Planet Policy Pals Podcast

On Feb. 3, a Norfolk Southern train carrying toxic chemicals derailed in East Palestine, Ohio, igniting a fire and setting off fears of an explosion. The NTSB found that the accident was “100% preventable” and yet Norfolk Southern, the company responsible, firmly disagrees. Shortly after the derailment, 1,500 to 2,000 residents were told to evacuate. The EPA, Ohio officials, and the company responsible are all reporting different e...

The  transportation sector is one of the largest contributors of GHGs and cars alone contribute to 29% of emissions in the US. The issue of renewable transport has plagued humanity longer than you think and the rise of electric vehicle sales may be part of the solution. Tesla, Toyota, Honda… all companies that have been less than honest with marketing tactics regarding environmental impact to varying degrees. Is the EV market plagu...

A study in the geophysical research letters journal found that summer in the Northern Hemisphere midlatitudes has lengthened, whereas winter has shortened, owing to shift in their onsets and withdrawals, accompanied by shorter spring and autumn. Over the period of 1952–2011, the length of summer increased from 78 to 95 days and that of spring, autumn and winter decreased from 124 to 115, 87 to 82, and 76 to 73 days, respectively. O...

For four years, male sea turtles have been declining in Florida, and a study in Australia confirmed similar findings with 99% of the hatchlings born female, with both linked to rising temperatures. Earlier this year, we breached the planetary limit for hazardous chemicals. There are over 350,000 human-made chemicals on the market with numbers expected to triple by 2050. This cocktail of facts got us thinking about the impacts of sy...

For every 4,434 metric tons of carbon produced beyond 2020 levels, one person globally will die prematurely due to extreme temperatures, according to an analysis published in Nature Communications. If you then consider the fact that in the first half of 2022, those 10 celebrities’ planes released a staggering 3,376.64 metric tons of carbon emissions, you might be a little angry. Especially since that amount is about 482 times more ...

A viral TikTok video of a woman claiming SHEIN nail flakes sent her to the hospital led internet sleuths down a web of contaminants and bad environmental practices that the fashion industry has engaged in for decades. Yoga pants and gym leggings sold by Lululemon and Old Navy contained Perfluoroalkoxy alkanes, PFAS, according to testing done by consumer health activist blog Mamavation. Outdoor apparel brands Columbia, REI, and L.L....

From June through August, Pakistan has received 190 percent of its normal rainfall. The heavy rainfall saturated soil, preventing the ground from soaking up more water from storms in August. Pakistan’s downpours have flooded a third of the country, according to officials, affecting 33 million people, and killing at least 1,100. In southeast Pakistan, the city of Nawabshah hit 49.5 degrees Celsius (120.2°F) on May 1. The Global Clim...

This week our guest is a professor, marine biologist, and fellow FL Tech alum, Katrina Dutton. Surface waters are now 30 percent more acidic than they were at the start of the industrial era. Projections show that by the end of this century, ocean surface waters could be more than twice as acidic as they were at the end of last century if we do not reduce our carbon emissions. How are we doing this? What are the effects? Are there ...

Agriculture provides employment for roughly 25 million people in Pakistan and is the main income source for 34% and 74% of economically active men and women respectively in the country. The sector is taking hit after hit due to our rapidly changing climate and the resources for adaptation and mitigation are limited here, as they are in most developing nations, even though the country is considered a low emitter and contributor to t...

An estimated 70–80% of the MSW generated in Africa is recyclable, yet only 4% of MSW is currently recycled. 5% of all textiles go to the dump every year, according to the World Economic Forum, enough to fill Sydney Harbor annually. In a state with growing businesses and clothes manufacturers, the issue of fast fashion that is quickly disposed of is adding to a dire solid waste management crisis. We speak with Ken Ajah, owner of fab...

The conversation with Mr. Pam, who is the head of the independent integrity unit at the GCF, continues in this episode. This time we talk about projects, the process for handling reports, the tools that ensure accountability and more. 

Links used for references are below: 

How can we meet the urgency of financing climate action in cities?

The broken $100-billion promise of climate finance — and how to fix it

Who Funds th e Fight Ag...

Mr. Ibrahim Pam, head of the Independent Integrity Unity (IIU) at the Green Climate Fund joins the policy pals to discuss how sustainable  projects can be financed with integrity. The GCF is currently the world’s largest dedicated multilateral climate fund and the main multilateral financing mechanism to support developing countries in achieving a reduction of their greenhouse gas emissions and an enhancement of their ability to re...

Mrs. Semenitari is back for part 2 to get into the details of the causes behind the soot issue in Port-Harcourt, Nigeria. How effective are the government’s strategies? How valid are the claims of transitioning to greener energy? What do the people in the Niger Delta community get as a response to their worsening environmental issues? We tackle these difficult questions together and we want to hear what you think as well!

Links use...

There is a literal cloud hanging over the city of Port Harcourt, Nigeria that has existed for several years. For the local people of Port Harcourt, the soot has made life hell. In our first ever interview, Ibim Semenitari joins us to discuss an issue she and other members of her community are working to tackle. Mrs. Semenitari worked for over three decades as a journalist, in public service as Honorable Commissioner, Ministry of In...

The ozone layer filters out incoming radiation in the "cell-damaging" ultraviolet (UV) part of the spectrum. One example of ozone depletion is the annual ozone "hole" over Antarctica that has occurred during the Antarctic spring since the early 1980s. The effects of ozone depletion range include poor air quality, imbalance in bio-geo-chemical cycles, loss of biodiversity and a negative effect on aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems. ...

It has been 1 year exactly since we launched our first official episode and we are so grateful to all our listeners, so although we made sure to cover an environmental topic this week, we went real big picture and decided to just tackle the entire climate change issue in one go! LOL not even. It took nearly a century of research and data to convince the vast majority of the scientific community that human activity could alter the c...

In this episode, we continue our discussions on polar ice melting by shifting our focus to the Arctic and water. Changes to the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets are of considerable societal importance, as they directly impact global sea levels, which are a result of climate change. Sea level rise will reshape coastlines as incoming water floods dry areas and erodes coastal features like beaches, cliffs and dunes. Policies and reg...

In this episode we are going to talk about what happens when the polar ice caps melt, with a focus on effects seen in the earth’s crust and permafrost loss. Ongoing ice loss in West Antarctica has increased over the past few decades. Measurements since the 1950s indicate that the amount of sea ice in the Arctic has been declining. Permafrost in the Arctic alone is estimated to hold nearly twice as much carbon as exists in the atmos...