped clean out people’s homes…
Lawyer: Were you afraid?
Eva: Very. It made me feel very very scared and I didn’t know what to do, and there were all sorts of emotions running and my mind was racing and I couldn’t wrap my head around it, and it was all just very tumultuous”
Juliana: The plaintiffs didn’t just talk about these extreme weather events. Sariel Sandoval is 21 and a member of the Salish and Kootenai tribes. She says climate change is threatening her people’s way of life.
Sariel: Creation stories are only to be told when there’s snow on the ground, and it’s really concerning because the time that we can share those stories and explain to our youth who we are and our place in the world is becoming shorter and shorter, especially because the snow is not staying on the ground as long. and one day we’re not going to have snow on the ground and then what happens to those stories”
Juliana: A lot of the plaintiffs talked about being afraid of the future, including Grace Gibson-Snyder. She’s 19 years old.
Grace: “Just knowing that I have 80 years left of living in Montana and living on this earth and knowing that my health will be in danger for those 80 years, my livelihood, my home, that’s a long time to live with that and to wrestle with that for that long. And that’s a burden that older generations do not have to carry”
Juliana: Grace talked more about the ways that burden falls on young people.
Grace: “I’m 19, I have school, I have friends, I love to do fun things, but I will often have this moment in the middle of whatever else I’m doing where… just this feeling of crushing guilt. Why am I spending time on other things when there is this crisis to be managed? And this guilt often gives way to frustration that it is in my mind. It shouldn’t have to be in my mind. Ideally it wouldn’t be in any of our minds, it would have been solved 50 years ago, but it’s in my mind now. And as a young person I don’t think it is my responsibility to be dealing with the physical impacts, the mental impacts, or the guilt of feeling like it is my responsibility to fix this”
Juliana: I think the question of responsibility for climate change is something a lot of people worry about. I know I do. When the lawyers asked the plaintiffs why they wanted to join the lawsuit, a lot of them said they felt like they had to do something. Here’s Grace again:
Grace: “I was 16 when this case was filed, and I couldn’t vote. As someone that couldn’t influence the legislature I had very few ways of asking a government to do what’s best for my health and my rights, and the way that was left to me was to ask the courts to uphold our rights and bring the state back in line with the constitution.”
Juliana: At the trial, the young people and their lawyers had to not only prove that climate change was real and causing them mental and physical harm, but that the state was making decisions that make the climate crisis worse..
So, at the end of his testimony, 18 year old Lander Busse spoke directly to the representatives of the state sitting in the courtroom.
Lander: I don’t know how you can sit in this courtroom and listen to everything that’s been said here and not have a semblance of regret or even responsibility to get up and fix these things that we have been told first hand can be fixed.”
Juliana: The state chose not to contest basically anything that the plaintiffs talked about, which means it’s all officially in the court record. Representatives of the state have said it will appeal the ruling.
Olivia Vesovich is 20 years old, and she says whatever happens, she’s not giving up.
Olivia: “I choose to have hope, I choose a world in which there is no hope is a far too devastating reality, and I know that our people are resilient, I know I am resilient and I know we have time.”
Beyond just the legal victory, the young people sent a powerful message about how our generation is experiencing the climate crisis, and how we’re still fighting for a better future.
In our next episode on this case, we’ll talk directly with one of the plaintiffs, about her experience as part of this lawsuit, and how she’s continuing the fight.
I want to give a big thank you to KGVM in Montana for letting us use their audio from the courtroom.
That’s it for today.
For more information, or to ask a question about the way your choices affect our planet, go to the public’s radio dot org slash possibly. Or subscribe to us wherever you get your podcasts.
You can also follow us on facebook and twitter- at “ask possibly”
Possibly is a co-production of The Public’s Radio and Brown University’s Institute for Environment and Society and Brown’s Climate Solutions Initiative.
Megan Hall: Welcome to Possibly, where we take on huge problems, like the future of our planet, and break them down into small questions with unexpected answers. I’m Megan Hall.
I’ve been hearing a lot about this landmark climate case in Montana, where a group of young people sued the state, and won. Our senior reporters, Juliana Merullo and Janek Schaller, were following the case closely, and they’re here to fill us in on the details.
Juliana Merullo: Hiya Megan!
Janek Schaller: Thanks for having us.
Megan Hall: So can you tell us more about what this case was all about?
Juliana Merullo: Sure. Basically, back in 2020 16 young people filed a lawsuit against the state of Montana, and after years of delays, it finally went to trial this summer.
Janek Schaller: The plaintiffs – who ranged in age from 2 to 18 when the lawsuit was filed -basically argued that the state had failed its responsibility to provide a clean and healthy environment for the people who live there.
Megan Hall: I didn’t realize that states had to provide that!
Juliana Merullo: Well, most don’t. Only two other states give their residents the right to a healthy environment, and that’s part of what makes Montana so special.
Janek Schaller: Anne Hedges, the Co-Director of the Montana Environmental Information Center, was an expert witness at the trial. She says that when Montana was re-writing its constitution in the 1970s,
Anne Hedges: “they created a constitution that had the provision in it that every person has the right to a clean and healthful environment. And that right is a fundamental right, it is not something that we have to go out of our way to implement- we all have that right. Inherently.”
Janek Schaller: The young people said the state is denying their right to a healthy environment by making climate change worse for them and for future generations.
Megan Hall: In what way?
Janek Schaller: They focused on a law that requires environmental impact reports for proposed projects.
Juliana Merullo: That means before the state can offer permits for fossil fuel drilling or a coal mine, they have to do an environmental report first.
Janek Schaller: But in 2011, the legislature passed an amendment saying those reports couldn’t consider impacts beyond state borders.
Juliana Merullo: This was called the “climate exception” because it implied emissions – which aren’t kept within state borders – wouldn’t be considered at all in the permitting process.
Janek Schaller: Then in the spring of 2023, when the trial was about to happen, the legislature amended that same law to say, explicitly this time, that climate change could NOT be used as a reason to block extraction projects.
Megan Hall: Wait, why are these environmental impact reports so important?
Juliana Merullo: These reports are a key step in getting new extraction projects approved. If they’re not allowed to include the potential climate impacts and emissions of something like a new drill site, then they’re ignoring how it might impact Montana’s clean and healthful environment.
Janek Schaller: Anne has been involved in these permitting processes for thirty years, and she says
Anne Hedges: Montana has never denied a permit for a fossil fuel project.
Juliana Merullo: The state basically defended this by arguing that Montana is just a small state, and their emissions don’t matter on a global scale.
Megan Hall: How did the young people make their case?
Janek Schaller: Over the course of the trial, their lawyers brought in different experts to testify about the extent of the climate crisis. And the state didn’t contest any of it. As Anne says,
Anne Hedges: So it’s not that we’re this insignificant, small Podunk contributor to the climate crisis. The experts show that Montana’s emissions and our fossil fuels can have a profound effect on the climate if we’re not careful. And the state had no response to that.
Megan Hall: So, what happened?
Juliana Merullo: The judge decided in favor of the young people, and even though the state says it will appeal, it was a big win for the climate movement, both symbolically and legally.
Janek Schaller: From now on, the state will have to consider climate impacts when it makes decisions about fossil fuel projects.
Juliana Merullo: But beyond just Montana, Anne hopes this case is the first domino to fall when it comes to young people holding their states accountable for climate change. There’s another case in Hawai’i that’s set to go to trial in 2024, and a federal case that’s also working its way through the system.
Megan Hall: We’ll have to keep our eye on those! Thanks Juliana and Janek! And thanks to Dana Drugmand for her help on this episode. That’s it for today. For more information, or to ask a question about the way your choices affect our planet, go to the publics radio dot org slash Possibly.
Possibly is a co-production of The Public’s Radio, Brown University’s Institute for Environment and Society and Brown’s Climate Solutions Initiative.
Megan Hall: Welcome to Possibly, where we take on huge problems like the future of our planet, and break them down into small questions with unexpected answers. I’m Megan Hall.
In another episode, we talked about a state agency that can play a big role in helping us get more of our energy from renewable sources. Here in Rhode Island, it’s called the Public Utilities Commission. But how do everyday people influence how these commissions work? Juliana Merullo and Janek Schaller are here with some ideas.
Juliana Merullo: Hiya!
Janek Schaller: Hey Megan!
Megan Hall: So remind me what is a Public Utilities Commission?
Juliana Merullo: PUCs, as they’re often called, are state agencies that set rules and regulations for utility companies. This includes making big decisions about renewable energy projects, and helping reduce emissions at the state level. Timmons Roberts, a professor at Brown University who studies PUCs, explains them this way-
Timmons Roberts: Public Utility Commissions are the most powerful important state agencies that you’ve never heard of, a lot of people don’t know even that they exist.
Megan Hall: I get an electric bill every month and I didn’t even know what they were!
Janek Schaller: That’s partly because these commissions aren’t really designed for public input. A lot of their work is quasi-judicial, which basically just means that they operate sort of like a court does.
Juliana Merullo: To find out more, we spoke to Marissa Gillete, who is the chairperson of Connecticut’s version of the PUC.
Marissa Gillete: Everything that we do, every decision we make has to be based on substantial evidence in the record. And it becomes legally binding on the utilities that we regulate.
Janek Schaller: The whole process is pretty formal. There are “cases” and “dockets” and sometimes even oral arguments like in a courtroom.
Juliana Merullo: And the PUC makes decisions based on the evidence that’s presented to them. Marissa explains it this way-
Marissa Gillete: let’s just pretend I opened a docket to figure out what color the sky is. And I know and you know, the sky is blue. But if the utility is the only party in my docket, and sometimes early on, it was just the utility, are telling me and they’ve given me evidence that the sky is green, it does not matter.
Janek Schaller: This can make the PUC decisions pretty one sided if other people don’t participate in this process.
Megan Hall: So how can the public participate and make sure the PUC is hearing all sides?
Janek Schaller: The process can definitely be tricky to navigate. You can submit a public comment, but Marissa told us the most impactful way to take part is to become what’s called an intervenor.
Juliana Merullo: That just means you’re allowed to formally participate in the case and present evidence. But, to do that, you need to hire a lawyer and pay for other legal costs. This can be a huge financial barrier to most people who want to get involved.
Janek Schaller: To combat that, some states already have programs that offer funding so that low-income individuals and community groups can go through that process.
Juliana Merullo: A bill just passed in Connecticut that does the same thing. Timmons Roberts, from Brown, thinks there’s a lot to be done to make Public utility commissions more accessible and understandable. His lab just published a report with recommendations.
Janek Schaller: The report said these PUCs need more funding to make it easier for people to participate, and more outreach and education so more people know what they do!
Juliana Merullo: In Connecticut, they do this by hosting workshops across the state and posting videos on YouTube.
Megan Hall: That’s great! I have to say though, sometimes it feels like there are so many environmental causes to get involved in… why should people care about this one in particular?
Janek Schaller: I had a similar thought at first! But Jared Heern, a researcher at Brown studying PUCs across the US, made this point:
Jared Heern: if you like it when your lights come on, if you have to pay a electric bill every month, already, you’re affected by the decisions the PUCs make.
Janek Schaller: As we electrify more and more of the grid, people are starting to realize how important these commissions will be in order to reach our emissions reduction goals!
Juliana Merullo: It’s definitely worth keeping an eye on what they’re doing.
Megan Hall: Thanks Juliana and Janek! That’s it for today. For more information, or to ask a question about the way your choices affect our planet, go to the public’s radio dot org slash possibly. Or subscribe to us wherever you get your podcasts.
You can also follow us on Facebook and Twitter- at “ask possibly”
Possibly is a co-production of The Public’s Radio, Brown University’s Institute for Environment and Society, and Brown’s Climate Solutions Initiative.
Megan Hall: Welcome to Possibly, where we take on huge problems like the future of our planet, and break them down into small questions with unexpected answers. I’m Megan Hall.
If we want to avoid the worst of climate change, it’s pretty clear that we need to start getting our energy from sources that don’t create greenhouse gasses- like solar and wind power. But how do we get there? One powerful partner is a state agency you’ve probably never heard of. Juliana Merullo and Janek Schaller from our Possibly team are here to explain.
Juliana Merullo: Hiya!
Janek Schaller: Hi there!
Megan Hall: So, what’s this obscure state agency that can help us address climate change?
Juliana Merullo: It’s called a Public Utilities Commission, or PUC for short. In some states, they go by other names like Public Service Commissions.
Megan Hall: And what do they do?
Janek Schaller: Their exact powers and mandates vary from state to state. But generally, they’re responsible for regulating the privately owned utility companies that supply us with things like electricity, gas, and water.
Juliana Merullo: Here in Rhode Island, that utility company is called Rhode Island Energy. You probably get a bill from them every month. The PUC regulates them by setting the rates they can charge, and approving any new infrastructure the utility company wants to invest in.
Megan Hall: Ok that makes sense. But how are they going to help us reduce our emissions?
Juliana Merullo: To answer this question, we talked to Jared Heern. He’s a post-doc at Brown who recently published a study on PUCs. He says that in the past, climate change wasn’t even part of their focus.
Jared Heern: Historically, the mission of public utility Commission’s has just been to ensure reliable service at the lowest possible rates for consumers, while allowing a reasonable return on investment for the utilities. That mission has nothing to do with the environment.
Janek Schaller: But that’s starting to change. Across the country, states are starting to require PUCs to also focus on the environmental impact of their decisions.
Juliana Merullo: This is a big deal because Public Utilities Commissions have the power to push utility companies to invest in renewable energy. And that’s key if we want to reduce our emissions.
Megan Hall: Here in Rhode Island, we’ve passed a couple of bills that set targets for reducing our emissions. Are PUCs part of those efforts?
Janek Schaller: Yes! In 2022 the Rhode Island legislature passed a bill requiring 100% renewable energy by 2033. But it doesn’t specify how to reach that benchmark.
Juliana Merullo: That’s where the PUC steps in. They’re responsible for transitioning the state off fossil fuel generated electricity and pressuring utility companies to add renewable energy sources to the grid.
Janek Schaller: Jared, from Brown University, says they can also make it easier, or harder, to build new renewable energy infrastructure. Even if we build as many solar panels or wind turbines as we want, utility companies still need permits to connect them to the grid and use that energy.
Jared Heern: PUC plays a role in those permitting processes and trying to get those expedited and streamlined.
Megan Hall: It sounds like the more we have to electrify, the more important PUCs are going to become.
Juliana Merullo: Exactly! That’s especially true after the Inflation Reduction Act that was passed last summer. That legislation included billions of dollars in incentives for utilities to build more renewable energy sources.
Janek Schaller: We wanted to find out how that bill affects PUCs, so we talked to Marissa Gillete. She chairs Connecticut’s version of a PUC.
Juliana Merullo: Marissa says her commission wants to make sure utilities are using this new federal funding.
Marissa Gillete: We’ve ordered the utilities to track specific funding opportunities, and report back to us on a regular basis for which ones they apply to the ones they didn’t apply to
Juliana Merullo: Connecticut and Rhode Island are great examples of how PUCs can help us shift to using more renewable energy. But not all PUCs are as active on environmental issues.
Janek Schaller: Just like a lot of climate policy and regulation, the commissions in certain states are blocking action instead of promoting it.
Juliana Merullo: Recently, more people have started to realize how important PUCs are in fighting climate change and they’re trying to change how those agencies work. But that’s a topic for another episode.
Megan Hall: Awesome, thanks Juliana and Janek!
That’s it for today. For more information, or to ask a question about the way your choices affect our planet, go to the public’s radio dot org slash possibly. Or subscribe to us wherever you get your podcasts.
You can also follow us on Facebook and Twitter at “ask possibly”
Possibly is a co-production of The Public’s Radio, Brown University’s Institute for Environment and Society, and Brown’s Climate Solutions Initiative.
Jackie Ellis’ spreadsheet of students and others affected by the fire
Megan Hall: Welcome to Possibly, where we take on huge problems like the future of our planet and break them down into small questions with unexpected answers. I’m Megan Hall.
Over the summer, wildfires devastated West Maui. Experts suspect that invasive grasses made the fires worse. As the smoke clears, we wondered what it’s been like for people to return to their neighborhoods and what it means to live in the aftermath of a natural disaster.
We had Emily Tom look into it.
Emily Tom: Hi, Megan.
Megan Hall: So, Emily, you’re from Hawai‘i.
Emily Tom: Yeah, I’m from Honolulu, so we weren’t impacted by the fires.
Megan Hall: Right.
Emily Tom: But we’ve all been checking in on friends, making sure they’re okay, and hearing stories about people who ran from the fires. One of those people was Jackie Ellis.
Jackie Ellis: Every minute, it was just more and more smoke, until our whole neighborhood was smoke.
Emily Tom: She’s been a teacher at Lahainaluna High School for five years. When she and her roommate saw flames coming down the mountain and toward Lahaina, she packed some things and drove away with her dogs.
Jackie Ellis: And so I just kind of flew down this one street. And that’s when I passed by my student who was there, who ended up pulling up next to me at a light. That’s when the embers started flying in.
Emily Tom: She and her former student were able to escape together.
Megan Hall: What else happened? Was Jackie’s house okay?
Emily Tom: She’s been back to Lahaina a few times now, and her house is still standing. But Jackie’s worried about a lot more than her property. I mean, this was the deadliest wildfire in the country in the last 100 years. People are grieving, not just for the lives lost, but for the town itself.
Jackie Ellis: Driving through Lahaina is maybe the hardest I think I’ve ever cried. It just, like, is its own entity. Like, it has such spirit — mana — and like, everything. And so to see it like that was very hard. It was like you’ve lost a loved one.
Emily Tom: And with loss comes a sense of uncertainty. Like, once you’ve gone through a disaster like this, what are you supposed to do next?
Jackie Ellis: That was my first question, kind of like waking up the next morning is where is everyone going to go?
Emily Tom: Plus there’s the issue of land. Jackie said a lot of residents are worried that Lahaina is going to be bought out by outsiders and rebuilt as the next Waikiki.
Jackie Ellis: The biggest fear people have is big hotels or big companies buying up big plots of land from people who just can’t afford to pay a mortgage on a house that’s not there anymore.
Megan Hall: Jeez. It sounds like people are dealing with a lot on top of recovering from a natural disaster.
Emily Tom: Definitely. The past few months have been hard, and it’s a long road ahead. But Jackie said she’s seen people turn to each other for strength and support.
Jackie Ellis: What I love about the people here, about all my friends in the community, is like they really do have this positive, bright, forceful spirit. Like, it’s hard to get them down. And so I know that the community will stay strong and you know, they’re gonna fight for everything that they need and deserve.
Megan Hall: For people hearing about Jackie’s story who want to help, how can they do that?
Emily Tom: Jackie actually put together
a spreadsheet of a bunch of fundraisers for people affected by the wildfires, including some of her students. That means you can help, even if you’re all the way on the East Coast. We’ll include a link in the transcript of this episode.
Megan Hall: Great. Thank you, Emily.
That’s it for today. For more information, or to ask a question about the way your choices affect our planet, go to the public’s radio dot org slash possibly. Or subscribe to us wherever you get your podcasts.
You can also follow us on Facebook and Instagram- at “ask possibly”
Possibly is a co-production of The Public’s Radio, Brown University’s Institute for Environment and Society, and Brown’s Climate Solutions Initiative.
Megan Hall: Welcome to Possibly, where we take on huge problems like the future of our planet and break them down into small questions with unexpected answers. I’m Megan Hall.
Today, we’re talking about how the green spaces along our roadsides could be used to help pollinators. Meg Talikoff and Will Malloy are here to explain. Hi, guys!
Meg Talikoff: Hi, Megan!
Will Malloy: Hello!
Megan Hall: So first of all, what green spaces are we talking about, exactly?
Meg Talikoff: You know when you’re driving along the highway and you see patches of land on the side of the road, between lanes, or next to an off ramp? The government has control over all of those areas.
Will Malloy: Most of these areas are planted with grass, just like a lawn.
Megan Hall: So, what do these patches of grass have to do with pollinators?
Meg Talikoff: Before we answer that question, let’s back up a little bit. Lots of pollinating insects are in trouble right now.
Will Malloy: Half of bee species are currently threatened or endangered.
Meg Talikoff: As a reminder, insects pollinate more than three quarters of our crop plants. We need them to eat.
Will Malloy: Plus, animals and plants depend on them too.
Megan Hall: Why are pollinators struggling so much?
Will Malloy: Kelly Gill is a conservation specialist for the USDA. She says two of the biggest threats to pollinators are loss of food and habitat.
Kelly Gill: We’re losing thousands of acres of habitat a day to development, urbanization, energy sprawl… and it’s hard for the bees to live in these new environments where they don’t have that nutritional display of different flowers.
Megan Hall: That sounds pretty grim. But what does that have to do with the grass on the side of the highway?
Meg Talikoff: Well, it’s an untapped opportunity to give insects the food and habitat they desperately need.
Will Malloy: Lawns are basically biological deserts. They don’t give insects any food. And since they’re mowed often, insects can’t live there safely.
Meg Talikoff: But native wildflowers and grasses are good for all sorts of pollinators.
Megan Hall: So you’re saying we should just plant native wildflowers in those spaces along the side of the road?
Meg Talikoff: Yeah, it’s that simple.
Megan Hall: But, wouldn’t it be expensive to replant all of those patches of land?
Meg Talikoff: Of course, there’s an upfront cost. But, these projects almost always save money in the long run.
Megan Hall: How?
Will Malloy: Grass is usually mowed least six times a year. Native flowers are only mowed once a year, if at all.
Meg Talikoff: And the mowing costs really add up. One study found that if you mow six times a year, grass is 3 and a half times more expensive to maintain than native plants.
Megan Hall: If this plan is affordable and good for pollinators, what’s stopping us from doing it?
Will Malloy: Chris Van Dyke is a Research Scientist at the Kentucky Transportation Center. He told us the biggest issue is pushback from the public.
Chris Van Dyke: Some motorists do still have that preference for a parkland-like aesthetic where the grass is neatly trimmed.
Meg Talikoff: But surveys show that most people either approve of reduced mowing or just don’t care. The complainers are a clear minority.
Megan Hall: So, how do we get native plants next to.the roads where we live, here in Rhode Island?
Will Malloy: If you want to make a project of it, you could submit a plan for roadside wildflowers to one of the Department of Transportation’s occasional calls for proposals.
Megan Hall: Sounds technical!
Meg Talikoff: Yeah. So if you’re not quite up for that, all you have to do is bring up the idea to your town or city planner.
Will Malloy: They’ll work with the state to make sure your request is on the table for the next transportation plan. And more people that call in, the more likely it is to move forward!
Megan Hall: So, I could help get this thing going just by giving my town planner a ring?
Meg Talikoff: That’s right!
Megan Hall: Will do! Thanks, Will and Meg.
That’s it for today. For more information, or to ask a question about the way your choices affect our planet, go to the public’s radio dot org slash possibly. Or subscribe to us wherever you get your podcasts.
You can also follow us on Facebook and Instagram at “ask possibly.”
Possibly is a co-production of The Public’s Radio, Brown University’s Institute for Environment and Society, and Brown’s Climate Solutions Initiative.
Megan Hall: Welcome to Possibly, where we take on huge problems like the future of our planet and break them down into small questions with unexpected answers. I’m Megan Hall.
Like any good Rhode Islander, I love to hang out at the beach in the summer. This year though, I’ve noticed that beaches have been closed more than I’m used to.
To find out more, we had Will Malloy and Meg Talikoff from our Possibly Team look into it.
Will Malloy: Hi, Megan!
Meg Talikoff: Hello!
Megan Hall: So, am I right? Have the beaches been closed more often this year?
Will Malloy: Yes, it’s not your imagination. According to the Rhode Island Department of Health, this year, we had more closure days in June and July than in the entire season last year.
Megan Hall: But why?
Will Malloy: To find out, we talked to Dr. Carol Thornber
Dr. Carol Thornber: I’m a professor at the University of Rhode Island in the Department of Natural Resources Science. And my research focuses on coastal ecosystems and climate change.
Meg Talikoff: Carol says, when a beach is closed
Dr. Carol Thornber: It can be due to bacterial levels being too high, which we will typically see more often after large rainstorms … And, you know, it’s been a rainy summer here.
Megan Hall: Wait, so when the beach is closed, it’s because it rained too much?
Will Malloy: When lots of rain falls very quickly, it can overwhelm our sewer system, so everything gets dumped directly into the bay, without getting treated.
Meg Talikoff: That includes whatever is on our lawns and streets – like fertilizers and pet waste.
Megan Hall: Gross!
Will Malloy: Seriously! And all that contaminated water ends up at the beach, which can make it unsafe to swim.
Meg Talikoff: This summer in particular, we’ve had lots of heavy rain.
Dr. Carol Thornber: And one of our general predictions is that as climate change is occurring in the northeast, we are going to see more often summers that are … rainier.
Megan Hall: Bummer! I thought hotter summers meant more beach days!
Will Malloy: Well, luckily, Rhode Island has been working hard in the past 20 years to improve our stormwater management systems.
Dr. Carol Thornber: there are several phases of stormwater system improvements that have been occurring. … each one of these phases addresses particular parts of our overall sewage and stormwater management of what’s flowing into Narragansett Bay…
Megan Hall: So, over time, we’ll see fewer of these beach closures?
Will Malloy: Yes and no…We have already seen big improvements in water quality in the bay.. if we want to keep up with climate change, there’s a lot more to do.
Megan Hall: Like what?
Meg Talikoff: On a local level, we can have fewer paved surfaces or make them out of materials that let water seep into the ground instead of the sewers.
Will Malloy: That reduces the amount of water in the system, which means our treatment plants can keep up.
Meg Talikoff: You can also help out at home by being more thoughtful about how you use fertilizer.
Dr. Carol Thornber: So if you know there’s a big rainstorm coming tomorrow, maybe you don’t fertilize your lawn today, maybe you fertilize it after the rainstorm has passed.
Will Malloy: Or, if you want to take it up a notch, get rid of your lawn and replace it with plants that don’t need fertilizer.
Megan Hall: So, what’s the take-away here?
Meg Talikoff: When it rains a lot, there is too much storm water for our sewage treatment plant to keep up with, so untreated water mixes into the bay and makes it unsafe to swim.
Will Malloy: Thanks to climate change, it’s only going to get rainier, but there are plenty of things we can do to keep our beaches safe and swimmable.
Meg Talikoff: Regardless, keep an eye out for beach closures, especially after rainstorms, to keep yourself, your loved ones, and your pets safe and healthy!
Megan Hall: Thanks Will and Meg!
That’s it for today. For more information, or to ask a question about the way your choices affect our planet, go to the public’s radio dot org slash possibly. Or subscribe to us wherever you get your podcasts.
You can also follow us on Facebook and Instagram at @askpossibly.
Possibly is a co-production of The Public’s Radio, Brown University’s Institute for Environment and Society and Brown’s Climate Solutions Initiative.
Today, we have a question from one of our reporters, Kolya Shields. They keep seeing timelapse photos showing ice sheets shrinking faster and faster. That made them curious about the impacts of this melting, and what we might be able to do about it.
Everybody is talking about ChatGPT, the new machine-learning tool for answering questions. These giant computer models need a whole lot of computing power to run, so we were curious about just how much energy they use.
Today, we’re talking about oil spills. You might remember big spills like Exxon Valdez in 1989 and Deepwater Horizon in 2010, but even today, oil spills still happen. That makes us wonder: what have we learned from them over time?
We talk a lot about climate change and what we can do to slow down or prevent the worst outcomes at a global scale. But the impacts of climate change can be completely different from state to state or even neighborhood to neighborhood. Why? Naomi Deokule and Ashley Junger from our Possibly team looked into one explanation: racism.
We did it. My family finally bought an electric car. What’s it like? Should you get one too? Here to help me explain is my husband, Ryan T Conaty.
When people talk about climate change, it’s often described as something that might happen in the future. But, we’ve been breaking records for the hottest day on earth all summer. Here to explain what all of this means is our founder and the provost for sustainability at Brown University, Stephen Porder.
In this episode, we’re going to be looking at what it really means for something to be “better” for the environment. To find out, we’re going to talk about an instance where it’s not so clear.
The other day our reporter Iman Khanbhai was heading to the mall to buy some jeans and I wondered- what would create more emissions- taking an electric scooter or getting an Uber? So, she and reporter Malia Honda decided to look into it.
Ever wanted to be a pirate and sail the high seas? Well, you can, but it's about to get a little harder. Here to tell us more are Anna Amha and Riley Stevenson from our Possibly Team.
he other day while I was shaving in the shower, I wondered- what’s the environmental impact of keeping my legs hair free? To find out, we had Malia Honda and Iman Khanbhai from our Possibly Team look into this question.
Earlier this year, one of our Possibly reporters, Will Malloy, visited a maple syrup farm. And he was surprised to learn that those farmers weren’t harvesting as much maple syrup as they have in the past. He was curious if climate change had anything to do with it, so he joined up with reporter Grace Samaha to find out.
In the last few weeks, we’ve talked about towns that are creating plans to prepare for rising waters. Today, we’re taking a look at an example of what can happen when that planning is too slow. What should cities do when people want to leave because of climate-related disasters?
Today, we’re talking about how cities and towns are preparing for rising waters. Right here in Rhode Island, the town of Warren is developing a plan to relocate residents who live in an area that’s prone to flooding. But Warren isn’t the only place that is threatened by rising sea levels. In order to get some perspective, we looked at other communities that are grappling with the same issue.
If you’re a coffee drinker like me, you might feel a little guilty about all those paper cups you end up tossing out when you visit a café. But now that the pandemic is winding down, coffee shops like Starbucks are starting to let customers use their own cups again. So is it time for all of us to make the switch over to reusable coffee cups?
There are a lot of ways to make your morning coffee- you could use a french press, a drip machine, a machine with coffee pods… the list goes on and on. But which way creates the fewest greenhouse gas emissions?
We’ve used the Earth’s heat as an industrial energy source for over a century, but geothermal power only plays a minor role in our energy grid. Why? And is that about to change?
Today we’re taking on a question from listener Megan Heinz. She often picks up her son at his school in the car pickup line. And she's wondering if it’s better for her to turn the car on and off again as the line moves forward, or if she should let the car idle.
Rhode Island is the first state in the country to build an offshore wind farm, and there are plans for many more. But recently, opponents of wind energy have claimed offshore wind is harming whales and other marine mammals.
Today, we have a question from a member of our Possibly team- Meg Talikoff. She's from Chapel Hill, North Carolina, but she goes to school here in Providence. That means she usually has to take a flight to go back home. She was feeling guilty about that, and I wanted to figure out a way to offset the emissions she creates by taking that trip.
You’ve probably heard of fungi, whether it’s mold in your bathroom or mushrooms on your favorite hiking trail, but recently, I’ve been hearing that fungi also play an underappreciated role in our climate. What’s that about?
We know methane is a really potent greenhouse gas, and in other episodes, we’ve talked about what the federal government is doing to crack down on industrial methane leaks. Today we’re bringing it closer to home.
Today, we have a question from one of our reporters, Kolya Shields. They're an artist, and they want to know- can art help fight climate change?
Recently, Rhode Island certified its first “Passive House.” What does that mean? And will we all live in one someday?
It’s ski season–but in recent years rising temperatures have made it harder for resorts in New England to rely on natural snow. Instead, they have to make it. But what’s the environmental impact of all that artificial snow?
Normally when we talk about emissions, we’re talking about carbon dioxide. But recently there’s been more focus on another greenhouse gas, methane.
We usually talk about how individuals can reduce their greenhouse gas emissions, but what about governments and corporations? Today we’re taking a look at a new European Union plan that aims to help fight global warming.
Public interest in cryptocurrencies has been on a bit of a rollercoaster over the past few years. But there’s one thing that hasn’t really changed- the massive amount of energy it takes to create them. But why? And does it have to be that way?
The time has come! Our family needs a new car, and I’m ready to go electric. But, which one should I buy? Here to help me out is our founder and Brown University’s Provost for sustainability- Stephen Porder.
Warren, Rhode Island is one of the smallest towns in the smallest state — but when it comes to dealing with climate change, it has big plans. Located on the East Bay, the town is already seeing the effects of rising sea levels, and it’s starting to adapt.
A lot of birds will circle well-lit buildings until they’re too exhausted to fly anymore. Then they’ll fall to the ground, where they usually die without food or water.
Last year, Kolya from our Possibly team and I worked with the Providence Stormwater Innovation center. Their job was to track flooding across the city. Which made them wonder- why are we seeing more of these floods? And what is Providence doing to prevent them?
When the Inflation Reduction Act passed last summer, there was a lot of talk about the money that was going toward environmental justice communities. But since then, we haven’t heard much about where that money has gone. So we had Juliana Merullo and Charlie Adams look into it for us!
For the past few weeks, we’ve been talking about the Inflation Reduction Act, a law that puts hundreds of billions of dollars in federal money towards addressing climate change. Today, We're going to look at how states can take advantage of this new law.
Last year, Congress passed the Inflation Reduction Act. Despite the name, it actually includes a lot of plans to address climate change. Last week, we went over the big-picture plans to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. But what will these policies mean for you? And when can you start taking advantage of them?
Sometimes it seems like Congress passes a big bill, it’s in the news for a few weeks, and then we forget about it. Last year, when President Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act, there was a lot of talk about how the bill would help the US address climate change. But how? And what happens now?
For the first episode of a new year, our Possibly team decided to think about all of our episodes and how they might inspire our resolutions for 2023. Here's what some of us had to say.
We all have those clothes that just sit in the back of our closets for years and never get used. Maybe it’s that t-shirt from college or that sentimental, but totally ugly scarf that grandma gave us for Christmas. This week, we look into what to do with the clothing you don’t want anymore.
Today, we have a question from a listener named Susan. She wants to know about gift wrapping: “Is it better for the environment to wrap Christmas gifts in fabric you can use over again rather than paper?”
Today, we’re traveling to Block Island, the vacation spot off the southern coast of Rhode Island. Block Island is also famous for its offshore wind farm- the first of its kind in the entire nation. What did it take to make this project possible? And is it a success?
We get a lot of questions about recycling, asking what to do with aluminum cans, glass, paper, or even plastic. All this has me wondering: when did we start recycling? How did it get so popular?
When I was growing up, I remember hearing about a hole in the ozone layer. It was a big deal. But I don’t really hear about that issue anymore. Is the ozone layer still in danger, and what happened to the hole?
I have two huge trees in my yard and they dump a lot of leaves. Sometimes I wonder, what would happen if I just let those piles of leaves stay on the ground?
The Great Barrier Reef, off the coast of Australia, is large enough that you can see it from space. It’s home to thousands of types of sea creatures and protects the coastline from erosion. It's taken a beating over the years, but recently, I heard that the Great Barrier Reef is experiencing a comeback. So, what’s really going on?
The weather is cooling, the leaves are changing, and all of my neighbors are putting pumpkins on their porches. It got me thinking, what is the environmental impact of all of these Jack O Lanterns?
When a loved one passes away, we often just have two choices: burial or cremation. But there’s a new option in some states that claims to use less energy and resources.
These days, I can log on to my phone and pull up a file that’s stored thousands of miles away. It’s pretty awesome. But does access to all of this remote data use a lot of energy?
We hear a lot in the news about wildfires these days - and it seems like there are more and more of them. Are there? And why?
Nowadays, many athletic fields have been converted from natural grass to artificial turf. Which made us wonder- which option is better for the environment?
I’ve been eating a lot of raw oysters lately. They taste so fresh and clean, and I can get them from local farms here in Rhode Island. But I’ve been wondering - what’s the environmental impact of growing all these shelled delicacies?
Today, we have a question from a listener named Alissa. She wants to know what happens to the batteries for electric cars once they die-- "Can all of those be recyclable? What's their life expectancy?
Do you ever go to recycle your takeout container or water bottle, see all those different categories, and get so confused you just end up throwing everything in the regular trash bin? Knowing how to get rid of waste is trickier than it may seem. But one small town in Japan may have figured out the key to eliminating waste altogether.
Last week, I introduced you to Kate Schapira, a writer who’s been listening to people’s climate anxieties since 2014. She sets up a booth in public places that says “climate anxiety counseling, five cents.” In this second part of our conversation, she’s going to help me talk about my own climate fears.
Here at Possibly, we try to make climate change feel more manageable and less overwhelming. But there’s no avoiding that this problem is terrifying. It makes a lot of us feel… anxious. So to help us face our fears, I decided to talk with Kate Schapira. She teaches non-fiction writing at Brown University and has spent nearly a decade listening to people’s climate anxieties.
Today, we’re digging into urban agriculture. Would it be possible to get all of our food from local farms?
It’s getting hot out here. And some of us are feeling hotter than others, even if we live in the same city. Why?
Since the pandemic started, we’ve learned how to move our classes, meetings, and even parties online. It’s definitely convenient, but I’ve been wondering, how is all this extra time on the internet affecting our greenhouse gas emissions?
Today we’re answering a question from listener Molly Magid. She wants to know- what are the environmental impacts of space travel and how does it compare to say, taking a plane flight?
Today, we have a question from Michael from Charlestown, Rhode Island. He wants to know: does a charger still use some power when it's plugged into an outlet but not connected to a phone or other device?
Today, we’re taking a look at how renewable energy, like wind or solar, is stored so it can be used when the sun’s not shining or the wind isn’t blowing.
You probably already know that plants with flowers need bees to survive. And so do we, if we want to keep eating fruits and vegetables. You may also have heard that bee populations are dwindling, and we need to protect them. But, how?
Today’s question comes from a member of our Possibly Team, Juliana Merullo. In past episodes, we’ve looked into how much of our recycling ends up in landfills, but this time Juliana wondered if we can’t rinse our recycling, should it just go in the trash?
Here at Possibly, we usually focus on doing our part at home. But with all this talk about climate change, one member of our team started thinking about what’s going on around the world. So today, we’re going to talk with Emily Tom about renewable energy in Hawaii.
Imagine if you didn’t have a recycling bin anymore- You just put everything in the trash, but somehow the reusable stuff still got recycled? Some places offer this service, but does it really work? Is it too good to be true?
Are you looking for a new leather jacket or pair of shoes? Well get this– they might be made from mushrooms! Here to tell us about this new material and how it compares to real or faux leather are Naomi Deokule and Anjali Shah!
Luci Jones from our Possibly team is studying abroad in Copenhagen and she's been blown away by the number of bikes on the road. She's curious why so many people bike and how this impacts carbon emissions.
Last week, we broke down the basics of how our electric grid works. Today, we're tackling a more specific question. If we all switch over to electric cars, can the grid handle it?
With the effects of climate change all around us, there's a push to power more of our lives with renewable electricity, including things that used to burn fossil fuels, like home heating and cars.
Today we’re taking a look at a fun way to be more aware of the amount of plastic we put into the world.
Today we’re taking a look at a fun way to be more aware of the amount of plastic we put into the world.
With the weather getting warmer, I’ve been thinking about air conditioning. I know that ACs are getting more efficient, but more people are using them too. So, are we using more or less energy on cooling our homes than we used to?
With the weather getting warmer, I’ve been thinking about air conditioning. I know that ACs are getting more efficient, but more people are using them too. So, are we using more or less energy on cooling our homes than we used to?
We cover a lot of heavy topics on this show, but today we’re bringing you a bright spot- a real success story. Bald eagles almost disappeared about 50 years ago, but now they’re flourishing! We had Charlie Adams and Ashley Junger from our Possibly Team look into how this happened.
We cover a lot of heavy topics on this show, but today we’re bringing you a bright spot- a real success story. Bald eagles almost disappeared about 50 years ago, but now they’re flourishing! We had Charlie Adams and Ashley Junger from our Possibly Team look into how this happened.
These days, we can buy almost anything we want online—fancy food, designer clothes, new computers, the works. But is all this online shopping creating more greenhouse gas emissions compared to shopping in-person?
These days, we can buy almost anything we want online—fancy food, designer clothes, new computers, the works. But is all this online shopping creating more greenhouse gas emissions compared to shopping in-person?
Today we’re answering a question about sustainable travel. What’s the best way to take a trip down the east coast?
Today we’re answering a question about sustainable travel. What’s the best way to take a trip down the east coast?
Two years ago, we aired an episode responding to a question from a listener named Monica. She wanted to know if it was possible to convert her gas car into an electric one. We said it’s technically possible, but it's not really worth it. But has that answer changed?
Two years ago, we aired an episode responding to a question from a listener named Monica. She wanted to know if it was possible to convert her gas car into an electric one. We said it’s technically possible, but it's not really worth it. But has that answer changed?
Today, we have a question from listener Todd Penoyer. He does maintenance for retail shopping centers in southeastern Massachusetts and he uses a lot of power tools to do his job. About half of his tools are electric, and the other half are gas-powered. He wonders whether it’s worth replacing the gas ones with electric versions.
Our oceans are rising and taking over more land every year. Most governments try to fix this by blocking the water out and sealing the humans in. But is that the only way?
Our oceans are rising and taking over more land every year. Most governments try to fix this by blocking the water out and sealing the humans in. But is that the only way?
Today we’re answering a question from Cori Myers-she’s the sister-in-law of our founder Stephen Porder. She wants to know if the laundry detergent sheets that she saw online are better than traditional liquid laundry detergent, which comes in a plastic jug.
Today we’re answering a question from Cori Myers-she’s the sister-in-law of our founder Stephen Porder. She wants to know if the laundry detergent sheets that she saw online are better than traditional liquid laundry detergent, which comes in a plastic jug.
In the gray gloom of winter, I like to brighten up my house with a colorful bouquet of flowers. And I got to wondering, where do these pristine flowers come from and should I be worried about the carbon emissions it took to get them here?
In the gray gloom of winter, I like to brighten up my house with a colorful bouquet of flowers. And I got to wondering, where do these pristine flowers come from and should I be worried about the carbon emissions it took to get them here?
It’s cold outside, so you might be reaching for a warm cup of tea more often. That has us here at Possibly wondering: are some teas more environmentally-friendly than others?
It’s cold outside, so you might be reaching for a warm cup of tea more often. That has us here at Possibly wondering: are some teas more environmentally-friendly than others?
In recent episodes, we’ve talked a lot about electric cars, but we haven’t really spent time talking about what makes them work- the battery. What are these batteries made of, and can we rely on them to get us where we need to go?
In recent episodes, we’ve talked a lot about electric cars, but we haven’t really spent time talking about what makes them work- the battery. What are these batteries made of, and can we rely on them to get us where we need to go?
When I was a kid, acid rain was a hot topic. Now, I never hear about it. So we wondered, why doesn’t acid rain make the headlines anymore?
When I was a kid, acid rain was a hot topic. Now, I never hear about it. So we wondered, why doesn’t acid rain make the headlines anymore?
Today we’re answering a question about the weather. How has climate change affected our winters? And what kind of weather can we expect in the future?
Today we’re answering a question about the weather. How has climate change affected our winters? And what kind of weather can we expect in the future?
Many of us have seen litter on the beach. And of course, there are those sad pictures of sea critters tangled up in plastic! Which made us wonder: how does it get there and what will it take to prevent all of this plastic pollution?
Many of us have seen litter on the beach. And of course, there are those sad pictures of sea critters tangled up in plastic! Which made us wonder: how does it get there and what will it take to prevent all of this plastic pollution?
When you think of a plate of food, what’s normally right smack dab in the middle? A big hunk of meat? What if our first instinct was to say fish or shrimp? Would eating more seafood cut down on our greenhouse gas emissions?
When you think of a plate of food, what’s normally right smack dab in the middle? A big hunk of meat? What if our first instinct was to say fish or shrimp? Would eating more seafood cut down on our greenhouse gas emissions?
As we head into a new year, our Possibly team decided to think about all of our episodes and how they might inspire our resolutions for 2022. Here's what some of us had to say.
As we head into a new year, our Possibly team decided to think about all of our episodes and how they might inspire our resolutions for 2022. Here's what some of us had to say.
These days, it’s popular for countries to make pledges about when they’ll be carbon neutral. But there’s one country that’s already there. Actually, it’s carbon negative.
These days, it’s popular for countries to make pledges about when they’ll be carbon neutral. But there’s one country that’s already there. Actually, it’s carbon negative.
Our own Fatima Husain was looking to buy holiday lights and she wondered— which type should I buy? Is there really a big difference between incandescent and LED lights?
Our own Fatima Husain was looking to buy holiday lights and she wondered— which type should I buy? Is there really a big difference between incandescent and LED lights?
Artificial trees create more greenhouse gas emissions during production since they are made of plastic. Because real trees take in CO2 so when they grow, they have a negative carbon footprint.
Artificial trees create more greenhouse gas emissions during production since they are made of plastic. Because real trees take in CO2 so when they grow, they have a negative carbon footprint.
Today, we have a question from a listener. Margret Bulmer wonders whether solar panels still work in the winter when they’re covered with snow.
Today, we have a question from a listener. Margret Bulmer wonders whether solar panels still work in the winter when they’re covered with snow.
A while ago, we had an episode about how climate change affects the crops we use for food. And that got us wondering - how do rising temperatures affect other things we eat, like seafood? And what does that mean for us in Rhode Island?
A while ago, we had an episode about how climate change affects the crops we use for food. And that got us wondering - how do rising temperatures affect other things we eat, like seafood? And what does that mean for us in Rhode Island?
Today, we're talking turkey. With the holidays coming up, you can choose a bird that is free-range, organic, or conventional. But what’s the difference between them? And which type of turkey is best for the planet?
Today, we're talking turkey. With the holidays coming up, you can choose a bird that is free-range, organic, or conventional. But what’s the difference between them? And which type of turkey is best for the planet?
Have you ever seen one of those plastic bag collection boxes at the grocery store? Listener Phil Trevvett has, and he wants to know what happens to those bags and if they're actually recycled.
Have you ever seen one of those plastic bag collection boxes at the grocery store? Listener Phil Trevvett has, and he wants to know what happens to those bags and if they're actually recycled.
In another episode, we talked about electric cars and how they’re not only better for the environment, but also cheaper in the long run. But it’s not that easy to just switch everyone over to electric vehicles. What kind of systems do we need to make sure all those cars can stay charged and on the road?
In another episode, we talked about electric cars and how they’re not only better for the environment, but also cheaper in the long run. But it’s not that easy to just switch everyone over to electric vehicles. What kind of systems do we need to make sure all those cars can stay charged and on the road?
Today, we’ll be talking about food waste. Many of us know that guilty feeling that comes with throwing away rotten bananas or stale bread. So, we wondered, what is the impact of all that waste?
Today, we’ll be talking about food waste. Many of us know that guilty feeling that comes with throwing away rotten bananas or stale bread. So, we wondered, what is the impact of all that waste?
Metal tins of meat, boxes of litter, bags of dry food, all of these products start to add up when you have a cat, or two or three. What are ways that cat owners can reduce the environmental impact of their pets?
Metal tins of meat, boxes of litter, bags of dry food, all of these products start to add up when you have a cat, or two or three. What are ways that cat owners can reduce the environmental impact of their pets?
This week’s question comes from listener Charlie Bakst. He was a columnist at the Providence Journal for forty years and he’s beginning to think about his own mortality.
This week’s question comes from listener Charlie Bakst. He was a columnist at the Providence Journal for forty years and he’s beginning to think about his own mortality.
A few months ago, our team was talking on Zoom when our founder, Stephen Porder, asked if he could pitch a story idea. For this episode, we’re going to let you listen in on our conversation. Spoiler alert: it's about showers in France.
A few months ago, our team was talking on Zoom when our founder, Stephen Porder, asked if he could pitch a story idea. For this episode, we’re going to let you listen in on our conversation. Spoiler alert: it's about showers in France.
Listener Anne Cohen wants to know- is it better to keep my 2015 car with a traditional combustion engine, which gets close to 40 MPG, has about 50,000 miles on it, and is in great condition, or trade it for an electric vehicle?
Listener Anne Cohen wants to know- is it better to keep my 2015 car with a traditional combustion engine, which gets close to 40 MPG, has about 50,000 miles on it, and is in great condition, or trade it for an electric vehicle?
When I say the word Bitcoin, what comes into your mind? Digital money? Expensive? How about energy hog? It turns out, the cryptocurrency uses A LOT of electricity. Here to explain why are Luci Jones and Fatima Husain from our Possibly Team.
When I say the word Bitcoin, what comes into your mind? Digital money? Expensive? How about energy hog? It turns out, the cryptocurrency uses A LOT of electricity. Here to explain why are Luci Jones and Fatima Husain from our Possibly Team.
In the past few years, we’ve seen an increase in fashion companies that offer to rent their clothes. These services have been touted as the perfect solution for environmentally-conscious fashionistas. But — are they really?
In the past few years, we’ve seen an increase in fashion companies that offer to rent their clothes. These services have been touted as the perfect solution for environmentally-conscious fashionistas. But — are they really?
We’re hearing a lot of talk about infrastructure here in the US. Depending on what happens in Congress, we could be spending billions or even trillions of dollars on everything from roads to high-speed trains. But how do we spend this money in a way that makes it easier to combat climate change?
We’re hearing a lot of talk about infrastructure here in the US. Depending on what happens in Congress, we could be spending billions or even trillions of dollars on everything from roads to high-speed trains. But how do we spend this money in a way that makes it easier to combat climate change?
Welcome to Possibly, where we take on huge problems like the future of our planet and break them down into small questions with unexpected answers. This year, heat waves across the world shattered records, tested our abilities to stay cool, and even cost lives.
Welcome to Possibly, where we take on huge problems like the future of our planet and break them down into small questions with unexpected answers. This year, heat waves across the world shattered records, tested our abilities to stay cool, and even cost lives.
Welcome to Possibly, where we take on huge problems like the future of our planet and break them down into small questions with unexpected answers. In this episode, we’re cooling down a bit and talking about refrigeration.
Welcome to Possibly, where we take on huge problems like the future of our planet and break them down into small questions with unexpected answers. In this episode, we’re cooling down a bit and talking about refrigeration.
Welcome to Possibly, where we take on huge problems like the future of our planet and break them down into small questions with unexpected answers. In this episode, we tackle an issue that most new parents face: diapers.
Welcome to Possibly, where we take on huge problems like the future of our planet and break them down into small questions with unexpected answers. In this episode, we tackle an issue that most new parents face: diapers.
Scientists have been reexamining some of the chemicals found in sunscreen because of their potential impact on marine life, particularly coral reefs. Should we rethink the type of sunscreen we wear?
Scientists have been reexamining some of the chemicals found in sunscreen because of their potential impact on marine life, particularly coral reefs. Should we rethink the type of sunscreen we wear?
Did you ever wish you could wave a wand and get rid of all of those pesky mosquitoes? Especially the ones that spread serious diseases like zika, triple E and malaria? Some scientists think they have a solution.
Did you ever wish you could wave a wand and get rid of all of those pesky mosquitoes? Especially the ones that spread serious diseases like zika, triple E and malaria? Some scientists think they have a solution.
Yes. Global warming increases the intensity of our weather because it causes temperatures to rise, which leads to more water evaporation. When those larger amounts of water come back down, they lead to bigger storms.
Yes. Global warming increases the intensity of our weather because it causes temperatures to rise, which leads to more water evaporation. When those larger amounts of water come back down, they lead to bigger storms.
Lawns can be beautiful and soft. But they’re pretty crappy when you evaluate them on really any other measure. Lawns waste water, they leak fertilizer into lakes and rivers… I could go on and on. I know all of these things about lawns. But guess what? I still have one! That’s because I’m not sure what to do instead. To find out, I drove down to Blue Moon Farm in Wakefield, Rhode Island.
Lawns can be beautiful and soft. But they’re pretty crappy when you evaluate them on really any other measure. Lawns waste water, they leak fertilizer into lakes and rivers… I could go on and on. I know all of these things about lawns. But guess what? I still have one! That’s because I’m not sure what to do instead. To find out, I drove down to Blue Moon Farm in Wakefield, Rhode Island.
What does it take to keep your lawn looking green and healthy? A lot of people say you need to use fertilizer. But do you really? And what’s the cost of using this stuff on our grass?
What does it take to keep your lawn looking green and healthy? A lot of people say you need to use fertilizer. But do you really? And what’s the cost of using this stuff on our grass?
About a month ago, I got a text message, asking me if I was ready to “shave the peak.” The message included a link with tips for using less electricity. Here at Possibly, we wondered— what are these peaks? And do we accomplish anything by trying to shave them?
About a month ago, I got a text message, asking me if I was ready to “shave the peak.” The message included a link with tips for using less electricity. Here at Possibly, we wondered— what are these peaks? And do we accomplish anything by trying to shave them?
We’ve had some seriously hot days this summer. So hot, that even though I know my central AC uses a lot of electricity, I’ve broken down and turned it on. Which made me wonder, is there anything I could do to waste less electricity while I’m cooling my home?
We’ve had some seriously hot days this summer. So hot, that even though I know my central AC uses a lot of electricity, I’ve broken down and turned it on. Which made me wonder, is there anything I could do to waste less electricity while I’m cooling my home?
Imagine a field full of cows. What are they eating? You’re probably thinking: grass, hay, or some sort of grain. What you’re probably not imagining, is seaweed. But some scientists say cows SHOULD be eating seaweed. And this small change to their diet could have a significant impact on the effects of climate change. What is this all about?
Imagine a field full of cows. What are they eating? You’re probably thinking: grass, hay, or some sort of grain. What you’re probably not imagining, is seaweed. But some scientists say cows SHOULD be eating seaweed. And this small change to their diet could have a significant impact on the effects of climate change. What is this all about?
For the past few weeks or so, my eyes have been scratchy and I’ve had a runny nose. And I’m not alone. A lot of people are feeling the effects of spring allergies and they seem even more intense this year.That made us wonder, does climate change have anything to do with this?
For the past few weeks or so, my eyes have been scratchy and I’ve had a runny nose. And I’m not alone. A lot of people are feeling the effects of spring allergies and they seem even more intense this year.That made us wonder, does climate change have anything to do with this?
Today, we have a question from Keith Munslow, a musician from Providence. He and his wife drink a lot of seltzer. They recently switched to making his own seltzer at home with a soda maker — a machine that makes sparkling water. He wants to know if using it is more energy-efficient than buying seltzer by the can.
Today, we have a question from Keith Munslow, a musician from Providence. He and his wife drink a lot of seltzer. They recently switched to making his own seltzer at home with a soda maker — a machine that makes sparkling water. He wants to know if using it is more energy-efficient than buying seltzer by the can.
Today, we’re taking on a BIG question. It’s inspired by our friends over at the Trending Globally podcast. They asked policy experts to name one climate change issue that’s not getting enough attention.
Today, we’re taking on a BIG question. It’s inspired by our friends over at the Trending Globally podcast. They asked policy experts to name one climate change issue that’s not getting enough attention.
Here at Possibly, we usually talk about the little things you can do to chip away at climate change. But of course, we need to do big things too. To talk about that, we’re turning to our friends at the Trending Globally podcast- Sarah Baldwin and Dan Richards. They wanted to know- what's a burning climate change issue that nobody's talking about?
Here at Possibly, we usually talk about the little things you can do to chip away at climate change. But of course, we need to do big things too. To talk about that, we’re turning to our friends at the Trending Globally podcast- Sarah Baldwin and Dan Richards. They wanted to know- what's a burning climate change issue that nobody's talking about?
Today, we’re going to talk about painting roofs white. Some experts say white shingles could lower electricity bills and cool down hot cities. So, should you make the switch?
Today, we’re going to talk about painting roofs white. Some experts say white shingles could lower electricity bills and cool down hot cities. So, should you make the switch?
Today we're answering a question from listener Liz Lee. She lives in Warwick, RI, and wants to know whether she is supposed to separate her paper and plastic recycling.
Today we're answering a question from listener Liz Lee. She lives in Warwick, RI, and wants to know whether she is supposed to separate her paper and plastic recycling.
When we talk about climate change, we often think about the big issues- sea levels rising, extreme weather, melting polar ice caps. But climate change has small, intimate consequences too. It turns out, our warming planet is even affecting the flavor of our wine.
When we talk about climate change, we often think about the big issues- sea levels rising, extreme weather, melting polar ice caps. But climate change has small, intimate consequences too. It turns out, our warming planet is even affecting the flavor of our wine.
Some take-out food containers, cups, and utensils are called “certified compostable.” What does that really mean?
Some take-out food containers, cups, and utensils are called “certified compostable.” What does that really mean?
On our show, we talk a lot about how to reduce our carbon dioxide, or CO2, emissions. But some scientists are developing another approach to climate change — techniques to remove CO2 from the atmosphere.
On our show, we talk a lot about how to reduce our carbon dioxide, or CO2, emissions. But some scientists are developing another approach to climate change — techniques to remove CO2 from the atmosphere.
Today, we have a question from listener Todd Penoyer. He does maintenance for retail shopping centers in southeastern Massachusetts and he uses a lot of power tools to do his job. About half of his tools are electric, and the other half are gas-powered. He wonders whether it’s worth replacing the gas ones with electric versions.
These days, it seems like there’s an organic option for every type of food out there, including meat. But organic usually means more expensive. That made us wonder, is it worth it to pay more for organic meat? And does it create fewer greenhouse gas emissions?
These days, it seems like there’s an organic option for every type of food out there, including meat. But organic usually means more expensive. That made us wonder, is it worth it to pay more for organic meat? And does it create fewer greenhouse gas emissions?
On our show, we tell stories to make climate change seem less overwhelming. We know that our episodes are no replacement for massive policy changes, but we hope that they help to shift your perspective or at least make the path forward seem a little clearer. Today, we’re going to talk to an artist who also tries to unpack climate change using a very different medium.
On our show, we tell stories to make climate change seem less overwhelming. We know that our episodes are no replacement for massive policy changes, but we hope that they help to shift your perspective or at least make the path forward seem a little clearer. Today, we’re going to talk to an artist who also tries to unpack climate change using a very different medium.
How would you like to get all of your electricity from renewable sources? It turns out, you can, and you don’t even need to put panels on your roof to do it. Harrison Katz and Fatima Husain from our Possibly team are going to walk us through our options.
How would you like to get all of your electricity from renewable sources? It turns out, you can, and you don’t even need to put panels on your roof to do it. Harrison Katz and Fatima Husain from our Possibly team are going to walk us through our options.
I order a lot of takeout food these days. And I often cringe when I see the packaging, especially when I get all of those little soy sauce packets. I mentioned this to our founder, Stephen Porder. And he says, it doesn't have to be that way. Stephen is in Paris this year on sabbatical, and he says his take-out has way less packaging. So, we tried a little experiment to see if his claims stack up.
I order a lot of takeout food these days. And I often cringe when I see the packaging, especially when I get all of those little soy sauce packets. I mentioned this to our founder, Stephen Porder. And he says, it doesn't have to be that way. Stephen is in Paris this year on sabbatical, and he says his take-out has way less packaging. So, we tried a little experiment to see if his claims stack up.
There are about 5.5 million different species of bugs and they make up nearly 80% of all animals on Earth. But all is not well with the world’s most abundant critters. What’s happening to insects? And why should we care?
There are about 5.5 million different species of bugs and they make up nearly 80% of all animals on Earth. But all is not well with the world’s most abundant critters. What’s happening to insects? And why should we care?
Today, we have a question from listener Tom Chun. Recently, his water heater stopped working. Tom didn’t have time to spare, so he just went with the water heater his plumber recommended. But now, he’s wondering if he should have bought something else. Are there more efficient water heaters out there that are worth the price?
Today, we have a question from listener Tom Chun. Recently, his water heater stopped working. Tom didn’t have time to spare, so he just went with the water heater his plumber recommended. But now, he’s wondering if he should have bought something else. Are there more efficient water heaters out there that are worth the price?
Take a look out your window. What color is the ground? It turns out that what you see plays a big role in the speed of climate change.
Take a look out your window. What color is the ground? It turns out that what you see plays a big role in the speed of climate change.
If you follow the news about climate change, you’ve probably heard the phrase “net zero.” But what does “net zero” really mean?
If you follow the news about climate change, you’ve probably heard the phrase “net zero.” But what does “net zero” really mean?
Today we have a question from Natalie Herbermann. She’s heard that when you put your clothes in the washing machine, they can leave behind harmful particles... And she’s wondering if there’s anything she can do about that.
Today we have a question from Natalie Herbermann. She’s heard that when you put your clothes in the washing machine, they can leave behind harmful particles... And she’s wondering if there’s anything she can do about that.
Taking into account the energy that goes into making a whole new car, is it more energy efficient to keep the gas car you already have, or to get a new hybrid car? (This episode originally aired in September, 2019).
Taking into account the energy that goes into making a whole new car, is it more energy efficient to keep the gas car you already have, or to get a new hybrid car? (This episode originally aired in September, 2019).
Today, we have a question from listener David Kellogg. He’s a big fan of solar power, but he wants to know, is it better to put solar panels on your roof, or to put your money towards large scale solar installations?
Today, we have a question from listener David Kellogg. He’s a big fan of solar power, but he wants to know, is it better to put solar panels on your roof, or to put your money towards large scale solar installations?
Today, we’re answering a question from Ada, a student from Bristol, Rhode Island. She wants to know the best thing kids can do at home to help stop climate change.
Today, we’re answering a question from Ada, a student from Bristol, Rhode Island. She wants to know the best thing kids can do at home to help stop climate change.
Twenty-twenty was quite a year, and we're guessing that most people are hoping 2021 will be better. So, our Possibly team got together to think about some New Year’s Resolutions that fit with the themes of our show. Here’s what everyone had to say…
Twenty-twenty was quite a year, and we're guessing that most people are hoping 2021 will be better. So, our Possibly team got together to think about some New Year’s Resolutions that fit with the themes of our show. Here’s what everyone had to say…
Is it better to heat one room with a space heater or use a furnace to heat your entire house?
Is it better to heat one room with a space heater or use a furnace to heat your entire house?
Hydroelectric power is the most widely-used renewable energy source in the world. It creates about one-sixth of the world’s electricity. But how exactly does it work, and how does it fit into our energy future?
Hydroelectric power is the most widely-used renewable energy source in the world. It creates about one-sixth of the world’s electricity. But how exactly does it work, and how does it fit into our energy future?
Today, we have a thought experiment on our minds. What would happen if we stopped creating greenhouse gas emissions right now? Would climate change be over?
Today, we have a thought experiment on our minds. What would happen if we stopped creating greenhouse gas emissions right now? Would climate change be over?
Wind turbines have been popping up across the world as a more sustainable way to create electricity. But these turbines can’t last forever, and not all of their parts can be recycled. In this episode, we look into what happens to wind turbines when they wear out.
Wind turbines have been popping up across the world as a more sustainable way to create electricity. But these turbines can’t last forever, and not all of their parts can be recycled. In this episode, we look into what happens to wind turbines when they wear out.
Over the last few months, many of us have turned to digital devices to stay connected. We wondered: how much energy are we using with all of this time online?
Over the last few months, many of us have turned to digital devices to stay connected. We wondered: how much energy are we using with all of this time online?
Today we have a question about paper recycling. What happens after you throw paper into the blue bin? How much of that paper actually gets reused? And is it worth the energy it takes to process it?
Today we have a question about paper recycling. What happens after you throw paper into the blue bin? How much of that paper actually gets reused? And is it worth the energy it takes to process it?
Earlier this year, we did an episode comparing emissions for flying versus driving the same distance. But what if you're driving an RV? Megan runs the number with Stephen after she finishes her own cross-country trip.
Earlier this year, we did an episode comparing emissions for flying versus driving the same distance. But what if you're driving an RV? Megan runs the number with Stephen after she finishes her own cross-country trip.
Earlier this year, we did an episode comparing emissions for flying versus driving the same distance. But what if you're driving an RV?
Earlier this year, we did an episode comparing emissions for flying versus driving the same distance. But what if you're driving an RV?
If you flip through magazines or social media today, you might come across advertisements for environmentally-friendly feminine hygiene products. We wondered if they were worth the investment.
If you flip through magazines or social media today, you might come across advertisements for environmentally-friendly feminine hygiene products. We wondered if they were worth the investment.
Tree nuts like almonds, walnuts, and pistachios have taken off as a nutrient-dense snack. But all that snacking comes at a price — tree nuts are notorious for requiring a lot of water to grow. In this episode, we’ll unpack whether all that water usage makes a difference.
Tree nuts like almonds, walnuts, and pistachios have taken off as a nutrient-dense snack. But all that snacking comes at a price — tree nuts are notorious for requiring a lot of water to grow. In this episode, we’ll unpack whether all that water usage makes a difference.
A couple of weeks ago, we did a show on how many greenhouse gas emissions are created by the fashion industry and that got us wondering which industries create the most emissions, but we quickly hit a problem- the numbers just don't add up. Stephen Porder, our co-founder and the Assistant Provost of Sustainability at Brown University, joins the show to explain what's going on.
A couple of weeks ago, we did a show on how many greenhouse gas emissions are created by the fashion industry and that got us wondering which industries create the most emissions, but we quickly hit a problem- the numbers just don't add up. Stephen Porder, our co-founder and the Assistant Provost of Sustainability at Brown University, joins the show to explain what's going on.
Whether you’re shopping for a t-shirt, bedsheets, or q-tips, you might have noticed that cotton products are more expensive if they’re organic. We wondered, is it worth it to pay the extra price?
Whether you’re shopping for a t-shirt, bedsheets, or q-tips, you might have noticed that cotton products are more expensive if they’re organic. We wondered, is it worth it to pay the extra price?
Why are so many people talking about banning straws right now, and how much of a difference does skipping the straw actually make?
Why are so many people talking about banning straws right now, and how much of a difference does skipping the straw actually make?
The truth is, we don't need trees to breathe! You could get rid of all of the trees on the planet and we'd still have enough oxygen. That's because a lot of the oxygen we breathe comes from tiny microorganisms in the ocean — many of which evolved billions of years before we even had land plants!
The truth is, we don't need trees to breathe! You could get rid of all of the trees on the planet and we'd still have enough oxygen. That's because a lot of the oxygen we breathe comes from tiny microorganisms in the ocean — many of which evolved billions of years before we even had land plants!
The world is warming, sea level is rising, species are dying out, and everything seems to be getting worse.
The world is warming, sea level is rising, species are dying out, and everything seems to be getting worse.
Drink from a can! It takes fewer emissions to make an aluminum can and fewer emissions to deliver beer that comes in cans. Cans are also more likely to be recycled, it takes less energy to recycle them, and they're safer to pick up if they've been thrown on the ground.
Drink from a can! It takes fewer emissions to make an aluminum can and fewer emissions to deliver beer that comes in cans. Cans are also more likely to be recycled, it takes less energy to recycle them, and they're safer to pick up if they've been thrown on the ground.
Here in the US, most of us put our eggs in the refrigerator. But in many other countries, eggs can stay on the counter. So, could we save energy here in America and just stop refrigerating our eggs?
Here in the US, most of us put our eggs in the refrigerator. But in many other countries, eggs can stay on the counter. So, could we save energy here in America and just stop refrigerating our eggs?
It depends. When you’re driving slowly around town, it’s better to keep your windows down. But on the highway, it’s better to turn on the AC.
It depends. When you’re driving slowly around town, it’s better to keep your windows down. But on the highway, it’s better to turn on the AC.
From an emissions standpoint, is grilling with gas or charcoal better? If you're choosing between charcoal and gas, choose gas. Grilling with charcoal for an hour produces three times the emissions of grilling with gas. But, what you put on the grill is actually more important.
From an emissions standpoint, is grilling with gas or charcoal better? If you're choosing between charcoal and gas, choose gas. Grilling with charcoal for an hour produces three times the emissions of grilling with gas. But, what you put on the grill is actually more important.
Today we’re going to focus on some positive news — a bright spot. Scientists have noticed something remarkable about blue whales— after years of near extinction, it looks like they’re coming back.
Today we’re going to focus on some positive news — a bright spot. Scientists have noticed something remarkable about blue whales— after years of near extinction, it looks like they’re coming back.
Driftnets are fishing nets that have largely fallen out of fashion because they can accidentally catch other marine life. But it's still legal to use driftnets in California to catch swordfish. Luckily, there are other types of gear fishers can use and many are taking advantage of this new technology.
Driftnets are fishing nets that have largely fallen out of fashion because they can accidentally catch other marine life. But it's still legal to use driftnets in California to catch swordfish. Luckily, there are other types of gear fishers can use and many are taking advantage of this new technology.
Today we’re answering a question that has been on a lot of people’s minds during the COVID-19 quarantine: while we’re limiting trips to the store, how can we maximize our groceries and minimize our food waste?
Today we’re answering a question that has been on a lot of people’s minds during the COVID-19 quarantine: while we’re limiting trips to the store, how can we maximize our groceries and minimize our food waste?
If you haven’t used a bidet before, it looks pretty much like a toilet bowl with a tap on one side that gives you a rinse after you go. Bidets or some version of them are already used a lot in Europe, Latin America and some parts of Asia.
If you haven’t used a bidet before, it looks pretty much like a toilet bowl with a tap on one side that gives you a rinse after you go. Bidets or some version of them are already used a lot in Europe, Latin America and some parts of Asia.
Methane is a gas that’s created when something organic decomposes in a location that doesn’t have oxygen. The largest human-caused source of methane is actually cow burbs, but the second biggest human-caused source in the US is oil and gas production.
Methane is a gas that’s created when something organic decomposes in a location that doesn’t have oxygen. The largest human-caused source of methane is actually cow burbs, but the second biggest human-caused source in the US is oil and gas production.
Question: How much energy do dryers use? And is it worth the effort to air-dry your clothes instead?
Question: How much energy do dryers use? And is it worth the effort to air-dry your clothes instead?
Like many people these days, we are working from home. And our Possibly reporters? They’re scattered all over the world. You might not know this, but Brown University students research, write and record all of our episodes. And they've all gone back home.
Like many people these days, we are working from home. And our Possibly reporters? They’re scattered all over the world. You might not know this, but Brown University students research, write and record all of our episodes. And they've all gone back home.
Technically yes. There are some car hobbyists who have done this, but there's no streamlined approach to converting your car. The process would be expensive, complicated and even dangerous. We recommend buying a plug-in hybrid or electric can when you need a new one and in the meantime, work on lowering your gas mileage by keeping your tires inflated and driving the speed limit.
Technically yes. There are some car hobbyists who have done this, but there's no streamlined approach to converting your car. The process would be expensive, complicated and even dangerous. We recommend buying a plug-in hybrid or electric can when you need a new one and in the meantime, work on lowering your gas mileage by keeping your tires inflated and driving the speed limit.
In the US, one out of five households don’t use a dishwasher because they think it uses more water and energy than washing by hand. So, we wanted to test this out: is hand washing really more efficient than using a dishwasher?
In the US, one out of five households don’t use a dishwasher because they think it uses more water and energy than washing by hand. So, we wanted to test this out: is hand washing really more efficient than using a dishwasher?
What creates more greenhouse gas emissions- flying to your destination or taking a road trip?
A live panel discussion about offshore wind and commercial fishing presented by 'Possibly' and The Public's Radio.
First make sure your home is well insulated. Then, swap out your furnace or boiler for a device known as a heat pump. Heat pumps run on electricity and transfer heat from the outside and bring it inside your home. Making the switch to a heat pump from an oil furnace can reduce your heating emissions by about 50%.
Today we have a question from listener Alec Beckett. He asks: Should I be in favor of nuclear power? He says he knows about the risks, but he’s also heard that nuclear power is a clean source of energy.
Since the wind isn't always blowing, Rhode Island uses natural gas power plants as a backup, which means that the electricity from wind farms isn't 100% renewable. The best solution would be to store the electricity generated by wind turbines in batteries, but so far these batteries haven't been big enough or cheap enough to use.
About a quarter of the carbon dioxide emissions that we send into the atmosphere are absorbed in the ocean, and this is increasing the acidity of the ocean. Some species might be able to adapt to this increase in acidity, while others might not be so lucky.
The ocean absorbs and stores about 90% of the heat trapped in the atmosphere, so ocean temperatures are increasing. Higher temperatures may favor some species in certain areas but could harm other species.
A live panel discussion about offshore wind and commercial fishing presented by 'Possibly' and The Public's Radio.
What’s the point of putting wind farms in the ocean? And will we see more of them in Rhode Island?