Possibly

If refrigerant, the key substance inside a heat pump leaks into the atmosphere, it can warm the planet thousands of times more than CO2. The Possibly team does the math to see if that risk outweighs the climate benefit of heat pumps.

When four dams were removed along the Klamath River in the Pacific Northwest, it meant giving up a source of renewable energy. But clean energy wasn't the only factor the company had to consider.

As our planet warms and heat waves become more common, we wondered how that heat affects our bodies. In today's episode, the Possibly team explains how heat impacts two key organs: your kidneys and your intestines.

It always feels better to go outside, move around a little bit, and get some fresh air. But this week on Possibly we look into the research, do green spaces actually improve our health?

Gas stoves can pollute the air in our homes and even contribute to climate change. But lots of people enjoy cooking on them. Is there a way to switch away from gas that works well and doesn't break the bank?

Chris Thile's new Audible podcast and musical variety show, the Energy Curfew Music Hour uses music to imagine how people can adapt to a world reshaped by climate change.

The news about climate change efforts in the US hasn't been great lately. So Possibly is launching a new occasional series to highlight advances against climate change around the world. Up first: China

This week on Possibly, Senator Sheldon Whitehouse helps explain what options we have to address climate change's impact on the home insurance industry.

Home insurance is supposed to help us recover from natural disasters, but climate change is disrupting the industry. This week on Possibly, we look at how states are responding to this problem.

Recent reports by the Senate Budget Committee and the Treasury found that climate change is already upending the US's home insurance industry.

On this episode of Possibly, we're taking a look at the Great Salt Lake. The lake has been shrinking for years, but it's also doing something strange- it's creating more greenhouse gas emissions than people expected.

After fire hydrants ran dry during the wildfires in Los Angeles, listeners wondered why firefighters didn't just use ocean water to begin with. On this episode of Possibly, we explain the tradeoffs of using the ocean to fight fires.

We hear a lot about climate migration—the idea that people will have to move as climate change makes some places unlivable. But is this something we're still waiting for, or is it already happening?

Air pollution results in over 7 million deaths each year. In this episode of Possibly, we look at the most common way to measure air quality, the Air Quality Index, and what it means for you.

Possibly's founder and the Provost of sustainability at Brown University Stephen Porder recently visited a supermarket chain in France that sells products other stores would have thrown away.

Wasted food takes up lots of space in landfills and, while getting a compost bin at home is great, it isn't enough to solve the problem. This week, we investigate how schools are taking big steps towards eliminating food waste.

If you have an electric car, and you want to try to reduce the greenhouse gases that are created in order to power that car, when should you charge it?

A new program in Framingham, Massachusetts is leading the transition from gas to geothermal heating and cooling.

Hospitals have to use a lot of single-use plastics to deliver care for patients. In today's episode, we look at how one hospital is cutting down through their medical plastics recycling initiative.

With the second Trump administration underway, the Possibly team takes a look at a group hoping to shape the country's energy policy: a Republican caucus in the House of Representatives.

In the summer of 2022 President Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act into law. The law was the US's largest investment in climate and clean energy ever. But what's happened since then? Who has actually been implementing the bill?

We asked our listeners to send in their wildest ideas for addressing climate change. And one listener, thinking about all of the trash Americans throw into landfills, asked if we could send it somewhere else: the sun.

As we head into a new year, our Possibly team decided to think about all of our episodes, and how they might inspire our resolutions for 2025. Here's what some of us had to say.

Britain recently announced the closure of the country's last coal-fired power plant, as well as an ambitious new energy plan. This week on Possibly, we break down what happened.

If you've ever looked at the bottom of a plastic item, you may have seen a number surrounded by three arrows around it. Today we take a look into the meaning behind the numbers, and how they actually relate to recycling.

We played a climate game that is supposed to help you find the highest-impact changes you can make in your life to take effective climate action. Could games like this actually help address the climate crisis?

Turkeys are more than just a Thanksgiving meal, they're part of forest ecosystems across the country. In this episode of Possibly, we take a look at how they made a major comeback in New England after being driven to local extinction.

You probably know that coal power plants are bad for the climate, and for your health. But how do we know how much of an impact one coal power plant can have? Where does its pollution go?

Hospitals can be hotspots for greenhouse gas emissions. But Boston Medical Center is part of a movement of hospitals changing their anesthesia to cut their footprint.

On Possibly, we've talked about how we can cut out greenhouse gas emissions from our homes and cars. But we wondered, how are factories and manufacturers working on this problem?

Everyone knows that plastic pollutes our environment. But it's less obvious why plastic would create a lot of emissions. Today, we break down why plastic use is a climate change issue.

There's an urgent need to use less fossil fuel, and that includes cutting down on how much gasoline we put in our cars. Does that mean longstanding ideas about what counts as “good gas mileage” are out of date?

Plankton form the basis of the food web in oceans and new research shows that the level of phytoplankton in Rhode Island's Narragansett Bay has dropped by half in the past 60 years. We wondered why.

If you've ever spent time in a library or art museum on a hot summer day, you might have felt way colder than you expected. On this episode of Possibly we break down the science of why libraries get so cold in the summer.

This week on Possibly we're talking about landfills, the methane they create, and why some landfills are capturing it and using it as a source of energy.

Rhode Island's biggest landfill is expected to fill up by 2043. And there are about 100 inactive landfills across the state. This made us wonder, what can be done with closed landfills?

Students at the Lincoln School have a question: should they be using wooden pencils or plastic mechanical ones? This week on Possibly we explain the answer, and how to find it.

Today we're taking a look at what causes in-flight turbulence and how rising temperatures might be making your flight bumpier.

It turns out, student engineers, and one major car manufacturer are already trying the idea. But there are limits to how effective these panels can be.

More medical schools are training their students on climate change. This week on Possibly we're taking a look at how your visit to the doctor might be changing.

A new program at the Boston Medical Center says it prescribes solar panels to patients. But we wondered, what does that really mean?

The two sides just reached a settlement that will have a major impact on the state's carbon emissions.

A new technology promises to suck water vapor out of the air and turn it into water that we can drink. How do they work and are these worthy investments?