Episodes

In this Climate Chat episode, we discuss greenhouse gas forcing, ocean temperature records, and Earth Energy Imbalance (EEI), and other subjects with Eliot Jacobson an Leon Simons. While Eliot is known as a "climate doomer," he also compiles and presents climate information is useful forms for everyone to use, view, and understand. Prof. Eliot Jacobson received his Ph.D. in mathematics from the University of Arizona in 1983. He was a professor of mathematics at Ohio University from 1983 to 1998,...

In this Climate Chat episode, we interview author Genevieve Guenther about her recent book "The Language of Climate Politics." In the book, she points out how certain words and framings promoted by the fossil fuel industry make their way into our everyday discourse and are used even by climate action advocates. Dr. Genevieve Guenther is the founding director of End Climate Silence and affiliate faculty at The New School, where she sits on the board of the Tishman Environment and Design Center. D...

In this Climate Chat episode, we interview Ken Berlin, former President & CEO of Al Gore's Climate Reality Project and Senior Fellow of the Atlantic Council, a think tank focused on climate and energy. We will discuss how the Climate Reality Project engages people on climate and we will also discuss Ken's work on cost competitive climate solutions at the Atlantic Council. Ken Berlin is a senior fellow and the director of the Financing and Achieving Cost Competitive Climate Solutions Project at t...

In this Climate Chat episode, we interview climate scientist David Keith, Professor of Geophysical Science at the University of Chicago where he leads the Climate Systems Engineering program. David previously ran a similar program at Harvard. Dr. Keith founded Carbon Engineering, a company that captures CO2 from the atmosphere. We will discuss the feasibility, safety, scalability, and political ramifications of climate interventions such as carbon capture and Sunlight Reflection Methods (SRM), a...

In this Climate Chat episode, we interview Adam McKay, a screenwriter, producer, and director known for "Don't Look Up", "The Big Short", "Vice", "Anchorman", and "Succession", among many, many other films and TV shows. Adam was head writer for Saturday Night Live from 1995 to 2001. In 2023, Adam founded Yellow Dot Studios, a non-profit production company that makes short-form videos that raise awareness and mobilize action on the climate emergency. We will discuss the role of humor in engaging ...

In this Climate Chat episode, we interview Stanford professor Mark Z. Jacobson about his research that shows we can rapidly transition to 100% renewable energy. This is a controversial position, yet with renewable energy costs dropping rapidly, many parts of the world already generate 100% of their electricity in certain parts of the day from renewables. We will discuss the state of renewables today, the path to 100% renewables, and we will discuss some the issues that naysayers say will prevent...

In this second Climate Chat interview with George Marshall, we discuss George's previous book, "DON’T EVEN THINK ABOUT IT: Why Our Brains Are Wired to Ignore Climate Change" which dealt with how our brains are not very good with dealing with future, long-term problems that don't trigger our threat response. We will also discuss George's upcoming book where he explores how we (as individuals, governments, and societies) will respond as climate catastrophe intensifies. This is a critical but pract...

In this Climate Chat discussion, we discuss climate scientist James Hansen's and Leon Simons's recent white paper titled "The World Will Cool Off – A Bit – and Other Good News!” and we will also talk about the US Supreme Court's recent "Chevron Doctrine" decision, as well as other climate-related news. Link to Hansen's white paper: https://mailchi.mp/caa/the-world-will-cool-off-a-bit-and-other-good-news My Twitter/X summary of Hansen's white paper: https://x.com/danmiller999/status/1806413729711...

In this Climate Chat discussion, we discuss what systems thinking is and why it is important for understanding and addressing climate change. Related Climate Chat programs: 20-Point Global Policy Plan to Address Climate Change https://youtube.com/live/p2496OB1EmI Barriers to Climate Action https://youtube.com/live/olcYG0LwJlw Climate Change: Choosing to Fail, with Climate Scientist Kevin Anderson https://youtu.be/tVFSJINGueM James Hansen's Update On Global Warming Acceleration with Guest Leon Si...

In this Climate Chat discussion, we discuss the recent controversy, partially caused by our interview last week with climate scientist Michael Mann, over whether we are at or close to 1.5ºC global average temperature anomaly "trend". While Dr. Mann and others say we are at a trend of about 1.3ºC now, others, including climate scientist James Hansen say we may at 1.5ºC now "for all practical purposes". We will discuss recent temperature measurements and the difference between a yearly reading lik...

In this Climate Chat discussion, Michael Mann joins us to discuss the latest climate science as well as his recent books, Our Fragile Moment and The New Climate Wars. Dr. Michael E. Mann is Presidential Distinguished Professor in the Department of Earth and Environmental Science at the University of Pennsylvania, with a secondary appointment in the Annenberg School for Communication. He is director of the Penn Center for Science, Sustainability, and the Media (PCSSM). Dr. Mann received his under...

In this Climate Chat discussion, host Dan Miller will discuss why we continue to choose to fail to act on climate. In last week's episode, Dan discussed his 20-point global climate action plan. While the policies presented are obviously needed, we continue to muddle along without taking serious action even though we know it is needed. Why is that? After Dan put together his policy plan several years ago, he wondered why we fail to act on climate and so he made another list -- which is significan...

In this Climate Chat discussion, host Dan Miller will present a talk he recently gave at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies (MIIS) in Monterey on his proposed 20-point climate action plan. The plan lays out the major policies that governments around the world should implement once they decide to choose to succeed on climate action. You can see a list of the 20-point plan here: https://x.com/danmiller999/status/1657974866115457024 You can view Dan's TEDx talk on climate change and ...

In this Climate Chat episode, we interview climate scientist Kevin Anderson for a 2nd time. Out first, audio-only, interview in May 2021 was one of the most listened to Climate Chat programs. Kevin tells it like it is and does not sugarcoat the situation. We will discuss carbon budgets and global temperatures, the desirability of carbon dioxide removal (CDR) and Sunlight Reflection Methods (SRM), and get Kevin's view on James Hansen's recent "Pipeline" paper. We will also discuss why society has...

In this Climate Chat episode we discuss the rapid acceleration of global warming with climate scientist Leon Simons. The Berkeley Earth dataset shows the average global surface temperature in 2023 was +1.54ºC above the pre-industrial average. This is far above previous years and while there was an El Niño starting in 2023, it cannot explain the full jump in global temperature. Leon Simons is a climate scientist based in the Netherlands. He was a co-author with James Hansen on last year's "Global...

In this Climate Chat episode we discuss the types of protest and collective action that might be effective in engaging individuals and society to take climate action seriously. Our guest is Dr. Johanna Vollhardt, Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology at Clark University. Dr. Vollhardt’s research focuses on the psychological impact of collective victimization, focusing on questions such as: how do people make sense of oppression and violence against their group? How do different bel...

In this special Climate Chat "Lightning Round" episode we discuss when the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) ocean current -- a major climate tipping point -- will shutdown. While the IPCC says the AMOC is unlikely to shutdown this century, a recent paper co-authored by Peter Ditlevsen says we could see the AMOC shutdown around mid-century... and possibly as soon as 2025! Here is the link to the long interview with Peter: https://youtu.be/OYmCWkBwGpg Note: This Lightning Round i...

In this Climate Chat episode we discuss whether the world will start to take climate action seriously in 2024. Guardian article on "World will look back at 2023 as year humanity exposed its inability to tackle climate crisis, scientists say": https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/dec/29/world-will-look-back-at-2023-as-year-humanity-exposed-its-inability-to-tackle-climate-crisis?CMP=share_btn_tw For more Climate Chat episodes, see our YouTube home page: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3B...

In this Climate Chat episode we discuss last week's interview with climate scientist Dr. James Hansen and discuss your climate questions and comments. Link to Climate Chat interview with James Hansen: https://youtube.com/live/8Ag3UVSrlhE Dr. Hansen's recent "Global Warming In the Pipeline" paper: https://academic.oup.com/oocc/article/3/1/kgad008/7335889 Dr. Hansen's 2016 paper: "Ice melt, sea level rise and superstorms: evidence from paleoclimate data, climate modeling, and modern observations t...

In this Climate Chat episode I interview legendary climate scientist James Hansen. Dr. Hansen's recent "Global Warming In the Pipeline" paper: https://academic.oup.com/oocc/article/3/1/kgad008/7335889 Dr. Hansen's 2016 paper: "Ice melt, sea level rise and superstorms: evidence from paleoclimate data, climate modeling, and modern observations that 2 °C global warming could be dangerous" https://acp.copernicus.org/articles/16/3761/2016/ Dr. Hansen's home page: http://www.columbia.edu/~jeh1/ Dr. Ha...

In this Climate Chat episode we discuss the current COP28 meeting in the UAE and whether the conference is considering the latest climate science and whether special interests have too much influence in the proceedings. For more Climate Chat episodes, see our YouTube home page: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3BXcpYFCzTndJ9Fisi32qg

In this Climate Chat episode we discuss the August 2022 paper "Climate Endgame: Exploring catastrophic climate change scenarios" by Luke Kemp, Chi Xu, Joanna Depledge , and Timothy M. Lenton: https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2108146119 The paper explores how the IPCC does not include proper risk assessment of catastrophic climate change scenarios and what proper risk assessment may reveal. For more Climate Chat episodes, see our YouTube home page: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3BXcpYFCz...

In this Climate Chat episode we discuss the reasons that the world is not reducing emissions even though we are aware of the dangers of inaction and we understand the solutions we must implement. Much of the discussion revolves around climate scientist Kevin Anderson's response to a Guardian article, "Who are the polluter elite and how can we tackle carbon inequality?" https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/nov/22/who-are-polluter-elite-how-can-we-tackle-carbon-inequality?CMP=share_btn_tw ...

Climate Chat host Dan Miller interviews climate communications host Joe Romm about his recent white paper, "Why direct air carbon capture and storage (DACCS) is not scalable and ‘net zero’ is a dangerous myth" Here is a link to the paper: https://bpb-us-w2.wpmucdn.com/web.sas.upenn.edu/dist/0/896/files/2023/11/DACCS5.0-11-8-23_RommJ.pdf Some of Joe's other recent writings can be accessed here: https://web.sas.upenn.edu/pcssm/publications/ Joe's home page is here: https://joeromm.wordpress.com Se...