DeepSummary
The podcast episode features an interview with Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Elizabeth Kolbert about her new book 'H is for Hope: Climate Change from A to Z.' The book is a collection of 26 essays exploring various aspects of the climate crisis, including the science, politics, activism, and potential solutions. The conversation covers topics such as the long history of understanding the greenhouse effect, the challenges of communicating climate change effectively, and the role of technology and innovation in addressing the crisis.
Kolbert discusses the emotional rollercoaster of hope and doom that often accompanies discussions of climate change, as well as the disconnect between pledges made by countries and corporations at international conferences and the actual actions taken. The transmission quagmire and the difficulty of building new transmission lines in the United States are highlighted as a significant obstacle to the deployment of clean energy technologies.
Towards the end of the interview, Kolbert expresses her concern about the potential impact of the upcoming 2024 US presidential election on climate change policies and action. She emphasizes the need for a frank and intelligent conversation about the crisis and the steps required to address it, despite the political challenges involved.
Key Episodes Takeaways
- Climate change is a complex issue with multiple facets, including science, politics, economics, and social justice.
- There is often a disconnect between rhetoric and action when it comes to addressing climate change.
- Effective communication and public engagement are crucial for driving meaningful action on climate change.
- Technological innovation and solutions are important, but they need to be accompanied by systemic changes and collective action.
- The upcoming 2024 US presidential election could have significant implications for climate change policies and action.
- Despite the urgency of the crisis, political discourse often fails to prioritize climate change as a critical issue.
- There is a need for frank and intelligent conversations about the realities of climate change and the steps required to address it.
- Climate change presents a collective action problem that requires coordinated efforts across different sectors and stakeholders.
Top Episodes Quotes
- โI'm petrified, and I think that everyone should be petrified. I mean, I'm one of these people who can't believe we're having this conversation again in 2024, but we are, and that is very, not to go too far into the anti hope mode, but that's very dismaying that we could, you know, first of all, we're going to have a whole campaign. We're going to fight about a million non issues, in my view, and one or two actual issues.โ by Elizabeth Kolbert
- โUnder a white sky was really an effort to look at this, I think, pattern or impulse that we have when we mess something up that we're going to find. We do have a very gung ho attitude. We're going to find a new technology that's going to solve our problem.โ by Elizabeth Kolbert
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Episode Information
The Climate Pod
The Climate Pod
3/20/24
In 2021, Greta Thunberg spoke to the youth climate movement at an event leading up to COP26. Her famous "Blah, Blah, Blah" speech contrasted all of the things world leaders had said about the climate crisis and what those same leaders had actually done to reduce emissions and create policies to mitigate and adapt to the climate crisis. Three years later, very little has changed. Of the 128 countries that set Net Zero goals, only five percent have taken the required first steps toward achieving those goals.
Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Elizabeth Kolbert joins the podcast this week to discuss how the climate crisis gets talked about by world leaders, activists, scientists, and the media may differ from the actual facts of the world's warming situation. Her new book "H is for Hope: Climate Change from A to Z" is a collection of 26 essays on various aspects of the climate crisis which tell the complete picture of what's going on, what's led us to this point, and where we could go from here.
Like Elizabeth's previous books, such as "Field Notes from a Catastrophe", "The Sixth Extinction", and "Under a White Sky", "H is for Hope" is an insightful and sobering book from one of today's great climate writers.
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