March 21, 2025 • 28 mins
From making cows a little less gassy, to seasoning your clouds with salt, to creating floating pastures and hospitals, communities and scientists have come up with a whole lot of ingenious solutions to deal with climate change. Dig in as Will and Mango explore the sunnier side of climate resilience.
Got a fact to share? Want to drop us a line? Hit us up on our Insta @parttimegenius
Photo via Pexels by Julie Aagaard. (Thanks Julie!)
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
You're listening to part time Genius, the production of Kaleidoscope
and iHeartRadio. Guess what, Well, what's that mango? So in
the not so distant future, the best wines on Earth
won't actually come from Italy or Chili or France, but
from Poland and Ireland. Can you imagine sitting down at
(00:25):
a fancy restaurant and ordering a bottle of Irish wine mango?
Speaker 2 (00:29):
I think it's actually pronouncing guinness. I mean, Guinness is delicious,
but that's not what I mean. Climate change is redrawing
the boundaries of wine production, and as temperatures rise, places
like Ireland, Poland, and even northern China are becoming warm
enough to grow the grapes behind popular wines. In fact,
some models suggest that if climate change continues at this rate,
by twenty fifty, Ireland will be producing the sort of
(00:51):
quality wine we associate with Italy today. That is wild.
I mean, that's nice for Ireland, but I gotta be honest.
I think I'd prefer if the climate did not change.
Speaker 1 (00:59):
Yeah, honestly, But it is interesting to look at the
problem from the angle of the wine industry. With temperatures
rising everywhere, the current wine regions are paying the price,
and heat and drought have ruined multiple grape harvests in
places like Australia and Europe, and also hundreds of California
vineyards have been affected by wildfires as we've seen in
recent years. But all of this got me thinking about
(01:19):
how climate change is playing out in different parts of
the world, but also what people are doing to improve
communities climate resilience. And that's what we're going to talk
about today, incredibly smart, creative efforts to reduce harm from
climate threats. It's fascinating and it's pretty important. So let's
dive in.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
Hey, their podcast listeners, welcome to Part Time Genius. I'm
Will Pearson, and as always I'm joined by my good
friend mangesh Hot Ticketer and over there in the booths,
he's actually today this is a good one. He's wearing
a hard hat and he's surrounded by construction materials. That's
our pal and producer Dylan Fagan, of course, and I
think those are solar panels that he's putting up. Is
(02:17):
that right?
Speaker 1 (02:17):
He said something about converting the booth to renewable energy.
I'm not sure how he's going to pull.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
That, but always admirable goals that Dylan. And there's actually
no sunlight in the booth, so I'm not quite sure
how that's going to work out. But you know, anyway,
we'll see how it plays out.
Speaker 1 (02:31):
I'm sure we'll figure it out.
Speaker 2 (02:32):
He's pretty resourceful, all right, Magel. I gotta be honest
with you. When you first emailed me about doing this episode,
I did hesitate for a minute. I mean, I know,
we found a bunch of fascinating ideas for climate resilience,
which of course is the term scientist used to describe
strategies for coping with and mitigating the effects of climate change.
But honestly, just thinking about climate change is such a
(02:54):
stressful thing.
Speaker 1 (02:55):
Yeah, that's fair, and I feel the same way. And
obviously it isn't just us. A lot of people feel
this way. In fact, psychologists have a term for this,
and they call it climate anxiety, and some experts at
Yale have been studying this phenomena for a while. One
of the things they note is that there's actually a
difference between concern, worry, and anxiety. So concern is sort
(03:16):
of the lightest of the three worries. The next step up,
and according to a national survey, they did sixty four
percent of Americans or at least somewhat worried about climate change.
And that's obviously a good thing.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
So it's good that we're worried.
Speaker 1 (03:29):
Yeah, I mean, obviously, when we worry about our problem,
we want to fix it. So the more people worry
about climate change, the more motivation there is to address
the causes.
Speaker 2 (03:37):
Yeah, I mean, I guess that makes sense. But how
does anxiety differ from worry?
Speaker 1 (03:41):
So, according to the Yale researchers, when you start to
have symptoms like erasing heart or intrusive thoughts, or when
the feelings become overwhelming and affect your day to day life,
that's really climate anxiety. And while there's this correlation between
self reported climate anxiety and existing anxiety disorders, it is
real problem. Eight percent of the Yale survey respondents said
(04:02):
they'd be interested in counseling for a climate anxiety. But
the good news is this survey found that the vast
majority of Americans don't feel fatalistic. Even though they're worried
and they're anxious, they believe we can do something about
climate change, which is, you know, both reassuring and motivating.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
Yeah, definitely all right. Well, speaking of motivation, Mango a
group of New England scientists. They decided to tackle a
climate problem that's increasingly relevant in dairy producing states, states
like Vermont, and this is cow burps.
Speaker 1 (04:31):
Is this kind of like that meme about how cows
passing gas is what's causing global warming?
Speaker 2 (04:36):
I mean kind of, except you're focusing on the wrong
end of the cow. Some ninety five percent of the
methane cow's release actually come from burping, not the other end.
According to the EPA, the biggest source of greenhouse gas
emissions by far is carbon dioxide generated by burning fossil fuels.
That makes up almost eighty percent of emissions. Methane comes
(04:57):
in a distant second, representing about eleven percent. But yes,
cow verbs are actually responsible for a lot of that methane.
Speaker 1 (05:05):
So I'm very curious about this. Other than stopping them
from drinking like bubbly water and sodaes, how do you
stop a cow from burfing?
Speaker 2 (05:12):
Well, to answer that question, you have to understand why
a cow verbs. So cows stomachs have four chambers, so
they can digest grass and corn by chewing and then regurgitating,
then chewing Some more and along the way, billions of
microorganisms and the cow's stomachs break down the fibers and
that's where the methane comes from. It's actually a byproduct
of those microbes doing their job. They multiply that across
(05:35):
ninety million cattle in the US alone, and we're talking
a lot of gas. But it turns out if you
add a specific type of seaweed to the cow's diets,
it actually reduces the methane in their guts by eighty percent. Seaweed.
Speaker 1 (05:49):
That's incredible. It sounds like almost like it's a gas
ex for cows.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
Yeah. I mean there is a catch here that one
seaweed only grows in the oceans around Australia, and trying
to import it or reduce it into other places would
actually do more environmental harm than good. So, according to
Boston's wbur researchers at the Bigelow Laboratory have begun testing
dozens of North Atlantic seaweed and algae varieties. So they
(06:14):
set up jars full of actual cow stomach fluids and
they've been quote feeding them pieces of seaweed and then
measuring methane levels in these jars.
Speaker 1 (06:23):
And this seems to be working.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
It seems to be. Yeah. I mean they've even teamed
up with dairy farmers in New Hampshire to test the
top contenders in actual animals and it looks like a
seaweed called Irish moss reduces methane output by up to
twenty percent, So pretty significant there. And if they can
get that higher to maybe like thirty percent and feed
it to all the cows in the US, we would
actually reduce methane emissions by almost two million metric tons. Wow.
Speaker 1 (06:49):
So of course, another way to reduce the environmental impact
of catalysts to eat less beef and dairy, right.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
That would be one way to do it. Yeah, definitely,
And there's a bigger, more systemic solution as part of that,
But in the meantime, fewer cowburbs is a big step forward.
Speaker 1 (07:04):
That is an incredible sentence. So for our next innovation,
I'd like to tell you about cool roofs, which is
about temperature, not like some roof that all the other
roofs want to be like. But I love this one
because it's so obvious when you think about it, and
it can really make a big impact. The science here
is really simple. Painting roofs with white reflective paint reduces
(07:25):
the amount of heat that building absorbs and radiates back
to the ground.
Speaker 2 (07:29):
Yeah, you know, this is one of those things I
feel like people talked about for a while, you know,
painting roofs white, and I just feel like I haven't
seen much of it to this point.
Speaker 1 (07:37):
Yeah, you're right, it's been in the discourse for a while.
But you know, New York City launched a cool roofs
program in two thousand and nine. A lot of the
buildings here have black asphalt roofs that can reach up
to one hundred and ninety degrees fahrenheit in the summer,
and that raises temperatures inside the building as well as
makes the sidewalks below a whole lot hotter.
Speaker 2 (07:56):
And so all you have to do is slap some
white paint on them, pretty much, and we're making great progress.
Speaker 1 (08:01):
So a twenty twenty one hundred University study found that
about thirty six percent of New York City roof surfaces
had been converted to cool roofing. That's over six hundred
and seventy five million square feet. But obviously that still
leaves a lot of roofs to paint.
Speaker 2 (08:16):
You know, it reminds me of places like Santorini and
Greece where you have those beautiful white villages by the sea,
And I've never really thought about it before, but I
assume that's for cooling purposes too.
Speaker 1 (08:27):
Yeah, I mean in places like Centerini, all the buildings
exteriors are whitewashed and they look so beautiful. Oddly enough, though,
the original purpose was to prevent the spread of infectious diseases,
because the compounds in whitewash actually have these antiseptic properties
and the heat mitigation is just a bonus, But the
idea of slapping white paint on roofs is spreading. In
twenty twenty two, Indonesia won a seven hundred and fifty
(08:49):
thousand dollars grant from a Global Cool Roofs Challenge, and
eighty percent of homes in Indonesia really lack air conditioning.
But if you think about it, a lot of people
are at work and school during the hot us parts
of the day, and most schools in Indonesia also don't
have the AC. So the team tasks with expanding Indonesia's
cool roofs decide to focus on the larger buildings and
(09:09):
that meant things like schools and community centers. The results
have been pretty encouraging. In twenty twenty three, they reported
that a new cool roof had reduced the temperature inside
one major industrial building from one hundred four degrees fahrenheit
to eighty four degrees. So obviously that's still really warm,
but so much more comfortable.
Speaker 2 (09:28):
Yeah, I mean that's a pretty big difference. Okay, listeners,
we have to take a quick break, but when we
come back, get ready for this. We're going to talk
about salty clouds, clam gardens, and fog harvest thing, you know,
the three big things you were hoping we'd talk about
when we get back. So don't go anywhere.
Speaker 1 (09:57):
Welcome back to Part time Genius. So before we get
into our story of climate resilience, I just want to
remind you that if you enjoy the show, and I
really hope you do, please make sure you're subscribed on
your favorite podcast app and leave us a nice rating
and review.
Speaker 2 (10:10):
Yeah, thanks for doing that in advance. All right, mengo.
So this next story comes to us from the Swinemish
tribe in Washington State. Now, for thousands of years, indigenous
people along the Pacific Northwest they've harvested these shellfish by
building clam gardens. Now, the way it worked is they
built rock walls and these inner tidal zones, and that's
the strip of the beach that's underwater during high tide
(10:33):
but exposed during low tide. Now, as the tide rose,
sediment fell over the wall, building up this nice, soft,
stable and protected environment for clams to grow. And so
modern studies of this ancient practice have shown that this
expanded the clam habitat and actually increased the species diversity
as well as provided a reliable source of seafood.
Speaker 1 (10:53):
So I can't help but notice, but you are using
the past tense a lot here. So did they stop
building these clam gardens.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
Well, not exactly by choice. So as the Swinemish and
other tribes were displaced from their land and developers began
building up the shorelines, these clam gardens disappeared. And in
recent years there's been a lot of concern about shellfish
in the Pacific Northwest. Little neck clam numbers began declining
in the nineteen nineties because of warming waters and the
spread of disease. So a few years ago the Swinemish
(11:22):
got funding from Noah and that's the National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration in order to build the country's first modern
clam garden. Wow.
Speaker 1 (11:31):
So the idea is that it'll actually improved shellfish.
Speaker 2 (11:34):
Health, Yes, but actually not just that. So traditional clam
gardens support other sea life too, including sea cucumbers seaweed.
One of the side effects of climate change is that
ocean waters are becoming more acidic. Now that increased acidity
can actually eat away at clamshells, making it harder for
them to survive. But because clam gardens keep a whole
(11:54):
bunch of clams together in one sheltered area, when they die,
they leave behind shell fragments that increase the water's mineral content,
thereby reducing acidity.
Speaker 1 (12:03):
Oh that's really interesting. Also, I love that Noah stands
for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and something about
atmospheric administration is just really delightful to me.
Speaker 2 (12:15):
I agree.
Speaker 1 (12:16):
Speaking of the atmosphere, it tees up this next fact nicely.
Speaker 2 (12:20):
So.
Speaker 1 (12:20):
Just last year, scientists from the University of Washington conducted
an experiment in which they sprayed microscopic salt aerosol particles
hundreds of feet into the air over the San Francisco
Bay and basically they wanted to see how well the
particles traveled through the air.
Speaker 2 (12:36):
And why do they want to know that?
Speaker 1 (12:37):
Because if we can get aerosolized salt particles into clouds
over the ocean, those clouds will suddenly contain more droplets,
and each droplet works kind of like a tiny mirror,
So more droplets means the clouds will reflect more sunlight
back into space and make the Earth a little cooler.
Speaker 2 (12:54):
So it's sort of like the cool roof concept we
were talking about, except I guess everywhere.
Speaker 1 (12:58):
Yeah, and this actually comes from a cross disciplinary group
at the University of Washington. It's called the Marine Cloud
Brightening Program. According to the modeling they've done, if we
can artificially brighten fifteen percent of the world's marine clouds,
we can cool the Earth by about one degree fahrenheit.
Speaker 2 (13:14):
But wouldn't sprang particles into the clouds just make it rain? Yeah,
so that's actually part of the challenge. No one really
knows what would happen if we start pumping all these
salt aerosols into the atmosphere on a regular basis. Obviously,
too many droplets could turn into precipitation, and some environmental
groups have expressed skepticism about the strategy, noting that saltier
clouds might even alter weather patterns, and all of that
(13:38):
tinkering could be a distraction from the real problem are
dependents on fossil fuels. But the thing is, the folks
at the Marine Cloud Brightening Program actually agree with all that.
They see this project as kind of an emergency backup plan.
As the program's measure, Sarah Dougherty told The New York
Times quote, I hope and I think my colleagues hope
(13:58):
that we never use these things that we ever have to.
So if governments and societies around the world embrace renewable energy,
maybe we won't need to salt our clouds. Well, speaking
of clouds, here's something I just learned about fog, which
is weirdly defined as a cloud that touches the ground.
Speaker 1 (14:14):
Right, Is that true?
Speaker 2 (14:16):
Yeah? This actually comes from the Noah's Weather Education website.
But one of the most deadly symptoms of climate change
is drought. So just a few months ago, Al Jazeer
reported that Kenya is in the midst of the worst
drought in forty years, as rivers and lakes dry up.
Not only are the crops and livestock dying, millions of
people are finding themselves without access to drinking water.
Speaker 1 (14:37):
Can I just tell you that I knew about the
drowd in Kenya because my kid Ruby reads The Weak
Junior and is obsessed with that magazine. And we had
to have Ruby stop reading it at night because they
would stay up and worry, like wanting to talk about
solutions for Kenya.
Speaker 2 (14:51):
Yeah, and I.
Speaker 1 (14:52):
Mean it's wonderful but also not a great night time activity.
Speaker 2 (14:55):
Yeah, that sounds like Ruby. But back to Kenya, all right,
So millions are tragically struggling to find access to drinking
water there and to avoid trekking hours each day in
search of water. People in remote mountain villages have come
up with an incredible idea harvesting fog. So, because fog
is just moisture in the air, you know, they are
working to figure out how to capture it, and to
(15:17):
do that, they attach these long sheets of plastic to trees,
draping the end of the sheets into buckets or jerry cans.
So when the cool night air settles in, water condenses
on the plastic and drips into the container. And according
to NPR. A single tree can generate as much as
twenty gallons of water every single night.
Speaker 1 (15:36):
That is amazing and something I will definitely be telling
Ruby about after this episode. Now, is this just being
done in Kenya or is it more widespread because there
are obviously a lot of places suffering from droughts these days.
Speaker 2 (15:47):
Yeah, it is happening in other places too. You've got Ethiopia, Chile,
and various parts of Southeast Asia. But you know the
problem is fog, like any other type of weather, is
definitely variable, so sometimes there's a lot of it, there's
not very much. So researchers are taking this basic principle
and trying to figure out ways to make it even
more effective, for example, using large pieces of mesh netting
(16:09):
instead of plastic sheets. We actually talked about this years
ago in our episode What does the Future of Water
look Like? But there are more sophisticated methods of pulling
water out of the air today. A young Kenyan woman
named beth Koaigi. She's developed this machine that she calls
Magic Water, and it works like a souped up dehumidifier,
(16:29):
so fans suck air into the system where it's cooled
and condensed until water forms and then it goes through
a filter and finally essential minerals are added. These magic
water systems are already in use in parts of Kenya,
including an overcrowded, low income areas of Nairobi. And this
is where residents have little to no access to basic utilities.
Speaker 1 (16:50):
That's really amazing. Well, we have taken another quick break,
but please don't go anywhere. When we come back, we'll
see how some communities are tackling the problem of too
much water, and we'll visit an island nation that's put
itself at the forefront of climate resilience.
Speaker 2 (17:13):
And welcome back to part time genius. Now, Mango. Before
the break, you said something about too much water. Yeah,
So the thing is.
Speaker 1 (17:25):
This is the nature of climate change, right. We see
extremes in both directions, and things like rising sea levels
and harsh storms put coastal communities at greater risk of flooding.
To use a very recent example, Hurricane Helene dumped as
much as thirty inches of rain on parts of North Carolina. Island.
Nations are starting to rethink their entire infrastructure and will
(17:46):
I know you're going to talk about that a little later,
but there's one country that's been pondering these questions of
how to live with too much water for centuries, and
that's the Netherlands, ah.
Speaker 2 (17:55):
Right, And that's because some big chunk of the country
actually sits below sea level. Right.
Speaker 1 (17:59):
Yeah, about twenty six percent now, over half the population
lives in areas that are vulnerable to flooding. And people
here were building dikes as far back as the Iron Age,
which feels insane to me. But more recently, in nineteen
fifty three, there was a freak storm in the North
Sea and many of the dikes and storm walls gave way,
resulting in these massive floods that killed almost two thousand
(18:21):
people and destroyed thousands of homes. So the following year,
the Dutch government launched a project called the Delta Works,
which was finally completed in nineteen ninety seven, and it's
the sprawling construction of dems and surge barriers, levees and dikes,
all designed to protect the southwest portion of the country
from these severe floods. But as sea levels continue to rise,
(18:43):
some Dutch architects and planners have adopted a different philosophy.
So instead of building barricades to keep the water out.
They're actually building homes that.
Speaker 2 (18:51):
Float, you mean, like houseboats.
Speaker 1 (18:53):
It's actually a little more complicated than that. So while
these homes look like ordinary houses instead of a foundation
on lands and they actually sit on a hull and
float on the water. But unlike houseboats, these houses are
tethered to steal pillars on the shore, so when the
water rises, they float up, and when it recedes they
float down. And because they're connected to the shore, they
can tap into municipal sewer and utility lines. It's really
(19:18):
this elegant solution and since coming up with it, Dutch
architects have actually been floating things like schools, offices and
even medical facilities. There's a small floating dairy farm in
the city of Rotterdam with thirty five cows that go
back and forth between their waterborne barn and this riverside pasture,
which is also really incredible.
Speaker 2 (19:36):
Yeah, it's fascinating. I do wonder like do people get
seasick from this though, I mean I think some do.
But there are ways to stabilize the homes with shock
absorbers and poles driven into the ground. The other great
thing about these floating buildings is that they're designed for
maximum resilience and minimal carbon footprint. They're typically built with
natural and recyclable materials, and that includes features like rooftop gardens,
(19:59):
rainwater capture, and of course solar panels. And I see
Dylan's over there. He's got a big smile in his face.
You know, that's when he's usually got a big idea.
I'm guessing that he is sort of thinking through building
the world's first solar powered floating podcast production group.
Speaker 1 (20:14):
What do you think, Banga, I think so that smile
in that nod now confirms.
Speaker 2 (20:18):
It all right. For our last story of climate resilience,
we're heading to the Caribbean to a tiny island nation
of Dominica, which is on the quest to become the
world's first climate resilient country. Now, Dominica's interior is rugged
and mountainous, which means most of the population lives in
these low lying coastal areas. And so over the years,
(20:40):
there have been a number of catastrophic climate events that
have actually claimed lives and destroyed buildings, most notably Hurricane
Maria that was back in twenty seventeen, and if you remember,
that's the storm that also devastated Puerto Rico and the
US Virgin Islands. In Dominica, it's estimated that ninety percent
of the buildings on the island were damaged and lost
is totaled one point three billion dollars. That's over twice
(21:03):
the island's gross domestic product.
Speaker 1 (21:05):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (21:06):
Yeah. Just days after the storm, Prime Minister Roosevelt scaret
address to you in General Assembly, and I want to
read you this statement. He said, quote, our devastation is
so complete that our recovery has to be total, and
so we have a unique opportunity to be an example
of how an entire nation rebounds from disaster and how
an entire nation can be climate resilient for the future.
(21:28):
We did not choose this opportunity, but having had it
thrust upon us, we have chosen actively and decisively to
be that example to the world. Now, obviously it's difficult
to think about that level of loss as an opportunity,
but he's making an important point here. Places like Dominica
have no choice but to become as climate resilient as possible.
Speaker 1 (21:48):
So what are they trying to do to achieve this?
Speaker 2 (21:51):
Well, they'd been thinking about climate change and disaster recovery
before Maria, of course, but after that storm, an even
bigger push began to build comprehendi of climate resilience that
touches on just about every aspect of life. They changed
building codes to only allow storm proof designs. They began
ecosystem restoration projects to help buffer storm surges. But one
(22:12):
of the most important things they did is developed better
early warning systems. This is a huge part of keeping
people safe and remote places that are at highest risk
from extreme weather. In fact, countries with limited early warning
systems have disaster mortality rates eight times higher than countries
with robust warning tools. So small settlements up in the
mountains didn't necessarily have reliable internet or cell phone access,
(22:36):
and in a disaster, phone lines go down and roads
can be blocked for weeks.
Speaker 1 (22:40):
So people have no way of knowing what's going on
or how to evacuate.
Speaker 2 (22:43):
Yeah, that's exactly right. So in Dominica they built on
these indigenous traditions of cascading communication. Federal disaster officials they
relay information to councils, which then spread the word to
hamlets and smaller communities. And every hamlet has five or
six people who'd been trained in emergency responds, and they
use whatever tools make sense for their terrain, whether that's
(23:04):
cell phones, trucks with PA speakers, radios, conk shells, anything
they can do, even conk shells. Yeah, I mean, this
is such a great detail. Indigenous people in Dominica have
communicated by blowing conk shells for hundreds of years. These days,
if you hear a conkshell on the island, it's usually
a few short toots used by vendors to let customers
(23:25):
know they have fresh fish for sale. But now there's
also an emergency shell call, these long sustained blasts to
indicate that the disaster information is on the way. But ultimately,
Mango people in Dominica know that, however well prepared they are,
their safety and the fate of their island actually depends
on international cooperation and policies that reduce emissions worldwide. Anyway,
(23:47):
before Dylan blows a conk shell to let us know
it's time to wrap up here, what do you say
we do a quick fact off, Yeah, let's do it
all right. So, since the eighteenth century, North America's beaver
population has shrunk by half, and fewer beavers obviously means
(24:07):
fewer beaver dams. But it turns out the dams are
really important. Without beaver activity, streams are less likely to
diverge and spread, and that means the water flows along
a single path. So when there's a lot of rain,
water rushes through the channel, washing away plants and soil
and wildlife. So some states like Wisconsin are experimenting with
(24:27):
artificial beaver dams. They're porous and made of wood, just
like the real thing, and it's hoped that these faux
dams will slow run off and actually improve the health
of wetland ecosystems.
Speaker 1 (24:38):
Oh that's interesting. So you've heard of cool roofs because
I told you all about them a few minutes ago.
But that same principle of transforming dark surfaces to reflect
heat can also work on roads. Several American cities, including
Los Angeles, Dallas, and San Antonio, have begun plying special
solar reflective selans over stretches of asphalt. When combined with
(24:59):
other heat mit again approaches like planting shade trees, this
could make hot city days a little more bearable.
Speaker 2 (25:05):
In twenty twenty, China announce the goal of becoming carbon
neutral by the year twenty sixty Now, in addition to
investments in clean energy and electric vehicles, the government has
instituted green building standards. This is all very modern stuff,
but some architects are revisiting a feature of traditional Chinese homes.
This is the skywell or tijng, found throughout southern and
(25:27):
eastern China. Skywells are these small open air rooms in
the center of houses. They're surrounded by walls or other rooms,
but they're not covered by the roof, and because the
air outside is often cooler than the air inside, breezes
flow down and displace the warmer indoor air that rises up.
Some skywells also collect rain water, which makes them even
(25:47):
more effective thanks to evaporative cooling. Now, according to the BBC,
skywells are so good at cooling buildings they're being revived
and new construction now. The BBC reported on a giant
eighteen story technology center reacent built in jen On, which
actually has a Nuvo skywell running throughout it from the
fifth floor all the way up.
Speaker 1 (26:07):
That's really cool. So Back in twenty fifteen, a village
in rural Scotland hosted a community presentation about climate change,
and afterwards people kept talking about it like in the street,
in the line at store. Some folks like questions. Other
people wanted to plan actions they could take right away,
and a lot of people just felt better after talking
to neighbors who shared their concerns and anxieties. So they
(26:28):
began holding these informal meetings in a local arts center.
They called it a climate cafe, and since this is Scotland,
of course, they had tea and biscuits on hand. Now
people began showing up regularly. They started brainstorming ideas for
things they could do in their community and organizing activities
under the hashtag drink Chat Act and the idea caught
on and climate cafes have begun popping up in other
(26:51):
parts of Scotland. Today, there are actually climate cafes in England, Wales, Germany, Switzerland,
even the United States, and anyone who wants to start
one in their community can you so. They actually have
a guide on the Climate Cafe website. It's all rooted
in the idea that collective action can bring about the
change we need, and every one of us can play
our part.
Speaker 2 (27:10):
You know, Mengo, We've talked about some tough stuff today,
some stressful stuff today, But I really love that story.
I think for that and for ending us on such
a good note, I got to give you this week's trophy. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (27:22):
So I'm going to take this and I'm gonna share
it with all.
Speaker 2 (27:24):
Of Scotland, every single person in Scotland. Congratulations.
Speaker 1 (27:28):
Well that does it for today's episode. We'll be back
soon with another new episode. But in the meantime, from
Will Gave, Dylan, Mary and myself, thank you so much
for listening. Part Time Genius is a production of Kaleidoscope
(27:52):
and iHeartRadio. This show is hosted by Will Pearson and
Me Mongas Chatikler and research by our good Paler Mary
Philip Sandy. Today's episode was engineered and produced by the
wonderful Dylan Fagan with support from Tyler Klang. The show
is executive produced for iHeart by Katrina Norvell and Ali Perry,
with social media support from Sasha Gay, trustee Dara Potts
(28:16):
and Viney Shorey. For more podcasts from Kaleidoscope and iHeartRadio,
visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen
to your favorite shows.
You're listening to part time Genius, the production of Kaleidoscope
and iHeartRadio. Guess what, Well, what's that mango? So in
the not so distant future, the best wines on Earth
won't actually come from Italy or Chili or France, but
from Poland and Ireland. Can you imagine sitting down at
(00:25):
a fancy restaurant and ordering a bottle of Irish wine mango?
Speaker 2 (00:29):
I think it's actually pronouncing guinness. I mean, Guinness is delicious,
but that's not what I mean. Climate change is redrawing
the boundaries of wine production, and as temperatures rise, places
like Ireland, Poland, and even northern China are becoming warm
enough to grow the grapes behind popular wines. In fact,
some models suggest that if climate change continues at this rate,
by twenty fifty, Ireland will be producing the sort of
(00:51):
quality wine we associate with Italy today. That is wild.
I mean, that's nice for Ireland, but I gotta be honest.
I think I'd prefer if the climate did not change.
Speaker 1 (00:59):
Yeah, honestly, But it is interesting to look at the
problem from the angle of the wine industry. With temperatures
rising everywhere, the current wine regions are paying the price,
and heat and drought have ruined multiple grape harvests in
places like Australia and Europe, and also hundreds of California
vineyards have been affected by wildfires as we've seen in
recent years. But all of this got me thinking about
(01:19):
how climate change is playing out in different parts of
the world, but also what people are doing to improve
communities climate resilience. And that's what we're going to talk
about today, incredibly smart, creative efforts to reduce harm from
climate threats. It's fascinating and it's pretty important. So let's
dive in.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
Hey, their podcast listeners, welcome to Part Time Genius. I'm
Will Pearson, and as always I'm joined by my good
friend mangesh Hot Ticketer and over there in the booths,
he's actually today this is a good one. He's wearing
a hard hat and he's surrounded by construction materials. That's
our pal and producer Dylan Fagan, of course, and I
think those are solar panels that he's putting up. Is
(02:17):
that right?
Speaker 1 (02:17):
He said something about converting the booth to renewable energy.
I'm not sure how he's going to pull.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
That, but always admirable goals that Dylan. And there's actually
no sunlight in the booth, so I'm not quite sure
how that's going to work out. But you know, anyway,
we'll see how it plays out.
Speaker 1 (02:31):
I'm sure we'll figure it out.
Speaker 2 (02:32):
He's pretty resourceful, all right, Magel. I gotta be honest
with you. When you first emailed me about doing this episode,
I did hesitate for a minute. I mean, I know,
we found a bunch of fascinating ideas for climate resilience,
which of course is the term scientist used to describe
strategies for coping with and mitigating the effects of climate change.
But honestly, just thinking about climate change is such a
(02:54):
stressful thing.
Speaker 1 (02:55):
Yeah, that's fair, and I feel the same way. And
obviously it isn't just us. A lot of people feel
this way. In fact, psychologists have a term for this,
and they call it climate anxiety, and some experts at
Yale have been studying this phenomena for a while. One
of the things they note is that there's actually a
difference between concern, worry, and anxiety. So concern is sort
(03:16):
of the lightest of the three worries. The next step up,
and according to a national survey, they did sixty four
percent of Americans or at least somewhat worried about climate change.
And that's obviously a good thing.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
So it's good that we're worried.
Speaker 1 (03:29):
Yeah, I mean, obviously, when we worry about our problem,
we want to fix it. So the more people worry
about climate change, the more motivation there is to address
the causes.
Speaker 2 (03:37):
Yeah, I mean, I guess that makes sense. But how
does anxiety differ from worry?
Speaker 1 (03:41):
So, according to the Yale researchers, when you start to
have symptoms like erasing heart or intrusive thoughts, or when
the feelings become overwhelming and affect your day to day life,
that's really climate anxiety. And while there's this correlation between
self reported climate anxiety and existing anxiety disorders, it is
real problem. Eight percent of the Yale survey respondents said
(04:02):
they'd be interested in counseling for a climate anxiety. But
the good news is this survey found that the vast
majority of Americans don't feel fatalistic. Even though they're worried
and they're anxious, they believe we can do something about
climate change, which is, you know, both reassuring and motivating.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
Yeah, definitely all right. Well, speaking of motivation, Mango a
group of New England scientists. They decided to tackle a
climate problem that's increasingly relevant in dairy producing states, states
like Vermont, and this is cow burps.
Speaker 1 (04:31):
Is this kind of like that meme about how cows
passing gas is what's causing global warming?
Speaker 2 (04:36):
I mean kind of, except you're focusing on the wrong
end of the cow. Some ninety five percent of the
methane cow's release actually come from burping, not the other end.
According to the EPA, the biggest source of greenhouse gas
emissions by far is carbon dioxide generated by burning fossil fuels.
That makes up almost eighty percent of emissions. Methane comes
(04:57):
in a distant second, representing about eleven percent. But yes,
cow verbs are actually responsible for a lot of that methane.
Speaker 1 (05:05):
So I'm very curious about this. Other than stopping them
from drinking like bubbly water and sodaes, how do you
stop a cow from burfing?
Speaker 2 (05:12):
Well, to answer that question, you have to understand why
a cow verbs. So cows stomachs have four chambers, so
they can digest grass and corn by chewing and then regurgitating,
then chewing Some more and along the way, billions of
microorganisms and the cow's stomachs break down the fibers and
that's where the methane comes from. It's actually a byproduct
of those microbes doing their job. They multiply that across
(05:35):
ninety million cattle in the US alone, and we're talking
a lot of gas. But it turns out if you
add a specific type of seaweed to the cow's diets,
it actually reduces the methane in their guts by eighty percent. Seaweed.
Speaker 1 (05:49):
That's incredible. It sounds like almost like it's a gas
ex for cows.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
Yeah. I mean there is a catch here that one
seaweed only grows in the oceans around Australia, and trying
to import it or reduce it into other places would
actually do more environmental harm than good. So, according to
Boston's wbur researchers at the Bigelow Laboratory have begun testing
dozens of North Atlantic seaweed and algae varieties. So they
(06:14):
set up jars full of actual cow stomach fluids and
they've been quote feeding them pieces of seaweed and then
measuring methane levels in these jars.
Speaker 1 (06:23):
And this seems to be working.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
It seems to be. Yeah. I mean they've even teamed
up with dairy farmers in New Hampshire to test the
top contenders in actual animals and it looks like a
seaweed called Irish moss reduces methane output by up to
twenty percent, So pretty significant there. And if they can
get that higher to maybe like thirty percent and feed
it to all the cows in the US, we would
actually reduce methane emissions by almost two million metric tons. Wow.
Speaker 1 (06:49):
So of course, another way to reduce the environmental impact
of catalysts to eat less beef and dairy, right.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
That would be one way to do it. Yeah, definitely,
And there's a bigger, more systemic solution as part of that,
But in the meantime, fewer cowburbs is a big step forward.
Speaker 1 (07:04):
That is an incredible sentence. So for our next innovation,
I'd like to tell you about cool roofs, which is
about temperature, not like some roof that all the other
roofs want to be like. But I love this one
because it's so obvious when you think about it, and
it can really make a big impact. The science here
is really simple. Painting roofs with white reflective paint reduces
(07:25):
the amount of heat that building absorbs and radiates back
to the ground.
Speaker 2 (07:29):
Yeah, you know, this is one of those things I
feel like people talked about for a while, you know,
painting roofs white, and I just feel like I haven't
seen much of it to this point.
Speaker 1 (07:37):
Yeah, you're right, it's been in the discourse for a while.
But you know, New York City launched a cool roofs
program in two thousand and nine. A lot of the
buildings here have black asphalt roofs that can reach up
to one hundred and ninety degrees fahrenheit in the summer,
and that raises temperatures inside the building as well as
makes the sidewalks below a whole lot hotter.
Speaker 2 (07:56):
And so all you have to do is slap some
white paint on them, pretty much, and we're making great progress.
Speaker 1 (08:01):
So a twenty twenty one hundred University study found that
about thirty six percent of New York City roof surfaces
had been converted to cool roofing. That's over six hundred
and seventy five million square feet. But obviously that still
leaves a lot of roofs to paint.
Speaker 2 (08:16):
You know, it reminds me of places like Santorini and
Greece where you have those beautiful white villages by the sea,
And I've never really thought about it before, but I
assume that's for cooling purposes too.
Speaker 1 (08:27):
Yeah, I mean in places like Centerini, all the buildings
exteriors are whitewashed and they look so beautiful. Oddly enough, though,
the original purpose was to prevent the spread of infectious diseases,
because the compounds in whitewash actually have these antiseptic properties
and the heat mitigation is just a bonus, But the
idea of slapping white paint on roofs is spreading. In
twenty twenty two, Indonesia won a seven hundred and fifty
(08:49):
thousand dollars grant from a Global Cool Roofs Challenge, and
eighty percent of homes in Indonesia really lack air conditioning.
But if you think about it, a lot of people
are at work and school during the hot us parts
of the day, and most schools in Indonesia also don't
have the AC. So the team tasks with expanding Indonesia's
cool roofs decide to focus on the larger buildings and
(09:09):
that meant things like schools and community centers. The results
have been pretty encouraging. In twenty twenty three, they reported
that a new cool roof had reduced the temperature inside
one major industrial building from one hundred four degrees fahrenheit
to eighty four degrees. So obviously that's still really warm,
but so much more comfortable.
Speaker 2 (09:28):
Yeah, I mean that's a pretty big difference. Okay, listeners,
we have to take a quick break, but when we
come back, get ready for this. We're going to talk
about salty clouds, clam gardens, and fog harvest thing, you know,
the three big things you were hoping we'd talk about
when we get back. So don't go anywhere.
Speaker 1 (09:57):
Welcome back to Part time Genius. So before we get
into our story of climate resilience, I just want to
remind you that if you enjoy the show, and I
really hope you do, please make sure you're subscribed on
your favorite podcast app and leave us a nice rating
and review.
Speaker 2 (10:10):
Yeah, thanks for doing that in advance. All right, mengo.
So this next story comes to us from the Swinemish
tribe in Washington State. Now, for thousands of years, indigenous
people along the Pacific Northwest they've harvested these shellfish by
building clam gardens. Now, the way it worked is they
built rock walls and these inner tidal zones, and that's
the strip of the beach that's underwater during high tide
(10:33):
but exposed during low tide. Now, as the tide rose,
sediment fell over the wall, building up this nice, soft,
stable and protected environment for clams to grow. And so
modern studies of this ancient practice have shown that this
expanded the clam habitat and actually increased the species diversity
as well as provided a reliable source of seafood.
Speaker 1 (10:53):
So I can't help but notice, but you are using
the past tense a lot here. So did they stop
building these clam gardens.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
Well, not exactly by choice. So as the Swinemish and
other tribes were displaced from their land and developers began
building up the shorelines, these clam gardens disappeared. And in
recent years there's been a lot of concern about shellfish
in the Pacific Northwest. Little neck clam numbers began declining
in the nineteen nineties because of warming waters and the
spread of disease. So a few years ago the Swinemish
(11:22):
got funding from Noah and that's the National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration in order to build the country's first modern
clam garden. Wow.
Speaker 1 (11:31):
So the idea is that it'll actually improved shellfish.
Speaker 2 (11:34):
Health, Yes, but actually not just that. So traditional clam
gardens support other sea life too, including sea cucumbers seaweed.
One of the side effects of climate change is that
ocean waters are becoming more acidic. Now that increased acidity
can actually eat away at clamshells, making it harder for
them to survive. But because clam gardens keep a whole
(11:54):
bunch of clams together in one sheltered area, when they die,
they leave behind shell fragments that increase the water's mineral content,
thereby reducing acidity.
Speaker 1 (12:03):
Oh that's really interesting. Also, I love that Noah stands
for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and something about
atmospheric administration is just really delightful to me.
Speaker 2 (12:15):
I agree.
Speaker 1 (12:16):
Speaking of the atmosphere, it tees up this next fact nicely.
Speaker 2 (12:20):
So.
Speaker 1 (12:20):
Just last year, scientists from the University of Washington conducted
an experiment in which they sprayed microscopic salt aerosol particles
hundreds of feet into the air over the San Francisco
Bay and basically they wanted to see how well the
particles traveled through the air.
Speaker 2 (12:36):
And why do they want to know that?
Speaker 1 (12:37):
Because if we can get aerosolized salt particles into clouds
over the ocean, those clouds will suddenly contain more droplets,
and each droplet works kind of like a tiny mirror,
So more droplets means the clouds will reflect more sunlight
back into space and make the Earth a little cooler.
Speaker 2 (12:54):
So it's sort of like the cool roof concept we
were talking about, except I guess everywhere.
Speaker 1 (12:58):
Yeah, and this actually comes from a cross disciplinary group
at the University of Washington. It's called the Marine Cloud
Brightening Program. According to the modeling they've done, if we
can artificially brighten fifteen percent of the world's marine clouds,
we can cool the Earth by about one degree fahrenheit.
Speaker 2 (13:14):
But wouldn't sprang particles into the clouds just make it rain? Yeah,
so that's actually part of the challenge. No one really
knows what would happen if we start pumping all these
salt aerosols into the atmosphere on a regular basis. Obviously,
too many droplets could turn into precipitation, and some environmental
groups have expressed skepticism about the strategy, noting that saltier
clouds might even alter weather patterns, and all of that
(13:38):
tinkering could be a distraction from the real problem are
dependents on fossil fuels. But the thing is, the folks
at the Marine Cloud Brightening Program actually agree with all that.
They see this project as kind of an emergency backup plan.
As the program's measure, Sarah Dougherty told The New York
Times quote, I hope and I think my colleagues hope
(13:58):
that we never use these things that we ever have to.
So if governments and societies around the world embrace renewable energy,
maybe we won't need to salt our clouds. Well, speaking
of clouds, here's something I just learned about fog, which
is weirdly defined as a cloud that touches the ground.
Speaker 1 (14:14):
Right, Is that true?
Speaker 2 (14:16):
Yeah? This actually comes from the Noah's Weather Education website.
But one of the most deadly symptoms of climate change
is drought. So just a few months ago, Al Jazeer
reported that Kenya is in the midst of the worst
drought in forty years, as rivers and lakes dry up.
Not only are the crops and livestock dying, millions of
people are finding themselves without access to drinking water.
Speaker 1 (14:37):
Can I just tell you that I knew about the
drowd in Kenya because my kid Ruby reads The Weak
Junior and is obsessed with that magazine. And we had
to have Ruby stop reading it at night because they
would stay up and worry, like wanting to talk about
solutions for Kenya.
Speaker 2 (14:51):
Yeah, and I.
Speaker 1 (14:52):
Mean it's wonderful but also not a great night time activity.
Speaker 2 (14:55):
Yeah, that sounds like Ruby. But back to Kenya, all right,
So millions are tragically struggling to find access to drinking
water there and to avoid trekking hours each day in
search of water. People in remote mountain villages have come
up with an incredible idea harvesting fog. So, because fog
is just moisture in the air, you know, they are
working to figure out how to capture it, and to
(15:17):
do that, they attach these long sheets of plastic to trees,
draping the end of the sheets into buckets or jerry cans.
So when the cool night air settles in, water condenses
on the plastic and drips into the container. And according
to NPR. A single tree can generate as much as
twenty gallons of water every single night.
Speaker 1 (15:36):
That is amazing and something I will definitely be telling
Ruby about after this episode. Now, is this just being
done in Kenya or is it more widespread because there
are obviously a lot of places suffering from droughts these days.
Speaker 2 (15:47):
Yeah, it is happening in other places too. You've got Ethiopia, Chile,
and various parts of Southeast Asia. But you know the
problem is fog, like any other type of weather, is
definitely variable, so sometimes there's a lot of it, there's
not very much. So researchers are taking this basic principle
and trying to figure out ways to make it even
more effective, for example, using large pieces of mesh netting
(16:09):
instead of plastic sheets. We actually talked about this years
ago in our episode What does the Future of Water
look Like? But there are more sophisticated methods of pulling
water out of the air today. A young Kenyan woman
named beth Koaigi. She's developed this machine that she calls
Magic Water, and it works like a souped up dehumidifier,
(16:29):
so fans suck air into the system where it's cooled
and condensed until water forms and then it goes through
a filter and finally essential minerals are added. These magic
water systems are already in use in parts of Kenya,
including an overcrowded, low income areas of Nairobi. And this
is where residents have little to no access to basic utilities.
Speaker 1 (16:50):
That's really amazing. Well, we have taken another quick break,
but please don't go anywhere. When we come back, we'll
see how some communities are tackling the problem of too
much water, and we'll visit an island nation that's put
itself at the forefront of climate resilience.
Speaker 2 (17:13):
And welcome back to part time genius. Now, Mango. Before
the break, you said something about too much water. Yeah,
So the thing is.
Speaker 1 (17:25):
This is the nature of climate change, right. We see
extremes in both directions, and things like rising sea levels
and harsh storms put coastal communities at greater risk of flooding.
To use a very recent example, Hurricane Helene dumped as
much as thirty inches of rain on parts of North Carolina. Island.
Nations are starting to rethink their entire infrastructure and will
(17:46):
I know you're going to talk about that a little later,
but there's one country that's been pondering these questions of
how to live with too much water for centuries, and
that's the Netherlands, ah.
Speaker 2 (17:55):
Right, And that's because some big chunk of the country
actually sits below sea level. Right.
Speaker 1 (17:59):
Yeah, about twenty six percent now, over half the population
lives in areas that are vulnerable to flooding. And people
here were building dikes as far back as the Iron Age,
which feels insane to me. But more recently, in nineteen
fifty three, there was a freak storm in the North
Sea and many of the dikes and storm walls gave way,
resulting in these massive floods that killed almost two thousand
(18:21):
people and destroyed thousands of homes. So the following year,
the Dutch government launched a project called the Delta Works,
which was finally completed in nineteen ninety seven, and it's
the sprawling construction of dems and surge barriers, levees and dikes,
all designed to protect the southwest portion of the country
from these severe floods. But as sea levels continue to rise,
(18:43):
some Dutch architects and planners have adopted a different philosophy.
So instead of building barricades to keep the water out.
They're actually building homes that.
Speaker 2 (18:51):
Float, you mean, like houseboats.
Speaker 1 (18:53):
It's actually a little more complicated than that. So while
these homes look like ordinary houses instead of a foundation
on lands and they actually sit on a hull and
float on the water. But unlike houseboats, these houses are
tethered to steal pillars on the shore, so when the
water rises, they float up, and when it recedes they
float down. And because they're connected to the shore, they
can tap into municipal sewer and utility lines. It's really
(19:18):
this elegant solution and since coming up with it, Dutch
architects have actually been floating things like schools, offices and
even medical facilities. There's a small floating dairy farm in
the city of Rotterdam with thirty five cows that go
back and forth between their waterborne barn and this riverside pasture,
which is also really incredible.
Speaker 2 (19:36):
Yeah, it's fascinating. I do wonder like do people get
seasick from this though, I mean I think some do.
But there are ways to stabilize the homes with shock
absorbers and poles driven into the ground. The other great
thing about these floating buildings is that they're designed for
maximum resilience and minimal carbon footprint. They're typically built with
natural and recyclable materials, and that includes features like rooftop gardens,
(19:59):
rainwater capture, and of course solar panels. And I see
Dylan's over there. He's got a big smile in his face.
You know, that's when he's usually got a big idea.
I'm guessing that he is sort of thinking through building
the world's first solar powered floating podcast production group.
Speaker 1 (20:14):
What do you think, Banga, I think so that smile
in that nod now confirms.
Speaker 2 (20:18):
It all right. For our last story of climate resilience,
we're heading to the Caribbean to a tiny island nation
of Dominica, which is on the quest to become the
world's first climate resilient country. Now, Dominica's interior is rugged
and mountainous, which means most of the population lives in
these low lying coastal areas. And so over the years,
(20:40):
there have been a number of catastrophic climate events that
have actually claimed lives and destroyed buildings, most notably Hurricane
Maria that was back in twenty seventeen, and if you remember,
that's the storm that also devastated Puerto Rico and the
US Virgin Islands. In Dominica, it's estimated that ninety percent
of the buildings on the island were damaged and lost
is totaled one point three billion dollars. That's over twice
(21:03):
the island's gross domestic product.
Speaker 1 (21:05):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (21:06):
Yeah. Just days after the storm, Prime Minister Roosevelt scaret
address to you in General Assembly, and I want to
read you this statement. He said, quote, our devastation is
so complete that our recovery has to be total, and
so we have a unique opportunity to be an example
of how an entire nation rebounds from disaster and how
an entire nation can be climate resilient for the future.
(21:28):
We did not choose this opportunity, but having had it
thrust upon us, we have chosen actively and decisively to
be that example to the world. Now, obviously it's difficult
to think about that level of loss as an opportunity,
but he's making an important point here. Places like Dominica
have no choice but to become as climate resilient as possible.
Speaker 1 (21:48):
So what are they trying to do to achieve this?
Speaker 2 (21:51):
Well, they'd been thinking about climate change and disaster recovery
before Maria, of course, but after that storm, an even
bigger push began to build comprehendi of climate resilience that
touches on just about every aspect of life. They changed
building codes to only allow storm proof designs. They began
ecosystem restoration projects to help buffer storm surges. But one
(22:12):
of the most important things they did is developed better
early warning systems. This is a huge part of keeping
people safe and remote places that are at highest risk
from extreme weather. In fact, countries with limited early warning
systems have disaster mortality rates eight times higher than countries
with robust warning tools. So small settlements up in the
mountains didn't necessarily have reliable internet or cell phone access,
(22:36):
and in a disaster, phone lines go down and roads
can be blocked for weeks.
Speaker 1 (22:40):
So people have no way of knowing what's going on
or how to evacuate.
Speaker 2 (22:43):
Yeah, that's exactly right. So in Dominica they built on
these indigenous traditions of cascading communication. Federal disaster officials they
relay information to councils, which then spread the word to
hamlets and smaller communities. And every hamlet has five or
six people who'd been trained in emergency responds, and they
use whatever tools make sense for their terrain, whether that's
(23:04):
cell phones, trucks with PA speakers, radios, conk shells, anything
they can do, even conk shells. Yeah, I mean, this
is such a great detail. Indigenous people in Dominica have
communicated by blowing conk shells for hundreds of years. These days,
if you hear a conkshell on the island, it's usually
a few short toots used by vendors to let customers
(23:25):
know they have fresh fish for sale. But now there's
also an emergency shell call, these long sustained blasts to
indicate that the disaster information is on the way. But ultimately,
Mango people in Dominica know that, however well prepared they are,
their safety and the fate of their island actually depends
on international cooperation and policies that reduce emissions worldwide. Anyway,
(23:47):
before Dylan blows a conk shell to let us know
it's time to wrap up here, what do you say
we do a quick fact off, Yeah, let's do it
all right. So, since the eighteenth century, North America's beaver
population has shrunk by half, and fewer beavers obviously means
(24:07):
fewer beaver dams. But it turns out the dams are
really important. Without beaver activity, streams are less likely to
diverge and spread, and that means the water flows along
a single path. So when there's a lot of rain,
water rushes through the channel, washing away plants and soil
and wildlife. So some states like Wisconsin are experimenting with
(24:27):
artificial beaver dams. They're porous and made of wood, just
like the real thing, and it's hoped that these faux
dams will slow run off and actually improve the health
of wetland ecosystems.
Speaker 1 (24:38):
Oh that's interesting. So you've heard of cool roofs because
I told you all about them a few minutes ago.
But that same principle of transforming dark surfaces to reflect
heat can also work on roads. Several American cities, including
Los Angeles, Dallas, and San Antonio, have begun plying special
solar reflective selans over stretches of asphalt. When combined with
(24:59):
other heat mit again approaches like planting shade trees, this
could make hot city days a little more bearable.
Speaker 2 (25:05):
In twenty twenty, China announce the goal of becoming carbon
neutral by the year twenty sixty Now, in addition to
investments in clean energy and electric vehicles, the government has
instituted green building standards. This is all very modern stuff,
but some architects are revisiting a feature of traditional Chinese homes.
This is the skywell or tijng, found throughout southern and
(25:27):
eastern China. Skywells are these small open air rooms in
the center of houses. They're surrounded by walls or other rooms,
but they're not covered by the roof, and because the
air outside is often cooler than the air inside, breezes
flow down and displace the warmer indoor air that rises up.
Some skywells also collect rain water, which makes them even
(25:47):
more effective thanks to evaporative cooling. Now, according to the BBC,
skywells are so good at cooling buildings they're being revived
and new construction now. The BBC reported on a giant
eighteen story technology center reacent built in jen On, which
actually has a Nuvo skywell running throughout it from the
fifth floor all the way up.
Speaker 1 (26:07):
That's really cool. So Back in twenty fifteen, a village
in rural Scotland hosted a community presentation about climate change,
and afterwards people kept talking about it like in the street,
in the line at store. Some folks like questions. Other
people wanted to plan actions they could take right away,
and a lot of people just felt better after talking
to neighbors who shared their concerns and anxieties. So they
(26:28):
began holding these informal meetings in a local arts center.
They called it a climate cafe, and since this is Scotland,
of course, they had tea and biscuits on hand. Now
people began showing up regularly. They started brainstorming ideas for
things they could do in their community and organizing activities
under the hashtag drink Chat Act and the idea caught
on and climate cafes have begun popping up in other
(26:51):
parts of Scotland. Today, there are actually climate cafes in England, Wales, Germany, Switzerland,
even the United States, and anyone who wants to start
one in their community can you so. They actually have
a guide on the Climate Cafe website. It's all rooted
in the idea that collective action can bring about the
change we need, and every one of us can play
our part.
Speaker 2 (27:10):
You know, Mengo, We've talked about some tough stuff today,
some stressful stuff today, But I really love that story.
I think for that and for ending us on such
a good note, I got to give you this week's trophy. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (27:22):
So I'm going to take this and I'm gonna share
it with all.
Speaker 2 (27:24):
Of Scotland, every single person in Scotland. Congratulations.
Speaker 1 (27:28):
Well that does it for today's episode. We'll be back
soon with another new episode. But in the meantime, from
Will Gave, Dylan, Mary and myself, thank you so much
for listening. Part Time Genius is a production of Kaleidoscope
(27:52):
and iHeartRadio. This show is hosted by Will Pearson and
Me Mongas Chatikler and research by our good Paler Mary
Philip Sandy. Today's episode was engineered and produced by the
wonderful Dylan Fagan with support from Tyler Klang. The show
is executive produced for iHeart by Katrina Norvell and Ali Perry,
with social media support from Sasha Gay, trustee Dara Potts
(28:16):
and Viney Shorey. For more podcasts from Kaleidoscope and iHeartRadio,
visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen
to your favorite shows.
Part-Time Genius News
Hosts And Creators
Will Pearson
Mangesh Hattikudur
Popular Podcasts
The Breakfast Club
The World's Most Dangerous Morning Show, The Breakfast Club, With DJ Envy And Charlamagne Tha God!
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Decisions, Decisions
Welcome to "Decisions, Decisions," the podcast where boundaries are pushed, and conversations get candid! Join your favorite hosts, Mandii B and WeezyWTF, as they dive deep into the world of non-traditional relationships and explore the often-taboo topics surrounding dating, sex, and love. Every Monday, Mandii and Weezy invite you to unlearn the outdated narratives dictated by traditional patriarchal norms. With a blend of humor, vulnerability, and authenticity, they share their personal journeys navigating their 30s, tackling the complexities of modern relationships, and engaging in thought-provoking discussions that challenge societal expectations. From groundbreaking interviews with diverse guests to relatable stories that resonate with your experiences, "Decisions, Decisions" is your go-to source for open dialogue about what it truly means to love and connect in today's world. Get ready to reshape your understanding of relationships and embrace the freedom of authentic connections—tune in and join the conversation!