Ask MIT Climate

What exactly is a carbon price, and how does it work? To prepare for a new episode about climate economics, we’re re-airing this season one episode in which MIT professor Christopher Knittel explains economists’ favorite tool for addressing climate change. Professor Knittel also returns for a special update on big developments in the world of carbon pricing, from Canada, China, and the European Union.

For a deeper dive and additional resources related to this episode, visit: https://climate.mit.edu/podcasts/re-air-and-update-carbon-pricing

For more episodes of Ask MIT Climate, check out askmitclimate.org. Plus, find us on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube for outtakes, bonus content, and more climate knowledge from MIT. As always, we love hearing from our listeners; email us at [email protected].

Solar panels, batteries, microgrids, and other emerging energy technologies are making it easier than ever before for a community to produce some or all of its own power. Prof. David Hsu lays out the policies and technologies challenging the traditional, centralized model of the electric grid, including in places that lack reliable access to electricity. As the world strives to make energy cleaner, cheaper, and more accessible, what can local models offer that a big utility can’t—and the other way round?

For a deeper dive and additional resources related to this episode, visit: https://climate.mit.edu/podcasts/e5-microgrid-future

For more episodes of Ask MIT Climate, check out askmitclimate.org. Plus, find us on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube for outtakes, bonus content, and more climate knowledge from MIT. As always, we love hearing from our listeners; email us at [email protected].

Climate change is putting pressure not only on humans, but also on our fellow species. How can plants, animals, and other living things survive as their habitats are transformed? In this episode, we explore one way: moving. Dr. Toni Lyn Morelli and Dr. Alexej Sirén help us understand how climate change is shaking up the map of where species live—and what that means for all of us who share this planet.

For a deeper dive and additional resources related to this episode, visit: ​​https://climate.mit.edu/podcasts/e4-reshuffling-life-earth.

For more episodes of Ask MIT Climate, check out askmitclimate.org. Plus, find us on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube for outtakes, bonus content, and more climate knowledge from MIT. As always, we love hearing from our listeners; email us at [email protected].

The past three years have been the three hottest humanity has ever measured. But who does the measuring, and how? Dr. Samantha Burgess, of the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service, joins the show to explain how we know the temperature of the Earth, and how a global community of scientists works together to keep tabs on the health of our planet.

For show notes and more resources, visit https://climate.mit.edu/podcasts/e3-taking-earths-temperature

Credits

Aaron Krol, Writer and Executive Producer

Madison Goldberg, Host and Associate Producer

Dave Lishansky, Editor and Producer

Michelle Harris, Fact-checker

Music by Blue Dot Sessions

License: CC-BY-NC-SA. View the license terms at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/

Nuclear power offers huge amounts of round-the-clock energy free of climate-warming pollution. In the United States, it’s also become very expensive to build. As government support grows to bring more nuclear power to the U.S., Prof. Jacopo Buongiorno of MIT joins us to break down how nuclear got so costly and what we can learn from countries with more active nuclear industries.

For a deeper dive and additional resources related to this episode, visit: https://climate.mit.edu/podcasts/e2-nuclear-price-tag

For more episodes of Ask MIT Climate, check out askmitclimate.org. Plus, find us on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube for outtakes, bonus content, and more climate knowledge from MIT. As always, we love hearing from our listeners; email us at [email protected].