Busted: The Newest Emission Cheaters

A settlement for the largest civil penalty resulting from the Clean Air Act has just been reached. The EPA, DOJ and the State of California have agreed to a $1.7 billion fine for engine maker Cummins Inc. The fine is the result of Cummins being caught using “defeat devices” to fool emissions testers into thinking the engines pollute less than they really do. 

Does that sound familiar? It’s exactly what Volkswagen was caught doing nearly 10 years ago. VW and Cummins aren’t the only ones; it’s an industry wide problem. So how do we stop the deception? What have we learned since the infamous VW “Dieselgate” scandal?

Rachel Muncrief

Acting Executive Director, ICCT

Hector De La Torre

Member, California Air Resources Board

Margo T. Onge

Former Director, Office of Transportation and Air Quality, U.S. EPA

Alberto Ayala, Ph.D., M.S.E.

Executive Director, Sacramento Metropolitan Air Quality Management District

We are proud to announce the launch of Climate One Plus, our new listener-supported Patreon membership program. For $5/month, Climate One Plus members will receive access to all future Climate One podcast episodes completely ad-free.

As we build our Climate One Plus community, we’ll be setting up ways for members to chat with Climate One staff and co-hosts Greg and Ariana, meet fellow Climate One superfans, and share how we’re thinking about and dealing with climate change. By joining Climate One Plus, you are directly supporting our work and empowering the production of future climate conversations during this critical time.

Tuesday February 27 | 6:00 p.m.

Kumi Naidoo’s path to being an internationally renowned activist started early. At the age of 15, he organized school boycotts against the apartheid educational system in South Africa. His courageous actions made him a target for the Security Police, leading to his exile in the United Kingdom, where he remained until 1990. 

Upon his return to South Africa, Naidoo played a pivotal role in the legalization of the African National Congress in his home province of KwaZulu-Natal. As former chief of both Amnesty International and Greenpeace International, Naidoo is uniquely qualified to talk about pressuring governments and companies to protect human rights and our environment.

Join Climate One co-host Greg Dalton in a live conversation with scholar/activist Kumi Naidoo on how the international drive away from fossil fuels relates to human rights and economic justice. 

When the San Francisco 49ers and Kansas City Chiefs kickoff Super Bowl LVIII on Sunday, the players and coaches will seek to make history on the field. But for climate observers, the arena housing that field has already secured its place in the record books, with Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas announcing it will be the first Super Bowl host to power the game entirely using renewable energy. 

The biggest television spectacle of the year requires a lot of power — more than 10 megawatts, or the equivalent of approximately 46,000 homes. Thanks to Nevada’s booming solar industry, the state has more than enough solar power electrical generation capacity to power Allegiant Stadium, with Las Vegas’ home team, the Raiders, announcing back in October 2023 that the arena had fully converted to 100% renewable energy.

However, the second-order carbon emissions created by the Super Bowl remain enormous. A standard NFL game generates 35 tons of waste, and that figure increases by 50% for the Super Bowl. And for the rich and famous who love to see and be seen at the Super Bowl, simply getting to the game is an emissions-heavy ordeal. For example, singer Taylor Swift, whose partner Travis Kelce plays for the Chiefs, confirmed she will travel to the game from her concert in Tokyo the night before using her private jet, creating an estimated 200,000 pounds of carbon emissions.

PLUS:

While televised award shows like the Oscars, Grammys, and Emmys dominate the headlines, Hollywood has been quietly commending shows, movies, actors, and musicians for their environmental awareness efforts for more than three decades. The 33rd annual Environmental Media Awards (EMA), which were delayed from October to January due to the writers’ and actors’ strikes, bestowed awards upon “Avatar: The Way of the Water,” Laura Dern, and “What Am I Eating? With Zooey Deschanel,” among others.

As the climate crisis steadily impacts more aspects of our lives, producers and directors are finally embracing climate on the big screen. Director — and EMA award winner — Scott Z. Burns and Anna Jane Joyner, CEO of Good Energy, joined Climate One last year to discuss the growing presence of climate in our media. Their conversation with Greg and Ariana is available on all major podcast platforms.

Source: Financial Times/Yard

Do you listen to Climate One on Google Podcasts? If so, you should act now to migrate your subscriptions to YouTube Music, as Google announced that Google Podcasts is shutting down at the end of March. 

There is good news. Google launched a simple tool that allows you to transfer your Google Podcasts activity to YouTube Music or another podcast app of your choice. Furthermore, we at Climate One have prepared for the change by making more than three years of our podcast library available on YouTube Music, with each future episode to be shared to the platform as well. 

No matter how you listen to our show, we appreciate you!