“We think that if we bring up climate change with our neighbors, our coworkers, our friends, our family, we're going to get argument. We're going to get pushback,” insists our latest podcast guest. “We're going to butt heads, and there's going to be fights, and we're going to lose these relationships. So, we're all not talking about it. Everyone's waiting for someone else to bring it up and start talking about it.”
John R. Platt has the power of positive thinking on his side. Editor of The Revelator, this true lover of nature has won numerous awards for his environmental journalism. He’s a member of the Society of Environmental Journalists and the National Association of Science Writers, and among the remarkable media outlets to which Platt has contributed are Scientific American, Audubon, and Vice’s Motherboard.
What we have for you today is the opposite of a cynical journo. If we could all just have an honest conversation about the environment, Platt says by word and by deed, our planet has a chance
It’s Platt’s work at The Revelator that focuses much of his mid-July conversation with me and Lev Anderson. His “Extinction Countdown” column, which has run continuously since 2004, has covered news and science related to more than 1,000 endangered species. What began as “The Extinction Blog” on Live Journal, has used obscure scientific journals to make known the creatures that are nearly gone, from parasites to megafauna.
Our guest enjoys sharing this difficult news. It’s as though education might be a tool for reversing our climate crisis.
“Getting AI out of your search engines results is a minor way that you can save a few kilowatts of energy and reduce your carbon emissions. Your global impact.”
While running down the ways that the America’s top bully has brutally turned the US away from emission reduction, Platt points to the inevitability of our nation turning back to energy reason and away from coal and gas, if only because most of the world wants clean energy. Staying out of its industries is bound to lose money. He even finds hope in the much-delayed death of bothsidesism in contemporary environmental coverage—mainstream reporters insist on repeating corporate spin less than ever.
Two bonus Sojourn components:
In the episode’s introduction, Lev t shares his insights on the forecast of a massive Cascadia earthquake that’s been recently reawakened. And our guest’s two pugs—Pixie and Pepper—stage an extended make-out session while he earnestly discusses the vagaries of their human’s poetry career. The sight in itself makes the ep worthy beyond the level of the information delivery.
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