Elizabeth Kolbert on Climate Rhetoric vs Climate Reality

The Climate Pod

In 2021, Greta Thunberg spoke to the youth climate movement at an event leading up to COP26. Her famous "Blah, Blah, Blah" speech contrasted all of the things world leaders had said about the climate crisis and what those same leaders had actually done to reduce emissions and create policies to mitigate and adapt to the climate crisis. Three years later, very little has changed. Of the 128 countries that set Net Zero goals, only five percent have taken the required first steps toward achieving those goals.

Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Elizabeth Kolbert joins the podcast this week to discuss how the climate crisis gets talked about by world leaders, activists, scientists, and the media may differ from the actual facts of the world's warming situation. Her new book "H is for Hope: Climate Change from A to Z" is a collection of 26 essays on various aspects of the climate crisis which tell the complete picture of what's going on, what's led us to this point, and where we could go from here.

Like Elizabeth's previous books, such as "Field Notes from a Catastrophe", "The Sixth Extinction", and "Under a White Sky", "H is for Hope" is an insightful and sobering book from one of today's great climate writers.

Read "H is for Hope"

As always, follow us @climatepod on Twitter and email us at [e-mail]. Our music is "Gotta Get Up" by The Passion Hifi, check out his music at thepassionhifi.com. Rate, review and subscribe to this podcast on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, and more! Subscribe to our YouTube channel! Join our Facebook group.