Climate Sense

Activists and civil society groups are very focused on climate change. They use a number of different tactics, from peaceful marches to more disruptive acts of civil disobedience to further their cause. Host Samantha Gross speaks with Dana R Fisher, director of the Center for Environment, Community, and Equity at American University about the goals of these actions, whether they change public opinion on climate, and how they compar...

The transition of our energy system away from fossil fuels will drastically increase the world’s need for certain minerals. This episode describes what some of these critical minerals are, the current state of supply, and how to ensure adequate supply in the future. Host Samantha Gross speaks with Heidi Crebo-Rediker of the Council on Foreign Relations, former U.S. Secretary of Energy Ernie Moniz, and Doug Wicks of the U.S. Departm...

China is the world’s largest emitter of greenhouse gases, so clearly it must be involved in any effort to minimize climate change. But relations between the United States and China have gotten much more challenging in the last few years. Host Samantha Gross speaks with Heidi Crebo-Rediker from the Council on Foreign Relations and Eyck Freymann of Stanford’s Hoover Institution about China’s views and actions on climate change and wh...

Finance is needed to turn climate ambition into action, to transform the energy system to eliminate greenhouse gas emissions and to make our infrastructure more resilient to climate-related events. The need for finance is especially acute in the developing world. Host Samantha Gross talks with Amar Bhattacharya of Brookings and David Victor of UC San Diego about how to get important climate projects financed.

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The climate implications of our “stuff” economy—appliances, cars, clothes, roads, buildings and more—are enormous. The industrial sector that makes all this stuff accounts for 30 percent of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions. In this episode, host Samantha Gross talks with Rebecca Dell, senior director for industry at ClimateWorks Foundation, about ways to make the industrial economy—from steel to chemicals to plastics—cleaner.

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The world needs emissions-free electricity that is available when and where we want it, rather than on Mother Nature’s schedule as wind and solar generation are. Nuclear power has the potential to be that source. In this episode, host Samantha Gross talks with former U.S. Secretary of Energy Ernie Moniz, who says that fission reactors, the kind in use today, have the potential to become safer and less expensive. And fusion reactors...

The first episode of season two of Climate Sense, hosted by Samantha Gross, is all about hydrogen. Hydrogen will have an important role in a zero carbon energy system, enabling decarbonization of energy end-uses that cannot easily use electricity. Hydrogen is made today by splitting molecules of either water or natural gas, using significant energy in the process, so it’s important to reserve hydrogen for its highest and best uses....

In season two of Climate Sense, host Samantha Gross focuses on how to transition to a clean, zero-carbon energy system...

This episode of Climate Sense is a Q&A with host Samantha Gross, including questions sourced from our listeners on a wide range of topics from climate as a national emergency, to electrification, bipartisan action, and adaptation versus mitigation. Concerns about the speed and consequences of climate change are valid and at times quite scary, but that doesn’t mean we should not talk about the energizing and hopeful potential of cli...

This episode of “Climate Sense” is about U.S. policy—the challenges of implementing climate legislation in the U.S. and recently enacted laws. Climate change and other environmental issues are caught up in our country’s increasingly polarized politics. Nonetheless, new climate legislation will bring real benefits to people—with emphasis on financing existing technologies, innovation for new solutions, and promoting U.S. industry.

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In this episode of “Climate Sense,” Samantha Gross explores the issue of justice and fairness in global climate action. Many of the world’s poorest countries have contributed the least to existing greenhouse gases but are on the front lines of the changing climate. It is not enough to have science, knowledge, and resources. What is essential to climate justice is making sure that climate change is not an excuse to let the developin...

Americans love cars, and trucks, and SUVs. Our country is designed around the automobile. This episode of Climate Sense, hosted by Samantha Gross, is about transportation–an important part of our culture, our energy use, and our greenhouse gas emissions. She talks with two experts on the use of electric vehicles and seeks answers to the transportation challenge. What is the solution? Expanding our perceptions on the way we get arou...

This episode of “Climate Sense” is about electricity—the stuff that comes out of the outlet in your wall. Electricity is the future, but many of us don’t think about it beyond the wall plug. In this episode, Samantha Gross explains that electricity is central to transforming our energy system. The costs of wind and solar electricity have plummeted in recent years, making them no longer cool and expensive, but now cool and cheap, in...

Addressing climate change must be a global undertaking, even though the world’s wealthy nations have been responsible for most of the global warming to date. In this episode of “Climate Sense,” Samantha Gross speaks with experts on why climate is such a challenging political problem, what it took to get an agreement in Paris in 2015, and how the world can collaborate on this thorniest of global problems.

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Fossil fuels built the modern world and brought us conveniences that we now take for granted, but science has made it clear that we need to move away from fossil fuels to prevent the worst effects of climate change. However, the energy system is the backbone of the global economy, and changing it quickly is a huge task. In this episode of Climate Sense, Samantha Gross speaks with Daniel Yergin about our energy system—how we got her...

Climate change is all over the news these days. We hear about hurricanes and heatwaves, droughts and floods, and young people protesting to fix the problem now. Climate change was a centerpiece of President Biden’s campaign in 2020, but it is still a divisive issue in U.S. politics. In this inaugural episode of Climate Sense, Samantha Gross and her guests address the science and origins of climate change and the sources of the poll...

From hurricanes and floods, to wildfires and extreme temperatures, climate change is happening all around us. In this podcast series, energy and climate expert Samantha Gross, director of the Energy Security and Climate Initiative at the Brookings Institution, sheds light on the essentials of climate change and how to deal with it. She talks to other experts in various climate-related areas to help you understand the issue. How ser...