Podcasts about new climate war the fight

In this episode, Ralph and Luc delve into 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.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://youtu.be/muNF_1mC3FI )

Today on Best Of The Gist, with heat in the air (almost everywhere) we listen back to Mike's May 2022 interview with Climate scientist Michael Mann, author of The New Climate War: The Fight to Take Back Our Planet on an environment that is simultaneously dire and deadly but not hopeless. Then Mike updates listeners on how he got Twitter-blocked by Mann.  Produced by Joel Patterson and Corey Wara  Email us at thegist@mikepesca.com  To advertise on the show: https://advertisecast.com/TheGist  Subscribe to our ad-free and/or PescaPlus versions of The Gist: https://subscribe.mikepesca.com/  Follow Mike's Substack: Pesca Profundities | Mike Pesca | Substack  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Stand Up is a daily podcast. I book,host,edit, post and promote new episodes with brilliant guests every day. Please subscribe now for as little as 5$ and gain access to a community of over 800 awesome, curious, kind, funny, brilliant, generous souls Check out StandUpwithPete.com to learn more  Dr Michael Mann is Distinguished Professor of Atmospheric Science at Penn State, with joint appointments in the Department of Geosciences and the Earth and Environmental Systems Institute He is also director of the Penn State Earth System Science Center  Dr. Mann received his undergraduate degrees in Physics and Applied Math from the University of California at Berkeley, an M.S. degree in Physics from Yale University, and a Ph.D. in Geology & Geophysics from Yale University. His research involves the use of theoretical models and observational data to better understand Earth's climate system. Dr. Mann is author of more than 200 peer-reviewed and edited publications, numerous op-eds and commentaries, and five books including Dire Predictions: Understanding Climate Change, The Hockey Stick and the Climate Wars: Dispatches from the Front Lines, The Madhouse Effect: How Climate Change Denial is Threatening our Planet, Destroying Our Politics, and Driving Us Crazy and The Tantrum that Saved the World. We spoke about his new book The New Climate War: The Fight to Take Back Our Planet. Check out all things Jon Carroll Follow and Support Pete Coe Pete on YouTube Pete on Twitter Pete On Instagram Pete Personal FB page

Climate scientist Michael Mann author of The New Climate War: The Fight to Take Back Our Planet on an environment that is simultaneously dire and deadly but not hopeless. Plus: NY Dems have drawn themselves into a corner, and how the name a NY Yankee called a rival player that is upending the baseball world. Produced by Joel Patterson and Corey Wara Email us at thegist@mikepesca.com To advertise on the show, visit: https://advertisecast.com/TheGist Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Stand Up is a daily podcast. I book,host,edit, post and promote new episodes with brilliant guests every day. Please subscribe now for as little as 5$ and gain access to a community of over 800 awesome, curious, kind, funny, brilliant, generous souls Check out StandUpwithPete.com to learn more 28 mins Dr Michael Mann is Distinguished Professor of Atmospheric Science at Penn State, with joint appointments in the Department of Geosciences and the Earth and Environmental Systems Institute He is also director of the Penn State Earth System Science Center  Dr. Mann received his undergraduate degrees in Physics and Applied Math from the University of California at Berkeley, an M.S. degree in Physics from Yale University, and a Ph.D. in Geology & Geophysics from Yale University. His research involves the use of theoretical models and observational data to better understand Earth's climate system. Dr. Mann is author of more than 200 peer-reviewed and edited publications, numerous op-eds and commentaries, and five books including Dire Predictions: Understanding Climate Change, The Hockey Stick and the Climate Wars: Dispatches from the Front Lines, The Madhouse Effect: How Climate Change Denial is Threatening our Planet, Destroying Our Politics, and Driving Us Crazy and The Tantrum that Saved the World. We spoke about his new book The New Climate War: The Fight to Take Back Our Planet. 51 mins HASAN KWAME JEFFRIES is associate professor of history at The Ohio State University where he teaches courses on the Civil Rights and Black Power Movement. Hasan was born in Brooklyn, New York, and graduated summa cum laude from Morehouse College with a BA in history in 1994. At Morehouse, he was initiated into the Pi Chapter of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc.  He earned a PhD in American history with a specialization in African American history from Duke University in 2002. He taught for a year at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, before joining the faculty at The Ohio State University in 2003. Hasan is the author of Bloody Lowndes: Civil Rights and Black Power in Alabama's Black Belt, which tells the remarkable story of the African American freedom movement in Lowndes County, Alabama, the birthplace of Black Power. He is also the editor of Understanding and Teaching the Civil Rights Movement, a collection of essays by leading civil rights scholars and teachers that explores how to teach the Civil Rights Movement accurately and effectively. Hasan's current book project, In the Shadow of Civil Rights, examines the Black experience in New York City from 1977 to 1993. It connects key political and cultural events, such as the youth rebellion in the South Bronx, to the evolution and implementation of public policies that changed Black communities forever, such as those that undergird the war on drugs. The book aims to provide a new narrative of the Black experience in the post-civil rights era. Hasan has worked on several public history projects. From 2010 to 2014, he was the lead historian and primary scriptwriter for the $27 million renovation of the National Civil Rights Museum at the Lorraine Hotel in Memphis, Tennessee, the site of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. He hosts the podcast “Teaching Hard History,” a production of the Southern Poverty Law Center's educational division, Teaching Tolerance. And he regularly shares his knowledge of African American history and contemporary Black politics with the public through lectures, workshops, op-eds, and radio and television interviews. He has also contributed to several documentary film projects as a featured on-camera scholar, including the Emmy nominated, four-hour, PBS documentary Black America Since MLK. Hasan consults regularly with school districts on developing anti-racism programming. This work includes conducting professional development workshops for teachers, speaking to student assemblies, and developing inclusive curricular centered on social studies. In the classroom, Hasan takes great pride in opening students' minds to new ways of understanding the past and the present. This has led him to push the very boundaries of what we think of as a classroom, including taking small groups of undergraduates to James Madison's Montpelier, the Virginia plantation home of the nation's fourth president, to explore the history of race and racism in America from slavery through the present. For his pedagogical creativity and effectiveness, he has received Ohio State's Alumni Award for Distinguished Teaching, the university's highest award to teaching, and the Ohio State University College of Arts and Sciences Outstanding Teaching Award. Hasan resides in Columbus and enjoys traveling to the South to visit friends and returning to Brooklyn to visit family.  View Professor Jeffries' discussion about African American history here.   Check out all things Jon Carroll Phil Round Music  Follow and Support Pete Coe Pete on YouTube Pete on Twitter Pete On Instagram Pete Personal FB page

Tom Bowman has never bought the idea that some problems are too complex to solve. In his book, Resetting Our Future: What if Solving the Climate Crisis Is Simple? Bowman slices through the Gordian knot of dispiriting misperceptions surrounding climate change with razor-like precision. In the process, he offers a solution that is as accessible and inspiring as it is practical and achievable. “Too often people dismiss climate change as a “wicked” (unsolvable) problem. As Tom Bowman explains, we have the ability to surmount this mentality…and just do it.” — Michael Mann, Distinguished Professor, Penn State University and author of The New Climate War: The Fight to Take Back Our Planet “The premise of this book is crucial: though climate change is complicated, the most important solution is very clear. We have to stop burning fossil fuels and do it fast. Stated that way, we can get to work.” — Bill McKibben, author of Falter: Has the Human Game Begun to Play Itself Out? “Drawing on a nuanced understanding of human behavior, design thinking, and experience driving organizational change, Bowman cuts through the Gordian knot of climate change with simple, straightforward, and practical solutions. A very useful guide to anyone seeking to make a difference.” — Anthony Leiserowitz, Director, Yale Program on Climate Change Communication https://www.johnhuntpublishing.com/changemakers-books/our-books/resetting-our-future-what-if-solving-climate-crisis-is-simple

Stand Up is a daily podcast. I book,host,edit, post and promote new episodes with brilliant guests every day. Please subscribe now for as little as 5$ and gain access to a community of over 800 awesome, curious, kind, funny, brilliant, generous souls Check out StandUpwithPete.com to learn more A STAND UP SPOTLIGHT SPECIAL FEATURE OF AN EPISODE ... Starring : Dr Peter Hotez and Dr Michael Mann Peter J. Hotez, M.D., Ph.D. is Dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine and Professor of Pediatrics and Molecular Virology & Microbiology at Baylor College of Medicine where he is also the Director of the Texas Children's Center for Vaccine Development (CVD) and Texas Children's Hospital Endowed Chair of Tropical Pediatrics.  He is also University Professor at Baylor University, Fellow in Disease and Poverty at the James A Baker III Institute for Public Policy,  Senior Fellow at the Scowcroft Institute of International Affairs at Texas A&M University, Faculty Fellow with the Hagler Institute for Advanced Studies at Texas A&M University, and Health Policy Scholar in the Baylor Center for Medical Ethics and Health Policy. He is the author of Vaccines Did Not Cause Rachel's Autism: My Journey as a Vaccine Scientist, Pediatrician, and Autism Dad Poverty and the Impact of COVID-19: The Blue-Marble Health Approach and most recently Preventing the Next Pandemic: Vaccine Diplomacy in a Time of Anti-science Most recently as both a vaccine scientist and autism parent, he has led national efforts to defend vaccines and to serve as an ardent champion of vaccines going up against a growing national “antivax” threat. In 2019, he received the Award for Leadership in Advocacy for Vaccines from the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene.  Dr. Hotez appears frequently on television (including BBC, CNN, Fox News, and MSNBC), radio, and in newspaper interviews (including the New York Times, USA Today, Washington Post, and Wall Street Journal). Dr Michael Mann is Distinguished Professor of Atmospheric Science at Penn State, with joint appointments in the Department of Geosciences and the Earth and Environmental Systems Institute He is also director of the Penn State Earth System Science Center  Dr. Mann received his undergraduate degrees in Physics and Applied Math from the University of California at Berkeley, an M.S. degree in Physics from Yale University, and a Ph.D. in Geology & Geophysics from Yale University. His research involves the use of theoretical models and observational data to better understand Earth's climate system. Dr. Mann is author of more than 200 peer-reviewed and edited publications, numerous op-eds and commentaries, and five books including Dire Predictions: Understanding Climate Change, The Hockey Stick and the Climate Wars: Dispatches from the Front Lines, The Madhouse Effect: How Climate Change Denial is Threatening our Planet, Destroying Our Politics, and Driving Us Crazy and The Tantrum that Saved the World. We spoke about his new book The New Climate War: The Fight to Take Back Our Planet.

Do Climate Summits Like COP26 Really Matter? The summit was seen as one of the most important international climate negotiations in recent history. But how effective are these kinds of summits? And do the outcomes even matter? The Takeaway talks about that and more with Dr. Michael E. Mann, Distinguished Professor of Atmospheric Science at Pennsylvania State University and author of The New Climate War: The Fight to Take Back our Planet.  Israeli Military Surveillance Program Targets And Monitors Palestinians Using Facial Recognition Technology An Israeli surveillance program, rolled out over the past two years, uses facial recognition technology to monitor and surveil the Palestinian population. To discuss the surveillance program, implications to Palestinian society and what the future of surveillance technology could look like in other parts of the world, we spoke with The Washington Post's Silicon Valley Correspondent Elizabeth Dwoskin and Yousef Munayyer, nonresident senior fellow at Arab Center in DC. Aging While Queer: Aging with HIV In this segment, we talk to Tez Anderson, a long-term survivor of HIV, activist and founder of the first and largest group in the world focused on long-term HIV survivors and older adults aging with HIV, Let's Kick ASS (Aids Survivor Syndrome). For transcripts, see individual segment pages.      

Do Climate Summits Like COP26 Really Matter? The summit was seen as one of the most important international climate negotiations in recent history. But how effective are these kinds of summits? And do the outcomes even matter? The Takeaway talks about that and more with Dr. Michael E. Mann, Distinguished Professor of Atmospheric Science at Pennsylvania State University and author of The New Climate War: The Fight to Take Back our Planet.  Israeli Military Surveillance Program Targets And Monitors Palestinians Using Facial Recognition Technology An Israeli surveillance program, rolled out over the past two years, uses facial recognition technology to monitor and surveil the Palestinian population. To discuss the surveillance program, implications to Palestinian society and what the future of surveillance technology could look like in other parts of the world, we spoke with The Washington Post's Silicon Valley Correspondent Elizabeth Dwoskin and Yousef Munayyer, nonresident senior fellow at Arab Center in DC. Aging While Queer: Aging with HIV In this segment, we talk to Tez Anderson, a long-term survivor of HIV, activist and founder of the first and largest group in the world focused on long-term HIV survivors and older adults aging with HIV, Let's Kick ASS (Aids Survivor Syndrome). For transcripts, see individual segment pages.      

Stand Up is a daily podcast. I book,host,edit, post and promote new episodes with brilliant guests every day. Please subscribe now for as little as 5$ and gain access to a community of over 800 awesome, curious, kind, funny, brilliant, generous souls Check out StandUpwithPete.com to learn more 28 mins Dr. Jason Johnson is an associate professor of politics and journalism in the School of Global Journalism & Communication at Morgan State University and author of the book Political Consultants and Campaigns: One Day to Sell. He focuses on campaign politics, political communication, strategy and popular culture. He hosts a podcast on Slate called "A Word" He is a political analyst for MSNBC, SIRIUS XM Satellite Radio and The Grio. He has previously appeared on CNN, Fox News, Al Jazeera, Current TV and CBS. His work has been featured on The Daily Show with Trevor Noah, The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and on ESPN. He has been quoted by The Guardian, The Washington Post, The Washington Times, The Wallstreet Journal, Buzzfeed, The Hill newspaper, the Cleveland Plain Dealer and the Atlanta Journal Constitution. Dr. Johnson is a University of Virginia alumnus and earned his PhD in Political Science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. 1:18 Dr Michael Mann is Distinguished Professor of Atmospheric Science at Penn State, with joint appointments in the Department of Geosciences and the Earth and Environmental Systems Institute He is also director of the Penn State Earth System Science Center  Dr. Mann received his undergraduate degrees in Physics and Applied Math from the University of California at Berkeley, an M.S. degree in Physics from Yale University, and a Ph.D. in Geology & Geophysics from Yale University. His research involves the use of theoretical models and observational data to better understand Earth's climate system. Dr. Mann is author of more than 200 peer-reviewed and edited publications, numerous op-eds and commentaries, and five books including Dire Predictions: Understanding Climate Change, The Hockey Stick and the Climate Wars: Dispatches from the Front Lines, The Madhouse Effect: How Climate Change Denial is Threatening our Planet, Destroying Our Politics, and Driving Us Crazy and The Tantrum that Saved the World. We spoke about his new book The New Climate War: The Fight to Take Back Our Planet. Check out all things Jon Carroll Follow and Support Pete Coe Pete on YouTube Pete on Twitter Pete On Instagram Pete Personal FB page Stand Up with Pete FB page

In 1998, Michael E. Mann and two of his colleagues published the “hockey stick” graph that would revolutionize and galvanize climate activism. It showed the exponential acceleration of global warming since 1900 and that human reliance on carbon-based fuels was making the planet hotter and the climate consequently more unstable. Mann is now a Distinguished Professor of Atmospheric Science at Penn State and has authored several books, including his latest, The New Climate War: The Fight to Take Back Our Planet, a finalist for the 2021 Financial Times and McKinsey Business Book of the Year Award. He joins the podcast to talk about why, after decades of inaction, we're at an existential crossroads: keep doing nothing and watch the planet warm to levels that create catastrophic climate change, or take the necessary steps right now to decarbonize our economy and end our dependence on fossil fuels. Listen to this episode to learn: • How a spate of inactivists and bad actors have deceived, distracted, and delayed meaningful climate action -- and that fighting against this PR and messaging campaign is the battleground of our “new climate war” • Why mainstream messaging that focuses on personal responsibility (i.e., eat less meat, cut back on air travel, lower your carbon footprint) deflects from what's really causing climate change and the big, systematic changes needed to stop it • The vital leadership role companies must play in fighting climate change -- but why corporate greenwashing initiatives and individual “net zero” commitments, while well-intentioned, are not enough • How the financial industry has in many ways been more progressive than most governments in taking meaningful action against climate change • How words like “adaptation” and “resilience” and promises of “technological innovation” are really just forms of distraction and climate inaction • Why Mann is “cautiously optimistic” about our ability to avoid catastrophic climate change

Michael Mann, one of the world's preeminent experts on climate change, said in a Boston Globe editorial published shortly after the devastating storm made landfall in Sept. '21: “Hurricane Ida was a shot across the Earth's bow."  Michael is distinguished professor of atmospheric science at Penn State University, with joint appointments in the Earth and Environmental Systems Institute and the Department of Geosciences and the Earth. He is the author of five best-selling books, including the recently published “The New Climate War: The Fight to Take Back Our Planet” as well as “The Tantrum that Saved the World: A Carbon Neutral Kids' Book” and “The Hockey Stick and the Climate Wars.” In 2019, Michael received the Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement, often called the “Nobel Prize for the Environment,” and in 2020, he was elected to the U.S. National Academy of Sciences. He has written or co-written more than 230 climate-focused academic papers, and is a widely sought-after commentator on the science, societal and political aspects of climate change. Michael tells podcast host Grant Oliphant that it is indeed still possible to avert the most devastating impacts of climate change, and believes indisputable science and a burgeoning youth environmental movement are key to our future. “The forces for action have now aligned,” he said. Learn what we need to do next on this episode of “We Can Be.”   “We Can Be” is hosted by Heinz Endowments President Grant Oliphant, and produced by the Endowments, Josh Franzos and Tim Murray. Theme music by Josh Slifkin. Guest inquiries may be made to Scott Roller at sroller@heinz.org. Guest image by Joshua Yospyn, courtesy michaelmann.net.   

Stand Up is a daily podcast. I book,host,edit, post and promote new episodes with brilliant guests every day. Please subscribe now for as little as 5$ and gain access to a community of over 800 awesome, curious, kind, funny, brilliant, generous souls. Dr Michael Mann is Distinguished Professor of Atmospheric Science at Penn State, with joint appointments in the Department of Geosciences and the Earth and Environmental Systems Institute He is also director of the Penn State Earth System Science Center  Dr. Mann received his undergraduate degrees in Physics and Applied Math from the University of California at Berkeley, an M.S. degree in Physics from Yale University, and a Ph.D. in Geology & Geophysics from Yale University. His research involves the use of theoretical models and observational data to better understand Earth's climate system. Dr. Mann is author of more than 200 peer-reviewed and edited publications, numerous op-eds and commentaries, and five books including Dire Predictions: Understanding Climate Change, The Hockey Stick and the Climate Wars: Dispatches from the Front Lines, The Madhouse Effect: How Climate Change Denial is Threatening our Planet, Destroying Our Politics, and Driving Us Crazy and The Tantrum that Saved the World. We spoke about his new book The New Climate War: The Fight to Take Back Our Planet. Corey Forrester's love for comedy started when he was a toddler watching Carson (and then Leno) from a blanket on the floor next to his daddy Dale. By 2nd grade, he had already informed his teachers that he was going to be a comedian and didn't ever consider another profession. At age 16, he worked up the nerve to do his first open mic (lying about his age to be admitted into the club). Corey spent the next decade hawking jokes in dingy bars and comedy clubs at night then waking up to do random jobs to supplement his income. A house painter, retail associate, motorcycle salesman, urine sample collector, flower delivery boy, hotel maid, college textbook reseller and hay bailer. At one point in his career, he ran a family bakery with his mother where he was considered the “Head Quiche Chef”. Corey's stand up blends humor and common sense into a high energy act that is as full of as many silly faces and goofy jokes as it is emotionally driven tangents. Under his PBR hat is a giant head, and under that are surprisingly thought-provoking rants on society, culture, and politics Listen to his podcast  See him on tour Subscribe to Corey on YouTube Pete on YouTube Pete on Twitter Pete On Instagram Pete Personal FB page Stand Up with Pete FB page

To discuss the ambitions of the climate summit and the very real challenges to President Joe Biden's plans, we're joined by Michael Mann, a climate scientist and professor of atmospheric sciences at Penn State University. He's the author of, "The New Climate War: The Fight to Take Back Our Planet." This reporting is part of the international journalism collaborative called "Covering Climate Now." PBS NewsHour is supported by - https://www.pbs.org/newshour/about/funders

To discuss the ambitions of the climate summit and the very real challenges to President Joe Biden's plans, we're joined by Michael Mann, a climate scientist and professor of atmospheric sciences at Penn State University. He's the author of, "The New Climate War: The Fight to Take Back Our Planet." This reporting is part of the international journalism collaborative called "Covering Climate Now." PBS NewsHour is supported by - https://www.pbs.org/newshour/about/funders

To discuss the ambitions of the climate summit and the very real challenges to President Joe Biden's plans, we're joined by Michael Mann, a climate scientist and professor of atmospheric sciences at Penn State University. He's the author of, "The New Climate War: The Fight to Take Back Our Planet." This reporting is part of the international journalism collaborative called "Covering Climate Now." PBS NewsHour is supported by - https://www.pbs.org/newshour/about/funders

Dr. Michael Mann is considered the most visible and effective climate scientist alive.  He is an active communicator.  He frequently authors op-ed pieces in national publications, carries a full teaching and research schedule and is a climate optimist as he sees not only the climate change, but attitudes change.  In his book, The New Climate War-The Fight to Take Back Our Planet, he names names and tells the world where the enemy of science dwells, what weapons they are using on often unsuspecting Americans.  He tells you why they are fighting, and how science is fighting back, with some interesting and unexpected allies.  He pulls no punches.  If this is a war, he is the commanding general, often wounded in battle, he dresses his wounds and rejoins the fight.  

Podcast: Science Friday (LS 70 · TOP 0.05% what is this?)Episode: Valley Fever And COVID-19, Structure of Conspiracy Theories, New Climate Wars. Jan 15, 2021, Part 2Pub date: 2021-01-15How The West Is Battling COVID-19 And Valley Fever For the past year, the COVID-19 crisis has taken up much of our attention. But the pandemic can come with complications: Some states face an onslaught of pre-existing diseases. In the American West, doctors, scientists, and patients continue to battle valley fever, a respiratory illness caused by breathing in the fungus Coccidioides. In desert hot spots, communities are now facing what doctors at Kern Medical's Valley Fever Institute in Bakersfield, California are calling it a “triple threat”: COVID-19, valley fever, and the flu. Valley fever is already a commonly misdiagnosed disease. Initial symptoms often overlap with other respiratory diseases, raising concern that the pandemic could further delay proper diagnosis. SciFri producer Lauren Young tells the story of patients who have encountered both COVID-19 and valley fever. She speaks with Valley Fever Institute clinicians Rasha Kuran and Arash Heidari about diagnosing the disease, and checks in with UC Merced immunologist Katrina Hoyer on delays in valley fever research during the pandemic.  How To Spot A Conspiracy Theory 2020 was a fruitful year for conspiracy theories: QAnon gained followers, COVID-19 misinformation proliferated in viral YouTube videos, and in November, President Trump helped proliferate the entirely false narrative that the election he'd lost was, in fact, stolen. The details holding these falsehoods together get complicated quickly. But according to a group of researchers at UCLA and the University of California, Berkeley, even the most convoluted of conspiracy theories has a distinct structure. That's different from real-life scandals, which tend to unravel as new evidence emerges—take former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie's ‘Bridgegate' scandal, a completely verified event in which several of the governor's staff and appointees colluded to close toll bridge lanes during morning rush hour, intentionally clogging traffic to the town of Fort Lee, New Jersey. The researchers wrote in the journal PLOS One in June that applying machine learning tools to conspiracy theories reveal them to be less complex than things that actually happen. Ira talks to UC Berkeley's Tim Tangherlini, a co-author on the research, about how these analyses might help actually disarm dangerous conspiracy theories. A New President, An Ongoing Climate Crisis In The New Climate War, author and climate scientist Michael Mann writes that climate messaging is distorted. To prevent a climate crisis, individual actions are useful, but insufficient. In the past, focusing on individual action distracted viewers from focusing on the harm of industrial polluters. For real change, we have to fight the vested interests of the fossil fuel industry.  On January 20th the United States has a new opportunity to do just that. The incoming Biden Administration will have a full plate of issues to tackle—among them, hustling to re-engage with foreign allies, and reversing the climate damage of the last four years. But there is room for cautious optimism. President-elect Biden campaigned more aggressively on climate issues than any of his opponents, and has appointed John Kerry to the newly created position of Climate Envoy within his administration.  Climate scientist Michael Mann joins Ira to discuss what President Biden can do in his first 100 days to show he's serious about enacting climate policy, and his new book The New Climate War: The Fight to Take Back our Planet.The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Science Friday and WNYC Studios, which is the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Listen Notes, Inc.