Podcast- Combating climate crisis.mp3

You Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa I'm right now. No, I got time for me on down block. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, spin Walking inside it's definitely spinning it's standing on standing on Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa walking on these got yo my feet You mentioned my feet. So he's on my me. Hello Welcome back to the podcast We missed y'all man, there's been a minute since we've been back here Yeah, welcome back to combating the climate crisis. We're on season 2 Episode 63. Yes, ma'am. It's been a long time Pretty deep into the season, but we're going to be discussing some pretty interesting topics today on solutions the sea How humans affect the sea it's just multiple layers to it, you know So we got a couple guests with us, um, we have our good friend baseball player, you know, almost all-american You know max bug me Max Yeah, I'm max with the pious here in town Our other guests with us tonight is Andrea Andrea With the Lincoln for five years and I went to both Lincoln High and North Star So I guess we can start with Addie for our introductions. Tell us where you grew up and how the climate change has affected you your family or your friends Yeah, so I've been in Nebraska my whole life essentially all 18 years, unfortunately Feel that yeah, I've been here since day one. I would say the only thing that affects Nebraska actively with climate change is probably droughts and also wired Wildfires within Canada, which could be a big thing during the summer word. Yeah That's kind of what I was gonna say about the droughts like my family. There's a bunch of farmers in my family. So it They have to spend a lot of money every year for irrigation due to droughts And like every year the climate just increases in increases So, you know their prices of irrigation just keeps climbing and climbing absolutely Michael you look like you wanted to say something about drought Yeah, drought is very very common, Arizona, you know It's a very hot state not much water. Not many plants a lot of agriculture bunch of corn a lot of cotton different everything's using it economy now, but It's it's a very bad thing in Arizona, there's just straight desert that's it it's just a hole in the ground that has no water So growing up in Arizona The heat is a little different between Arizona and Nebraska Would you mind sharing with us like kind of the difference between the two states and like I think it's called what like moist heat They're like dry heat for Nebraska, but like it's like Less humid in Arizona, right? Yeah, it's um, it's a lot more humid here because essentially there's no water there's not much rain in Arizona because We don't have many lakes or we do it's more up north in Flagstaff There's not many and Phoenix has not many lakes unless you go a little further out But the heat is definitely definitely a lot more like a lot higher than Nebraska Being here for about Four or five months the highest I've seen a good get here is probably like High 90s mid 90s and Arizona high 120s with low one 110s or high 110s low 120s The dry heat there it's a little bit different because when essentially dry he's like You don't like you sweat a lot and it cools you down But in here for Brassica, you can sweat and then you don't cool down. You just taste what you just taste What do you yeah, the humidity here is pretty wild sounds bad as, Florida, but It definitely stops you from cooling down your body Faster in comparison to no humidity in the air at all Under a you've had the experience living Out of state and also out of the country, would you like to tell us about that? Sorry to cut you off Michael. No, you're good Yeah, I grew up in San Luis Potosi, Mexico and that's like right in the center of Mexico. So I like we weren't surrounded by any water and I just remember like like water shortages being a problem and like Really high temperatures as well. I don't remember how bad they would get, you know, it's little bit Yeah, I just remember it would be like really hot and we had trouble getting access to water Definitely something in America that I feel like we take for granted is our access to air conditioning Water irrigation just all of that, you know, I'm saying Yeah, I was gonna chime in here a little earlier Michael you said that Like it got up to 120 I was wondering if there's like any regulations that the state of Arizona has like are you able to go out and about in your hometown when it gets that hot because I feel like if it was 120 here in Nebraska, you wouldn't see a single person out Like I feel like all workplaces would be canceled advisory. No one leaves like any buildings at all And yeah, they have tons of heat advisory telling everyone stay inside if you have air conditioning use it, please like all that but Arizonans they they like to stay out a lot of people are out driving all the time, you know people got to work people got to do other stuff, but they really emphasize being inside being cool because There's a lot of deaths from heat strokes a lot more than there should be around 500 in the last two years, which was like 80% more than back in 2020 and 2019. It's it's gotten a lot It's Raising a lot. Yeah, well, that's pretty wild I saw a case in the news during the summer about tires melting on the road actively Did you ever see that happen while you were there? I did not but I have seen some stuff like that online on news and everything, but I haven't seen it myself in person No, I haven't. Maybe we're trying to cook in like an egg on the cement. I've seen that done Oh, yeah cookies in like a car I'm cook. I've heard of it, but I don't think I've ever done it I definitely have like throwing stuff outside and just let it sit there and it does change like it does like especially like Mid June Early August. It's like 120 for a week straight. Oh my lord And then any night and night don't even get nights like or a hundred degrees outside So it's it's it's fun Yeah, I haven't had anything bad happen to me I've caught with leather black leather seats though more than a hanger melted in there one time. It's pretty wild But before we in the introduction you also brought up another subject. I think we could touch on was air conditioning I feel like here in the US. We're very privileged with how much we can run our AC I know in some states like there are regulations where you can only run your AC. It's kind of like sprinklers here in Nebraska Like you can only run your sprinklers like every other day and you can only run them for like an hour at a time So I was curious to know I don't think Nebraska has any do you know Addy? They have any regulations on air conditioning in Nebraska. I don't Think we actively do I know it's required in like all main state like government buildings obviously like schools Potential areas like grocery stores like they're all hard to have it actually working Vehicle wise though, I know a lot of people don't have vehicles that have actually working AC. Yeah Yeah, were there any regulations in Arizona or Mexico when you two were growing up Not necessarily if you didn't have a see you were kind of Yeah, you're kind of screwed My dad actually works as a mechanic and that's mainly what he fixes back in Arizona. Just mainly And it's it's it's mainly air conditioning or something overheating with the engine or something Something involving heat. That's it. It's just involving heat but Make most people have air conditioning if you didn't you regret not fixing it, so Yeah, I don't really know much to say about this because on where I come from is like a really small town like a lower-income town and I Assume if you live like in a bigger city or something, you probably would have access to like AC and anything, but personally where I come from we didn't and I remember like We would like my parents would have fans and everything so you could turn them on but then you kind of had like a limited time because then the if you had it on for too long the Electricity bill would be too high and obviously it would be something that we couldn't afford So, yeah, like I kind of saw that that's a big problem where I was from I Actually, I'm looking up the the average cost of AC in Nebraska according to Architectural Digest it can cost anywhere from thirty eight hundred to all the way to eight thousand dollars just in, Nebraska That's not necessarily Something cheap as a college student right now. I don't think I'd be able to add that on with Housing that I have to do right now like that'd be wild if I to pay for that separate and that's in a year Correct or the annual? Okay Yeah Yes, no heating we have all four seasons, yeah, so that's air conditioning through I Would probably say it's all six months. Yeah, and then heat is probably even more expensive, too absolutely Well with all of our guests and all of our hosts being introduced Let's take a short little break and then we'll hop right into the to the main main topic, let's go You Walk So Welcome back to the podcast Before the podcast started Addy you were we were kind of starting to jump into I think your topic that you were going to talk About something to do with algae and how to collect it and harness clean renewable energy from it Before you hop right into that I'll just talk about some basic terms of climate change that we're discussing that we haven't covered in past episodes For one algae is a natural sink For co2 and a sink is something naturally occurring in nature that just Collects co2 and makes it possible for the earth to continue the cycle of just existing in a sense I think cement is also a big sink, isn't it? Absolutely. Yeah for you to another greenhouse gases. Yep. Yep Okay. Yeah back to algae Yeah, we were talking about earlier before the podcast started Some pretty cool projects that are happening in Hamburg, Germany About them implementing algae and windows to collect energy for housing Whether it be heating Or just lighting in general. So what do you guys think about that? Is this only happening in Germany Hamburg? Yeah, unfortunately Yeah, other countries have been a little resistant to the idea of growing Green plants and windows to collect energy. It's not really a big Thing right now. Is this algae in the window the same algae that's like in the ocean or is it completely different? Because I've only seen algae like in the ocean. I haven't heard of anyone growing it in their home windows Interesting thing yeah, it's like a new trend of Chia pet No, it's actually essentially is Because there's different variants of algae Okay That are like found within like lakes in the ocean and there's a really big thing in India about the tide changing red with an invasive algae But yeah So far, they've only been able to find like one strands that actually can like be used to collect energy so citizens in Hamburg, Germany are Self growing or do they buy this algae? Um Basically, it started off with like one singular like company like sourcing it and giving them small portions and like grows just to touch They're yeah, so they put these Algae plants like full plants. I assume and their windows and it just traps Yeah, I see it too. Kind of like a minute. Yeah, it's it's pretty wild Yeah, you were you were talking about earlier though Some wind power having relation to electricity within housing like nationally Yeah, so like that's that's kind of what I was confused about I've never heard of like algae being grown in houses because when I was doing all my research For my numerous projects, you know algae power was brought up But like in the sense of ocean like it was grown in the ocean and not yeah Company but yeah, you could relate that to my tidal wave energy because algae grows right off the tides of most coastal countries coastal regions so the way that That the way that this tidal wave energy works is that When the tide moves like up and down according to the moon and yeah all that stuff So it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's all that fancy stuff I Had a hard time in eighth grade science getting to know all that didn't we all we all yeah But so as the tide like increases and decreases on a regular basis It the water that's going up and down It's just forced into like small tubes that force the water to go faster and faster and power these big generators But then turn around and power multiple homes and big businesses, so not only is it you know renewable But it's also like a clean source of energy. It's not like co2 where it's you know emitting harmful gases Into the air do you think it's the next solar energy in a sense where it's going to be like Implemented within like every home in the United States if possible That's a good question. I think hopefully one day like obviously that's the goal is to have everything Like solar where it's not emitting Greenhouse gases or co2 I think those two would pair really nice like you could have my research topic of Tidal wave energy that powers generators Through like solar power yeah like those generators then power huge solar panels That are on top of businesses or houses. Yeah, so I think I think that's definitely something That higher-up people more smarter than me could figure out how to do Andrea How do you think like price-wise? Would it be plausible to like introduce this into American lifestyles of either? Having self-growing algae or tidal wave energy in like the home Well it sounds like it's pretty expensive, and like With I Researched about the family planning and education and how it can be a solution to climate change and It's leading to a lot of poverty so Yeah, do you think more education on the subject? Of green energy and climate change would really help solve the problem overall Yeah, definitely. I feel like if it was a topic. That's like implemented more like in schools or Other programs, I feel like people would be more Like they would know more about the topic so they would like take actions to Better the earth Better the earth kind of or like improve it in different ways Yeah, um not to interrupt but Max I you said something about tidal wave energy, and I heard I heard you researching about it And I was gonna ask you because you said the family planning and the cost of it of Tidal wave and everything that just huge that just um It leads to like a big economic like turn like you put so much money into something and You do mostly most of the time you're gonna use taxpayer dollars to pay that and I was gonna ask you Max How much is it like a year? that To see how much it is a year because that just improves the economy or something Yeah, so Finishing looking this up right now On average tidal wave energy costs anywhere from a hundred and thirty to two hundred and eighty dollars per megawatt hour So I'm not sure what that quite translates to annually, but it is gonna be expensive But like I told you or like I told all you guys before the podcast. I don't think that there should be a like a price limitation when combating a climate crisis You get everyone on board with it and that's a lot of money being drawn in and like Michael said like it could be just like a slight increase of Taxes each year that goes towards this tidal wave energy It does kind of suck though that it costs a lot. Yeah, but in the long run It's gonna make the world a better place. I believe 100% do you guys think that? Larger More developed countries such as like the u.s. And Maybe in Russia. I have no idea what they're doing over there. But um Yeah, the US or China if they should like take steps into helping less developed countries When it comes to combating the crisis, so they grow up in a more sustainable way. That's a great point. Um, you know US Russia and China aren't all on the best terms So it's not really easy to say right now, but I do members doing some research on the Pope and the Paris Agreement where Donald Trump and 2016 he pulled out of the Paris Agreement and it upset the Pope not a good move But Biden reinstated that he went back into the Paris Agreement and the Pope is really really big on Climate crisis surprisingly, I did not know that I figured it out like a couple weeks ago But if they can't it would make a huge impact because you said Germany they're working on algae Russia and China, I mean China is probably the biggest One of the biggest like co2 emission countries in the world With Concentrated place in the world like they have the biggest population don't it? I'm pretty sure I think I think Yeah And do you guys remember seeing back in like 2021 2020 where the air just looks awful. It's like gray all the time Everyone's wearing masks besides like coded before that You would just see nothing but straight mass because it's the air their pollution is awful Like you can't breathe in that you can't breathe that in and especially people with asthma. It's just It just misses here Yeah, going back to air quality. I know in the intro we discussed wildfires coming from Canada and that definitely Yeah Do you guys think that kids growing up younger than our generation like having them affect affected by that? Do you think It's not a way like traumatizing but teaching them that this is the world that they're not going to live in and that they can't Do anything to fix it? How would wildfire smoke on take a pause take a pause we're gonna edit this part out So, how do you guys think wildfire smoke and all these climate crises are like teaching younger generations to Feel towards the subject of like this is our lives now. Can we fix it? Can we not fix it? Cuz it's kind of our generation that's like has the burden of actively taking the charge of changing anything I can speak on this. I was playing baseball this summer when there were wildfires going on and not only Kansas But there were wildfires going on in Canada, I believe I don't remember What territory of Canada but playing baseball outside it really did make it like tough to breathe tough to run work out so Not to like get away from your question But I think it does kind of like scare younger generations of like, you know Getting outside all day because like I didn't have a phone till I was probably 14 13 or 14 so I spent pretty much all day every day outside and You know, of course, there's more electronic devices nowadays But I just don't think kids are wanting to go outside anymore Maybe that's part of the reason is because they you know, don't want to deal with like the the health factors and the health risks Yeah, I didn't like not wanting to do it I feel like it's just kind of preventing them from doing it like Honestly, I don't like the technology you really don't think it's outside and I do think it's a lot of it's that like The climate outside isn't really a good It can get some circumstances to be outside And this kind of brings me back to what I was saying about like Getting kids educated on the climate change and like I feel like they really Would be able to improve it in the long run. Like if they really see that it's really affecting their everyday life now they could Like think about it and see that There's ways to prevent it from affecting like other generations in the future Did you ever experience any like wildfires when you were living in Mexico or were you too little to remember? Not that I remember but recently I still have family over there and there was a few fires pretty close to where my grandparents have like their crops and How did that affect? it was the it was land of like a neighbor of ours and I know it was like like if not economically it was bad for them because that's where they got like their Money from basically. Yeah, so it was pretty hard on them but Our community kind of just got together and like helped them in whatever they needed Health-wise were your grandparents? All right, though. Yeah. Yeah Older age. They typically have more asthma Like breathing issues, but they're everything's all right. Yeah, they're fine. Good All right another question here we were discussing about how Climate change is actually affecting the youth. Do you think the drop-off in birth rates? Is a plus or a negative when it comes to The climate crisis like is having less children better or is it worse for the environment? It's definitely better like that also plays a role with the family planning And the more that you have family planning resources available to younger females and honestly any female It helps them lower unwanted pregnancies and having You know like excessive amounts of children like because that's costing overpopulation and There was something I read that said That there were over 89 million unplanned pregnancies annually worldwide so that's like a lot of Things that could be prevented if you had more That's like a lot of Things that could be prevented if you had more if we had more facilities that could help with family planning Yeah, and saying that people having unplanned unplanned pregnancy is 89 million. That's that's a lot Especially with the economy like you have more kids you need some new more food need more this this this this and it just causes more more production more more production for closed food Utensils, I mean everything and Having more production just creates more carbon emission and especially with that like overseas shipping There's it's millions and millions of co2 emissions as a release from these big tanks big tankers And it's just thousands of thousands of thousands of ships every day traveling across the world just getting clothes food Supplies for I mean across across the nation hundred percent. I know we were talking about China earlier, and it's a large population I Know they have a lot of overseas shipping due to their industry Do you think there would be ever a way to have them transition to a more? greener sustainable way to ship and Send things over It's more of how do we like? How do you? Cut the carbon emissions from those tankers, and I've been doing a lot of research on that It's a lot with efficient ocean shipping There's a lot of research and technology going into like slow steaming Like slow race steaming ships. Yeah, they go slower pace So they don't burn as much coal burn as much gas burn as much methane just to keep Going and getting like everything faster across the world to go back to sail ships We could think that'd be sick But it could if we do this and we pull this off it could save The US about 2.4 2.4 to 3.5 trillion dollars Yeah, it's it's a huge improvement, but it's just it's going to take some time be with technology and everything else Also going to other energy sources that we haven't talked about I know there's an untapped market in nuclear energy that you were talking about earlier Yeah, so nuclear energy is a new one because we it is a very very stable Like a stable power source, I mean it has no carbon emissions I mean you see like the the smoke coming out of the top of these nuclear power plants. It's not really smoke. It's yeah, it's just Moisture output right water. It's water. It's basically just the water cooling down the reactors in there But I mean, I mean it produces tons of tons and tons of energy It gives about it powers about 10% in world actually and 30% of the u.s. It costs a lot of money to make these things around three to three to fifty million dollars Depending on like the size and where it's located I take it that these nuclear Plants are not like reliable and healthy sources of energy, right? I wouldn't say they're like an unhealthy, but they're not the best option. They're not the best option They're definitely a big change from I mean coal coal burning Fossil fuels. I mean it's way better than those but the the cause of it is severe though We have toxic waste getting that like trying to dispose of it. It's a very hard thing to do I mean, I'm sure most of the time they dump it in the dumping the rivers dumping just wherever they find it and that can destroy I can destroy a lot. I mean you can get into aquifers in the Deep in earth. I mean just talk talk Toxicate like everything around it and it's bad. Yeah, that's that's pretty wild to think Because there's obviously been tragedies like around the world like Chernobyl But that yeah, that's it stayed like that for an extended period of time like Hiroshima and Nagasaki With the impact of nuclear bombs and stuff like that. Yeah You don't mean the radar solutions in you matter but More of just to discuss whether Nuclear and this ocean power and algae power versus Family planning. Do you think it is more so? economic changes that need to occur with like government's configuring together or if it's a Social political change that needs to occur. I think it's more where we need to spend more money on These solutions more than anything else because we're spending so much money on I mean military Because the US has has the strongest military in the world But it's more it's more a political thing I mean if we say like it's it's easier said than done. That's really what it is People are just scared to make that make that move it's just the world now mentally emotionally, it's all It's all weaker than I think has been in the last 20 years people are more I guess you could say sensitive and yeah, I would say divided Yeah, I would think it I think it would help a lot if like kind of like we talked about earlier More fortunate countries like China who's rich in economy the US who's just rich in general They would help, you know the smaller third world countries and then they move on to like they just kind of climb the ladder in terms of Yeah, I think a big portion of that is a like Supporting them through their own version of like the American Industrial Revolution. So instead of using coal and Forms of oil they could be using the said Wave energy like you were talking about like especially like coastal Areas, I feel like Asia would be like probably the most Wave energy like you were talking about like especially like coastal Areas, I feel like Asia would be like perfect for that like Japan specifically. Yeah, well since we're on the topic of like coastal regions that was one of the the topics that I researched and Currently is being used in like the Bahamas and Hawaii. So like super coastal beautiful places. I've never been I wish Maybe one day. I know Keep on dreaming anyways, yeah, there's temperature though that impacts that. Yes. So the system is called I believe it's like Oh tech It's ocean thermal energy. So you need like a 20 degrees Celsius of like water temperature change so that's why you have to go to like a coastal region where like the surface water is always warm year-round and They take that like temperature difference and it's kind of the same thing as like the tidal wave energy it just powers huge generators and It's actually like It's not as expensive as tidal wave energy So it's nice But it's like just a coastal region thing where the the surface water, like I said is warm year-round but it's actually like super profitable because these smaller countries like two generators being powered can You know run the whole country pretty much or the whole island So does a big plus yeah I feel like that'd be a really good Solution for small like undeveloped countries like Haiti Obviously it would power the country actively but they are facing an overpopulation issue due to their lack of birth control and regulation with health Andrea do you think like how do you think countries like the US should like reach out and help? health care infrastructures not only like energy wise but like Health care wise too in a sense I feel like the more developed countries like you're talking about the US China and amongst others Like could help by providing resources For like the family planning facilities or anything like that because I also found out that approximately 214 million women of reproductive age in developing regions want to be able to have Avoid pregnancy, but are not using a modern contraceptive method and it's mainly because of Also, like they don't have the resources for it So, yeah, I guess if family planning were widely accessible and There were the barriers to contraception were removed Any unintended pregnancies unplanned births and abortions would decline greatly That sounds like a dream Obviously, that's not happening right now. Maybe one day we could make it work out I know in Haiti that is a big problem due to it being an undeveloped country it's obviously separated because it's literally an island but Implementation if when I can't even speak right now, but actually implementing those ideas of giving them contraceptives and making things cheaper for them like electricity and heating with like that Wave power would be absolutely amazing. I think going back on like how richer and better Economically like speaking countries to help like the third world countries I mean, it's just a great example like for Haiti. They're not super rich or third world countries So they need help from a bigger better economically country Like for example, the US would have to supply them with this OTEC system Which then could power their whole island essentially with two or three generators What does that put us at for time? Oh Do we have to have So should we should we wrap this yeah What are we how are we doing I just Ended on the OTEC system We have to like finish that right? Yeah, I mean we kind of already did well, I think we had a really great discussion today about Family planning and different solutions that can be definitely implemented worldwide for sure about how to fix a climate crisis Definitely steered more towards Helping smaller countries instead of addressing Bigger issues within large-scale countries, which we'll be discussing in our next episode. So make sure to back in for that guys Well, I think that takes us to her Ending. So thank you guys for listening We really enjoyed making this episode for you guys today I want to thank you want to thank you Addy Max and Andrea for being here for sure. Absolutely and if you want to You want to buy stuff without looking at the price? You gotta work it out looking at the clock. I'll see y'all follow me five star Mike 33 Yeah, thank you see you next time folks I