Hi everyone, I'm Katie Kuric, and this is next question. As many of you know, one has already been a brutal year for extreme weather events. We begin tonight with devastating weather in Tennessee. More than twenty people are dead, dozens are missing after extreme flooding this week. Wildfires devastating the West Coast and other parts of the country from California to New Mexico and Alaska and Minnesota. Tonight, the South is frozen solid states struggling to recover from punishing sub zero temperatures. These events are a real reality check that leaves little doubt that climate change is here and affecting all corners of the Earth. What can be one of the coldest places on Earth is on fire. More than two dozen tornadoes have already been reported. Noah designating the storm a rare level five, the highest severity risk for the first time in recorded history. The National Weather Service issuing a flash flood emergency for all five boroughs of New York City. I remember when Hurricane Katrina hit. I traveled down to New Orleans to report on it in person. You know, it's one thing to see New Orleans on television, but when you see it in person. The devastation is overwhelming. We're right now about two blocks away from St. Charles Street, which is, of course, the major thoroughfare in the Garden. Katrina, for me, still stands as a marker for when these big weather events really started to become a regular part of the news. You can't underestimate the fury of a storm like this. It turned streets into rivers, it brings down sections of buildings, and just a few minutes ago we watched that boat sail right down the Staith Dave Price has covered his fair share of newsbreaking weather stories. That's because he's a weather anchor for NBC four here in New York. Typically, when weather like this happens, we had to a plane and we head to the south of the Midwest. But it is an hour backyard New York City where we are. We're in a park in Queens, New York. Just to give you an idea if you're not from this area. Dave Price, Welcome to the podcast. Great to have you, always, good to see you, my dear um. Let's talk first about you, your favorite topic, before we get into climate change. I thought we'd really get to know you a little bit how did you become a weather man? It was kind of a long and winding road, wasn't it, Dave Well, I mean very condensed version is I ran into somebody who worked with me and I said, you know, I've always wanted to be a weather man. In the course of casual conversation and hold on and mice, do you want the story? And I'm doing Oh, okay, I mean all right, so here's here's the real story. I always wanted to be a weather man. And I was working at PepsiCo in human resources and uh, I was in the middle of doing some big meeting and kicking it off, and someone after the meeting approached me and said, you know, you're kind of funny to be in human resources. Uh, you remind me of my brother. And I'm like, oh, what's your brother do? Well? My brother is an anchorman in a small town in Pennsylvania. And I said, I have always wanted to be a weather man. I said, I would love to get together with your brother, if, if, if he ever comes out here. And I was living in California. I was actually also morbidly obese at the time. I was about ninety pounds eighty pounds heavier than I am. Now, um, I had started to lose weight. This guy comes out and I tell him how badly I wanted to pursue a career as a weather man, and uh he told me how difficult it was to work in a small market in television, and how challenging a field it was, And I said, you just keep me in mind, and if anything ever comes up, call me. That was that until about I don't know, six months later and their weather man quit and he called me, and weeks later I was working as a weatherman in Erie, Pennsylvania. That is so crazy. It's a crazy story. And to be able to um pursue your dreams um as an adult is a tremendous gift. And I love every minute of of of of being a weather person, all sides of it. Talk a little bit about this paras social relationship that viewers form with you, because a study by Bentley University found that weather forecasters in particular are the main driver of local news loyalty. And of course sometimes I'll be talking to you and you'll be on the street and people say hi, Dave, and well fewer and fewer these days, but oh you shush, you shush. I'm just kidding, but I'll be walking down the street people say hi to you. Why why do people feel so close to their weather? Person? Think about it, I mean, think about your own experience. You wake up in the morning, and what is one of the first things you do. You look out the window. You want to be able to plan your day, and it begins with that first check. You stand in an elevator, what are people talking about there? Talking about the weather? You go outside, what are people conversing with one another about on the streets? Often it's weather. There's an attachment, first of all, that everyone has because this is one of those things that affects every single person every single day who steps outside of a building. That's a pretty big bunch of people. There's a natural curiosity about it because it's still mysterious. You report the news, you report on what's happened. We're reporting on what we think may happen, and there's a story about that. There's a curiosity about that and a wonderment which which everyone has and by the way, I do too. So I think there's where there's part of the connection Number two plane and simply the news often is uh depressing divisive, and weather is the one time in the newscast often where we kind of take a break, We stand down, We say, the Earth is still on its axis, the sun's gonna set tonight, it's gonna rise again tomorrow. Let's take a breather, and when the weather is not a serious subject to talk about, we can have a little fun. And I love that aspect as much as everything else, this relationship and obviously the loyalty that's pledged by viewers. I'm wondering if that's one of the reasons that it's taken whether people a long time to really talk about climate change. I feel like there's been a shift really pretty recently that that it enters the conversation. What do you think about that assessment? Do you think there's something there because it has been so politicized Dave, Yeah, it has been. Here's what I think. When you see a train coming down the tracks and all you see is that little light and it's miles away, you say, there's a train coming down the tracks, and as it grows closer it becomes harder to ignore. As it's about to hit you, you start screaming. And I think that's what we're experiencing with the issue of climate change. Um, did you ever push to raise it though, Dave, did you ever say, hey, we've got to talk about this and news directors, or have you ever talked to your fellow you know, weather forecasters and they feel a little pressure like, don't don't talk about climate change because some people don't believe in it. Now, I think years ago, as an industry, we weren't sure how to boil down all that science into chewable bits that people could understand and use, um, and would get people to start thinking about and talking about. Quite on the contrary, now though, you know, if you if you look at what we've done here locally, Um, there's been a tremendous investment in the science, in the presentation, even in the time we give weather because um, not only do we realize it's important from the standpoint of science and journalism, but the audience is now demanding it. We can't ignore the bright light coming at us at high speed. Now, it's interesting that it's taken a while for for people weather people to actually say, hey, folks, this is real, and I've got to believe there has been some hesitancy on the part of of some web their forecast. Let me read this quote from this study the author rights of whether people. They are incredibly aware of their popularity and they do not want to do things that will risk it. Why risk stepping into the role of being a science educator and presenting the facts if you know the facts are going to alienate over half of the people who have given you likes on your Facebook page? Ouch, do you think that there's that many? Do you hear from climate deniers? Uh? Here, let me just tell you this. Let me tell you this. If that were the attitude of anyone I worked with or I worked for, I'd find another place to work. I mean I have I will tell you I have not run into that at all. Early on in my career, Early on in my career, there were there were points when, uh, there was a discussion of whether we vote the time to science lessons or whether we devote the time to forecasting. What was more important to our viewers? What was happening? When was the snow coming? When was the rain coming? Because there wasn't more time, you know, what do we focus on? Let's not. We don't need to jump into the political arguments. Are are were forecasters? I think that has you know, the top's been blown off, that that happened, Dave, When do you think that happened? I think a lot of it. I think a lot of this began to really bubble up. Um. I you know, I can't time stamp it, but I think from Katrina onward, we began to think of whether in a different way. Listen, I'm all for and you know I love to make people laugh, I love to make people smile, and I do love, as I mentioned, the idea of just reminding people it's all gonna be okay in that weather segment. Um. But you know, these are very very important issues and we can't ignore them. And so I think that is as much a part of being a weatherman now um as as anything else. And the drumbeat has just gotten louder. You can't look at what's happened with Katrina, uh, the number of extreme weather events, the the the facts and figures around climate and and just turn the other way. You can't just do two minutes of song and dance and Seltzer in your pants. It's it's time to focus on the science. Hundred and seventy six billion dollars in damage from Katrina, I'm just looking at some of my notes. Hundred and thirty six billion dollars of damage from Harvey, billion from Maria, seventy seven billion from Sandy, fifty four billion from IRMA, Andrew fifty billion. These are all in And if you look at all of these storms, and we can go down from Andrew to I to Ivan Wilma, so many of these storms within the last thirty years, and that's how we first begin to look at climate. It's a very big difference between weather and climate. And by the way that there is another uh reason why I think maybe we were slower to get to it because we're weather people. We look at the weekend, the five day, the ten day, but climate is something very different. So, but it's interesting, Katie. I don't present climate so much as a scientist because I am not, and don't pretend to be. I present climate as a citizen. This is my city, this is my state, this is my country, this is my world, this is where, uh and what I'm going to leave to my children. So um, but that the data is overwhelming, and I think we have to look at what the causal factors of that are. Do you hear from viewers asking about this more and more. Oh, without a doubt we do and uh and we're committed to doing uh more with respect to climate. I mean we are uh uh you know it. Just look at what we just went through with the remnants of Ida, the remnants of a storm rolling over our city. And when you when you when you have damage like that, um uh And you're talking about hundred year and five hundred year and thousand year storms which are taking place with much much greater frequency. Um it becomes a news story. It becomes a story which can top your news as much as it could be part of a weather segment. And we are committed to doing uh more on that. Remember, by the way, Katie, it's not just rain storms and it's not just blizzard. The reason all of this is really beginning to come front and center is this is a convergence of business, of politics, of social policy, and of science. All these major highways, all these major pillars which keep our society upright are now intersecting with the science of of climate change. That's why I think it's bubbling up. You know, when when you think about the future and you've got to kids, and I've got two older kids, and how nervous are you, because I think it's very scary, um, if action isn't taken now, and everything I've read, from the UN Climate Report to all sorts of things are basically saying if we don't take significant steps now, we're you know, it's it's it's we're toasts, really, and that we have to take significant steps to just keep things at the status quo. I am without exaggeration, there are nights when I'm sleepless worrying about my kid's future. I think we ought to, um, try and find a way to boil this down to very simple, very clear language. What does it mean when the water temperature goes up a degree and a half? What does it mean when global temperatures go up to degrees? What does it mean when water levels rise? What does it mean when a lake evaporates? What does it mean when, um, we see forest fires burning out of control? More than simply the headlines like these are all questions, UM, which I think if answered succinctly and clearly and honestly, we can debate until the end of time why this happened, what the cause of this is. But we I don't think we can debate what is happening, and that's I think where we can work from a point of commonality and begin to affect change coming up. Why this is the most consequential decade in human history. There is no more denying that we are living the effects of climate change. But we can all do something about it, and we have to help explain. I've brought in two experts. I know what my name is, but what I do that's much more difficult. Who are at the literal front lines of this battle to save the planet? Hi? Everyone, I'm Christiana. If he is, I'm Tom Rivick. Konnect. The number of people on this planet who have brought all countries in the world together to an agreement to improve the nature of humanity in the way it deals with with other people and with nature is one right, and that's Christiana. I have been working on climate change for longer than most young people's lives, and I am the co founder of Global Optimism and co host of Outrage an Optimism podcast. I am a co founder with Christiana of Global Blaptimism and also co hosts a podcast. We do a whole range of things around trying to elevate what everybody else is doing to get us to the tipping point on climate to deploy the solutions as quickly as we can to solve the problem. Tom and Christiana were integral in getting the Paris Agreement to an agreement. The Paris Agreement is basically a global business this plan, or a global pathway to our decarbonization of the global economy by a particular deadline, which is twenty now. At that time we also thought that it would be enough to only have that very long term target. But since then science has actually improved and gotten much more detailed and granular, and now we know from science that in order to be at net zero by tift we have to go through the eye of a needle by and by twenty thirty we have to be at one half emissions from where they are today over the next nine years. Christiana and Tom are two of the thousands who have met in Glasgow, Scotland these past two weeks for copy dedicates and gentlemen. The broadcaster and natural historian David Attenborough is one of many world leaders who spoke at the conference. As you spend the next two weeks debating, negotiating, persuading and compromising, as you surely must. It's easy to forget that ultimately the emergency climate comes down to a single number, the concentration of carbon in our question. By some accounts, this summit is our last and best hope at fighting climate change. It's hard for us to realize this on a day to day basis, but we live at the most consequential time in human history. Tom and Christiana graciously came on the podcast during this very busy time to explain what's at stake and how we can get the world on the right path. We now know from science that represents a dramatic crossroads in the evolution of human history on this planet. Either we will be able to half our emissions by or not, and if we do, we will be able to open the door into a much better world than the one that we have now. If we're not able to cut our current emissions by by, we are actually condemning our children, grandchildren in many generations after that to a world of constant and increasing destruction and human misery. Now, if you look at the impacts we're already experiencing in California, in Australia, and Siberia, in Greece, in Spain, on and on. As a result of the one degree of warming we've already had, you only have to sort of do a small jump to think about what that would look like at three degrees. So we are at the final hour where we can do something about this. We've left dealing with the climate crisis so late that we now have no more chances to miss another deadline. And actually, that's a lot for us to think about, right if you're trying to absorbed the fact that we will have a bigger impact on the future of humanity and the future of all of life on Earth than any generation that has previously existed. If we understand that the challenge of the climate crisis is one that we frankly cannot afford to fail on, then we understand how important it is too. On the one hand, recognize the depth of the pain, the grief, the sorrow, frankly the anger that many of us, especially young people feel at the fact that we have delayed responses to climate change for such a long time. And at the same time, while we have our boots deeply into that grief, it is also very important to raise our eyes towards the solutions and what can we do to contribute to those solutions. If we only stay in our muddy boots grief, we contribute nothing, and it's almost a self fulfilling prophecy. So while we cannot deny the pain or the reality that science is putting before our eyes, we also have to be able to pull ourselves up out of that pain and step into the power that that can give us. For me, the two basic concepts that are important our urgency and agency urgency, because we can no longer delay, and it is only in exercising that agency, in actually engaging constructively within whatever level of influence we have, that we will be able to raise ourselves over the grief and the sorrow that we all understandably feel and contribute to the solution collectively when we come back. Your practical action guide for climate change that's right after this in Christiana and Tom wrote an excellent book called The Future We Choose, The Stubborn Optimist Guide to the Climate Crisis. In it, they provide practical actions we can all take on climate change. We first have to realize that there's nothing that we can do to change something that we do not understand, and so the first, very first step is to measure our carbon footprint, and that's easily done. There are many different carbon calculators out there, miss Google knows of all of them and will list them for you. So all you have to do is choose any organization that you trust and um and do a carbon calculator for yourself or your family, for your school, for your city, for whoever you have the data for. That is the starting point from whe which you then without blaming yourself or your city, or your country or anyone else, because we all start from wherever we are. We just accept that at face value and say, right from where we are, now, what can we do? What can I do? What can my neighbors do? What can everyone do? And that is the starting point. And then tom well, so the ten actions that we set out in the future we choose can really be divided into three different subcategories, and we sort of think that this is relevant for anyone who's trying to deal with the climate crisis and play their part. The first is actually about how we show up as individuals at this moment. It's all too easy to feel like this is impossible, to feel depressed, and those feelings are entirely rational, actually an understandable given the scale of what we're facing. But what we say is that showing up with a kind of gritty, determined, stubborn optimism will give you a sense of momentum and determination to do more. To remain focused on the fact that it is within our power to turn this around. We tend to forget our internal stance towards big societal changes, but we actually think that that's the fundamental basis by which we need to engage with this issue. So the first is how do I show up as an individual at this moment. The second is around our own personal footprint, and this is important for two reasons. First, those of us who are probably listening to this podcast live in parts of the world where we contribute disproportionately more than most people in the world. Europe, North America. We are the biggest emitters and we have largely caused this problem, and the worst impacts are going to be experienced by people who live in other parts of the world, people like India and Southeast Asia and Nastrian America Africa. So as a result of that, we need to take responsibility for that footprint. First of all, we need to harve our footprint within ten years actually, with a bit of planning and forethought, that's enough time. It's enough time to change the capital intensive items in your life. When you might replace your boiler, replace your car, whatever else. Make a plan that covers a ten a period. We tend to underestimate what we can do in ten years um and if we actually make a plan and go for it, we can really make that change. The second reason why taking responsibility for your own footprint is important is it makes you feel like you're part of a great generational endeavor to actually change the world, rather than feeling depressing on the outside. And the third action that we think everybody should take is to consider how you engage with power in your life. We all touch power in various different ways. We might be on a school board, we could be an employee, we might have a pension fund, we might run a business. Many of us are voters. So all of those different ways in which you touch power, each of those gives you a different opportunity to exert influence over those different players, so that we can also embrace the systemic change that we need that is beyond the control of the individuals. Cast yourself forward some what is actually a kind of laughably small period of time, like five years or a thousand years, But we're so unused to thinking in those time friends into the future and think back to now and realize that there was these two or three decades where we either did something to change the future all the way forward to five d or a thousand years into the future, to preserve the coral reefs, to protect the rainforests, to preserve the glaciers in tropical countries, all we just kind of didn't bother and the whole thing just collapsed and will not come back in any time scale that has any meaning for humans. The magnitude of the consequence of every decision that we're taking today, of every investment decision, of every technology decision, of every policy decision is so difficult to understand, precisely because of this magnitude. And yet we have to wake up to the fact that those of us who are adults right now, who are sitting at many different tables making those decisions, carry the weight of those decisions. While it's true that real failure on climate change is still possible, and we will lose the opportunity to control the climatic system, and we will bear witness to these terrible changes that we know could be in our future. It's also true that real success is still possible and that actually humanity will come together when it needs to, will deal with this issue, will transform our energy systems, will reforest our planet, We will deal with these issues while we can, and that we will be the generation that turned this around. And actually, when you when you absorb that reality and you try to think about the magnitude of this moment and what's required of us, a kind of deep, gritty and determined optimism is not an illogical outlook on that moment. That's not to say that we believe it is inevitable that we will end this struggle in the right way, but it's really possible. And if you look back at history, these moments of deep transformation, like if you think about things like I have a dream, or fight them on the beaches, or the salt marches to the beach at the end of the colonial oppression in India, these were really dark moments right there. Weren't moments that were full of possibility everything was going to change. But it was that grit and that determination to refuse to accept that we were unable to deal with this situation that actually created the possibility of changing it. So when we say face this moment with stubborn optimism, the last thing we mean is it's all going to be absolutely fine. Of course, anyone who's paying attention knows that nobody can guarantee that. But what we can guarantee is that this is on us right now, and that we are the generation that lives right in the full cropt between these two worlds. No future generation will be able to do anything about this issue. If this is going to be sorted out, it's going to be going to be because we figured out how to do it. No one's coming along to save us. So for our parents it was too early. For our children, it will be too late. This is the responsibility of all of us who are adults right now, sitting and making decisions on a daily basis. We knew, but we didn't do what was necessary. Is that the answer that we're going to have to give to future generations. There's a part of me that wakes up and feels the magnitude of this and the sadness of this on a regular basis. But that determination and that optimism is a real choice. But it's also not irrational, right, If you look around at the moment, many of the things that are happening, that are transforming are remarkable. They're happening at speed and scale. I mean, just a couple of examples. Right now, in over a hundred countries around the world, wind and solar are the cheapest form of energy, not only compared to new gas and coal, but even compared to running the existing gas and coal power stations that have already been paid off. I mean, that's a complete game changer, right. We are well on the way to completely killing the internal combustion engine inside the next tent of fifteen years. Anybody that we've said that to would have thought that those numbers and those dates were crazy. So there is so much to be excited about. There's so many reasons to be afraid of the future. But what you also see if you look carefully is these incredible nodes of hope and possibility that are just expanding at this incredible pace. And the next few decades are going to be the most exciting time to be aligned. More beautifully said than I could, Thank you to my guest Christianna Figaris and Tom Ribbitt Karnak their book is called The Future We choose The Stubborn Optimist Guide to the Climate Crisis, and their podcast is called Outrage and Optimism. In this day and age, both should be required reading and listening, so get to it everyone. Thank you also to my good friend Dave Price, New Yorkers. You can catch him at eleven and four on your local NBC channel. Thanks for listening. We'll see you next time. Next Question with Katie Kurik is a production of My Heart Media and Katie Kuric Media. The executive producers Army, Katie Kuric, and Courtney Litz. The supervising producer is Lauren Hansen. Associate producers Derek Clements, Adriana Fasio, and Emily Pinto. The show is edited and mixed by Derek Clements. For more information about today's episode, or to sign up for my morning newsletter, wake Up Call, go to Katie currect dot com. You can also find me at Katie Currek on Instagram and all my social media channels. For more podcasts from I Heart Radio, visit the i Heart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.

Hi everyone, I'm Katie Kuric, and this is next question. As many of you know, one has already been a brutal year for extreme weather events. We begin tonight with devastating weather in Tennessee. More than twenty people are dead, dozens are missing after extreme flooding this week. Wildfires devastating the West Coast and other parts of the country from California to New Mexico and Alaska and Minnesota. Tonight, the South is frozen solid states struggling to recover from punishing sub zero temperatures. These events are a real reality check that leaves little doubt that climate change is here and affecting all corners of the Earth. What can be one of the coldest places on Earth is on fire. More than two dozen tornadoes have already been reported. Noah designating the storm a rare level five, the highest severity risk for the first time in recorded history. The National Weather Service issuing a flash flood emergency for all five boroughs of New York City. I remember when Hurricane Katrina hit. I traveled down to New Orleans to report on it in person. You know, it's one thing to see New Orleans on television, but when you see it in person. The devastation is overwhelming. We're right now about two blocks away from St. Charles Street, which is, of course, the major thoroughfare in the Garden. Katrina, for me, still stands as a marker for when these big weather events really started to become a regular part of the news. You can't underestimate the fury of a storm like this. It turned streets into rivers, it brings down sections of buildings, and just a few minutes ago we watched that boat sail right down the Staith Dave Price has covered his fair share of newsbreaking weather stories. That's because he's a weather anchor for NBC four here in New York. Typically, when weather like this happens, we had to a plane and we head to the south of the Midwest. But it is an hour backyard New York City where we are. We're in a park in Queens, New York. Just to give you an idea if you're not from this area. Dave Price, Welcome to the podcast. Great to have you, always, good to see you, my dear um. Let's talk first about you, your favorite topic, before we get into climate change. I thought we'd really get to know you a little bit how did you become a weather man? It was kind of a long and winding road, wasn't it, Dave Well, I mean very condensed version is I ran into somebody who worked with me and I said, you know, I've always wanted to be a weather man. In the course of casual conversation and hold on and mice, do you want the story? And I'm doing Oh, okay, I mean all right, so here's here's the real story. I always wanted to be a weather man. And I was working at PepsiCo in human resources and uh, I was in the middle of doing some big meeting and kicking it off, and someone after the meeting approached me and said, you know, you're kind of funny to be in human resources. Uh, you remind me of my brother. And I'm like, oh, what's your brother do? Well? My brother is an anchorman in a small town in Pennsylvania. And I said, I have always wanted to be a weather man. I said, I would love to get together with your brother, if, if, if he ever comes out here. And I was living in California. I was actually also morbidly obese at the time. I was about ninety pounds eighty pounds heavier than I am. Now, um, I had started to lose weight. This guy comes out and I tell him how badly I wanted to pursue a career as a weather man, and uh he told me how difficult it was to work in a small market in television, and how challenging a field it was, And I said, you just keep me in mind, and if anything ever comes up, call me. That was that until about I don't know, six months later and their weather man quit and he called me, and weeks later I was working as a weatherman in Erie, Pennsylvania. That is so crazy. It's a crazy story. And to be able to um pursue your dreams um as an adult is a tremendous gift. And I love every minute of of of of being a weather person, all sides of it. Talk a little bit about this paras social relationship that viewers form with you, because a study by Bentley University found that weather forecasters in particular are the main driver of local news loyalty. And of course sometimes I'll be talking to you and you'll be on the street and people say hi, Dave, and well fewer and fewer these days, but oh you shush, you shush. I'm just kidding, but I'll be walking down the street people say hi to you. Why why do people feel so close to their weather? Person? Think about it, I mean, think about your own experience. You wake up in the morning, and what is one of the first things you do. You look out the window. You want to be able to plan your day, and it begins with that first check. You stand in an elevator, what are people talking about there? Talking about the weather? You go outside, what are people conversing with one another about on the streets? Often it's weather. There's an attachment, first of all, that everyone has because this is one of those things that affects every single person every single day who steps outside of a building. That's a pretty big bunch of people. There's a natural curiosity about it because it's still mysterious. You report the news, you report on what's happened. We're reporting on what we think may happen, and there's a story about that. There's a curiosity about that and a wonderment which which everyone has and by the way, I do too. So I think there's where there's part of the connection Number two plane and simply the news often is uh depressing divisive, and weather is the one time in the newscast often where we kind of take a break, We stand down, We say, the Earth is still on its axis, the sun's gonna set tonight, it's gonna rise again tomorrow. Let's take a breather, and when the weather is not a serious subject to talk about, we can have a little fun. And I love that aspect as much as everything else, this relationship and obviously the loyalty that's pledged by viewers. I'm wondering if that's one of the reasons that it's taken whether people a long time to really talk about climate change. I feel like there's been a shift really pretty recently that that it enters the conversation. What do you think about that assessment? Do you think there's something there because it has been so politicized Dave, Yeah, it has been. Here's what I think. When you see a train coming down the tracks and all you see is that little light and it's miles away, you say, there's a train coming down the tracks, and as it grows closer it becomes harder to ignore. As it's about to hit you, you start screaming. And I think that's what we're experiencing with the issue of climate change. Um, did you ever push to raise it though, Dave, did you ever say, hey, we've got to talk about this and news directors, or have you ever talked to your fellow you know, weather forecasters and they feel a little pressure like, don't don't talk about climate change because some people don't believe in it. Now, I think years ago, as an industry, we weren't sure how to boil down all that science into chewable bits that people could understand and use, um, and would get people to start thinking about and talking about. Quite on the contrary, now though, you know, if you if you look at what we've done here locally, Um, there's been a tremendous investment in the science, in the presentation, even in the time we give weather because um, not only do we realize it's important from the standpoint of science and journalism, but the audience is now demanding it. We can't ignore the bright light coming at us at high speed. Now, it's interesting that it's taken a while for for people weather people to actually say, hey, folks, this is real, and I've got to believe there has been some hesitancy on the part of of some web their forecast. Let me read this quote from this study the author rights of whether people. They are incredibly aware of their popularity and they do not want to do things that will risk it. Why risk stepping into the role of being a science educator and presenting the facts if you know the facts are going to alienate over half of the people who have given you likes on your Facebook page? Ouch, do you think that there's that many? Do you hear from climate deniers? Uh? Here, let me just tell you this. Let me tell you this. If that were the attitude of anyone I worked with or I worked for, I'd find another place to work. I mean I have I will tell you I have not run into that at all. Early on in my career, Early on in my career, there were there were points when, uh, there was a discussion of whether we vote the time to science lessons or whether we devote the time to forecasting. What was more important to our viewers? What was happening? When was the snow coming? When was the rain coming? Because there wasn't more time, you know, what do we focus on? Let's not. We don't need to jump into the political arguments. Are are were forecasters? I think that has you know, the top's been blown off, that that happened, Dave, When do you think that happened? I think a lot of it. I think a lot of this began to really bubble up. Um. I you know, I can't time stamp it, but I think from Katrina onward, we began to think of whether in a different way. Listen, I'm all for and you know I love to make people laugh, I love to make people smile, and I do love, as I mentioned, the idea of just reminding people it's all gonna be okay in that weather segment. Um. But you know, these are very very important issues and we can't ignore them. And so I think that is as much a part of being a weatherman now um as as anything else. And the drumbeat has just gotten louder. You can't look at what's happened with Katrina, uh, the number of extreme weather events, the the the facts and figures around climate and and just turn the other way. You can't just do two minutes of song and dance and Seltzer in your pants. It's it's time to focus on the science. Hundred and seventy six billion dollars in damage from Katrina, I'm just looking at some of my notes. Hundred and thirty six billion dollars of damage from Harvey, billion from Maria, seventy seven billion from Sandy, fifty four billion from IRMA, Andrew fifty billion. These are all in And if you look at all of these storms, and we can go down from Andrew to I to Ivan Wilma, so many of these storms within the last thirty years, and that's how we first begin to look at climate. It's a very big difference between weather and climate. And by the way that there is another uh reason why I think maybe we were slower to get to it because we're weather people. We look at the weekend, the five day, the ten day, but climate is something very different. So, but it's interesting, Katie. I don't present climate so much as a scientist because I am not, and don't pretend to be. I present climate as a citizen. This is my city, this is my state, this is my country, this is my world, this is where, uh and what I'm going to leave to my children. So um, but that the data is overwhelming, and I think we have to look at what the causal factors of that are. Do you hear from viewers asking about this more and more. Oh, without a doubt we do and uh and we're committed to doing uh more with respect to climate. I mean we are uh uh you know it. Just look at what we just went through with the remnants of Ida, the remnants of a storm rolling over our city. And when you when you when you have damage like that, um uh And you're talking about hundred year and five hundred year and thousand year storms which are taking place with much much greater frequency. Um it becomes a news story. It becomes a story which can top your news as much as it could be part of a weather segment. And we are committed to doing uh more on that. Remember, by the way, Katie, it's not just rain storms and it's not just blizzard. The reason all of this is really beginning to come front and center is this is a convergence of business, of politics, of social policy, and of science. All these major highways, all these major pillars which keep our society upright are now intersecting with the science of of climate change. That's why I think it's bubbling up. You know, when when you think about the future and you've got to kids, and I've got two older kids, and how nervous are you, because I think it's very scary, um, if action isn't taken now, and everything I've read, from the UN Climate Report to all sorts of things are basically saying if we don't take significant steps now, we're you know, it's it's it's we're toasts, really, and that we have to take significant steps to just keep things at the status quo. I am without exaggeration, there are nights when I'm sleepless worrying about my kid's future. I think we ought to, um, try and find a way to boil this down to very simple, very clear language. What does it mean when the water temperature goes up a degree and a half? What does it mean when global temperatures go up to degrees? What does it mean when water levels rise? What does it mean when a lake evaporates? What does it mean when, um, we see forest fires burning out of control? More than simply the headlines like these are all questions, UM, which I think if answered succinctly and clearly and honestly, we can debate until the end of time why this happened, what the cause of this is. But we I don't think we can debate what is happening, and that's I think where we can work from a point of commonality and begin to affect change coming up. Why this is the most consequential decade in human history. There is no more denying that we are living the effects of climate change. But we can all do something about it, and we have to help explain. I've brought in two experts. I know what my name is, but what I do that's much more difficult. Who are at the literal front lines of this battle to save the planet? Hi? Everyone, I'm Christiana. If he is, I'm Tom Rivick. Konnect. The number of people on this planet who have brought all countries in the world together to an agreement to improve the nature of humanity in the way it deals with with other people and with nature is one right, and that's Christiana. I have been working on climate change for longer than most young people's lives, and I am the co founder of Global Optimism and co host of Outrage an Optimism podcast. I am a co founder with Christiana of Global Blaptimism and also co hosts a podcast. We do a whole range of things around trying to elevate what everybody else is doing to get us to the tipping point on climate to deploy the solutions as quickly as we can to solve the problem. Tom and Christiana were integral in getting the Paris Agreement to an agreement. The Paris Agreement is basically a global business this plan, or a global pathway to our decarbonization of the global economy by a particular deadline, which is twenty now. At that time we also thought that it would be enough to only have that very long term target. But since then science has actually improved and gotten much more detailed and granular, and now we know from science that in order to be at net zero by tift we have to go through the eye of a needle by and by twenty thirty we have to be at one half emissions from where they are today over the next nine years. Christiana and Tom are two of the thousands who have met in Glasgow, Scotland these past two weeks for copy dedicates and gentlemen. The broadcaster and natural historian David Attenborough is one of many world leaders who spoke at the conference. As you spend the next two weeks debating, negotiating, persuading and compromising, as you surely must. It's easy to forget that ultimately the emergency climate comes down to a single number, the concentration of carbon in our question. By some accounts, this summit is our last and best hope at fighting climate change. It's hard for us to realize this on a day to day basis, but we live at the most consequential time in human history. Tom and Christiana graciously came on the podcast during this very busy time to explain what's at stake and how we can get the world on the right path. We now know from science that represents a dramatic crossroads in the evolution of human history on this planet. Either we will be able to half our emissions by or not, and if we do, we will be able to open the door into a much better world than the one that we have now. If we're not able to cut our current emissions by by, we are actually condemning our children, grandchildren in many generations after that to a world of constant and increasing destruction and human misery. Now, if you look at the impacts we're already experiencing in California, in Australia, and Siberia, in Greece, in Spain, on and on. As a result of the one degree of warming we've already had, you only have to sort of do a small jump to think about what that would look like at three degrees. So we are at the final hour where we can do something about this. We've left dealing with the climate crisis so late that we now have no more chances to miss another deadline. And actually, that's a lot for us to think about, right if you're trying to absorbed the fact that we will have a bigger impact on the future of humanity and the future of all of life on Earth than any generation that has previously existed. If we understand that the challenge of the climate crisis is one that we frankly cannot afford to fail on, then we understand how important it is too. On the one hand, recognize the depth of the pain, the grief, the sorrow, frankly the anger that many of us, especially young people feel at the fact that we have delayed responses to climate change for such a long time. And at the same time, while we have our boots deeply into that grief, it is also very important to raise our eyes towards the solutions and what can we do to contribute to those solutions. If we only stay in our muddy boots grief, we contribute nothing, and it's almost a self fulfilling prophecy. So while we cannot deny the pain or the reality that science is putting before our eyes, we also have to be able to pull ourselves up out of that pain and step into the power that that can give us. For me, the two basic concepts that are important our urgency and agency urgency, because we can no longer delay, and it is only in exercising that agency, in actually engaging constructively within whatever level of influence we have, that we will be able to raise ourselves over the grief and the sorrow that we all understandably feel and contribute to the solution collectively when we come back. Your practical action guide for climate change that's right after this in Christiana and Tom wrote an excellent book called The Future We Choose, The Stubborn Optimist Guide to the Climate Crisis. In it, they provide practical actions we can all take on climate change. We first have to realize that there's nothing that we can do to change something that we do not understand, and so the first, very first step is to measure our carbon footprint, and that's easily done. There are many different carbon calculators out there, miss Google knows of all of them and will list them for you. So all you have to do is choose any organization that you trust and um and do a carbon calculator for yourself or your family, for your school, for your city, for whoever you have the data for. That is the starting point from whe which you then without blaming yourself or your city, or your country or anyone else, because we all start from wherever we are. We just accept that at face value and say, right from where we are, now, what can we do? What can I do? What can my neighbors do? What can everyone do? And that is the starting point. And then tom well, so the ten actions that we set out in the future we choose can really be divided into three different subcategories, and we sort of think that this is relevant for anyone who's trying to deal with the climate crisis and play their part. The first is actually about how we show up as individuals at this moment. It's all too easy to feel like this is impossible, to feel depressed, and those feelings are entirely rational, actually an understandable given the scale of what we're facing. But what we say is that showing up with a kind of gritty, determined, stubborn optimism will give you a sense of momentum and determination to do more. To remain focused on the fact that it is within our power to turn this around. We tend to forget our internal stance towards big societal changes, but we actually think that that's the fundamental basis by which we need to engage with this issue. So the first is how do I show up as an individual at this moment. The second is around our own personal footprint, and this is important for two reasons. First, those of us who are probably listening to this podcast live in parts of the world where we contribute disproportionately more than most people in the world. Europe, North America. We are the biggest emitters and we have largely caused this problem, and the worst impacts are going to be experienced by people who live in other parts of the world, people like India and Southeast Asia and Nastrian America Africa. So as a result of that, we need to take responsibility for that footprint. First of all, we need to harve our footprint within ten years actually, with a bit of planning and forethought, that's enough time. It's enough time to change the capital intensive items in your life. When you might replace your boiler, replace your car, whatever else. Make a plan that covers a ten a period. We tend to underestimate what we can do in ten years um and if we actually make a plan and go for it, we can really make that change. The second reason why taking responsibility for your own footprint is important is it makes you feel like you're part of a great generational endeavor to actually change the world, rather than feeling depressing on the outside. And the third action that we think everybody should take is to consider how you engage with power in your life. We all touch power in various different ways. We might be on a school board, we could be an employee, we might have a pension fund, we might run a business. Many of us are voters. So all of those different ways in which you touch power, each of those gives you a different opportunity to exert influence over those different players, so that we can also embrace the systemic change that we need that is beyond the control of the individuals. Cast yourself forward some what is actually a kind of laughably small period of time, like five years or a thousand years, But we're so unused to thinking in those time friends into the future and think back to now and realize that there was these two or three decades where we either did something to change the future all the way forward to five d or a thousand years into the future, to preserve the coral reefs, to protect the rainforests, to preserve the glaciers in tropical countries, all we just kind of didn't bother and the whole thing just collapsed and will not come back in any time scale that has any meaning for humans. The magnitude of the consequence of every decision that we're taking today, of every investment decision, of every technology decision, of every policy decision is so difficult to understand, precisely because of this magnitude. And yet we have to wake up to the fact that those of us who are adults right now, who are sitting at many different tables making those decisions, carry the weight of those decisions. While it's true that real failure on climate change is still possible, and we will lose the opportunity to control the climatic system, and we will bear witness to these terrible changes that we know could be in our future. It's also true that real success is still possible and that actually humanity will come together when it needs to, will deal with this issue, will transform our energy systems, will reforest our planet, We will deal with these issues while we can, and that we will be the generation that turned this around. And actually, when you when you absorb that reality and you try to think about the magnitude of this moment and what's required of us, a kind of deep, gritty and determined optimism is not an illogical outlook on that moment. That's not to say that we believe it is inevitable that we will end this struggle in the right way, but it's really possible. And if you look back at history, these moments of deep transformation, like if you think about things like I have a dream, or fight them on the beaches, or the salt marches to the beach at the end of the colonial oppression in India, these were really dark moments right there. Weren't moments that were full of possibility everything was going to change. But it was that grit and that determination to refuse to accept that we were unable to deal with this situation that actually created the possibility of changing it. So when we say face this moment with stubborn optimism, the last thing we mean is it's all going to be absolutely fine. Of course, anyone who's paying attention knows that nobody can guarantee that. But what we can guarantee is that this is on us right now, and that we are the generation that lives right in the full cropt between these two worlds. No future generation will be able to do anything about this issue. If this is going to be sorted out, it's going to be going to be because we figured out how to do it. No one's coming along to save us. So for our parents it was too early. For our children, it will be too late. This is the responsibility of all of us who are adults right now, sitting and making decisions on a daily basis. We knew, but we didn't do what was necessary. Is that the answer that we're going to have to give to future generations. There's a part of me that wakes up and feels the magnitude of this and the sadness of this on a regular basis. But that determination and that optimism is a real choice. But it's also not irrational, right, If you look around at the moment, many of the things that are happening, that are transforming are remarkable. They're happening at speed and scale. I mean, just a couple of examples. Right now, in over a hundred countries around the world, wind and solar are the cheapest form of energy, not only compared to new gas and coal, but even compared to running the existing gas and coal power stations that have already been paid off. I mean, that's a complete game changer, right. We are well on the way to completely killing the internal combustion engine inside the next tent of fifteen years. Anybody that we've said that to would have thought that those numbers and those dates were crazy. So there is so much to be excited about. There's so many reasons to be afraid of the future. But what you also see if you look carefully is these incredible nodes of hope and possibility that are just expanding at this incredible pace. And the next few decades are going to be the most exciting time to be aligned. More beautifully said than I could, Thank you to my guest Christianna Figaris and Tom Ribbitt Karnak their book is called The Future We choose The Stubborn Optimist Guide to the Climate Crisis, and their podcast is called Outrage and Optimism. In this day and age, both should be required reading and listening, so get to it everyone. Thank you also to my good friend Dave Price, New Yorkers. You can catch him at eleven and four on your local NBC channel. Thanks for listening. We'll see you next time. Next Question with Katie Kurik is a production of My Heart Media and Katie Kuric Media. The executive producers Army, Katie Kuric, and Courtney Litz. The supervising producer is Lauren Hansen. Associate producers Derek Clements, Adriana Fasio, and Emily Pinto. The show is edited and mixed by Derek Clements. For more information about today's episode, or to sign up for my morning newsletter, wake Up Call, go to Katie currect dot com. You can also find me at Katie Currek on Instagram and all my social media channels. For more podcasts from I Heart Radio, visit the i Heart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.