Extreme heat can have serious health consequences, but until recently, public health researchers only had imprecise tools to study it. Brown University Professor Allan Just is working to change that.

Megan Hall: Welcome to Possibly, where we take on huge problems like the future of our planet and break them down into small questions with unexpected answers. I’m Megan Hall.

For years public health researchers have studied the link between extreme temperatures, and people’s health, in order to understand how a warming planet will impact people. Traditionally they’ve done this by taking temperature data, and comparing it to records about people’s health.

But there’s a bit of a problem. Those temperature readings come from only a handful of specialized weather stations, many of them at airports.  Researchers can take that data, and use it for research.

Allan Just: And they might look at the relationship between temperature and health in Rhode Island, but under the assumption that all of us live at TF Green Airport and very few people live at TF Green Airport.

Megan Hall: This is Allan Just, he’s an environmental epidemiologist, meaning he studies how the environment, mostly temperature and air pollution affect people’s health.

He works at Brown University, where he’s been developing a more accurate way for researchers to measure a place’s temperature, not just a whole city, but down to the buildings

Allan Just: Individual neighborhoods can be warmer or cooler, and that varies. It depends on how many trees there are and how much pavement there is, and whether you’re near a body of water, whether there’s a major roadway that goes through.

Megan Hall:  Using satellite data and some complicated math, Alan and his team have developed a model that can create much more accurate estimates of a place’s temperature, that lets their research get really specific.

Allan Just:  We’re doing lots of studies in which we’re using the location of an individual’s specific address or the school that their children. Attend, or we’re considering the location of every nursing home in the Northeast.

Megan Hall:  By pinpointing the temperature not just for a region, but for individual neighborhoods or buildings, they’re able to find new connections between extreme heat and health impacts.

Allan Just: We think that when we get more specific, we’ve been underestimating the burden.

Megan Hall:  From what researchers already know about extreme heat, the health impacts can be pretty serious.

Allan Just: And it’s sometimes easy to forget that, particularly for people who are very vulnerable to it, that warm weather can come with really severe health consequences,

Megan Hall:  There are the extreme cases that you hear about in the news, like people dying from heat stress. But then there are also much harder to pinpoint things, like an increased likelihood of heart attacks and strokes after heat waves.

And then there’s the way that extreme heat can interact with your medications. Different medications can sometimes impact your body’s ability to handle hotter temperatures.

Allan Just: But there are quite a few medications that, through different mechanisms, they can alter our ability to feel thirst. They can change the ways in which we retain body fluids. They can impair our ability to sweat. I mean, there are just several really important mechanisms at play when we think about the ways in which people end up vulnerable to extreme heat.

Megan Hall:  This work is especially relevant for studying the ways that the impact of climate change isn’t being felt evenly across our cities.

Allan Just: Underserved communities, they are systematically hotter, and that’s driven by land use decisions and structural racism that’s led to differences in where we’ve kept, uh, vegetation and where we’ve put pavement and roadways and those subtle differences are lost when we assume that everyone is living at the airport.

Megan Hall:That’s it for today. This episode was a collaboration with  Humans in Public Health,  a monthly podcast from the Brown University School of Public Health in celebration of Brown’s Climate Week.

You can find more information, or ask a question about the way your choices affect our planet, at ask possibly dot org. You can also subscribe to Possibly wherever you get your podcasts or follow us on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, or Bluesky at  “askpossibly”

Possibly is a co-production of Brown University’s Institute for Environment and Society, Brown’s Climate Solutions Initiative, Ocean State Media and WBRU.

The post How do researchers know that heat waves affect our health? appeared first on TPR: The Public’s Radio.

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Climate change makes a lot of us feel anxious, overwhelmed, or helpless. This week on Possibly we travel north, to a place where people can unpack all of these feelings.

Megan Hall: Welcome to Possibly, where we take on huge problems like the future of our planet and break them down into small questions with unexpected answers. I’m Megan Hall.

It’s not fun to think about climate change. It makes a lot of us feel scared, overwhelmed, and even helpless. But what if there was a place you could go to unpack all of these feelings? Today, we’re talking about places that are designed to do just that: Climate Cafes.

We had Emma Mejia and Hamid Torabzadeh from our Possibly Team look into this.

Emma Mejia: Hi, Megan!

Hamid Torabzadeh: Hello!

Megan Hall: So what is a climate cafe? Could I go there to get a pastry?

Emma Mejia: Great question! Climate Cafes are community gatherings designed for people to get together and talk about climate change.

Hamid Torabzadeh: These gatherings are called cafes, but they’re not like a coffee shop where you can buy a muffin. These cafes are really just events that happen every once in a while.

Emma Mejia: They originally began in Scotland, but now they’ve expanded around the globe.

Megan Hall: So, why do we need these gatherings?

Hamid Torabzadeh: Well, we know that thinking about and responding to climate change can cause people to feel:

Vox Pop: Helpless, Afraid, Depression, Concern.

Emma Mejia: A 2025 poll from the American Psychiatric Association shows that 40% of Americans say climate change affects their mental health. And more than a third of adults worry about climate change at least once a week.

Hamid Torabzadeh: And this stress can actually affect how we respond to climate change.

Emma Mejia: A study in Europe found that people with some climate anxiety are more likely to make decisions that will address climate change.

Hamid Torabzadeh: But people with higher levels of climate anxiety seem to be less likely to get involved.

Megan Hall: So some amount of anxiety is normal and even helpful, but too much could be counterproductive?

Hamid Torabzadeh: Yep. In addition to anxiety, some people may feel extreme emotions like grief and distress. Here is where climate cafes could play a role.

Emma Mejia: One small study in Canada found that people who attended climate cafes say that these spaces help them process their emotions, reduce burnout, and increase hope.

Megan Hall: What happens at a climate cafe?

Emma Mejia: To find out we took a trip up north and talked to someone who started a climate cafe of her own.

Smiely Khurana: My name is Smiely Khurana. I’m based in Vancouver, Canada, and I am the founder of Climate Wellness Network and The Sustainable Act.

Hamid Torabzadeh: She says she started the cafe because of her own anxiety.

Smiely Khurana: In Vancouver, we’ve been experiencing more climate disasters and climate change. One year we had a huge atmospheric river, which caused flooding, and my hometown was underwater. I was already feeling climate anxiety but that is what sealed the coffin for me

Emma Mejia: Smiely felt isolated and powerless, so she started looking for a way to process all of these emotions. Eventually, she  talked to a friend who runs a Climate Cafe in California.

Smiely Khurana: So I just thought I’d start climate Cafe Vancouver.

Hamid Torabzadeh: For her cafe, she takes a distinct approach.

Smiely Khurana: I really focus on it being an action free space, versus coming and talking about what we can do to help.

Hamid Torabzadeh: Smiely leads her Cafes with a loose set of prompts, allowing her participants to take control of the conversation.

Smiely Khurana: It’s been so amazing to be able to meet and talk about “Hey, I’m feeling this, you’re feeling this? Oh my gosh, we’ve got each other. We’re not alone.” And there’s a lot of power in that and finding community.

Emma Mejia: Smiely says this approach of processing emotions rather than taking direct action is important because:

Smiely Khurana: You can’t keep running with an empty tank. You gotta take care of yourself.

Hamid Torabzadeh: In addition to dialogue, participants in these Climate Cafes can try activities like art workshops, nature walks, and even dance.

Emma Mejia: In the future, Smiely hopes to partner with mental health providers and create trainings and resources for people who want to start their own Cafes.

Megan Hall: Are there any climate cafes closer to home that we can check out?

Emma Mejia: Yes. It’s not called a climate cafe, but there’s a Brown professor here in Rhode Island who runs a climate anxiety booth where she talks to people about climate change. She also sends out a regular newsletter about ways to process these emotions.

Hamid Torabzadeh: Yeah, you can call it a booth, a cafe, or just a gathering. No matter the name, it’s helpful to get together and process the way climate change makes us feel.

Megan Hall: Got it! Thanks, Emma and Hamid!

That’s it for today. You can find more information, or ask a question about the way your choices affect our planet, at askpossibly.org. You can also subscribe to Possibly wherever you get your podcasts or follow us on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, or Bluesky at  “askpossibly”

Possibly is a co-production of Brown University’s Institute for Environment and Society, Brown’s Climate Solutions Initiative, and Ocean State Media.

The post What is a Climate Cafe? appeared first on TPR: The Public’s Radio.

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Red seaweed has been washing up on Rhode Island beaches for years, but what is it? This week on Possibly we explain what’s causing this red seaweed to appear, how it’s different from harmful “red tides” and how it might help the planet.

Megan Hall: Welcome to Possibly, where we take on huge problems like the future of our planet and break them down into small questions with unexpected answers. I’m Megan Hall. Today we’re answering a question from listener Lynne Donelly, who saw something a bit unusual:

Lynne Donnely: What is all that red seaweed that I saw on the beach the other day? Where did it come from? What do we use it for?

Megan Hall: To find out, we had Christine Peng and Emma Mejia look into this question. Welcome, Christine and Emma!

Christine Peng: Hi, Megan!

Emma Mejia: Hello!

Megan Hall: So, what was it exactly that Lynne saw on the beach? Should we be concerned about the red seaweed washing up on shores?

Christine Peng: Well Megan, we described the scene Lynne saw to marine ecologist and Salem State University Professor Lindsay Green-Gavrielidis, and she says:

Lindsay Green-Gavrielidis: “That red seaweed is actually a non-native species, called Dasysiphonia japonica. It’s a beautiful, fluffy red seaweed.”

Emma Mejia: Beautiful probably isn’t the word most people would use to describe it…

Christine Peng: It can often be smelly, and swimming in it can be ticklish and uncomfortable, especially if you get it stuck in your hair.

Emma Mejia: Now, a lot of people might be scared of seeing reddish material in the water and think that means there’s a “red tide.”

Megan Hall: A red tide?

Christine Peng: Yes! Red tides are technically known as harmful algal blooms.

Lindsay Green-Gavrielidis: “Harmful algal blooms can refer to seaweeds but it typically refers to teeny teeny teeny tiny microscopic algae”

Christine Peng: These tiny algae feed on excess nutrients in the water, which makes them grow out of control in a “bloom”.

Emma Mejia: They can be dangerous because some of them create toxins, which end up building up in shellfish that humans eat.

Christine Peng: But the stuff Lynne saw? That’s seaweed, which is known as macroalgae.

Megan Hall: So seaweed is bigger algae, which is fine, but the teeny tiny “red tide” algae can be toxic?

Christine Peng: Exactly. One you have to look at through a microscope, while the other is big enough to just pick up with your hands.

Megan Hall: So, should we be worried about the red seaweed washing up on shores?

Christine Peng: Well, the red seaweed on Rhode Island beaches isn’t toxic by itself. But, it can be annoying and even harmful in other ways.

Carol Thornber: “These seaweeds typically are not toxic in and of themselves, but they can be very harmful in terms of the impacts they have on the environment and the impacts they have on our state’s economy.”

Emma Mejia: That’s Carol Thornber. She’s a marine environmental scientist and the Dean of the School for the Environment at UMass Boston.

Carol Thornber: “If you have large amounts of seaweed washing up on our beaches in the middle of the summertime, that can have really significant negative impacts on the part of the economy that runs on tourism”

Christine Peng: For example, mats of decomposing seaweed can suck up oxygen in the water, trap bacteria, and create a smell that keeps people away from the beach.

Emma Mejia: Plus, it makes it harder to catch fish. . .

Lindsay Green-Gavrielidis: “It can be a real problem for the fishing industry because it accumulates in such high quantities that it clogs their nets”

Emma Mejia: Still, seaweed isn’t all bad news. It plays a role in ecosystems, absorbs carbon, and even works as a fertilizer. Today, scientists are looking into ways to use it for biofuel, animal feed, and even alternatives to plastic.

Christine Peng: So, if you see red seaweed on the beach, it might look messy, but it’s not the same as a dangerous red tide. In fact, it could play a role in solving some environmental problems!

Megan Hall: Great! Thanks, Christine and Emma!

That’s it for today. You can find more information, or ask a question about the way your choices affect our planet, at askpossibly.org. You can also subscribe to Possibly wherever you get your podcasts or follow us on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, or Bluesky at “askpossibly”

Possibly is a co-production of Brown University’s Institute for Environment and Society, Brown’s Climate Solutions Initiative, and Ocean State Media.

The post Should we be concerned about red seaweed washing up on Rhode Island’s beaches? appeared first on TPR: The Public’s Radio.

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Believe it or not, there can be pretty significant carbon emissions from your pet’s food. This week on Possibly, we explain why, and show some easy ways to reduce your pet’s carbon “pawprint.”

Megan Hall: Welcome to Possibly, where we take on huge problems like the future of our planet and break them down into small questions with unexpected answers. I’m Megan Hall.

We know that when we eat meat, it creates a lot of carbon pollution, but we’re not the only ones. What about our pets? Today we’re talking about the carbon “pawprint” of feeding our four-legged companions.

We had Emma Mejia and Christine Peng from our Possibly Team look into this.

Emma Mejia: Hi, Megan!

Christine Peng: Hello!

Megan Hall: So what’s the environmental impact of feeding our pets?

Emma Mejia: Great question. To find out, we talked to Dr. Greg Okin, a Professor of Geography at the UCLA Institute of Environment and Sustainability. He normally studies soil and drylands, but one day he got curious about…

Greg Okin: Backyard chickens. I was thinking, how cool is it that these people in my neighborhood in Los Angeles are getting backyard chickens, and how cool is it that that provides protein for them. I thought, in contrast most of their other animals actually require protein.

Christine Peng: So he decided to crunch the numbers to see how the protein we feed our dogs and cats affects the environment.

Emma Mejia: What he found was pretty crazy.

Christine Peng: First, pets eat 19% of what all US humans eat in calories.

Emma Mejia: And a lot of that is meat.

Gregory Okin: If US dogs and cats as of 2017 were their own country, they’d be the fifth largest meat eater in the world.

Megan Hall: That’s a lot of meat! How does that translate to carbon pollution?

Emma Mejia: Greg says, if you look at the pollution associated with raising and processing meat for pet food since 2017.

Gregory Okin: That’s the same impact as driving about 13.6 million cars for a year.

Megan Hall: Wow that’s a lot!

Christine Peng: It sure is. Put another way, the pollution from making pet food is equal to the emissions from about 5% of all of the cars in the US.

Megan Hall: Is there a way we can reduce this impact at all? Could my pet go vegetarian or vegan?

Emma Mejia: That is a complicated question and depends on a lot of factors, like the kind of pet you have, their nutritional needs, and your vet’s opinions

Christine Peng: Cats are carnivores, so most vets agree that feeding them a plant based diet is not a good idea.

Emma Mejia: Dogs on the other hand, can handle eating animals and plants

Christine Peng: If you’re worried about your dog’s health, check with a vet. But in general, dogs can eat less meat and be perfectly fine.

Emma Mejia: Luckily, there is a simple way to reduce your dog’s carbon pawprint.

Christine Peng: Greg says you can just skip buying premium pet foods

Megan Hall: How do I know if I’m buying premium dog food?

Emma Mejia: There’s no precise definition, but usually, a premium brand will include meat as the first ingredient.

Megan Hall: But don’t I want to feed my dog the best food out there?

Christine Peng: Sure, but premium doesn’t always mean better.

Emma Mejia: In the United States, most states regulate and label pet food according to advice from an organization called the Association of American Feed Control Officials or AAFCO

These regulations check to see if the food has enough of the nutrients pets need.

Christine Peng: So, when you’re buying pet food, just look for a label that says the food provides “complete and balanced nutrition” according to the AAFCO.

Emma Mejia: If it says that, the food should keep your pet healthy, regardless of the price.

Megan Hall: If that’s true, why is some pet food so much more expensive?

Christine Peng: Cheaper pet foods may include more of what’s called “by-product” which usually includes parts of the animal that aren’t intended for humans to eat, but are fine for pets.

Dr. Okin: With dogs, there actually is an amazing opportunity to both be good to your pocketbook and good to the planet. You can buy these store brands that might use chicken meal or you know, some grain as a first ingredient.

Emma Mejia: 1 gram of beef creates 7x more carbon pollution than 1 gram of chicken, so even making a simple switch helps lower your impact.

Megan Hall: So it sounds like there is a way to be kinder to the earth while still make sure my dog stays healthy!

Christine Peng: Yep it’s a win win!

Megan Hall: Thanks Great! Thanks Emma and Christine

That’s it for today. You can find more information, or ask a question about the way your choices affect our planet, at askpossibly.org. You can also subscribe to Possibly wherever you get your podcasts or follow us on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, or Bluesky at “askpossibly”

Possibly is a co-production of Brown University’s Institute for Environment and Society, Brown’s Climate Solutions Initiative, and Ocean State Media.

The post What’s the environmental impact of feeding our pets? appeared first on TPR: The Public’s Radio.

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You’ve probably seen pictures of tree-lined rooftops on skyscrapers and new buildings. But are these green roofs just for show? Or do they have real benefits? This week on Possibly we take a look.

Megan Hall: Welcome to Possibly, where we take on huge problems like the future of our planet and break them down into small questions with unexpected answers. I’m Megan Hall.

Can you imagine going up to the top of your apartment building and enjoying a walk through some trees or doing yoga among some plants? These green roofs are popping up across many American cities. But, what are they exactly? And do they offer more than just some nice greenery?

We had Hamid Torabzadeh and Andrea Li from our Possibly Team look into this question.

Hamid Torabzadeh: Hi, Megan!

Andrea Li: Hello!

Megan Hall: So, what exactly is a green roof?

Hamid Torabzadeh: Basically, wherever we can grow plants such as vegetables, herbs, flowers, and fruits on top of a roof, that’s a green roof.

Andrea Li: There are many different types of green roofs – for example, you could build a vegetable garden or a small park.

Megan Hall: Sounds cool! And how are they actually built?

Hamid Torabzadeh: It can get complicated pretty quickly. But here’s the basic gist: a green roof needs a waterproof membrane, soil, and vegetation.

Megan Hall: A membrane?

Andrea Li: Yeah, the waterproof membrane is basically a layer of material under all the dirt that protects the actual roof from getting wet.

Hamid Torabzadeh: Above it, there’s soil, to help the plants grow and retain just the right amount of moisture.

Andrea Li: And then above this, of course, are all the plants!

Hamid Torabzadeh: To learn more, we went straight to the source and spoke to Mark Winterer, co-founder and owner of Recover Green Roofs.

Andrea Li: Recover is a company focused on the design, installation, and maintenance of green roofs.

Hamid Torabzadeh: Mark says there’s a range of options for green roofs, depending on how much weight your roof can hold.

Mark Winterer: Extensive is the lightweight, shallow system. Intensive is the heavier system that can support trees. And then semi-intensive, I call it the goldilocks. It’s not too heavy, it’s not too light, it’s the sweet spot.

Megan Hall: Got it. And why would we want these green roofs in the first place?

Hamid Torabzadeh: Good question. There are a lot of reasons. These roofs are part of a bigger strategy to make cities more green and livable.

Andrea Li: For one, they can make our cities cooler.

Hamid Torabzadeh: Research shows that green roofs can reduce air temperatures on the roof by up to 20°F.

Andrea Li: They can also potentially save costs by being more energy efficient.

Hamid Torabzadeh: This is because plants can act as natural insulators, reducing the need for AC in the summer and heating in the winter.

Megan Hall: So this could cut down on heating and cooling costs?

Andrea Li:  Yes, but the amount of savings can vary depending on the type of roof.

Hamid Torabzadeh: One study found that a building with a green roof with smaller plants and no trees uses approximately 2 to 17% less energy than the typical roof during summer time.

Andrea Li: But, the building with the green roof was colder in the winter and cost more because the typical roof had better insulation materials.

Megan Hall: Got it. So it can get a little complicated.

Andrea Li: It absolutely can.

Megan Hall: But it seems like there are some serious benefits to these roofs, especially in the summer. Why don’t I see more of them?

Hamid Torabzadeh: The main challenge is the cost of installing a roof- they can be pretty expensive.

Andrea Li: And while these roofs offer benefits, they aren’t necessarily financial.

Hamid Torabzadeh: For example, Boston Medical Center has two rooftop farms installed by Recover on their hospital roofs.

Andrea Li: In 2024, the farms produced almost 10,000 pounds of produce, which they use to feed patients.

Hamid Torabzadeh: But, Mark says, the food Boston Medical Center grows isn’t saving them any money.

Mark Winterer: Profit wasn’t the driver on that one, there is data points on how much yield the rooftop farms are generating. It’s basically equivalent to the cost of what it would cost to to buy the that produce in the first place.

Andrea Li: In other words, green roofs can accomplish plenty of goals- cooling buildings, growing vegetables, and increasing green space. But, saving money usually isn’t one of them.

Megan Hall: Got it! Thanks, Hamid and Andrea!

That’s it for today. You can find more information, or ask a question about the way your choices affect our planet, at askpossibly.org. You can also subscribe to Possibly wherever you get your podcasts or follow us on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, or Bluesky at  “askpossibly”

Possibly is a co-production of Brown University’s Institute for Environment and Society, Brown’s Climate Solutions Initiative, and Ocean State Media.

The post What’s the deal with green roofs? appeared first on TPR: The Public’s Radio.

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On Possibly we’re always thinking about the most effective way to talk about climate change. So we turned to Potential Energy, a marketing firm for planet earth, for some tips.

Megan Hall: Welcome to Possibly, where we take on huge problems like the future of our planet and break them down into small questions with unexpected answers. I’m Megan Hall.

On this show we’re always thinking about the most effective way to talk about climate change. What words resonate with people? And what makes people tune us out?

So this week we turned to an expert in this exact thing.

John Marshall: I’m John Marshall, I’m the founder and CEO of Potential Energy. We think of ourselves as the marketing firm for planet earth.

Megan Hall: John, who’s based in our home state of Rhode Island, spent most of his career doing marketing for big brands – airlines, soda companies, you name it.

John Marshall: One day my 17-year-old accosted me and told me that I had to stop selling shampoo and soap and do something useful with my life. So we started this marketing firm whose purpose is to educate citizens on climate change using all the techniques you would use to sell someone an Oreo cookie.

Megan Hall: That means they started doing market research on different ways to talk about climate change.

John Marshall: Does this word versus that word, if you say climate versus not climate, if you use climate as an adjective or a noun. And so all of those details that, you know, one would use if one was in the marketing world, we’re using for climate change.

Megan Hall: So I wanted to ask John for some tips, for us here at Possibly, and for you to use at home.

Megan Hall: So I was hoping I could just kind of run by you some phrases and you can tell me are they useful to use and if not, what should we say instead?

John Marshall: Let’s do it.

Megan Hall: Okay. So here’s a phrase that I come across a lot and I don’t like to use it because I feel like no one knows what it means: “Carbon footprint.”

John Marshall: You are right. No one knows what it means. It also is kind of a funny thing where your individual carbon footprint is probably not gonna make that much of a difference in the total scheme of things. And so we don’t use it. There’s a whole set of those terms, like no one wakes up in the morning and says, “what a great day for decarbonization.” There’s so many technical terms in the policy sphere that have leaked into climate communications. We try to get rid of all of that stuff.

Megan Hall: John says that even the phrase “carbon emissions,” or “CO2 emissions” isn’t great to use. It’s not clear enough what it means, or how harmful it is to the planet.

John Marshall: We do like the word “pollution.” Pollution works really well

Megan Hall: John’s research shows that talking about “carbon pollution,” or just “pollution,” is more effective. Because pollution is something everyone knows and dislikes.

Megan Hall: Okay, so now what about the term “net zero?” What do, what do people think of that?

John Marshall: Well, no one wants to go to zero. Like humans want good stuff. We want abundance. We want more. We’ve systematically found that abundance framing beats sacrifice framing. And so anything with “mandate,” “ban,” “zero,” you know, all those kinds of things always lose.

Megan Hall: I also asked John to weigh in on one of the biggest debates in how we talk about climate change. Should we focus on fear or hope?

John Marshall: I’m so glad you asked this. This one drives me bonkers. So we have the data on this. We’ve actually come to a conclusion that it’s the wrong debate. We’ve actually found that the most motivating thing is love. And so the line that we use on climate change is we need to protect what we love.

Now, love happens to have fear and hope inside it, right? Worry is important. It motivates. It activates you. You worry about your kid. You worry about their future. That’s a normal human response to something. It’s okay to do that. It’s also nice to talk about how the solutions, you know, create more optimism and hope, but it is a false choice.

If we’ve learned one thing, it’s that it’s okay to tell the truth, and the truth is not great, but it’s very motivating.

Megan Hall: So if you’re ever talking to someone, a friend or a family member, about why climate change matters, try these tips:

Use phrases everyone knows like pollution, instead of technical terms

Don’t talk in partisan terms. Just saying “it’s not political” instantly lowers people’s defensiveness.

And focus on how climate change will affect what people love.

That’s it for today. You can find more information, or ask a question about the way your choices affect our planet, at askpossibly.org. You can also subscribe to Possibly wherever you get your podcasts or follow us on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, or Bluesky at  “askpossibly”

Today’s episode was produced by Nat Hardy.

Possibly is a co-production of Brown University’s Institute for Environment and Society, Brown’s Climate Solutions Initiative, and Ocean State Media.

The post How should we talk about climate change? appeared first on TPR: The Public’s Radio.

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Home insurance is supposed to help us recover from natural disasters, but climate change is disrupting the industry. This week on Possibly, we look at how states are responding to this problem.

Megan Hall: Welcome to Possibly, where we take on huge problems, like the future of our planet, and break them down into small questions with unexpected answers. I’m Megan Hall.

We already know that climate change is making natural disasters more extreme and happen more often. Home insurance is supposed to help us recover from those natural disasters, but now climate change is affecting that industry, too.

Juliana Merullo and Nat Hardy are here to walk us through how states are responding to this problem.

Juliana Merullo:: Hiya Megan!

Nat Hardy: Hey there!

Megan Hall: In our last episode, we talked about how climate change is making the home insurance industry more risky all over the country. So why should we be thinking about states?

Juliana Merullo: Well, home insurance is regulated at the state level. There’s an official, normally called the insurance commissioner, in each state, and their office sets the policies and regulations that the insurance companies have to follow.

Nat Hardy: That means some states, like California, regulate their insurance industry much more than other states, like Louisiana or New Hampshire.

Megan Hall: What do they do to regulate insurance companies?

Juliana Merullo: It looks different in different states! They give licenses to insurers, they make sure those insurers can pay their claims, and they approve the rates that companies charge homeowners.

Megan Hall: And I imagine that means insurance rates are different in each state?

Nat Hardy: Exactly. These differences in regulation between states have created a really complicated insurance situation. To find out more, we spoke to an expert who studies how climate change and regulation are affecting insurance markets.

Ishita Sen: My name is Ishita Sen. I am an assistant professor of finance at Harvard Business School.

Juliana Merullo: Ishita says that the way insurance markets are supposed to work is pretty straightforward.

Ishita Sen: Anyone would tell you, places that are more exposed to disaster risk, are the places where you would expect insurance prices to be higher.

Nat Hardy: Ishita and her colleagues published a study that showed in reality, it’s not that simple.

Juliana Merullo: They found that in some states, insurance rates are artificially low. That means the rate doesn’t match the actual risk of that house.

Megan Hall: Why is that?

Nat Hardy: Well, the major insurance companies operate all over the country, right? In both more-regulated and less-regulated states. And it’s easier to raise the rates in the less-regulated states, where there’s less oversight.

Juliana Merullo: Some insurance companies deny this, but Ishita’s study suggests that if a company can’t raise the rate to reflect the full risk for a home-owner in say, California, insurers might  raise the rates on homeowners in a less regulated state like Oklahoma instead.

Nat Hardy: And Ishita says that’s a problem:

Ishita Sen: And to the extent that prices actually do not reflect these risks, then people may not actually fully internalize the cost of living in a high, high risk area.

Megan Hall: Okay, but why does it matter that the risk doesn’t match the premiums?

Nat Hardy: On the one hand, in less regulated states, where insurance rates are climbing, it can make homeownership way less affordable.

Juliana Merullo: But the reality of climate change is that it’s making more places susceptible to natural disasters. And the prices should reflect that.

Nat Hardy:  At a certain point, we might have to pay more and accept the risk, or adjust where we’re living.

Megan Hall: I guess so. But California recently made some big changes to the way it regulates home insurance, right?

Nat Hardy: Yes! Major insurers like State Farm stopped offering new policies in the state, so the insurance commissioner made some reforms, hoping it would encourage them to come back.

Juliana Merullo: The state has one of the most regulated insurance industries, and it’s likely that regulation encouraged insurers to leave the state.

Megan Hall: I see, so the regulations are causing this problem?

Nat Hardy: Partially, but it’s not quite that simple. Dave Jones, the former insurance commissioner in California, says, all sorts of states- those with tight regulations, and those with looser rules are all seeing this same phenomenon:

Dave Jones: Which is, insurance companies raising prices as well as declining to write and renew insurance. So there’s not some get-out-of-climate-change deregulation card here that’s going to solve the problem.

Megan Hall: So if regulating more or less won’t help, what’s the solution?

Juliana Merullo: We’ll have to cover that in the next episode!

Megan Hall: I guess so! Thanks Juliana and Nat! That’s it for today. You can find more information, or ask a question about the way your choices affect our planet, at askpossibly.org. You can also subscribe to Possibly wherever you get your podcasts or follow us on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, X, or Bluesky at  “askpossibly”

Possibly is a co-production of Brown University’s Institute for Environment and Society, Brown’s Climate Solutions Initiative, and the Public’s Radio.

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After fire hydrants ran dry during the wildfires in Los Angeles, listeners wondered why firefighters didn’t just use ocean water to begin with. On this episode of Possibly, we explain the tradeoffs of using the ocean to fight fires.

Megan Hall: Welcome to Possibly, where we take on huge problems like the future of our planet and break them down into small questions with unexpected answers. I’m Megan Hall.

We recently saw firefighters in Los Angeles struggling to put out massive wildfires that destroyed more than ten thousand homes.

One of the big problems- not enough water. Which made a lot of people wonder- LA is right next to the ocean- why can’t firefighters just use that?

We had Hamid Torabzadeh and Emma Mejia from our Possibly Team look into this question.

Hamid Torabzadeh: Hi, Megan!

Emma Mejia: Hello!

Megan Hall: So, why don’t we use ocean water to fight forest fires?

Hamid Torabzadeh: It’s a bit complicated so let’s step back.

Emma Mejia: The quick answer is, Firefighters DO use ocean water, but only when they run out of fresh water.

Hamid Torabzadeh: This actually happened during the Palisades Fire in LA– which grew more than 14,000 acres on its fastest day.

Emma Mejia: To try to picture just how fast that is, that’s almost eight football fields consumed by fire every minute!

Megan Hall: Wow.

Hamid Torabzadeh: And with a fire of that kind of speed, there was simply too much demand on the water supply, causing the water pressure to lower.

Emma Mejia: And so, the firefighters had to use ocean water.

Megan Hall: And how do they get that ocean water?

Hamid Torabzadeh: There are some super cool aircrafts made just for that.

Emma Mejia: People call them “super scoopers.”

Hamid Torabzadeh: Those used in the LA fires can scoop up more than fifteen hundred gallons of ocean water at a time. That’s about 4 hot tubs’ worth of water.

Emma Mejia: This is a huge help when firefighters don’t have enough fresh water to put out a rapidly growing blaze.

Megan Hall: That sounds like a great solution to me. But, why don’t they just use ocean water in the first place?

Emma Mejia: Good question. There’s a few reasons why ocean water is the last choice for firefighters.

Hamid Torabzadeh: To learn more, we talked with Pat Megonigal, a senior scientist and Associate Director for Research at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center.

Emma Mejia: Pat and his team were curious about the effects of salt water on plants, trees, and soil, so they started an experiment—

Pat Megonigal: Where we draw water out of the Chesapeake Bay estuary and sprinkle it over this very large patch of forest. Once a year, we add the water for about 10 hours, watch it for a year, and then we repeat it the next year.

Hamid Torabzadeh: When they dump this water from this salty estuary, it’s pretty close to what happens when water from the ocean is used during forest fires.

Emma Mejia: Pat and his team kept dumping seawater every year, first once a year, then twice a year, and then three times a year.

Pat Megonigal: And there, after year three, we did begin to see the trees start to show signs of stress. Basically, they lost their leaves fairly early.

Megan Hall: So, that salty water was hurting the trees?

Emma Mejia: Exactly. Pat says that using seawater once for emergencies like wildfires probably won’t have a long-term impact on the forest.

Hamid Torabzadeh: But, it only took 3 years of these kinds of saltwater dumps to start making an impact.

Pat Megonigal: If you were to dump enough sea water, you know, at enough volume and at a high frequency, eventually it does affect the plants.

Megan Hall: But can’t rainwater just wash some of that salt away?

Emma Mejia: Super good point. If it rains a lot after firefighters use ocean water, more of the salt will get flushed out from the soil.

Hamid Torabzadeh: But of course dry places like LA don’t get that much rain.

Emma Mejia: And there’s something else to consider too. Pat says firefighters are wary of salt water.

Pat Megonigal: They prefer to use fresh water for variety of reasons, one of which is that it’s much easier on their equipment. Salt is just terrible for, equipment in general.

Megan Hall: Makes sense. So, it’s ok to use ocean water to fight fires if you have to, but it’s a last rather than first resort?

Emma Mejia: Yes, but the takeaway for protecting lives and homes is pretty clear.

Hamid Torabzadeh: For big, rapidly growing fires and when freshwater is not available, ocean water is a better choice than no water at all.

Megan Hall: Got it! Thanks, Hamid and Emma!

That’s it for today. You can find more information, or ask a question about the way your choices affect our planet, at askpossibly.org. You can also subscribe to Possibly wherever you get your podcasts or follow us on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, X, or Bluesky at  “askpossibly”

Possibly is a co-production of Brown University’s Institute for Environment and Society, Brown’s Climate Solutions Initiative, and The Public’s Radio.

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We hear a lot about climate migration—the idea that people will have to move as climate change makes some places unlivable. But is this something we’re still waiting for, or is it already happening?

Megan Hall: Welcome to Possibly, where we take on huge problems like the future of our planet and break them down into small questions with unexpected answers. I’m Megan Hall.

We hear a lot about climate migration—the idea that people will have to move as climate change makes some places unlivable. But is this something we’re still waiting for, or is it already happening?

Our reporters, Iman Khanbhai and Hamid Torabzadeh, looked into it.

Iman Khanbhai: Hi Megan!

Hamid Torabzadeh: Happy to be here!

Megan Hall: So—are people already moving because of climate change?

Hamid Torabzadeh: The short answer? Yes, but it’s complicated.

Iman: To understand why, it helps to think about climate change in two ways: gradual shifts, like rising sea levels, and extreme weather events, like hurricanes or wildfires.

Megan Hall: So, what does that actually look like?

Iman Khanbhai: To learn more, we spoke to Professor Elizabeth Fussell.

Elizabeth Fussell: I’m a professor of population studies in Environment and Society at Brown.

Hamid Torabzadeh: She says what we’re seeing right now is climate change-related migration.

Elizabeth Fussell: What that means is migration that’s driven primarily by an environmental driver, whether that’s an extreme weather event or a gradual change in the environment like drought.

Megan Hall: So, people aren’t moving just because of climate change, but it’s becoming a bigger factor?

Iman Khanbhai: Exactly. People move for a lot of reasons—jobs, housing, family. But when climate disasters destroy homes or livelihoods, they might push people to leave sooner.

Hamid Torabzadeh: And this is already happening on a massive scale. In 2023, more than 20 million people were forced to flee their homes as a result of weather-related disasters.

Iman Khanbhai: And according to data from the Internal Displacement Monitoring Center, weather-related displacement has been increasing over the last 15 years.

Megan Hall: Where is this happening most?

Iman: All over. In 2024, catastrophic flooding in Brazil displaced over 300,000 people. And in East Africa, El Niño rains forced more than 350,000 people from their homes.

Hamid Torabzadeh: And of course, the recent fires in Los Angeles are forcing a lot of people in that region to rethink where they live.

Iman Khanbhai: Elizabeth says, even places that are used to extreme weather- like hurricanes can struggle with this new reality.

Hamid Torabzadeh: Like when Hurricane Helene hit North and South Carolina. People were surprised by the intensity of the overflowing rivers, which flooded homes, businesses, and roads.

Iman Khanbhai: The things people did in the past to protect their communities from hurricanes, floods, or wildfires just aren’t working as well anymore. The risks are outpacing their ability to adapt.

Elizabeth Fussell: So, that’s how I see climate change really making a dramatic difference in patterns of migration in the United States.

Megan Hall: If climate change is already influencing migration, what does that mean for the future?

Iman Khanbhai: It means people won’t just move in reaction to disasters—many will start making decisions before disaster strikes.

Hamid Torabzadeh: And we’re already seeing signs of this. Zillow now includes climate risks in home listings, and insurance companies are adjusting rates—or even pulling out of risky areas entirely.

Iman Khanbhai: According to Zillow’s website, more than 4 out of 5 people consider climate risks when they’re shopping for a new home.

Hamid Torabzadeh: If insurance is too expensive—or unavailable—some people might decide to move before they have to. Others might be forced out if property values drop.

Elizabeth Fussell: So that’s something that consumers are most likely taking into account now. But insurers are also taking climate hazards into account when they set their prices.

Hamid Torabzadeh: In a way, financial systems are starting to anticipate climate migration, even if individual people haven’t made those choices yet.

Megan Hall: So, what’s the bottom line?

Iman Khanbhai: Climate change isn’t just a future problem—it’s already reshaping where and how people live. And as risks increase, more people will be making tough choices about whether to stay or to go.

Megan Hall: Got it. Thanks, Iman and Hamid.

That’s it for today. You can find more information, or ask a question about the way your choices affect our planet, at askpossibly.org. You can also subscribe to Possibly wherever you get your podcasts or follow us on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, X, or Bluesky at  “askpossibly”

Possibly is a co-production of Brown University’s Institute for Environment and Society, Brown’s Climate Solutions Initiative, and The Public’s Radio

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Possibly’s founder and the Provost of sustainability at Brown University Stephen Porder recently visited a supermarket chain in France that sells products other stores would have thrown away.

Megan Hall: Welcome to Possibly, where we take on huge problems like the future of our planet and break them down into small questions with unexpected answers. I’m Megan Hall.

Here’s an interesting approach to food waste- a supermarket chain in France sells products that other stores would have thrown away. Our founder and the provost for sustainability at Brown University Stephen Porder visited one of those markets during a recent trip to Paris. He’s here to tell us more about it.

Megan Hall: Welcome, Stephen.

Stephen Porder: Hey, Megan, great to be back as always.

Megan Hall: So before we talk about the supermarkets in France, will you quickly just remind us why we care about food waste?

Stephen Porder: There are lots of reasons. But since this show is often about climate change, let’s start there. Food production accounts for about 20% of all of our greenhouse gasses, and of all that food we produce, we throw out about a third of it before it ever gets eaten. So all those greenhouse gasses, as well as all the other effects of agriculture, we’re wasting a third of that.

Megan Hall: Tell me about this food waste supermarket chain.

Stephen Porder: So in French, it’s called Nous Anti-Gaspi, Us Against Waste. And basically what they do is they find food that isn’t going rotten, but that would be thrown out for another reason.

Megan Hall: How did you hear about this place?

Stephen Porder: Actually, it was just down the street from where I was staying. There was a produce market, and then there was this thing called Nous Anti-Gaspi. And looked like they had food there. So I looked into it. So I didn’t hear about it. I just stumbled across it. But it turns out there’s a bunch of them in Paris and around France.

Megan Hall: What is it like shopping there? What kind of stuff do they have on the shelves?

Stephen Porder: It’s basically a fully stocked supermarket.

So I’m walking around Nous Anti-Gaspi. Right now I’m in the cheese section.

It’s France, right? So there’s a lot of wine. There’s a lot of incredible cheeses,

There’s a goat cheese with honey, some seven different kinds of fresh mozzarella.

There’s a lot of produce. And then there’s your staples, olive oil or flour or sugar.

Going back here, we have a whole shelves and shelves of organic eggs,

But even stuff like toothbrushes.

Why toothbrushes would be thrown out? I don’t know. But spices…

And I have to say, like the produce is awesome. I was expecting sort of the half rotten tomatoes, you know, that you would pick through and make sauce out of. But in fact, I couldn’t really tell that there was a difference between the chichi organic produce place next door and this one, in terms of the quality of the produce. It’s just they didn’t have all the things.

Megan Hall: What is wrong with these things that they would have been thrown away?

Stephen Porder: Obviously, when you think of food waste, you’re like, oh, you know, this is past its expiration date or something like that. But when I looked into it, it turns out there’s all kinds of reasons why food gets thrown away.

It was packaged wrong, or there was a typo on the label, or it was delivered too late, and so the vendor had the right to refuse the delivery…

And so all of that is like jettisoned somewhere.

Megan Hall: What lessons could this supermarket teach us here in the US?

Stephen Porder: There are apps and whatnot, and organizations that try to deal with food waste here in the US. And my experience is that there are certain sort of dedicated environmental types who will buy ugly food and go out of their way to to a special a Co-Op, but this very much had the feel of like everybody was there and they weren’t there because they were necessarily environmentalists. They were there because it was cheaper and it was just as convenient. I don’t know. It just really struck a chord with me how regular it felt while doing something that was clearly like it just makes a ton of sense.

Megan Hall: Excellent. Well, Merci Stephen for coming in today.

Stephen Porder:  Je t’en prie

That’s it for today. You can find more information, or ask a question about the way your choices affect our planet, at askpossibly.org. You can also subscribe to Possibly wherever you get your podcasts or follow us on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, X, or Bluesky at  “askpossibly”

Possibly is a co-production of Brown University’s Institute for Environment and Society, Brown’s Climate Solutions Initiative, and the Public’s Radio.

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