Sea Change Radio

Last week on Sea Change Radio, we learned that the plastics industry plans to triple production in the next 40 years, reaching 3 trillion pounds of plastic a year by 2060. This week, we have the second half of our discussion with Wired writer and author, Matt Simon, who talks about how microplastic waste has crept into every nook and cranny on the planet. In this episode, we discuss how microplastics are contributing to air pollution (both indoors and out), examine some innovative ways to reduce plastic waste, and discuss the overlap between plastic waste and climate change. Narrator | 00:02 - This is Sea Change Radio covering the shift to sustainability. I'm Alex Wise. Matt Simon (MS) | 00:16 - We need to get rid of all the unnecessary plastic as quickly as possible because the, the trend here is not looking good. Narrator | 00:26 - Last week on Sea Change Radio, we learned that the plastics industry plans to triple production in the next 40 years, reaching 3 trillion pounds of plastic a year by 2060. This week we have the second half of our discussion with Wired writer and author Matt Simon, who talks about how microplastic waste has crept into every nook and cranny on the planet. In this episode, we discuss how microplastics are contributing to air pollution, both indoors and out, examine some innovative ways to reduce plastic waste and discuss the overlap between plastic waste and climate change. Alex Wise (AW) | 01:13 - I am joined now on Sea Change Radio by Matt Simon. He's a senior staff writer at Wired Magazine, and his most recent book is A Poison Like No Other. Matt, welcome to Sea Change Radio. Matt Simon (MS) | 01:27 - And thank you for having me. Alex Wise (AW) | 01:29 - So Matt, I saw a documentary on makeup on Netflix. One of the episodes was about talc and how talc gets into our cosmetic industry in a, in a very pernicious way. And one of the ways that the talc industry and the cosmetics industry checked this off as being safe was that they just changed the measurements. They, they just use different microscopes and saying, yeah, it's not being detected by our microscopes, but they weren't using the best microscopes for this. So they, they kind of moved the goalposts in order to clear it for the public. It was devastating effects that it's had for many, many people. When you're talking about this plastics recycling and the effluence and trying to detect it, it, it made me think of that. It's just that they're not measuring it correctly and they need to get better microscopes or whatever, better filtration systems. Why don't, why don't you expand if you can. MS | 02:22 - Sure. Yeah. There's, there's an interesting parallel here there, 'cause microplastics are involved in, in cosmetics as well. So about a decade ago in the United States, banned microbeads, right? That's this big famous environmental progress. AW | 02:34 - They looked really cool in shampoo for a few years, right? Yeah. MS | 02:37 - Yeah. So cosmetics and plastics industry had this truly insane idea, which is to, and like face washes and things to, uh, create this sort of abrasive effect with little bits of plastic. Um, instead of, you know, perfectly natural machine, you can do this with like, uh, stone fruit pits, right? AW | 02:55 - Oh yeah. I've seen like apricot scrub. MS | 02:57 - Yeah. Yeah. They said, no, too expensive to do that. We will just put little tiny pieces of plastic, uh, these microbeads. So when that ban went into effect about a decade ago in the United States, that was only for wash off products, those face washes, um, that, that were using those sorts of scrubbing plastics that did not include cosmetics. So cosmetics to this day are chockfull of microplastics. So they are often used not for abrasive effects, but actually make makeup go on smoother. They act almost like a little tiny ball bearings. So when you wash off your makeup, that is washing into ecosystems,

Look around you: at this very moment, chances are that within a one-foot radius of your body, there’s something plastic. The ubiquity of plastic comes with a steep cost, however. This week on Sea Change Radio, the first half of our two-part discussion with Matt Simon, a Wired staff writer and author of A Poison Like No Other: How Microplastics Corrupted Our Planet and Our Bodies. In this episode, we learn about the history of plastic manufacturing, look at some unexpected ways that we’re exposed to microplastics, and examine how plastic recycling falls well-short of its promise. Narrator | 00:02 - This is Sea Change Radio covering the shift to sustainability. I'm Alex Wise. Matt Simon (MS) | 00:17 - We need just a fundamental renegotiation with our relationship with plastic. Narrator | 00:25 - Look around you: at this very moment, chances are that within a one-foot radius of your body, there’s something plastic. The ubiquity of plastic comes with a steep cost, however. This week on Sea Change Radio, the first half of our two-part discussion with Matt Simon, a Wired staff writer and author of “A Poison Like No Other: How Microplastics Corrupted Our Planet and Our Bodies.” In this episode, we learn about the history of plastic manufacturing, look at some unexpected ways that we’re exposed to microplastics, and examine how plastic recycling falls well-short of its promise. Alex Wise (AW) | 01:30 - I'm joined now on Sea Change Radio by Matt Simon. He's a senior staff writer at Wired Magazine, and his most recent book is “A Poison Like No Other.” Matt, welcome to Sea Change Radio, Matt Simon (MS) | 01:41 - And thank you for having me. Alex Wise (AW) | 01:43 - So, your most recent book, as I just mentioned, is, is entitled A Poison Like No Other. It focuses on microplastics. You wrote a piece for Wired recently highlighting a study that showed that microplastics are a real problem in the recycling process. Why don't you explain, first of all, how much our plastic recycling system is failing us. MS | 02:09 - It is, unfortunately failing us on a number of different levels. So, the promise all along this is a promise pitched by the plastics industry itself, was that if we're able to continuously recycle these plastic products, that we could keep these, these materials in circulation. The subtext of that being, well, if that were the case, we wouldn't need to produce any more plastic, right? So why would a plastics industry want us to do something that would decrease their, their bottom line? So all along reporting has come out. NPR did a piece about this a couple years ago, that that found that the plastics industry pitched recycling as a way to shunt the responsibility for plastics pollution to the public. So, it's your fault and my fault that we're not recycling bottles in bags enough, and they're escaping into the environment and, and that onus is on us. But all along the plastics industry knew that the economics of recycling just didn't add up. It is much, much cheaper to just keep producing virgin plastics, largely because the price of fossil fuels are still very low. 99% of plastics still being made out of, of fossil fuels. So this study that you mentioned, came out, I believe last year, was really a one of the first quantifications of this thing that we didn't consider in plastics recycling, is that another angle into this, which is as the plastic is, is processed in this facility, it's chewed up, shredded, washed multiple times, that wash water is then flushed out into the environment so when that stuff is all chewed up, it produces lots and lots of microplastic and nanoplastic microplastic typically being defined as something that's smaller than five millimeters, nanoplastics typically being smaller than a millionth of a meter. So that effluent is spewing into the environment. And this, this study quantified that it's something on the order of 6.5 million pounds of microplastic coming out of a single re...

It’s that time of year when as the weather gets colder we warm ourselves with thoughts of gratitude and giving, which, for many, includes charitable donations to organizations making a difference. This week on Sea Change Radio, we speak with the founder and executive director of one such organization. Scott Hechinger, a former public defender, runs the nonprofit advocacy organization Zealous, whose aim is to educate the public about the inequities of this country’s justice system. We examine why more public defenders aren’t elected to higher office, talk about the repercussions from last year’s recall of San Francisco district attorney Chesa Boudin, and discuss the impact Zealous is trying to make. Narrator | 00:02 - This is Sea Change Radio, covering the shift to sustainability. I'm Alex Wise. Scott Hechinger (SH) | 00:16 - If you care about human rights, if you care about fiscal responsibility, at the end of the day, public health and safety, like you should a support investing in public defense. All but you should also love your local public defender. You should be encouraging more public defenders to run for office. I think we'd be in a way, way better place across the board policy-wise. If we had thoughtful public defenders in office. Narrator | 00:40 - It’s that time of year when as the weather gets colder we warm ourselves with thoughts of gratitude and giving, which, for many, includes charitable donations to organizations making a difference. This week on Sea Change Radio, we speak with the founder and executive director of one such organization. Scott Hechinger, a former public defender, runs the nonprofit advocacy organization Zealous, whose aim is to educate the public about the inequities of this country’s justice system. We examine why more public defenders aren’t elected to higher office, talk about the repercussions from last year’s recall of San Francisco district attorney Chesa Boudin, and discuss the impact Zealous is trying to make. Alex Wise (AW) | 01:35 - I am joined now on Sea Change Radio by Scott Hechinger. He's the founder and executive director of Zealous. He's an attorney, former public defender and a law professor as well. Scott, welcome to Sea Change Radio. Scott Hechinger (SH) | 01:50 - Thanks for having me on. Great to be here. Alex Wise (AW) | 01:53 - So, first, why don't we talk about your role as a public defender? You're not actively serving in that role, but it's an important part of your background and maybe explain what the mission of Zealous is and how that kind of all works within that framework. Scott Hechinger (SH) | 02:10 - So Zealous really is an outgrowth of the work, um, uh, that I was doing for close to a decade as a public defender in Brooklyn. And frankly, going back further than that, my first law job during law school down in New Orleans, uh, in one of the first intern classes, most people don't know this, but there was no full-time public defender office in New Orleans before Katrina in one of the strange silver linings that came from Katrina was that a lot of social justice attention got focused down in New Orleans. Um, and one of the ways that it happened was that a lot of public defenders went, came in from around the country and said, look, we wanna change the system of private attorneys who are friends with the prosecutors and friends with the judges, having this kind of old boys club plea deal system and actually get some folks in there that were trying to challenge the system, which is what public defenders do. The role of public defenders is to provide people who can't afford representation with meaningful Zealous counsel in court, um, in order to, to figure out what's actually happening in the case to, to try to come up with the best case solutions, whether that goes through to trial or before. Um, it's about challenging police misconduct in court. The sad thing is the reality is because of just endemic underfunding and,

This week on Sea Change Radio, we dig into the archives to hear from someone who works to amplify first people’s voices in the fight for climate justice. We speak with the Executive Director of Indigenous Climate Action, Eriel Deranger. We discuss the intersection of the indigenous people’s and the Black Lives Matter movements, take a look at her organization’s climate report, and get an update on the Keystone XL pipeline. Then, we take a breath to learn a bit about ourselves from Bill Plotkin, an author, psychologist and spiritual ecologist. We dive into Plotkin’s teachings, outlined in his book, “The Journey of Soul Initiation,” about moving from adolescence into adulthood (both metaphorically and figuratively), and how we can all evolve as individuals to become better stewards of the planet. Narrator | 00:02 - This is Sea Change Radio covering the shift to sustainability. I'm Alex Wise. Eriel Deranger (ED) | 00:22 - Biden, who was elected in one of his first executive orders, was to cancel the Keystone XL because he acknowledged its implications to the climate crisis, but also to the fact that these projects were abrogating and violating the rights of indigenous communities. Narrator | 00:40 - This week on Sea Change Radio, we dig into the archives to hear from someone who works to amplify first people's voices in the fight for climate justice, we speak with the Executive Director of Indigenous Climate Action, Eriel Deranger. We discuss the intersection of the indigenous peoples and the Black Lives Matter movements, take a look at her organization's climate report and get an update on the Keystone XL Pipeline. Then we take a breath to learn a bit about ourselves from Bill Plotkin, an author, psychologist, and spiritual ecologist. We dive into Plotkin teachings outlined in his book, “The Journey of Soul Initiation,” about moving from adolescence into adulthood (both metaphorically and figuratively), and how we can all evolve as individuals to become better stewards of the planet. Alex Wise (AW) | 01:45 - I am joined now on Sea Change Radio by Eriel Deranger. She is the Executive Director of Indigenous Climate Action. Eriel, welcome to Sea Change Radio. Eriel Deranger (ED) | 01:56 - Thank you for having me. Alex Wise (AW) | 01:57 - Why don't you first tell us the mission of your organization? ED | 02:02 - Well, we're Canada's premier and only indigenous led climate justice organization, and our organization was really founded out of a need for indigenous communities to have a central organization that focused on indigenous led climate justice. And our main mandate is to create resources and tools and training for indigenous communities to be leaders in driving indigenous led climate solutions and addressing Canada's climate crisis. AW | 02:33 - And you have a new indigenous climate policy white paper out that maybe you can summarize and then talk about what you're hoping it turns into? ED | 02:44 - Yeah, so, you know, some of the, the biggest challenges are is why do we need indigenous led climate solutions? It's a big question. You know, Canada constantly states that the relationship with indigenous communities is one of their highest priorities in the country, yet we're still developing policy and particularly climate policy without the participation of indigenous peoples. And some of the questions sort of from the larger ENGO and government world is, well, what's wrong with the policy? Like, what's wrong with the actual policy that we're creating? And so this critique looks at a how the processes for the development of the Pan-Canadian framework on clean growth and climate change and a healthy environment and healthy economy. The two primary climate policies and plans of the Canadian government excluded, well really investigates whether these plans aim at the root causes of climate change, while also respecting and meaningfully including indigenous peoples and our rights knowledges and approac...

For many, along with all that good cheer, the holidays bring a bunch of food-related conundrums: what to bring to the pot luck, what to eat and not eat at the company party, what gifts to buy for our culinary-focused friends and family, and how to be ecologically responsible without compromising taste. This week on Sea Change Radio, we speak with a food expert who can help solve these holiday food puzzlers. Gigi Berardi is a professor of food studies and geography at Western Washington University. Her new book, FoodWISE lays out ways to make better decisions about what we eat. We discuss the differences between frozen and canned foods, take a look at “Big Organic,” and examine how the food industry’s misuse of the word “healthy” has warped its meaning. Narrator | 00:02 - This is Sea Change Radio, covering the shift to sustainability. I'm Alex Wise. Gigi Berardi (GB) | 00:14 - Choose whole, be informed, choose sustainable, and go for the experience. Narrator | 00:24 - For many, along with all that good cheer, the holidays bring a bunch of food-related conundrums: what to bring to the pot luck, what to eat and not eat at the company party, what gifts to buy for our culinary-focused friends and family, and how to be ecologically responsible without compromising taste. This week on Sea Change Radio, we speak with a food expert who can help solve these holiday food puzzlers. Gigi Berardi is a professor of food studies and geography at Western Washington University. Her new book, FoodWISE lays out ways to make better decisions about what we eat. We discuss the differences between frozen and canned foods, take a look at “Big Organic,” and examine how the food industry’s misuse of the word “healthy” has warped its meaning. Alex Wise (AW) | 01:40 - I am joined now on Sea Change Radio by Gigi Berardi. She's a professor of food studies and geography at Western Washington University, and her new book is Food Wise Gigi. Welcome to Sea Change Radio. Gigi Berardi (GB) | 01:52 - Thank you, Alex. Alex Wise (AW) | 01:54 - So you have a new book coming out early 2020 entitled Food Wise. What is the Wise approach? It's an acronym. Why don't you explain to our listeners what the Wise approach to sourcing and preparing meals is all about? GB | 02:09 - Right. Uh, Wise is an acronym, and the acronym is Whole for W. Informed is the I, S is sustainable and E is experience. So experience-based thinking. And I had thought about using Wisest and that would've allowed me to add a T for Tasty, but I did not. And so in its simplest form it represents an approach to dealing with food choices. So this book is a little different in that it's not about food so much as about food choices, which are really difficult for many of us to make. AW | 02:54 - So is it for consumers who are going to the store shopping and the choices that they have to make when they get home? GB | 03:02 - Precisely. AW | 03:03 - What are some of the biggest challenges that you think that consumers are facing in today's marketplace? GB | 03:10 - Time and money. Uh, so, uh, in particular, I mean, I think people can choose wisely and find, uh, inexpensive foods and, uh, inexpensive ways to cook, but then it comes down to time, and that is, you know, valuing time, the time it takes to cook, to prepare a meal, to invite friends, uh, over and, um, to be hospitable. Uh, so I think that that time is a, a real limiting factor. And, um, I should say that when I wrote this book, I was really trying to address my students, uh, as well as friends, family, colleagues, uh, and other people I work with. And students are very busy with school and also are on tight budgets. And so they find it very difficult to, uh, to find the time and money, but, um, to cook. But in one of my classes we've got, uh, 150 students, and part of the class is cooking for a potluck. So we have potlucks with 150 students and 50 students cook at a time.

Depending on your point of reference, the term Amazon may evoke the mega-retailer or a vast South American forest. This week on Sea Change Radio we are speaking about the latter with author and conservation scientist Tim Killeen. We talk about his work in the Amazon region, his upcoming book, and what drew him to study this enormous, fragile ecosystem. We also learn about the policies that have contributed to an approximate 20% deforestation of the Amazon, discuss biocommerce in the area, and hear about some optimistic signs of regeneration.

Did you see any of the celebrity-backed ads for the slew of now defunct crytpo businesses? Did they leave you scratching your head at the time? It was precisely the inscrutability of cryptocurrency that allowed scammers like Sam Bankman-Fried to pocket billions through crypto exchanges like FTX. That company’s pitch was essentially “it’s OK if you don’t understand how all of this works, we’ll handle it for you.” But then, of course, the bubble burst. This week on Sea Change Radio, we check in with Matthew Slater, a community currency engineer and blockchain expert with whom we spoke back in 2011, at the dawn of the alternative currency movement. Slater boils down the past decade of cryptocurrency mayhem into layman’s terms and explains why, despite the many bumps along the way, he still believes in a financial system based on what he terms “trade justice.” Narrator | 00:02 - This is Sea Change Radio covering the shift to sustainability. I'm Alex Wise. Matthew Slater (MS) | 00:21 - If we don't need banks, because we can do finance ourselves. If we can organize, if we can trust each other. And also if we can trade more with each other, then we can start to build a financial power and take financial responsibility in a way that the government is never going to do for us. Narrator | 00:45 - Did you see any of the celebrity-backed ads for the slew of now defunct crytpo businesses? Did they leave you scratching your head at the time? It was precisely the inscrutability of cryptocurrency that allowed scammers like Sam Bankman-Fried to pocket billions through crypto exchanges like FTX. That company’s pitch was essentially “it’s OK if you don’t understand how all of this works, we’ll handle it for you.” But then, of course, the bubble burst. This week on Sea Change Radio, we check in with Matthew Slater, a community currency engineer and blockchain expert with whom we spoke back in 2011, at the dawn of the alternative currency movement. Slater boils down the past decade of cryptocurrency mayhem into layman’s terms and explains why, despite the many bumps along the way, he still believes in a financial system based on what he terms “trade justice.” Alex Wise (AW) | 01:55 - I am joined now on Sea Change Radio by Matthew Slater. He is a community currency engineer. Matthew, welcome back to Sea Change Radio. Matthew Slater (MS) | 02:08 - It's a great honor to be invited back. Alex Wise (AW) | 02:10 - Well, for our listeners, we had a discussion about cryptocurrency and alternative currencies back in 2011, and folks can go to Sea Change Radio dot com and go to the archives there to listen to that. And with, with all that's happened over the last decade plus, I thought it would be a really good opportunity to circle back with you and get your thoughts. As somebody who is an early thinker and engineer of alternative currencies, why don't you, first let's create a glossary for folks who, who may not be well versed in some of these terms like blockchain and cryptocurrency and, and some other terms. Why don't we explain in simple terms the differences between these phrases and words? Matthew Slater (MS) | 02:54 - Well, starting with blockchain and moving on to cryptocurrency, let's say a blockchain is a new technology invented in 2009 that enables people to keep a database when none of those people is actually responsible for the database. None of them or all of them. And that means that the database is basically impossible to hack. And the first use of that new kind of database was to make a currency where the account balances and the transaction records were not kept inside a bank or a central bank. The idea was that we can now do payments without needing to trust these much-hated institutions in our society. So it was a big thing for libertarianism, for example, we are now free from the government, uh, in that very narrow sense AW | 03:53 – Cryptocurrency - how would you define that? MS | 03:56 - Well,

We have all seen the mournful image of an unhappy polar bear isolated on a melting ice floe. It conveys the doom of that one bear as well as his species, and implies that we are all headed in that direction if something is not done about global warming. Inspired by such images and his commitment to ecological conservation, this week’s guest on Sea Change Radio, Zac Unger, ventured up to the great white north to check out the plight of polar bears himself, up close. What he found surprised him. Embedding himself with scientists, Unger learned about how the bears are adjusting their diet, fasting periods and even breeding behavior in response to the warmer, longer summers that climate change is bringing. These adaptations, in conjunction with hunting prohibitions instituted late in the 20th century, have allowed the polar bear population to flourish. The picture that Unger paints of this robust, adaptable species stands in stark contrast to the impression most of us have of the endangered polar bear. While some climate change deniers are exploiting Unger’s work to make their case, it’s important to keep in mind that his book, Never Look a Polar Bear in the Eye, also demonstrates that global warming is indeed happening, and that the only route to survival, for any of us, is adaptation. Unger’s journey and discoveries also raise questions about the eventual impact that the bear’s adaptations will have on polar ecosystems, and critically consider the changing role of scientists as advocates. Narrator | 00:02 - This is Sea Change Radio covering the shift to sustainability. I'm Alex Wise. Zac Unger (ZU) | 00:22 - Polar bears are doing pretty well right now, but there is great potential for disaster in the future. Narrator | 00:33 - We have all seen the mournful image of an unhappy polar bear isolated on a melting ice floe. It conveys the doom of that one bear as well as his species, and implies that we are all headed in that direction if something is not done about global warming. Inspired by such images and his commitment to ecological conservation, this week’s guest on Sea Change Radio, Zac Unger, ventured up to the great white north to check out the plight of polar bears himself, up close. What he found surprised him. Embedding himself with scientists, Unger learned about how the bears are adjusting their diet, fasting periods and even breeding behavior in response to the warmer, longer summers that climate change is bringing. These adaptations, in conjunction with hunting prohibitions instituted late in the 20th century, have allowed the polar bear population to flourish. The picture that Unger paints of this robust, adaptable species stands in stark contrast to the impression most of us have of the endangered polar bear. While some climate change deniers are exploiting Unger’s work to make their case, it’s important to keep in mind that his book, “Never Look a Polar Bear in the Eye,” also demonstrates that global warming is indeed happening, and that the only route to survival, for any of us, is adaptation. Unger’s journey and discoveries also raise questions about the eventual impact that the bear’s adaptations will have on polar ecosystems, and critically consider the changing role of scientists as advocates. Alex Wise (AW) | 02:15 - I am joined now on Sea Change Radio by author Zac Unger Zac. Welcome to Sea Change Radio. Zac Unger (ZU) | 02:20 - Thank you for having me. It's a pleasure. Alex Wise (AW) | 02:21 - Your new book is “Never Look a Polar Bear in the Eye, a family field trip to the Arctic's Edge in Search of Adventure Truth and Many Marshmallows.” In the beginning of the book, you describe how finishing your environmental masters at, at Cal you became a firefighter. What led you to writing this book from that? ZU | 02:39 - Well, you know, I went, I went through undergraduate and graduate school in environmental science, and I'm sort of your, your average, typical green lefty. And, uh,

Carbon offsets are often touted as a solution to humanity’s bad habit of emitting an awful lot of CO2. But how many of us actually know what things like carbon offsets and carbon dioxide removal are all about? This week on Sea Change Radio, we speak with David Ho, a professor in the oceanography department at the University of Hawaii at Manōa and a co-founder of the nonprofit, [C]Worthy. We discuss his recent piece in Nature journal explaining the shortcomings of carbon offsets, learn more about the mission of [C]Worthy, and take a look at how some corporations greenwash the admirable goal of producing net zero goods. Narrator | 00:02 - This is Sea Change Radio, covering the shift to sustainability. I'm Alex Wise. David Ho (DH) | 00:21 - Everybody wants things to be simple. And you know, we, we want to change nothing about our lifestyles. You know, just replace one thing with another plug in an electric vehicle for an internal combustion engine and change nothing about our lifestyles. You know, nothing about driving less. You know nothing about consuming less and for everything to be okay. And I think that's just not the case. Narrator | 00:50 - Carbon offsets are often touted as a solution to humanity’s bad habit of emitting an awful lot of CO2. But how many of us actually know what things like carbon offsets and carbon dioxide removal are all about? This week on Sea Change Radio, we speak with David Ho, a professor in the oceanography department at the University of Hawaii at Manōa and a co-founder of the nonprofit, [C]Worthy. We discuss his recent piece in Nature magazine explaining the shortcomings of carbon offsets, learn more about the mission of [C]Worthy, and take a look at how some corporations greenwash the admirable goal of producing net zero goods. Alex Wise (AW) | 01:46 - I'm joined now on Sea Change Radio by David Ho. David is a professor at the University of Hawaii and its oceanography department, and he's also a co-founder and the director of science at the nonprofit [C]Worthy. David, welcome to Sea Change Radio. David Ho (DH) | 02:01 - Thanks for having me. Alex Wise (AW) | 02:03 - So first, why don't you tell us briefly what [C]Worthy's mission is all about? David Ho (DH) | 02:08 - Yeah, so we're a nonprofit research organization that's focused on building free open source tools for verifying ocean-based carbon dioxide removal. AW | 02:22 - And give us an example of some of these tools in action. DH | 02:26 - Well, so there're mostly going to be modeling tools because it's, it's a hard problem to observe in the ocean, and we need observations to calibrate and evaluate and validate the models. But, eventually they will be numerical models. So we're just building fit for purpose models that will allow people to make sure that they are taking up atmospheric CO2 in the amount that they claim they are, and to make sure that there aren't adverse side effects. AW | 03:04 - Yeah, I was trying to verify the effects that some of these carbon dioxide removal tools or programs have seems to be a challenge. Why don't we create a little glossary for listeners before we dive into some of the, the details of what carbon dioxide removal is all about. Why don't you first kind of define CDR and then maybe also explain net zero and direct air captured. DH | 03:31 - OK, so carbon dioxide removal just means that we use some sort of method to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and store it permanently, or at least for, for a long term in, in some reservoir, either geologically or in the ocean or in products and direct air capture, DAC is one method that people have proposed and, and it's sort of a straightforward sounding thing. You have a machine that sucks the CO2 out of the atmosphere, and then you, you have all this CO2 that you have to do something with and, and one of the most obvious things to do is to sequester it in a geologic reservoir somewhere or make it into rocks.

Humans have been making steel in some form or other for over two millennia - and consistently re-using and recycling it along the way. This week on Sea Change Radio, we speak with Chathu Gamage from the Rocky Mountain Institute to learn more about the steel industry. We look back at the modern history of the steel market, examine the impact that China’s steel manufacturing dominance is having around the globe, and discuss some of the biggest challenges of making steel a net zero product. Narrator | 00:02 - This is Sea Change Radio covering the shift to sustainability. I'm Alex Wise. Chathu Gamage (CG) | 00:19 - When we talk about recycling, it is a bit of stock and flow, and what that really means is, do you have enough to have a recycling loop in the system? And the US is quite good at that because we've built that stock of recycling product over time. We've had buildings and we've had automotive things that use steel in our system for a long time that then come available again to be able to be recycled. And so the recycling rates are quite high, whereas in China, that market is still developing. Narrator | 00:51 - Humans have been making steel in some form or other for over two millennia - and consistently re-using and recycling it along the way. This week on Sea Change Radio, we speak with Chathu Gamage from the Rocky Mountain Institute to learn more about the steel industry. We look back at the modern history of the steel market, examine the impact that China’s steel manufacturing dominance is having around the globe, and discuss some of the biggest challenges of making steel a net zero product. Alex Wise (AW) | 01:30 - I am joined now on Sea Change Radio by Chathu Gamage. She's a principal at the Rocky Mountain Institute in the Climate-aligned Industries division. Chathu, welcome to Sea. Change. Radio, Chathu Gamage (CG) | 01:50 - Great to be here. Alex Wise (AW) | 01:52 - So you and your colleagues produced a paper in March of 2023 entitled, forging a Clean Steel Economy in the United States. And I, and I wanted to break that down for our listeners because I don't think people really understand a lot of the permutations that go into the steel industry. Let's focus on the carbon footprint element of steel. There are goals to create a steel sector in this country that is net zero. What needs to happen to achieve that? It's not a pipe dream, is it? CG | 02:28 - No. And I think maybe just taking a couple of steps back, particularly in the US and when we think about the steel sector, um, it's been around for a long time, um, particularly around the Great Lakes region. It's where it's been, you know, predominantly and historically, uh, showcased. And as over the years and decades and different technologies have occurred, that processing method and the jobs and employment have sort of dwindled away from that region. And what's important to know is there's optionalities to bring that back, but it's, you know, a globally traded commodity. So taking kind of your first question about why do we care about steel, particularly within R M I and what I work on, and to decarbonize this sector, um, it's hugely emissions intensive. The way that steel is typically made is either one of two ways. You either can recycle it, it's, you know, essentially infinitely recyclable, um, or you make it from scratch. So by getting iron ore and uh, splitting that up with sort of Coke to produce a primary product, this primary product is more valuable in the market. It has, you know, less, uh, scrap material that goes into it when you make a final product and therefore that's where a lot of the emissions intensivity comes from because of this coal that's made. AW| 03:54 - So a lot of us are familiar with the steel boom in the US of the early 20th century, but why don't you get us up to speed with what's happened over the last few decades with China and how that plays into your calculations? CG | 04:09 - Yeah,

It's hard not to notice how sky high gas prices are these days. Perhaps the universe is trying to tell us something about our personal transportation choices -- namely, that the status quo is untenable. This week on Sea Change Radio, Daniel Dicker is here to help us wade through the complex world of oil and gas prices. We discuss the various geopolitical facets that influence the prices of this valuable commodity, compare energy policy and consumer habits between the U.S. and the EU, and get Dicker's take on how gas prices may affect the 2024 Presidential election. Narrator | 00:02 - This is Sea Change Radio, covering the shift to sustainability. I'm Alex Wise. Dan Dicker (DD) | 00:16 - The markets are the markets. The markets decide prices, not politicians, but it always falls on deaf ears, and I don't expect it to do otherwise in the future. Narrator | 00:36 - It's hard not to notice how sky high gas prices are these days. Perhaps the universe is trying to tell us something about our personal transportation choices, namely that the status quo is untenable. This week on Sea Change Radio, Daniel Dicker is here to help us wade through the complex world of oil and gas prices. We discuss the various geopolitical facets that influence the prices of this valuable commodity, compare energy policy and consumer habits between the US and the EU, and get Dicker’s take on how gas prices may affect the 2024 presidential election. Alex Wise (AW) | 01:30 - I am joined now on Sea Change Radio by Daniel Dicker. Dan is an oil expert, an author, and people can follow his work and writings at DanDicker.com. Dan, welcome back to Sea Change Radio. Dan Dicker (DD) | 01:47 - Well, thanks, Alex. Always nice to see you. Alex Wise (AW) | 01:49 - It's always nice to see you too, my friend. Every time I get, a little anxious at the pump, which a lot of Americans are doing these days, when I see these prices getting into the $6 range out here in San Francisco, I can't help but think, “why is this happening? And I'd like to know from Dan Dicker, what's up.” So prices have been moving up steadily since June. You could read a lot of different reasons into why, but what do you attribute it mostly to? DD | 02:22 - Uh, well, I mean, there is in general a cycle that works through the oil markets. It's so common and you see it so often that sometimes predicting where prices are gonna go, while it seems to be a magic trick is anything. But, so with oil, what you generally have is, um, you know, the cycling for whatever reason of prices going very high and then very low. When prices go very high, you get the producers running to pump as much product as they can and, and therefore secure as much profit as they can. And the old saying is that high prices solve high prices, prices. So you get an overflow of product and the product overflows demand, and then prices go down, and then prices go way down. And what you have is a lot of producers who are going broke, forced to shut down production, can't make a living. So you have destructive or destructive nature inside the industry, and then you get a lot less production. And then if you have an event like you're coming out of a pandemic and all of a sudden demand surges again, you'll have a lot of demand. But not a lot of producers left who are capable of I meeting that demand, at least not immediately. So you'll have a lag, and sometimes it's a lag of six, eight months, sometimes a year before you know, the, the, the, uh, supply can catch up to the demand. And, uh, then you have the spiking in prices. And that's exactly what we've gotten over the last, uh, six months. We've had a period of very, very, or relatively low prices that was caused by a number of factors, both fundamental and frankly from, you know, the Biden administration and the Federal Reserve that slammed prices way down and those were unnatural prices. And, uh, they forced a lot of producers to cut back on production.

Have you ever thought about what you'd do to save the planet if you were a billionaire? Well, this week on Sea Change Radio, we speak with billionaire high tech entrepreneur and philanthropist Ziv Aviram and see how he answers that very question. We discuss Aviram's partnership with the Clinton Global Initiative to help fight climate change, hear about his path from the business world to the philanthropy space, and discuss the role that the uber-wealthy can play to address the complex predicament of a warming planet. Then, we dig into the Sea Change Radio archives and revisit part of our discussion with an icon of the environmental movement, Paul Hawken. Narrator | 00:02 - This is Sea Change Radio covering the shift to sustainability. I'm Alex Wise. Ziv Aviram (ZA) | 00:18 - It's clear to me that we are facing the biggest problem humanity ever faced. Narrator | 00:26 - Have you ever thought about what you'd do to save the planet if you were a billionaire? Well, this week on Sea Change Radio, we speak with billionaire high tech entrepreneur and philanthropist, Ziv Aviram, and see how he answers that very question. We discuss Avi Rahm's partnership with the Clinton Global Initiative to help fight climate change, hear about his path from the business world to the philanthropy space, and discuss the role that the uber wealthy can play to address the complex predicament of a warming planet. Then we dig into the Sea Change Radio archives and revisit part of our discussion with an icon of the environmental movement. Paul Hawken. Alex Wise (AW) | 01:15 - I am joined now on Sea Change Radio by Ziv Aviramm. He's an entrepreneur and a philanthropist, and he's the co-founding chairman of Eco Bridge. Ziv, welcome to Sea Change Radio. Ziv Aviram (ZA) | 01:30 - Thank you very much for having me. Alex Wise (AW) | 01:32 - So first, why don't you explain this new venture, EcoBridge. What is its mission? Ziv Aviram (ZA) | 01:37 - This morning, President Clinton and I were together on stage and announced about new fund. We call it EcoBridge, which is a climate tech fund, where the intention is to invest in cutting edge technologies that can reduce the climate edge effects. And we intend to raise between one to $2 billion and start as quickly as possible to invest in companies in a global scale, not just, uh, in Israel, or not just in the United States, but globally. And to find those companies that have the potential and capability to improve the dramatic and the serious disaster that we're facing with the climate change and in a very efficient way. AW | 02:26 - And will it have any particular spotlight on the Fertile Crescent region and its challenges that it has with water and, and other heat related problems? ZA | 02:37 - Climate is a very wide field and anything, almost everything related somehow to the climate change because it's so wide, we are going to concentrate on one, two, maybe two and a half fields because you cannot be expert in everything and you have to decide what is your emphasis because then you have the right analysts, the right people, and then you can dig in this specific field much more. And it starts from agriculture, food construction, and the materials for constructions green energy, carbon capture, green energy. So everything eventually somehow related to, uh, climate change. So we are still in the process to decide what are the fields that we are going to invest. We have already pretty good idea, but not announced about this yet. And the problem is huge. The problem is so big that I was amazed when I was exposed to the potential climate change outcomes. I couldn't stop in thinking about this. And after I was exposed, I decided that I'm going to put most of my energy and to try to solve this problem. AW | 03:56 - Why don't you take a step back and talk about some of the technologies that you've been involved in as an entrepreneur and the, and the problems they've addressed.

Did you know that over 100,000 tennis balls are used in an average grand slam tournament? And unfortunately, they cannot be recycled. Given the plethora of tennis matches played across the globe in an average year, we are talking about roughly 330 million tennis balls going into landfills annually. This week on Sea Change Radio, we speak with Associated Press reporter, James Martinez, an avid tennis fan and player, who serves up some insight into tennis ball manufacturing, this waste issue, and some of the creative efforts to help solve the problem – and show the planet a little love. Narrator 00:02 - This is Sea Change Radio covering the shift to sustainability. I'm Alex Wise. James Martinez (JM) 00:18 - You can't win every match. You're, you're not, not always gonna play your best, but you do get a sense of satisfaction out of opening a new can of tennis balls. It's like a fresh start, and it's one of the great experiences of, of tennis, but there is a, there is a dark side. Narrator 00:45 - Did you know that over a hundred thousand tennis balls are used in an average Grand Slam tournament? And unfortunately, they cannot be recycled given the plethora of tennis matches played across the globe in an average year. We're talking about roughly 330 million tennis balls going into landfills annually this week on Sea Change Radio, we speak with Associated Press reporter James Martinez, an avid tennis fan and player who serves up some insight into tennis ball manufacturing, this waste issue and some of the creative efforts to help solve the problem and show the planet a little love. Alex Wise (AW) 01:54 - I am joined now on Sea Change Radio by James Martinez. He's the Breaking News Investigations Editor for the Associated Press. He's also taught investigative journalism at Princeton University. James, welcome to Sea Change Radio. James Martinez (JM) 02:07 - Thank you for, uh, for having me. Alex Wise (AW) 02:09 - I should have also mentioned that you're a huge tennis fan and player, and you cover the US Open for the ap. The US Open just happened and you had an interesting piece that I wanted to discuss with you entitled “Tennis Ball Wasteland: Game Grapples with a Fuzzy Yellow Recycling Problem.” I never really thought about tennis balls being such a problem, but they are. Why don't you expand? James Martinez (JM) 02:34 - Well, they are, and that's one of the, uh, the things that I, uh, look into when I cover the US Open. I'm not necessarily focused on the matches. We have sports writers who are very good at that. I kind of try to focus on, uh, the things that are going on outside the lines that maybe you haven't thought about before. And one of them is this recycling problem that, uh, tennis has with its balls. And nearly all of the 330 million tennis balls made worldwide each year eventually get chucked in the garbage, uh, with most ending up in landfills, uh, where they can take more than 400 years to decompose. And that's all because tennis balls, uh, by the very nature, are complex objects that are extremely hard to recycle, and the industry has yet to develop a ball to make that easier. And what's more, tennis balls are one of these objects that are very complicated to make. And there's a, a whole process in the factory. It's a 26-step process to make a tennis ball, and yet they are thrown away very quickly. Uh, so this whole thing is a, a conundrum for tennis coming against the backdrop of the recent US Open. Alex Wise (AW) 03:58 - Yes. I was surprised that in the article you mentioned that a grand slam tournament goes through a hundred thousand balls. That's stunning. James Martinez (JM) 04:05 - It is. And you don't think about it because when you watch on television, you see the big stars play Kovich, uh, Carlos Alcaraz, and it's say, oh, well this is just a, these are just a few matches. How can they go through this many balls? But you have to consider that the US Open is actually a three-wee...

If you’ve happened to tune in to MSNBC or CNN on a day when a massive hurricane is not pummeling a coastal region, you might think that the only major news in this country concerns the many legal issues facing a certain former president of the United States. But, according to this week’s guest on Sea Change Radio, John Stoehr, there are plenty of other pressing political issues worth analyzing. First, we examine the recent mass shooting in Jacksonville, Florida, including what it tells us about the white supremacy movement and how the right-wing actually benefits politically from these events. Then, we discuss whether the reversal of Roe v. Wade has placated Republicans or if it has just paved the way for restricting other basic freedoms like contraception. And yes, we still manage to sneak in a few minutes to talk about the upcoming trials of the 45th president. Narrator 00:02 - This is Sea Change Radio, covering the shift to sustainability. I'm Alex Wise. John Stoehr (JS) 00:20 - I think our rhetoric would be much healthier if we dropped the whole idea of America being a special place, because we're not that different from other democracies. And we'd know this if we, if we paid attention to other democracies, but, you know, Americans typically don't. Narrator 00:34 - If you've happened to tune into MSNBC or CNN on a day when a massive hurricane is not pummeling a coastal region, you might think that the only major news in this country concerns the many legal issues facing a certain former president of the United States. But according to this week's guest on Sea Change Radio John Stoehr, there are plenty of other pressing political issues worth analyzing. First, we examine the recent mass shooting in Jacksonville, Florida, including what it tells us about the white supremacy movement and how the right wing actually benefits politically from these events. Then we discuss whether the reversal of Roe v Wade has placated Republicans, or if it has just paved the way for restricting other basic freedoms like contraception. And yes, we still manage to sneak in a few minutes to talk about the upcoming trials of the 45th President. I am joined now on Sea Change Radio by John Stoehr. He is the founder of the editorial board. People should go to editorial board.com to check it out. John, welcome back to Sea Change Radio. John Stoehr (JS) 01:57 - Thanks for having me again, Alex. Alex Wise (AW) 01:58 - Always a pleasure to talk to you, my friend. So first I feel like we should probably give the latest mass shooting its due. The Jacksonville massacre was ugly, as they all are, but the politics of this one were unavoidable because it happened right in the state where Ron DeSantis is running for president and, and it had race and guns and pretty much all the terrible stuff that were faced with, with a, the candidacy of a DeSantis. So anybody who hasn't been following it, give us a little summary of it and your analysis if you can. John Stoehr (JS) 02:38 - Sure. Well, uh, on August 26th, a 21 year old white supremacist entered a Dollar Store in Jacksonville, Florida, and, uh, he shot three black people to death before shooting himself to death. Um, he, uh, was armed with a semi-automatic rifle, an AR 15, and a semi-automatic pistol, a Glock, uh, that he had purchased legally, uh, even though he was involved in domestic violence incident in 2016. And he was involuntarily committed, uh, for a mental health examination. The year following, um, basically my, my thesis is that, um, this shooter, whose name I don't use, um, because I don't want to glorify him, uh, is part of what I think of as the Republican Party's para paramilitary wing. These are people who are reacting to liberal values and democratic politics in that they believe liberal values and democratic politics are a threat to their way of life. Um, I tend to think of these, uh, and another piece in the editorial board, I describe him as one of what,

This week on Sea Change Radio, we speak to environmental reporter Neel Dhanesha of Heatmap to learn about his new media startup, discuss the landmark climate case Held v. Montana and take a look at the lesser prairie chicken and why the plight of this dancing bird is no laughing matter. Narrator (00:02): This is Sea Change Radio, covering the shift to sustainability. I'm Alex Wise. Neel Dhanesha (ND) (00:26): The argument is often the economic one. It's sort of like why does this one species' life matter when there's so much potential money on the line? Narrator (00:37): This week on Sea Change Radio, we speak to environmental reporter Neel DHANESHA of Heatmap to learn about his new media startup, discuss the landmark climate case held versus Montana, and take a look at the Lesser Prairie Chicken and why the plight of this dancing bird is no laughing matter. I am joined now on Sea Change Radio by Neel Dhanesha. He is a founding staff writer at Heatmap. Neel, welcome back to Sea Change Radio. Neel Dhanesha (ND) (01:28): Thanks for having me back. Alex Wise (AW) (01:30): We had you on when you were a reporter for Vox and now you are at Heatmap. Tell our listeners a little bit more about this startup of yours. Neel Dhanesha (ND) (01:39): Yeah, so Heatmap is the climate news startup. We basically sort of are operating under the idea that climate connects to every part of life, and we really want to help demystify the various ways that climate change affects our readers and how the energy transition will work and how readers can become part of that change Alex Wise (AW) (02:05):And people can follow you and your colleagues at Heat Map News. ND (02:10): That's right. AW (02:11): Let's start at one of your recent pieces that you and your colleagues have been following this Held v. Montana case, which was a pretty interesting climate rights case and they won and that was very encouraging. Why don't you take us back, though, to the genesis of this case before you get us up to speed on what it means moving forward. ND (02:34): Yeah, so Held v. Montana, it's a case that was brought by a group of youth plaintiffs who are represented by a nonprofit law organization called Children's, sorry, by a nonprofit law firm called Our Children's Trust. And what they did is they sued the state of Montana for violating the state of Montana because they said that the state had violated their state constitutionally mandated right to a healthy and safe environment. And this case is kind of unique because it leaned upon a constitutional vision in Montana State constitution, which guaranteed the citizens of Montana a right to a safe and healthful environment. And that gave them really interesting standing in a way that didn't really exist in previous climate lawsuits. And so this was one of the first of its kind to go to trial in the way that it did. And a couple of weeks ago, the judge ruled in their favor. AW (03:47): And how did these kids come together? What was the inspiration behind it and who organized this movement? ND (03:56): So the inspiration behind it was essentially all these people had grown up in Montana and they'd seen how the landscape around them was changing and how their own access to natural resources was diminishing because of climate change and climate impacts. And I don't entirely remember how they came together. I just know that 17, I believe youth plaintiffs came together. They joined forces with our Children's Trust, which is this environmental legal nonprofit and brought this case to court. AW (04:32): And is this a federal ruling and will it be appealed? Where do we see this case moving and what should the impact be if it holds? ND (04:42): Right. So this was a case in Montana State Court, which means that it remains within the state's legal system. And what they were doing is they were suing specifically over a piece of legislation that the Montana legislature had passed that essen...

In discussions about climate change we talk a lot about carbon dioxide, and with good reason. But did you know that per molecule, methane actually traps more atmospheric heat than CO2? This week on Sea Change Radio, we are speaking with Jon Goldstein of the Environment Defense Fund to learn about the fight to regulate and reduce methane emissions. We look at data from his organization’s recent nationwide survey on oil and gas-related emissions, discuss potential benefits from the methane provisions in the Inflation Reduction Act, and get an update on efforts to address leakage from old, abandoned oil wells. 00:02 Narrator - This is Sea Change Radio covering the shift to sustainability. I'm Alex Wise. 00:21 Jon Goldstein (JG) - Senators like Ben Ray Lujan from New Mexico and Senator Cramer from North Dakota saw this problem, and were successful in getting in to the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. Millions of dollars from the federal government to states to get these wells plugged. And so that's work that's going on right now is creating jobs in these communities cleaning up a source of pollution that have been sitting out there for far too long? 00:50 Narrator - In discussions about climate change we talk a lot about carbon dioxide, and with good reason. But did you know that per molecule, methane actually traps more atmospheric heat than CO2? This week on Sea Change Radio, we are speaking with Jon Goldstein of the Environment Defense Fund to learn about the fight to regulate and reduce methane emissions. We look at data from his organization’s recent nationwide survey on oil and gas-related emissions, discuss potential benefits from the methane provisions in the Inflation Reduction Act, and get an update on efforts to address leakage from old, abandoned oil wells. 01:47 Alex Wise (AW) - I'm joined now on Sea Change Radio by Jon Goldstein. He's the senior director of legislative and regulatory affairs at the Environmental Defense Fund, the EDF. Jon, welcome to Sea Change Radio. 01:58 Jon Goldstein (JG) - Thank you for having me. Great to be here. 02:01 Alex Wise (AW) - So you and your team have been focusing a lot on methane emissions and tasked with trying to support regulations that will reduce methane emissions, EDF action and some of your partners just came out with a pretty wide-ranging poll in terms of geography, some pretty encouraging. Why don't you share them with our list? 02:25 JG - Happy to, so yeah. So I work on reducing methane emissions from oil and gas development and that's important because it's such a powerful greenhouse gas. You know more than 80 times more powerful pound per pound than carbon dioxide in driving climate change in the short term. It's also the primary component of. Natural gas, so you know methane when you stop a you're doing good for the climate and you're keeping more energy in in the pipe and you know, so it's kind of a win-win and I think that's reflected in this polling. Just did that shows really strong. Support for the efforts that the Biden administration, through the Environmental Protection Agency, are taking to try and get regulations in place nationwide to reduce methane pollution from oil and gas development. So what this poll found was that 68% of voters. Across battleground states. So these are places like Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, you know the states that are you're going to be watching on election night and seeing, you know, who's going to win that that presidential election. 68% of voters in those states support the EPA's proposal to put strong limits on oil and gas pollution, and that's, I think, really interesting. We know a lot. We hear a lot about you. Know how divisive? Certain environmental issues are, and you know the tripwires that they can cause with voters. The methane issue is one that we really see strong bipartisan support for, and that's I think again, because of, you know, its climate benefits and the fact that, you know, you,

They say charity is a virtue, but sometimes it's a little more complicated. The donor advised fund or DAF, has been a financial instrument for charitable giving in the United States for nearly a century - it's a useful tool for wealthy individuals to make philanthropic donations. But as the inequality gap continues to expand in this country, the DAF has come under increased scrutiny as people push for transparency within the moneyed class. In 2018 the New York Times published a piece asserting that donor advised funds are being exploited by high net worth individuals as a way to shelter them from capital gains taxes. And more recently, this week's guest on Sea Change Radio, Alex Kotch, wrote a piece for Optout and The New Republic examining the role of DAF fiduciary sponsors, particularly big investment firms like Fidelity, Vanguard, and Schwab. We discuss this article, learn more about DAFs, and explore the question of who should be held accountable when a donor advised fund facilitates donations to red-flagged hate groups. 00:02 Narrator - This is Sea Change Radio covering the shift to sustainability. I'm Alex Wise. 00:27 Alex Kotch (AK) - I think it's a pretty reasonable thing to, you know, ask an organization whether it's a company or it's a charity, to be responsible for the money that they are giving out. 00:38 Narrator - They say charity is a virtue, but sometimes it's a little more complicated. The donor advised fund or DAF, has been a financial instrument for charitable giving in the United States for nearly a century - it's a useful tool for wealthy individuals to make philanthropic donations. But as the inequality gap continues to expand in this country, the DAF has come under increased scrutiny as people push for transparency within the moneyed class. In 2018 the New York Times published a piece asserting that donor advised funds are being exploited by high net worth individuals as a way to shelter them from capital gains taxes. And more recently, this week's guest on Sea Change Radio, Alex Kotch, wrote a piece for Optout and The New Republic examining the role of DAF fiduciary sponsors, particularly big investment firms like Fidelity, Vanguard, and Schwab. We discuss this article, learn more about DAFs, and explore the question of who should be held accountable when a donor advised fund facilitates donations to red-flagged hate groups. 02:03 Alex Wise (AW) - I'm joined now on Sea Change Radio by Alex Kotch. He is an investigative journalist and the co-founder of Opt Out Media Foundation. Alex, welcome to Sea Change Radio. 02:16 Alex Kotch (AK) - Thanks a lot. Great to be here. 02:17 Alex Wise (AW) - So explain to listeners what Opt Out is - the Opt Out Media Foundation is a pretty bold new initiative. 02:25 AK - Yeah, we're a 501C3 nonprofit charity currently based in New York City, and we advocate for financially independent news media. So we have a website with curated news content. We have an app that we've we developed ourselves. It's a news aggregation app with hand curated news. Content as well from hundreds of financially independent, trustworthy newsrooms around the US. That includes national players like the New Republic, the nation, the Intercept and a lot of state and local newsrooms around the country. So you know, our goal is to elevate these independent media outlets and eventually through our app and our website and our newsletters, bring them into the national conversation and hopefully have them compete. For air time, you know, with big corporate media outlets. So we also do original reporting and we do collaborations often with members of our network like the New Republic. 03:22 AW - And there's a piece that you published in partnership with the New Republic that I wanted to speak with you about today. It's entitled blood money. How America's biggest charities are bankrolling hate groups without anyone noticing. So you did a lot of research into understanding the donor ...

This week on Sea Change Radio we dig into the archives to first speak with author and Bloomberg Opinion columnist Adam Minter about the world of autonomous vehicles. We examine the impact autonomous vehicles might have on rural America, look at an appealing test program in a sparsely populated area of Minnesota, and explore how the elimination of drivers might assist those who cannot – or should not – be driving. Then, we hear from automotive journalist, Jim Motavalli to discuss the puzzling decision by General Motors to shelve the Chevy Bolt, get some recommendations on new EV automakers and models, and talk about America’s ongoing fascination with big old gas-guzzling trucks and SUVs.

If you were a kid in the 1970s, you undoubtedly were at least a little terrified of going into the ocean – a fear placed squarely in your subconscious by the Jaws movies. But, according to the International Shark Attack File, there are only around 72 unprovoked shark attacks around the world per year, a relatively small amount given the many sleepless nights and swimming phobias arising from a fear of sharks. The far scarier reality is that the much-demonized shark has long been under attack itself from its greatest predator: us. Humans kill well over 100 million sharks in any given year. This week on Sea Change Radio, we speak with Mongabay reporter, Philip Jacobson, to learn about the illegal shark-finning practices of one Chinese-based fishing company, why he believes this practice is far from unique, and what efforts are being taken to save this important apex predator. 00:02 Narrator – This is Sea Change Radio covering the shift to sustainability. I’m Alex Wise. 00:22 Philip Jacobson (PJ) – You know one of the policies that are put in place to combat shark finning. It’s not necessarily banning the trade, but you tell boats, OK, you can’t just keep the fin and throw the body away you have to keep the whole shark. 00:37 Alex Wise (AW) – If you were a kid in the 1970s, you undoubtedly were at least a little terrified of going into the ocean – a fear placed squarely in your subconscious by the Jaws movies. But, according to the International Shark Attack File, there are only around 72 unprovoked shark attacks around the world per year, a relatively small amount given the many sleepless nights and swimming phobias arising from a fear of sharks. The far scarier reality is that the much-demonized shark has long been under attack itself from its greatest predator: us. Humans kill well over 100 million sharks in any given year. This week on Sea Change Radio, we speak with Mongabay reporter, Philip Jacobson, to learn about the illegal shark-finning practices of one Chinese-based fishing company, why he believes this practice is far from unique, and what efforts are being taken to save this important apex predator. 01:48 Alex Wise (AW) – I’m joined now on Sea Change Radio by Philip Jacobson. He is a journalist for Mongabay and he’s based in Chiang Mai, Thailand. Phil, welcome to Sea Change Radio. 01:57 Philip Jacobson (PJ) – Hi Alex, thanks for having me on the show, it’s great to be here. 02:00 AW – Well, it’s a pleasure to have you been reading your work? You’ve done a lot of investigative work into the shark finning practice that is running rampant across the Asian seafood marketplace. First, why don’t you explain why sharks are being hunted and why the sharkfin has become this, almost an outlier in how we process seafood. This is not like just catching tuna. It seems very wasteful and a dangerous precedent. 02:33 PJ – Sure, so shark fins are eaten as part of shark fin soup, which is a delicacy in parts of Asia, especially East Asia. It’s been a pretty big industry for the past several decades, especially as China’s middle class kind of exploded grew a lot in 80s nineties, 2000s, and that created a lot of new demand for shark fins. Soup used to be served at weddings. Plot and official functions in China. So there’s been some effort to kind of crack down on it in recent years by the Chinese government. They’ve banned it at official government functions, for example. Just because you know of the trouble that sharks are in from a conservation perspective, many shark populations going extinct because of the demands, especially for their fins. Nowadays, sharks are being hunted more and more for their meat, which is also eaten, but I guess that’s another story – I published recently with Manga Bay focused on a shark finning operation that was taking place across the fleet of a a major tuna fishing company, a Chinese company. 03:51 AW – Yes, and I I wanted to ask you about that because in the in the piece you ...

Did you know that India accounts for about one-third of the world's one billion head of cattle? Last week on Sea Change Radio, we spoke to the head of Rumin8, a startup that's working to reduce methane emissions from cattle. This week, we take a more academic approach to the cow burp problem - our guest is Dr. Joseph McFadden, a professor of cattle biology at Cornell University. We learn more about the science of enteric fermentation in ruminants, examine the various technological solutions aiming to reduce these methane emissions, and discuss the hurdles that the feed additive industry faces, and why they are particularly challenging in countries like India. 00:02 Narrator - This is Sea Change Radio, covering the shift to sustainability. I'm Alex Wise. 00:32 Joseph McFadden (JM) - We just need to have more investment, more investment in scientific research, to answer the tough questions when it comes to these feed additives, there's going to be a lot of high demand for various clinical trials to improve their efficacy and safety. And I see that improving, but I don't think we're anywhere where we need to be with the current funding climate - it's going to have to improve. 00:55 Narrator - Did you know that India accounts for about one-third of the world's one billion head of cattle? Last week on Sea Change Radio, we spoke to the head of Rumin8, a startup that's working to reduce methane emissions from cattle. This week, we take a more academic approach to the cow burp problem - our guest is Dr. Joseph McFadden, a professor of cattle biology at Cornell University. We learn more about the science of enteric fermentation in ruminants, examine the various technological solutions aiming to reduce these methane emissions, and discuss the hurdles that the feed additive industry faces, and why they are particularly challenging in countries like India. 01:56 Alex Wise (AW) - I'm joined now on Sea Change Radio by Doctor Joseph McFadden. He is a professor of dairy cattle biology at Cornell University. Joe, welcome to Sea Change Radio. 02:06 Joseph McFadden (JM) - Thanks for the invitation to talk. 02:08 Alex Wise (AW) - For the last decade or so, we've heard a lot about the dangers of methane emissions from cattle, and there's people like yourself who are studying this phenomenon. Are some of the technological breakthroughs that have made you hopeful that we're going to be able to mitigate some of these methane emissions moving? 02:29 JM - So you know, there's a lot of interest right now in developing different technologies that can reduce enteric methane emissions. You know what I find particularly interesting is that these technologies have some efficacy already proven, meaning that depending on the type of perhaps feed additive that's being fed to cows. We might be able to see reductions anywhere from 10:00, but maybe 80%. Unfortunately, you know we're a little bit early in the research process to really determine if any of these sort of technologies are real solutions, right? And so, as a scientific community, we're trying to sort of take a step back for a moment and really make sure that our perspective is holistic. And in that we not only have effective solutions that reduce methane emissions from livestock, but also that these solutions are safe, safe for the animal, and it doesn't really modify meat or milk composition. So it's still safe for human consumption. And we also want to make sure that any potential technology is profitable for the farmer in order to ensure its adoption. 03:36 AW - I asked for some of the solutions first, but why don't you give us kind of a a broader scope of the problems that we're trying to solve? 03:44 JM - So you know, methane emissions represents about it's a high priority in terms of research, simply because agriculture contributes a large percentage of methane emissions from human derived activities. And, you know, one,