How to Save a Planet

→ WHAT IT COVERS Ayanna Elizabeth Johnson reunites with former How to Save a Planet co-host Alex Bloomberg to discuss his transition from podcast entrepreneur to climate tech founder of Daisy Chain Energy, solving building decarbonization challenges. → KEY INSIGHTS - **Split Incentive Problem:** Multiunit buildings face a financial barrier to solar adoption because building owners pay installation costs (often $1 million+) but individual residents pay separate utility bills, preventing anyone...

→ WHAT IT COVERS Deep sea mining could provide battery metals for electric vehicles without land-based mining's environmental damage, but scientists warn extracting polymetallic nodules from ocean floors risks destroying unexplored ecosystems and disrupting climate regulation. → KEY INSIGHTS - **Battery metal demand:** Electric vehicle production requires 40 times more batteries by 2040 than today.

→ WHAT IT COVERS The podcast examines four climate-related ethical dilemmas through an "Am I The Asshole" format, with expert panelists judging whether individuals made reasonable choices regarding fans, baby registries, office recycling, and home heating systems. → KEY INSIGHTS - **Box fan electricity usage:** A 70-watt box fan costs approximately one cent per hour to operate, making roommate disputes over leaving it running while briefly out of room environmentally insignificant and...

→ WHAT IT COVERS Sociologist Eric Klinenberg's research on Chicago's 1995 heat wave reveals why extreme heat kills disproportionately: social isolation and depleted community infrastructure in segregated, low-income neighborhoods cause preventable deaths during temperature emergencies. → KEY INSIGHTS - **Neighborhood infrastructure disparity:** Two Chicago neighborhoods with identical demographics showed 10x difference in heat deaths.

→ WHAT IT COVERS How to Save a Planet celebrates its second anniversary by profiling four listeners who took climate action in their communities: saving recycling programs, running for electric co-op boards, opening zero-waste stores, and blocking Exxon drilling operations. → KEY INSIGHTS - **Local government leverage:** Betsy Delisle saved curbside recycling in Corolla, North Carolina by attending county commissioner meetings, gathering petition signatures, and mobilizing citizens to call...

→ WHAT IT COVERS Ecologist Peter Grof explains how grass lawns impact climate through carbon sequestration and cooling effects, while offering practical alternatives like xeriscaping for drought-prone regions and strategies to make existing lawns more climate-friendly. → KEY INSIGHTS - **Lawn carbon balance:** Grass lawns sequester significant carbon in soil and vegetation compared to agricultural fields, though less than native prairies.

→ WHAT IT COVERS Climate-driven drought in Central America's Dry Corridor forces migration to the US. Catholic Relief Services teaches 3,000 farmers water-smart agriculture techniques that increase crop yields by 41% during droughts, potentially reducing migration pressures. → KEY INSIGHTS - **Water-Smart Agriculture Four Pillars:** Use fertilizer strategically after rainfall, eliminate tilling and burning crop residue, plant nitrogen-fixing cover crops like local chapaneco beans, and integrate...

→ WHAT IT COVERS Solar geoengineering could cool Earth by blocking sunlight through stratospheric aerosol injection, marine cloud brightening, or space mirrors. Climate modeler Dan Vizzioni explains the science, costs, risks, and governance challenges of planetary-scale climate intervention. → KEY INSIGHTS - **Stratospheric aerosol injection cost:** Cooling the planet by half a degree Celsius would cost only 1-2 billion dollars annually by injecting sulfates into the stratosphere, mimicking...

→ WHAT IT COVERS Reporter Kendra Pierre-Louis examines how car-centric propaganda displaced bicycles from American culture, explores the historical dominance of cycling before 1950, and presents evidence that biking offers accessible, joyful, climate-friendly transportation for diverse populations. → KEY INSIGHTS - **Historical infrastructure shift:** Wealthy cycling clubs lobbied for paved roads in the early 1900s, then abandoned bikes for cars and redirected their political capital toward...

→ WHAT IT COVERS The US Senate passes the Inflation Reduction Act in August 2022, the most ambitious climate legislation in US history, investing hundreds of billions in clean energy and aiming for 40% emissions reduction by 2030. → KEY INSIGHTS - **Clean Energy Tax Credits:** Ten-year extensions of production and investment tax credits for wind and solar provide industry certainty after decades of boom-bust cycles caused by short-term renewals, enabling predictable growth in renewable...