The Climate Pod

Over the last century, economic growth, as measured by increases in countries' Gross Domestic Product, has been the key indicator of success. And while GDP has skyrocketed in many countries, so has fossil fuel use, deforestation, and the destruction of natural ecosystems. On top of that, inequality has actually gotten worse in many countries and incomes, adjusted for inflation, have stagnated for many parts of these "growing" economies. It seems this relentless focus on growth has not created the kind of world that most people want to live in.

Professor Giorgos Kallis is an ecological economist, political ecologist, and Catalan Institution for Research and Advanced Studies Professor at the Institute of Environmental Science and Technology in Barcelona. He's also the author of several books about degrowth economics - the field of economics that questions the insatiable need for growth and seeks an alternative societal structure that supports everyone, regardless of a country's ability to grow GDP. Professor Kallis joins the show to talk about degrowth economics and why it is critical to achieve the degrowth goals if we want to reduce the negative impacts of the climate crisis.

We also discuss the role that 18th century philosopher and theologian Thomas Malthus had on modern economics, why he was so wrong about inequality and limits, and some of the ideas that get attributed to him that weren't actually his.

Check out these two books by Professor Kallis:

"The Case for Degrowth"

"Limits: Why Malthus Was Wrong and Why Environmentalists Should Care"

As always, follow us @climatepod on Twitter and email us at theclimatepod@gmail.com. Our music is "Gotta Get Up" by The Passion Hifi, check out his music at thepassionhifi.com. Rate, review and subscribe to this podcast on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, and more! Subscribe to our YouTube channel! Join our Facebook group.

It's incredible how dramatic climate science can be. That was my first thought after I watched the new documentary, Canary, which chronicles the life and career of Dr. Lonnie Thompson. This week, the subject behind the film, Dr. Thompson, and the co-directors of the documentary, Danny O'Malley and Dr. Alex Rivest, explain how the film came together and the thrilling story behind its development. We discuss how to tell compelling climate stories, what motivates their work, and what decades of glacier science can teach us about the climate crisis.  

Lonnie G. Thompson, a Distinguished University Professor at The Ohio State University, and senior research scientist, specializes in paleoclimatology, ice cores, and climate change. 

Alex Rivest is a Massachusetts Institute of Technology-trained PhD Neuroscientist. Having worked alongside Nobel Prize winner Dr. Susumu Tonegawa, his research has been published in two of the most highly renowned scientific journals, Science and Nature Neuroscience. 

Danny O'Malley is a Grammy nominated and James Beard nominated film director. Best known for his work on Netflix's Chef's Table, where he serves as co-executive producer and a director.

As always, follow us @climatepod on Twitter and email us at theclimatepod@gmail.com. Our music is "Gotta Get Up" by The Passion Hifi, check out his music at thepassionhifi.com. Rate, review and subscribe to this podcast on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, and more! Subscribe to our YouTube channel! Join our Facebook group.

Rent Canary

Who can the climate movement turn to for real change? Politicians? Business leaders? International negotiators? The reality, as Professor Dana Fisher argues, is that despite major gains for climate action in recent years, none of our leaders are adequately advancing solutions at the speed and scale neccessary to meet the actual crisis we face. And because we need change to happen much faster, the climate movement needs to build its own power in order to help solve the biggest problems in ever sector of society. So how do we actually do that?

We explore that on today's show and discuss Professor Fisher's new book Saving Ourselves - From Climate Shocks to Climate Action. We discuss what the climate movement can learn from international efforts like the Paris Agreement and the Kyoto Protocal, how the successes of the Civil Rights Movement and other social movements can guide climate activists, and how climate activism is changing as we approach major elections in 2024. 

Dana R. Fisher is the director of the Center for Environment, Community, and Equity and a professor at the School of International Service at American University.

Read Saving Ourselves - From Climate Shocks to Climate Action

As always, follow us @climatepod on Twitter and email us at theclimatepod@gmail.com. Our music is "Gotta Get Up" by The Passion Hifi, check out his music at thepassionhifi.com. Rate, review and subscribe to this podcast on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, and more! Subscribe to our YouTube channel! Join our Facebook group.

The International Energy Agency, among other prominent modelers of our energy future, projects that nuclear energy's current global capacity must double by 2050 in order for the world to hit its decarbonization goals. The annual investments needed to reach this doubling far exceed anything that's being invested today in new nuclear facilities. Just one new nuclear reactor has been successfully built in the United States in the last 30 years, and the United States hasn't financed new reactors in other countries for decades.

If the United States is truly committed to reducing emissions, why aren't we seeing more investment in nuclear energy, a base fuel that could replace coal and natural gas? How do other countries compare to the United States when it comes to investments in new nuclear energy, the costs and project timelines of new nuclear construction, and the regulations and incentives? Dr. Matt Bowen from the Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia University SIPA joins the podcast today to answer these questions and to provide a detailed look at the current nuclear energy landscape around the world.

Further Reading:

The Uncertain Costs of New Nuclear Reactors

A Critical Disconnect

Improving the Efficiency of NRC Power Reactor Licensing

Comparing Government Financing of Reactor Exports

And check out the upcoming Columbia webinar: https://www.energypolicy.columbia.edu/events/reactor-costs-and-decarbonization-efforts/

As always, follow us @climatepod on Twitter and email us at theclimatepod@gmail.com. Our music is "Gotta Get Up" by The Passion Hifi, check out his music at thepassionhifi.com. Rate, review and subscribe to this podcast on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, and more! Subscribe to our YouTube channel! Join our Facebook group.

"It is vital that those advocating for action to avert climate disaster take note of this substantial shift from denial of anthropogenic climate change to undermining trust in both solutions and science itself, and shift our focus, our resources and our counternarratives accordingly." 

In the introduction to a new report from the Center for Countering Digital Hate US/UK, founder and CEO Imran Ahmed makes the case that it's a new kind of climate denialism that is spreading so quickly on social platforms. Why? Not only is it due to the lack of content moderation from Big Tech companies and a willingness of cynical media personalities on these platforms to take up the denier mantle, but also an economic incentive structure for content creators that supports misinformation. Imran Ahmed joins the show this week to discuss The New Climate Denial: How social media platforms and content producers profit by spreading new forms of climate denial? and how social media platforms and legislators can help stop the dominance of misinformation online and what could happen if we don't.

Read The New Climate Denial

As always, follow us @climatepod on Twitter and email us at theclimatepod@gmail.com. Our music is "Gotta Get Up" by The Passion Hifi, check out his music at thepassionhifi.com. Rate, review and subscribe to this podcast on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, and more! Subscribe to our YouTube channel! Join our Facebook group.

In 2015, representatives from all countries attending COP21 agreed to limit global average temperature rise to well below 2.0 degrees Celsius above pre-Industrial levels and to aim for a 1.5 degree rise. Flash forward less than a decade, and the United Kingdom Meteorological Office is forecasting the average annual temperature for 2024 to likely be more than 1.5 degrees warmer than pre-Industrial levels. As the world continues to break annual, monthly, and daily temperature records, what does it mean that we're now exceeding the 1.5 degree threshold so soon after the Paris Agreement?

To help us understand the importance of this forecast, Dr. Nick Dunstone, leader of the Climate Dynamics Group at the Met Office and one of the scientists that conducted the forecast, joins the show to discuss what it means that 2024 may exceed the 1.5 degree threshold, the factors causing the record-breaking temperature, and what people and policymakers should take away from this historic milestone. Dr. Richard Betts, Head of the Climate Impacts Strategic Area at the Met Office, is also on today's episode to discuss his team's recent forecast of CO2 concentration in the atmosphere. As CO2 emissions continue to rise, it's no surprise that temperatures continue to rise as well. Dr. Betts helps explain the factors that contribute to 2024's record increase in CO2 concentration and provide context to this year's forecast.

Read The Met's 2024 Temperature Forecast

Read The Met's 2024 CO2 Concentration Forecast

As always, follow us @climatepod on Twitter and email us at theclimatepod@gmail.com. Our music is "Gotta Get Up" by The Passion Hifi, check out his music at thepassionhifi.com. Rate, review and subscribe to this podcast on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, and more! Subscribe to our YouTube channel! Join our Facebook group. 

We witness the climate crisis every day. Unfolding on our news feeds, impacting our communities, and undeniably causing unfathomable, inequitable harm across the planet. We lament the lack of urgency in our political leaders and even find ourselves frustrated by complacency in the public's push for climate action. But we truly are in a transformative moment - though how we meet this moment remains uncertain. 

The changing politics of our time is the focus of Ajay Singh Chaudhary's new book, The Exhausted of the Earth: Politics In A Burning World. He joins the show to discuss some of the big philosophical and social considerations as the climate crisis continues to change everything. 

Ajay Singh Chaudhary is the executive director of the Brooklyn Institute for Social Research and a core faculty member specializing in social and political theory.  

Read The Exhausted of the Earth

As always, follow us @climatepod on Twitter and email us at theclimatepod@gmail.com. Our music is "Gotta Get Up" by The Passion Hifi, check out his music at thepassionhifi.com. Rate, review and subscribe to this podcast on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, and more! Subscribe to our YouTube channel! Join our Facebook group. 

The negative impacts of climate change are almost always depicted on a global scale and decades-long timeframe. However, the positive impacts of reducing the use of fossil fuels are realized at the local level and almost immediately. The co-authors of the recently published paper, "Reductions in Premature Deaths from Heat and Particulate Matter Air Pollution in South Asia, China, and the United States Under Decarbonization", found that the near term health benefits of moving to a clean energy-fueled society far outweigh the costs of the clean energy transition, because death rates from air pollution and excessive heat are reduced drastically. How much and when those death rates depend on region-specific variables, but across the board, any country that decarbonizes will see both near term and long term benefits to the health of their citizens.

Dr. Drew Shindell, the Nicholas Professor of Earth Science at Duke University, joined The Climate Pod this week to discuss the paper that he co-wrote and other research he has done on methane and the co-benefits of transitioning our world beyond its current reliance on fossil fuels.

Follow Dr. Shindell's work here: https://nicholas.duke.edu/people/faculty/shindell

Read the paper here:  https://www.pnas.org/doi/epdf/10.1073/pnas.2312832120

As always, follow us @climatepod on Twitter and email us at theclimatepod@gmail.com. Our music is "Gotta Get Up" by The Passion Hifi, check out his music at thepassionhifi.com. Rate, review and subscribe to this podcast on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, and more! Subscribe to our YouTube channel! Join our Facebook group. 

"From 2010 to 2020, more people participated in protests than at any other point in human history. But we are not living in a world that is more just and democratic as a result." In Vincent Bevins' new book, If We Burn, with this argument comes a central question: Can mass protests and uprisings actually lead to progressive change?

The answer is complicated and certainly varies greatly from situation, cause, and nation-state depending on an array of existing realities. However, in the mass protest decade of Bevins's focus, 2010-2020, we saw the enormous impact climate protests could have on raising global awareness. Recent uprisings across the globe have often resulted in more interest in progressive solutions, but not always in results. But there are critical examples that show it is possible to harness the power of protest to deliver justice. So how do we do it?

Bevins joins the show to discuss what he learned about the last decade and how the climate movement should use recent history to power greater change. He is an award-winning journalist and correspondent, having covered Southeast Asia for the Washington Post. He also served as the Brazil correspondent for the Los Angeles Times and before that he worked for the Financial Times in London. He is the author The Jakarta Method and his most recent book If We Burn: The Mass Protest Decade and the Missing Revolution.

Read If We Burn: The Mass Protest Decade and the Missing Revolution

Other episodes referenced:

An Optimistic Case for a Sustainable Future (w/ Dr. Hannah Ritchie)

How Are Progressives Transforming US Climate Policy? (w/ Ryan Grim)

Brazil's Election, Deforestation, and Violence in the Amazon (w/ Terrence McCoy)

How The Pandemic Is Reshaping Our World (w/ Felix Salmon) 

As always, follow us @climatepod on Twitter and email us at theclimatepod@gmail.com. Our music is "Gotta Get Up" by The Passion Hifi, check out his music at thepassionhifi.com. Rate, review and subscribe to this podcast on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, and more! Subscribe to our YouTube channel! Join our Facebook group. 

As global temperatures continue to rise, fossil fuel production continues to increase, forests continue to be cut down, and species are becoming extinct at rates faster than previous mass extinctions, it's hard to find any hope for a sustainable, or even habitable, future. But giving up is not an option. There are billions of people now and in the near future whose lives depend on solving the multitude of human-caused environmental and health crises plaguing the planet today.  The good news is, even though things are not good right now, they've been much worse. And they're better today because we finally know how to power our lives, feed our families, and grow our economies without destroying our environment.

Dr. Hannah Ritchie, the Deputy Editor and Lead Researcher at Our World in Data, joins the show today to talk about her new book "Not the End of the World: How We Can Be the First Generation to Build a Sustainable Planet". Dr. Ritchie has studied the data and believes that for the first time in human history, there is no longer a tradeoff between human and environmental wellbeing. After researching the climate crisis, air pollution, deforestation, biodiversity loss, world hunger, and plastic pollution, Dr. Ritchie has come away with the understanding that things are bad now, but they're better than they were, and we have the real possibility of making them much better in the future.

Read "Not the End of the World"

As always, follow us @climatepod on Twitter and email us at theclimatepod@gmail.com. Our music is "Gotta Get Up" by The Passion Hifi, check out his music at thepassionhifi.com. Rate, review and subscribe to this podcast on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, and more! Subscribe to our YouTube channel! Join our Facebook group. 

I don't know if you've heard, but in 2024, there is a little ol' election happening in the US that may just decide the fate of American democracy. That's it! Nothing more! Actually...there is more. Down ballot from the presidential pick will be a number of critical candidates for a variety of elected offices around the country. And over the past decade, we've seen a number of progressive wins in these races. How have those victories impacted US climate policy? 

In his new book, The Squad: AOC and the Hope of a Political Revolution, Ryan Grim unpacks that question and much, much more. He joins the show to discuss how Bernie Sanders' 2016 campaign helped rejuvenate the progressive movement in recent years, how the Green New Deal changed climate policy around the world, what AOC and other progressives may be able to accomplish in Congress, and what threatens their goals.  Ryan is the DC bureau chief for The Intercept and host of the podcast Deconstructed. He writes the newsletter Politics With Ryan Grim and is the author of the three books. 

Read: The Squad: AOC and the Hope of a Political Revolution

Related:

David Roberts' "Some thoughts on the Inflation Reduction Act"

Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal On Congress' Big Year On Climate Action

As always, follow us @climatepod on Twitter and email us at theclimatepod@gmail.com. Our music is "Gotta Get Up" by The Passion Hifi, check out his music at thepassionhifi.com. Rate, review and subscribe to this podcast on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, and more! Subscribe to our YouTube channel! Join our Facebook group. 

It's been a long year and so much has happened in the fight for climate justice. How has it been covered in major US media outlets? What is needed as the global fight for climate action continues? Two expert guests join the show this week to weigh in on these critical topics as we close out the year. First, Evlondo Cooper, senior writer with the climate and energy program at Media Matters, discusses what he saw in media coverage in 2023, what we can learn about how climate and environmental justice issues are covered, and how media can improve in 2024. Then, Mitzi Jonelle Tan, a full-time climate justice activist based in Metro Manila, Philippines who is also the convenor and international spokesperson of Youth Advocates for Climate Action Philippines (YACAP), the Fridays For Future (FFF) of the Philippines, joins the show. We discuss some of the biggest issues we faced in 2023, where world leaders failed to act, and how to bring about more just outcomes next year. 

Read Evlondo Cooper's work at Media Matters

Learn more about Mitzi Jonelle Tan's work 

As always, follow us @climatepod on Twitter and email us at theclimatepod@gmail.com. Our music is "Gotta Get Up" by The Passion Hifi, check out his music at thepassionhifi.com. Rate, review and subscribe to this podcast on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, and more! Subscribe to our YouTube channel! Join our Facebook group. 

As the planet warms, ecosystems are on the move. Biologists and climate scientists have observed the migration of forests toward the poles and even toward higher elevations as human-caused climate change forces species into more hospitable areas. And economists have known for centuries that countries rely on their natural resources for the raw materials needed for producing the goods that help make up their gross domestic product. So what happens to an economy when those natural resources leave? That's exactly what Dr. Bernie Bastien-Olvera and his colleagues set out to understand with their recent paper "Unequal Climate Impacts on Global Values of Natural Capital". While many may take issue with the concept of valuing nature for its economic benefits to humans, such an analysis is important as international leaders work to find ways to compensate countries most impacted by the climate crisis via a Loss and Damage fund and regulations are created that attempt to assign the real cost of carbon dioxide emissions to those that continue to pollute the planet.  Dr. Bastien-Olvera joins the show this week to discuss the findings in this paper and its implications for such regulations.

Co-hosts Ty and Brock also discuss the new Netflix film "Leave the World Behind".

Read "Unequal Climate Impacts on Global Values of Natural Capital"

Follow Dr. Bastien-Olvera on Twitter

As always, follow us @climatepod on Twitter and email us at theclimatepod@gmail.com. Our music is "Gotta Get Up" by The Passion Hifi, check out his music at thepassionhifi.com. Rate, review and subscribe to this podcast on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, and more! Subscribe to our YouTube channel! Join our Facebook group. 

COP28 has come to a close. Since the final day of the conference, we've seen both a number of headlines noting a historic decision and news of climate injustices at this year's event. So what are the most critical takeaways from COP28? To answer, we brought on three guests that attended the conference to take a deep dive into the biggest issues, the decisions that were made, and what comes next.

Nina Lakhani is a Senior Reporter for Guardian US, who spent the last two weeks covering COP28. Nina discusses what the final text of the decision means, what was and wasn't accomplished on addressing mitigation, adaptation, and loss and damage, and what this could mean for the COP process going forward.

Then, Aderonke Ige and Rachel Rose Jackson join the show to discuss how the influence of the fossil fuel industry shaped COP28, what countries were most responsible for blocking progress, and why COP is still an essential event for activists, campaigners, organizers, and climate justice advocates to show up to and fight. Aderonke Ige is the Associate Director for Corporate Accountability & Public Participation Africa. Rachel Rose Jackson is the Director of Climate Research and Policy at Corporate Accountability.

As always, follow us @climatepod on Twitter and email us at theclimatepod@gmail.com. Our music is "Gotta Get Up" by The Passion Hifi, check out his music at thepassionhifi.com. Rate, review and subscribe to this podcast on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, and more! Subscribe to our YouTube channel! Join our Facebook group. 

Further Reading:

Indigenous people and climate justice groups say Cop28 was ‘business as usual’

Cop28 landmark deal agreed to ‘transition away’ from fossil fuels

For the last four years, John Marshall and the team at Potential Energy Coalition have been testing more than 3 billion ads in 20 countries to determine what messages are the most effective at inspiring climate action. In this conversation, we discuss what it really takes to motivate someone to support climate policies, which policies are more popular than others, what principles of climate communication everyone can learn, and why clean energy jobs aren't always appealing. 

John Marshall is the founder and CEO of Potential Energy Coalition, a global, nonprofit marketing firm that’s creating demand for climate solutions. The latest report is Later is Too Late - A comprehensive analysis of the messaging that accelerates climate action in the G20 and beyond.

As always, follow us @climatepod on Twitter and email us at theclimatepod@gmail.com. Our music is "Gotta Get Up" by The Passion Hifi, check out his music at thepassionhifi.com. Rate, review and subscribe to this podcast on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, and more! Subscribe to our YouTube channel! Join our Facebook group. 

Rural voters are often overlooked or completely ignored when it comes to progressive campaigns, including ones centered on climate action. And yet, it is the vast land available in rural areas that offer the greatest opportunity to build out clean energy projects in America. But years of misinformation, crumbling political infrastructure, and Republican, one-party control has lead to a major obstacle obstructing the path to a decarbonized economy. So how do we change that?

There may be no better expert to answer the question than Jane Kleeb. Kleeb is the Founder of Bold Alliance, author of Harvest the Vote, chair of the Nebraska Democratic Party, and most recently, a recipient of the 2023 Climate Breakthrough Award, which will be used to “build alliances among rural Americans and advocate clean energy development that is beneficial to local residents.” She joins the show this week to discuss how to ensure that rural residents share in the wealth of clean energy projects, why we need more than a just transition, and the values that more conservative, rural voters share with progressives.

 Check out more on the 2023 Climate Breakthrough Award and read Harvest the Vote 

As always, follow us @climatepod on Twitter and email us at theclimatepod@gmail.com. Our music is "Gotta Get Up" by The Passion Hifi, check out his music at thepassionhifi.com. Rate, review and subscribe to this podcast on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, and more! Subscribe to our YouTube channel! Join our Facebook group. 

This week, we have two great guests on the show to explain what's at stake at COP28 and some of the biggest issues surrounding the conference. First, New York Times correspondent David Gelles joins to discuss what he'll be covering at COP28, why the recent US-China deal heading into the conference might provided a much needed jolt, and what to watch for when it comes to climate finance and the fund for loss and damage. Then, researcher and campaigner Pascoe Sabido joins the show to discuss a new analysis of the presence of fossil fuel lobbyists at UN climate talks and what it has meant to action on climate. 

David Gelles is a correspondent on the Climate desk at The New York Times, covering the intersection of public policy and the private sector. Follow David's work at The New York Times here.

Pascoe Sabido is a researcher and campaigner at the Corporate Europe Observatory and a co-cordinator of the Kick Big Polluters Out coalition

Further Reading:

Fossil fuel lobbyists attend UN climate talks more than 7000 times

What a US-China climate deal means for COP28

Coming Soon: More oil, gas and coal

Since 2000, the United States Global Change Research Program has periodically published a report on its assessment of the climate crisis, its current impacts, its potential threats, and the solutions available to mitigate the worst impacts and adapt as quickly as possible.  Last week, the interagency program published the Fifth National Climate Assessment. Despite accounting for just 4% of the world’s population, as a result of burning fossil fuels for more than a century, the US is responsible for approximately 17% of the global warming the planet is facing today. And while US emissions are falling, they’re not falling fast enough to meet the 2050 Net Zero target established by the Biden Administration. The report explores the health, economic, environmental, and social impacts of the climate crisis that Americans are experiencing now and it clearly states that all of those will get worse if America and the world doesn’t start cutting greenhouse gas emissions immediately. 

Allison Crimmins, the Director of the Fifth National Climate Assessment, joins the show to discuss the report’s main findings, the extraordinary costs of the climate crisis that Americans are already facing, and the positive benefits that could be achieved today as soon as we start deploying sufficient mitigation and adaptation strategies.

Read the full report here: https://nca2023.globalchange.gov/

Check out the companion podcast to the Fifth National Climate Assessment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w7EIxjQNbD8&t=8s

As always, follow us @climatepod on Twitter and email us at theclimatepod@gmail.com. Our music is "Gotta Get Up" by The Passion Hifi, check out his music at thepassionhifi.com. Rate, review and subscribe to this podcast on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, and more! Subscribe to our YouTube channel! Join our Facebook group. 

Each year, scientists from around the world develop a comprehensive report on the state of the climate crisis. The report provides updates on dozens of the most important indicators of the progress humans are making to limit greenhouse gas emissions and the consequences of not doing so faster.  This year's report, "The 2023 State of the Climate Report: Entering Uncharted Territory" presents a frightening picture, as many of Earth's vital signs are flashing red and the trajectory of climate progress is pointing in the wrong direction.

Dr. Jillian Gregg, the Executive Director of Terrestrial Ecosystems Research Associates and a co-author of this year's report, joins the show to discuss the report's findings, what has surprised her and her colleagues most about what's happened in 2023, and the few indicators that are moving in the right direction. We also discuss the sense of urgency that can be felt in the words used by the scientists that wrote this report.

As always, follow us @climatepod on Twitter and email us at theclimatepod@gmail.com. Our music is "Gotta Get Up" by The Passion Hifi, check out his music at thepassionhifi.com. Rate, review and subscribe to this podcast on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, and more! Subscribe to our YouTube channel! Join our Facebook group. 

Wouldn't it be nice if we could just escape to space? Just go live on Mars and leave all our Earthly problem behind. Despite the enthusiasm for space settlement, a lot of very big questions need to be answered before we can consider leaving this planet behind. And a lot of these questions, according to authors Dr. Kelly Weinersmith and Zach Weinersmith, aren't really turning up good answers. The Weinersmiths are the best-selling husband and wife writing team that have a new book out, A CITY ON MARS: Can we settle space, should we settle space, and have we really thought this through? This week, Zach joins the show to discuss the book, why climate change won't be solved by living in space, the biggest problems with living on Mars, the Moon, or a gigantic space station, and what we should do next. 

Zach Weinersmith is an author and illustrator. He makes the webcomic Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal. His work has been featured in The Economist, The Wall Street Journal, Slate, Forbes, Science Friday, Foreign Policy, PBS, and elsewhere. He is one half of the wife-and-husband research team whose debut collaboration, the book titled Soonish was a New York Times bestseller. 

Read A CITY ON MARS: Can we settle space, should we settle space, and have we really thought this through?

As always, follow us @climatepod on Twitter and email us at theclimatepod@gmail.com. Our music is "Gotta Get Up" by The Passion Hifi, check out his music at thepassionhifi.com. Rate, review and subscribe to this podcast on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, and more! Subscribe to our YouTube channel! Join our Facebook group.