EarthX Website: https://earthxmedia.com/
AI and the environment; roofing made from oyster shells; analyzing climate change and natural disasters; a blue marble with a big message; California billionaires invest in a sustainable community.
About EarthxNews:
A weekly program dedicated to covering the stories that shape the planet. Featuring the latest updates in energy, environment, tech, climate, and more.
EarthX & EarthXtra
Love Our Planet.
The Official Network of Earth Day.
About Us:
At EarthX, we believe our planet is a pretty special place. The people, landscapes, and critters are likely unique to the entire universe, so we consider ourselves lucky to be here. We are committed to protecting the environment by inspiring conservation and sustainability, and our programming along with our range of expert hosts support this mission. We’re glad you’re with us.
EarthX is a media company dedicated to inspiring people to care about the planet. We take an omni channel approach to reach audiences of every age through its robust 24/7 linear channel distributed across cable and FAST outlets, along with dynamic, solution oriented short form content on social and digital platforms. EarthX is home to original series, documentaries and snackable content that offer sustainable solutions to environmental challenges. EarthX is the only network that delivers entertaining and inspiring topics that impact and inspire our lives on climate and sustainability.
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AI and the environment; roofing made from oyster shells; analyzing climate change and natural disasters; a blue marble with a big message; California billionaires invest in a sustainable community.
About EarthxNews:
A weekly program dedicated to covering the stories that shape the planet. Featuring the latest updates in energy, environment, tech, climate, and more.
EarthX & EarthXtra
Love Our Planet.
The Official Network of Earth Day.
About Us:
At EarthX, we believe our planet is a pretty special place. The people, landscapes, and critters are likely unique to the entire universe, so we consider ourselves lucky to be here. We are committed to protecting the environment by inspiring conservation and sustainability, and our programming along with our range of expert hosts support this mission. We’re glad you’re with us.
EarthX is a media company dedicated to inspiring people to care about the planet. We take an omni channel approach to reach audiences of every age through its robust 24/7 linear channel distributed across cable and FAST outlets, along with dynamic, solution oriented short form content on social and digital platforms. EarthX is home to original series, documentaries and snackable content that offer sustainable solutions to environmental challenges. EarthX is the only network that delivers entertaining and inspiring topics that impact and inspire our lives on climate and sustainability.
EarthX Website: https://earthxmedia.com/
Follow Us:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/earthxmedia/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/earthxmedia
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/EarthXMedia/
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@earthxmedia
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@EarthXMedia
Dailymotion: https://www.dailymotion.com/earthxmedia
How to watch:
EarthX - Cable:
- Spectrum
- AT&T U-verse (1267)
- DIRECTV (267)
- Philo
- FuboTV
EarthXtra - Streaming:
- Plex
- Fire TV
- Xumo
- Sling
#EarthDay #Environment #Sustainability #EcoFriendly #Conservation #EarthX
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TVTranscript
00:00Artificial intelligence is all the buzz in the business sector, but can its vines also strangle the environment? A new report should give us pause and roofing made from dinner party waste. Would you use this shockingly good technique to keep your building cool? Plus is the push for zero carbon emissions by 2050 feasible or is it a pipe dream? We'll discuss with lead climatologist who sees it from both sides and what is so special
00:29about this little blue marble. That answer later.
00:40Hello and welcome to the world's first show dedicated entirely to sustainability and the environment. This is EarthX News. I'm Christina Thompson. Let's get you caught up on some of the biggest headlines facing our planet. Did climate change play a major role in the extreme devastation in Libya after a deadly
00:59cyclone dumped more than 16 inches of rain onto the area in a 24 hour period. Major dams collapsed and thousands of people were killed with the flash flooding. Some experts say they suspect that warmer seawater gave the storm immense energy. However, scientists were hesitant to singularly blame climate change for the storm. One atmospheric scientists at the University of Albany saying, quote, factors could be at play, but it's difficult to attribute a single weather event to climate change.
01:28Now, just to name some of those factors that contributed to the catastrophe, the aging and crumbling infrastructure and inadequate warnings. East Libyan officials say at least 5,500 people were killed in the floods, though the death toll could reach as many as 20,000. Nearly a quarter of the city of Derna, home to about 90,000 people, was washed away by the flood. That's according to the Libyan government.
01:51And cleanup efforts are full force ahead in Maui. But how to accomplish this massive undertaking sustainably? One of the groups forging the way is the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Environmental engineers and biologists are working with local, state and federal agencies to remove debris from those devastating wildfires.
02:11The agency will help clean up while reducing the risks to people and the environment as the Hawaiian island recovers and protecting the earth comes at a cost.
02:21The startling numbers are in and environmental activists were reportedly killed at a rate of one every other day in 2022.
02:29That's 177 people. According to the NGO Global Witness, most of these murders, about one fifth, happened in the Amazon rainforest.
02:38The report pointing to organized crime and land invaders as being behind the murders.
02:43Plus, a new bombshell report that details how artificial intelligence might not just significantly alter our society, but our earth as well.
02:52Reportedly touted as green, scientists are now sounding the alarm that AI could contribute to the climate crisis in a massive way through emissions and vast amount of water consumption.
03:03It's because of the computer systems and server farms needed to power the AI systems.
03:08Now, even if companies put in place green initiatives, it likely won't cancel out the scale of impact on the planet.
03:15And it might sound like something out of a sci-fi movie, but I promise it is real life.
03:20The Scottish government is building a giant battery in a hollowed out mountain that will help the country reach its net zero target.
03:27The nearly $600 million project will expand a hydro storage plant in the west of the country.
03:34It works as a sort of hydroelectric energy generator.
03:37Turbines pump water from a lower pool into an upper pool to charge the battery.
03:42When electricity is needed, the water is released and hydroelectric power is generated.
03:47And the late singer-songwriter Jimmy Buffett is being remembered by environmental groups for his conservation efforts in protecting manatees, coral reefs, and lobbying efforts for the reauthorization of the Endangered Species Act.
04:00One of Buffett's most lasting efforts was his creation of the Save the Manatees Club.
04:05His committee has been educating the public about endangered manatees in the Florida waters since the 80s.
04:10And mark your calendars because National Manatee Appreciation Day is March 27th next year.
04:17And a company in France is shucking out some groundbreaking technology.
04:21They are painting roofs with oyster shells, helping to cut down the hundreds of thousands of tons of oyster shell waste in France and AC consumption too.
04:31Cool Roof France figured out you can replace traditional calcium and paint with calcium that naturally makes up the outside of an oyster shell.
04:38They found that oyster-enriched paint is actually far more durable than traditional paint.
04:44The oyster calcium adds a sort of crustacean power to the paint, reflecting 90% of the sun's rays away from the building and lowering the average temperature by 6 to 7 degrees,
04:55which means buildings can stay cool using 30 to 50% less energy.
05:01California lawmakers passed a new bill.
05:03It requires large companies to release their carbon emissions if they make more than a billion dollars a year.
05:09It's the first of its kind and could lead to more states following suit.
05:12Supporters say the bill would allow investors and consumers to see full transparent data on a company's emissions
05:18and compare if it aligns with their verbal environmental promises.
05:23Critics of the bill say the emissions estimates could be inaccurate and would lead to unnecessary burdens on companies.
05:28According to the Environmental Protection Agency, the Inflation Reduction Act should cut economy-wide carbon emissions by up to 43% compared to 2005 levels.
05:40The EPA just released their first report on the 2022 Climate and Infrastructure Law.
05:45The report estimates that by 2030, the carbon emissions from electricity will be 11 to 67% lower than if the act was never signed into law.
05:55And of course, right now, the climate is a big concern.
05:59Protests around the globe are ramping up, pushing messages like fossil fuels kill and declare a climate emergency.
06:06In New York City, thousands of protesters kicked off Climate Week,
06:10filling the streets of Manhattan to send a message during the U.N. General Assembly.
06:15They want world leaders to take notice, blaming recent wildfire devastation and powerful storms on climate change.
06:22Still, not everyone believes in the effects of climate change.
06:25Some scientists stating the alarm over climate change is sensationalized and not as pressing a threat as some environmentalists would make you believe.
06:33So what should we be thinking?
06:35Joining me now to discuss, climatologist Judy Curry.
06:38Judy, welcome in. Thank you so much for joining us.
06:41Thank you for inviting me.
06:43Judy, your work previously argued that climate change could be behind a steady increase in strengths of hurricanes through the years.
06:50But then some critics pointed out that they noticed a few holes in your research and you actually agreed with them.
06:56Can you tell me about that?
06:57Okay, well, we pointed out that there was a doubling of the percent of Category 4 and 5 hurricanes since 1970.
07:11And critics of our work pointed out that the data prior to 1985 was inadequate.
07:18And I have to say I agreed with them.
07:21And they also pointed out that a lot of this could be explained by natural climate variability and not just the warming trend.
07:30And I looked into that and I would have to say they're right about that also.
07:35So this triggered a change in how I regard that whole issue.
07:42Interesting.
07:43So some recent articles state that the global emissions reduction targets simply can't be reached on such aggressive timetables without lowering human quality of life.
07:51I'm wondering if you agree with this and if there's a way that we can lower our carbon footprint in a way that's sustainable, both for the environment and human society.
08:03Well, my new book, Climate Uncertainty and Risk, I mean, deals explicitly with this issue.
08:09I mean, all of these targets and deadlines are basically made up political deadlines.
08:16They don't have any foundation in solid risk analysis.
08:21And, you know, the challenge that we're facing is that we vastly oversimplified the climate change problem and its solutions.
08:29And we we need to rethink here all of these deadlines and climate alarmism are driving false solutions and stand to make us worse off.
08:43And if we had just, you know, followed a trajectory slowly, you know, over the course of the 21st century towards cleaner, more abundant and cheaper sources of energy, wind and solar just aren't the solution.
09:01And the longer we go in that direction, the worse off we're going to be in the long run.
09:05Do you think that it's possible that environmental scientists sometimes sensationalize their findings to create sort of a hysteria over climate change that gives them any sort of wealth or fame?
09:16Well, in all honesty, it's the politicians and the media, you know, who have overt political agendas that are driving the alarm.
09:27Yes, there are some activist climate scientists who support all that and don't speak out when they see something, you know, really wrong.
09:35But it's really driven by politicians and the media more so than climate scientists themselves, in my opinion.
09:43We've been seeing some pretty terrible natural disasters recently, the dam break in Libya, wildfires in Australia, California, Maui, the Pakistan mudslides.
09:52Do you think that these events are amplified because of human impact on the earth?
09:56We've always had bad weather, you know, since, you know, for the last 4.6 billion years and certainly as long as humans have been on the planet, we're having bad weather now.
10:08We will have bad weather in the future.
10:11The challenge is to reduce our vulnerability to bad weather.
10:15I mean, the situation with Libya was well-known weaknesses and breaches in their dam system, which really caused the catastrophe.
10:24Our land use policies, you know, many things that we're doing, we're making ourselves more vulnerable to these extreme weather events.
10:35And we need to manage that vulnerability.
10:37Even if we were successful at eliminating CO2 emissions, we're not going to get rid of bad weather.
10:42We just need to disabuse ourselves of that idea and get on with trying to better understand, improve our infrastructure, and improve our emergency management protocols in order to minimize the damage from these extreme weather events.
11:01All right, climatologist Judith Curry, we appreciate your expertise and insight.
11:05Thank you for joining us.
11:07And coming up, what is so special about this little blue marble?
11:12The answer is next on EarthX News.
11:16There's too much brown encroaching and there's too much white melting.
11:26The world is fragile.
11:29And if the world were this size, the atmosphere around it would probably be about two molecules thick.
11:39The world is fragile.
12:09EarthX.
12:10It's an international nonprofit environmental organization with a mission to inspire people and organizations to take action towards a more sustainable future.
12:19In other words, they're saving the world.
12:21It was started by Tremel Crow in 2010 as Earth Day Dallas before growing exponentially into what it is today.
12:28Now, Crow recently attended Climate Week in New York City, but we were lucky enough to sit down with him for an exclusive one-on-one.
12:34Well, when I was a kid, I learned to believe in the environment at an early age.
12:42And when I was a kid, one didn't think about having a career that did good as well as did well.
12:52The mentality was, when I reach the end of my days and retire, then I can start doing good.
12:59So environment was always the goal for me.
13:03I said, what the heck?
13:04Earth Days in five months?
13:06Let's just have an Earth Day.
13:07And so it turned out really to be a great move because Earth Days aren't held so much anymore.
13:13So we've become the biggest one.
13:16What made you fall in love with the environment even as a kid?
13:18Growing up in the 60s or on the cover of Saturday Evening Post, there'd be a river on fire or a forest fire or some remarkable example of environmental injustice.
13:34And we had never seen it before.
13:35People had never been made aware of environmental degradation, of possible species endangerment.
13:44So I think it hit a lot of us.
13:46And suddenly EarthX grew to something much bigger.
13:49What was that like?
13:50How did that growth happen?
13:51What we have done has been more multidimensional, more inclusive, and more topics and subjects than, I believe, any other environmental event.
14:03We just don't get hung up on climate all the time.
14:05Right.
14:06Although we might all get hung up on climate someday.
14:09So EarthX was the only way we could try to make a symbol that could include it all.
14:16Fill in the blank.
14:18Something that you say that I think is great is we welcome all viewpoints.
14:21You know, that dialogue is very important.
14:24I think that a lot of us have lost even just the ability to sit across from someone and talk to someone who might have a different belief from us
14:30and be able to hold any form of a civil conversation.
14:33So how do you kind of pair the two, making sure that we reach the collective goal of sustaining our environment while still listening to people who might have a whole realm of different viewpoints?
14:47You know, different viewpoints doesn't mean for and against, and it doesn't mean necessarily denial.
14:54But to have the diversity of topic and opinion, but again, not so much for and against as how do you crack the nut?
15:04We're all heading towards the same goal.
15:07Right.
15:08We just don't know it yet.
15:09And everyone's goal should be able to continue living on a planet that it's the only one we've known.
15:14Yeah, there's only one of them.
15:15Only one of them, which also brings me to the marvel.
15:17You brought in these marvels and you gave it to us and you said there's only one of these.
15:23Take care of it.
15:25How did this become your thing?
15:27The blue marble.
15:30There's only one of them.
15:31We have it in our hand like it's something so small and insignificant and replaceable, but stop.
15:42There's only one of those.
15:44Save the world.
15:46Species, ocean, soil, environment, conservation, climate is an overarching issue.
15:53Really, one of our missions is to bring people together and environmentalists and conservationists together, politicians, private property owners, NGOs.
16:10So how can you put all that into a mission statement?
16:13That must be tough to work with different leaders and nations across the globe.
16:18Well, you cannot avoid the problems.
16:21The environment knows no borders, right?
16:26And it is difficult.
16:30Getting the attention of the governments is not hard.
16:33And all the little islands spread through the South Pacific, they are painfully aware of their threat.
16:39How would you like to be on a little island looking at a horizon like this, knowing that it's rising inexorably and you're sitting there?
16:51So, it doesn't matter how easy it is, it's compelling.
16:56This is the blue marble.
16:58There's more blue than there is green.
17:03There's too much brown encroaching.
17:07And there's too much white melting.
17:10The world is fragile.
17:16The atmosphere is so tiny and so precious that we must preserve it.
17:23That message is so powerful.
17:27There is only one little blue marble in the entire universe.
17:31It's our Earth.
17:32And we only get one of them.
17:34So we need to take care of it.
17:35It's simple to state.
17:37It's harder to practice on a global scale.
17:39But that's what EarthX News is here to help with.
17:42Coming up, a 100% green city in the middle of California.
17:46Is it possible?
17:48Tech billionaires think that they can do it.
17:50Stay with EarthX News.
18:01Silicon Valley billionaires went on an $800 million land-buying spree in a small town in Northern California.
18:09And now we know why.
18:10They want to create a sort of sustainable utopia in Solano, a rural community between San Francisco and Sacramento,
18:17where 450,000 people call home.
18:20The tech execs promising thousands of new homes, high-paying jobs, solar farms, and rolling fields of space.
18:26The question now is, can it be done?
18:29The executives released some details about their plans for a new green city on a website called California Forever.
18:38The project plans show this new city covering 78 square miles of farmland within Solano.
18:44But to get anywhere close to bringing to life, they still must win over voters and local leaders on the ballot to allow for urban uses on that land, as it's had protections in place since 1984.
18:59That's where Jan Schrammack comes in, a former Goldman Sachs trader and the face of those deep pockets, who now is the largest single landholder in the country.
19:08He's already meeting with politicians that represent that area, talking up his first string roster of Silicon Valley entrepreneurs and venture capitalists that are backing the project.
19:19The list includes philanthropists, the LinkedIn co-founder and venture capitalists, but Solano County voters are wary of the group's intentions, especially Princess Washington, Mayor Pro Tem of Sassoon City, a city directly near Travis Air Force Base, a city that, she says, deliberately has worked to protect that open space and keep the area around the military base free of encroachment, given how significant that base is.
19:46The better thing would be to approach our city leaders and work with us within our city boundaries, not to create a new city.
19:53I think that endeavor is a bit self-motivated with their own end goal, which is to create a new playground for who they want there versus what the needs of our residences are and our community members.
20:06Project developers said they will protect the military base and farmers who want to keep farming on their parcels can do so.
20:13But she's suspicious that the group's real purpose is to create a city for the elite under the guise of more housing.
20:20You see, the investors are pushing what California desperately needs, more housing.
20:25California is in dire need of affordable homes for teachers, firefighters, service and hospital workers.
20:32But cities and counties have not been able to figure out where to build new homes.
20:36The mayor of Rio Vista, a city surrounded by the newly purchased land, says the proposed new city could solve that problem.
20:44After all, it is 60 miles northeast of San Francisco and 35 miles southwest of California's capital city of Sacramento.
20:52And Solano County homes are among the most affordable in the San Francisco Bay Area, with a median sales price of $600,000.
20:59But it would also create a new problem, congestion.
21:04This proposal will solve some of those problems.
21:08We probably will get better medical access.
21:10We probably will get better storage.
21:11We'll get better restaurants.
21:12But we're going to get a lot more traffic.
21:14We're going to get a lot more congestion.
21:16The current infrastructure, which largely consists of two-lane roads, can barely support the congestion as is.
21:22Add in the thousands of proposed homes on the California Forever website, and this area would be facing a massive transportation crisis.
21:30If it's done correctly, I think there's a lot of opportunities for the county.
21:34But again, I think you're giving up a quality of lifestyle that's kind of unique to this area.
21:39You don't really have this a whole lot of other places.
21:42The tech execs are in the process of sending pamphlets and surveys to residents.
21:47They did not respond to our request for an interview.
21:49That's it for EarthX News.
21:51We'll see you here next week.
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