Winters are warming faster than any other season here in the U.S. So why are some winter storms getting even more intense? Today, we’re going to explore the connections between climate change and extreme winter weather. For this episode, we sat down with atmospheric science expert Dr. Jennifer Francis of the Woodwell Climate Research Center.

Dr. Jennifer Francis is a senior scientist at the Woodwell Climate Research Center, and her research is focused on the rapidly changing Arctic. This work engages in why change is occurring, how those changes are affecting the Arctic as well as temperate regions across Earth where billions live. Dr. Francis has devoted more time in recent years towards effective science communication acoss media and helping non-scientists and public officials to gain deeper understanding of why the climate is changing and how it will continue to affect each of us.

For more episodes of TILclimate by the MIT Environmental Solutions Initiative, as well as educator guides, sources and further reading, visit https://tilclimate.mit.edu. To receive notifications about new episodes, follow us on Twitter @tilclimate.

Credits

• Laur Hesse Fisher, Host and Producer
• David Lishansky, Editor and Producer
• Aaron Krol, Associate Producer
• Adam Nacov, Student Production Assistant
• Sylvia Scharf, Education Specialist
• Michelle Harris, Fact Checker
• Music by Blue Dot Sessions
• Artwork by Aaron Krol

What if you could pay someone else to cancel out your carbon emissions? As countries, organizations, and even individuals around the world commit to lowering their impact on the climate, many have been doing just that. So today, we’re going to look at how “carbon offsets” work and whether they are an effective tool for slowing climate change. For this episode, we sat down with carbon trading and offsets expert Dr. Barbara Haya from the University of California Berkeley. 

Dr. Barbara Haya is a Research Fellow at the Goldman School of Public Policy at the University of California Berkeley. She leads the Berkeley Carbon Trading Project, which studies the effectiveness of offset programs and carbon trading with the goal of ensuring these programs and policies support effective climate action. Dr. Haya is also helping the University of California to develop its own strategy of using offsets to meet their carbon neutrality goals. Haya received her PhD at UC Berkeley’s Energy and Resources Group, and has previously worked with NGOs to help support international offset program reform. 

For more episodes of TILclimate by the MIT Environmental Solutions Initiative, visit tilclimate.mit.edu. To receive notifications about new episodes, follow us on Twitter @tilclimate.

Credits

• Laur Hesse Fisher, Host and Producer
• David Lishansky, Editor and Producer
• Aaron Krol, Associate Producer
• Adam Nacov, Student Production Assistant
• Sylvia Scharf, Education Specialist
• Michelle Harris, Fact Checker
• Music by Blue Dot Sessions
• Artwork by Aaron Krol

Roughly ten percent of the world’s CO2 emissions come from passenger vehicles: cars, pickups, motorcycles, buses, and taxis. So today, we’re going to zoom in on how people get around every day and what to consider when thinking about reducing carbon emissions from everyday travel. For this episode, we sat down with our former MIT colleague and transportation expert Dr. Joanna Moody.

For a deeper dive and additional resources related to this episode, visit: https://climate.mit.edu/podcasts/til-about-mobility

For more episodes of TILclimate by the MIT Environmental Solutions Initiative, visit tilclimate.mit.edu. 

Credits

Laur Hesse Fisher, Host and Producer

David Lishansky, Editor and Producer

Aaron Krol, Associate Producer

Barrett Golding, Script Writer

Ilana Hirschfeld, Production Assistant

Michelle Harris, Fact Checker

Sylvia Scharf, Education Specialist

Music by Blue Dot Sessions

Artwork by Aaron Krol

Electric vehicles (EVs) are being touted as a major solution to climate change. But why is that? How do they work and what kinds of changes are needed as more EVs hit the road? To dig into this, we brought in MIT Sloan Prof. David Keith, who studies transportation technology. 

For a deeper dive and additional resources related to this episode, visit: https://climate.mit.edu/podcasts/til-about-electric-cars

For more episodes of TILclimate by the MIT Environmental Solutions Initiative, visit tilclimate.mit.edu. 

Credits

Laur Hesse Fisher, Host and Producer

David Lishansky, Editor and Producer

Aaron Krol, Associate Producer

Barrett Golding, Script Writer

Ilana Hirschfeld, Production Assistant

Michelle Harris, Fact Checker

Sylvia Scharf, Education Specialist

Music by Blue Dot Sessions

Artwork by Aaron Krol

Hydrogen gas acts like a fossil fuel, but with no carbon emissions. Is it the silver bullet we’ve been waiting for? Prof. Svetlana Ikonnikova of the Technical University of Munich joins us to bring light to how hydrogen works and its potential in the energy transition.

For a deeper dive and additional resources related to this episode, visit: https://climate.mit.edu/podcasts/til-about-hydrogen

For more episodes of TILclimate by the MIT Environmental Solutions Initiative, visit tilclimate.mit.edu. 

Credits

Laur Hesse Fisher, Host and Producer

David Lishansky, Editor and Producer

Aaron Krol, Associate Producer

Natalie Jones, Script Writer

Ilana Hirschfeld, Production Assistant

Michelle Harris, Fact Checker

Sylvia Scharf, Education Specialist

Music by Blue Dot Sessions

Artwork by Aaron Krol

The ocean is a critical piece of the climate change puzzle. It's estimated that the ocean has absorbed about one third of the excess CO2 humans have added to the atmosphere and more than 90% of trapped heat in the atmosphere. So, today, we’re going underwater to talk about the ocean and climate change with renowned oceanographer Dr. Sylvia Earle.

For a deeper dive and additional resources related to this episode, visit: https://climate.mit.edu/podcasts/til-about-the-ocean

For more episodes of TILclimate by the MIT Environmental Solutions Initiative, visit tilclimate.mit.edu. 

Credits

Laur Hesse Fisher, Host and Producer

David Lishansky, Editor and Producer

Aaron Krol, Associate Producer

Natalie Jones, Script Writer

Ilana Hirschfeld, Production Assistant

Carolyn Shea, Fact Checker

Sylvia Scharf, Climate Education Specialist

Music by Blue Dot Sessions

Artwork by Aaron Krol

The ocean is a critical piece of the climate change puzzle. It's estimated that the ocean has absorbed about one third of the excess CO2 humans have added to the atmosphere and more than 90% of trapped heat in the atmosphere. So, today, we’re going underwater to talk about the ocean and climate change with renowned oceanographer Dr. Sylvia Earle.

For a deeper dive and additional resources related to this episode, visit: https://climate.mit.edu/podcasts/til-about-the-ocean

For more episodes of TILclimate by the MIT Environmental Solutions Initiative, visit tilclimate.mit.edu. 

Credits

Laur Hesse Fisher, Host and Producer

David Lishansky, Editor and Producer

Aaron Krol, Associate Producer

Natalie Jones, Script Writer

Ilana Hirschfeld, Production Assistant

Carolyn Shea, Fact Checker

Sylvia Scharf, Climate Education Specialist

Music by Blue Dot Sessions

Artwork by Aaron Krol

At MIT, we have a commitment to sharing what we know about climate change. That’s why, this summer, we’ll be back soon with a fourth season of TILclimate, bringing you new episodes that dive into even more climate topics, like the role the ocean plays in our climate, solutions for reducing transportation emissions, the future of hydrogen energy, and a whole lot more. All around 10-15 minutes, with real scientists and experts.

For more episodes of TILclimate by the MIT Environmental Solutions Initiative, visit tilclimate.mit.edu. 

Credits

• Laur Hesse Fisher, Host and Producer
• David Lishansky, Editor and Producer
• Aaron Krol, Associate Producer
• Ilana Hirschfeld, Student Production Assistant
• Natalie Jones, Script Writer
• Barrett Golding, Script Writer
• Sylvia Scharf, Education Specialist
• Carolyn Shea, Fact checker
• Michelle Harris, Fact checker
• Music by Blue Dot Sessions
• Artwork by Aaron Krol

Today’s episode is about the money of climate change. When people talk about how much it costs to stop climate change, what are we paying for? And who’s paying, exactly? And if we don’t pay to stop climate change – how much will that cost us? To answer these questions, we spoke with Dr. Barbara Buchner from the Climate Policy Initiative.

For a deeper dive and additional resources related to this episode, visit: https://climate.mit.edu/podcasts/til-what-it-costs

For more episodes of TILclimate by the MIT Environmental Solutions Initiative, visit tilclimate.mit.edu. 

Credits

Laur Hesse Fisher, Host and Producer

David Lishansky, Editor and Producer

Aaron Krol, Associate Producer

Ilana Hirschfeld, Production Assistant

Carolyn Shea, Fact Checker

Sylvia Scharf, Education Specialist

Music by Blue Dot Sessions

Artwork by Aaron Krol

Today we bring climate change to the dining room table. In this episode, we reinvited Dr. Cynthia Rosenzweig onto the TILclimate podcast to tell us just a little more about the connections between the food we eat and climate change.

For a deeper dive and additional resources related to this episode, visit: https://climate.mit.edu/podcasts/til-about-what-I-eat

For more episodes of TILclimate by the MIT Environmental Solutions Initiative, visit tilclimate.mit.edu. 

Credits

Laur Hesse Fisher, Host and Producer

David Lishansky, Editor and Producer

Aaron Krol, Associate Producer

Ilana Hirschfeld, Production Assistant

Carolyn Shea, Fact Checker

Sylvia Scharf, Education Specialist

Music by Blue Dot Sessions

Artwork by Aaron Krol

Over the last fifty years, our world has made remarkable progress in reducing hunger around the world. How can we keep our farms and food system resilient in a warming climate? Dr. Cynthia Rosenzweig, Senior Research Scientist at the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, joins host Laur Hesse Fisher on this episode of TILclimate to explain how climate change is already impacting our global food system.

For a deeper dive and additional resources related to this episode, visit: https://climate.mit.edu/podcasts/til-about-farming-a-warmer-planet

For more episodes of TILclimate by the MIT Environmental Solutions Initiative, visit tilclimate.mit.edu. 

Credits

Laur Hesse Fisher, Host and Producer

David Lishansky, Editor and Producer

Aaron Krol, Associate Producer

Ilana Hirschfeld, Student Production Assistant

Carolyn Shea, Fact Checker

Sylvia Scharf, Education Specialist

Music by Blue Dot Sessions

Artwork by Aaron Krol

In our last episode, we talked about using technology to suck out extra carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. But you might also be thinking—don’t trees do that? Yeah, they do! In fact, some people have proposed that by planting enough trees, we could make a big dent on climate change. In this episode of TILclimate, Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor Charles Harvey helps us answer the question: could we just plant a whole lot of trees to solve our climate problem?

For a deeper dive and additional resources related to this episode, visit: https://climate.mit.edu/podcasts/til-about-planting-trees

For more episodes of TILclimate by the MIT Environmental Solutions Initiative, visit tilclimate.mit.edu. 

Credits

Laur Hesse Fisher, Host and Producer

David Lishansky, Editor and Producer

Aaron Krol, Associate Producer

Ilana Hirschfeld, Student Production Assistant

Robin Palmer, Fact Checker

Sylvia Scharf, Education Specialist

Music by Blue Dot Sessions

Artwork by Aaron Krol

We’ve had people ask us, if climate change is caused by adding too much CO2 into the atmosphere, can’t we just suck it back out? Won’t that solve our climate change problem? In this episode of TILclimate (Today I Learned: Climate), Professor Niall Mac Dowell of Imperial College London joins host Laur Hesse Fisher to demystify the process and feasibility of removing CO2 from the atmosphere.

For a deeper dive and additional resources related to this episode, visit: https://climate.mit.edu/podcasts/til-about-technological-carbon-capture

For more episodes of TILclimate by the MIT Environmental Solutions Initiative, visit tilclimate.mit.edu.

Credits

Laur Hesse Fisher, Host and Producer

David Lishansky, Editor and Producer

Aaron Krol, Associate Producer

Ilana Hirschfeld, Student Production Assistant

Carolyn Shea, Fact Checker

Sylvia Scharf, Education Specialist

Music by Blue Dot Sessions

Artwork by Aaron Krol

Is climate change really a national security issue, in the same way we think about terrorism or nuclear weapons? And if so, what are our governments doing about it? In this episode of TILclimate (Today I Learned: Climate), national security expert Alice C. Hill joins host Laur Hesse Fisher to help answer these questions.

For a deeper dive and additional resources related to this episode, visit: https://climate.mit.edu/podcasts/til-about-national-security

For more episodes of TILclimate by the MIT Environmental Solutions Initiative, visit tilclimate.mit.edu. 

Credits

Laur Hesse Fisher, Host and Producer

David Lishansky, Editor and Producer

Aaron Krol, Associate Producer

Ilana Hirschfeld, Student Production Assistant

Carolyn Shea, Fact Checker

Sylvia Scharf, Education Specialist

Music by Blue Dot Sessions

Artwork by Aaron Krol

Sea level rise is already happening and affecting people right now. We invited Prof. James Renwick back to TILclimate to talk about the near future: what will sea-level rise look like for coastal areas in the next 20 or 30 years, and what can we do about it?

For a deeper dive and additional resources related to this episode, visit: https://climate.mit.edu/podcasts/til-about-sea-level-rise-part-2

For more episodes of TILclimate by the MIT Environmental Solutions Initiative, visit tilclimate.mit.edu. 

Credits

Laur Hesse Fisher, Host and Producer

David Lishansky, Editor and Producer

Aaron Krol, Associate Producer

Ilana Hirschfeld, Student Production Assistant

Carolyn Shea, Fact Checker

Sylvia Scharf, Education Specialist

Music by Blue Dot Sessions

Artwork by Aaron Krol

If you’ve heard only one thing about climate change, it might be that sea levels are rising, and many of the Earth’s islands and coastlines are at risk. But, why? In this episode of TILclimate (Today I Learned: Climate), Professor James Renwick of Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand joins host Laur Hesse Fisher to break down the science of sea level rise and what’s in store for the future if we do — and don’t — significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

For a deeper dive and additional resources related to this episode, visit: https://climate.mit.edu/podcasts/til-about-sea-level-rise-part-1

For more episodes of TILclimate by the MIT Environmental Solutions Initiative, visit tilclimate.mit.edu. 

Credits

Laur Hesse Fisher, Host and Producer

David Lishansky, Editor and Producer

Aaron Krol, Associate Producer

Ilana Hirschfeld, Student Production Assistant

Carolyn Shea, Fact Checker

Sylvia Scharf, Education Specialist

Music by Blue Dot Sessions

Artwork by Aaron Krol

Surveys show that both left- and right-leaning Americans support policies that slow climate change. So why aren’t we seeing more of these policies pass as legislation? In this episode of TILclimate (Today I Learned: Climate), MIT alum Parrish Bergquist joins host Laur Hesse Fisher to explain the significance of public opinion and climate change: what people believe, what influences their opinion and how policies are implemented. They also explore what bipartisan policy making could look like, and how to bridge the gap between support and action.

Parrish Bergquist, an MIT alum from the School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Science and the Department of Urban Studies and Planning, is an Assistant Professor at Georgetown University’s McCourt School of Public Policy.

For a deeper dive and additional resources related to this episode, visit: https://climate.mit.edu/podcasts/til-what-americans-think-about-climate-change. 

For more episodes of TILclimate by the MIT Environmental Solutions Initiative, visit tilclimate.mit.edu. 

Credits

Laur Hesse Fisher, Host and Producer

David Lishansky, Editor and Producer

Aaron Krol, Associate Producer

Ilana Hirschfeld, Student Production Assistant

Music by Blue Dot Sessions

Artwork by Aaron Krol

Climate change can be confusing, and there’s so much to know. That’s why we’re back with a third season of TILclimate, bringing you new episodes that explain the basics, like why exactly is sea level rising, how climate change affects our national security, how can soils and trees be part of the solution, and so much more. All with real scientists and experts who can give you the straight story, in about ten minutes, jargon-free.

Is it too late to prevent climate change? Are the scary predictions that we hear about inevitable? In this episode of TILclimate (Today I Learned Climate), MIT Prof. Noelle Selin joins host Laur Hesse Fisher to answer these questions. They explore what change is predictable, explain what climate goals like 1.5 C mean, and give insight to what it will take in order to achieve them.

Prof. Noelle Selin is Associate Professor in the Institute for Data, Systems and Society and in the Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences. She also serves as the Director of MIT's Technology and Policy Program. Her research uses modeling and analysis to inform sustainability decision-making, focusing on issues involving air pollution, climate change and hazardous substances such as mercury.

For more episodes of TILclimate by the MIT Environmental Solutions Initiative, visit tilclimate.mit.edu. 

Credits

• Laur Hesse Fisher, Host and Producer
• David Lishansky, Editor and Producer
• Aaron Krol, Associate Producer
• Sabrina Gaitan, Student Production Assistant
• Music by Blue Dot Sessions
• Artwork by Aaron Krol

Produced by the MIT Environmental Solutions Initiative at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Technologies like solar panels and batteries help us slow down climate change, but they’re not inherently perfect. In this episode of TILclimate (Today I Learned Climate), Suzanne Greene of the MIT Center for Transportation and Logistics and the MIT Environmental Solutions Initiative sits down with host Laur Hesse Fisher to help us navigate how to massively scale up clean tech while making a conscious and dedicated effort to ensure people’s rights, health, and safety.

Suzanne Greene manages the Sustainable Supply Chains initiative at the MIT Center for Transportation & Logistics and is the lead on Metals, Minerals, and the Environment program at the Environmental Solutions Initiative. She collaborates with industry and stakeholders to develop new methods to calculate, report and offset carbon emissions, improving our understanding of the climate impact of products we use every day.

For more episodes of TILclimate by the MIT Environmental Solutions Initiative, visit tilclimate.mit.edu. 

Credits

• Laur Hesse Fisher, Host and Producer
• David Lishansky, Editor and Producer
• Aaron Krol, Associate Producer
• Sabrina Gaitan, Student Production Assistant
• Music by Blue Dot Sessions
• Artwork by Aaron Krol

Produced by the MIT Environmental Solutions Initiative at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Let’s talk about a technology that could change our whole energy system, but so far hasn’t generated a single watt. In the season finale of TILclimate (Today I Learned Climate), Professor Dennis Whyte sits down with host Laur Hesse Fisher to talk about fusion energy.

Dennis Whyte is the Director of the MIT Plasma Science and Fusion Center (PSFC), and a Hitachi America Professor of Engineering. As director of PSFC, Whyte has been a key enabler for the SPARC project, a compact, high-field, net fusion energy experiment. The core of the SPARC project, and many ideas for its development, have been conceived or advanced through Professor Whyte’s courses.

Season two of TILclimate focuses on our global energy system, its relationship to climate change, and what our options are for keeping the lights on while creating a clean energy future. We're partnering with the MIT Energy Initiative, which will air longer interviews with each guest to take a deeper dive into these topics.

Dive Deeper

For more episodes of TILclimate by the MIT Environmental Solutions Initiative, visit: tilclimate.mit.edu

For related energy podcasts from the MIT Energy Initiative, visit: http://energy.mit.edu/podcast/

For a MITEI podcast discussing fusion energy, visit: http://energy.mit.edu/podcast/game-changing-fusion/

To learn more Professor Whyte’s SPARC project, a compact, high-field, net fusion energy experiment, visit: https://www.psfc.mit.edu/sparc

Want to learn more about how fusion works in stars? Check out: https://sciencing.com/life-cycle-mediumsized-star-5490048.html

For information on the U.S. Department of Energy Fusion Energy Sciences (FES) program, visit: https://science.osti.gov/fes

In the episode, Professor Whyte talks about plasma in fusion reactions. Wondering what exactly plasma is? Check out: https://www.livescience.com/54652-plasma.html

Credits

Laur Hesse Fisher, Host and Producer

David Lishansky, Editor and Producer

Jessie Hendricks, Graduate Student Writer

Aaron Krol, Contributing Writer

Skyler Jones, Student Production Assistant

Music by Blue Dot Sessions

Artwork by Aaron Krol

Produced by the MIT Environmental Solutions Initiative at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

This season, we’ve talked about alternative energy sources that don’t emit carbon dioxide -- but what if there was a way to continue using fossil fuels for energy without emitting CO2 into the atmosphere? In this episode of TILclimate (Today I Learned Climate), Dr. Howard Herzog and Professor Brad Hager sit down with host Laur Hesse Fisher to talk about capturing, using, and storing carbon emissions, and how it fits into a clean energy future.

Howard Herzog is a Senior Research Engineer in the MIT Energy Initiative (MITEI), where he has researched combating greenhouse gas emissions for over 30 years. He was also a Coordinating Lead Author for the IPCC Special Report on Carbon Dioxide Capture and Storage and a co-author on the MIT Future of Coal Study.

Brad Hager is the Cecil and Ida Green Professor of Earth Sciences in the MIT Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences (EAPS). He is also the co-director of the MIT Energy Initiative’s Low Carbon Energy Center on Carbon Capture, Utilization, and Storage.

Season two of TILclimate focuses on our global energy system, its relationship to climate change, and what our options are for keeping the lights on while creating a clean energy future. We're partnering with the MIT Energy Initiative, which will air longer interviews with each guest to take a deeper dive into these topics.

Credits

Laur Hesse Fisher, Host and Producer

David Lishansky, Editor and Producer

Jessie Hendricks, Graduate Student Writer

Aaron Krol, Contributing Writer

Ruby Wincele, Student Production Assistant

Cecilia Bolon, Student Production Assistant

Skyler Jones, Student Production Assistant

Music by Blue Dot Sessions

Artwork by Aaron Krol

Produced by the MIT Environmental Solutions Initiative at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

We know how to generate tons of electricity without pumping greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, using a technology that’s already mature, widespread, and competitive with fossil fuels -- and also, very controversial: nuclear power. In this episode of TILclimate (Today I Learned Climate), Prof. Jacopo Buongiorno, Director of the MIT Center for Advanced Nuclear Energy Systems, sits down with host Laur Hesse Fisher to explore how nuclear power works, why even some climate advocates don’t agree on using it, and what role it can play in our clean energy future.

Jacopo Buongiorno is the TEPCO Professor of Nuclear Science and Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and the Director of Science and Technology of the Nuclear Reactor Laboratory at MIT.  He is also the Director of the Center for Advanced Nuclear Energy Systems (CANES), which is one of eight Low-Carbon-Energy Centers of the MIT Energy Initiative (MITEI).

Season two of TILclimate focuses on our global energy system, its relationship to climate change, and what our options are for keeping the lights on while creating a clean energy future. We're partnering with the MIT Energy Initiative, which will air longer interviews with each guest to take a deeper dive into these topics.

For more episodes of TILclimate by the MIT Environmental Solutions Initiative, visit tilclimate.mit.edu

For related energy podcasts from the MIT Energy Initiative, visit:

http://energy.mit.edu/podcast/

For the MITEI podcast episode on the Future of Nuclear Energy, visit:

https://energy.mit.edu/podcast/the-future-of-nuclear-energy/

For the full MITEI report on the Future on Nuclear Energy, visit:

http://energy.mit.edu/research/future-nuclear-energy-carbon-constrained-world/

For a deeper dive into nuclear energy, check out Prof. Buongiorno’s course on edX:

https://www.edx.org/course/nuclear-energy-science-systems-and-society

To get a sense of the USA’s energy mix, visit:

https://www.epa.gov/energy/power-profiler#/

If you want to know more about how nuclear fuel is stored,visit:

https://www.ucsusa.org/resources/safer-storage-spent-nuclear-fuel

For a comparison of the safety of different energy sources: 

https://ourworldindata.org/safest-sources-of-energy

For the landmark report on Chernobyl mentioned in the episode, written by the United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation (UNSCEAR), visit:

https://www.unscear.org/unscear/en/chernobyl.html

For more details on the 2011 Fukushima accident, check out the official Fukushima Prefecture report:

http://www.pref.fukushima.lg.jp/site/portal-english/en03-01.html

Credits

• Laur Hesse Fisher, Host and Producer
• David Lishansky, Editor and Producer
• Jessie Hendricks, Graduate Student Writer
• Aaron Krol, Contributing Writer
• Darya Guettler, Student Production Assistant
• Skyler Jones, Student Production Assistant
• Music by Blue Dot Sessions
• Artwork by Aaron Krol

Produced by the MIT Environmental Solutions Initiative at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.