#1594 Testing New Climate Solutions: Geothermal and Geo-Engineering

Air Date 11/26/2023

As the hottest year in 125,000 years or so begins to come to a close, we turn to two projects still in their infancy that have big plans to decarbonize our electricity generation on one hand and give us a bit more time to turn our climate futures around on the other. The first is a reinvigoration of the geothermal power industry with the hopes of scaling up globally and the second is geo-engineering which aims to reduce the solar radiation hitting the planet to reduce devastating climate impacts while the world finishes up the work of going carbon neutral. Both ideas are a little scary, either or both could be brilliant or disastrous. The two things that are clear to me are that failure in the face of climate chaos will definitely be disastrous and any ideas with a reasonable chance of helping deserve further study.

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Transcript

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SHOW NOTES

Ch. 1: Have We Made ANY Progress on Climate Change? Here's The Data, You Decide - PBS Terra - Air Date 12-20-22

Tune into this episode of Weathered to see where we’ve been in our race against the clock, where we’re going, and how the RCP scenarios can help us understand this story as well as our future on this planet.

Ch. 2: Batteries are dirty. Geothermal power can help. - Vox - Air Date 11-1-22

Lithium-ion batteries are a transformative technology in the fight against climate change. Most notably, they power electric vehicles, which have the potential to replace emissions produced by road transportation. But there’s a problem.

Ch. 3: The Untapped Energy Source That Could Power the Planet | Jamie C. Beard - TEDTalks - Air Date 10-28-21

Deep beneath your feet is a molten ball of energy the same temperature as the surface of the sun -- an immense clean energy source that could power the world thousands of times over, says technologist and climate activist Jamie C. Beard. How do we tap it?

Ch. 4: A Messy and Unhinged Introduction to Geoengineering - vlogbrothers - Air Date 10-4-23

Describing the most dangerous way to save the world

Ch. 5: Smog Cloud Silver Lining - Radiolab - Air Date 9-22-23

Summer 2023 was a pretty scary one for the planet. Global temperatures in June and July reached record highs. And over in the North Atlantic Sea, the water temperature spiked to off-the-chart levels.

Ch. 6: How to think about solar radiation management - Volts - Air Date 2-24-23

Even if greenhouse gas emissions halted entirely right now, we would continue to feel climate change effects for decades due to existing carbon dioxide in the atmosphere — and warming could accelerate

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FINAL COMMENTS

Ch. 7: Final comments and interview with Mike Tidwell about the arguments for and against geo-engineering

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