Energy vs Climate
Energy vs Climate is a live, interactive webinar and podcast where energy experts David Keith, Sara Hastings-Simon and Ed Whittingham break down the trade-offs and hard truths of the energy transition in Alberta, Canada, and beyond. ___www.energyvsclimate.comTwitter/X | Facebook | Instagram | Threads | Bluesky | YouTube | LinkedIn
Power Hungry: Can Our Grids Evolve Fast Enough for AI's Appetite? | with Amy Myers Jaffe
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Energy expert Amy Myers Jaffe returns to EvC to chat with Ed about Energy and Artificial Intelligence.
Nearly every aspect of the economy seems to be impacted by the stunningly rapid development of AI. Energy is no exception. Ed and Amy have a wide-ranging discussion that covers a lot of ground and touches on several hot topics, including:
How AI is transforming the production, distribution, and consumption of energy; The energy needs of data centers; Whether or not AI is an asset or liability for the clean energy econ...BONUS EPISODE-Carbon Removal Day Panel: Lucy Hargreaves, Daniel Kelter, Jorden Dye
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There’s something in Carbon Removal for everyone — are we building enduring relationships to advance the sector?
A bonus EvC episode - on February 27, 2025, EvC co-host Ed Whittingham hosted a panel discussion at Carbon Removal Canada's Carbon Removal Day in Ottawa. They cover a number of topics including the changing political headwinds in the US, efforts to bolster investment in Canada, and silicon valley's interest in CDR. Plus, they take a few audience questions.
Detailed show notes on episode page.
The Rise of Conspiratorial Environmentalism with Dr. Holly Jean Buck
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David & Ed chat with Dr. Holly Buck about Conspiratorial-Environmentalism’s connection to climate & geoengineering; the anti-vax movement; and what it tells us about mainstream environmentalism & climate politics.
(03:08) Skip Intro
(09:12) David's personal experience with Conspiratorial-Environmentalism
(27:15) Social Media and monetization
(38:58) What do we do when environmentalists turn to conspiracies?
(46:33) Audience Questions
Detailed show notes available on episode page
About Our Guest:
Holly Jean Buck is an Associate Professor of Environment and Sustainability at the University at Buffalo. She is...
Scrubbing the Sky - Episode 4 - Skeptics vs Believers: Is Direct Air Capture Hope or Hype?
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Host Ed Whittingham closes out Season 1 by examining the case against Direct Air Capture by one its harshest critics, Al Gore, followed by the counterarguments of supporters. Will DAC live up to its hype and potential to help cool a warming planet?
Guests include:
Greg Nemet, professor at the University of WisconsinKlaus Lackner, professor at Arizona State UniversityDavid Keith, professor at the University of Chicago and a DAC pioneer who founded the company Carbon EngineeringSara Hastings-Simon, professor at the University of CalgaryChristian Theuer, Po...Scrubbing the Sky - Episode 3 - The Carbon Gold Rush: Tech's Next Frontier
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Host Ed Whittingham delves into the early days of another pioneering Direct Air Capture (DAC) company, Switzerland’s Climeworks, and its innovative modular approach to deploying its technology. Ed also looks into the developing synergy between the tech sector and carbon removal.
Guests include:
Jan Wurzbacher, co-founder of ClimeworksLucy Hargreaves, Corporate Affairs and Climate Policy at PatchJim McDermott, co-founder and the managing partner of Rusheen Capital Management, LLCDavid Keith, professor at the University of Chicago and a DAC pioneer who founded the company Carb...Scrubbing the Sky - Episode 2: Bill Gates & Building a Climate ‘Miracle’
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Host Ed Whittingham continues the story behind the development of Direct Air Capture (DAC) technology and its potential role in helping to fight climate change. Ed explores the early days of Canadian cleantech company Carbon Engineering, and how it drew the attention of both Bill Gates and Occidental Petroleum.
Guests include:
Ken Caldeira, senior scientist at Breakthrough EnergyDavid Keith, professor at the University of Chicago and a DAC pioneer who founded the company Carbon EngineeringSubscribe on Apple Podcasts, Sp...
The USA vs Climate - Trump's New Climate & Energy Policy with Dr. Jesse Jenkins
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Jesse Jenkins, David Keith, and Ed Whittingham break down the key policy reversals, their impact on U.S. emissions, and the broader geopolitical and economic consequences—for Canada and beyond. Plus, audience questions!
Full Show notes with links to references on our website
About Our Guest:
Jesse D. Jenkins is an assistant professor and macro-scale energy systems engineer at Princeton University with a joint appointment in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering and the Andlinger Center for En...
SNEAK PREVIEW Scrubbing the Sky - Episode 1 - Carbon Removal: Engineering Earth's Cooling
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EvC co-host Ed Whittingham's new series on Carbon Dioxide Removal
Host Ed Whittingham dives into the world of Direct Air Capture (DAC), a technology that extracts carbon dioxide directly from the ambient air. Ed explores the early history of carbon dioxide removal, why it could be useful in fighting climate change, and challenges the technology has faced along the way.
Guests include:
Klaus Lackner, professor at Arizona State University and often referred to as the “Grandfather of DAC”David Keith, professor at the...Trailer - Scrubbing the Sky: Inside the Race to Cool the Planet
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The race to remove carbon is on. This is the inside story.
🌎 Scrubbing the Sky: Inside the Race to Cool the Planet drops early March 🌎
This narrative podcast series takes listeners through one of the most ambitious climate efforts ever attempted: removing carbon from the atmosphere.
Join EvC's co-host Ed Whittingham as he uncovers the story behind carbon removal —the companies racing to scale it, the challenges they face, and what it means for our future.
📲Subscribe on Apple: https://bit...
Green Giving: Climate Philanthropy
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Ed chats with four movers & shakers in Canadian climate philanthropy.
On Nov. 13, 2024, nine prominent Canadian family foundations, including EvC's David Keith’s, announced a combined pledge of $405 million, all dedicated to accelerating Canada’s shift to a low-carbon economy. They touch on:
Why this financial commitment occurred and why now The challenges facing climate advocacy today and in the near futureWhat needs to succeed in the next 3-5 years How philanthropy should respond when governments start to roll back key pieces of climate and environmental legislation - just...Ask EvC Anything - 2024
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Join David & Ed for a special end-of-2024 Ask-Us-Anything episode dedicated to your questions.
Thanks to everyone who sent in your questions - we couldn't do it without you!
Also, thanks to the Pembina Institute for help with an answer at 22:00 (reference link - Meeting the emissions cap-A feasible pathway for the oil and gas).
More show notes on our website.
About Your EvC Co-Hosts:
David Keith is Professor and Founding Faculty Director, Climate Systems Engineering I...
New York Times Columnist David Wallace-Wells: In Conversation on EvC
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𝘿𝙖𝙫𝙞𝙙 & 𝙀𝙙 𝙘𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙬𝙞𝙩𝙝 𝙗𝙚𝙨𝙩-𝙨𝙚𝙡𝙡𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙨𝙘𝙞𝙚𝙣𝙘𝙚 𝙬𝙧𝙞𝙩𝙚𝙧 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙚𝙨𝙨𝙖𝙮𝙞𝙨𝙩 𝘿𝙖𝙫𝙞𝙙 𝙒𝙖𝙡𝙡𝙖𝙘𝙚-𝙒𝙚𝙡𝙡𝙨. It's a wide-ranging discussion covering everything from the potential fallout of the US election, shifting global interests and priorities, climate activism, China's role in climate and green energy technology, and as usual - listener questions for our guest.
(01:27) US election fallout(09:33) Where do we sit globally on climate?(11:59) State of climate activism?(20:07) Communicating climate risk without alarm(29:09) Air pollution(35:22) Listener questions(46:37) China's green tech dominance(49:34) Who should we be reading?Detailed show notes available here
About Our Guest:
David Wallace-Wells is currently a columnist and staff writer at The New York Times, where he writes a weekly newsletter on climate change, technology, the future of the planet and how we live on it. He was previously the Deputy Editor...
Ed's #GivingTuesday Fundraising Pitch for Energy vs Climate
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Support Energy vs Climate on #GivingTuesday
Energy vs Climate is a labour of love – we hosts don't draw a salary from the show because we feel strongly about the public service benefit of the project.
But, we still have production costs. So, we're asking one last time for you to please consider making a one-time or monthly donation in our only annual donation campaign. Thanks in part to last year's generous supporters, just yesterday we recorded a show with New York Times columnist David Wallace-Wells. It...
EvC x Climate Book Reviews: A climate-related book podcast that you might like
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Climate Book Reviews is co-hosted by EvC's own Ed Whittingham and his friend Roger Thompson, Associate Dean and Professor of Writing and Rhetoric at Stony Brook University in New York.
Each episode highlights some climate related books worth knowing about. This episode is an interview with New Zealand author Kirsten McDougall about her novel, She’s a Killer. At times hilarious and at other times troubling, the book is set in the not-too-distant future and features a near genius with sociopathic tendencies facing the realities of her sev...
Raising the Heat: How Warming Can Reduce Lifespans & Slow Economic Growth with Michael Greenstone
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David & Ed chat with University of Chicago's Michael Greenstone.
Show Notes:
(02:52) Engineering the Planet
(03:25) The future of the Temperature–Mortality Relationship
(04:48) Valuing the Global Mortality Consequences of Climate Change
(07:36) Climate Damages and Adaptation Potential Across Sectors of the US
(09:35) Heat Exposure & Poverty
(11:30) Seasonality of Mortality Under Climate Change
(13:59) Evaluating the 35°C Wet-Bulb Temperature Adaptability Threshold
(15:30) Relationship Between Season of Birth, Temperature Exposure, & Wellbeing
(17:35) Heat & Learning
(20:14) Slow Burn: The Hidden Costs of a Warming Worl...
Solar Geoengineering: Should we go there? LIVE SHOW with David Keith & Ed Whittingham
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𝗟𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗮𝘁 𝗘𝗻𝗲𝗿𝗴𝘆 𝗗𝗶𝘀𝗿𝘂𝗽𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘀: 𝗨𝗡𝗜𝗧𝗘 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟰 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗗𝗮𝘃𝗶𝗱 𝗞𝗲𝗶𝘁𝗵 & 𝗘𝗱 𝗪𝗵𝗶𝘁𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴𝗵𝗮𝗺
David and Ed hit the stage at the Energy Disruptors: UNITE 2024 summit in Calgary to discuss solar geoengineering, a major focus of David's academic research. Together, they unpack the technical and non-technical dimensions of solar geoengineering, including global governance and decision making.
(00:45) Start of live show and topic introduction
(04:49) What is Solar Geoengineering?
(30:45) Audience Q & A
𝗔𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗬𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗘𝘃𝗖 𝗖𝗼-𝗛𝗼𝘀𝘁𝘀:
David Keith is Professor and Founding Faculty Director, Climate Systems Engineering Initiative at the University of Chicago. He is the founder of Carbon Engineering and was formerly a professor at Harvard University and the University of Calgary. He splits his time between Canmore and Chicago.
Sara Hastings-Simon studies energy transitions at the intersection of policy, business, and...
EV Ownership vs Level 1 Charging with Sara Hastings-Simon
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Rethinking EV Charging
A commonly held belief by new or prospective EV owners is that purchasing one requires the installation of a “level 2”, or 240 volt, home charger. Sara and Ed chat about recent University of Calgary research that challenges this assumption. They discuss considerations that might go into choosing which option is best for EV owners and people considering EVs, as well as the practical realities when it comes to charging, range anxiety - and pottery kilns.
About Your EvC Co-Hosts:
Davi...
Campaigning on Climate: Climate, Politics, and Elections with The Strategists podcast's Stephen Carter
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We have a special climate politics focused show to open the new season. It's a time of elections here in Canada and the U.S. As multiple campaigns heat up, we’re asking, where does climate fit in as an issue?
David Keith and Ed Whittingham chat with political strategist and co-host of The Strategists podcast, Stephen Carter, to understand where climate fits as a priority issue for voters. They discussed whether or not climate can still be a winning issue, how proponents of the consumer facing carbon tax fai...
A personal message from Sara Hastings-Simon
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A personal message from EvC co-host Sara Hastings-Simon.
You can find more information on cancer screening in Canada at the Canadian Cancer Society website.
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Introducing Climate Now: When insurers can no longer afford the risk
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Introducing Climate Now:
Today, we are excited to bring you an episode from the Climate Now podcast. Climate Now, hosted by James Lawler, and accessible wherever you listen to podcasts as well as on their website - climatenow.com - is a podcast and newsletter that explores and explains the ideas, technologies, and policies we need to address the global climate crisis.
The episode we’re sharing, "When insurers can no longer afford the risk," features former Director of Investment Research at Wellington Management, and cur...
Energy vs Climate Promo
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Energy vs Climate is available wherever you get your podcasts.
Produced by Amit Tandon
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Energy vs Climate
www.energyvsclimate.com
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Canada vs Climate: Federal Minister of Energy & Natural Resources, Jonathan Wilkinson
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David, Sara, and Ed talk to Canada's Minister of Energy & Natural Resources, Jonathan Wilkinson.
Show Notes:
(02:57) Powering Canada Forward
(04:24) Modernizing the energy sector
(06:28) Powering Canada
(07:46) Canada’s Electric Reliability Framework
(11:30) Canadian Climate Institute
(12:17) Mohawk Council of Kahnawake inks deal with Hydro-Québec
(14:24) Governments of Canada, Nova Scotia & New Brunswick Show Progress Toward Phasing Out Coal by 2030
(16:25) Canadian Parliament Passes Bill C-59
(23:29) Canada’s economic competitiveness in a global energy transition
(25:52) How t...
FROM FIBS TO FINES: Climate Disinformation, Lawsuits & Their Ripple Effects
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David, Sara, and Ed talk to Dr Benjamin Franta, Senior Research Fellow in Climate Litigation at the Oxford Sustainable Law Programme and the founding head of the Climate Litigation Lab.
Show Notes:
(01:05) Dr. Benjamin Franta
(02:20) Nearly 15% of Americans deny climate change is real
(02:25) The social anatomy of climate change denial in the US
(02:50) Understanding the Shift in Media Perception Towards EVs
(08:40) Climate litigation more than doubles in five years, now a key tool in delivering climate justice
(10:43) The Rising Threat of CO2
(10:50...
Fully Charged: Battery Storage & How to Make it Better with Dr. Y. Shirley Meng
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Hosts David, Sara, and Ed chat with battery storage expert Dr. Shirley Meng of the University of Chicago.
About Our Guest:
Dr. Y. Shirley Meng is a Professor at the Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering at the University of Chicago. She serves as the Chief Scientist of the Argonne Collaborative Center for Energy Storage Science (ACCESS) Argonne National Laboratory.
Show Notes:
(01:12) – Dr. Shirley Meng
(02:12) – How Lithium Ion Batteries Work
(02:22) – How sodium could change the game
(02:24) – How Solid-State Batteries Will Fuel America...
EvC Bonus - HOT TOPIC: Alberta Electricity Update
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Another BONUS Podcast Episode!
The electricity file has been popping, especially in Alberta, where on a weekly basis a clash of worldviews on the future of electricity generation is on full display.
About Our Guest
Blake Shaffer is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Economics at The University of Calgary. He works on electricity markets, climate policy, and energy transitions, and frequently provides policy advice to governments at various levels.
Show Notes
(00:02:44) AB’s new renewable energy rul...
EvC Bonus - Hot Topic: Carbon Tax
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New BONUS Podcast Episode
Canada's consumer carbon tax policy has been getting a lot of press attention of late, especially following the $15/T increase that took affect on April 1, 2024. Much has been said about it across the political spectrum, some of it accurate, and some of it just plain wrong. David's away this month, so it's just Sara and Ed talking all things carbon tax with special guest Mark Jaccard.
About Our Guest
Mark Jaccard has been a prof a...
Buzzkill: Understanding the Shift in Media Perception Towards EVs
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Dr. Simon Evans, Deputy Editor & Senior Policy Editor at Carbon Brief join co-hosts David, Sara, and Ed, to tease apart EV fact from fiction.
About Our Guest:
Simon Evans is deputy editor and policy editor at Carbon Brief. Simon covers climate and energy policy. He holds a PhD in biochemistry from Bristol University and previously studied chemistry at Oxford University.
Show Notes:
(00:02:01) – Factcheck: 21 misleading myths about electric vehicles
(00:04:59) – Electric vs. Gas Cars: Is It Cheaper to Drive an EV?
(00:06:37) – IPCC Cl...
Energy vs Oilsands: How did we get to 3.5m bbl/day and what do we need to do about it?
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Co-hosts David, Sara, Ed, and energy/environmental economist Dr. Andrew Leach of the University of Alberta unpack the past, present and future of Canada's oilsands.
About Our Guest:
Andrew Leach is an energy and environmental economist and is Professor at the University of Alberta, with a joint appointment in the Department of Economics (Arts) and the Faculty of Law. His research spans energy and environmental economics. His most recent book is Between Doom and Denial: Facing facts about climate change.
Show Notes:<...
History vs Energy - How the history of energy transitions can inform our future
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Overview:
What does the history of energy tell us about energy transition?
Can we learn from the past or will we repeat the same mistakes?
What do people get wrong when trying to extract lessons from the history of energy?
Co-hosts David, Sara, and Ed are joined by guest, Dr. Petra Dolata, to discuss data on historical transitions, including lessons of deindustrialization in the Ruhr region of Germany on Season 5, Episode 8 of Energy vs Climate.
About Our Guest:
Petra Dolada is...
Stranger than (Climate) Fiction
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What is the role of literature in the climate policy and technology discussion? How does the genre allow us to explore uncomfortable climate scenarios, including those to do with heat death and direct action? While ultimately successful, the path laid out in the book is very bumpy, volatile, and rife with violence – strikingly different from the smooth and orderly transition often offered up by politicians and techno-optimists.
On S5E7 of Energy vs Climate, David, Sara, Ed, and New York Times bestselling author Kim Stanley Robinson (of The Ministry for the Fu...
Energy vs IEA Oil and Gas Scenarios
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Published each year, the International Energy Agency’s (IEA) World Energy Outlook (WEO) is a leading source of scenario-based analysis of global energy demand and supply. This year, as the global energy crisis shows signs of calming, the WEO finds a peak in fossil fuels before 2030 across all scenarios. The result has been met with skepticism by some politicians in Canada, with Alberta’s Premier Danielle Smith going so far as to question the credibility of the organization.
A follow-on special report from the IEA on the oil and gas industry in ne...
Energy vs Carbon Removal
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We are excited to bring you a special live taping of Energy vs Climate from November 22, 2023 at the Ampersand in Calgary.
Energy vs Carbon Removal is a dive deep into this still relatively new climate mitigation pathway. The IPCC and other bodies increasingly view Carbon Dioxide Removal (CDR) as a critical tool to reduce CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere and bring warming back down to 1.5C by century’s end.
It seems like new carbon removal start-ups are springing up weekly. But the barriers to commercializing CDR tech remain daunt...
Building for Sustainability - What Really Matters
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What matters - and really doesn’t matter - when it comes to Building for Sustainability? David, Sara and Ed answer that question in a live episode of Energy vs Climate recorded on November 5, 2023 to kick off the Building for Sustainability symposium in Canmore, AB.
EPISODE NOTES
@00:3:30 Carbon sink and low-carbon building materials
@00:5:30 Keeping The Heat In - Section 8: Upgrading windows and exterior doors
@00:10:03 Spring Creek Mountain Village receives green energy certification
@00:11:48 Fact sheet: Early Estimate of National Emissions 2022
@00:15:21 Goodbye, ga...
Transmission vs Climate
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Long distance and interregional transmission lines promise to increase reliability, mitigate the impact of extreme weather events, and provide electricity consumers with access to low-cost resources. They are an important piece of the energy transition puzzle. But despite the well documented benefits of long-distance transmission, to date there has been limited progress in building out interties across North America.
What lessons can we draw from the early days of renewable development that are relevant to this new challenge? What is the current state of efforts to develop long distance transmission and...
BONUS | Nils Gilman on avocado politics and climate security from Challenging Climate
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Hey everyone, Ed here.
David, Sara and Ed will be back next week with an episode about electricity interties in the clean energy system.
Until then we’d like to share another podcast with you that we think might be of interest, called Challenging Climate. Hosted by Jesse Reynolds and Pete Irvine, Challenging Climate tackles tough questions about the science, technology, economics and politics of climate change. Their topics range from climate modelling, persuasive narratives, national security, international development and even biotech. Jesse, Pete and their guests cover similar top...
Energy vs 1.5°C - Breaking Down the 1.5C Warming Target
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Since the Paris Agreement coming into force in 2016, world leaders have increasingly emphasized the need to keep warming to the 1.5°C target by the end of this century, in order to avoid more dangerous impacts from climate change. Yet temperature readings around the globe show that the world has already warmed by roughly 1°C on average above pre-industrial levels. Many models suggest we will very likely exceed 1.5°C of warming, possibly in the next 5-10 years, in the absence of aggressive worldwide action to reduce emissions and (perhaps) engineer the climate.
Whi...
Albertan Attitudes Toward Energy Transition
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On our first episode of Season 5, Sara and Ed speak to Dr. Melanee Thomas of the University of Calgary about her survey research into Albertans' attitudes to the energy transition, the oil and gas industry, coal and climate change. David wasn't able to join us for this one, but he'll be back live for Episode 2.
EPISODE NOTES
@00:49 If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it: how the public’s economic confidence in the fossil fuel industry reduces support for a clean energy transition
@2:16 Great expectations: Public...
Is Heat The Greatest Climate Threat? [Rerelease]
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[Rerelease] David, Sara, Ed and author Jeff Goodell discuss the impacts of heat on humans, the topic of Jeff’s new book. From heat-wave deaths, to reduced ability to learn, to the economic effects, who will suffer the most, and what does it mean for the politics of the energy transition?
EPISODE NOTES
B.C. heat wave leads to 11-hour ambulance wait time, spike in sudden deaths
The Ministry for the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson review
The Water will come: Rising Seas, sinking ci...
Take our survey!
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Hi Everyone!
We've got a favour to ask. We're doing a survey to help us understand what you like about Energy vs Climate, and how we can bring you more of that!
We would be extremely grateful if you took just a few minutes out of your summer schedule to complete the survey. Your feedback will help us as we plan for Season 5.
Thanks! We look forward to coming back in September.
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Energy vs Climate
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Climate vs Wildfires
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On a special summer episode of Energy vs Climate, we’re addressing the record-setting wildfires that Canada has been experiencing this summer. We're joined by molecular paleoecologist Allison Karp to examine how fire has changed across geologic timescales and how much of this year's wildfires we can attribute to climate change.
EPISODE NOTES
@1:23 Allison Karp, paleoecologist at Yale and Brown University
@11:04 Earliest evidence of wildfire found in Wales 430 million years ago, BBC, original journal article here
@11:33 Indigenous fire management and traditional knowl...
