Your Planet, Your Health

In this episode, Ralph and Luc take a respite from the US' current denialist frenzy and step back to celebrate recent global victories in the fight to preserve our environment.Since the climate does not follow national borders, we spotlight some news from around the world that gives us hope: the popular clamor for governments to tackle climate change, the newly favourable economics of renewable energy, alongside initiatives by cities, states and nations to foster a more livable planet.You can also watch this episode on YouTube at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=07a5_iLo83MChapters:00:00 Introduction1:46 How the Republican party lost their minds on climate and might kill us all3:53 Good news: Environmentalism is Popular!6:54 Local initiatives in CA, FL7:43 Cities are becoming greener and more walkable10:45 Climate reparations: Vanuatu's win at the ICJ12:12 Solar energy is much cheaper than a decade ago16:18 Wind power provides jobs in "red" states17:38 Worldwide adoption of renewables19:50 2024's big picture gains for renewable power21:08 Research & Development: harnessing innovation22:26 Staying hopeful: Why Ralph doesn't like "optimism"Sources:• International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) report “Renewable Power Generation Costs in 2023”, September 2024.• Washington Post, “Paris said au revoir to cars. Air pollution maps reveal a dramatic change.” by Naema Ahmed and Chico Harlan, April 2025.• The New Yorker, “4.6 Billion Years On, the Sun Is Having a Moment” by Bill McKibbon, July 2025.• Atlas US National Poll by AtlasIntel, July 2025.• Princeton University ZERO Lab “Impacts of the One Big Beautiful Bill On The US Energy Transition” by Jesse Jenkins, Jamil Farbes and Ben Haley, July 2025.• The New York Times, “How China Went From Clean Energy Copycat to Global Innovator” by Max Bearak and Mira Rojanasakul, August 2025.We also refer back to our prior episodes 4 (Gaslighting: Big Oil Knew) and 5 (Talking Climate With Conservatives).

In this episode, Ralph and Luc spotlight an environmental success story: the Montreal Protocol's role in healing the ozone layer. We draw comparisons to the pitfalls of the IPCC's COP process and try to derive a diplomatic blueprint for climate policy. We look into the science of how ozone and chlorine works in the stratosphere, the history of the activist scientists (Sherwood Roland and Mario Molina) who first sounded the alarm about CFC's destruction of the ozone layer, and the work of technocrats in devising their replacement. We also examine the geopolitical dynamics that were foundational to this planetary victory. You can also watch this episode on YouTube at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qlz8O0_fkh4 Sources: • We sample clips from the 2019 PBS documentary Ozone Hole: How We Saved the Planet, written and directed by Jamie Lochhead — notably interviews with Mario Molina, Joan Roland (widow of Sherwood), Lee Thomas (administrator at the EPA), Crispin Tickell (adviser to Margaret Thatcher) and Bob Watson (NASA). https://www.pbs.org/show/ozone-hole-how-we-saved-planet/ • We also sample clips from this 2021 interview with Susan Solomon (the atmospheric chemist who demonstrated CFC’s impact on ozone) and Stephen Andersen (leader of the Montreal Protocol and co-chair of its Technology and Economic Assessment Panel), by the Future of Life Institute, in which they share their roles in the closing of zone hole.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7hwh-uDo-6A • We cite elements from the 1998 book Ozone Diplomacy: New Directions in Safeguarding the Planet, by Richard Elliot Benedick. • We cite the 2002 book Ozone Connections: Expert Networks in Global Environmental Governance, by Penelope Canan and Nancy Reichman. • We cite the 2019 book The Ozone Layer: From Discovery to Recovery, by Guy P. Brasseur. • We cite the 2021 Nature article The Montreal Protocol protects the terrestrial carbon sink, by Paul J. Young, Anna B. Harper, Chris Huntingford, Nigel D. Paul, Olaf Morgenstern, Paul A. Newman, Luke D. Oman, Sasha Madronich & Rolando R. Garcia.https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-021-03737-3 • We refer to insights from the 2021 book Cut Super Climate Pollutants Now!: The Ozone Treaty’s Urgent Lessons for Speeding Up Climate Action, by Alan Miller, Durwood Zaelke and Stephen Andersen. • We also cite from the 2023 book 35th Anniversary of Protecting the Ozone Layer, by Marco Gonzalez and Stephen Andersen. Read more at: https://ozone.unep.org/ozone-timeline and https://csl.noaa.gov/assessments/ozone/2022/downloads/twentyquestions.pdfChapters:0:00:00 Introduction: COP 28 Wrap-up0:02:49 Science of the Ozone Layer0:04:30 History of CFCs: Thomas Midgely’s invention and subsequent uses (1930s)0:08:21 Sherwood Rowland and Mario Molina’s Research shows CFCs' dangers for ozone (1970s)0:17:42 Consumer Boycott of CFCs: All in The Family0:24:05 Consumer Boycott of CFCs: children’s Entertainment led Mc Donald’s to change its packaging from foam to cardboard0:29:51 Sherwood Rowland coins the term “ozone hole”0:32:04 Ozone concentrations in the Antarctic were so low that the scientists thought it was a measurement error0:33:53 Susan Solomon’s model explains how CFCs caused the ozone hole (1980s)0:38:18 Scientists fly an airplane into the ozone hole0:39:31 Global Diplomacy: First Framework, the Vienna Convention (1985): a modest start0:40:45 Global Diplomacy: The Montreal Protocol’s "start and strengthen" amendment process0:46:51 Geopolitics of the Montreal Protocol - comparing nations' relation to CFC production in the 1980s0:59:51 Global Diplomacy: Stephen Anderson on the effectiveness of involving engineers to work on replacements (industry released their patents)1:04:34 Stephen Andersen presents technological innovations that came as the fruit of his Technology and Economic Assessment Panel (TEAP) and why it worked1:17:31 Ronald Reagan's Administration contained factions that disagreed on whether to act on ozone1:22:50 Margaret Thatcher's surprisingly collaborative response1:25:21 2016 Kigali Amendment bans HFCs - the Montreal Protocol takes on greenhouse gases1:32:11 World avoided scenarios: How effective has this process been? What do we estimate would have happened otherwise?1:37:33 Comparing what worked with ozone to the climate change movement: distinctions between Montreal Protocol and COP and lessons to learn1:47:01 Closing Phytoplankton Song

In this episode, Ralph and Luc spotlight what the oil companies knew about CO2’s impact on the climate, and how they lied to you to sustain their fossilized business model – even if it risks drilling us into oblivion… This argument will soon be heard in court as part of a series of lawsuits against Big Oil.We start by looking into the history of scholarship on this issue, dating back to the 19th Century.We highlight the record of what the oil companies such as Exxon and the American Petroleum Institute were saying behind closed doors – and contrast this with their contemporaneous public statements.We draw upon scholarship uncovered by Naomi Oreskes and the #ExxonKnew movement.Sources:• If you would like to read California's lawsuit against ExxonMobil, Shell, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, BP and the American Petroleum Institute for deceiving the public for decades, you can access it here:https://www.gov.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/FINAL-9-15-COMPLAINT.pdf• We quote from the 2010 book Merchants of Doubt; How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco Smoke to Climate by Naomi Oreskes and Erik M. Conway.• We also sample a couple clips from the 2014 documentary derived from it, also titled Merchants Of Doubt, directed by Robert Kenner and co-written by Kim Roberts.• We cite reporting from this 2017 article from the Center for Public Integrity: “The United States of Petroleum” by Jie Jenny Zou, accessible athttps://apps.publicintegrity.org/united-states-of-petroleum/• You can read Edward Teller’s “Energy Patterns of the Future” 1959 Presentation at the Energy and Man conference organised by the American Petroleum Institute in full here:https://www.planetaryhealthforbusypeople.com/whats-now-and-whats-new/edward-teller• We sample a couple clips from the 1981 British TV documentary by Thames Television called “Warming Warning”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DMjnvfkeJJ0&list=PL7WD0g9dS3jlkXemuiPdoj4RF416JTpn6&index=3• We read from Exxon's 1982 internal primer on the CO2 "Greenhouse Effect", which was made accessible thanks to reporting by Inside Climate News in 2015, and is accessible here:https://insideclimatenews.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/1982-Exxon-Primer-on-CO2-Greenhouse-Effect.pdf• We also read from the oil companies' advertorials, as highlighted in a 2017 research article: "Assessing ExxonMoblil’s climate change communications (1977-2014)" by Naomi Oreskes and Geoffrey Supran:https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/aa815f• We refer to elements from the 2021 book The New Climate War: The Fight to Take Back Our Planet by Michael E Mann.• We also cite the 2023 Science article "Assessing ExxonMobil’s global warming projections" by Geoffrey Supran, Stefan Rahmstorf, and Naomi Oreskes:https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abk0063• We excerpted a clip from Naomi Klein's June 2023 appearance on the podcast "The Audit", hosted by Dave Anthony and Josh Olson on David Sirota's Lever Network, which you can listen to in full here:https://www.levernews.com/the-audit-the-climate-change-misinformation-machine(This episode is also available as a video on YouTube:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=muNF_1mC3FI&list=PLwI-SH3khGtbDQ76_3VXTO3AaLkZ-sqnA&index=3 )Chapters:0:00:00 Introduction - Current lawsuits against Big Oil0:07:16 History of science of C02 and climate change in the 1800s0:12:10 History of science of C02 and climate change in first half of the 1900s0:17:41 What changed after World War II0:19:10 Gilbert Plass and Edward Baxter in the 1950s0:23:25 Edward Teller at API's "Energy and Man" conference in 19590:25:40 API's Report in 19680:27:23 National Petroleum Council's Report in 19720:28:52 Exxon’s internal communications from the late 1970s0:35:26 Exxon’s internal corporate primer in 19820:36:36 The Global Climate Coalition and laundering legitimacy0:40:01 Clip from British ITV documentary “Warming Warning” from 19810:42:29 “Changing Climate” Committee and Thomas Schelling in 19830:47:19 Creation of the IPCC and James Hansen’s testimony in 19880:48:39 Exxon’s “emphasise the uncertainty” Memo in 19880:50:59 James Hansen reflects on his testimony and what followed0:52:20 Clip from Royal Dutch Shell's “Climate of Concern” video from 19910:53:38 API President’s comment on scientific consensus in 1996

In this episode, Ralph and Luc listen to a stand-up routine by comedian George Carlin about environmentalists. We engage with Carlin’s pontifications and his ingenious framing by providing context from a scientific perspective. We also gesture at disarming some of his cynicism while steering clear of fully explaining away what made his take comedic in the first place.This episode contains 4 brief excerpts from George Carlin's "Jammin' in New York" special.Erratum: we said microplastics were found in the blood of 99% of people tested – in fact, plastic was found in the blood of 17 of 22 subjects tested (77%).• original article: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160412022001258 • and a write-up in the Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/mar/24/microplastics-found-in-human-blood-for-first-time.