2 Degrees Out West

Join us for a journey to the Black Rock Desert with Stacey Wittek the executive director of The Friends of Black Rock High Rock. This Northern Nevada national conservation area is best known for land speed records, emigrant trails, rocket launches and Burning Man. Find out what else the Black Rock Desert holds in this storytelling style podcast from Western Resource Advocates. Read More Here ->

The Colorado River is the hardest working river in the West, providing water for over 40 million people, 5.5 million acres of agriculture, 20 federally recognized tribes, and vibrant wildlife across seven states and two countries. It is essential for the lives and livelihoods of communities across our region – and it is in crisis. In this latest episode, we dove into the threats facing the Colorado River, what they mean for Western communities, and how we can and must take action to update management and protect this vital water source for the next 100 years to come.

From ongoing megadrought, dangerous ground-level ozone pollution and heat waves, and increasing frequent catastrophic wildfires to erratic, devastating floods, communities across the West are experiencing the impacts of climate change right now, in real time. The impacts of the climate crisis are no longer a looming threat in the distant or even near future, they are now a present reality, and are being disproportionately felt by Western communities in the US. With the Colorado River reaching critically low levels, unseasonable and catastrophic winter wildfires burning through suburban communities, worsening air pollution in many of our major cities, and more, it is clear we need to take action to adapt and make our communities more resilient to the worsening effects of climate change now. Western resource advocates is working across our organization and throughout our region to help bolster community resilience to these impacts, and to protect our air, land, water, and wildlife—and sustain the lives and livelihoods of the West. To understand how WRA is working with communities to create and increase resilience against climate change, we spoke with WRA's Western Lands Senior Policy Analyst Rachael Hamby, Water Policy Analyst John Berggren, Senior Climate Policy Analyst Meera Fickling, and Senior Clean Energy Policy Analyst Alex Routhier for our latest episode of our Climate Nexus series. Want to know how your community can adopt policies to help increase resilience against these escalating threats? Then you won't want to turn away from this one...

Clean air is essential for a healthy quality of life for our region. Breathing in fresh air and enjoying our region's abundant outdoor natural beauty is what some of us love most about calling the West home. But contrary to the idyllic image that might conjure up, many of the states across the Interior West are home to some of the nation's worst air quality.   Although we might often think of carbon dioxide, also known as CO2, when we talk about climate pollution and the need to reduce emissions to tackle climate change, many of the sources that contribute to the climate crisis also produce harmful, even toxic, air pollution that is impacting our communities. The exhaust generated from burning fossil fuels to power our cars, planes, trains, homes, industries, and office buildings all carries with it both a detrimental impact for our climate, and a potentially lethal impact for our communities.   For the second episode of our Climate Nexus series, we speak with WRA's Utah-based general counsel and air quality expert Joro Walker, WRA's Transportation Electrification Policy Analyst Deborah Kapiloff, and WRA's former Senior Managing Attorney in Nevada Cameron Dyer to explore the connection between the transportation sector and burning fossil fuels, the air we breathe, and our goals to act on climate. Take action to protect clean air in Utah: https://westernresourceadvocates.org/action/protect-clean-air-and-public-health-in-utah/ Support advancing clean cars across the West: https://westernresourceadvocates.org/action/stand-with-wra-in-advancing-clean-cars-in-the-west/ Support WRA's work to protect clean air and transition to clean energy for our region: https://westernresourceadvocates.org/donate/donate-now/

At WRA, we are working to drive on-the-ground solutions to climate change to advance clean energy, protect air, land, water, and wildlife—and sustain the lives and livelihoods of the West. And across the West, we know that almost every aspect of our lives is being impacted by the effects of climate change. From water scarcity and ongoing drought, to catastrophic wildfire and dangerous air quality levels. We know that these challenges, however distinct, are not isolated from each other. From 33 years of experience, we know crafting effective solutions to address climate change and meet our science backed emissions reductions goals requires a complex, collaborative, and multifaceted approach. To look at where those issues and our work to address them intersect, we're launching the Climate Nexus series for our 2 Degrees Out West podcast. This series will dig into the ways that pressing environmental challenges and the causal factors of climate change overlap, as well as the ways in which our staff at WRA are working together and combining their expertise to drive innovative solutions and getting results. For this first conversation, I spoke with Stacy Tellinghuisen and Ellen Howard Kutzer of WRA's Clean Energy Program, as well as Bart Miller and John Cyran of WRA's Healthy Rivers Program, about how our work to cut harmful emissions from Western coal plants and transition our region to a zero-carbon economy has the potential to help keep more water flowing through rivers and streams. Confused about how those two connect? Let's check it out.... Support WRA's work to drive on-the-ground solutions to climate change! Donate today! https://westernresourceadvocates.org/donate-now/

Protecting our clean air, healthy rivers and lakes, and natural landscapes to ensure a healthy, livable future are goals that we can seemingly all agree on. However, for decades, the work to achieve those goals and the professions that pursue them have traditionally been seen as male dominated spaces. At Western Resource Advocates, we want to celebrate some of the incredible women on our staff, and in the conservation community that have worked to break the mold and build a more inclusive conservation movement. For this episode, WRA's Operation's Associate Haley Howard takes over as guest host as we celebrate Women's History Month. In this edition of our 2° Out West Podcast, we spoke with some of the Women of Western Resource Advocates, including our new board member Yadi Sanchez, executive director of Poder Latinx, about their paths to working in conversation and the women who have inspired them both in the environmental field and right here at WRA. They also share their advice for young women looking to work in conservation, sustainability, and to address climate change.

For this latest installment of our podcast in recognition of Black History Month, WRA's Kandice Cleveland takes over for Brendan as guest host. Kandice spoke with WRA Western Lands Policy Analyst and Rising Routes founder Jason Swann, and Portia Prescott, founder of Black Girls Hike and a new member of our board of directors. The conversation focused on learning more about how our staff and board are working to expand equitable access to the outdoors and ensure a healthy, livable future for all our communities, and about the experiences that led Portia and Jason to work with WRA as well as to launch their own organizations focused on breaking down barriers to the outdoors. Finally Kandice, Portia, and Jason remind us that Black history is being made and celebrated everyday, this month, and every month.

At Western Resource Advocates, we work where decisions are made to drive on-the-ground solutions to climate change, advance clean energy, protect air, land, water, and wildlife — and sustain the lives and livelihoods of the West. That means engaging with policymakers at state legislatures each year to ensure that important issues are addressed. To find out what issues are priorities for our mission in state legislators this year, we spoke with WRA's Government Affairs team for our 2022 Western Legislative Preview episode.

With so much intense news about climate change constantly in front of us, it can be easy to lose sight of the real potential we have to address this challenge if we work together. To wrap up this extraordinary and strange year, WRA President Jon Goldin-Dubois joins the podcast to reflect on what his summer trip hiking the Colorado Trail can tell us about how we can work together to address climate change, and how a little “trail magic” is just what we need to get it done.

We are all feeling the impacts of climate change, and experiencing them in a real and emotional sense. While the evidence of the impacts of climate change are all around us, are we really allowing ourselves to feel these impacts personally? How can we both process this existential issue, and turn those emotions into action? How do we avoid feeling panic over the future, and stay motivated to act before it's too late? In this episode, we look at how we can productively process our feelings about the climate crisis to avoid paralysis and ensure we reach our goals.

At WRA, we work where decisions are being made – including at state legislative sessions across the West. As legislatures across the West convene for 2021, we sat down with our Government Affairs team for a preview of the issues ahead, in our latest episode of our podcast, 2° Out West:

As 2020 draws to a close, we spoke with WRA President Jon Goldin Dubois about how our organization is stepping up to the challenges ahead:

We don’t have to tell you that this year has been a tough one. From the global pandemic, worsening drought conditions, and yet another season of catastrophic wildfires that have impacted so many, this year has unquestionably stood apart from the rest. But through all the struggles of 2020, there has also been some important progress made in our work to protect the West’s land air and water. That work has us encouraged, and feeling hopeful about what 2021 has in store. So we wanted to share some of that with all of you. We brought together some of our team to talk over Zoom about what they're grateful for in 2020, and what has them feeling hopeful for the year to come.

As climate change experts warn that our climate will only continue to get hotter if we don’t take decisive action on climate soon, we spoke with some of WRA’s water experts, as well as with ranchers and Navajo tribal water official to understand whatthis drought means for people across the West, and what we can do to protect our rivers in the face of a mega drought.

While we usually cover different policy topics, update you on legislative efforts, or dive into the real world impacts of climate change on this show, we wanted to change things up for this episode. Welcome to our first ever WRA book club. In this episode, we’ll discuss what we are reading, watching, or listening to that is serving up food for thought as we continue our work to protect the West’s land, air, and water and address climate change.

For this episode, we’ve brought together a group of advocates from across our organization to give us an update on what life is like now, and what our organization is doing to continue our work to ensure clean air and healthy rivers and lakes, protect and connect Western landscapes, and address climate change.

In this episode of 2° Out West, we speak with scientists, policy experts, and green chile lovers to learn more about what the threat of climate change means for New Mexico’s most beloved crop, New Mexico green chile.

In this episode of 2° Out West, we speak with WRA's Clean Energy Program Deputy Director Erin Overturf about why she sees reasons to stay hopeful in the face of the looming climate crisis, and what we can do to take action and make a difference before it’s too late.

2019 was a big year for WRA in our work to protect the West’s land, air, and water. To take stock of all we accomplished this year, and look forward to 2020, we spoke with WRA President Jon Goldin-Dubois in our latest episode of our podcast, 2 Degrees Out West!

In our first full episode, we speak with WRA’s 2019 emerging leader award recipients, Andrew Pappas and Jeremy Romero, about what inspired them to work in conservation, and the challenges they see facing the West’s land, air, and water through their work.

Welcome to 2 Degrees Out West, a podcast of Western Resource Advocates, where we examine the story behind some of the most pressing conservation issues facing the West. We talk with issue experts, legislators, researchers, organizers, conservation advocates, and more about what we can do to help protect the West’s land, air, and water – and, yes, to fight the climate crisis and hold global heating to within 2 degrees Celsius. Please join us and subscribe on Stitcher, iTunes, or SoundCloud to stay up to date with our latest episodes.