Episodes

  • How To Transition The World To A Sustainable Future

    How To Transition The World To A Sustainable Future
    Nov 1 2025
    CLIMATE HOUR – A sustainable future is certainly no guarantee at this point. There are simply too many systems broken. And that’s why it’s so important to envision a sustainable future. For without a vision we have no direction, and without direction we just wander around until it’s too late. We have to envision the future we want, then develop frameworks and treaties to get us there. There are many things we can do individually to assure that our lives are the best they can be in today’s less than sustainable world. But a better world takes coordinated action at a governmental level. Governmental groups like the E.U. and the United Nations are taking the lead in developing sustainable policies and frameworks like the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals, and the United Nations Environmental Program. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), and the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES). It is the scientists and staff of these and other groups that are our best hope for transitioning the world to a sustainable future. Join host, Bob Grove, and Dr Laura Pereira to discuss How To Transition The World To A Sustainable Future. Dr Pereira is a Professor in Sustainability Transformations and Futures with the Global Change Institute at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa, and a researcher at the Stockholm Resilience Centre at the Stockholm University in Sweden. Laura is trained in ecology, law, zoology, and human geography. She holds a Doctor of Philosophy in Geography and Environmental Science from the University of Oxford, and has worked as a Giorgio Ruffolo & Gundle Fellow in sustainability science with the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. Laura is an Earth Commissioner, a lead author of the Transformative Change Assessment Report by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), and a lead author on the United Nations Environmental Program’s (UNEP) seventh Global Environmental Outlook (GEO7) assessment report. To learn more, visit … https://futureecosystemsafrica.org/ https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0C6JPDD24 View other Climate Hour episodes at www.ClimateHour.net.
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    50 mins
  • Practical Ways To Make Your Own Homegrown National Park

    Practical Ways To Make Your Own Homegrown National Park
    Oct 1 2025
    CLIMATE HOUR – Nature is on everyone’s mind these days. Our news cycle is filled with the latest natural disasters, the latest political battles between preservation and resource extraction. We’re all understandably concerned about how weather is going to effect our homes, our jobs, and how much longer our food systems are going to survive. Humankind doesn’t have a great track record of working with, or being part of nature. Yet, each of us individually can have a positive impact. We can work with nature and create our own park-like preserves in our yards, and communally in our churches, schools and workplaces; create our own personal oases, often with less effort and expense than maintaining a suburban lawn. We can help restore the natural balance between plants and animals, and create our own homegrown national parks where we can live and work in balance with nature. Join host, Bob Grove, and Dr Doug Tallamy to discuss practical ways to make your own homegrown national park. Doug is a professor in the Department of Entomology and Wildlife Ecology at the University of Delaware. He advocates for home gardens and landscaping that bridge the gaps between parks and preserves by providing habitat for native species. Among his awards are the Garden Club of America Margaret Douglas Medal for Conservation, the Tom Dodd Jr. Award of Excellence, and the American Horticultural Society B.Y. Morrison Communication Award. He’s the author of Bringing Nature Home, Nature’s Best Hope, The Nature of Oaks, and his latest book, How Can I Help? Doug is the co-founder of the Homegrown National Parks movement. To learn more, visit … https://HomeGrownNationalPark.org https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0C6JPDD24 View other Climate Hour episodes at www.ClimateHour.net.
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    50 mins
  • Degrowth: The Path From Consumerism To Survival

    Degrowth: The Path From Consumerism To Survival
    Sep 1 2025
    CLIMATE HOUR – Sustainability is about finding life’s balance. Producing enough to satisfy your customers’ needs while earning enough to satisfy the needs of you and your co-workers. In contrast, perpetual economic growth is about a cycle of producing surplus, more than is needed, then using mass marketing to convince people to overconsume. Perpetual economic growth is based on consumerism. Convincing people to buy more than they need. More than is healthy. Fast fashion, fast food, commercial animal farming are all symptoms of the overconsumption required to maintain perpetual economic growth. Overconsumption that leads to poor health and a collapsing environment; to overshooting our planet’s resources and to climate change. The climate crisis is a product of consumerism. And while there are many ways we can profitably lower our personal carbon footprint to reduce global warming and slow the climate crisis, we will never stop climate change until we address our overconsumption; our unsustainable expectations of perpetual economic growth. We need to find life’s balance. To stop overshooting the planet’s resources. We need to degrow our economic expectations and halt consumerism. Join host, Bob Grove, and guests to discuss the Degrowth: The Path From Consumerism To Survival. Guests include: Christopher Marquis, Author and Sinyi Professor of Management, University of Cambridge Jason Barahona Rosales, Program Coordinator, Degrowth Institute William Rees, Author and Professor Emeritus, University of British Columbia Zoharia Drizin, Gen Z Advisory Board, Climate Mental Health Network To learn more, visit … https://chrismarquis.com/ https://www.degrowthinst.org https://apsc.ubc.ca/profile/william-rees https://climatementalhealth.net https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0C6JPDD24 View other Climate Hour episodes at www.ClimateHour.net.
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    50 mins
  • How Melting Ice Sheets Are Drowning The World

    How Melting Ice Sheets Are Drowning The World
    Aug 1 2025
    CLIMATE HOUR – Sea level rise may be climate change’s biggest long-term impact. With just today’s 1.2 degree Celsius increase in global temperature, we can expect sea level rise of at least 1-2 meters (3.3-6.6 feet). And that’s our best case scenario. If countries continue to ignore the Paris Climate Accord and temperatures rise 2.5 degrees Celsius, we can expect the collapse of the Greenland and West Antarctic ice sheets. And that will raise sea level 10-12 meters (40 feet). We’re seeing the affects now. Many of the major roads in the Florida Keys will be underwater this year. Cities like Miami, New Orleans, Bangkok, Amsterdam, Ho Chi Minh City, and Kolkata India, are going to be submerged by 2030. The countries most exposed to rising sea levels are the United States, followed by China, India, Japan, the Netherlands, Thailand, Vietnam, and Bangladesh. In our best case scenario, we can expect a trillion dollars a year in global flood damage. And a quarter-billion people looking for new homes. If we continue to ignore the Paris Climate Accord and warm the planet 2.5 degrees Celsius, we’ll displace over a billion people. That’s 13% of the world’s urban population looking for new homes, food and jobs. The worst case scenario is that we throw caution to the wind. That we revert to full dependence on fossil fuels and melt ALL the world’s ice. That will raise sea levels 60-70 meters (200-233 feet). But at the point, sea level may be the least of our problems. Join host, Bob Grove, and guests to discuss How Melting Ice Sheets Are Drowning The World. Guests include: Richard Alley, Evan Pugh University Professor of Geosciences, Penn State Paul Bierman, Professor of Environmental Science, University of Vermont Andrea Dutton, Helen Jupnik Endowed Research Professor, University of Wisconsin–Madison To learn more, visit … https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Alley https://www.PaulBierman.net https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrea_Dutton https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0C6JPDD24 View other Climate Hour episodes at www.ClimateHour.net.
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    50 mins
  • Reasons For Climate Denialism: How To Speak The Truth

    Reasons For Climate Denialism: How To Speak The Truth
    Jul 1 2025
    CLIMATE HOUR – Climate issues are clearly on everyone’s minds. The constant weather disasters, disruption of our food systems, sea level threats to coastal communities. Yet in the face of what we see every time we open our front doors, climate denialism continues to flourish. People continue to deny that the climate is changing or that our lifestyle choices are contributing to that change. And there’s plenty of disinformation to help the deniers. Scientists in the oil & gas industry were accurately predicting today’s global warming issues as far back as the 1950s. And the petroleum industry spent millions of dollars to deny their own climate research and to reposition global warming as a theory, not a science-based fact. In 2022, they spent over a quarter billion dollars on U.S. media, lobbying and political campaigns to deny accepted climate science. That’s a lot of money paying for a lot of climate disinformation. So, how do we talk about climate issues with friends and family who are constantly exposed to this disinformation? How do we understand and constructively speak truth to climate deniers? Join host, Bob Grove, and guests to discuss the Reasons For Climate Denialism: How To Speak The Truth. Guests include: Dr. Barb Easterlin, President of Climate Psychology Alliance of North America Jack M. Gorman MD, President and Co-Founder of Critica Nicole Mortillaro, Senior Science Reporter, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation Gale Sinatra, Author and Professor of Education and Psychology, University of Southern California Rossier School of Education To learn more, visit … https://www.climatepsychology.us https://www.criticascience.org https://www.cbc.ca/news https://www.sciencedenialbook.com https://www.sciencedenialbook.com https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0C6JPDD24 View other Climate Hour episodes at www.ClimateHour.net.
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    50 mins
  • Volcanoes and Rocks: This Is The Ultimate Hard Climate Science

    Volcanoes and Rocks: This Is The Ultimate Hard Climate Science
    Jun 1 2025
    CLIMATE HOUR – The study of volcanoes and rocks help scientists chart our planet’s history of warming and cooling. These studies provide quantifiable data that is accurate, objective, and results in a high degree of consensus among scientific communities. Consensus among geologists who study our planet’s rocks and the minerals and processes that shape and form them. Consensus among geomorphologists who study our planet's surface, why landscapes look the way they do, and how they evolved. And consensus among volcanologists who study the lava and magma beneath our planet’s surface. Together, these hard sciences provide solid data that leads to testable climate science predictions. But, perhaps more importantly, the study of volcanoes and rocks give us a baseline for comparison to today’s accelerated period of climate change. And current rates of volcanic and geomorphic change may help our scientists predict and prepare us for the climate change coming down the road. Join host, Bob Grove, and guests to discuss the study of Volcanoes and Rocks, climate’s ultimate hard science. Guests include: Paul Bierman, Professor of Environmental Science, University of Vermont Richard Hazlett, Professor Emeritus, Geology and Environmental Analysis, Pomona College, California To learn more, visit … https://www.PaulBierman.net/books https://www.amazon.com/Roadside-Geology-Hawaii/dp/0878427112 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0C6JPDD24 View other Climate Hour episodes at www.ClimateHour.net.
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    50 mins
  • How Electric Vehicles Make Practical Sense Under Multiple Scenarios

    How Electric Vehicles Make Practical Sense Under Multiple Scenarios
    May 1 2025
    CLIMATE HOUR – Today’s electric vehicles out-perform gas vehicles on every front. A study at Michigan's Transportation Research Institute found that the average cost to operate an EV in the U.S. was $485 per year, compared to an average cost of $1,117 to operate a gas vehicle. That’s a 56% savings in EV operating costs. A U.S. Department of Energy study found that scheduled maintenance on an average EV costs 6.1 cents per mile compared to a cost of 10.1 cents per mile for an average gas vehicle. That’s a 40% savings in EV maintenance. And our friends at the Union of Concerned Scientists report that, over the lifetime of your car, the average emissions of an EV is 28 metric tons compared to a gas vehicle’s 57 metric tons. That’s a 51% reduction in EV greenhouse gas emissions. Electric Vehicles now cost the same as equivalent gas-powered cars, and a single charge will take you the same distance as a single tank of gas. Electric vehicles are cost-effective, healthy, and great for the planet. There’s no reason not to own one today. Join host, Bob Grove, and guests to discuss how electric vehicles make practical sense under multiple scenarios. Guests include: Chris Yunker, Managing Director of Resilience, Clean Transportation and Analytics at the Hawaii State Energy Office David Reichmuth, Senior Scientist in the Clean Transportation Program at the Union of Concerned Scientists Jamie Green, Managing Consultant at Plug-in KC Kathy Harris, Director of Clean Vehicles at the Natural Resources Defense Council To learn more, visit … https://energy.hawaii.gov/ https://www.ucsusa.org https://www.pluginkc.org https://www.ndrc.org https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0C6JPDD24 View other Climate Hour episodes at www.ClimateHour.net.
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    50 mins
  • How To Make Trees Fight Climate Change

    How To Make Trees Fight Climate Change
    Apr 1 2025
    CLIMATE HOUR – You can make trees. You can plant them, watch them grow, and they will automatically fight climate change for you. Trees are made out of cellulose and cellulose is carbon. There are literally six atoms of carbon in every molecule of cellulose. And all of the carbon going into trees come out of the air. So make a tree, and that tree will fight climate change for you. Trees look good. They smell wonderful and they produce fruit and nuts. Planting trees is certainly easier than mowing grass. And the more trees you have around your house, the cooler and cleaner your air will be. So plant a tree. Or plant a forest. Teams in India and other places around the world are growing home pocket forests with as many as 300 trees in an area the size of six parking spaces. That’s 300 trees growing in around 900 square feet. That’s a full on ecosystem in your backyard. You can plant a forest. Join host, Bob Grove, and guests to discuss How To Make Trees Fight Climate Change. Guests include: Meg Loman, Author and Executive Director of the Tree Foundation Ryan Watson, National Orchard Operations & Education Manager for the Giving Grove To learn more, visit … https://www.treefoundation.org https://www.givinggrove.org https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0C6JPDD24 View other Climate Hour episodes at www.ClimateHour.net.
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    50 mins