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