A warmer world is here. Now what?

In theory, the free market should help solve climate change. In reality, it’s rarely that simple. This episode explores how emissions markets work, where they’re taking off to reduce pollution, and why economists still believe markets are essential—if politics will let them be. More on the pollution market in India: https://emissionsmarkets.org/evidence-from-india/ More on the scale up efforts: https://emissionsmarkets.org/

Accurate weather forecasts save lives—but not everyone gets them. In this episode, Amy Harder looks at how AI is transforming weather prediction in places where the stakes are highest and the resources are few. Can better data close the climate survival gap? More on the underlying research: https://epic.uchicago.edu/research/long-range-forecasts-as-climate-adaptation-experimental-evidence-from-developing-country-agriculture/ More on the India monsoon forecasts: https://humancenteredforecasts.climate.uchicago.edu/news/artificial-intelligence-is-helping-indian-farmers-adapt-to-climate-change-forecast-accurately-predicting-an-unusual-monsoon-season-reached-38-million/ More on the scale-up efforts: https://humancenteredforecasts.climate.uchicago.edu/

To compete with China’s dominance in battery technology, the U.S. needs more than just ambition—it needs new chemistry. This episode traces the rise and fall of an American sodium battery startup and the quiet race to build a cheaper, safer, next-generation power source. Can innovation outpace geopolitics—or does the future already belong to lithium? More on Shirley Meng: https://climate.uchicago.edu/people/y-shirley-meng/ More on the Energy Technologies Initiative: https://energytech.pme.uchicago.edu/

In the 1990s, millions of vultures quietly vanished from India—and the consequences were deadly. This is the story of how a cheap painkiller set off a chain reaction involving rabid dogs, polluted water, and tens of thousands of human deaths. Economists now say it may be the most expensive extinction you’ve never heard of, and is just one example of how wildlife extinctions impact our human world. More on the study on vultures: https://climate.uchicago.edu/the-social-costs-of-keystone-species-collapse-evidence-from-the-decline-of-vultures-in-india/ More on the study on bats: https://climate.uchicago.edu/the-economic-impacts-of-ecosystem-disruptions-costs-from-substituting-biological-pest-control/ More from Eyal Frank: https://climate.uchicago.edu/people/eyal-frank/

What does pragmatic climate policy look like today? In this special episode, our Michael Greenstone sits down with Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) and former Senator Heidi Heitkamp (D-North Dakota) for a frank conversation about regulation, the energy transition, and the politics of bipartisan climate action. The two senators don’t always agree—but they share a belief that durable change starts with listening.