The ultimate carbon removal podcast playlist

So, you’re interested in carbon removal and curious about working in the climate space. But you’re not sure how your skills might apply, and you don’t know where to begin learning about the different types of carbon sequestration or the major players in the industry.

John Sanchez, Founder and Curriculum Designer at Carbon Removal Academy, shares his take on what makes a climate community valuable and discusses the debate around ecological versus industrial sequestration. Listen in to understand how John’s love of literature informs his work in carbon removal and learn how his experiences can help YOU uncover your climate affinity and then apply your skills to reversing climate change.

Many indigenous communities see the climate crisis as another form of colonialism. First World countries have colonized the atmosphere with their greenhouse gas emissions. And there is a risk that carbon removal infrastructure reinforces business-as-usual. So, what is the best approach to decolonizing the atmosphere? How can we tackle climate change in a way that fits with broader progressive goals around equity and social justice?

On this episode of Reversing Climate Change, Dr. Mazurek joins Ross to discuss what the Biden administration is doing to make ‘historic strides on climate’ and explain what carbon removal measures are left out of the Biden-Harris climate agenda.

Dr. Mazurek explores why it’s politically beneficial to lead with rural resilience and job opportunities as opposed to carbon removal, describing how ClimateWorks grantees partner with unions to garner support for DAC. Listen in for Dr. Mazurek’s insight on the challenges associated with carbon pricing and find out why it’s crucial to engage front line communities in the discussion around carbon removal.

Many corporations, organizations, and governments have made net zero commitments, and most are leaning on voluntary carbon offsetting to achieve these climate goals. But how can we be sure that such carbon offsets demonstrate a real change in the atmosphere? And how can we approach offsetting in a way that gives rise to an actual net zero society?

Eli Mitchell-Larson is a climate researcher and PhD candidate at the University of Oxford and the corresponding author of The Oxford Principles for Net Zero Aligned Carbon Offsetting.

Eli describes why he advocates for a shift to carbon removal offsetting and long-lived storage, discussing why he believes nature-based solutions are crucial—but may not be appropriate for carbon markets. Listen in to understand the argument of why companies must support the development of net zero aligned offsetting (and what that might look like) and learn how you can get involved in Eli’s burgeoning advocacy organization that serves as a champion for carbon removal.

There’s a lot of advice on how to reduce your carbon footprint. But everything seems to come with a caveat. You can stop eating meat, but do synthetic meats require monoculture? You can boycott Bitcoin, but would that make the grid itself any cleaner? You can drive an electric car, but its battery is made with rare minerals. So, how do you make choices that really move the needle?

How are you spending your time? Is it aligned with what you genuinely care about? In 2018, Heidi Lim quit her role in enterprise software to solve climate change full-time. What steps did she take to identify a new, purpose-driven path and then land a role in carbon removal?

Heidi is the Chief of Staff at Opus 12, a company working to recycle CO2 into cost-competitive chemicals and fuels, and the author of two popular Medium articles, ‘We Need to Talk About Carbon Removal’ and ‘Chasing a Job with Purpose’. On this episode of Reversing Climate Change, Heidi joins Ross to walk us through her process for finding meaningful work, explaining what inspired her to pursue a role in the carbon removal space.

There is a temptation to believe that science and technology will save us from climate change, while we continue business as usual. But we have already emitted huge levels of CO2 into the atmosphere, and it’s going to take both carbon capture at the source and direct air capture (DAC) from ambient air to make a dent in the record atmospheric concentration of 415ppm we hit in 2019.

Dr. Jennifer Wilcox is the James H. Manning Chaired Professor of Chemical Engineering at Worcester Polytechnic Institute and the author of the first textbook on carbon capture. In this episode, Dr. Wilcox joins Ross and Christophe to discuss the distinction between carbon capture in general and direct air capture specifically and explain why we need both strategies to succeed in reversing climate change.

Dr. Jane Zelikova is the Chief Scientist at Carbon180, a carbon removal think tank on a mission to fundamentally rethink carbon, and cofounder of 500 Women Scientists, a nonprofit dedicated to transforming the leadership, diversity, and public engagement in science. On this episode of the Reversing Climate Change, Jane joins Ross and Christophe to discuss the challenges of measuring the carbon content of soil and the projections around how much CO2 we can sequester with improved management practices.