Transcript

Leah Stokes

The public doesn’t often hear the real story about climate change: it’s happening now; fossil fuel companies with money on the line have lied about it; and it doesn’t have to be this way -- we have the tools to address this crisis.

Katharine Wilkinson

Instead, the biggest climate stories blame “all of us,” or cast solutions as “impossible.” These narratives leave people feeling hopeless and confused about climate change and what we actually *can* do about it.

Leah

But that is shifting. Polls show a sharp rise in people who think climate change is a big issue. And they understand the scale of institutional change we need to match the problem.

Katharine

But what does that mean for *you*? [MUSIC RISES]

Leah

I’m Dr. Leah Stokes

Katharine

And I’m Dr. Katharine Wilkinson. We’re the co-hosts of the new podcast, *A Matter of Degrees: Stories for the Climate Curious.*

Leah

This show is for the people who know climate change is a problem, but are still trying to figure out *how* we tackle it.

Katharine

We’ll look at the current climate zeitgeist.

Mary Anne Hitt

All profound change has come out of moments of darkness. It's been when we have been really at the end of our rope.

Leah

We’ll hear about the technology and policy solutions that already exist today.

Sonia Aggarwal

We found we could probably keep customer electricity bills about the same and reach 90% zero carbon electricity by 2030. If history is any indication, technology surprises us all the time.

Katharine

We’ll tell stories about the history of denial and delay.

Leah

So, what you're saying is that this monopoly utility helped elect its own watchdog, its own regulator, and then that regulator started to do exactly what the utility wanted, which was mostly to kill Arizona's solar industry.

Kris Mayes

That is exactly what happened. I mean, for Star Wars fans, APS became the Darth Vader of electric utilities in America.

Leah

We’ll look at why justice and fairness are so central to this fight.

Tamara Toles O’Laughlin

Because whether you are ridiculously rich, or you are incredibly poor, if you are black, indigenous or a person of color, you will be routed by every system in our democracy, to a place where your life is more likely to be endangered.

Katharine

We’ll ask, are we in a breakthrough moment?

Erin Bridges

I just remember my mouth dropping and tears pouring from my eyes when she walked in the room because I was just like: "Wow, this is what it looks like when someone fights with you," it's just crazy.

Leah

And most important of all, we’ll tell you about your role in helping shift the levers of power that have created the problem.

Bill McKibben

So job one is to organize. Job two is to organize your friends and neighbors and job three is to organize, and if you have some energy leftover after that, by all means, check out every light bulb in your house.

Katharine

Subscribe to *A Matter of Degrees* anywhere you listen to podcasts.

Leah

Give up your climate guilt and sharpen your curiosity. Join us for this new series.