Featuring CARB Chair Liane Randolph and CEJA Energy Justice Director Mari Rose Taruc

Artificial intelligence can do some pretty amazing things, including for the climate. But despite all of the hype there’s a concern that gets very little attention: AI’s energy demands. How do we make sure the benefits of AI outweigh its energy costs?

Nearly two years ago, Congress passed the biggest piece of climate legislation in our nation’s history: The Inflation Reduction Act, which put $400 billion into boosting the transition to a clean energy economy. What impact has the IRA had on clean energy manufacturing, innovation and emissions so far? Has the IRA distributed money to fulfill its climate justice initiatives?

Even before Al Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth” brought climate change to the mainstream, journalist Elizabeth Kolbert was on the beat. Nearly 20 years later, Kolbert’s new book “H Is for Hope: Climate Change from A to Z” interweaves the strands of the larger climate story.

Drought is pushing up the cost of candy and leading to shipping delays in the Panama Canal. Insuring your car, health and property is getting more expensive. Globally, researchers say climate could add one percent to inflation per year until 2035. How is a disrupted climate disrupting your savings?

The places most people call home are coming under increasing threat from climate change. Those who have the means are already starting to take refuge in places that market themselves as climate-proof. The rest of us are left wondering: should I stay or should I go?

As heat waves, storms, droughts and wildfires get worse, talking can seem like a seriously insufficient climate solution. Yet real conversations are one of our best ways to share information, find common ground and move toward action. So how do we make climate conversations really count?

Kumi Naidoo’s path to being an internationally renowned activist started early. At age 15, he organized school boycotts against the apartheid educational system in South Africa. He went on to lead Greenpeace International, then Amnesty International. Now he’s a visiting scholar at Stanford’s Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law, where he’s focusing on how activism can win bigger and faster.

If the scale of the climate crisis feels overwhelming, there’s good news: what you do in your own life matters – a lot. And by engaging with our communities, we can do more, together.

When most people hear the phrase renewable energy, they imagine fields full of solar panels or giant spinning wind turbines. But another source is heating up: geothermal. Once thought to be a limited energy source, new technology may have unlocked geothermal’s real potential.

Across the country, shuttered coal plants, contaminated landfills, and abandoned mine lands are finding new life as renewable energy projects. We explore the drivers behind the “dirty to clean” energy transition, and the communities and people in its wake.

Engine maker Cummins has been slapped with the largest fine ever resulting from the Clean Air Act for cheating on emissions testing. VW was caught in a similar situation nearly 10 years ago. What have we learned since the infamous VW “Dieselgate” scandal?

Jane Fonda brought increased attention to the climate crisis through her “Fire Drill Fridays” protests at the U.S. Capitol. After decades of fighting for vulnerable groups, the 85-year-old activist and actor has dedicated herself and her climate PAC to defeating political allies of the fossil fuel industry. What keeps the iconic Jane Fonda going strong?

We often talk about a “just transition” from dirty to clean energy as if it means the same thing to everyone. Indigenous people have seen their resources extracted and exploited to further the wealth of others for centuries. What does a “just transition” look like for their communities?

Fossil fuels are embedded in every aspect of the clothing industry – from mechanized farming and pesticides to grow fiber crops, to energy for manufacturing and transportation. How can we make lower impact clothes and change our consumer behavior to value sustainability and longevity?

Learning how climate change threatens your specific community can be the difference between adaptation or disaster. Community science aims to partner local knowledge with academic scientists to find the best methods for addressing a community’s climate needs. This episode was produced in collaboration with AGU.

Activists who spend their youth fighting for climate action often feel burdened by unrealistic expectations. Some succumb to depression and burnout. We hear from former youth activists on how they view the work of their younger selves and their advice for the next generation.

Can you imagine if everything you needed in your everyday life was a 15-minute walk or bike ride away? That’s the goal of the 15-minute City, a new name for an old idea. But what will it take to make the idea a reality in our car-centric culture?

Every year we honor a scientist for excellence in climate science communication. This year’s winner is atmospheric scientist Ben Santer, who has spent his career helping prove that humans are driving climate disruption. That finding threatened automakers and fossil fuel companies, who tried to scare and silence Ben Santer. But he hasn’t backed down.

On this special episode, we look back at the biggest climate news of the past year – and we highlight some of Climate One’s most surprising, moving and compelling interviews of 2023, including conversations with luminaries Rev. Lennox Yearwood and Rebecca Solnit, White House Climate Advisor Ali Zaidi, climate activist Nalleli Cobo and U.S. Sen. Cory Booker.

Countries around the world are gathered to take stock of their progress toward cutting emissions at COP28. Activists and climate experts are pressuring leaders to do better, as data shows we are falling far short of targets. Saving our collective future requires focused, collective action. And the longer we delay, the more people will suffer.

This week, we’re in Dubai at the UN’s annual climate conference, COP28, covering the global stocktake, as countries are measured against the emissions reduction targets they made at the Paris Accords. But we already know countries small and large haven’t decarbonized at the rate they’ve promised. Can collective international peer pressure help us course-correct?

There’s more consensus around climate action than many of us may think. But in our increasingly online and partisan world, we often ignore viewpoints different from our own. How can we bridge ideological divides and find the common ground necessary for respectful civil discourse?

This episode was originally produced by The Coolest Show, a Hip Hop Caucus Think 100% podcast