How people are fighting climate change on multiple fronts, amid climate skepticism

The Trump Administration has claimed that greenhouse gases don’t endanger people. And last month, the Environmental Protection Agency said it intends to rescind a landmark 2009 legal opinion — effectively ending all its climate regulations.

This all comes on the cusp of a rapidly-warming planet fueling extreme weather events.

A hotter planet poses an existential crisis on multiple fronts, said Alan Weisman, journalist and author of “Hope Dies Last: Visionary People Across the World, Fighting to Find Us a Future.”

“We’re all feeling the heat right now, but we’re not the only creatures on earth that are suffering from climate change,” he said. “Many of [the] species that we're dependent on pollinate our food [and] become our food. Species enrich our soil, filter the air and produce oxygen. They are all also threatened by climate change.”

While mankind needs to address this problem, Weisman said his research allowed him to uncover hope in the many ways people are taking climate action in their own hands — from fusion energy technology at The Massachusetts Institute of Technology to winning climate lawsuits in the Netherlands.

“It’s a combination of different things, in a lot of different places, that are each contributing to helping to slow down climate change before it gets out of control.”

To hear the full conversation, click play on the audio player above or subscribe to the Climate Cast podcast.