Episodes

In this Climate Chat episode, Climate Chat host Dan Miller discusses the UN COP30 (Conference of the Parties) in Belém, Brazil that recently concluded, and the current state of global plan for climate action. Please Like and Subscribe! Dan Miller has been giving talks around the world on the need for urgent climate action for over 20 years. He is co-founder of The Roda Group, a climate-tech venture capital group, and he serves as an advisor for other climate funds and climate-focused non-profit ...

In this Climate Chat episode, Climate Chat hosts Dan Miller and Leon Simons discuss climate facts that everyone should (but don't) know regarding the amount of warming we can expect, the availability of solutions, and the opportunity to avoid the worst outcomes (that we are currently headed for). Please Like and Subscribe! Dan Miller has been giving talks around the world on the need for urgent climate action for over 20 years. He is co-founder of The Roda Group, a climate-tech venture capital g...

In this Climate Chat episode, we interview glaciologist and climate scientist Eric Rignot about the Thwaites glacier in Antarctica (a.k.a., the Doomsday Glacier), the broader West Antarctic Ice Shelf (WAIS), Greenland, and their impact on sea level rise. Professor Rignot is a world-renowned glaciologist who studies the effects of global climate change on polar ice sheets. He uses satellites, airborne sensors, field data and numerical models to understand the dynamics of glacier ice along the coa...

In this Climate Chat episode, we interview Jigar Shah about his experience running the Department of Energy's Loan Program Office during the Biden administration. Jigar Shah is a solar pioneer and clean energy entrepreneur with over 25 years of experience. He's known for founding SunEdison in 2003, which pioneered “no money down” solar and became the world's largest solar services company. He co-founded Generate Capital in 2014, an investment platform that finances sustainable infrastructure acr...

In this Climate Chat episode, we interview author and professor Wim Carton about his new book, co-authored with Andreas Malm, titled: "The Long Heat: Climate Politics When It's Too Late." The book focuses on climate adaption, negative emissions, and solar geoengineering and critiques them for being used as excuses to avoid rapid emissions reduction. Wim Carton is Associate Professor of Sustainability Science at Lund University, Sweden. He's the author of over 20 academic articles and book chapte...

In this Climate Chat episode, we interview author and professor Wim Carton about his new book, co-authored with Andreas Malm, titled: "The Long Heat: Climate Politics When It's Too Late." The book focuses on climate adaption, negative emissions, and solar geoengineering and critiques them for being used as excuses to avoid rapid emissions reduction. Wim Carton is Associate Professor of Sustainability Science at Lund University, Sweden. He's the author of over 20 academic articles and book chapte...

In this Climate Chat episode, we interview climate scientist Andrew Dessler on his recent paper that debunks the "climate denial" report that was issued by the U.S. Department of Energy. Andrew Dessler is a climate scientist who studies both the science and politics of climate change. He is a Professor of Atmospheric Sciences and director of Texas A&M’s Texas Center for Climate Studies. His scientific research revolves around climate feedbacks, in particular how water vapor and clouds act to amp...

In preparation for COP30, Leon gave this keynote presentation at the global online conference, "The Global Heating Emergency, Preventing 2°C by 2040: What’s the Plan?", which took place October 15-16. In this presentation Leon talks about the increased rate of global heating and how accelerated warming will lead to rapidly crossing risk levels that the world agreed to avoid in Paris 10 years ago. Other recordings of the will be available next week. For more, see: https://www.preventing2degrees.o...

In this Climate Chat episode, hosts Dan Miller and Leon Simons recent research on the asymmetry between warming in the Northern Hemisphere and South Hemisphere. PNAS paper: Emerging hemispheric asymmetry of Earth’s radiation: https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2511595122 And in Science: Observed trend in Earth energy imbalance may provide a constraint for low climate sensitivity models: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adt0647 Links to Leon's upcoming presentations: https://www.pre...

In this Climate Chat episode, We interview author Michael Grunwald about his new book, "We Are Eating the Earth": Humanity has cleared a land mass the size of Asia plus Europe to grow food, and our food system generates a third of our carbon emissions. By 2050, we’re going to need a lot more calories to fill nearly 10 billion bellies, but we can’t feed the world without frying it if we keep tearing down an acre of rainforest every six seconds. We are eating the earth, and the greatest challenge ...

In this Climate Chat episode, Climate Chat hosts Dan Miller and Leon Simons discuss recent report from the German Meteorological Society and Physical Society that says that a warming of +3ºC (+5.4ºF) is possible by 2050. This is significantly more the IPCC and many other climate scientists say. As we will discuss, when it comes to existential threats, we must assume the worse and hope for the best. Report from the German Meteorological Society and Physical Society (in German, even though "Englis...

Dan Miller and Leon Simons talk about New York Times Opinion article on Sunlight Reflection Methods (SRM) by Zeke Hausfath and David Keith. Humanity will be forced to make a balanced assessment of the risks of (intentionally) cooling vs not cooling the planet. More than what we do now. See yesterday's Climate Chat, where we talk about the aerosol termination shock of the sulphur air pollution that has already been mitigated over the past two decades. Notably from cleaning up shipping and coal-fi...

In this Climate Chat episode, Climate Chat hosts Dan Miller and Leon Simons discuss recent temperature readings from the North Pacific Ocean and other areas. Please Like and Subscribe! Dan Miller has been giving talks around the world on the need for urgent climate action for over 20 years. He is co-founder of The Roda Group, a climate-tech venture capital group, and he serves as an advisor for other climate funds and climate-focused non-profit groups. He started Climate Chat in 2021 on Clubhous...

In this Climate Chat episode, we interview Svante co-founder and SVP, Brett Henkel, on Svante's carbon capture system and how it can it can produce negative carbon emissions when used to capture CO2 from pulp and paper mills. We will also discuss other applications for carbon capture including cement and steel plants, as well as direct air capture (DAC). As co-founder of Svante, Brett was instrumental in creating the process and the hardware used to prove the technology’s effectiveness as well a...

In this Climate Chat episode, we interview SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) Institute President & CEO Bill Diamond about what the search for extraterrestrial intelligence tells us about human-caused climate change on our home planet. Bill Diamond is a Silicon Valley technology veteran and current President and CEO of the SETI Institute in Mountain View, California. The SETI Institute is a nonprofit astrophysics and astrobiology research and education organization focused on the st...

In this Climate Chat episode, we interview author and activist Bill McKibben about his new book, "Here Comes the Sun." Bill McKibben is the founder of Third Act, which organizes people over the age of 60 for action on climate and justice, and of 350.org, the first global grassroots climate campaign. He’s written more than a dozen books, including The End of Nature, Deep Economy, and Falter, and has been a contributor to The New Yorker, The New York Review of Books, and Rolling Stone. He lives in...

In this Climate Chat episode, hosts Dan Miller and Leon Simons discuss climate scientist James Hansen's recent communications about the "Venus Syndrome" and runaway climate. Link to Hansen's recent communications: "Sophie's Planet: Chapter 10. The Venus Syndrome & Runaway Climate": https://www.columbia.edu/~jeh1/mailings/2025/VenusSyndrome.2025.08.27.pdf Link to our recent interview with James Hansen: "What Everyone Must Know About Climate Sensitivity with James Hansen": https://youtube.com/live...

In this Climate Chat episode, host Dan Miller goes step-by-step through a comment left on the Climate Chat interview with James Hansen that lays out 30 so-called "facts" about climate change that are, in reality, wrong, misleading, or irrelevant (or a combination of those three). The purpose of the exercise is to expose climate denier myths and discuss how climate disinformation is used to slow progress on climate action. Link to the interview with James Hansen: https://youtube.com/live/w5jShXBD...

In this Climate Chat episode, renowned climate scientist James Hansen returns to Climate Chat to discuss Climate Sensitivity. Climate sensitivity relates to how much the Earth will warm in response "forcings" such as human-caused greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Such warming includes the direct warming in response to the forcing plus warming due to feedbacks to the direct warming. The total short-term "equilibrium" warming will play out over 100~1000 years. James Hansen and his co-authors (includ...

In this Climate Chat episode, Climate Chat hosts Dan Miller and Leon Simons discuss climate change related quotes and memes. Leave your favorite climate quotes and memes in the comments. Please Like and Subscribe! Dan Miller has been giving talks around the world on the need for urgent climate action for over 20 years. He is co-founder of The Roda Group, a climate-tech venture capital group, and he serves as an advisor for other climate funds and climate-focused non-profit groups. He started Cli...

In this Climate Chat episode, Climate Chat host Dan Miller answers climate-related questions posted on YouTube, Twitter/X, and Bluesky. If you would like to view an interview and missed Thursday's discussion with former US Energy Secretary Steven Chu, follow this link: https://youtube.com/live/16hxH2dTB7o Please Like and Subscribe! Dan Miller has been giving talks around the world on the need for urgent climate action for over 20 years. He is co-founder of The Roda Group, a climate-tech venture ...

In this Climate Chat episode, we interview former U.S. Secretary of Energy and Nobel Laureate Steven Chu about the state and future of climate change, why political leaders have not addressed climate change seriously, and what can be done to increase action. Steven Chu is the William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of Physics, of Molecular and Cellular Physiology, and of Energy Science and Engineering at Stanford University. He received an A.B. degree in mathematics and a B.S. degree in physics from the...

In this Climate Chat episode, Leon Simons interviews University of Exeter climate scientist Peter Cox about the acceleration of global warming, climate tipping points, and other climate-related subjects. Professor Peter Cox is Professor of Climate System Dynamics in Mathematics and the Director of the Global Systems Institute at the University of Exeter. He has previously worked at the Met Office-Hadley Centre (1990-2004) and the UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology (2004-2006). He is an internat...

In this Climate Chat episode, we interview climate scientist Ben Santer about his lifelong work studying the human fingerprint on climate change. Ben Santer was a climate researcher at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and former researcher at the University of East Anglia's Climatic Research Unit. He retired from the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in 2021 and is now a Distinguished Scholar in Residence at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. He also worked at the Max Planck Instit...