Explore the social impact of a changing climate with hosts Zanagee and Olivia and special guest Dr. Heather Price. Let’s talk about common misconceptions about climate change.
Explore the social impact of a changing climate with hosts Zanagee and Olivia and special guest Dr. Heather Price. Let’s talk about common misconceptions about climate change.
You can learn more about Dr. Price’s work by visiting: talkclimate.org
Check out A Kids Book About Climate Change: HERE
There’s other great guides on what climate is for kids! We like this guide from the
New York Times: A Climate Change Guide for Kids
1 Point 5: A Kids Climate Justice Podcast
S1 EP3 How is Climate Change Impacting Humanity?
[INTRODUCTION]
Zanagee: Hi there and welcome to 1 Point 5: A Kids Podcast About Climate Justice! I’m Zanagee Artis.
Olivia: And I’m Olivia Greenspan.
Zanagee: And we believe that kids like you deserve a livable future.
Smart Speaker: A liveable future. This means a future where no one will have to worry if our planet is healthy enough for humans to live safe and happy lives.
Zanagee: That’s Joanna. She’s our on-hand dictionary if we ever come to a word or phrase you might not know or understand already. This is the show that explores the challenges facing our planet with scientists, youth activists, and other environmental leaders who have experienced the realities of the climate crisis firsthand.
Olivia: Today we’re continuing our conversation with climate scientist Dr. Heather Price. To recap, in our first episode we introduced the fact that our planet on average is warming up due to climate change. In last week’s episode, we focused on the main cause of why the planet is heating up: greenhouse gases created by the burning of fossil fuels.
And don’t worry, you don’t need to have listened to those episodes first in order to get the most out of today’s conversation, but they definitely help lay the groundwork for the information coming up.
On today’s episode, we return to our conversation with Dr. Price and focus on the impacts of climate change, some common misconceptions about climate change, and what her vision for a world with climate justice looks like.
Alright Zanagee, roll the tape!
[MEET THE GUEST]
Zanagee: We're so excited to jump into this conversation today. So at this point we know what climate change is and that humans burning fossil fuels is the main cause of climate change right now. And so I want to jump in today on what the impacts of a warming climate are for people and other life on the planet right now.
Heather: There's already so many impact on people from this warming planet, from the smoke that we're getting on the west coast right now and have been getting for years that we didn't get when I was a little kid or, you know, even until recently. So people are already, you know, yeah. Impacted by climate through.
Yeah, heat and air pollution. I'm an atmospheric chemist. So air pollution is something that I study and we're coming to understand just how deadly air pollution from burning fossil fuels is not even the smoke from the wildfires. Those are also dangerous, but a new study came out of Harvard that shows that just in the United States, from the burn of gasoline and all and oil and gas in people's homes and buildings. The air pollution from that kills over 950 people in the United States every day and worldwide it's on the order of 8 million people annually. So we're already suffering. People in the United States and around the world are already suffering from climate change directly from the fossil fuels that are being burned. And then also from the climate impacts.
Zanagee: Wow. That's, that's really wild to hear that there are so many deaths being attributed to the air that we breathe because it's being polluted by fossil fuels by the impacts of burning most fossil fuels, like the wildfires, the smog, and all of that.
Heather: And the impacts are not felt equally within communities, even you're living in Seattle. And even in my own home within my family, people are impacted differently by the smoke. I have a family member who she's on oxygen and she cannot be exposed to the smoke. So she is deaf indoors on those smoky days.
I have students. I'm a community college professor and a percentage of my students are housing insecure. And when the smoke comes. You do not have a home to go to, or if your home doesn't have ways of cleaning the air, if you can't afford a HEPA filter, you're going to be impacted by that smoke much more than a person that is in an apartment or a dorm or a home that has an air filter.
Olivia: We’re going to take a short break. And when we return we’ll have more with Dr. Price, including some common misconceptions about climate change. We’ll be right back.
[BREAK]
Olivia: Welcome back to One Point Five, a Kids Podcast About Climate Justice. Let’s return to our conversation with climate scientist Dr. Heather Price.
So I'm, you know, Dr. Price picturing, uh, you know, someone listening to this podcast and then they start talking about climate change to their friends and family. Um, they're probably going to be hit with some common misconceptions that people have.
Um, what are some common misconceptions about climate change? And what's the truth about, about those misconceptions?
Heather: Wow. There are so many that I hear, uh, even today. So I'd been a climate scientist. I'd been teaching climate for more than 20 years. And the most persistent myth that I hear is, well, couldn't it be the sun.
So that's myth number one.
Uh, and no, it's not the sun and, uh, a great source for dispelling. Some of these myths is a website called skepticalscience.com.
But the sun is the number of number two, most people today recognize that the planet is warming. It's difficult to deny a thermometer. What they still don't get is that it is entirely cause. Human action from the burning of fossil fuels and the degradation of land forest ocean.
And I think that's the second myth is that it is a natural cycle that it is not, or that they think it's only partially human caused. When in reality, if we had let the natural system continue, if there was no human error, Of burning fossil fuels or deforestation, we would have lonely. Okay. Started sliding back into the next IC, right.
We've been in this Holocene period for about the last 10- to 12,000 years.
Smart Speaker: Holocene. The Holocene Epoch is the current period of geologic time. The Holocene began 12,000 to 11,500 years ago at the close of the Ice Age and continues through today.
Olivia: “Holocene”. If you need a word to impress your teacher or grownup, this is a good one! You can even remember it with this definitely cheesy dad joke our producer shared with us. Are you ready? This one gets me:
What do you get if you remove all of the displays from a museum? A hollow scene.
Okay. Back to Dr. Price.
Heather: We've been in this Holocene period for about the last 10- to 12,000 years.
And the natural cycle is for us to slowly slide into the next backstage. But instead we went the opposite direction. So you can kind of think of it like, oh, we should be slightly cooler today. Then when we first started burning fossil fuels, and instead we've overcome that cooling and we've heated up.
Zanagee: I want to pause on what Dr. Price just said. Some people will (incorrectly) say that the warming the Earth is currently experiencing is quote-unquote “natural”.
Actually, what Dr. Price just informed us, and what should naturally be happening right now is a cooling of the Earth—we should be cooling right now, not warming. Instead, because of the burning of fossil fuels, we’ve not only overcome that cooling, but surpassed it to the point that—as you know by now—the earth is way warmer than would be naturally occuring.
Olivia: Yeah, that’s something new I learned from Dr. Price that I didn't know at all about before. Dr. Price was really desperate for us to ask her something positive, so next we asked her what her vision for a world with climate justice looks like.
Heather: What does that vision with climate justice look like?
That is the vision that I love to think about because that is where we have to go. And it looks like 950 people per day living because we're not burning gasoline and diesel and coal and oil and gas in our homes.
Instead, our homes, they're running on electric induction, stoves and heat pumps, and we have clean air for everyone to breathe, because the cars and the buses and the light rail, uh, are all electric. And more people are riding bicycles or e-bikes, or they're living in cities that they can walk in and we're living in community with each other.
Olivia: That's perfect. Um, I love that answer and it was 950 a day. That was the U S alone, or that was globally. Okay.
Heather: 950 deaths a day in the United States alone from the particulate matter pollution that comes from burning fossil in just in the United States worldwide it's closer to 8 million a year. Yeah.
Olivia: And then that doesn't even count all the people who suffer with health issues every day. So a future of a climate justice, to Dr. Price looks like a future where people aren't dying due to air pollution caused by fossil fuels, where everyone has access to clean air and clean water where what else.
Heather: Also healthcare and where people who today are the ones that have been protecting natural spaces. Uh, I think it's more than 80% of the natural spaces that have been protected are being protected by Indigenous peoples in the world. And to follow the lead that they, the Indigenous communities our neighbors, uh, and learn from them to let them lead because they know best how to care for the lands that they've been living and at the time immemorial.
So I think, you know, I'm, I'm a settler here in the United States and then in the Seattle area. And even though I was born here, there's people whose families have been here, who know the history, you know, uh, There's so much to learn from them.
Zanagee: Yeah, definitely. And yeah, I agree with Olivia that I love all that, um, all those responses.
And I think that I would definitely be a really beautiful planet, um, to have climate justice.
Heather: Thank you for asking that question too. I think so many people ask, what is climate justice rather than asking? What is the vision of what climate justice looks like? Because we are so we're so used to seeing the injustice. And so what does it look like when there is justice? You know, it looks like dams being removed so that salmon can be restored and repaired, and it's repairing lands that have been damaged by colonization, um, protecting them, repairing them, uh, and repairing communities as well.
Olivia: Dr. Price, is there anything we didn't ask you that you wished we had?
Heather: This is the show for people who are ages 10 to 15, right? And one thing that I would share with that age group is that you have so much more power with your voice. Yeah. You might expect that even the research supports that when young people talk with the elders there's in their lives, whether those elders are their parents, grandparents, aunts, the aunties, uncles, You actually do have an influence on your community and on their views around climate change.
[CLIMATE JUSTICE GAME SHOW]
Zanagee: And that concludes our intro to climate science with Dr. Price! Which means...you know what time it is...it’s time for:
Zanagee & Olivia: CLIMATE! JUSTICE! GAME! SHOW!
Olivia: My favorite time of the day!
Zanagee: Ok, get ready folks! Question 1: What are some of the impacts of burning fossil fuels for people and other life on planet earth?
Olivia: Okay, this is a really important one, so I want to get it right. Burning fossil fuels causes climate change and fossil fuels in and of themselves are harmful, beyond just causing climate change. For example, many people are harmed by air pollution that the burning of fossil fuels creates.
Zanagee: Perfect. Nailed it!
Olivia: Nailed it. Okay. Ohh I was nervous on that one. Zanagee are you ready for your question?
Zanagee: Okay, I’m ready.
Olivia: Okay the second question is: what are some common misconceptions about climate change?
Zanagee: Okay. So some common misconceptions about climate change are that the earth is warming because of the sun (it isn’t) and that climate change isn’t caused by humans (it is). Am I right?
Olivia: Yeah. Those are two good ones.
Zanagee: And that’s how you do it. Okay, question 3: What did Dr. Price envision a future with climate justice to look like?
Olivia: Yes, I loved Dr. Price’s answer to this. I remember she mentioned that a world with climate justice means that less people will die every day from burning fossil fuels and that overall people will be able to live safer, happier, and more stable lives.
Zanagee: Bingo! Crushed it again.
Olivia: Oh, phew! Okay, listeners. That’s all for Climate Justice Game Show! Thank you for playing with us!
Zanagee: And remember—and this is the most important part--you are learning new things just by listening. We’re going to be exploring these topics throughout this entire season of 1 Point 5 and we’ll be building on your knowledge as we go. We invite you to revisit episodes at any point along the way! And always feel free to ask questions. We’ll give you an email address where you can contact us whenever you’d like.
[CLOSING]
Zanagee: Thank you, listeners, for joining us today. And thanks to Dr. Price for lending us her climate science and climate justice expertise. You can find more about Dr. Price’s work by visiting www.talkclimate.org. We’ll also have a link in our show notes.
One Point Five is written by me, Zanagee Artis
Olivia: and me, Olivia Greenspan.
Smart Speaker: With occasional support from me, Joanna, from Natural Readers dot com.
Zanagee: Our show is edited and produced by Matthew Winner with help from Ari Mathae and the team at Sound On Studios. Our executive producer is Jelani Memory. And this show was brought to you by A Kids Podcast About.
Olivia: This show is inspired by our book, A Kids Book About Climate Change, and the millions of young people around the world fighting for their right to a livable future.
Zanagee: You can write to us. Send your questions at listen@akidspodcastabout.com. And check out other podcasts made for kids just like you by visiting akidsco.com.