Sea Change Radio

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,

When we think about greenhouse gas emissions, automobiles, airplanes, and power plants usually figure more prominently than livestock. The methane produced by cow belching, however, is one of the biggest sources of agricultural greenhouse gas emissions. Fortunately, there are some innovations on the horizon that are promising to help reduce the damage of these gassy cows. This week on Sea Change Radio, we speak to David Messina, the Managing Director of Rumin8, an Australian-based startup that is hoping to transform the cattle industry. The company's main product is a lab-grown feed additive that is designed to significantly reduce methane emissions in ruminants like cattle and sheep. We discuss the problem that Rumin8 is trying to solve, talk about the company's business strategy and hurdles it faces, and take a look at the competitive landscape in the growing feed additive space. 00:02 Narrator - This is Sea Change Radio, covering the shift to sustainability. I'm Alex Wise. 00:19 David Messina (DM) - But I think it'll become standardized. You know, if we achieve and the industry achieves what we want, then it'll become just a standard. It'll be a negative for products that aren't being produced in a climate friendly way within 5 to 10 years. 00:35 Narrator - When we think about greenhouse gas emissions, automobiles, airplanes, and power plants usually figure more prominently than livestock. The methane produced by cow belching, however, is one of the biggest sources of agricultural greenhouse gas emissions. Fortunately, there are some innovations on the horizon that are promising to help reduce the damage of these gassy cows. This week on Sea Change Radio, we speak to David Messina, the Managing Director of Rumin8, an Australian-based startup that is hoping to transform the cattle industry. The company's main product is a lab-grown feed additive that is designed to significantly reduce methane emissions in ruminants like cattle and sheep. We discuss the problem that Rumin8 is trying to solve, talk about the company's business strategy and hurdles it faces, and take a look at the competitive landscape in the growing feed additive space. 01:46 Alex Wise (AW) - I'm joined now on Sea Change Radio by David Messina. He is the managing director of Rumin8. David, welcome to Sea Change Radio. 01:54 David Messina (DM) - Thank you very much. It's a pleasure to be here. 01:57 Alex Wise (AW) - So explain for our listeners the problem Rumin8 is trying to solve what is your technology and how are you trying to change the world. 02:06 David Messina (DM) - We're going after one of the biggest problems in climate at the moment, and that is methane emissions from cattle. It accounts just for that one single issue from 1.2 billion cows, about 4% of total greenhouse gas emissions. We have products that reduce those emissions by a fairly complex process that happens in the stomach or in the rumen of the animal, and we're seeing some really exciting results. 02:35 AW - So we've heard a lot about seaweed being the kind of this new silver bullet that can reduce methane emissions through a cow's burps being reduced by this additive, but I've also read that growing this amount of seaweed might not be scalable, so ruminate is trying to solve that problem by doing it chemically is. 02:56 DM - Correct, yes, it is the exact same bio active that is found in the seaweed. We actually take that product, we manufacture it and we stabilize it in our laboratory and then we produce a product in a in a pharmaceutical manufacturing process. So instead of having to grow the organic product. All the seaweed we're actually able to manufacture and stabilize our product, which means like any factory, you can scale it up very quickly and the faster you can scale it and the easier it is to scale, the cheaper the product is. 03:32 AW - And I realize you're in in testing, but what kind of percentage are we talking about as an additive in ter...

The new generation of veggie burgers do taste more like meat than their sawdust-leaning predecessors. And most agree that plant-based meat alternatives are a step in the right direction, considering the hefty impact that cattle have on the environment. But the Impossible Burgers and Beyond Meats of the world come with their own not-so-insignificant carbon challenges. This week on Sea Change Radio, we speak with environmental reporter Nithin Coca about his research for Vox.com on the impact of these popular plant-based meats on agricultural supply chains around the globe. We talk about the rapid growth of the market sector, take a look at how it affects the coconut oil and cacao butter industries, and, while we are at it, get a snapshot of lab grown meats, as well. 00:02 Narrator - This is Sea Change Radio, covering the shift to sustainability. I'm Alex Wise. 00:18 Nithin Coca (NC) - There's a reason it was included in the European Union's recent deforestation regulations. One of the six commodities included in that is cacao, because of the deforestation risk presented. 00:30 Narrator - The new generation of veggie burgers do taste more like meat than their sawdust-leaning predecessors. And most agree that plant-based meat alternatives are a step in the right direction, considering the hefty impact that cattle have on the environment. But the Impossible Burgers and Beyond Meats of the world come with their own not-so-insignificant carbon challenges. This week on Sea Change Radio, we speak with environmental reporter Nithin Coca about his research for Vox.com on the impact of these popular plant-based meats on agricultural supply chains around the globe. We talk about the rapid growth of the market sector, take a look at how it affects the coconut oil and cacao butter industries, and, while we are at it, get a snapshot of lab grown meats, as well. 01:49 Alex Wise (AW) - I'm joined now on Sea Change Radio by Nithin Coca. He's a freelance environmental journalist based in Japan. Nithin, welcome back to Sea Change Radio. 01:58 Nithin Coca (NC) - It's great to be here again. 01:59 Alex Wise (AW) - So you just submitted a piece for vox.com entitled plant burgers are way better for the planet than beef. But these two ingredients threaten tropical ecosystems, so I wanted to dive into these two ingredients in a deeper way. You really uncover the problems that go into coconut and cacao. Why don't you start at the beginning in terms of these veggie burgers, these plant-based meats and how the industry has evolved over the last few years? 02:32 NC - Happy to. So I remember when I first heard about plant based meat, I think it was at an event like five or six years ago and there was like a big marketing push by these companies, Impossible Foods and Beyond Meat, to come to these environmental and journalism conferences and kind of push this as a more sustainable alternative to normal agriculture. And it was, I think, when I was in in 2019, I was doing several reporting on coconut in Southeast Asia, looking at kind of issues that farmers are facing. And my editor at the publication at the time asked me to, like, look into what are the key companies that are using coconut oil? And I came across the fact that there are key ingredient in both beyond and Impossible Burgers and I thought that was super interesting because they're basically shifting to sourcing an ingredient that only grows in the tropics and only grows in regions where there's high levels of biodiversity and forests and I was concerned, like if plant based meat grows to the scale they want to because, you know, look at the projections, they want to expand by 10 to 20 times in just five or ten years. To rapidly displaced animal meat and hopefully and transform our food system to one that they argue is more sustainable. If that's the case, there's going to be a lot more coconut oil. And, as is covered later cacao butter is an ingredient in Beyond products.

In the 1990s, I recall my grandfather remarking upon the new ubiquity of plastic water bottles, "When did everybody get so thirsty all of a sudden?" Indeed, plastic bottles have been proliferating at an exponential rate since the 1970s - the US alone is responsible for tens of billions of single-use plastic bottle waste every year. This week on Sea Change Radio, we take a look at the bottled water industry through the eyes of a relatively small but innovative player in the space. CEO and co-founder of FloWater, Rich "Raz" Razgaitis, joins us to tell us about his company's product, its mission to help curb America's seemingly bottomless thirst for single-use plastic bottles, and the ways the bottled water industry is similar to Big Tobacco. 00:02 Narrator - This is Sea Change Radio covering the shift to sustainability. I'm Alex Wise. 00:20 Rich Razgaitis (RR) - The solution is create a product so that bottled water is not a necessity in 99% of the cases, and that's what we're focused on is building a new platform and a new way of water that eliminates the need for single use packaged water. 00:36 Narrator - In the 1990s, I recall my grandfather remarking upon the new ubiquity of plastic water bottles, "When did everybody get so thirsty all of a sudden?" Indeed, plastic bottles have been proliferating at an exponential rate since the 1970s - the US alone is responsible for tens of billions of single-use plastic bottle waste every year. This week on Sea Change Radio, we take a look at the bottled water industry through the eyes of a relatively small but innovative player in the space. CEO and co-founder of FloWater, Rich "Raz" Razgaitis, joins us to tell us about his company's product, its mission to help curb America's seemingly bottomless thirst for single-use plastic bottles, and the ways the bottled water industry is similar to Big Tobacco. 01:43 Alex Wise (AW) - I'm joined now on Sea Change Radio by Rich “Raz” Razgaitis. He is the CEO and Co-founder of FloWater. Raz, welcome to Sea Change Radio. 01:52 Rich Razgaitis (RR) - Thanks so much. Great to be here, Alex. Appreciate you having me on the show. 01:55 Alex Wise (AW) - So FloWater is a pretty cool idea. Tell us what the company makes, how FloWater Works, and what your company's mission. 02:04 Rich Razgaitis (RR) - So FloWater is a company that's fundamentally focused on changing the way that we think of water and specifically drinking water. And that basically is everything from how water is treated, transported and consumed. So if you look at the big problem that we see in the market that we're solving for single use plastic water bottles. The reason that people are using single use plastic water bottles and I'm sure we'll talk about some of the stats and the impact of that later. But the reason that people are using them is primarily because they don't like what's coming out of their tap water and we don't have a problem in the US called if I could only find a faucet, we have a problem called. I really don't like what's coming out of the faucet or I don't trust it. And So what FloWater is is a solution to that. And what we're doing is we're building a set of water products that tap into, no pun intended, but you will end up being amazed at how many water puns there are by the end of this podcast that we, we kind of take for granted and don't realize, but what FloWater does is taps into any available water line and takes regular tap water and turns it into the world's best tasting, best drinking, best hydrating water kind of on demand like a beer tap in a way, but with water through this very powerful purification system. So we build these FloWater devices right now, we've got FloWater refill stations that. Out in primarily the B2B sector. And then we also have other products that are FloWater, faucet filters and someday FloWater countertop units, both of which will be or are available for the consumer home. So kind of in essence,

For some time now, ecologists and environmentalists have been promoting life-cycle analyses - calculations of the environmental impact of a product, from the sourcing of materials all the way through to its disposal. While this is still a valid expenditure of effort, our guest today on Sea Change Radio argues that we may need to re-focus more narrowly on the carbon generated at the front-end of an article's life: its production, transportation, delivery, and installation. He asserts that these "upfront carbon" emissions are the more urgent and immediate concerns, and we simply don't have time to focus on the rest of the product's life. This week we welcome back to the show author, environmental journalist, and design expert Lloyd Alter, to discuss his upcoming book, The Story of Upfront Carbon. We learn about the birth of the term, discuss why it's a useful lens for making consumer decisions, and go down a carbon emissions rabbit hole on products like iPhones, electric vehicles, and e-bikes. 00:02 Narrator - This is Sea Change Radio covering the shift to sustainability. I'm Alex Wise. 00:20 Lloyd Alter (LA) - How much is enough? How much do you need to be happy? So put all of this together and I come back to the three words which the whole book is about, which is “use less stuff.” 00:33 Narrator - For some time now, ecologists and environmentalists have been promoting life-cycle analyses - calculations of the environmental impact of a product, from the sourcing of materials all the way through to its disposal. While this is still a valid expenditure of effort, our guest today on Sea Change Radio argues that we may need to re-focus more narrowly on the carbon generated at the front-end of an article's life: its production, transportation, delivery, and installation. He asserts that these "upfront carbon" emissions are the more urgent and immediate concerns, and we simply don't have time to focus on the rest of the product's life. This week we welcome back to the show author, environmental journalist, and design expert Lloyd Alter, to discuss his upcoming book, The Story of Upfront Carbon. We learn about the birth of the term, discuss why it's a useful lens for making consumer decisions, and go down a carbon emissions rabbit hole on products like iPhones, electric vehicles, and e-bikes. 01:51 Alex Wise (AW) - I'm joined now on Sea Change Radio by Lloyd Alter. Lloyd is a lecturer in sustainable design at Toronto Metropolitan University and runs a successful Substack called Carbon Upfront and he's an author and his latest book is called “The Story of Upfront Carbon.” Lloyd, welcome to Sea Change Radio. 02:12 Lloyd Alter (LA) - I'm happy to be here. 02:14 Alex Wise (AW) - So you came up with upfront carbon as a term. It replaced a much less clear term, embodied carbon. Why don't you first explain why this language is important, and then we'll dive into what it means. 02:33 Lloyd Alter (LA) - Well, 20 years ago what they used to talk about was embodied energy which was the energy it took to make something and that kind of made sense, you know, that's the energy that went into it. And when we got worried about carbon rather than energy because we know it's carbon dioxide that's causing the climate change, people started using the term embodied carbon. But it makes no sense. If you look up the dictionary definition of embodied, it means the carbon isn't in it, the carbon is in the atmosphere. It's not embodied at all. It's the opposite of it. So I was sitting around in a Twitter conversation with an architect from Australia and another one from New Zealand, and we started, you know, the New Zealand architect started saying it should be vomited carbon or spit out carbon or something like that. Then George in Australia said, well, what about up front? And I said up front, carbon that's much better. And I wrote about it and that's basically how it came about. And it's now accepted and used almost everywhere in th...

The novelist David Foster Wallace once said, “Good fiction’s job is to comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable.” This week on Sea Change Radio, we speak with author Chuck Collins about his debut novel which centers on Big Oil and climate change. We talk about how he has channeled a life of privilege into a quest to raise awareness about wealth inequality, discuss what it was like to co-author with Bill Gates, Sr. a book advocating for taxing the rich, and explore the unique manner in which fiction reveals truth. 00:02 Narrator - This is Sea Change Radio covering the shift to sustainability. I'm Alex Wise. 00:31 Chuck Collins (CC) - You know, I do think we need images, we need visions of what it begins to look like to get our act together. 00:42 Narrator - The novelist David Foster Wallace once said, “Good fiction’s job is to comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable.” This week on Sea Change Radio, we speak with author Chuck Collins about his debut novel which centers on Big Oil and climate change. We talk about how he has channeled a life of privilege into a quest to raise awareness about wealth inequality, discuss what it was like to co-author with Bill Gates, Sr. a book advocating for taxing the rich, and explore the unique manner in which fiction reveals truth. 01:23 Alex Wise (AW) - I'm joined now on Sea Change Radio by Chuck Collins. Chuck is the director of the Program on Inequality and the Common Good at the Institute for Policy Studies, where he co-edits inequality.org, and he's also an author and his debut novel is entitled “Altar to an Erupting Sun.” Chuck, welcome to Sea Change Radio. 01:45 Chuck Collins (CC) - Great to be here. Thanks for having me. 01:48 Alex Wise (AW) - Why don't you first tell us what motivated you to take a break from a lot of these more real-world issues? You're a prolific writer in the non-fiction world and you cover a lot of inequality issues. What inspired you to dip your toe into the fiction waters here with “Altar to an Erupting Sun?” 02:12 Chuck Collins (CC) - I have written a number of other books and I look back on some of the earlier ones and I sort of feel bad about what I inflicted upon my readers because they're they're kind of boring and what I enjoy reading and what I often delve into his story, whether it's good nonfiction, narrative or fiction I found fiction is kind of an entry point, a gateway into a topic, and so in this case I was interested in exploring sort of how is it we face this impossible news of sort of the ecological crisis we're living through, and how does a community face it? And what's a vision for how we might turn the corner toward survivability. And that that seemed to lend itself to fiction. So, and I just had this story and some characters kind of knocking on my inner door. So I felt a desire to write it as a as a fictional story which gave me a lot of freedom to envision the possibilities for the future. 03:14 Alex Wise (AW) - So you have an interesting back story and they always say that you're supposed to write what you know, and this seems to have an autobiographical bent to it “Altar to an Erupting Sun.” Why don't you give us a little bit of the back story of Chuck Collins? 03:31 CC - Well, you're right. You can only really write what you know. And I have drawn on my life experiences. But there's quite a bit I sort of had to research and develop that that I didn't live through, but that the experience of my main character, Rae Kelleher, was one of being formed. By social movements that she was part of, she also grew up in the Midwest. I grew up in the West, she grew up working class. I grew up privileged, but that, that's a difference. But she was very early on, involved in the clamshell lines, which was a movement to try to keep a nuclear power plant from being built in New England. She was involved in going to Central America in the 1980s, like a lot of thousands of people,

An unusual by-product of the global pandemic was that a lot more people ended up becoming gardeners - one study estimated that over 18 million Americans discovered gardening while spending more time at home. This week on Sea Change Radio, we revisit our 2020 discussion with author and sustainability expert Paul Wheaton about his book, Building A Better World In Your Backyard. Wheaton provides us with some innovative ideas on gardening and permaculture while outlining the many benefits of Hugelkultur techniques. We also look at some home efficiency solutions, including warming up our bodies rather than the air in our homes, and the advantages of using a rocket mass heater. 00:02 Narrator - This is Sea Change Radio covering the shift to sustainability. 00:15 Paul Wheaton (PW) - If you've got an amazing chef, they will find the weeds to be more valuable than your garden plants. And so a chef with a potato and carrots and corn and whatever else is in your regular garden, it seems like they could only go so far with that. But you give them those weeds and you will have something far more amazing to eat. 00:43 Narrator - An unusual by-product of the global pandemic was that a lot more people ended up becoming gardeners - one study estimated that over 18 million Americans discovered gardening while spending more time at home. This week on Sea Change Radio, we revisit our 2020 discussion with author and sustainability expert Paul Wheaton about his book, Building A Better World In Your Backyard. Wheaton provides us with some innovative ideas on gardening and permaculture while outlining the many benefits of Hugelkultur techniques. We also look at some home efficiency solutions, including warming up our bodies rather than the air in our homes, and the advantages of using a rocket mass heater. 01:47 Alex Wise (AW) - I'm joined now on Sea Change Radio by Paul Wheaton. He's an author and a permaculture expert, and his new book is called Building a Better World in Your Backyard - Instead of Being Angry at Bad Guys.” Paul, welcome to Sea Change Radio. 02:01 Paul Wheaton (PW) - Alex, thanks for having me. 02:03 Alex Wise (AW) - Well, this is a pleasure. You are informally known as the Duke of Permaculture. You and your co-author Sean Klassen-Koop have penned a book about maximizing your little space to make a better world. So the opening quote you use in the book is from Frank Zappa – “without deviation from the norm, progress is not possible.” So what kind of progress do you hope to achieve with this book? 02:32 Paul Wheaton (PW) - I hope that I can solve most of the world's biggest problems and so by deviating from the norm. Of course, as Frank put it so well, I kind of feel like it's a long list of things and and a lot of my frustration, which led to writing. The book came from watching An Inconvenient Truth more than a decade ago, and then Al Gore got to the end of the movie. I mean, he starts the movie off by saying, “ohh man, we're in trouble. Here's the problem.” And at the end of the movie, it's like, “here's what you can do, you know, check your tire pressure, buy this light bulb, things of that nature.” And I kind of felt like that stuff is really, really weak. Then later out came another book by Derek Jensen - “Fifty Ways to Stay in Denial as the World Burns,” and he said if all of the United States, if everybody in America did all the things that Al Gore suggested in his book, it would cut 22% off of our collective carbon footprint and at the same time. We gain our footprint, our collective carbon footprint grows 2% each year. So in 11 years, it would be a wash. That really bothered me also and of course Derrick Jensen goes off in a completely different direction. But those two pieces combined made me feel like we need a better list of recipes we need something that's going to make it so that if people want to make a change at home that it makes 10-20 times more change than that simple recipe book.

When you visit the World Wildlife Fund's list of critically endangered species, the first animals named are large, beloved mammals like the African Forest Elephant and the Eastern Lowland Gorilla. While these majestic creatures tug at our heartstrings, there are also a lot of smaller, more unsung organisms that are in grave risk of extinction, like the lowly freshwater mussel. This week on Sea Change Radio, we speak to environmental writer, John Platt, the editor of The Revelator to talk about some of the less glamorous animals that have recently been declared extinct or are on the brink of extinction. First, we take a deep dive into the plight of the ivory-billed woodpecker, a regal swamp-dwelling bird whose demise may or may not have been premature. Then we discuss why Hawaii is referred to by some naturalists as the extinction capital of the world, and look at the ethical quandaries presented by the emerging field of resurrection biology, also known as de-extinction. 00:02 Narrator - This is Sea Change Radio covering the shift to sustainability. I'm Alex Wise. 00:18 John Platt (JP) - The domino effect happens all the time throughout the ecosystem and that's why we're facing major declines right now because it's just a bit of attrition as one thing falls, another falls right behind it. 00:32 Narrator - When you visit the World Wildlife Fund's list of critically endangered species, the first animals named are large, beloved mammals like the African Forest Elephant and the Eastern Lowland Gorilla. While these majestic creatures tug at our heartstrings, there are also a lot of smaller, more unsung organisms that are in grave risk of extinction, like the lowly freshwater mussel. This week on Sea Change Radio, we speak to environmental writer, John Platt, the editor of The Revelator to talk about some of the less glamorous animals that have recently been declared extinct or are on the brink of extinction. First, we take a deep dive into the plight of the ivory-billed woodpecker, a regal swamp-dwelling bird whose demise may or may not have been premature. Then we discuss why Hawaii is referred to by some naturalists as the extinction capital of the world, and look at the ethical quandaries presented by the emerging field of resurrection biology, also known as de-extinction. 01:50 Alex Wise (AW) - I'm joined now on Sea Change Radio by John Platt. John is the editor of the Revelator. John, welcome to Sea Change Radio. 01:57 John Platt (JP) - Glad to be here. 02:00 AW - So for folks who didn't hear our first interview on Sea Change Radio, why don't you explain the mission of your work at the Revelator, chronicling extinction events and wildlife in general? 02:14 John Platt (JP) - Sure, the Revelator is an independent, editorially independent news and commentary site. We're published by the Center for Biological Diversity, and we cover a lot of the things you'd expect from an environmental site, endangered species, climate change, environmental justice. We try to tell stories that aren't being told in other places and try to give bigger context and get a bigger picture story. Not a little news story about a study that's going to come and go in five seconds, but stuff that's going to have a long life and stuff that's going to influence people who are very educated and aware of environmental issues, who are very passionate about it and active in it, people who are activists, scientists, legislators, people who can use the information we publish to make a difference. 02:59 Alex Wise (AW) - And it's not as sexy as the people who cover a specific endangered species going off into the most remote parts of the world to do the real legwork into trying to track these animals. But I think equally important is the work that you do which is trying to be like a central database for all of these species that are on the brink of extinction or extinct, but also carving narratives and trying to tell a story about each indivi...

According to the International Energy Agency, over 14 million electric vehicles, or EVs, are expected to be sold globally in 2023. If this is accurate, EVs would account for about 18 percent of total car sales for the year, a 35 percent increase over 2022. The EV revolution is upon us, and here to help Sea Change Radio listeners decide where to plug-in is automotive journalist, Jim Motavalli. We discuss the puzzling decision by General Motors to shelve the Chevy Bolt, get some recommendations on new EV automakers and models, and examine America’s ongoing fascination with big old gas-guzzling trucks and SUVs. 00:02 Narrator - This is Sea Change Radio, covering the shift to sustainability. I'm Alex Wise. 00:17 Jim Motavalli (JM) - You take a company like, I don't know, Bentley or Lamborghini or one of those. When they come out with an SUV, no matter how crazy it is for their brand concept, it invariably becomes their best-selling vehicle and automakers recognize that. 00:36 Narrator - According to the International Energy Agency, over 14 million electric vehicles, or EVs, are expected to be sold globally in 2023. If this is accurate, EVs would account for about 18 percent of total car sales for the year, a 35 percent increase over 2022. The EV revolution is upon us, and here to help Sea Change Radio listeners decide where to plug-in is automotive journalist, Jim Motavalli. We discuss the puzzling decision by General Motors to shelve the Chevy Bolt, get some recommendations on new EV automakers and models, and examine America’s ongoing fascination with big old gas-guzzling trucks and SUVs. 01:43 Alex Wise (AW) - I'm joined now on Sea Change Radio by Jim Motavalli. He is a freelance automotive journalist. He contributes to publications such as the New York Times, Barron’s, Auto Week, TechCrunch. Jim, welcome back to Sea Change Radio. 01:58 Jim Motavalli (JM) - Great to be on Sea Change Radio. 02:01 Alex Wise (AW) - So we haven't had you on for a couple of years, but I wanted to dive into some of the evolution of the electric vehicle, the EV space, with you last time we talked, Tesla was riding high. It was by far and away the biggest player in in the space, but you were talking about some of these newer names like Rivian coming around to compete with the Teslas. Why don't you first give us a progress report on some of these non-Tesla brands and how they stack up to the Teslas of the world? 02:43 Jim Motavalli (JM) - Well, there's two things happening. One is all the mainstream automakers are introducing EV's, and those are hitting the market. And they're also the startups, and those include Rivian and Lucid have gotten cars on the road, and they're starting to show up in dealerships and compete with test. But none of them have vehicles in sufficient quantities yet to challenge Tesla in the marketplace. I mean, Tesla is still by far the largest seller in the EV market, but I think in terms of quality and appeal, I think we're now seeing vehicles arrival, Tesla. So their absolute and total dominance is kind of threatened by all these startups. There are companies like Bollinger that have launched and gotten out of the market, so no motors was another one, and there's several EV companies that have not made it, but I think at this point we can say that Rivian and Lucid, they're probably going to go the distance and have very credible vehicles and I was just on a week long ride to drive event with Lucid and their cars are very, very impressive. But you know, they're a startup, so sort of have the teething problems of the startup. They still haven't gotten their production in line with what they want it to be. 04:09 AW - How are numbers stacking up overall in terms of what experts were predicting five years ago in terms of the EV market share versus what it is today? When we're talking about production numbers, we're still far away from making that complete transition to an electric fleet,

Back in the 16th century, when England began to run out of trees, it started burning coal. And by 1700, most Brits were using coal as their main source of fuel. But then coal became scarce. To come full circle, today England is burning large amounts of wood again – much of it in the form of wood pellets from the US. Wood has somehow been designated as a renewable energy source since the Kyoto Protocol in 1992 and the repercussions have been devastating. This week on Sea Change Radio, we speak to journalist Justin Catanoso, a journalism professor at Wake Forest University, about the dangers of this latest transition to a fuel source which is leading to deforestation and pollution. We learn about the wood pellet industry, manufacturing giant Enviva, and the wide-ranging problems caused by burning trees. 00:02 Narrator – This is Sea Change Radio covering the shift to sustainability. 00:22 Justin Catanoso (JC) – If more countries just did that one thing, if they shifted their definition of woody biomass from renewable to not renewable and you can make that a caveat because the fact of the matter is woody biomass is in time frames that aren’t relative, that aren’t salient in this particular climate crisis. 00:47 Narrator – Back in the 16th century, when England began to run out of trees, it started burning coal. And by 1700, most Brits were using coal as their main source of fuel. But then coal became scarce. To come full circle, today England is burning large amounts of wood again – much of it in the form of wood pellets from the US. Wood has somehow been designated as a renewable energy source since the Kyoto Protocol in 1992 and the repercussions have been devastating. This week on Sea Change Radio, we speak to journalist Justin Catanoso, a journalism professor at Wake Forest University, about the dangers of this latest transition to a fuel source which is leading to deforestation and pollution. We learn about the wood pellet industry, manufacturing giant Enviva, and the wide-ranging problems caused by burning trees. 02:00 Alex Wise (AW) – I’m joined now on Sea Change Radio by Justin Catanoso. He is an environmental journalist and a professor of journalism at Wake Forest University. Justin, welcome to Sea Change Radio. 02:12 Justin Catanoso (JC) – Thanks, Alex, thanks for having me on. 02:14 Alex Wise (AW) – So you have a piece up on Mongabay entitled “The Netherlands to Stop Paying Subsidies to Untruthful Biomass Firms. This is centering around wood pellets and this is a fuel that you’ve covered extensively. Why is this move by the Netherlands important? 02:35 Justin Catanoso (JC) – Well, let’s talk first about where the move came from. I’ve been a journalist a really long time, Alex, and we hope our reporting has impact and often you never get to see it. But I had a story post on Mongabay a month ago in which I had my own observations of the harvesting of wood for wood pellets by the world’s largest maker of wood pellets, Enviva. But the real important aspect of that story was the very first whistleblower from inside the biomass industry. This was a high-ranking employee at 2 plants at Enviva in the state of North Carolina, which is where you’re reaching me right now and he worked for Enviva for more than two years. He was in charge of all the machines that turned wood and wood chips into wood pellets. He was the maintenance leader and this is the first guy to ever go public from inside the industry, basically calling out Enviva on its environmental credentials on its claims of being environmentally friendly, climate friendly, and a sustainable renewable source of bioenergy. 03:51 AW – So let’s take a step back and explain to our listeners what these wood pellets are – kind of give us a range of the biomass that we’ve heard that that’s a very kind of gentle, generous term biomass. It sounds great, and it sounds like you’re burning your compost pile in the back,

They say home is where the heart is, and it’s also where our story begins today. This week on Sea Change Radio, we talk to two people doing their best to make everyone’s home a happy one. First, we speak to architect Adam Woltag to discuss how sustainability factors into newly constructed buildings. We learn about a high-end luxury apartment building in Honolulu that is incorporating some cutting-edge technologies to conserve both power and water, examine how consumer demand for environmentally conscientious buildings continues to increase, and look at how this correlates to office spaces as well. Then, we dig into the archives and speak to Shamus Roller, the Executive Director of the National Housing Law Project, about housing challenges, evictions, and homelessness. 00:02 Narrator - This is Sea Change Radio covering the shift to sustainability. I'm Alex Wise. 00:23 Adam Woltag - You have all of these, these wonderful companies here in the Bay Area that are pushing hard and achieving higher standards and putting that out there to attract the same community that wants to be a part of and support that effort to be more sustainable and work in more sustainable environments. 00:41 Narrator - They say home is where the heart is, and it’s also where our story begins today. This week on Sea Change Radio, we talk to two people doing their best to make everyone’s home a happy one. First, we speak to architect Adam Woltag to discuss how sustainability factors into newly constructed buildings. We learn about a high-end luxury apartment building in Honolulu that is incorporating some cutting-edge technologies to conserve both power and water, examine how consumer demand for environmentally conscientious buildings continues to increase, and look at how this correlates to office spaces as well. Then, we dig into the archives and speak to Shamus Roller, the Executive Director of the National Housing Law Project, about housing challenges, evictions, and homelessness. 01:40 Alex Wise - I'm joined now on Sea Change Radio by Adam Walter Tag. He is a design partner at WRNS Studio. Adam, welcome to Sea Change Radio. 01:50 Adam Woltag - Hey, good to be here. So we recently had an architect on Sea Change Radio from Gensler talking about the opportunities to transform some of these slumbering downtown areas and and re outfit office space into into residential space. 02:11 Alex Wise - I wanted to talk to you today a little bit about. How sustainability has changed the way you do your work, how clients are now looking at things through a different lens. Why don't we first start on the residential space. You're working on a high end residential condominium in Hawaii right now in, in, in Oahu. Why don't you explain? The impetus behind that and how sustainability is informing your work. 02:40 Adam Woltag - Oh, absolutely. Well, I mean first and foremost WRNS say, I mean sustainability is something that we bring to every single project. We've been doing that for many, many years. It's part of how we work. Doesn't matter if it's a luxury product or if it's a school or an office building, it's something that's just how we work. It's kind of in our DNA, you know. And when we started the practice, it was just a part of what we wanted to do. We saw the challenges facing us as a community, as a city, as a global community about climate change. And so that really we saw that as architects, we could really contribute to benefiting, you know these challenges by designing buildings that were very efficient. You know that actually helped improve the health and Wellness of their inhabitants, but also started to think about sustainability from a broader context. So, you know, looking at the project you're referencing in Honolulu? It's called Alia. It is a condominium near downtown Honolulu, in an area called Kaka’ako. And we are approached by the Kobayashi group of local development company to design their next luxury mixed-use product.