UM has decided to go carbon neutral, and the President’s Commission on Carbon Neutrality (the PCCN) is charged with recommending a plan to accomplish that for all three UM campuses (Ann Arbor, Dearborn, & Flint). The PCCN was announced in Fall 2018, and December 2, 2019 marked the arrival of its second Interim Progress Report. This week, hosts Isabelle Brogna and Prachiti Dhamankar figure out what’s in the report and what the PCCN has accomplished so far by speaking with Kristen Hayden and Larson Lovdal, students from the University of Michigan who serve on the PCCN. Kristen is on the Student Advisory Panel as well as a member of Climate Action Movement, a coalition group pushing UM to set an ambitious deadline for carbon neutrality and holding it accountable. Larson is on the “Energy Consumption Policies” Internal Analysis Team, one of eight such teams on the PCCN determining where carbon emissions are emitted on campus, how the school can offset or eliminate them, and under what deadline. The conversation ranges from the surprising effect of natural gas leaks on campus emissions, to the impact of DTE’s decision to go carbon neutral by 2050, transparency and accountability concerns, and a detour to talk about composting toilets.
In November 2019, Ann Arbor’s City Council passed a resolution committing the city to becoming completely carbon neutral by 2030. Sustainability and Innovations Manager for the City of Ann Arbor, Missy Stults, talks with hosts Isabelle Brogna and Prachiti Dhamankar about A2Zero, the city’s carbon neutrality planning process. A2Zero officially kicked off in December 2019, and aims to create a plan for achieving carbon neutrality by Earth Day 2020. A2Zero is an iterative, transparent, and failure-positive process, grounded in justice and equity, that will truly be a community-wide effort. The planning process involves three core components: technical committees, partner organizations, and the public. If you’d like to share your input with A2Zero, take a survey or host an event!
Direct Air Capture (DAC) is a method of taking carbon dioxide out of ambient air. It is one solution that can work in tandem with others to slow down (and eventually reverse) the growth of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. This week, host Isabelle Brogna spoke with Dr. Christopher Jones, a Georgia Tech professor and researcher (and UM alum!) who works on the cutting edge of DAC technology. He explains how carbon dioxide is taken from the air, why doing this should be a necessary part of any plan to combat climate change, and how current and future policies and funding can help the technology.
Host Bella Isaacs attended this year’s Washtenaw County Youth Climate Strike on September 20 to record the speeches given by student activists on the University of Michigan’s campus. That strike was part of a movement inspired by Swedish climate activist Greta Thunburg, who encouraged other young activists around the world to demand that those in power “begin acting like adults” and take action on climate change. The speakers ranged in age from middle school to grad school students and demonstrated the power of youth organization in Washtenaw County.
Last week, we were honored to speak with one of the world’s most influential leaders on climate change, Christiana Figueres. Figueres steered the Conference of Parties to the historic Paris Agreement in 2015 and served as Executive Secretary of the United Nations Convention on Climate Change from 2010-2016. She’s kind of a big deal. (You can read more about her incredible work on her website.)
Editor’s note: We faced some technical difficulties with this recording, but the sound will level out after 1:07. Thanks in advance for your patience.
Ann Arbor and its 72 sister municipalities form the Huron River Watershed, meaning that every drop of water that falls in these locations makes its way back to the river one way or another. We share this water not only with our families, friends and neighbors, but also with our governments, businesses, and manufacturers. In sharing a common resource like water—the essence of life—it makes sense to have a rule book that outlines permissible and non-negotiable actions as well as provisions to guide the course of action in the event of foul play. Michigan water quality standards fill this niche. However, as regular hosts Aurora Aparicio, Bella Isaacs, and Heena Singh learned this week from guest expert Laura Rubin, our rule book does not always keep pace with the discoveries of contemporary science.
You heard it here first, folks! Today, we invited Peter Pellitier into the studio to elucidate the multi-faceted relationship between plants and carbon dioxide. Peter is a current Ph. D. candidate at SEAS where he researches terrestrial ecology and mycorrhizal fungi. He explained that plants have increased their carbon dioxide uptake by 31% as compared to pre-industrial rates.
Ever wonder what actually goes on at an annual international climate change conference? Alexa White doesn’t. That’s because she’s attended the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Conference of Parties (UNFCCC-COP) not once, but twice. She attended the 2015 talks in Paris, France and the ones that were held this month in Katowice, Poland. White is a second-year Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Ph.D. student. She was sent as a representative of the University of Michigan’s student delegation, organized by SEAS Professor Avik Basu. Continue reading Inside COP 24 with Alexa White→
Catherine Garton is not only a microbiology, applied statistics, and energy science & policy buff. She’s also the founder of the Citizens’ Climate Lobby (CCL) chapter at the University of Michigan. The student group is part of a larger nonpartisan grassroots organization that aims to “build the political will for a livable world” by advocating for climate change solutions. Specifically, they support the implementation of a Carbon Fee and Dividend policy. Garton, a sophomore, founded the campus chapter only recently, but the umbrella organization has been active for over a decade and oversees 1,300+ chapters internationally. This week, co-hosts Logan and Heena talked with Catherine Garton and Lena Swirczek, another CCL student activist who is also involved in the University of Michigan’s Sustainable Living Experience, a sustainability-focused community at Oxford Houses on campus. Continue reading Young, Strong Voices from the Citizens’ Climate Lobby→
