Best Berkeley Center for Law Podcasts (2024)

1
Converting Food Waste into Energy Through Anaerobic Digestion, with Brett Reinford 1:44

2d ago1:44

1:44

If you’ve ever been near a farm with livestock, you might agree that farm odors can be carried far from the farm itself. Farms often face criticism from nearby residents over the offensive odor of manure. While manure is an unavoidable part of raising livestock, there is one technological innovation that can remove the smell from manure. Anaerobic …

1
E-Mobilization and Renewable Energy in Kenya, with Daniel Ngumy 1:45

9d ago1:45

1:45

Renewables and E-mobility E-mobility, the use of electric powertrain technologies in-vehicle transformation, allows for the use of electricity to enable the electric propulsion of various forms of transportation. Powertrain technologies refer to full electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles, which can be less carbon-intensive than conventional diesel c…

1
Designing Road Infrastructure to Promote Active Mobility, with Lina Lopez 1:46

15d ago1:46

1:46

Zero-Emission Transport Electric vehicles and other transportation-based climate solutions have made a big splash in recent years, and for good reason – transportation accounts for about a fourth of global carbon dioxide emissions. In the U.S, it’s the economic sector with the single largest contribution to greenhouse gas emissions. With such a lar…

1
Rerun: Cool surfaces: Reflecting heat and reducing emissions, with Ronnen Levinson 1:45

23d ago1:45

1:45

What is a cool surface? Cool surfaces are roofs, walls, or pavements that are generally light-colored and highly reflective. When sunlight hits a white surface, its rays bounce off the surface rather than being absorbed, and are reflected back into space. Darker surfaces tend to absorb sunlight, trapping heat. Cool surfaces release this heat back i…

1
Using Climate Journalism to Connect Weather Events and Climate, with Jonathan Vigliotti 1:45

29d ago1:45

1:45

Staying Educated About Climate Change As climate change intensifies, the heightened frequency of natural disaster weather-related events is quickly becoming the new reality. Whether it be prolonged wildfire seasons in Northern California or destructive hurricanes off the Florida coast, citizens across the country are beginning to bear the burden of…

1
Advancing Sustainable Steel Production, with Adam Rauwerdink 1:44

1M ago1:44

1:44

Steel Production Globally, 1.9 billion metric tons of crude steel were produced in 2022. Over the past 15 years, the global demand for steel production has nearly doubled, as this versatile product can be found in nearly all modern infrastructure such as buildings, ships, vehicles, machines, and appliances. Conventionally, steel is made from iron o…

1
Tracking Emissions with Remote Sensing, with Gavin McCormick 1:45

1M ago1:45

1:45

The Need to Accurately Quantify Emissions As we begin to come to terms with the reality of the fossil fuel industry’s role in climate change, many policymakers are looking towards market-based mechanisms to curb the level of emissions released by harmful polluters. Market-based mechanisms include taxing pollution directly (through a carbon tax) or …

1
Rerun: Tackling the Plastic Crisis, with Martin Bourque 1:44

2M ago1:44

1:44

What is plastic? Plastic is a material derived primarily from carbon-based sources like natural gas, oil, and even plants. It is created by treating these organic materials with heat and catalysts to form various polymers. Producing plastic is energy-intensive, often relying on the combustion of fossil fuels such as coal and natural gas, both for p…

1
Calculating Threats from Rising Temperatures Using Heat Indexing, with Professor David Romps 1:45

2M ago1:45

1:45

Extreme Heat: More Dangerous Than We Think? Extreme heat, one of the adverse consequences of climate change, exacerbates drought, damages agriculture, and profoundly impacts human health. Heat is the top weather-related killer in the United States, contributing to deaths that arise from heart attacks, strokes, and other cardiovascular diseases. As …

1
Bidirectional Charging: Vehicles as a Portable Battery, with Ellie Cohen 1:45

2M ago1:45

1:45

Renewable Energy is The Future California is no stranger to power outages. In 2019, for example, over 25,000 blackout events were recorded across the state, leaving homeowners and businesses without electricity. In recent years, most blackouts are the result of wildfire, wildfire risk (leading to utility shutdowns), and extreme heat (leading to hig…

1
Pedaling Towards A Sustainable Future, with Manuel de Araujo 1:45

2M ago1:45

1:45

Increasing Sustainable Modes of Transportation In 2022, global emissions from transportation reached nearly 8 gigatons of carbon. To achieve the Net Zero Scenario, transportation emissions need to drop by nearly 25% by 2030. Within the Global South, auto-centric planning, transport authorities’ structures, and alternatives to cars and buses are som…

1
Making Electric Heating Accessible and Affordable for Low-Income Residents, with Sarah Moskowitz 1:45

3M ago1:45

1:45

Electric Heat: A Hot Topic in Chicago In cold winter months, many people have to rely on fossil gas to heat their homes and power cookstoves. Yet all-electric appliances, including heat pumps to heat homes, are quickly becoming a cheaper alternative over the long term, though they often entail higher upfront costs compared to gas appliances. In Chi…

1
Restoring Urban Waterways to Create Climate Resiliency, with Nick Wesley 1:45

3M ago1:45

1:45

What’s interesting about urban rivers? Urban rivers play many important roles in our cities. They maintain the health of coastal and estuarine ecosystems and they are part of larger catchment ecosystems that are nested within wider, interconnected systems. Urban rivers are also essential to the quality of our drinking water, playing central roles i…

1
Solar Power On Farms, with Byron Kominek 1:43

3M ago1:43

1:43

Solar Power on Farms Many farmers, ranchers, and landowners are beginning to consider using their farmland not just for agricultural purposes, but for solar power as well. This combination of agriculture and solar is known as agrivoltaics, which offers an innovative approach to land management particularly in arid regions of the world. Solar panels…

1
Reducing Plastic Pollution with Bioplastics, with Raegan Kelly 1:45

3M ago1:45

1:45

Decreasing society’s reliance on single-use plastics The use of plastic has major environmental, social, and health consequences. Across the globe, one million plastic bottles are purchased every minute, with over half of the plastic produced worldwide being thrown away after one use. Upon disposal, plastics are often left in landfills where they c…

1
RERUN: The Clean Energy Potential of Nuclear Fusion, with Annie Kritcher 1:46

4M ago1:46

1:46

What is nuclear fusion? Nuclear fusion produces energy by fusing atoms together. Atomic cores (nuclei) merge together to form a heavier—though unstable—nucleus, releasing mass to regain stability. This mass release corresponds to an energy release, given Einstein’s equation E=mc2, which says in part that mass and energy can be converted into each o…

1
Educating Kids about Climate Change through Musical Storytelling 1:45

4M ago1:45

1:45

Climate Education for Youth Climate education has the potential to drive the public towards climate science literacy, an individual’s understanding of their influence on climate and climate’s influence on them and society. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, a climate-literate person: understands the essential principl…

1
Rerun: Sequestering Carbon using Compost and Grasslands, with Whendee Silver 1:44

4M ago1:44

1:44

Carbon Sequestration Carbon sequestration is the process of capturing and storing atmospheric carbon dioxide to slow the pace of climate change. There are two major types of carbon sequestration: geologic and biologic. Geological carbon sequestration injects carbon dioxide captured from an industrial or energy-related source into underground geolog…

1
Rerun: Recharging Aquifers with Flood Waters, with Daniel Swain 1:44

4M ago1:44

1:44

Climate change is increasing flood risk worldwide. Climate change is intensifying flood risk around the world, with potentially devastating consequences for communities and infrastructure. As the planet gets hotter, the atmosphere's capacity to hold water vapor increases, leading to more frequent and intense precipitation events in certain regions.…

1
Rerun: Using Groundwater to Heat and Cool Buildings 1:46

5M ago1:46

1:46

What is the GeoGrid? The Geo Grid is a network of heating pumps that harnesses the geothermal energy stored under the Earth’s surface to heat and cool buildings. It operates through a network of pipes that go deep into the ground and connect houses to each other. These pipes are filled with water, which brings the constant underground temperature u…

1
Balancing the Grid: California's Shift to Renewable Energy Sources 1:46

5M ago1:46

1:46

How does transitioning to renewable energy challenge the electric grid? As of 2022, renewable and non-greenhouse gas emitting sources accounted for 52% of California's in-state electricity generation with the remaining 48% fueled by natural gas. Legislation passed in 2018 mandates that the state must reach at least 60% renewable energy by 2030 whic…

1
Hip Hop 4 Change: Using Art Activism to Combat Climate Change 1:45

5M ago1:45

1:45

What are Art and Music Activism? Art activism refers to the use of artistic expression and creative endeavors to advocate for and educate others on social, political, environmental, or cultural issues. This form of activism employs the creative power of art as a medium to move us emotionally, raise awareness of certain issues, and provoke thought. …

1
International Monetary Fund Reform, With Kelly Varian 1:45

5M ago1:45

1:45

What is the IMF? The International Monetary Fund (IMF) provides aid to developing countries to promote global economic and monetary growth. IMF investments and loans can significantly impact the ability of developing countries to improve climate resilience. Most directly, reforms to the IMF can allow developing countries to invest more in climate r…

1
RERUN: Community as antidote to climate despair, with Teo Grossman 1:46

5M ago1:46

1:46

Why Community? It’s easy to feel despair about climate change and environmental destruction. But despair can make it hard to forge connections and take action. According to emotion researchers, hope means believing that you have the power to improve problems, rather than ignoring them. One possible source of hope? Community building events, where d…

1
Salt Marshes: Ecosystem Powerhouses in Climate Regulation and Biodiversity 1:45

6M ago1:45

1:45

The Vital Role of Wetlands Wetlands are critical ecosystems that play a fundamental role in maintaining the stability and well-being of both local and global environments. Coastal salt marshes, flooded and drained by tides, and often composed of deep mud and peat, provide a wide range of ecosystem services that contribute to biodiversity, water qua…

1
Resilience Hotspots: Nature's Role in Urban Climate Adaptation 1:44

6M ago1:44

1:44

What are “Resilience Hotspots”? Technology and high-tech solutions are not the only responses to climate change. Nature can also be a powerful form of climate resilience. Resilience hotspots are small pockets of nature that, when restored and maintained, act as barriers to climate impacts. For instance, wetlands can insulate shores from storm surge…

1
Green Ammonia: Pioneering a Sustainable Future in Food Production 1:45

6M ago1:45

1:45

What is “Green Ammonia”? Ammonia is a vital chemical that sustains half of all food production around the world (through the creation of agricultural fertilizer), but the process we use to make it results in significant greenhouse gas emissions. Ammonia, which is made up of nitrogen and hydrogen, requires extreme heat and pressure and large amounts…

1
RERUN: Could We Use CRISPR to Fight Climate Change? with Professor Kris Niyogi 1:45

7M ago1:45

1:45

What is CRISPR? DNA contains the fundamental information about an organism, and is used as an instruction manual to guide organism structure and function. Until CRISPR (short for Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats) technology was developed by Jennifer Doudna and Emmanuelle Charpentier, editing DNA sequences was very difficult…

1
Geothermal Power: Tapping Earth's Heat for a Carbon-Free Future 1:43

7M ago1:43

1:43

What is Geothermal Energy? Geothermal energy is heat generated in the earth. It is a renewable source of energy, and it is extracted from the inner earth for energy use. Typically, geothermal energy is harnessed through holes that are drilled allowing hot water or steam to be extracted. These resources then drive a turbine to generate electricity a…

1
Matching Demand for Zero-Emissions Public Transportation in Scotland, with Ed Thomson 1:45

7M ago1:45

1:45

Zero-Emissions Public Transportation: Demand and Supply Globally, transportation accounts for approximately one quarter of all CO2 emissions and grew by 3% in 2022. “Buses and other heavy-duty vehicles are responsible for a disproportionate share of the carbon and air pollution emissions from the transportation sector.” As a result, many government…

1
Carbon-Free Trucks on the Road to Zero Emissions, with Sophie Defour 1:46

7M ago1:46

1:46

Carbon-Free Trucks The European Green Deal, passed in 2020, sets policy initiatives approved by the European Commission to boost efficient use of resources to green, clean, circular economy and stop climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution. Reducing emissions from the transportation sector is an important part of the EU’s 2050 zero-emission …

1
Lithium mining in Southern California’s Salton Sea geothermal system, with Dr. Pat Dobson 1:45

8M ago1:45

1:45

Lithium Batteries While the use of lithium to power electric vehicle batteries has been around for close to a decade, and while car manufacturers and scientists have been on the hunt for a more efficient battery, today most manufacturers rely on lithium batteries as their primary go-to for power. This leads to a higher demand for lithium mining. Tr…

1
Corporate Lobbying as an Ally in the Fight Against Climate Change 1:46

8M ago1:46

1:46

Editorial Note The interview for this episode was recorded in June 2021. The basic point of the episode remains relevant, but the mentioned campaign is no longer active. ClimateVoice’s current campaign is Escape the Chamber, which calls on companies to leave the US Chamber of Commerce and to speak up and lead on climate policy at local, state, and …

1
The “30 by 30” Conservation Movement, with Jennifer Norris 1:46

8M ago1:46

1:46

What is the “30 by 30” Movement? The 30 by 30 movement is a global initiative aimed at conserving 30 percent of the Earth’s land by the year 2030. In October 2020, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed executive order N-82-20, which committed California to this movement. The state aims to protect 30 percent of its lands and coastal areas by 2030.…

1
Raising the Bar: Brewing a Greener Future with Concentrated Beer, with Gary Tickle 1:45

8M ago1:45

1:45

What are the problems with current beer production methods? Beer is primarily composed of water—making up about 90 percent of its content. Annually, over 100 billion gallons of beer are produced and shipped, meaning nearly 90 billion gallons of water are being transported in the form of beer. This is significant because approximately 20 percent of …

1
Educating Girls to Address Gendered Impacts of Climate Change 1:46

8M ago1:46

1:46

Educating Girls is a Climate Solution Today, an estimated 80 percent of people displaced by climate disasters are women and girls, and women living below the poverty line are as much as 14 times more likely to die in a climate disaster. An already more at-risk population, women and girls are especially vulnerable to the effects of climate change, p…

1
Learning from Luxembourg's Approach to EVs with Minister of Mobility Francois Bausch 1:45

9M ago1:45

1:45

Background on Luxembourg Luxembourg is a tiny country in Western Europe wedged between Belgium, France, and Germany. It has one of the highest vehicle densities in the EU, with nine out of ten people relying on personal vehicles. The country is currently facing rapid population growth, stressing its mobility infrastructure and complicating efforts …

1
Climate Change Litigation on Behalf of Young People, with Julia Olson (extended version) 34:52

9M ago34:52

34:52

Youth-Led Climate Litigation Worldwide, litigants are turning to the courts as a forum for fighting climate change, filing lawsuits against governments in an attempt to force climate action. Plaintiffs in these lawsuits are often children and young adults, who represent those most affected by government climate inaction. A notable early example of …

1
Tackling the Plastic Crisis, with Martin Bourque 1:44

9M ago1:44

1:44

What is plastic? Plastic is a material derived primarily from carbon-based sources like natural gas, oil, and even plants. It is created by treating these organic materials with heat and catalysts to form various polymers. Producing plastic is energy-intensive, often relying on the combustion of fossil fuels such as coal and natural gas, both for p…

1
Hydrogen Fuel’s Potential to Decarbonize Aviation 1:45

9M ago1:45

1:45

The Carbon Cost of Aviation Transportation is a leading contributor to global greenhouse gas emissions, with air travel playing a significant role. In the United States, the transportation sector accounted for 29 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions in 2021. Commercial airplanes and large business jets contributed ten percent of U.S. transportat…

1
The Intersection of Toxicology, Environmental Health Law, and Justice 31:10

9M ago31:10

31:10

As the foremost experts on the effects of chemicals, biological substances, and more, toxicologists are key contributors to health regulation and laws. Law Professor and lawyer Claudia Polsky, University of California Berkeley, discusses how science can influence environmental health law, as well as environmental justice, with co-hosts Anne Chappel…

1
Using Mobile Apps to Improve Air Quality Awareness in Ghana, with Dr. Collins Gameli Hodoli 1:44

9M ago1:44

1:44

What’s the state of air quality in Ghana? Over the last century, environmental pollution and air quality have been worsening in Africa. An estimated 28,000 deaths in Ghana and 780,000 deaths across the continent each year are associated with poor air quality. The World Health Organization found air pollution in 2020 to be the second highest risk fa…

1
Pitfalls in Pharmaceutical Production: Protecting the Actual Drug Makers 23:30

9M ago23:30

23:30

While pharmaceuticals provide positive benefits for patients, what about workers that may be exposed during production? Elizabeth M. Vancza, Merck & Co. Inc., reveals to co-hosts Anne Chappelle and David Faulkner the role of occupational toxicologists in understanding the exposure risks of pharmaceuticals, chemicals, and other substances that may a…

1
Using Paleo Valleys to Recharge Aquifers, with Dr. Rosemary Knight 1:45

9M ago1:45

1:45

What are Paleo Valleys? Paleo Valleys were created at the end of the last ice age by melting glaciers that carved into the sediments deposited in the Central Valley. When the glaciers receded, high-velocity meltwater carried sediments and grain material into the valley. These sediments are extremely porous, and the permeability means they can absor…

1
The Big Picture of Small Things: Nanotoxicology 30:10

10M ago30:10

30:10

Nanoparticles are manmade fibers, particulates, and other objects that are so small that when inhaled, they can escape the lungs and enter other body systems. Timothy Nurkiewicz, West Virginia University, studies the effects of these and other particulars. He discusses his inhalation and nanotoxicology research, as well as work with the National Gu…

1
Electrifying Motorcycle Taxis in Africa to Reduce Emissions and Save Drivers Money 1:45

10M ago1:45

1:45

What are motorcycle taxis? Motorcycle taxis are indispensable in East Africa and other developing countries. In large cities experiencing unplanned growth, agile moto-taxis can navigate congestion while transporting millions of people. In Rwanda, more than half of all vehicles on the road at any moment are motorcycle taxis. But gasoline-powered mot…

1
Tox in the Family: Generational Exposure and DDT 25:00

10M ago25:00

25:00

Blood samples and health records for 15,000 pregnancies provides a wealth of scientific data. Add samples and records from the resultant children and grandchildren, and you have an invaluable cohort with which you can study the long-term results of events that occur during pregnancy. Barbara Cohn with the Public Health Institute is the Director of …

1
Prescribed Burns with Bill Tripp 1:42

10M ago1:42

1:42

What is a Prescribed Burn? Prescribed burns “reduc[e] excessive amounts of brush, shrubs, and trees, encouraging the new growth of native vegetation, and maintaining the many plant and animal species whose habitats depend on periodic fire,” according to Smokey Bear. Prescribed burns are conducted by intentionally igniting a fire on a day with very …

1
Bringing Cohorts in Cahoots with Lab Science 31:03

10M ago31:03

31:03

The fields of epidemiology and toxicology sometimes find themselves at odds, but Gradient’s Julie Goodman, an epidemiologist and toxicologist, shares how the two disciplines can complement each other to evaluate public health risks. Dr. Goodman also dives into the finer points of systemic reviews and meta-analyses in her conversation with co-hosts …

1
Rerun: Using Windows to Capture Solar Power with Professor Stephen Forrest 1:45

10M ago1:45

1:45

What are solar windows? Solar windows, also known as building-integrated photovoltaics (BIPV), are windows that generate electricity from sunlight. They are typically made with thin, transparent layers of photovoltaic material that can capture and convert solar energy into electricity while still allowing light to pass through, so as to avoid sacri…

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