An innovative community energy center, cities with natural gas bans, and a crusading HVAC contractor are all on a mission to electrify our homes.  To be zero carbon by 2050,  we have to start now and retrofit millions of buildings each year.

Cool Solutions

Kiss Your Gas Goodbye

There's a movement to close accounts at big Wall Street banks and move money to smaller banks with better values.

Is Your Money Fueling Wildfires?

Most folks don't want to get down and nerdy about climate solutions, but what if we could make it fun? Co host Wendy Ring decides to make a game. She talks with a climate scientist, a professional game designer and a mechanical engineer who are each designing other climate games, to get previews and explore  how games could mobilize players into action. Co host Brian Curtis joins a group playing Wendy's game and hilarity ensues. 

Playing Our Way Out of the Climate Crisis

Sliding scale electric car shares and rising numbers of used EVs are making them more accessible. A startup is answering the question: How good is that used EV battery? 

You Don't Have to be Rich to Drive Electric

 When barricades for a Slow Streets program appeared in  Black East Oakland, residents said "That's not what we need." Working together with the city, the program was revised to create safer crossings at dangerous intersections. We talk with Oakland Black urban planners and community members about street inequity, racial trauma, and community self determination.   Warren Logan, Marquita Price, Brytanee Brown  

Slow Streets Stall in Oakland

Personal stories from 3 activists fighting to preserve slow and car free streets in San Francisco. A little known federal manual is keeping streets car-centric while pedestrians and cyclists die in record numbers.  While activists battle for improvements block by block, Pete Buttigieg has a chance to rewrite the whole book and spur nationwide transformation.  So far, he's going with the Trump version. Find out what you can do.    Storytellers:  Activists Matt Brezina, Peter Belden, and Olivia Gamboa;  Mike McGinn of America Walks, and Meredith Glaser of the Urban Cycling Institute   

Saving COVID's Car Free Streets

National policies and commitments are key, but implementation is local and communities have their own unique power to accelerate decarbonization. We have 3 stories about the power of community to multiply climate money and turn it to social good. Olympia raises sales tax for free transit. A matching grant sends community crowdfunds over the top. Connecticut's Green Bank delivers on solar justice.  Storytellers:  Robert Pollin-Political Economy Research Institute, Clark Gilman- Mayor ProTem Olympia WA  Ann Freeman Manzanares- InterCity Transit,  Abe Salorio- Sustainable CT,    Bryan Garcia- Connecticut Green Bank

The Stone Soup Recipe for Climate Finance

 A lot of farmland is about to change hands. We can make sure it's distributed fairly to good stewards. This show looks at how agricultural land trusts and conservation easements can help young and under-resourced farmers get access to land, and at the history of Black land loss and the Justice for Black Farmers Act.  We also explore an anti trust provision in the Justice bill that would break up consolidation in the meat packing industry.  00:58 National Young Farmers Coalition - Holly Ripon Butler 03:05 Sustainable Iowa Land Trust - Suzan Erem and Jordan Clasen 14:37 Rhode Island Farm Land Access Program - Michelle Sheehan 17:09 Justice for Black Farmers Act - Savi Horne 24:18 Anti trust and meat packer monopolies - Austin Frerick    

Land for New Farmers

Meet the women defending their Texas and Louisiana communities from petrochemical pollution; in the courtroom, on the water, and in the streets.

This Is My Home

When Teaneck NJ Girl Scouts saw pictures of birds tangled in plastic bags, they got to work and sparked a movement that led to the strongest state plastic ban in the US. This is an engaging story about how big change happens when local efforts add up; with side trips into the chemistry of plastics, the importance of plankton poop, and comics as a metaphor for life. Storytellers: Judith Enck Beyond Plastics John Weber Surfrider Foundation Steve Jasiecki Sustainable Downbeach Monica Coffee Sustainable Downbeach Eliza Stilletto NJ Girl Scout Troop 19

Stories from the Great NJ Plastic Ban

Food hubs are not just for foodies. These homegrown networks provide markets for farmers moving beyond corn,soy, and CAFOs to regenerative modes of farming. This past spring, when supply chains failed, those lifelines kept communities fed. Founders of two Virginia food hubs tell their stories.     

Re-Localizing Food: Transforming US Agriculture, Part 2

How do we turn farming from climate pollution to climate solution?  In Part 1 of this mini-series we learn how changes in farming and ranching could remove gigatons of carbon from the atmosphere. A carbon farmer and rancher tell their stories and we begin our search for ways to spread these farming innovations across the country. First we talk with the directors of two startups helping farmers sell soil carbon credits. But farmers and soil carbon experts tell us that turning carbon into a commodity crop won't create the change we hope to see. In Part 2 ( the next episode) we'll be looking at the Green New Deal and the Farm Bill, and breaking up the power of Big Ag.  Episode One includes interviews with rancher Chris Prevatt, winner ofe 2020 Carbon Cup, Jeff Creque of the Carbon Cycle Institute,  Aldyen Connelly of Nori, Ed Smith from Indigo Carbon,  Jim Goodman of the National Family Farm Coalition and Steven Woods, a soil ecologist at the Nature Conservancy. 

Healthy Soils for a Healthy Planet

You don't need solar panels to be part of greening the grid. Our refrigerators, hot water heaters, and air conditioners can shift energy use to when the sun is shining and decrease the need for fossil fuel.  

Vampires Shut Down Power Plant

Climate and science super PACs are a donor's best bet for getting climate leaders elected to public office. While 50% of direct progressive campaign contributions go to waste, these super PACs focus resources where they can do the most good, training and supporting climate candidates.  We talk with RL Miller of Climate Hawks Vote, Shaunessy Naughton of 314 Action, and Mary Lynn Cesar of Blueprint about the need to replace Democrats who are beholden to fossil fuel interests, the trials of teaching scientists how to talk like regular people, and the importance of downballot races and community organizing for a healthy democracy. 

Little Green Engines That Could - Elect Climate Leaders

There are millions of Americans who care deeply about climate change but rarely cast their ballots. A home-based army of volunteers is changing that.  The Environmental Voter Project and Vote Forward both target and motivate these infrequent voters. Their founders, Nathaniel Stinnett and Scott Forman, explain how this began, why it's working, and how you can join in.  

Dear Non-Voting Environmentalist

Stories about regular Americans taking climate action where they live. What they're doing, how they're succeeding, and why their solutions are so cool. There's lots that communities can do about climate. Tune in and get inspired.

hubhopper

Cool Solutions

hubhopper