WEBVTT - Are Cow Burps Hurting the Environment? 0:00:03.160 --> 0:00:07.360 You're listening to part time Genius, the production of Kaleidoscope 0:00:07.720 --> 0:00:15.159 and iHeartRadio. Guess what, Well, what's that mango? So in 0:00:15.200 --> 0:00:17.880 the not so distant future, the best wines on Earth 0:00:17.960 --> 0:00:21.840 won't actually come from Italy or Chili or France, but 0:00:22.200 --> 0:00:25.479 from Poland and Ireland. Can you imagine sitting down at 0:00:25.520 --> 0:00:29.040 a fancy restaurant and ordering a bottle of Irish wine mango? 0:00:29.080 --> 0:00:32.720 I think it's actually pronouncing guinness. I mean, Guinness is delicious, 0:00:32.800 --> 0:00:35.519 but that's not what I mean. Climate change is redrawing 0:00:35.560 --> 0:00:39.159 the boundaries of wine production, and as temperatures rise, places 0:00:39.200 --> 0:00:42.480 like Ireland, Poland, and even northern China are becoming warm 0:00:42.560 --> 0:00:45.600 enough to grow the grapes behind popular wines. In fact, 0:00:45.640 --> 0:00:48.560 some models suggest that if climate change continues at this rate, 0:00:48.880 --> 0:00:51.640 by twenty fifty, Ireland will be producing the sort of 0:00:51.720 --> 0:00:54.840 quality wine we associate with Italy today. That is wild. 0:00:54.960 --> 0:00:56.960 I mean, that's nice for Ireland, but I gotta be honest. 0:00:57.080 --> 0:00:59.160 I think I'd prefer if the climate did not change. 0:00:59.240 --> 0:01:01.520 Yeah, honestly, But it is interesting to look at the 0:01:01.560 --> 0:01:04.319 problem from the angle of the wine industry. With temperatures 0:01:04.400 --> 0:01:07.360 rising everywhere, the current wine regions are paying the price, 0:01:07.400 --> 0:01:10.720 and heat and drought have ruined multiple grape harvests in 0:01:10.760 --> 0:01:14.080 places like Australia and Europe, and also hundreds of California 0:01:14.160 --> 0:01:16.880 vineyards have been affected by wildfires as we've seen in 0:01:16.880 --> 0:01:19.720 recent years. But all of this got me thinking about 0:01:19.720 --> 0:01:21.920 how climate change is playing out in different parts of 0:01:21.920 --> 0:01:24.880 the world, but also what people are doing to improve 0:01:24.920 --> 0:01:27.960 communities climate resilience. And that's what we're going to talk 0:01:27.959 --> 0:01:31.480 about today, incredibly smart, creative efforts to reduce harm from 0:01:31.480 --> 0:01:35.120 climate threats. It's fascinating and it's pretty important. So let's 0:01:35.200 --> 0:01:51.880 dive in. 0:01:56.680 --> 0:01:59.280 Hey, their podcast listeners, welcome to Part Time Genius. I'm 0:01:59.280 --> 0:02:01.480 Will Pearson, and as always I'm joined by my good 0:02:01.520 --> 0:02:04.560 friend mangesh Hot Ticketer and over there in the booths, 0:02:04.640 --> 0:02:06.760 he's actually today this is a good one. He's wearing 0:02:06.760 --> 0:02:10.720 a hard hat and he's surrounded by construction materials. That's 0:02:10.760 --> 0:02:14.440 our pal and producer Dylan Fagan, of course, and I 0:02:14.560 --> 0:02:17.080 think those are solar panels that he's putting up. Is 0:02:17.080 --> 0:02:17.400 that right? 0:02:17.520 --> 0:02:20.400 He said something about converting the booth to renewable energy. 0:02:20.480 --> 0:02:22.080 I'm not sure how he's going to pull. 0:02:21.880 --> 0:02:26.000 That, but always admirable goals that Dylan. And there's actually 0:02:26.040 --> 0:02:27.799 no sunlight in the booth, so I'm not quite sure 0:02:27.800 --> 0:02:30.240 how that's going to work out. But you know, anyway, 0:02:30.240 --> 0:02:31.240 we'll see how it plays out. 0:02:31.280 --> 0:02:32.240 I'm sure we'll figure it out. 0:02:32.240 --> 0:02:34.680 He's pretty resourceful, all right, Magel. I gotta be honest 0:02:34.720 --> 0:02:37.880 with you. When you first emailed me about doing this episode, 0:02:38.000 --> 0:02:40.320 I did hesitate for a minute. I mean, I know, 0:02:40.440 --> 0:02:43.520 we found a bunch of fascinating ideas for climate resilience, 0:02:43.560 --> 0:02:46.639 which of course is the term scientist used to describe 0:02:46.639 --> 0:02:50.720 strategies for coping with and mitigating the effects of climate change. 0:02:50.880 --> 0:02:54.280 But honestly, just thinking about climate change is such a 0:02:54.280 --> 0:02:55.000 stressful thing. 0:02:55.680 --> 0:02:57.760 Yeah, that's fair, and I feel the same way. And 0:02:57.919 --> 0:03:00.880 obviously it isn't just us. A lot of people feel 0:03:00.880 --> 0:03:03.240 this way. In fact, psychologists have a term for this, 0:03:03.360 --> 0:03:06.680 and they call it climate anxiety, and some experts at 0:03:06.760 --> 0:03:09.280 Yale have been studying this phenomena for a while. One 0:03:09.280 --> 0:03:11.480 of the things they note is that there's actually a 0:03:11.520 --> 0:03:16.079 difference between concern, worry, and anxiety. So concern is sort 0:03:16.080 --> 0:03:18.760 of the lightest of the three worries. The next step up, 0:03:18.960 --> 0:03:21.880 and according to a national survey, they did sixty four 0:03:21.960 --> 0:03:25.280 percent of Americans or at least somewhat worried about climate change. 0:03:25.520 --> 0:03:27.040 And that's obviously a good thing. 0:03:27.919 --> 0:03:29.280 So it's good that we're worried. 0:03:29.720 --> 0:03:31.880 Yeah, I mean, obviously, when we worry about our problem, 0:03:31.880 --> 0:03:33.920 we want to fix it. So the more people worry 0:03:33.919 --> 0:03:36.800 about climate change, the more motivation there is to address 0:03:36.840 --> 0:03:37.400 the causes. 0:03:37.880 --> 0:03:39.720 Yeah, I mean, I guess that makes sense. But how 0:03:39.720 --> 0:03:41.560 does anxiety differ from worry? 0:03:41.800 --> 0:03:44.400 So, according to the Yale researchers, when you start to 0:03:44.480 --> 0:03:48.320 have symptoms like erasing heart or intrusive thoughts, or when 0:03:48.360 --> 0:03:51.440 the feelings become overwhelming and affect your day to day life, 0:03:51.720 --> 0:03:55.240 that's really climate anxiety. And while there's this correlation between 0:03:55.320 --> 0:03:59.960 self reported climate anxiety and existing anxiety disorders, it is 0:04:00.120 --> 0:04:02.920 real problem. Eight percent of the Yale survey respondents said 0:04:02.960 --> 0:04:05.600 they'd be interested in counseling for a climate anxiety. But 0:04:05.680 --> 0:04:07.760 the good news is this survey found that the vast 0:04:07.760 --> 0:04:11.320 majority of Americans don't feel fatalistic. Even though they're worried 0:04:11.400 --> 0:04:14.080 and they're anxious, they believe we can do something about 0:04:14.080 --> 0:04:17.839 climate change, which is, you know, both reassuring and motivating. 0:04:18.240 --> 0:04:21.279 Yeah, definitely all right. Well, speaking of motivation, Mango a 0:04:21.320 --> 0:04:24.120 group of New England scientists. They decided to tackle a 0:04:24.160 --> 0:04:27.960 climate problem that's increasingly relevant in dairy producing states, states 0:04:28.040 --> 0:04:30.840 like Vermont, and this is cow burps. 0:04:31.960 --> 0:04:34.320 Is this kind of like that meme about how cows 0:04:34.360 --> 0:04:36.440 passing gas is what's causing global warming? 0:04:36.600 --> 0:04:38.799 I mean kind of, except you're focusing on the wrong 0:04:39.000 --> 0:04:41.680 end of the cow. Some ninety five percent of the 0:04:41.760 --> 0:04:46.200 methane cow's release actually come from burping, not the other end. 0:04:46.520 --> 0:04:49.400 According to the EPA, the biggest source of greenhouse gas 0:04:49.400 --> 0:04:53.880 emissions by far is carbon dioxide generated by burning fossil fuels. 0:04:54.240 --> 0:04:57.760 That makes up almost eighty percent of emissions. Methane comes 0:04:57.800 --> 0:05:01.760 in a distant second, representing about eleven percent. But yes, 0:05:01.839 --> 0:05:04.960 cow verbs are actually responsible for a lot of that methane. 0:05:05.200 --> 0:05:07.920 So I'm very curious about this. Other than stopping them 0:05:07.920 --> 0:05:11.240 from drinking like bubbly water and sodaes, how do you 0:05:11.240 --> 0:05:12.320 stop a cow from burfing? 0:05:12.960 --> 0:05:15.479 Well, to answer that question, you have to understand why 0:05:15.640 --> 0:05:18.719 a cow verbs. So cows stomachs have four chambers, so 0:05:18.760 --> 0:05:22.200 they can digest grass and corn by chewing and then regurgitating, 0:05:22.279 --> 0:05:25.440 then chewing Some more and along the way, billions of 0:05:25.440 --> 0:05:29.080 microorganisms and the cow's stomachs break down the fibers and 0:05:29.120 --> 0:05:31.960 that's where the methane comes from. It's actually a byproduct 0:05:32.000 --> 0:05:35.679 of those microbes doing their job. They multiply that across 0:05:35.800 --> 0:05:39.440 ninety million cattle in the US alone, and we're talking 0:05:39.520 --> 0:05:41.960 a lot of gas. But it turns out if you 0:05:42.000 --> 0:05:44.760 add a specific type of seaweed to the cow's diets, 0:05:44.960 --> 0:05:49.040 it actually reduces the methane in their guts by eighty percent. Seaweed. 0:05:49.080 --> 0:05:52.000 That's incredible. It sounds like almost like it's a gas 0:05:52.080 --> 0:05:52.800 ex for cows. 0:05:52.960 --> 0:05:55.320 Yeah. I mean there is a catch here that one 0:05:55.360 --> 0:05:58.960 seaweed only grows in the oceans around Australia, and trying 0:05:58.960 --> 0:06:02.360 to import it or reduce it into other places would 0:06:02.440 --> 0:06:05.880 actually do more environmental harm than good. So, according to 0:06:05.920 --> 0:06:10.560 Boston's wbur researchers at the Bigelow Laboratory have begun testing 0:06:10.640 --> 0:06:14.200 dozens of North Atlantic seaweed and algae varieties. So they 0:06:14.240 --> 0:06:17.400 set up jars full of actual cow stomach fluids and 0:06:17.440 --> 0:06:20.280 they've been quote feeding them pieces of seaweed and then 0:06:20.360 --> 0:06:22.520 measuring methane levels in these jars. 0:06:23.080 --> 0:06:24.359 And this seems to be working. 0:06:24.920 --> 0:06:27.120 It seems to be. Yeah. I mean they've even teamed 0:06:27.200 --> 0:06:29.520 up with dairy farmers in New Hampshire to test the 0:06:29.560 --> 0:06:32.800 top contenders in actual animals and it looks like a 0:06:32.839 --> 0:06:36.479 seaweed called Irish moss reduces methane output by up to 0:06:36.560 --> 0:06:39.520 twenty percent, So pretty significant there. And if they can 0:06:39.560 --> 0:06:42.280 get that higher to maybe like thirty percent and feed 0:06:42.279 --> 0:06:44.640 it to all the cows in the US, we would 0:06:44.640 --> 0:06:49.599 actually reduce methane emissions by almost two million metric tons. Wow. 0:06:49.680 --> 0:06:52.000 So of course, another way to reduce the environmental impact 0:06:52.040 --> 0:06:54.719 of catalysts to eat less beef and dairy, right. 0:06:55.040 --> 0:06:56.880 That would be one way to do it. Yeah, definitely, 0:06:56.920 --> 0:06:59.919 And there's a bigger, more systemic solution as part of that, 0:07:00.240 --> 0:07:03.719 But in the meantime, fewer cowburbs is a big step forward. 0:07:04.680 --> 0:07:08.839 That is an incredible sentence. So for our next innovation, 0:07:09.040 --> 0:07:11.440 I'd like to tell you about cool roofs, which is 0:07:11.600 --> 0:07:13.800 about temperature, not like some roof that all the other 0:07:13.880 --> 0:07:15.920 roofs want to be like. But I love this one 0:07:16.000 --> 0:07:18.280 because it's so obvious when you think about it, and 0:07:18.360 --> 0:07:21.080 it can really make a big impact. The science here 0:07:21.160 --> 0:07:25.280 is really simple. Painting roofs with white reflective paint reduces 0:07:25.320 --> 0:07:28.160 the amount of heat that building absorbs and radiates back 0:07:28.200 --> 0:07:28.679 to the ground. 0:07:29.360 --> 0:07:30.480 Yeah, you know, this is one of those things I 0:07:30.520 --> 0:07:32.840 feel like people talked about for a while, you know, 0:07:32.920 --> 0:07:35.960 painting roofs white, and I just feel like I haven't 0:07:36.000 --> 0:07:37.320 seen much of it to this point. 0:07:37.440 --> 0:07:39.720 Yeah, you're right, it's been in the discourse for a while. 0:07:39.800 --> 0:07:42.760 But you know, New York City launched a cool roofs 0:07:42.800 --> 0:07:45.040 program in two thousand and nine. A lot of the 0:07:45.040 --> 0:07:47.760 buildings here have black asphalt roofs that can reach up 0:07:47.760 --> 0:07:50.240 to one hundred and ninety degrees fahrenheit in the summer, 0:07:50.720 --> 0:07:53.640 and that raises temperatures inside the building as well as 0:07:53.720 --> 0:07:55.760 makes the sidewalks below a whole lot hotter. 0:07:56.400 --> 0:07:57.840 And so all you have to do is slap some 0:07:57.880 --> 0:08:01.280 white paint on them, pretty much, and we're making great progress. 0:08:01.320 --> 0:08:03.800 So a twenty twenty one hundred University study found that 0:08:03.840 --> 0:08:07.200 about thirty six percent of New York City roof surfaces 0:08:07.240 --> 0:08:10.680 had been converted to cool roofing. That's over six hundred 0:08:10.680 --> 0:08:14.520 and seventy five million square feet. But obviously that still 0:08:14.600 --> 0:08:16.240 leaves a lot of roofs to paint. 0:08:16.520 --> 0:08:18.880 You know, it reminds me of places like Santorini and 0:08:18.920 --> 0:08:21.920 Greece where you have those beautiful white villages by the sea, 0:08:21.960 --> 0:08:24.400 And I've never really thought about it before, but I 0:08:24.480 --> 0:08:26.160 assume that's for cooling purposes too. 0:08:27.120 --> 0:08:29.840 Yeah, I mean in places like Centerini, all the buildings 0:08:29.880 --> 0:08:33.160 exteriors are whitewashed and they look so beautiful. Oddly enough, though, 0:08:33.200 --> 0:08:37.040 the original purpose was to prevent the spread of infectious diseases, 0:08:37.080 --> 0:08:40.800 because the compounds in whitewash actually have these antiseptic properties 0:08:40.800 --> 0:08:43.640 and the heat mitigation is just a bonus, But the 0:08:43.679 --> 0:08:46.400 idea of slapping white paint on roofs is spreading. In 0:08:46.440 --> 0:08:49.319 twenty twenty two, Indonesia won a seven hundred and fifty 0:08:49.360 --> 0:08:52.840 thousand dollars grant from a Global Cool Roofs Challenge, and 0:08:52.960 --> 0:08:56.760 eighty percent of homes in Indonesia really lack air conditioning. 0:08:56.800 --> 0:08:58.400 But if you think about it, a lot of people 0:08:58.440 --> 0:09:00.480 are at work and school during the hot us parts 0:09:00.480 --> 0:09:03.240 of the day, and most schools in Indonesia also don't 0:09:03.280 --> 0:09:06.520 have the AC. So the team tasks with expanding Indonesia's 0:09:06.520 --> 0:09:09.240 cool roofs decide to focus on the larger buildings and 0:09:09.480 --> 0:09:12.600 that meant things like schools and community centers. The results 0:09:12.600 --> 0:09:15.880 have been pretty encouraging. In twenty twenty three, they reported 0:09:16.000 --> 0:09:19.079 that a new cool roof had reduced the temperature inside 0:09:19.120 --> 0:09:22.600 one major industrial building from one hundred four degrees fahrenheit 0:09:22.880 --> 0:09:26.280 to eighty four degrees. So obviously that's still really warm, 0:09:26.360 --> 0:09:27.839 but so much more comfortable. 0:09:28.160 --> 0:09:30.760 Yeah, I mean that's a pretty big difference. Okay, listeners, 0:09:30.760 --> 0:09:32.440 we have to take a quick break, but when we 0:09:32.480 --> 0:09:34.240 come back, get ready for this. We're going to talk 0:09:34.240 --> 0:09:38.280 about salty clouds, clam gardens, and fog harvest thing, you know, 0:09:38.320 --> 0:09:40.400 the three big things you were hoping we'd talk about 0:09:40.440 --> 0:09:42.440 when we get back. So don't go anywhere. 0:09:57.520 --> 0:09:59.679 Welcome back to Part time Genius. So before we get 0:09:59.679 --> 0:10:01.960 into our story of climate resilience, I just want to 0:10:01.960 --> 0:10:04.200 remind you that if you enjoy the show, and I 0:10:04.280 --> 0:10:07.040 really hope you do, please make sure you're subscribed on 0:10:07.080 --> 0:10:09.840 your favorite podcast app and leave us a nice rating 0:10:09.880 --> 0:10:10.320 and review. 0:10:10.840 --> 0:10:13.400 Yeah, thanks for doing that in advance. All right, mengo. 0:10:13.679 --> 0:10:16.199 So this next story comes to us from the Swinemish 0:10:16.280 --> 0:10:20.280 tribe in Washington State. Now, for thousands of years, indigenous 0:10:20.280 --> 0:10:24.400 people along the Pacific Northwest they've harvested these shellfish by 0:10:24.440 --> 0:10:27.760 building clam gardens. Now, the way it worked is they 0:10:27.760 --> 0:10:30.520 built rock walls and these inner tidal zones, and that's 0:10:30.559 --> 0:10:33.240 the strip of the beach that's underwater during high tide 0:10:33.240 --> 0:10:36.600 but exposed during low tide. Now, as the tide rose, 0:10:36.679 --> 0:10:40.000 sediment fell over the wall, building up this nice, soft, 0:10:40.080 --> 0:10:43.800 stable and protected environment for clams to grow. And so 0:10:44.120 --> 0:10:46.679 modern studies of this ancient practice have shown that this 0:10:46.760 --> 0:10:50.960 expanded the clam habitat and actually increased the species diversity 0:10:51.160 --> 0:10:53.560 as well as provided a reliable source of seafood. 0:10:53.840 --> 0:10:56.800 So I can't help but notice, but you are using 0:10:56.800 --> 0:10:58.679 the past tense a lot here. So did they stop 0:10:58.720 --> 0:11:00.239 building these clam gardens. 0:11:00.840 --> 0:11:03.760 Well, not exactly by choice. So as the Swinemish and 0:11:03.840 --> 0:11:06.920 other tribes were displaced from their land and developers began 0:11:06.960 --> 0:11:11.080 building up the shorelines, these clam gardens disappeared. And in 0:11:11.120 --> 0:11:13.640 recent years there's been a lot of concern about shellfish 0:11:13.640 --> 0:11:16.960 in the Pacific Northwest. Little neck clam numbers began declining 0:11:17.000 --> 0:11:19.599 in the nineteen nineties because of warming waters and the 0:11:19.640 --> 0:11:22.880 spread of disease. So a few years ago the Swinemish 0:11:22.880 --> 0:11:26.040 got funding from Noah and that's the National Oceanic and 0:11:26.080 --> 0:11:30.280 Atmospheric Administration in order to build the country's first modern 0:11:30.360 --> 0:11:31.600 clam garden. Wow. 0:11:31.640 --> 0:11:34.760 So the idea is that it'll actually improved shellfish. 0:11:34.240 --> 0:11:37.920 Health, Yes, but actually not just that. So traditional clam 0:11:37.920 --> 0:11:41.880 gardens support other sea life too, including sea cucumbers seaweed. 0:11:42.280 --> 0:11:44.280 One of the side effects of climate change is that 0:11:44.360 --> 0:11:48.120 ocean waters are becoming more acidic. Now that increased acidity 0:11:48.240 --> 0:11:51.360 can actually eat away at clamshells, making it harder for 0:11:51.400 --> 0:11:54.440 them to survive. But because clam gardens keep a whole 0:11:54.480 --> 0:11:57.840 bunch of clams together in one sheltered area, when they die, 0:11:57.880 --> 0:12:01.640 they leave behind shell fragments that increase the water's mineral content, 0:12:02.160 --> 0:12:03.640 thereby reducing acidity. 0:12:03.920 --> 0:12:08.040 Oh that's really interesting. Also, I love that Noah stands 0:12:08.040 --> 0:12:12.080 for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and something about 0:12:12.120 --> 0:12:15.120 atmospheric administration is just really delightful to me. 0:12:15.840 --> 0:12:16.360 I agree. 0:12:16.520 --> 0:12:20.120 Speaking of the atmosphere, it tees up this next fact nicely. 0:12:20.320 --> 0:12:20.400 So. 0:12:20.800 --> 0:12:23.960 Just last year, scientists from the University of Washington conducted 0:12:23.960 --> 0:12:28.440 an experiment in which they sprayed microscopic salt aerosol particles 0:12:28.640 --> 0:12:31.559 hundreds of feet into the air over the San Francisco 0:12:31.600 --> 0:12:33.960 Bay and basically they wanted to see how well the 0:12:34.000 --> 0:12:35.560 particles traveled through the air. 0:12:36.040 --> 0:12:37.400 And why do they want to know that? 0:12:37.520 --> 0:12:40.960 Because if we can get aerosolized salt particles into clouds 0:12:40.960 --> 0:12:44.319 over the ocean, those clouds will suddenly contain more droplets, 0:12:44.400 --> 0:12:47.360 and each droplet works kind of like a tiny mirror, 0:12:47.640 --> 0:12:50.760 So more droplets means the clouds will reflect more sunlight 0:12:50.880 --> 0:12:53.840 back into space and make the Earth a little cooler. 0:12:54.480 --> 0:12:56.280 So it's sort of like the cool roof concept we 0:12:56.280 --> 0:12:58.240 were talking about, except I guess everywhere. 0:12:58.640 --> 0:13:01.400 Yeah, and this actually comes from a cross disciplinary group 0:13:01.440 --> 0:13:04.280 at the University of Washington. It's called the Marine Cloud 0:13:04.320 --> 0:13:07.320 Brightening Program. According to the modeling they've done, if we 0:13:07.360 --> 0:13:11.199 can artificially brighten fifteen percent of the world's marine clouds, 0:13:11.440 --> 0:13:14.599 we can cool the Earth by about one degree fahrenheit. 0:13:14.920 --> 0:13:18.800 But wouldn't sprang particles into the clouds just make it rain? Yeah, 0:13:18.840 --> 0:13:21.360 so that's actually part of the challenge. No one really 0:13:21.360 --> 0:13:23.719 knows what would happen if we start pumping all these 0:13:23.760 --> 0:13:27.160 salt aerosols into the atmosphere on a regular basis. Obviously, 0:13:27.200 --> 0:13:30.720 too many droplets could turn into precipitation, and some environmental 0:13:30.720 --> 0:13:34.360 groups have expressed skepticism about the strategy, noting that saltier 0:13:34.360 --> 0:13:38.040 clouds might even alter weather patterns, and all of that 0:13:38.120 --> 0:13:41.079 tinkering could be a distraction from the real problem are 0:13:41.120 --> 0:13:44.120 dependents on fossil fuels. But the thing is, the folks 0:13:44.160 --> 0:13:47.320 at the Marine Cloud Brightening Program actually agree with all that. 0:13:47.679 --> 0:13:50.840 They see this project as kind of an emergency backup plan. 0:13:51.200 --> 0:13:54.400 As the program's measure, Sarah Dougherty told The New York 0:13:54.400 --> 0:13:58.080 Times quote, I hope and I think my colleagues hope 0:13:58.240 --> 0:14:00.640 that we never use these things that we ever have to. 0:14:01.200 --> 0:14:04.600 So if governments and societies around the world embrace renewable energy, 0:14:04.760 --> 0:14:08.240 maybe we won't need to salt our clouds. Well, speaking 0:14:08.240 --> 0:14:10.960 of clouds, here's something I just learned about fog, which 0:14:11.000 --> 0:14:14.280 is weirdly defined as a cloud that touches the ground. 0:14:14.600 --> 0:14:15.760 Right, Is that true? 0:14:16.080 --> 0:14:19.400 Yeah? This actually comes from the Noah's Weather Education website. 0:14:19.440 --> 0:14:22.400 But one of the most deadly symptoms of climate change 0:14:22.440 --> 0:14:25.160 is drought. So just a few months ago, Al Jazeer 0:14:25.280 --> 0:14:27.480 reported that Kenya is in the midst of the worst 0:14:27.560 --> 0:14:30.840 drought in forty years, as rivers and lakes dry up. 0:14:30.880 --> 0:14:34.080 Not only are the crops and livestock dying, millions of 0:14:34.160 --> 0:14:37.040 people are finding themselves without access to drinking water. 0:14:37.280 --> 0:14:38.800 Can I just tell you that I knew about the 0:14:38.840 --> 0:14:41.120 drowd in Kenya because my kid Ruby reads The Weak 0:14:41.240 --> 0:14:44.640 Junior and is obsessed with that magazine. And we had 0:14:44.640 --> 0:14:47.200 to have Ruby stop reading it at night because they 0:14:47.200 --> 0:14:49.720 would stay up and worry, like wanting to talk about 0:14:49.720 --> 0:14:50.960 solutions for Kenya. 0:14:51.200 --> 0:14:52.080 Yeah, and I. 0:14:52.000 --> 0:14:54.880 Mean it's wonderful but also not a great night time activity. 0:14:55.680 --> 0:14:59.120 Yeah, that sounds like Ruby. But back to Kenya, all right, 0:14:59.160 --> 0:15:02.880 So millions are tragically struggling to find access to drinking 0:15:02.960 --> 0:15:05.880 water there and to avoid trekking hours each day in 0:15:05.920 --> 0:15:08.480 search of water. People in remote mountain villages have come 0:15:08.560 --> 0:15:12.760 up with an incredible idea harvesting fog. So, because fog 0:15:12.840 --> 0:15:15.360 is just moisture in the air, you know, they are 0:15:15.400 --> 0:15:17.160 working to figure out how to capture it, and to 0:15:17.280 --> 0:15:20.520 do that, they attach these long sheets of plastic to trees, 0:15:20.920 --> 0:15:23.760 draping the end of the sheets into buckets or jerry cans. 0:15:23.840 --> 0:15:26.640 So when the cool night air settles in, water condenses 0:15:26.680 --> 0:15:29.720 on the plastic and drips into the container. And according 0:15:29.720 --> 0:15:32.480 to NPR. A single tree can generate as much as 0:15:32.560 --> 0:15:35.520 twenty gallons of water every single night. 0:15:36.000 --> 0:15:38.640 That is amazing and something I will definitely be telling 0:15:38.720 --> 0:15:41.400 Ruby about after this episode. Now, is this just being 0:15:41.480 --> 0:15:44.200 done in Kenya or is it more widespread because there 0:15:44.200 --> 0:15:46.920 are obviously a lot of places suffering from droughts these days. 0:15:47.280 --> 0:15:50.720 Yeah, it is happening in other places too. You've got Ethiopia, Chile, 0:15:51.040 --> 0:15:53.760 and various parts of Southeast Asia. But you know the 0:15:53.840 --> 0:15:56.720 problem is fog, like any other type of weather, is 0:15:56.800 --> 0:16:00.360 definitely variable, so sometimes there's a lot of it, there's 0:16:00.360 --> 0:16:03.760 not very much. So researchers are taking this basic principle 0:16:03.800 --> 0:16:05.920 and trying to figure out ways to make it even 0:16:06.000 --> 0:16:09.640 more effective, for example, using large pieces of mesh netting 0:16:09.720 --> 0:16:12.760 instead of plastic sheets. We actually talked about this years 0:16:12.760 --> 0:16:15.240 ago in our episode What does the Future of Water 0:16:15.320 --> 0:16:18.720 look Like? But there are more sophisticated methods of pulling 0:16:18.760 --> 0:16:21.800 water out of the air today. A young Kenyan woman 0:16:21.920 --> 0:16:25.440 named beth Koaigi. She's developed this machine that she calls 0:16:25.600 --> 0:16:29.440 Magic Water, and it works like a souped up dehumidifier, 0:16:29.760 --> 0:16:32.400 so fans suck air into the system where it's cooled 0:16:32.440 --> 0:16:35.320 and condensed until water forms and then it goes through 0:16:35.320 --> 0:16:39.560 a filter and finally essential minerals are added. These magic 0:16:39.640 --> 0:16:42.520 water systems are already in use in parts of Kenya, 0:16:42.560 --> 0:16:46.440 including an overcrowded, low income areas of Nairobi. And this 0:16:46.480 --> 0:16:49.760 is where residents have little to no access to basic utilities. 0:16:50.120 --> 0:16:53.080 That's really amazing. Well, we have taken another quick break, 0:16:53.120 --> 0:16:55.720 but please don't go anywhere. When we come back, we'll 0:16:55.720 --> 0:16:58.080 see how some communities are tackling the problem of too 0:16:58.240 --> 0:17:01.080 much water, and we'll visit an island nation that's put 0:17:01.120 --> 0:17:03.400 itself at the forefront of climate resilience. 0:17:13.080 --> 0:17:21.240 And welcome back to part time genius. Now, Mango. Before 0:17:21.280 --> 0:17:24.120 the break, you said something about too much water. Yeah, 0:17:24.160 --> 0:17:25.080 So the thing is. 0:17:25.400 --> 0:17:27.520 This is the nature of climate change, right. We see 0:17:27.560 --> 0:17:31.480 extremes in both directions, and things like rising sea levels 0:17:31.520 --> 0:17:35.040 and harsh storms put coastal communities at greater risk of flooding. 0:17:35.520 --> 0:17:38.680 To use a very recent example, Hurricane Helene dumped as 0:17:38.760 --> 0:17:42.439 much as thirty inches of rain on parts of North Carolina. Island. 0:17:42.520 --> 0:17:45.800 Nations are starting to rethink their entire infrastructure and will 0:17:46.000 --> 0:17:47.600 I know you're going to talk about that a little later, 0:17:47.640 --> 0:17:50.720 but there's one country that's been pondering these questions of 0:17:50.760 --> 0:17:53.199 how to live with too much water for centuries, and 0:17:53.240 --> 0:17:55.359 that's the Netherlands, ah. 0:17:55.320 --> 0:17:57.399 Right, And that's because some big chunk of the country 0:17:57.440 --> 0:17:59.120 actually sits below sea level. Right. 0:17:59.400 --> 0:18:03.920 Yeah, about twenty six percent now, over half the population 0:18:04.000 --> 0:18:06.720 lives in areas that are vulnerable to flooding. And people 0:18:06.760 --> 0:18:09.520 here were building dikes as far back as the Iron Age, 0:18:09.880 --> 0:18:12.600 which feels insane to me. But more recently, in nineteen 0:18:12.680 --> 0:18:15.040 fifty three, there was a freak storm in the North 0:18:15.119 --> 0:18:18.000 Sea and many of the dikes and storm walls gave way, 0:18:18.359 --> 0:18:21.720 resulting in these massive floods that killed almost two thousand 0:18:21.800 --> 0:18:25.800 people and destroyed thousands of homes. So the following year, 0:18:25.880 --> 0:18:28.520 the Dutch government launched a project called the Delta Works, 0:18:28.840 --> 0:18:32.320 which was finally completed in nineteen ninety seven, and it's 0:18:32.400 --> 0:18:37.080 the sprawling construction of dems and surge barriers, levees and dikes, 0:18:37.240 --> 0:18:40.000 all designed to protect the southwest portion of the country 0:18:40.040 --> 0:18:43.440 from these severe floods. But as sea levels continue to rise, 0:18:43.480 --> 0:18:46.600 some Dutch architects and planners have adopted a different philosophy. 0:18:46.920 --> 0:18:49.280 So instead of building barricades to keep the water out. 0:18:49.480 --> 0:18:51.200 They're actually building homes that. 0:18:51.119 --> 0:18:53.560 Float, you mean, like houseboats. 0:18:53.880 --> 0:18:56.400 It's actually a little more complicated than that. So while 0:18:56.440 --> 0:18:59.640 these homes look like ordinary houses instead of a foundation 0:18:59.680 --> 0:19:02.119 on lands and they actually sit on a hull and 0:19:02.200 --> 0:19:05.719 float on the water. But unlike houseboats, these houses are 0:19:05.760 --> 0:19:08.119 tethered to steal pillars on the shore, so when the 0:19:08.160 --> 0:19:10.639 water rises, they float up, and when it recedes they 0:19:10.720 --> 0:19:13.639 float down. And because they're connected to the shore, they 0:19:13.680 --> 0:19:18.240 can tap into municipal sewer and utility lines. It's really 0:19:18.280 --> 0:19:21.240 this elegant solution and since coming up with it, Dutch 0:19:21.280 --> 0:19:24.320 architects have actually been floating things like schools, offices and 0:19:24.359 --> 0:19:28.280 even medical facilities. There's a small floating dairy farm in 0:19:28.280 --> 0:19:30.920 the city of Rotterdam with thirty five cows that go 0:19:31.040 --> 0:19:34.560 back and forth between their waterborne barn and this riverside pasture, 0:19:34.600 --> 0:19:36.320 which is also really incredible. 0:19:36.560 --> 0:19:39.200 Yeah, it's fascinating. I do wonder like do people get 0:19:39.240 --> 0:19:41.720 seasick from this though, I mean I think some do. 0:19:41.920 --> 0:19:44.400 But there are ways to stabilize the homes with shock 0:19:44.440 --> 0:19:47.800 absorbers and poles driven into the ground. The other great 0:19:47.840 --> 0:19:50.359 thing about these floating buildings is that they're designed for 0:19:50.480 --> 0:19:54.560 maximum resilience and minimal carbon footprint. They're typically built with 0:19:54.680 --> 0:19:59.000 natural and recyclable materials, and that includes features like rooftop gardens, 0:19:59.119 --> 0:20:03.000 rainwater capture, and of course solar panels. And I see 0:20:03.040 --> 0:20:05.040 Dylan's over there. He's got a big smile in his face. 0:20:05.080 --> 0:20:07.120 You know, that's when he's usually got a big idea. 0:20:07.800 --> 0:20:11.000 I'm guessing that he is sort of thinking through building 0:20:11.000 --> 0:20:14.720 the world's first solar powered floating podcast production group. 0:20:14.800 --> 0:20:17.199 What do you think, Banga, I think so that smile 0:20:17.280 --> 0:20:19.399 in that nod now confirms. 0:20:18.880 --> 0:20:23.040 It all right. For our last story of climate resilience, 0:20:23.080 --> 0:20:26.240 we're heading to the Caribbean to a tiny island nation 0:20:26.480 --> 0:20:29.119 of Dominica, which is on the quest to become the 0:20:29.119 --> 0:20:34.320 world's first climate resilient country. Now, Dominica's interior is rugged 0:20:34.359 --> 0:20:37.359 and mountainous, which means most of the population lives in 0:20:37.400 --> 0:20:40.360 these low lying coastal areas. And so over the years, 0:20:40.400 --> 0:20:42.919 there have been a number of catastrophic climate events that 0:20:42.960 --> 0:20:47.080 have actually claimed lives and destroyed buildings, most notably Hurricane 0:20:47.119 --> 0:20:50.399