Advocates are calling for an unorthodox method to fight invasive species like the European green crab: just cook them up and eat them!

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In part two of Possibly’s series on the dairy industry, we’re turning our attention to an age-old method used to efficiently store cheese.

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We talk a lot about the carbon pollution that comes along with eating beef, but this week on Possibly we’re asking: what about eating dairy? How do they compare?

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’ve talked a lot about the carbon pollution that comes along with eating beef, but what about eating dairy? And how do they compare?

We had Samantha Zhang and Nat Hardy from our Possibly Team look into this.

Samantha Zhang: Hi, Megan!

Nat Hardy: Hello!

Megan Hall: So, what creates more carbon emissions? Beef or dairy?

Nat Hardy: Let’s start with the obvious overlap between the two… cows. We know that cows use a lot of resources.

Samantha Zhang: They need land to graze, and lots of feed.

Megan Hall: But what does feed have to do with carbon pollution?

Nat Hardy: Well, it takes a lot of energy to make feed– from fertilizers to grow it, tractors to plant and harvest it, and trucks to deliver it.

Samantha Zhang: Not only that, because of the way cows’ stomachs process food, they belch out methane —a greenhouse gas that’s much more potent at warming the planet than carbon dioxide.

Nat Hardy: And of course, we can’t forget that their manure also creates methane.

Samantha Zhang: But one major difference between beef cows and dairy cows is how long they live. Dairy cows stay on the farm for about 5 years, while beef cows get slaughtered after about a year and a half.

Megan Hall: What kind of difference does that make when it comes to pollution?

Nat Hardy: For starters, cows that live longer have more to offer. It takes about two years for a cow to start making milk.

Samantha Zhang: So really, during those early years you have to feed them, they burp out methane, but they aren’t making anything.

Nat Hardy: When a dairy cow sticks around for five years or more, you’re getting at least three years of milk in exchange for all of the things they do that create carbon pollution.

Megan Hall: So, letting dairy cows get a bit older is more efficient?

Samantha Zhang: Exactly. But there’s more. With dairy cows, you’re kind of getting a 2 for 1.

Nat Hardy: To find out more, we talked to Dr. Matthew Hayek, an Associate Professor in the Department of Environmental Studies at NYU.

Matthew Hayek: The dairy cow is producing multiple products for human consumption. First of all, a lot of milk. And second, she is probably going to be slaughtered and rendered into beef that is used in hamburger meat. Then also, she will have offspring.

Nat Hardy: Compare that to a beef cow that is used for only one thing— beef— and suddenly dairy cows are looking way more efficient.

Megan Hall: So dairy cows create less emissions overall, because those emissions are being divided up in between amounts of milk and cheese and beef.

Samantha Zhang: Exactly! So if we take a look at the numbers, the emissions for around two pounds of beef from a cow that’s JUST used for beef is about 60 kilograms of CO2.

Nat Hardy: But, beef from a dairy cow comes in at about 20 kilograms of CO2. So only a third as much.

Megan Hall: So, less emissions, for the same thing! What about milk?

Samantha Zhang: Well, 2 pounds of milk produces way less emissions—about 20 times less than beef from a dairy cow.

Megan Hall: Where does cheese rank in terms of greenhouse gases?

Nat Hardy: Well the surprising thing is, cheese creates a ton of emissions per pound. It’s up there, with the emissions from beef that came from a dairy cow, though it depends on the type of cheese.

Megan Hall: Why is cheese so similar to beef?

Nat Hardy: Well, consider how much milk goes into a kilogram of cheese.

Samantha Zhang: That’s the thing to keep in mind about these metrics: they can really change depending on the measurement. Since…

Matthew Hayek: Different types of food have different quantities of water, protein, fat, calories in them, depending on which you choose to report by, you’re going to have very different answers in that comparison.

Nat Hardy: So, say we weren’t looking at the emissions by weight, but instead we were looking at it based on the amount of protein.

Samantha Zhang: Then you’d get more emissions for milk, once you took out all the water weight. Going back to cheese, it…

Matthew Hayek: Might look like very high emissions by comparison, because you’ve removed most of the water in order to perform that fermentation.

Nat Hardy: The numbers might change based on how you measure it, and beef is definitely worse than dairy, but in the end food that comes from a cow is always going to make a lot of emissions.

Megan Hall: Got it! Thanks, Samantha and Nat!

That’s it for today. You can find more information, or ask a question about the ways 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 social media at “ask possibly”

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

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These rare mushrooms are famous for their intense flavor, and their expensive price. But climate change may be driving those prices even higher.

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 looking at a luxury ingredient that’s at risk of dropping off the menu: the truffle.

These pungent subterranean mushrooms are famous for their intense flavor, and they’re so rare they can fetch thousands of dollars a pound. But those prices might start getting even higher… because of climate change.

To help us understand more about this mystery mushroom and the dangers they face, we had James Chafouleas and Shane Toomey from our Possibly team look into it…

James Chafouleas: Hi, Megan!

Shane Toomey: Hey, Megan.

Megan Hall: So truffles, they’re the epitome of luxury. Some have sold for over $15,000 a pound. But what is it about that specific scent that makes them so desirable, and so worth protecting?

Rowan Jacobsen:  It really grabs your brain in a way, it’s intense and pungent and garlicy, but also like funky, like an aged prosciutto or something.

James Chafouleas: That’s Rowan Jacobsen. He’s a James Beard award-winning food writer and the author of the book “Truffle Hound.”

Rowan Jacobsen: As soon as somebody holds a truffle up to their nose, their eyes get big every time. It’s like the ‘truffle face.’

Shane Toomey: But Rowan says that this “truffle face” might become a lot harder to find in the future, because these mushrooms are incredibly sensitive to our changing environment.

Rowan Jacobsen: “Drought is a big threat to the truffle business. Just like mushrooms they like water a lot, right? They don’t like soil to be too dry. You have to have summer rains if you’re gonna have those truffles form in the fall.

Shane Toomey: And that’s the problem. Research shows that as the climate changes, summer droughts in the Mediterranean are becoming more frequent and more intense.

Shane Toomey: Scientific studies of decades of harvest data confirm that the truffle harvest is dependent on summer precipitation.

Megan Hall: Can’t we just farm truffles and use irrigation?

James Chafouleas: Rowan says, that depends:

Rowan Jacobsen:  The winter blacks not a problem because they are farmed very successfully, most black truffles today are farmed. But white truffles Appalachians, the Oregon truffles, those are all dependent on wild forests and on, semi-normal conditions. So they all could disappear via climate change.

James Chafouleas: And even the land truffles have is under pressure. In regions like Italy, forests are being cleared to expand vineyards, and that wipes out the truffle habitat entirely.

Rowan Jacobsen:  So there’s this tension in Italy and other wine-growing regions that also have truffles where, the more they clear forests, the fewer truffles they have.

Shane Toomey: This is a huge issue for local communities where truffle hunting defines their cultural identity and drives tourism.

Megan Hall: So what can we do to protect them?

Rowan Jacobsen:  So there definitely is movement across Europe, to recognize the importance of these forests and protect them. Wild travel hunting is great because it gives the forest a value and, a sense of purpose, a sense of meaning to all the people who live there. And it just makes them very appreciative and very protective of those forests.

James Chafouleas: If you’ve had truffle products and don’t get the hype, you may be in for a surprise.

Rowan Jacobsen: If you’ve had truffle popcorn and said I don’t understand that stuff sucks you haven’t had a real truffle yet. It’s often made with fake truffle scent. But most people, that’s the only truffle they’ve ever smelled. So they think that’s what a truffle is.

Shane Toomey: If you want the real truffle smell experience, you have to go to the source.

Rowan Jacobsen:  That smells destroyed by heat and processing. So it’s gotta be fresh. I think it’s really important to go experience a real truffle.

James Chafouleas: And if the conservation movement isn’t successful, the “truffle face” disappears right along with the forests.

Megan Hall: Got it! Thanks, James and Shane!

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 social media at “ask possibly” Possibly is a co-production of Brown University’s Institute for Environment and Society, Ocean State Media, and WBRU.

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With colorful windsocks and a gazebo, Providence artist Eli Nixon developed an art installation to bring attention to the air quality around the Port of Providence. This week on Possibly, we take a closer 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.

This episode, we are taking a trip to the Port of Providence, to learn about an art installation that is helping to raise awareness about air quality.

Isha Thakkar and Leo Nachamie from our Possibly Team are here to tell us more.

Isha Thakkar: Hi, Megan!

Leo Nachamie: Hello!

Megan Hall: So can art help us understand our air quality?

Isha Thakkar: Great question! To find out, we talked to Eli Nixon, an artist that specializes in collaborative public art projects.

Leo Nachamie: Last summer Eli and a team of artists set up a windsock art installation at the end of Public Street in South Providence.

Isha Thakkar: The installation involved flying different colored windsocks at a small water access point near the Port of Providence.

Leo Nachamie: Each color represented a different level on the air quality index, which measures how polluted the air is at any given moment.

Isha Thakkar: Yellow is for moderate air quality, orange shows that the air is unhealthy for sensitive groups, and red is for when the air is so polluted that anyone may experience health effects.

Megan Hall: What is this installation trying to accomplish?

Leo Nachamie: Eli wanted to bring outside attention to the quality of our air. They hope this project will bring a sense of urgency for the neighborhoods around the port:

Eli Nixon: What I was trying to do was amplify their concerns to be seen by a larger providence that has yet to invest in protecting this public right of way.

Isha Thakkar: Rhode Island has one of the highest asthma rates in the country. And the neighborhood around the Port of Providence is particularly vulnerable because of all of the nearby industries that pump pollution into the air.

Eli Nixon: And yet our politicians are not treating it with that kind of emergency level.

Leo Nachamie: Eli wants their work to serve a purpose in the community, to serve as a bridge between art and public health.

Eli Nixon: I’m trying to make a useful tool for local residents that actually speaks to their concerns about their own well being in their own neighborhood in real time.

Isha Thakkar: With that goal in mind, Eli also built a temporary gazebo at the community access point, so people could sit near the water.

Leo Nachamie: The installation turned a pretty un-kept area into a beautiful gathering place– it’s one of the few places where people in the area can access the river.

Eli Nixon: So my project was like, Ooh, how can I lift up what is beautiful about this place, and what many neighborhood residents have been yelling for and organizing around for decades is safe, pedestrian-centered public access to the bay.

Leo Nachamie: Eli says that protecting public spaces to gather and enjoy nature safely, can lead to domino effects:

Eli Nixon: If we don’t take care of the one spot that is for the public, where our needs are supposed to be prioritized, they’re supposed to be held at the center of what this tiny strip is, because they’re not being held at the center of any of these other spots. So it’s a strategic foothold to yell so hard about this tiny thing, because it’s our one place to have any impact on what’s happening all around it.

Isha Thakkar: So not only are these windsocks being used to bring attention to poor air quality by the port, they’re also being used as a call to action to protect free, safe, public spaces.

Megan Hall: Great! Thanks, Isha and Leo!

If you are interested in a windsocks project in your own community, you can get in touch with the People’s Port Authority and Eli Nixon.

That’s it for today. You can find more information, or ask a question about the ways 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 social media at “ask possibly”

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

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This week on Possibly we’re taking a look at the ships that carry our goods around the world. What would it look like to take fossil fuels out of the equation?

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.

If you live near a large port, you’ve probably seen cargo ships—they’re these massive boats that

carry everything from cars to bananas, all over the world.

Right now, these ships all run on fossil fuel. We wanted to know – is there a cleaner way to transport our stuff around the world?

We had Sedi-Anne Blachford and Samantha Zhang from our Possibly team look into this.

 Sedi-Anne Blachford: Hi, Megan!

Samantha Zhang: Hello!

Megan Hall: So, is there a cleaner way to run these massive ships?

Sedi-Anne Blachford: Well, to be fair,  moving things around by cargo ships is already way more efficient than using airplanes or trucks.

Samantha Zhang: But still, we ship so much stuff around the world that these cargo ships do create a lot of carbon pollution— somewhere around 3% of all of our emissions.

Megan Hall: So, what can we do to reduce that pollution?

 Sedi-Anne Blachford: The shipping industry has been looking into all sorts of solutions, from fueling the ships with hydrogen or ammonia to even using nuclear power.

Stephen Porder: I teach about this stuff, and even from my lectures in the fall, I’m having to replace all my slides for my lectures in early March, because the technology is changing. It’s a whirlwind.

Sedi-Anne Blachford: That’s Stephen Porder. Professor of Environment and Society at Brown University.

Stephen Porder: But I’m also the co-founder of Possibly.

Samantha Zhang: And Stephen says the latest innovation is using batteries!

Megan Hall: Batteries to run a cargo ship? How is that possible? You must need some pretty giant batteries.

 Sedi-Anne Blachford: Yeah, they are big! In fact, a lot of them are the size of shipping containers.

Samantha Zhang: But that’s actually pretty convenient. Batteries used for electricity storage for the grid already come in shipping containers, and of course:

Stephen Porder: Ports are made to lift those big, heavy shipping containers in and out really quickly.

Megan Hall: So instead of having to plug in and wait to charge the ship, like I do with my car, they could just put in a whole new battery?

 Sedi-Anne Blachford: Exactly. No long wait to recharge.

Stephen Porder: They just swap out the batteries and they’re ready to go again.

Megan Hall: So, you put a massive battery on a cargo ship, and that’s enough to get it across the ocean?

Samantha Zhang: Right now, the ships that are using these batteries can only travel about 620 miles, but the technology is improving all the time.

Sedi-Anne Blachford: China is testing its first all electric cargo ship, a 10,000 ton vessel, near Shanghai this spring.

Samantha Zhang: Plus, with fuel prices the way they are these days, switching to electricity might start to make the most economic sense for companies that ship goods across the ocean.

 Sedi-Anne Blachford: And there’s one more twist to this story…

Stephen Porder: Over 40% of what we’re shipping around the world is fossil fuels.

Samantha Zhang: Which means that if we switch to clean energy to power the rest of our economy, we’ll reduce the need for shipping altogether.

Megan Hall: And shipping less stuff means less carbon pollution?

 Sedi-Anne Blachford: You got it. It turns out reducing emissions in the shipping industry is pretty interconnected with reducing emissions everywhere else.

Samantha Zhang: And for Stephen, that’s an exciting connection.

Stephen Porder: It’s those kinds of synergies that I think really give people like me optimism for a better, more efficient and less polluting world without sacrifice. Like we don’t need to ship fossil fuels around if we’re not using them.

Sedi-Anne Blachford: That being said, completely electrifying cargo ships isn’t going to be easy. It will probably take 10 or even 20 years.

Stephen Porder: We’re very much on the learning curve. We’ve been running ships off oil for well over a century. We’ve been running anything off these kinds of batteries for like, a couple of years.

Samantha Zhang: But Stephen says, five years ago, nobody was talking about electric ships and now they’re here, and so who knows what five years will bring.

Megan Hall: Got it! Thanks Samantha and Sedi-Anne.

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, Ocean State Media and WBRU.

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A research team at Brown called Breathe Providence is asking people to track what they smell, in an effort to better understand air pollution in Rhode Island.

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.

Take a deep breath…. In through your nose. What do you smell? A group of local researchers think, it’s a question worth asking. And the answer might tell us a lot about the quality of our air.

Isha Thakkar and Leo Nachamie from our Possibly Team have more on this project.

Isha Thakkar: Hi, Megan!

Leo Nachamie: Hello!

Megan Hall: So can smelling our air help us improve our air quality?

Isha Thakkar: Great question! To answer this, we talked to Emma Blankstein.

Emma Blankstein: I am a student researcher with the Breathe Providence project.

Megan Hall: What is Breathe Providence?

Leo Nachamie: Breathe Providence is a research team at Brown University that tracks air quality in Providence neighborhoods.

Megan Hall: Why do they need to track this information?

Isha Thakkar: Rhode Island has one of the highest asthma rates in the country, so understanding where, and when people are exposed to polluted air, could play a role in improving their health.

Leo Nachamie: Breathe Providence uses a lot of tools to track air quality. They have a network of powerful sensors all over the city.

Isha Thakkar: But they’re also encouraging everyone to use the sensors we carry around already – our noses.

Leo Nachamie: Anyone can participate when they download the “Smell my City” app.

Isha Thakkar:  The app, which was originally created by researchers at Carnegie Mellon, is part of a national project to crowdsource pollution odors across the country.

Leo Nachamie: It’s an easy way for community members to report and describe different smells.

Megan Hall: How does it work?

Isha Thakkar: When people report a smell, they rank the intensity of the odor from 1 to 5. They can also list any health symptoms they are experiencing that may be a result of the smell, from trouble breathing to headaches or stomachaches. Then, the app records the location of the smell.

Leo Nachamie: As more and more people started using the smell my city app in Providence, researchers started noticing some common patterns. 

Megan Hall: Like what?

Isha Thakkar: Well,  people living near the port of Providence, often report smells of sulfur, asphalt, or tar.

Leo Nachamie: That makes sense because the neighborhood around the port has some of the worst air quality in the state.

Megan Hall: Where is this air pollution coming from?

Isha Thakkar: Well, there’s a lot of smelly industries near the port, including an asphalt plant, oil and gas companies, and a scrap metal distributor.

Megan Hall: Oh yeah– I always notice that giant pile of metal every time I drive near the water!

But, it seems pretty obvious that people would notice these smells if they live near these companies. What’s the point of collecting their experiences?

Isha Thakkar: Well, certain toxins have very distinct smells, and our noses are powerful tools.

Leo Nachamie: The smells we notice can give us clues about where those toxins come from, in a way a traditional air monitor couldn’t. 

Isha Thakkar: It’s a part of Breathe Providence’s efforts to paint a fuller picture of what’s happening to Providence’s air. And validate what neighborhood members already know.

Emma Blankstein: There are so many remarkable people who know what to do about these things, and they know what they’re smelling, they know what they’re experiencing and they know what the problem is and how to fix it. It is a matter of building the power and the scientific evidence in order to actually make sure that that knowledge can translate to change, whether it’s changes that the community are making for themselves, or whether it’s changes that are made in collaboration with city and state government.

Isha Thakkar: So next time you’re outside, notice what you’re smelling, it could tell you more about what’s in the air than you might think.

Megan Hall: Great! Thanks, Isha and Leo!

And if you’d like to report the things you’re smelling, you can find Smell My City on your phone’s app store.

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, Ocean State Media, and WBRU.

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With assisted migration, humans help move plant species into areas more suitable for their growth. But are there potential downsides to this human-led movement?

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.

Climate change is messing with temperatures all over the world. For humans, that means more of us need air conditioning. But what about plants? What happens when the place they call home gets too hot for them to handle?

Andrea Li and Sedi-Anne Blachford from our Possibly team have the story of one rare tree from Florida that might be happier in a new location.

Andrea Li: Hi, Megan!

Sedi-Anne Blachford: Hello!

Megan Hall: So, tell me about this tree.

Andrea Li: OK, I want you to imagine a short, shrubby evergreen with vibrant, spiky green leaves.

Sedi-Anne Blachford: If you crush those leaves, they give off a strong odor. That’s why some people call this tree a “stinking cedar.”

Andrea Li: But it’s most commonly known as the “Florida Torreya.”

Megan Hall: What makes this tree special, other than its stink?

Andrea Li: Experts believe it’s one of the oldest trees in the world. There’s even a legend that the Florida Torreya was used to build Noah’s ark.

Sedi-Anne Blachford: This tree is also extremely rare. There are only a few hundred left in the wild.

Megan Hall: Why is it so rare?

Andrea Li: Well, a lot of Florida Torreya have died because of a fungal disease. The heat in Florida is also making it hard for the tree to survive.

Sedi-Anne Blachford: But a group of people who call themselves the “Torreya Guardians” are working to change that. Here’s one of the members, Fred Bess.

Fred Bess: Our goal, our mission, is to preserve Torreya taxifolia, because of its status as critically endangered. There are less than about 500 trees left in the wild because of a disease that’s killing them.

Andrea Li: They think the tree would be more successful in cooler parts of the US. That’s because according to Fred…

Fred Bess: Move the trees north away from their natural habit, their current natural range, and the disease does not show itself.

Sedi-Anne Blachford: There’s pretty limited research into the tree’s decline, or what moving it will accomplish. But so far, their project is working. The tree has managed to grow in places like Cleveland, Ohio where Fred is, in Connecticut and even in nearby Massachusetts.

Andrea Li: If you look at the Wikipedia page for the Torreya Guardians you can even see a picture of Fred with the tree in his front yard. He looks ecstatic as he stands next to this bulbous green and spiky tree that reaches his shoulder.

Megan Hall: That’s great!  But are there any downsides to moving a tree like this into a completely new location?

Sedi-Anne Blachford: To find out, we spoke to Dov Sax, a professor of environment and society at Brown University. He says.

Dov Sax: There are a lot of really interesting ethical questions, everything from, are we obligated to try to save species from human induced climate change to if we do take those actions, are we risking causing more harm?

Andrea Li: He says, one of the biggest concerns is…

Dov Sax: If you move species north of their native range, that they might do too well and become invasive.

Sedi-Anne Blachford: And there are a lot of science questions too. Like what kind of species are likely to become invasive?  What habitats are most likely to be invaded? And how much damage do invasive species do?

Andrea Li: The thing is, while scientists have been working on these questions for decades, people like Fred aren’t waiting for the answers.

Fred Bess: If we hadn’t migrated tomatoes to Italy, what would you put on your pasta? What would the Irish do without potatoes, also native to South America?

Andrea Li: Today, if you go to the Guardians’ website, you can see the little saplings growing in the wild, outside of their usual habitat.

Sedi-Anne Blachford: Whether or not that helps save the species, and what the consequences are for other species, remains to be seen.

Megan Hall: Great! Thanks, Andrea and Sedi-Anne!

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, Ocean State Media, and WBRU.

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Possibly co-founder Stephen Porder has been on a home energy efficiency journey. We check in to see how his latest addition, new windows, are impacting the energy efficiency and comfort of the home.

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 getting an update on the home energy efficiency journey of Possibly’s co-founder Stephen Porder.

We had reporter Sedi-Anne Blachford take a field trip to Stephen’s house to check it out.

Sedi-Anne Blachford: Hi Megan!

Megan Hall: Hi Sedi-Anne! So, Stephen has spent years trying to make his home more energy efficient.

Sedi-Anne Blachford: That’s right!

Stephen Porder: We’ve actually been before on Possibly to talk about heat pumps, to talk about electric cars, talk about lots of things, but today we’re here to talk about windows.

Megan Hall: Can you tell me a little bit about what makes Stephen’s windows so interesting?

Sedi-Anne Blachford: Sure Megan. Well first of all, they don’t look or sound like most of the windows you see around New England. Instead of two sections that slide past each other.

Stephen Porder: This is a window that looks more like a door.

Sedi-Anne Blachford: And rather than opening with a

[Sliding window sound]

Sedi-Anne Blachford: It’s more of a

[Opening window sound]

Stephen Porder: So that’s opening like a door. If you turn the handle all the way up, it actually turns toward you. And that’s really nice for venting.

Megan Hall: Ok, why does that matter? Does the way a window open really affect how good it is at keeping out the cold?

Sedi-Anne Blachford: It does actually! Because the tilt-turn windows in Stephen’s house don’t have a break in the middle, they’re much more air- and water-tight than traditional sliding windows. But it’s not just the shape of the window that’s different, it’s also the window itself.

Stephen Porder: It’s actually three panes of glass, but it looks like one.

Sedi-Anne Blachford: Those three panes of glass have special coatings and are separated by thin gaps filled with argon or krypton gas.

Megan Hall: Argon and Krypton? What do those do?

Sedi- Anne: They basically act as an extra layer of insulation. Kind of like one of those double walled glass mugs you might have seen, except Argon and Krypton do an even better job of stopping heat transfer than air.

Megan Hall: So, Stephen got new windows to keep heat from getting out of his house?

Sedi-Anne Blachford: Well, not exactly. When Stephen retrofitted his house to be more energy efficient he purposely didn’t get new windows installed.

Stephen Porder: Everyone always told me that windows don’t really pay for themselves in energy savings. They’re not that big a deal. Like it’s the last thing you should do. So I followed that advice, and it’s not bad advice.

Megan Hall: Is that true?

Sedi-Anne Blachford: In Stephen’s case, it definitely could be. It might take a long time for the money saved from these extra-efficient windows to be more than the cost of installing them. 

Megan Hall: Alright, so then why the swap?

Sedi-Anne Blachford: Well as Stephen puts it,

Stephen Porder: I have a colleague at Brown who’s a real expert on building efficiency, and I was telling him about the windows, and he said, Yeah, new windows aren’t strictly necessary from an energy perspective in most cases, but they sure are nice to have. I kind of feel like that’s how I feel.

Sedi-Anne Blachford: He makes a good point. There are all sorts of testing and certification standards for how well windows perform from an energy standpoint. But, at the end of the day, Stephen and his wife were just getting sick of their old windows.

Stephen Porder: Finally when the fifth window broke and the ice was forming on the inside of the window, we were like, You know what? We just we’re going to do it for comfort. We’re not going to do it for energy savings. Probably it’s not going to pay for itself. But, like, you live in your house a lot, and it’s important and nice to have a comfortable house.

Megan Hall: So it really sounds like for Stephen, this decision was as much about basic comfort as anything else.

Sedi-Anne Blachford: Definitely. And the thing is, just because comfort is a harder thing to measure than cost or efficiency doesn’t mean it’s not important!

Megan Hall: I can totally agree with that! So what should I do first if I want to make my home more comfortable?

Sedi-Anne Blachford: A good first step is figuring out what changes might make the biggest difference.  You can start by getting an energy evaluation of your home. You can hire a professional energy assessor, or go to the department of energy’s website to find instructions for a DIY home energy assessment.

Megan Hall: That sounds like a good plan. Thanks, Sedi-Anne!

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, Ocean State Media and WBRU.

The post Should you replace your windows for energy efficiency? appeared first on TPR: The Public’s Radio.

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In Los Angeles, a new crop of curbside libraries are helping communities recover after last year’s wildfires. But instead of books, these libraries are full of seeds.

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 headed to sunny Los Angeles, where a new crop of curbside libraries has sprouted over the last few years. But instead of books, these libraries are full of seeds — and they’re helping communities reconnect with nature after last year’s wildfires.

Possibly reporter Janek Schaller, who’s based in Southern California, drove out to see one of them in person.

Janek Schaller: There’s a wooden box perched on a pole in front of Nina Raj’s home in Pasadena, California. Without taking a closer look, you might assume that it’s just another one of those little free libraries that have cropped up on many suburban curbsides. But anyone hoping to find a good read inside is in for a surprise.

Nina Raj: We’ve got bush sunflower, we’ve got showy milkweed. (Nina Library,

Janek Schaller: Colorful square packets of seeds line the shelves.

Nina Raj: We’ve got Yarrow, California Poppy, some buckwheat. This is cool. This is from the Ohlone farm. 

Janek Schaller:Nina is a trained naturalist and educator, and has lived in a handful of different neighborhoods across LA. Over the years, she’s built up a sizable collection of seeds, many gathered from her work with gardens and environmental organizations around the city. When she settled down in Pasadena in 2020, Nina decided that it was time to spread the wealth.

Nina Raj: My neighbor has a little free book library, and it inspired me to just build my own little library that I put out in front of my house and share seeds. 

Janek Schaller: Before long, Nina began partnering with other environmental organizations, community members, and even public schools to establish new libraries in neighborhoods throughout LA. Each so-called “outpost” is stocked with seeds that community members had donated.

Nina Raj: These are from people’s gardens. They might be edible seeds. They might be, you know, native plants that they planted in their yards or at community gardens. 

Janek Schaller: There are now 17 libraries throughout LA, and there are more outposts in places as far away as Sonoma County in Northern California and even New York City. Nina says people often don’t realize how spread out the library system really is.

Nina Raj: There are just so many different outposts and each one is totally unique. 

Janek Schaller: Unlike a seed bank, whose purpose is to preserve a carefully-constructed inventory of an ecosystem, Nina says that seed libraries are much more fluid. They represent the identity and needs of a specific community, which can vary from place to place, and can change over time, too. For instance,

Nina Raj: Up here in Altadena, we’re really focused on more phytoremediator seeds. 

Janek Schaller: That scrabble word was phytoremediator — it refers to plants that have the power to clean up the soil that they’re rooted in. Much of the ground in Altadena is still contaminated with toxic chemicals from homes that burned during the wildfires that engulfed the city in January of 2025.

Janek Schaller: Nina has been planting these seeds to absorb some of that pollution in her own neighborhood. But, she says, her neighbors come to the library to find all sorts of plants.

Nina Raj: As I see what comes in and out of the library in front of my house, it helps me understand kind of what people are excited about, what they want. 

Janek Schaller: And Nina is already building on this excitement. She’s actually just finished a new design for the outposts — she’s replacing the glass doors with wooden ones so the seeds can stay cool and out of the light.

Janek Schaller: You’re trusting folks to know that this enclosed box contains what they want it to contain. 

Nina Raj: It’ll say “Altadena Seed Library” on the front, and it’ll say, “Take what you need, leave what you can.” So hopefully that’ll be inviting enough. We’ll find out.

Megan Hall: That’s it for today. You can find more information, or ask a question about the ways 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 social media at  “ask possibly.”

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

Correction: Nina Raj’s home is in Pasadena, and she did not grow up in LA. A previous version of this episode stated that her home was in Altadena, and that she grew up in LA. 

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