Planet Watch Radio Podcast

Governor of California Jerry Brown's Senior Policy Advisor, Ken Alex, discusses how California will stay the course on the environment during the Trump era. Also an interview with David Auston, a researcher in the Institute for Energy Efficiency, and Director of the UC TomKat Carbon Neutrality Project at the University of California Santa Barbara. Austin will talk about the project's goal of helping all the University of California campuses achieve carbon neutrality by 2025. Air Date: March 5, 2017 on KSCO radio station AM1080

Why is it so hard to communicate about Climate Change? What if the future depended on our  communicating about this better? Two experts in science communications, Susan Joy Hassol and Dr. Edward Maibach talk about how we communicate about climate change and how we might achieve more productive dialogue, today on Planet Watch Radio. Susan Joy Hassol is a climate change communicator, analyst, and author known for her ability to translate science into English, making complex issues accessible to policymakers and the public for more than two decades.Susan was the Senior Science Writer on all three National Climate Assessments, authoritative reports written in plain language to better inform policymakers and the public about climate change and its effects on our nation. The Third U.S. National Climate Assessment (NCA), was released in May 2014. She served two terms on the Board of Directors of the American Geophysical Union (AGU), and has been a Visiting Scholar at NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center in Ashevi

A road map for getting the U.S. completely off fossil fuels by 2050 is the subject of today's interview with Mark Jacobson, Stanford University professor of engineering and author of The Solutions Project.   Also on the show Dan Sugar, CEO of NEXTracker, a solar company making big strides in sustainable energy, turning data into action for solar power plants.   Air Date: February 26, 2017 on KSCO radio station AM1080

On today's show, two scientists talk about ecosystems and water resources in a changing planet. University of California Santa Cruz evolutionary biologist, Professor Erika Zavaleta discusses her work on ecosystems and how they adapt to extreme changes in climate. UCSC marine scientist Dr. Adina Paytan tells about the Oroville dam failure and shares other unfolding water resource stories.   Air Date: February 19, 2017 on KSCO radio station AM1080

Plants and Climate Change: How will plants survive the wide swings in climate that are expected in the next century? To understand how short-term weather patterns, altered atmospheric composition, and climate change drive plant physiology, the structure of biological communities, and ecosystem processes, join Dr. Michael Loik, Professor of Environmental Studies at the University of California, Santa Cruz on this episode of Planet Watch Radio. Dr. Loik will discuss the drought in California and its impact on fire risk, as will as plant adaptation, climate change mitigation, and development of new technologies to reduce atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations. Air Date: February 5, 2017 on  KSCO radio station AM1080

Internationally acclaimed nature photographer Frans Lanting talks about his recent expedition to Antarctica and Patagonia, tracing the steps of Ernest Shackelton's infamous expedition to the south pole. Frans Lanting has been hailed as one of the great nature photographers of our time. For three decades he has documented wildlife from the Amazon to Antarctica to promote understanding about the Earth and its natural history through images that convey a passion for nature and a sense of wonder about our living planet. His influential work appears in books, magazines, and exhibitions around the world. Lanting’s work is commissioned frequently by National Geographic, where he served as a Photographer-in-Residence. In 2006, Lanting launched The LIFE Project, a lyrical interpretation of the history of life on Earth from the Big Bang to the present, as a book, an exhibition, an interactive website (www.LifeThroughTime.com), and a multimedia orchestral performance with music by Philip Glass. Lanting’s mission

Brian Sefton and Merc Martinelli of Oakbio, a “Carbon Capture and Utilization” company, are interviewed on today's Planet Watch Radio podcast. Global emissions of carbon dioxide exceed 35 billion tons annually. These emissions are unsustainable and threaten the very habitability of our planet. Melting glaciers and ice caps, rising sea levels, unprecedented weather extremes are just some of the consequences of putting too much carbon into the atmosphere. Oakbio is doing something about this by creating technologies that transform carbon emissions from harmful waste into high value renewable products. Oakbio partners with established industrial businesses to develop low capex/opex carbon capture and utilization biofactories based on Oakbio’s core microbial metabolism and pathways technologies. Air Date: January 29, 2017 on KSCO radio station AM1080

Global warming, or human-induced climate change, is a "hot topic" worldwide. Innovations in sustainable energy technologies are being implemented around the world to help reduce CO2 in Earth's atmosphere, with positive impacts on the climate. But even if CO2 emissions trend downward globally, we will not be able to sufficiently mitigate climate change by just replacing fossil energy sources. Dr. Alan K. Miller discusses an innovative engineering solution to removing carbon from the atmosphere. OTEC (Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion)  uses the temperature difference between deep (1000m) cold ocean water and warm tropical surface water to produce clean electricity on the oceans. Air Date: January 22, 2017 on KSCO radio station AM1080  

Coastal regions around the world have become increasingly crowded, intensively developed, and severely exploited. Hundreds of millions of people living in these low-lying areas are subject to short-term coastal hazards such as cyclones, hurricanes, and destruction due to El Niño, and are also exposed to the long-term threat of global sea-level rise. Griggs provides an overview of the individual hazards, risks, and issues threatening the coastal zone. Dr. Gary Griggs is Distinguished Professor of Earth Sciences at the University of California, Santa Cruz. He is author  of Introduction to California’s Beaches and Coast, Living with the Changing California Coast, California Coast from the Air, The Santa Cruz Coast (Then and Now), and Our Ocean Backyard and Coasts in Crisis: A Global Challenge.  Air Date: January 15, 2017 on KSCO radio station AM1080