Sea Change Radio

This week on Sea Change Radio, the first half of our two-part conversation with author Steve Almond - an astute observer of politics, pop culture, and all things American. In this wide-ranging discussion, we talk about Almonds latest novel which reveals some of the horrors that immigrants to this country face far too often, look at the painful reality of paying taxes in the age of Trumpism and examine the seeds of this present day authoritarianism sown under Ronald Reagan.

As with oil and gas, the extraction of minerals and metals from the earth has been a "necessary evil" in the industrialization of humankind. The environmental destruction and human rights abuses of the mining industry are well-documented. This week’s guest on Sea Change Radio runs a company that partners with mining corporations to make the mining itself more resource-efficient. Liz Dennett is the CEO and founder of Endolith, a Colorado-based startup company that uses microbes to improve the efficacy of copper and lithium extraction. We learn about the science behind Endolith’s technology, talk about the environmental impacts and challenges of metal and mineral mining, and discuss whether there’s a moral quandary in doing business with these big, often nefarious, companies.

Can we plant enough trees to mitigate the effects of climate change? This week on Sea Change Radio, we speak with Rick Lanman, a physician and historical ecologist, who believes the answer to this question lies specifically in the type of trees we plant - namely, more redwoods. We discuss the truly amazing features of these west-coast natives: They’re fire resistant, rot-proof, and a great carbon sink for greenhouse gas emissions. In our discussion, Lanman outlines what makes these trees such a vital weapon in the fight to clean up our air, and what he is doing to help restore the mighty redwood to its former glory.

You may be surprised to learn that, according to the United Nations Environment Program, buildings and construction accounts for a stunning 37% of global greenhouse emissions. Our guest today on Sea Change Radio is an innovator working to change the equation. We are speaking with entrepreneur Josh Dorfman, the co-founder of Plantd and Supercool to learn more about the green building space. We talk about the challenges of a young company making inroads into the construction industry, take a look at his company’s innovative grass building material, and examine the competitive landscape in this area.

When we think about the transition to renewable energy sources, many of us imagine rooftop solar panels and wind turbine-dotted hills. But it’s not just about capturing energy, it’s also about keeping it. This week on Sea Change Radio we speak with Matt Simon, a Grist senior staff writer, to discuss long-duration energy storage. The transition to renewables for utilities is still very much evolving — efficiency, intermittency, and storage are among the issues scientists have yet to perfect. Simon shares some ideas for how we can build upon existing technologies to store solar and wind power, with longer capacity than lithium-ion batteries, ranging from reservoirs and caverns to our existing fleet of electric vehicles.