TILclimate

Is hydrogen fuel a climate solution? That depends on how you produce it. Dr. Emre Gençer of the MIT Energy Initiative takes us on a tour of the hydrogen spectrum, from climate-polluting “gray” hydrogen made from natural gas to the much more promising “green” hydrogen made with renewable electricity.

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Just 20 years ago, hydrogen cars and battery electric cars were pretty evenly matched as clean alternatives to gas-powered vehicles. But today, batteries are way ahead: the big car companies are rapidly electrifying their lineups, while only a few hydrogen cars are available. What happened? Sergey Paltsev, senior research scientist at the MIT Energy Initiative, helps TILclimate answer this listener question. 

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Hydrogen gas acts like a fossil fuel, but with no carbon emissions. Is it the silver bullet we’ve been waiting for? To prepare for some new listener questions about hydrogen energy, we're re-airing this season four episode in which Prof. Svetlana Ikonnikova of the Technical University of Munich explains how hydrogen works and its potential in the energy transition.

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Wind power is the largest source of clean, renewable energy in the United States. But the large turbines that create that power can endanger wildlife. MIT Professor Michael Howland returns to the podcast to answer a listener's question about the risks of wind energy to birds—and explain how wind turbines compare to coal plants, power lines, office towers, housecats, and other threats to birdlife in the modern world.

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You might have heard how wind turbines failed in Texas during a terrible cold front in 2021. Does this mean we can’t rely on this clean, renewable source of energy when the weather turns extreme? MIT Professor Michael Howland joins the podcast to explain how wind turbine operators prepare for frigid conditions, and why some turbines failed in Texas while others are working fine in Antarctica.

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Plants take in CO2 from the air to grow—and today’s atmosphere has about 50% more CO2 than it did before we started burning massive amounts of fossil fuels. So, is that great news for plants? Prof. David Des Marais, a plant ecologist at MIT, helps answer this listener question.

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The United States has a goal to power the country with 100% clean electricity by 2035. Unfortunately, our energy regulations are not set up to make this much change this quickly. Energy economist John Parsons of MIT joins the show to explain how much clean energy infrastructure we need to build, the obstacles to building it, and reform ideas to transform our energy system on the timeline our climate goals demand.

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The large majority of new energy we’re building today comes from clean, renewable wind and solar projects. But to keep building wind and solar at this pace, we need energy storage: technologies that save energy when the weather is favorable, and use it when wind and sun are scarce. Prof. Asegun Henry joins TILclimate to explain how energy storage works, what storage technologies are out there, and how much we need to build to make ...

We all want to live full, healthy lives. But climate change is threatening a growing number of people’s lives and well-being. Amruta Nori-Sarma, assistant professor of environmental health at Boston University School of Public Health, joins the show to help us see climate change not in tons of carbon dioxide, but as a matter of health.

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We were going to produce an episode on El Niño, and its relationship to climate change. And then we found out that Outside/In, from New Hampshire Public Radio, already did that. And they did a really good job. So please enjoy this episode of Outside/In, where you'll learn what El Niño is, how to tell if extreme weather events are caused by climate change or by El Niño, and what the powerful El Niño event of 2023 can tell us about o...

If you live in the U.S. Mountain West, the Pacific Coast of the Americas, or large parts of Australia or southern Europe, there’s a good chance a major wildfire has passed near you in the last five or six years—maybe one more intense than anything you’ve ever heard of in your area. But why exactly are wildfires getting worse? Is climate change entirely to blame? And what should we be preparing for next? Dr. Daniel Swain joins the T...

Today we’re talking about desalination: turning saltwater into freshwater, so we can drink it or use it to grow crops. And we’re talking about this because, in many parts of the world, freshwater is getting harder to come by. So… is converting saltwater a good solution? Our guest Prof. John Leinhard has devoted his whole career to this question—and its relationship with climate change.

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Refrigerants are in every refrigerator, freezer and air conditioner, and the world is on track to make a lot more of them in the years to come. They’re also powerful greenhouse gases: often thousands of times more warming than carbon dioxide. Prof. Ronald Prinn, an expert in the physics and chemistry of our climate system, joins TILclimate to discuss the past, present and future of how these chemicals affect our planet.

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Carbon dioxide—CO2—is the greenhouse gas you’ve probably heard most about, on this podcast and elsewhere. But it turns out, methane is an incredibly important greenhouse gas too. Stopping methane emissions today is a powerful way to dampen climate change in the very near term—to keep the Earth cooler in the next 10 or 20 years. So today, Prof. Desiree Plata returns to TILclimate to tell us—how do we get that done?

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You probably know that today’s climate change is caused by certain gases—what scientists call greenhouse gases—that human activity has been adding to our atmosphere. But—how do these gases actually keep heat from escaping into space? And why these gases in particular? To help answer these questions, we invited Desiree Plata, an associate professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at MIT and the director of t...

This is MIT’s climate change podcast, Today I Learned: Climate. If you're looking to get smart quick on climate change – without the jargon and without the politicking – this podcast is for you! In each episode, we work with experts at MIT and beyond to explain climate change science and solutions in fifteen minutes or less.

On October 5, TILclimate is returning for our fifth season! 

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On August 16, 2022, President Joe Biden signed into law the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). It was the largest of three bills signed over the course of 10 months that together make up the United States’ largest investment in addressing climate change… well, ever. Dr. Liz Reynolds, lecturer in MIT's Department of Urban Studies and Planning and former Special Assistant to the President for Manufacturing and Economic Development at the...

On Wednesday, April 19, TILclimate will host its first live event at the MIT Museum in Cambridge, Massachusetts! Reserve your seat at tilclimate.org to watch a live recording and join the questions as your host Laur Hesse Fisher sits down with MIT lecturer and former Special Assistant to the President for Manufacturing and Economic Development Dr. Elisabeth Reynolds about “America’s big year of climate action” and the course set fo...