Climate Policy Wonk Turned Indie Pop Star: AJR’s Adam Met

Adam Met is a behind-the-scenes climate policy powerhouse. He also happens to be the bass player in the award-winning indie pop group AJR. During Met’s time away from touring the world and rocking the bass in front of thousands of fans, he and the team at Planet Reimagined, the thought and action tank Met founded, set out on a cross country listening tour in order to better understand how to create bipartisan climate policy.

What they came up with is a plan to help renewable energy projects get built on land that has already been approved for fossil fuel projects, thus cutting down on the time and red tape required to get the projects up and running. Met also works with organizations like Reverb to help decarbonize the concert experience. 

Adam Met

Bassist for AJR, founder of Planet Reimagined

Lara Seaver

Director of touring & projects, REVERB

Climate Heroes In Your Neighborhood with Matt Scott
Tuesday June 25 | 6:00 p.m.
There are climate heroes among us everywhere, but many go unnoticed in the thrum of everyday life. Matt Scott, director of storytelling and engagement at Project Drawdown, has been shining a light on the work of such people in cities across the country in his documentary short series “Drawdown’s Neighborhood.” In Atlanta, Pittsburgh, New Orleans and more, Scott lifts up underrepresented voices of those engaging in climate issues directly in their communities. And that diversity of voices — of women, Black people, Indigenous people, and people of color — is itself the point. “By passing the mic to underrepresented people working on the frontlines of climate change, we hope to share as many of these stories as possible while reshaping who society sees as climate heroes,” says Scott. 

The San Francisco Bay Area is the latest region in Drawdown’s Neighborhood, with full episodes premiering in August 2024. Join us for this unique Climate One event, as Scott hosts a live conversation with local climate heroes and showcases the diversity of people taking action all across the country to meaningfully address climate change.

From the Midwest to the East Coast, about 150 million people are sweltering in a heat wave, with at least half of them under some form of heat advisory. The Pacific Northwest, historically known for foggy summers, also experienced record-breaking heat in 2021, when the term “heat dome” began gaining prominence. 

According to research from Columbia University, these episodes aren’t one-offs. Summers are indeed getting hotter, with dangerous consequences for women and girls, low-income households, migrants and other vulnerable populations. High temperatures also uniquely impact people who work in heat-prone conditions, such as outdoor farms, restaurant kitchens and poorly ventilated warehouses.  

The increasing dangers are prompting labor, health and environmental justice advocates to have FEMA designate extreme heat as a major disaster, the way it does with tornadoes, hurricanes, wildfires and earthquakes. Juanita Constible from the Natural Resources Defense Council explains why this push has been an uphill challenge: “After a hurricane, after a big storm, there's devastation galore. There's power lines down and buildings destroyed and entire businesses just blown away. [With heat,] most of the people that are hurt are essentially invisible to decision makers. They die alone in their homes. They are unhoused and are dying on the street.” 

The policy change would help unlock federal funds to help state and local governments straining to pay for emergency responses, many of which have been growing in scope due to climate change. 

PLUS:

Juneteenth, observed on June 19, is a federal holiday in the United States that commemorates the emancipation of enslaved African Americans. It marks a joyful celebration of freedom and resilience, and serves as an important reminder of our ongoing pursuit of climate justice and equity.

In our episode Dismantling White Supremacy to Address the Climate Crisis, we spoke with Leah Thomas and Hop Hopkins about the pernicious roots of racism in the climate crisis and explored the possibilities in building a just and equitable world through an intersectionalist approach. The conversation took place more than two years ago, but the wisdom from our guests still holds true today – and well worth a re-listen. 

More than three quarters of announced clean energy investments are in Republican districts

Source: Rhodium Group, MIT Center for Energy and Environmental Policy Research

Did you notice a new voice on the latest episode of Climate One?

That'd be Alana Casanova-Burgess, who’s guest hosting the program this summer while Greg is on sabbatical. Alana is an award-winning audio journalist and host of the podcast La Brega, a bilingual podcast dedicated to telling the stories of the Puerto Rican experience. 

Our team has lots of fun projects in the works this summer, including the return of audio engineer extraordinaire Austin Colón to the mic as co-host. Whether you're a regular listener or tuning in for the first time, subscribe to Climate One on your pod player of choice to ensure you don't miss a thing this summer.