Tag: films webinars videos podcasts radio

Podcast: How are cities preparing to combat climate change?

This podcast discusses how cities are preparing to combat climate change. MPR News’ Paul Huttner, filling in for host Kerri Miller, spoke with Forbes Tompkins, officer of flood-prepared communities at The Pew Charitable Trusts, and Mayor Errick Simmons of Greenville, Miss., about how cities across the country are bracing for more climate-driven flooding.

Clean Energy States Alliance Webinar On Electric Vehicles and the Grid

This webinar discusses the trajectory for the market penetration of electric vehicles (EVs) and what does it mean for the electrical grid. How can EVs be best integrated into the grid so that they increase system reliability and reduce emissions? What would be the impacts on the grid of different scenarios for EV charging?

This webinar explored these questions with presentations from Matteo Muratori (Engineer, Integrated Transportation and Energy Systems, National Renewable Energy Laboratory) and Chris Nelder (Manager, EV Grid Integration, Rocky Mountain Institute). It was hosted by Warren Leon (Executive Director, CESA).

This webinar was presented by the Clean Energy States Alliance (CESA).

Sobering Climate Risks

This podcast discusses a report by the the Australia-based Breakthrough National Centre for Climate Restoration. If carbon emissions keep going up until 2030 it will be too late to avoid a ‘hot house’ Earth with a billion climate refugees starting in 2050. These researchers warn the climate is changing faster than politicians and the public are responding, and say interventions on a scale never before seen during peacetime are needed right now. Host Steve Curwood talks with David Spratt, Research Director at the Breakthrough National Centre.

Recycling Plastics – is it effective?

This article discusses whether recycling plastics is the solution to that problem. No, it isn’t. ‘Recycling Is Like a Band-Aid on Gangrene’.

The Newfoundland lab, the Civic Laboratory for Environmental Action Research (CLEAR), interrogates what Max Liboiron believes to be systemic problems in science. CLEAR conducts its research on microplastics from a feminist and anti-colonial perspective. This epistemic approach informs the lab’s scientific protocols, ethics, and research designs. Taylor Hess and Hutton’s short documentary Guts is an inside look at the lab, the research it conducts on plastic pollution and sustainability, and the way Liboiron empowers citizens to engage in science at the community level.

Liboiron’s critiques aren’t limited to methodology. In the documentary, she asks a group of well-intentioned recyclers to look closely at their individual consumer behaviors. The data on waste management, she says, suggest that recycling doesn’t do much to mitigate the problem of plastic pollution. “The only mode of attack is to deal with a heavy decrease in the production of plastics, as opposed to dealing with them after they’ve already been created,” she tells the group. “Your consumer behaviors do not matter. Not on the scale of the problem … It’s the cessation of production that will make the big-scale changes.” She also advocates for removing subsidies from oil.

8 must-watch environmental documentaries to kick off your summer

This Grist article discusses 8 environmental documentaries you should watch this summer. You should definitely read this article, as there are many worthwhile films that will scare your pants off.

Another Memorial Day, another Mountainfilm Festival. Since 1979, outdoor enthusiasts and environmental activists alike have flocked to the mountain town of Telluride, Colorado, to watch the drama of the natural world unfold on the big screen.

Yale Climate Connections weekly email

This set of articles from Yale Climate Connections discuss:

  1. Farmer finds that sustainable choices can also be profitable. The solar panel on his barn have been a good investment, Ted Barbour says.

  2. 12 free reports on climate change and the economy.

  3. 12 books on how climate change is transforming businesses and the global economy.

  4. The right seafood choices help fight climate change. Choosing certain seafoods over others can satisfy the palate and also help reduce adverse climate impacts.

  5. State of the climate: Heat across Earth’s surface and oceans mark early 2019. Global surface temperatures in 2019 are on track to be either the second or third warmest since records began in the mid-1800s, behind only 2016 and possibly 2017.

In the future, tropical forests may hold fewer big trees

This Yale Climate Connections article discusses why, in the future, tropical forests may hold fewer big trees. If intense storms grow more common, trees could be killed before reaching full size. But she says if strong storms become more common with climate change, large, slow-growing tree species may be killed before they grow to their full potential.

8 Podcasts About Climate Change That Can Help You Remain Informed

This article discusses 8 climate change podcasts that can help you remain informed. This article includes several links that are worth following.

In a report released in April 2019, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), the UN agency for weather, climate and water resources, shared a not-so-encouraging update on global warming. With temperatures, concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, and sea levels rising at record levels, last year was one of the worst years ever, literally. If you don’t know as much about the global crisis as you’d like to, don’t be hard on yourself, just subscribe to a few podcasts that can help you better understand climate change. Instead of spending your commute listening to that comedy or crime podcast that you love, save it for later and listen to something a bit more pressing and enlightening for a change.