Policy Topics

PNWcurrents Episode V is live: This month, we discuss the impacts of climate damage

A few weeks ago, the Unit­ed Nations’ Inter­gov­ern­men­tal Pan­el on Cli­mate Change — also known by its acronym IPCC — issued their sixth assess­ment of the Earth’s cli­mate con­firm­ing, with sober­ing cer­tain­ty, what cli­mate experts have been warn­ing us about for decades: the Earth is warming.

And much more quick­ly than pre­vi­ous­ly thought.

Warn­ing of ris­ing sea lev­els, increas­ing glob­al tem­per­a­tures, extreme weath­er events, and strained tol­er­ance lev­els for glob­al agri­cul­ture and human health, cli­mate sci­en­tists char­ac­ter­ized the report as a “Code Red” for humanity.

Cli­mate sci­en­tists are urg­ing the world com­mu­ni­ty to act imme­di­ate­ly in order to mit­i­gate even worse ram­i­fi­ca­tions than what we’ve seen in recent months.

The Pacif­ic North­west has arguably nev­er felt the effects of cli­mate dam­age more keen­ly than this past sum­mer. Dan­ger­ous wild­fires raced across Cas­ca­dia, an unprece­dent­ed heat dome shat­tered tem­per­a­ture records across the region, result­ing in many lives lost, and farms and fish­eries strug­gled to cope with drought con­di­tions and low or ruined yields.

With the 26th UN Cli­mate Change Con­fer­ence of the Par­ties (COP26) about to begin in Glas­gow, Scot­land, we’re pleased to bring you an impacts-focused pan­el dis­cus­sion with three cli­mate sci­en­tists in this mon­th’s episode of PNWcur­rents, NPI’s unique­ly region­al pod­cast, which I am thrilled and hon­ored to host.

You can lis­ten to this episode on demand using the play­er below. You can also down­load it to lis­ten any­where using your favorite pod­cast­ing app or service.

Want to read the tran­script and get more details on the episode’s production?

Just launch the ded­i­cat­ed page for Episode V!

Pre­sent­ed in a pan­el for­mat, PNWcur­rents brings togeth­er thinkers, activists, elect­ed rep­re­sen­ta­tives, and top­i­cal experts to have con­struc­tive con­ver­sa­tions about local and region­al pol­i­tics, pol­i­cy, major issues, and ideas that impact the Pacif­ic North­west. It’s a forum for per­cep­tive dis­course like no other.

Join­ing me for Episode V are:

  • Karin Bum­ba­co, Assis­tant State Cli­ma­tol­o­gist for Wash­ing­ton. An atmos­pher­ic sci­ence expert, Karin’s research has been focus­ing on heat­waves, droughts, sur­face tem­per­a­tures, and their effects on the sur­round­ing environments.
  • Pro­fes­sor Lar­ry O’Neill, State Cli­ma­tol­o­gist for Ore­gon and Asso­ciate Pro­fes­sor at Ore­gon State Uni­ver­si­ty. Larry’s research exam­ines the inter­ac­tions between the atmos­phere and the ocean, sea tem­per­a­tures, and North­ern Pacif­ic weath­er patterns.
  • Dr. Jef­frey Hicke, Pro­fes­sor in the Depart­ment of Geog­ra­phy at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Ida­ho. Jeffrey’s work inves­ti­gates the inter­ac­tion between of flo­ra, fau­na and var­i­ous glob­al cli­mate dis­tur­bances. He also con­tributed to the sec­tion on North Amer­i­ca in the IPCC’s sixth cli­mate assess­ment report.

Because PNWcur­rents is a pod­cast avail­able on demand, you can lis­ten to episodes any­time: while gar­den­ing, while jog­ging, while run­ning errands, while work­ing on a home improve­ment project, or draft­ing a let­ter to your local offi­cials request­ing they imple­ment poli­cies to cut emissions…the choice is yours!

Pro­duc­ing PNWcur­rents requires mon­ey as well as time and energy.

We think it’s worth it, and we hope you will, too.

We invite you to sup­port the pro­duc­tion of PNWcur­rents by becom­ing a mem­ber of the North­west Pro­gres­sive Insti­tute if you aren’t already!

You can donate month­ly as a Com­mon­wealth Bond­hold­er, or annually.

Thank you for lis­ten­ing, and I hope you enjoy Episode V!

Caya Berndt

Caya is a Northwest Progressive Institute contributor based out of Spokane, Washington, writing about Lilac City politics, the Evergreen State's 5th Congressional District, and related politics. She previously hosted the inaugural episodes of NPI's PNWcurrents podcast. She works at the Unemployment Law Project and is a graduate of Central Washington University, with a bachelor's degree in liberal arts and sciences. Caya also has a minor from CWU in law and justice.

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