“Reducing your footprint” became one of the most familiar ways to talk about climate change, but why did that framing catch on? And what does it leave out?

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 pay attention to reporting about climate change, you’ve probably heard this phrase…

News Clips: Carbon footprint. Carbon footprint. Carbon footprint.

But what does our carbon footprint really mean? And where did this idea come from?

We had Leena Mudawi and Alina Ikram from our Possibly team look into it.

Leena Mudawi: Hi Megan.

Alina Ikram: Hey Megan.

Megan Hall: So, I know we talk about our carbon footprint all the time, but what does that phrase really mean?

Leena Mudawi: Basically, it’s a way to figure out how much carbon pollution each person creates—and it’s based on everything we do—like how we travel, what we buy, and how much energy we use.

Megan Hall: So, our “footprint” is like our impact on climate change?

Alina Ikram: Exactly. The idea is, if we’re more aware of how much carbon pollution we create, we’re more likely to change our habits and reduce our carbon footprint. But…

Kim Cobb: I think when people hear that phrase, they mostly feel guilty immediately, right?

Leena Mudawi: That’s Kim Cobb, Director of the Institute at Brown for Environment and Society, and she says this concept isn’t always that useful.

Kim Cobb: Because carbon is everywhere in our life, just because energy is everywhere in our life, and many times we don’t really have choices about how we use it every day.

Alina Ikram: And that feeling of guilt is actually by design.

Megan Hall: What do you mean?

Alina Ikram: Back in the early 2000s, as people started becoming more aware of climate change, a company called BP, short for British Petroleum, helped to push the idea of the carbon footprint.

Megan Hall: Wait, an oil company told people to track their own emissions?

Leena Mudawi: Yeah! BP is one of the world’s biggest oil & gas companies, both of which are fossil fuels: the main things driving global warming…

Kim Cobb: Which of course, is a way to shift awareness away from the role of oil majors and other fossil fuel companies in perpetuating the status quo in our over-reliance on fossil fuels.

Megan Hall: Let me get this right—one of the companies that’s responsible for pumping extreme amounts of carbon pollution into the air popularized the carbon footprint so all of us would feel bad about the choices we make?

Alina Ikram: They didn’t come out and say that was the reason, but… it makes sense.

Leena Mudawi: The carbon footprint idea gave people a way to think about how their own choices affect climate change.

Alina Ikram: Which made it easier to forget how much power companies and governments have over the bigger picture.

Megan Hall: We talk about how our choices affect the planet on this show. That’s actually a main focus of Possibly. Are these kinds of questions just a distraction from what big corporations are doing?

Alina Ikram: Not entirely—Kim says, don’t give up on thinking about your own climate impact…

Kim Cobb: Those two things can be true at the same time. Our individual choices do matter every day. But it’s also true that we need to come together in large numbers and elect leaders that will enact policies to make it a lot easier to do the right thing.

Leena Mudawi: She says climate responsibility lives in both everyday life, and in collective action. So, if you care about this issue, take a moment and ask yourself,

Kim Cobb: What are the levers for change that you are reaching for as an individual?

Leena Mudawi: This is more useful than just “How bad is my footprint?” Because it’s easy to get stuck feeling guilty, or fixating on things that are hard to change.

Alina Ikram: Instead, Kim says it’s more effective to think about what you can actually do.

Kim Cobb: We want to think about our universities, our places of worship, our kids’ schools, our places of work. All those are organizations where individuals come together in fairly large numbers, and they form a collective.

Leena Mudawi: For years, we’ve been taught to see climate change through the lens of our own habits and our own guilt, but the reality is, there’s so much more we can do together—especially when we demand action from the people and companies with the most power over this crisis. So climate change doesn’t need to feel so personal.

Megan Hall: Great, thanks Leena and Alina.

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.

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Microplastics are all around us, even if we can’t see them. This week, the Possibly team investigates where they come from and why sometimes, they’re even made on purpose.

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 about microplastics on the show before — but where are these little pieces of plastic coming from? We had Will Malloy and Nat Hardy from our Possibly team find out more.

Will Malloy: Hi Megan!

Nat Hardy: Hello!

Megan Hall: So, just to start, what exactly are microplastics?

Will Malloy: Just what they sound like — tiny pieces of plastic, ranging from smaller than a red blood cell to about the size of a grain of rice.

Nat Hardy: And they have ended up pretty much everywhere on Earth.

Sherri Mason: It doesn’t matter where we’ve looked, we find microplastics. So from the top of Mount Everest to the bottom of the Mariana Trench.

Will Malloy: That was Dr. Sherri Mason — she’s a professor at Gannon University, where she studies plastic pollution.

Nat Hardy: She told us that microplastics are created in two different ways.

Will Malloy: The first kind are microplastics that are intentionally manufactured.

Megan Hall: People make them on purpose?

Nat Hardy: Remember, microplastics can be as big as a few millimeters– so that includes things like glitter or small beads.

Will Malloy: Also, most larger plastic products are made out of tiny plastic pellets called “nurdles.” 

Sherri Mason: This is actually the starting point of plastics. These little plastic pellets, that is what is shipped from a refinery where plastics are initially produced to a company that makes plastic products.

Nat Hardy: In order to make something like a water bottle, manufacturers start with these pre-made nurdles.

Will Malloy: And all throughout the process, as they are moved around…

Sherri Mason: You will have hundreds, if not 1000s, of nurdles that get released. And I know this because I see it.

Nat Hardy: It can get really bad when there’s an accident.

Will Malloy: In 2021, a cargo ship caught fire off the coast of Sri Lanka, and spilled billions of nurdles into the ocean. They are really hard to clean up and the ocean currents can carry them far.

Megan Hall: So that’s one way microplastics are created — when we make them. But you said there’s another way, right?

Nat Hardy: Yeah, and these are probably what you think of when you think about microplastics — little pieces that are formed unintentionally when larger plastic products break into smaller pieces. 

Will Malloy: This kind is way more common and they truly come from everywhere — washing synthetic fabrics sheds fibres, driving causes tires to erode and leave behind particles, and fishing nets in the ocean leave a trail of plastic in the water.

Sherri Mason: Any piece of plastic as it has these physical processes that act on it will be releasing microplastics. So just the simple act of twisting off a cap from a plastic bottle of water can shed microplastics into the beverage that you’re about to drink.

Nat Hardy: That means they get into the water, the air, our food, and our bodies.

Megan Hall: So, do microplastics ever go away?

Will Malloy: That’s the thing — not really. On the smallest level, plastics are made up of long chains of molecules held together with chemical bonds.

Nat Hardy: These kinds of chains and bonds don’t really exist in nature, so microorganisms aren’t very good at decomposing them.

Will Malloy: There are some microbes that can do it, but they aren’t very common. Mostly, plastics just get smaller and smaller, but they still stick around.

Sherri Mason: It is not uncommon to hear plastic pollution researchers say that, you know, most plastic that has ever been created is still on this planet somewhere.

Will Malloy: Once they get into our ecosystems, it’s really hard to get them out.

Megan Hall: Is there any way to stop them from polluting our world?

Nat Hardy: There’s no easy fix. The only real way to stop microplastics is to phase out plastic.

Sherri Mason: You know, we had society before plastic. We can have society without plastic, and we can certainly have society with a lot less plastic.

Will Malloy: At the same time, though, plastic is light and strong, which makes it very useful. So eliminating plastic also comes with tradeoffs. That’s a conversation for another episode.

Megan Hall: Got it. Thanks Will 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, 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

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The R/V Endeavor, which spent the last 49 years operating out of URI’s Narragansett Bay Campus, was retired last month. Possibly took a tour of the vessel before it’s decommissioned.

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.

The R/V Endeavor, the oldest research vessel in the country, was retired last month after 49 years of research at sea. We sent Nat Hardy from our Possibly Team to the University of Rhode Island, where the ship is docked, to talk with scientists who worked onboard.

Nat Hardy: On a stormy day in April, Oceanography Professor Jaime Palter took a trip out to sea on the Endeavor.

Jaime Palter: You can picture April in Rhode Island. It’s cold, rainy. You know, if it was 45 degrees outside, we were lucky.

Nat Hardy: The Endeavor was taking her and her team about 200 miles off the coast of New England, to the mighty Gulf Stream.

Jaime Palter: But what’s amazing is once you cross the Gulf Stream, you’re basically in the weather of Bermuda.

Nat Hardy: Even in the dead of winter, it’s 65 degrees. And the crew is swapping jackets for t-shirts. That happens because they’re floating on top of an incredibly powerful underwater current.

The Gulf Stream carries a huge amount of warm water from the Caribbean into the North Atlantic. And it’s hard to overstate just how important this underwater highway is for our weather. Jaime was out there to study it.

Jaime Palter: There’s also a fear that a component of the Gulf Stream could slow down with the threat of climate change. And with that slowdown could really alter Northern Hemisphere weather.

Nat Hardy: To figure out if that slowdown is happening, Jaime and her team went out on the Endeavor to collect data about ocean currents and temperature.

But after more than 700 research expeditions, the Endeavor has taken its last trip.  I took a tour of the ship before it was officially decommissioned.

Erich Gruebel: So here in the main lab, we have displays set up for the sailing scientists to be able to see — over here we have an echo sounder and a scientific echo sounder,  which gives you a layer stratification of the sea bottom.

Nat Hardy: That’s Erich Gruebel, the manager of marine scientific research at URI’s Graduate School of Oceanography. He walks me around the dark hallways of the ship, through the wood-paneled library and into the mess deck, which looks like a 1970s diner.

Erich Gruebel: Endeavor’s also famous for our ice cream freezer which I’ll show you now.

Nat Hardy:  Erich’s worked on the ship for 13 years.

Nat Hardy: Do other ships not have an ice cream freezer?

Erich Gruebel: Not one this big or well stocked.

Nat Hardy: He’s the liaison between the crew and the rotating teams of scientists.

Erich Gruebel:  We get their equipment running, a lot of times repair it when it breaks, and allow them to access the full capability of the vessel.

Nat Hardy: The Endeavor has  played a big role in what we know about the ocean. The first in-depth measurements of the gulf stream were done on the Endeavor back in the 70s. It’s data that researchers still use today.

David Smith: It’s pretty sad actually. Endeavor has just been here so long and long. I’ve been here almost 29 years. And she was here when I got here,

Nat Hardy: That’s David Smith, another professor of oceanography at URI. The Endeavor docks right by David’s office at URI’s Narragansett Bay campus.

David Smith: I always look to see, is the ship at the dock or not? Every day I do that, just kind of knee jerk. It’s gonna be sad.

Jaime Palter: It does feel like a part of the family even though it’s a boat, you know?

Nat Hardy: But URI’s research at sea isn’t ending with the Endeavor. A new ship, called the Narragansett Dawn, is set to arrive in Rhode Island in 2027. It’s up to date with new research technology that the Endeavor didn’t have.

But both ships  are owned by the National Science Foundation, which has been a target for funding cuts by the Trump administration. Everyone I talked to at URI worried that potential cuts would bring consequences for the new ship and its crew, but no one knew exactly what those consequences might be.

In total, more than 8,000 scientists spent time onboard the Endeavor. Jaime Palter told me that the ship is the through line between generations of oceanographers, who’ve all gone out to sea, taken some small samples of water, and chipped away at the same big questions.

Jaime Palter: It always makes me really appreciate the part of oceanography that is about community, because one measurement doesn’t do very much, but it’s only as a collective when we put all our measurements together that we start to make sense of the world.

Nat Hardy: In Narragansett, people are sad to see the Endeavor’s life come to an end, but the research that happened onboard, still has decades of life left to live.

Megan Hall: Great! Thanks 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, 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.

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The biggest city in the country has taken a proactive approach to protect its residents from extreme heat. Programs have tried to make cooling centers, pools, and air conditioners more easily available to people.

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.

As average temperatures go up around the globe, we’re all experiencing more extreme heat, especially in major cities, where lots of cement, and not a lot of trees, absorb heat and make things even hotter. Today we’re looking into how the US’s biggest city, New York, is finding ways to keep its residents cool.

Emma Mejia and Isha Thakkar from our Possibly Team have the details

Emma Mejia: Hi, Megan!

Isha Thakkar: Hello!

Megan Hall: So how is New York dealing with extreme heat?

Emma Mejia: That’s a great question. New York City has spent a lot of time working on ways to deal with the effects of climate change and extreme heat.

Ashwin Vasan: We have been planning for a climate mitigation and adaptation for many, many years, there’s been a whole host of initiatives.

Isha Thakkar: That’s Dr. Ashwin Vasan, a physician and the former Commissioner of the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.

Emma Mejia: Dr. Vasan says that extreme heat kills hundreds of New Yorkers a year. 

Ashwin Vasan: We treat that in public health as entirely preventable. And so we put forth a multi pronged strategy to try to prevent as many of those deaths as possible.

Megan Hall: What kind of steps has the city been taking?

Isha Thakkar: One of the most important steps is making sure people have access to air conditioning.

Ashwin Vasan: Air conditioning, especially in light of a warming planet, in a warming city, warming urban environments, is a necessity.

Isha Thakkar: To help, with this issue, in 2020, the city installed air conditioners in public housing units. New York City also offers a Cooling Assistance program to help low-income New Yorkers cover the cost of buying an air conditioner

Emma Mejia: The city also has programs that help people afford to keep the AC on when they need it.

Ashwin Vasan: What we are working on things like our Home Energy Assistance Program with the state of New York, we have reduced energy bills by millions of dollars for low income families. So that they can then afford to turn on that AC .

Isha Thakkar: The city has also been brainstorming ways to encourage landlords to keep it cooler indoors

Megan Hall: How would the city do that?

Emma Mejia: Well, last year the city council proposed a bill that would establish a maximum temperature policy for New York City buildings in the summer.

Isha Thakkar: This bill would require landlords to provide cooling systems that keep units 78 degrees or cooler when the temperature is above 82 degrees outside.

Megan Hall: What else is New York city doing to keep people cool?

Isha Thakkar: They’re also expanding access to cooling centers. in places like local libraries, senior centers, and community centers.

Emma Mejia: Private businesses can also opt into the cooling program. So that means they can offer their coffee shop, museum, or store as an option.

Aswhin Vasaan: It’s not just about government sites. It’s about the whole city’s approach to ensuring that no one has to suffer the effects of extreme heat unnecessarily.

Isha Thakkar: And remember, not all cooling options are indoors.

Emma Mejia: In 2024 the city announced a plan to invest  over a billion dollars into pool infrastructure and swim lessons, to help residents have more places to cool down.

Ashwin Vasan: Cooling off in a public pool nearby is a great way to address extreme heat as well.

Megan Hall: But, how does the city decide where to focus these cooling efforts?

Emma Mejia: Good question. The city uses a heat vulnerability index or HVI to identify those who are the most susceptible to the effects of extreme heat.

Ashwin Vasan: So your heat vulnerability index is a map of extreme heat and heat patterns across the city, mapped over social and economic metrics like poverty, inequality, and access to health care.

Emma Mejia: The city is trying to map those cooling options and cooling centers to the communities that need them the most.

Megan Hall: Got it! Thanks, Isha 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 The Public’s Radio.

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President Trump’s tax bill is about to end a number of tax credits for homeowners who install clean energy appliances. But some people are racing to beat the deadline.

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.

Back in July, President Trump signed a major bill into law, a bill you’ve probably heard people call The Big Beautiful Bill. This month on Possibly we’ve been breaking down what the law means for the fight against climate change in the US.

Nat Hardy from the Possibly team has been looking into it.

Nat Hardy: Hi Megan! Nice to be back

Megan Hall: So in the past couple episodes you’ve explained what the law means for things like wind turbines, solar panels, and electric cars. Could you give us a quick recap?

Nat Hardy: Sure thing. So the law cuts a lot of federal funding for new wind farms and solar panels. It’s also ending a big tax credit to help people buy electric cars.

Megan Hall: Okay, not great news for reducing our emissions.

Nat Hardy: Yeah, a pretty big step back in the fight against climate change.

Megan Hall: So what are we talking about today?

Nat Hardy: Today I wanted to take a look at what the Big Beautiful Bill means for homeowners who are trying to fight climate change, so I sat down with a homeowner.

Larry Chretien: I’m Larry Chretien and I’m the executive director of the Green Energy Consumers Alliance.

Nat Hardy: Beyond just being a homeowner, Larry’s organization, the Green Energy Consumers Alliance is a nonprofit devoted to helping people transition away from fossil fuels. Larry says  that since 2022, homeowners have had help installing green technology in their homes, thanks to the Inflation Reduction Act.

Larry Chretien: So there’s a variety of tax credits there. 30% for solar. That’s a big market in the United States for rooftop solar. But there were also a range of tax credits for smaller appliances, such as heat pumps for example, all geared towards electrification.

Nat Hardy: But, like most parts of the Inflation Reduction Act, these tax credits have been repealed under the Big Beautiful Bill.

Megan Hall: So what does that repeal mean for homeowners?

Nat Hardy: Long term, it’s going to make it significantly more expensive to install things like  solar panels, batteries, or heat pumps, at your house. But the credit is still available for products that are paid for, and installed before the end of this year, 2025.

Larry Chretien:  You know, for example, I am probably going to buy heat pumps before December 31st. ‘Cause that’s the rule there. You get a $2,000 tax credit on heat pumps. I’m gonna race to beat the deadline

Nat Hardy: But, even with that money, heat pumps are still pretty expensive. If you’re getting a central air source heat pump – the kind of thing you could install instead of central AC – that’s going to cost anywhere from 10 to 20 thousand dollars.  But Larry can get some other financial help as well…

Larry Chretien: I will couple that with a Massachusetts rebate. I’m a Massachusetts resident. So the $2,000 – I don’t wanna leave it on the table.

Nat Hardy: Massachusetts offers up to $10,000 to help homeowners switch to a heat pump, which can definitely help with the cost.

Megan Hall: But what does this mean for homeowners without that federal tax credit?

Nat Hardy: Well, although the federal credit helped people electrify their homes, these tax credits were never going to cover the cost to electrify all of the homes in the US, which we’ll need to do to get our emissions to zero. But the idea was to give this industry a push in the right direction.

Megan Hall: And now the Trump administration is giving them a push in the other direction.

Nat Hardy: Yeah exactly. And so advocates like Larry want states to step up.

Larry Chretien:  I think what’s important is that states continue to do what they can to, to offer support for clean energy, to help ride through it. Because, you know, once you let your industry fall apart, it’s really hard to pull it back.

Nat Hardy: Our home state of  Rhode Island and our neighbor Massachusetts both passed laws requiring the state’s emissions to be at net-zero by 2050.

Larry Chretien:  But, those laws were passed, and this is very important, before the Inflation Reduction Act. Now that the Big, Beautiful Bill is in place, it kind of rolls back to where we were, in some ways. They were enjoying essentially a tailwind when the Inflation Reduction Act came in. Now we’ve got a bit of a headwind with, the Big Beautiful Bill.

Nat Hardy: And so Larry’s pushing state governments to offer more incentives to help homeowners transition away from fossil fuels.

Megan Hall: Okay. But, can states afford to throw around all of this money?

Nat Hardy: Yeah you’re right – No one expects the government to buy every house a heat pump. Instead, the thought is to keep the industry’s momentum going, so heat pumps and other electric appliances get more affordable and practical. That way, the next time homeowners are replacing something, there’s an environmentally friendly option available, at an affordable price.

Megan Hall: Got it, thanks 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, 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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Back in July, President Trump signed a major tax bill into law, which will make it significantly more expensive to build wind and solar projects around the country.

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.

Back in July, President Trump signed a major tax bill into law, the one you’ve probably heard people call The Big Beautiful Bill. It had a lot in it, but here on Possibly we wanted to know what the law means for climate change.

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

Nat Hardy: Hi Megan,

Megan Hall: Okay so break it down for us, what does the Big Beautiful Bill mean for climate?

Nat Hardy: It’s pretty bad news, to be honest. The law rolls back most, but not all, of the Inflation Reduction Act— that’s the 2022 law that made massive investments in climate solutions.

Megan Hall: So, what did the big beautiful bill take away?

Nat Hardy: The changes affect a lot of different things, electric cars, home appliances, and manufacturing jobs just to name a few. But today, I want to talk about how it changes the way we make electricity.

Megan Hall: Got it. Before we get into the specifics, can you set the scene for us, where were we before the bill got passed?

Nat Hardy: So the Inflation Reduction Act had a really important tax credit related to making electricity. It basically said that as long as your energy doesn’t create greenhouse gases, you can get a tax break. So that’s solar panels, wind turbines, but also things like nuclear, or geothermal energy.

Megan Hall: And so the Big Beautiful Bill got rid of those credits?

Nat Hardy: Not all of them. Just the ones for wind and solar.

Megan Hall: So, how will that affect us?

Nat Hardy: To find out, I  talked to Larry Chretien, the executive director of the Green Energy Consumers Alliance, a clean energy advocacy group working in Rhode Island and Massachusetts.

Larry Chretien: You know, the passage of the Big Beautiful Bill is going to actually raise electricity rates all across the country. It’s not a pro-consumer bill, it’s an anti-consumer bill, and it’s just putting us in a very short term position of having to increase our dependence on fossil fuels.

Nat Hardy: Getting rid of this tax credit is going to make it a lot harder to build new solar panels, and wind farms across the US.  And  Larry’s right– experts say this move will raise electricity costs. Solar and wind are by far the cheapest forms of new electricity generation in the US right now.

Megan Hall: So, how much more are we going to have to pay?

Nat Hardy: Well, early estimates suggest that within a decade, Americans will spend about 200 dollars more a year on their electricity because these tax credits were eliminated.

Megan Hall: I’d imagine it will also mean more green house gas emissions right?

Nat Hardy: Yeah that’s right. Estimates from an energy systems lab at Princeton suggest that the US’s emissions from making electricity will increase by 13% over the next decade because of this law.

Megan Hall: Okay so what does this mean practically? Did a bunch of renewable energy projects grind to a halt after the bill passed?

Nat Hardy: Well actually no! There was a last minute change to the bill that gave renewable energy projects a little more time to get the tax credit. Here’s Larry again,

Larry Chretien: That was one tax credit provision that made it into the final bill that was, believe it or not, was a little bit better than we thought it was going to be. We thought they were gonna shut the window, as fast as they could.

Nat Hardy: The way the law is written, wind and solar projects can still claim their tax credits as long as they start construction before August of 2026. So projects have about a year to get started.

Megan Hall: But that seems pretty fast to build a wind farm!

Nat Hardy: Yeah it is. It can take years to get one of these projects approved. And on top of that, the Trump administration has added a bunch of roadblocks to slow down the permitting process.

Larry Chretien: What it’s gonna do is it’s gonna narrow down the number of projects that can get in under the wire. And so there’s gonna be some really good projects that just take a little bit longer and they won’t make it.

Nat Hardy: But Larry thinks at least in the short term, the law could actually speed up renewable energy projects, as developers rush to beat the deadline.

Larry Chretien: It is gonna be almost like a gold rush. I’m pretty convinced more solar will be developed in all 50 states in the next 18 months than would’ve happened if it wasn’t for the big beautiful bill. But then it’s going to be. Like the party’s over at the end, and then there’s gonna be a whole bunch of people who are gonna lose their jobs. And it’s gonna be sad.

Megan Hall: Alright, Thanks for the update Nat, I guess….

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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Chris Thile’s new podcast and musical variety show, the Energy Curfew Music Hour uses music to imagine how people can adapt to a world reshaped by climate change.

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‘ve got a story from our show’s managing producer, Nat Hardy. Nat, what do you have for us?

Nat Hardy: Hi Megan! Recently, I went to a concert and I don’t want to get ahead of myself, but it claims to have given me a glimpse into what the future will sound like. And it sounded something like this:

Narrator: At the chime there will be 60 minutes til energy curfew. Now finish the last of your perishables, and enjoy this fully acoustic show.

Nat Hardy: What you’re listening to, is a live taping from the podcast and musical variety show, Energy Curfew Music Hour. It’s hosted by Grammy-award winning bluegrass musician Chris Thile and his band The Punch Brothers.

Chris Thile: Ahoy! And welcome to the Energy Curfew Music Hour, your weekly off ramp into 24 blessed hours of powerlessness

Nat Hardy: In each episode, a pair of artists ranging from pop star Shawn Mendes to pianist Jon Batiste, join Chris in an imagined future where people are changing the way they live to address climate change.

To learn more about what this near future might look like, I sat down with the show’s co-creators, host Chris Thile, and director Claire Coffee. Chris says that Energy Curfew Music Hour takes place in a slightly different reality from our own.

Chris Thile: There’s shadow hints towards, you know, various natural disasters and things that have led towards humanity kind of finally banding together once and for all to do what we can keep the earth habitable for future generations.

Nat Hardy: These shadow hints suggest that the world looks pretty different. There has been some sea level rise – at one point the Hudson river is referred to as the Hudson Sea. But it’s also a world where the government is taking action on climate change. Here’s the show’s director Claire Coffee:

Claire Coffee: Our idea was to have this show where we’re past the point of the politicizing and gnashing of teeth and all this, and it’s like, well here’s where we’re at. And so now what do we do, and how do we adapt?

Nat Hardy: That adapting takes a lot of different forms. Throughout the show they mention things like an electronics buyback program, a system where energy credits are rationed out to households and a weekly shutdown of the nation’s power grid. In this imagined future, the radio show takes place right before this day without power, a day they call “the dark day.”

Claire Coffee: We saw the radio show as like sugar to help the medicine go down. Like, okay, if we have to shut down the grid for 24 hours, we’re gonna give you a musical variety show to kick things off!

Nat Hardy: To be clear, this idea of shutting down the electric grid once a week is not being considered in the US today. But the idea of changing the way we live to address climate change is a real thing people have to grapple with. And the show takes the perspective that although these changes may be hard, they could bring positives too.

Claire Coffee: What kind of like made me come around to the positivity is, like, everybody has to get through the day anyway, like you have to figure out ways of finding joy, and you have to figure out ways of making light, and making music, and laughing together.

Nat Hardy: The show imagines that one of those upsides might be gathering around a radio with your family to listen to music. Every performance on the show is made exclusively with acoustic instruments and people’s voices.

Claire Coffee: Wouldn’t it be amazing if all you could do is make music acoustically and like go see community theater? Like, that’s what’s available.

Nat Hardy: Chris and Claire say that the idea for the show has a lot to do with the COVID-19 pandemic. What would happen if the climate crisis also forced us to change the way we live?

Chris Thile: Lockdown was so scary. And many of us lost family members, loved ones, you know, I certainly did. But there were aspects of that, you know, you would get those pictures of metropolitan areas where they could see mountains in the background for the first time in years. Or like the way it just was so quiet outside all of a sudden, and you know, things like that. That even as we’re struggling as a species to stay here, part of the reason for the show is that there could be aspects of it that are far more edifying than our current, you know, madcap existence, that being obliged to slow down, to use less, could result in in a happier life, even if certain aspects of it are deeply traumatizing.

Nat Hardy: In a way, Energy Curfew Music Hour fits into the genre of climate fiction – a genre of books, movies and other media that speculate about what life might look like as climate change progresses. But what makes the show unique, is that art is at the center of this speculation.

On each episode of the show, musical performances are interspersed with jokes, and fictional advertisements, but also a lot of conversations about the art of songwriting. I asked Chris why the craft of songwriting plays such a big role in a world reshaped by climate change:

Chris Thile: It again helps us look directly at the monster and realize that life can still go on and we can be constantly kind of inundated by this problem that we’ve created, but we can still care about things like craft and like, in fact, we have to. Because it will give us the strength that we need to go out and deal with the problem.

I can’t constantly live in the center of the ugliness that we’re responsible for. No, I want to believe in our in our capacity for beauty and the thing that gives me so much energy to get out there, and, you know, try and help in whatever way I can, is that when we come up with something beautiful, our first instinct is to share it with someone else. That gives me a lot of hope.

Nat Hardy: I asked Chris what he hopes listeners will take away from each episode of the show.

Chris Thile: I want them to feel good about being human. That’s what I want. If this could be an hour where, where you get to feel good about being human in the context of feeling scared about being human.

Nat Hardy: The first season Energy Curfew Music Hour is available on podcast platforms now, and a second season is currently under production.

Megan Hall: You’ve been listening to Possibly.  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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The news about climate change efforts in the US hasn’t been great lately. So Possibly is launching a new occasional series to highlight advances against climate change around the world. Up first: China

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.

The news about climate change efforts in the US hasn’t been great lately. So we’re launching a new occasional series called Good News Abroad.

Megan Hall: Our founder and Brown’s Provost of Sustainability, Steven Porder, is here to help us kick it off with a story from China. Welcome, Stephen.

Stephen Porder: Hey, Megan. We’re in our, in my office, not in China, but. It’s a story about China.

Megan Hall: Yes. There you go. So what is the good news from China?

Stephen Porder: Just to set some context, China is currently the biggest emitter of greenhouse gases in the world. The US is second. It was long thought that it was gonna take a very long time before China stopped growing its emissions and started declining them. But we now think that Chinese emissions will peak sometime between now and 2030 and maybe even as early as this year.

Megan Hall: And why is it good news that their emissions are peaking?

Stephen Porder: If you wanna get to zero, which is where we need to be by the middle of the century as a globe, in order to avert the worst consequences of climate change, the first thing you have to do is stop climbing up. Right? And then you have to start going back down.

Megan Hall: So why is it starting to plateau and go down? What is China doing?

Stephen Porder: China installed more solar panels last year than the US has in its entire history, and has about six times as many solar panels s the US does right now. And that disparity is gonna keep growing as they just double down.

Megan Hall: What else are they doing?

Stephen Porder: They’re also rapidly transitioning their vehicle fleet to electric vehicles. So China is the world’s biggest car market. Over half the vehicles they’re selling into that car market right now are electric or hybrid electric. And as a result of that, they don’t need as much gasoline. Right? And so that also is contributing to emissions falling.

Megan Hall: And there’s another thing they’re doing too, right? Something to do with, uh, high speed rail.

Stephen Porder: Yeah. So China has invested massively in high speeded rail in the past two decades. Since the year 2000, they’ve gone from 6,000 to about 25,000 miles of high speed rail.

Megan Hall: So what does this mean for us in the US?

Stephen Porder: Well, I think a lot of people in the US are concerned about climate change and think of us as both a leader in the fight against climate change and also sort of a linchpin for the whole world. And with the change in federal policy and a sort of a very direct series of statements from the President about climate change as a hoax, we’re not gonna fund climate change research. We’re not gonna invest in renewable energy. It feels like that’s going to cascade around the world and just make us give up all hope.

And I’m not here to sugarcoat the fact that the US change on climate change is a severe setback, but it’s also true that we’re not the only country in the world. And it does seem that China is stepping up both diplomatically and technologically and economically as the US sits on the sideline.

So it’s not good news for the US economy necessarily, but because climate change is caused by the emissions from all of us, if someone else can step into the vacuum and help drive emissions down for the rest of the world, that will make a better future for all of us.

It won’t be as good as if the US participates as well, but it isn’t that all hope is lost if the US does nothing. So it’s a glass half full kind of situation in my mind. It’s not all the way full, but it’s half full.

Megan Hall: Great. Well thanks for the half good news, Stephen.

Stephen Porder: You’re fully welcome.

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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This week on Possibly, Senator Sheldon Whitehouse helps explain what options we have to address climate change’s impact on the home insurance industry.

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.

Journalists, researchers and politicians have been sounding the alarm in recent months about a new industry impacted by climate change: home insurance.

In the past two episodes we’ve looked in to what the problem is and how different states are approaching it.

Today, Juliana Merullo and Nat Hardy are here to talk about possible solutions.

Juliana Merullo: Hiya Megan!

Nat Hardy: Hey there!

Megan Hall: Can you remind me why people are so worried about climate change affecting home insurance?

Juliana Merullo: Sure! Basically, climate change is making global temperatures rise, which makes disasters like hurricanes, hail storms and wildfires more frequent and more severe.

Nat Hardy: That’s causing more damage to our homes and businesses, which means insurance companies are having to pay out more money in more parts of the country.

Juliana Merullo: They’re responding by raising the price of coverage, and refusing to write new policies in some areas altogether.

Nat Hardy: Experts worry that if homebuyers can’t get insurance, property values and property taxes could go down, leading to a financial crisis.

Megan Hall: I hope you have some good solutions for me!

Juliana Merullo: Well, don’t get your hopes up. The truth is, there’s no simple answer.

Nat Hardy: But there is one thing experts agree on.

Ishita Sen: There is a big gap in data, and we can only sort of come up with good solutions here if we learn exactly what the problems are.

Nat Hardy: That’s Ishita Sen. She’s an associate professor of finance at Harvard Business School.

Megan Hall: A data gap? What does that mean?

Juliana Merullo: Well there’s a couple parts to it. The Senate Budget Committee and the Treasury under President Biden both published big reports looking into the climate driven home insurance crisis.

Nat Hardy: And when they requested information from states and insurance companies about policies, not everyone responded.

Juliana Merullo: Even when researchers and policymakers do get this kind of data, it often isn’t super specific.

Nat Hardy: It might just be broken down by zip code or county, but not to individual houses.

Juliana Merullo: Ishita says we need all of the data, and specific data, to understand how different regulations and policy decisions are affecting these insurers.

Megan Hall: Ok, that doesn’t sound too hard.

Nat Hardy: Totally. But that’s only part of it.

Senator Sheldon Whitehouse: The problem is that even if you do that, you still haven’t solved the underlying problem, which is that we’re putting Earth’s natural systems into wild spins and crashes.

Nat Hardy: That’s US Senator from Rhode Island Sheldon Whitehouse. He chaired the Senate Budget Committee that published the report on home insurance and climate change. He says:

Senator Sheldon Senator Sheldon Whitehouse: The insurance folks are looking ahead at a very frightening future, and they’re dramatically changing their behavior. And that problem doesn’t go away until they have some confidence that we’re going to solve the climate problem.

Nat Hardy: Dave Jones, the director of the Climate Risk Initiative at the UC Berkeley school of law and the former Insurance Commissioner for California, puts it this way:

Dave Jones: We continue to march towards an uninsurable future because we’re not doing enough about the underlying driver of this, which is fossil fuels and greenhouse gas emitting industries.

Juliana Merullo: Dave says it’s important to note that US insurance companies have invested over half a trillion dollars in the fossil fuel industry.

Nat Hardy: So, they’re supporting the industry that’s making their jobs a lot harder.

Juliana Merullo: The Trump administration has made it very clear that it’s not worried about climate change, but Dave still has hope:

Dave Jones: States still have a lot of regulatory authority and states are going to need to do even more if we’re going to avoid a very, very bleak future that we’re continuing to to move steadily towards as a result of climate change.

Megan Hall: So I guess we’ll need to keep an eye on the states?

Nat Hardy: Definitely! And Senator Whitehouse says that as more Americans feel the economic impact of climate change, they might put pressure on federal policy makers.

Senator Sheldon Whitehouse: We just aren’t there yet, but it’s coming. It’s a race. Really, does that popular pressure happen first? Or do we have the irretrievable tipping points of climate crisis that happen first? Let’s hope it’s the popular that happens first.

Juliana Merullo: Does that make you feel any better Megan?

Megan Hall: Not really… But, 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.

The post How do we solve the climate change home insurance crisis? appeared first on TPR: The Public’s Radio.

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Recent reports by the Senate Budget Committee and the Treasury found that climate change is already upending the US’s home insurance industry.

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.

You might think climate change just affects the weather or polar bears. But that’s not the case. It also creeps into our economy. For example— home insurance.

Juliana Merullo and Nat Hardy from our Possibly team are here to explain.

Juliana Merullo: Hiya Megan!

Nat Hardy: Thanks for having us!

Megan Hall: So, how does climate change affect home insurance?

Juliana Merullo: Well, let’s think about how insurance is supposed to work. If you own a home, you pay your home insurance each month.

Nat Hardy: Then, if something like a hurricane or hail storm or even a wildfire  causes damage to your home, the insurance company gives you money to make repairs or rebuild.

Juliana Merullo: And the reason this works is that all the other people who paid their monthly insurance bills, and didn’t need to repair their homes, are essentially covering your repairs.

Nat Hardy: The insurance basically spreads out the risk.  You’re protected in case something happens to your home. And the insurance company can still make a profit.

Megan Hall: So, climate change is messing with that formula?

Juliana Merullo: Exactly. To find out how, we talked to Dave Jones. He’s the director of the Climate Risk Initiative at the UC Berkeley School of Law, and used to serve as California’s Insurance Commissioner.

Nat Hardy: He says that extreme weather caused by climate change is creating a lot of havoc.

Dave Jones: These things are killing more of us, injuring more of us, but also causing more physical damage, which is causing insurance companies to pay out more money. Insurance companies respond in two ways: they raise the price and they stop writing insurance.

Juliana Merullo: Some insurance companies and politicians say that these big changes aren’t just because of climate change. But when the Senate Budget Committee and the Treasury published separate reports looking into the issue….

Dave Jones: Both those reports concluded that climate change is a major driver of both insurance rate increases as well as the declining to write new or renew insurance.

Nat Hardy: Experts worry that this could have all sorts of implications. It could make it harder to get a mortgage, and it could destabilize the whole housing market.

Megan Hall: But this is just affecting a few states that get big hurricanes or wildfires, right?

Juliana Merullo: Actually, no. More and more states are feeling the impact of climate change.

Nat Hardy: In 2013, insurance companies only lost money in 8 states. But just ten years later in 2023, they had losses in 18 states.

Megan Hall: Is that causing companies to raise rates and stop offering coverage?

Nat Hardy: It is, Now, State Farm won’t offer new policies in California, and it’s even refusing to renew some existing policies.

Megan Hall: What do you do if an insurance company won’t cover you?

Nat Hardy: A lot of homeowners turn to state run insurance programs. Most states have one, and they’re designed to offer insurance for homes that private insurance companies say are too risky to insure.

Juliana Merullo: But the more homes private insurers refuse to cover, the more people are turning to these state-run programs.

Nat Hardy: And because these are the riskiest properties, there’s a greater chance disaster will affect them, and the insurance program will have to pay homeowners for their losses.

Megan Hall: What happens when these state-based programs don’t have enough money to cover all the claims?

Nat Hardy: Then, private insurance companies in the state have to chip in.

Juliana Merullo: We’re seeing that happen right now in the aftermath of the LA wildfires. California’s state market, called the FAIR Plan, just requested $1 billion from private insurers to help cover all of the claims from the wildfires.

Nat Hardy: But because of reforms that California made in 2024, insurance companies are only responsible for half of that. The other half has to be paid by their policyholders in the state.

Dave Jones: So that’s going to be a big wake-up call for Californians, because not only are they going to see more rate increases for their own insurance they’re going to get a bill for the FAIR plan to help bail it out.

Megan Hall: Wow! So, everyone is really feeling the impact of this crisis. But why did California make those reforms?

Juliana Merullo: That’s a topic for a whole ‘nother episode!

Megan Hall: Sounds good! 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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