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Climate change is upon us. Fires, droughts, hurricanes, sea level rise, and melting ice caps are all part of our new normal. But something else is happening as well. Scientists, innovators, organizations, cities, companies, and citizens are taking action, making progress, and finding solutions. Climate Break brings you stories of climate progress and interviews with climate innovators from California and around the world, in under 2 minutes. Our solution-oriented, radio-ready shows are produced by students and climate law and policy experts at the University of California, Berkeley. Climate Break is a co-production of the Center for Law, Energy, and Environment at UC Berkeley Law and KALW 91.7 FM San Francisco Bay Area, in conjunction with the Berkeley School of Journalism. (For a transcript of the trailer, visit https://climatebreak.org/about-climate-break/)
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What is the Valley Clean Infrastructure Plan?Golden State Clean Energy aims to turn a large swath of struggling farmland in western Fresno County into a large solar panel installation. The Valley Clean Infrastructure Plan (VCIP) would repurpose up to 136,000 acres of salty, waterlogged agricultural land into more than 20,000 megawatts of solar energy, capable of producing enough electricity to meet up to 15% of California’s needs. The project would also help push California toward its Senate Bill 100 mandate, which requires the state to reach 100% clean electricity by 2045. A single project the size of VCIP could make a meaningful dent in that goal. BenefitsChief Operating Officer of Golden State Clean Energy Patrick Mealoy says VCIP alone could cover 10-15% of California's electricity needs– enough to power roughly nine million homes. The project would also cut electricity-related carbon dioxide emissions by 15%. The project’s new transmission line would carry clean power throughout Northern California, reducing the region’s reliance on natural gas, and would ease one of the grid’s worst congestion points between Northern and Southern California. Because the existing farmland is degraded by salt buildup and drainage problems, VCIP frames itself as putting failing land to better use, including optimizing scarce water supplies and cutting dust pollution. The project will also create roughly 6,000 construction jobs and 1,2000 permanent operations jobs. And for family farms sitting on the impaired ground, VCIP offers long-term lease income while keeping the land in the family’s name. Drawbacks and CritiquesThe scale of VCIP makes it a hard sell. Projects this size can spend years in development waiting for energy grid interconnection studies and environmental permitting. Fallow fields can serve as habitat for species that have adapted to the Central Valley, so large solar buildouts still face scrutiny over their ecological impact. And converting farmland to energy infrastructure at this scale raises questions about who holds the water rights tied to that land once it’s no longer farmed, and what happens to the site itself decades from now when the panels are eventually decommissioned. Patrick Mealoy’s Take Mealoy sees VCIP as making the best of land that has few other viable uses. This ground is already failing as productive farmland, in a district that’s already fighting drainage and salinity problems. In his view, the choice is between using this land to generate clean power or leaving it fallow, generating no return for the farmers who own it. About our GuestPatrick Mealoy is the Chief Operating Officer of Golden State Clean Energy, the developer behind the Valley Clean Infrastructure Plan. ResourcesGolden State Clean Energy, The Valley Clean Infrastructure PlanCanary Media, A Huge Solar Project Grows in CaliforniaA transcript of this episode can be found at https://climatebreak.org/building-large-scale-solar-infrastructure-with-patrick-mealoy/
Disabilities During Disasters Extreme weather events are increasingly frequent and severe, yet emergency response systems often fail to protect disabled people. The Partnership for Inclusive Disaster Strategies (PIDS) is a non-profit working to reform emergency management in the United States by centering disability rights, equity, and accessibility before, during, and after climate-induced disasters. The Work of The PartnershipDisability inclusion in disasters is multi-faceted; PIDS, or The Partnership, envisions, “disability inclusive engagement throughout disaster preparedness, mitigation, response and recovery to build back better, optimize community resilience, and improve disaster outcomes for all.” The effort to increase inclusivity is critical to improving lifesaving efforts, with 16% of the world’s population and 27% of the US’s population living with a disability. People with disabilities are significantly more likely - up to four times - to be killed or injured during natural disasters. That’s largely because emergency preparedness and response have not been developed to include the disabled community. One link that has become clearer in recent years is the overlap in the needs of those who have disabilities and those who are aging - both in everyday independent living and in the wake of disasters. Recognizing this, PIDS participates in the Disability and Aging Network, a group of organizations supporting disabled and aging individuals after disasters. PIDS especially supports disability-led organizations in their efforts to meet the needs of their communities. Before, during, and after a disaster, PIDS can coordinate with emergency response efforts by organizations like FEMA and the Red Cross to advocate for the needs of disabled and aging individuals and to fill other gaps in the traditional humanitarian response. PIDS provides direct services to members of the disabled community and their family and friends during disasters - for instance, they operate a Disability & Disaster hotline, which anyone can call to get help. The hotline provides information and resources, and assistance finding accommodations like temporary housing and transportation. Broader ApplicationsPIDS not only does crucial work in times of disaster - they also work behind the scenes to influence advocacy, policy, and systems change. The work PIDS is doing for the disabled community may have applications for others. For instance, the UN reports that, when climate-driven extreme weather events occur, women and children are 14 times more likely to die than men. The strength and frequency of extreme weather is a global issue - though all people are susceptible to the effects of climate change, a community may be more vulnerable due to factors like its geographic situation, economic strength, and demographic makeup. Improving advance planning and emergency response policy, like PIDS advocates for, is important to other vulnerable communities that have been historically underserved during disasters. Germán’s TakeGermán underscores the population-wide benefits of disability-inclusive strategies. One advantage of a resource like the Disability & Disaster hotline is that it lightens the load on first responders who already have a lot going on. Also, adaptations made to include people with disabilities often have unintended benefits for everyone else. Germán points to curb cuts, which are the ramps between the sidewalk and the street. Though they were initially designed to accommodate wheelchairs and other mobility aids, they also benefit strollers, carts, and children on bicycles and scooters, making the transition from the sidewalk to the street smoother for all. One way that the disabled community is disproportionately affected by heat waves, storms, and other
What is Solar Grazing? The deployment of utility scale solar has often required clearing vegetation and then using fossil-fuel-powered mowers or toxic herbicides to prevent overgrowth. To reduce these harms, solar grazing is a dual land use approach where livestock is taken to solar farms to manage the vegetation that can grow and interfere with the panels. Solar grazing reduces maintenance emissions, provides a revenue stream for local ranchers, and promotes soil health. Why it Works: Sheep Solar grazing is a type of targeted grazing, which is, “the controlled application of specific livestock at a designated season, duration, and intensity to achieve specific landscape and vegetation management goals”. Those goals often include weed control, fire risk reduction, and wildlife habitat enhancement. Solar grazing specifically refers to livestock grazing on solar farms, or, under and around solar arrays. According to the American Solar Grazing Association (ASGA), other terms associated with solar grazing include agrivoltaics (the co-location of agriculture and solar), agrisolar, agri-pv, or rangevoltaics. One grazier compares solar grazing to silvopasture - or, grazing under trees - “Just with metal trees”. Sheep have been found to be an excellent match for the needs of solar grazing. Sheep are nimble and can work around solar installments, eliminating work that, without re-designing or raising solar panels, can be difficult for humans. The benefits of solar grazing extend beyond vegetation management: sheep have been measured to have lower body temperatures, both in their wool and skin, when they’re shaded by solar panels. Additionally, forage quality and moisture content are higher in the shade where water in the soil evaporates more slowly. Sheep have been shown to drink less water during solar grazing, which reduces water needs for graziers. Solar grazing also eliminates competition for land use between solar developers and graziers. What’s Left to Learn Solar grazing has been expanding across the country for the last decade; however, long-term studies on the effects of grazing on biotic and abiotic factors - as well as changes in cost over time - have not been widely conducted. One of the highest costs in solar grazing is transportation and logistics, so in places like the US’s Northeast where most solar farms are around 11 acres, moving sheep makes grazing less affordable. In regions with large or interconnected farms, that cost is reduced; Stacie reports that many sheep are born and live out their lives on one farm. Solar grazing is often viewed as just “mowing with sheep” - not as an active agricultural practice. The American Farmland Trust emphasizes that, on the contrary, “It’s a way to grow food, build soil, create habitat, and generate renewable energy at once.” Stacie’s Points Stacie emphasizes that grazing - even in areas where animals have to be rotated between sites - contributes less fossil fuel emissions than mowers that run on diesel. Mowers and weed-whackers have other side effects: blades have a tendency to “throw” rocks, or pick up and eject rocks, which can damage panels and add costs to operation. Also, using any machine powered by combustion increases fire risk. There’s a demographic shift supported by solar grazing. Often, the greatest financial hurdle to a grazing operation is buying or leasing pasture; for young people who won’t inherit pastureland, solar grazing lowers the barrier to entering the in
Why Sodium? The global transition to renewable energy has accelerated the global development of lithium-ion batteries, but the mining and processing of its materials can be harmful to workers, local communities, and the environment. Sodium has a recently emerged as a potentially cheaper and more environmentally friendly alternative that could revolutionize battery storage systems. Dr. Shirley Meng is one of the scientists leading the way in this field, spearheading the creation of the world's first anode-free sodium solid-state battery. Diving Deeper Dr. Meng’s batteries have three key qualities: they are anode-free, sodium based, and solid-state. Though other researchers have developed batteries with similar characteristics, this is the first time all three have been combined. Most batteries consist of three main parts: a cathode, anode, and electrolyte. The cathode is the positive pole, the anode is the negative pole, and the electrolyte is the material between the poles. As explained by the MIT School of Engineering, when a battery is connected to an external circuit, electrons move through the circuit, while simultaneously ions move through the electrolyte. The anode in a standard battery stores ions, while an anode-free battery starts out with no active anode material—the ions come entirely from the cathode. According to laser tech company Laserax, there is one key difference between Lithium-ion Batteries (LIBs) and Solid State Batteries (SSBs): the electrolyte material. In an LIB, this is a liquid, typically liquid salt dissolved in an organic solvent, which is highly flammable. In an SSB, this liquid is replaced by a solid electrolyte. Dr. Meng calls the electrolyte in her team’s batteries the “magic salt” because it’s primarily made out of sodium chloride - the same chemical as table salt. By supplementing the magic salt with other chemicals like oxygen, yttrium, and zirconia, an ion-conducting electrolyte can be formed. The Pros and Cons Dr. Meng’s batteries use sodium in place of the lithium in LIBs. Lithium and other LIB components can only be mined in particular regions, and production - besides being deleterious to the environment - is tightly controlled by a handful of powerful countries. Sodium, on the other hand, is predicted to be about 1200 times more plentiful than lithium in the earth’s crust, and can be accessed from other sources like sea water. Anode-free batteries are often lighter, cheaper, and more energy-dense than similarly capable standard batteries. However, they can be harder to manufacture and can have shorter lifetimes. As advances are made by other researchers working on alternate battery structures, these challenges will likely be overcome, as have similar difficulties with LIBs. Dr. Meng’s batteries operate best in the lab at low external temperatures, which fills a gap in the battery market in extremely cold climates; however, scalability and widespread use demands that batteries function in a wide temperature range. Solid-state batteries also come with a range of benefits and challenges. Besides being less flammable, they can have faster charging, higher energy capacity, and longer lifetimes compared to LIBs. However, they are susceptible to the formation of dendrites - or, tree-like metallic structures on the anode - which form during charging and can cause short circuits. Solid electrolytes are prone to cracking under mechanical stress, both in manufacturing and use. Like anode-free batteries and other cutting edge battery tech, SSBs have a long way to go in terms of scalability, but show promise in the future of battery development. Dr. Meng’s Take Dr. Meng emphasizes that Sodium-ion battery technology is not new - research began back in the 1960s, but was outpaced by lithium-ion research, which at the time showed better results. Additionally, sodium batteries aren’t necessarily a replacement for lithium batteries, but rather a complementary technology that many companies will be able to produce without much capital investment. With the combination of these battery technologies, there
Introduction Mozzarella accounts for over 30% of all cheese produced in the U.S., more than any other variety. So when New Culture, a San Francisco-based food technology company, set out to remake vegan cheese, they started with the pizza topping millions of Americans know and love. New Culture, co-founded by guest Matt Gibson, relies on fermentation to make animal-free cheese that melts, stretches, and tastes like the real thing. Crucially, this process cuts down on the emissions, land, and water dairy farming requires. Background Dairy production is a large driver of climate change. According to the BBC, cheese has the third-largest agricultural carbon footprint, after lamb and beef. Methane released by cows, sheep, and goats is a major contributor, along with the land and water needed to raise the animals. The process of cheesemaking multiplies this carbon footprint: it takes roughly ten pounds of milk to produce a single pound of cheese, meaning the carbon emissions of cheese are concentrated tenfold. New Culture sidesteps both livestock and the plant-based substitutes that have tried to replace them by manufacturing casein– the protein responsible for cheese’s stretch and gooeyness. As Gibson explains, the company trains microbes to produce casein inside fermentation tanks, similar to the process used to brew beer. The microbes feed on sugars to produce casein, and that protein is then combined with plant-based fats to create the finished cheese. This method, known as precision fermentation, dates back to the 1970s, when researchers first used E. coli to produce human insulin. Advantages According to Gibson, switching from dairy to New Culture’s cheese cuts greenhouse gas emissions by roughly 86%, with a 97% reduction in land use and a 98% reduction in water use. Perhaps equally as important, New Culture doesn’t ask consumers to compromise on taste or texture. The manufactured casein is molecularly identical to what’s found in dairy milk, meaning that the cheese melts the way people expect. This is something most conventional plant-based cheeses, which lack casein entirely, have not been able to replicate. The switch from dairy cheese to an alternative, then, is now potentially more palatable. Drawbacks and Critiques Producing precision-fermented proteins is significantly more expensive than regular dairy products. Gibson acknowledges this, explaining that dairy is a heavily subsidized industry, and New Culture’s casein protein is the most expensive part of its cheese. The company has had to engineer ways to use less protein per product without sacrificing quality to stay competitive. He also points to the challenge of limited fermentation tanks and infrastructure. And it’s worth noting that the same trait that makes New Culture’s cheese taste like the real thing also carries a drawback. Because its casein is identical to the casein found in ruminant milk, someone with a milk allergy would still react to the cheese, even though no animal was involved in making it. This distinction could complicate how the product gets marketed and understood, since “animal-free” doesn’t necessarily equate to “dairy-free.” The Guest’s Take Gibson believes that “taste is king in the food world,” and because New Culture’s cheese is “indistinguishable to dairy cheese,” consumers aren’t giving anything up on the experience. He’s hopeful that as New Culture grows, costs will lower and its products will be adopted by mass-market restaurant chains where climate impact could be the greatest. For now, you can get a taste of New Culture mozzarella at partner restaurants like Pizzeria Mozza in LA. About the Guest Matt Gibson is the Co-Founder and Chief Executive Offic
Introduction As California works to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from buildings, the transition to energy-efficient homes is an important opportunity for climate careers. The Rising Sun Center for Opportunity, a California-based nonprofit managed by Julia Hatton, helps address challenges faced by those in underserved communities when it comes to job training. Through hands-on programs, participants can gain valuable skills as they work to improve green buildings. Background Buildings account for over 40% of the global energy consumption and carbon emissions, making improvements to the energy and water efficiency of local homes an important part of climate strategy. As a result, the transition to clean energy creates a high demand for workers trained in energy efficiency and green construction—and there is a global shortage of workers with the applicable skills. The Rising Sun Center for Opportunity assists not only with the immediate need, but also in building career pathways focused on long-term climate resilience. By employing young people from low-income backgrounds in the Bay and Central California, this nonprofit works as a launchpad for future climate action. Advantages Climate job training addresses both economic and environmental challenges simultaneously. Participants gain practical skills to help them enter the green industry, while households can receive services that save energy and water. The hands-on approach that the Rising Sun Center for Opportunity utilizes furthers this endeavor, especially with the focus it has on leveling the playing field. With programs specializing in preparing youth, women, and individuals in reentry, a diverse range of participants can work directly in homes and communities. This provides immediate climate benefits to recipients of service, while workers gain experience in real-world projects that equip them with skills necessary for a long-term career. Drawbacks and Critiques Some contend that climate job training doesn’t always translate into long-term climate employment. Although the Rising Sun Center for Opportunity may provide an efficient starting point, participants are not guaranteed a green career, especially if employers require other additional experiences or skills. There is also a need to ensure that the climate transition doesn’t just create jobs; it should also help establish economic power for those who have been marginalized from careers, as Hatton emphasizes. Although the Rising Sun Center for Opportunity aims to coordinate efforts from a wide group of historically disadvantaged communities, it’s crucial that efforts translate into real impact. The Guest’s Take Ms. Julia Hatton believes that investment in workers in green jobs is crucial to advance response to climate change. Rather than identifying job creation and reducing emissions as separate goals, Hatton sees potential in merging and combating both actions at once: by allowing them to reinforce each other. About the Guest Ms. Julia Hatton is the President & Chief Executive Officer at Rising Sun Center for Opportunity, committed to climate job training for underserved communities to lead climate action. She takes charge in leading innovation in the workforce and climate sector alike. Other Resources & Further Reading Rising Sun Center for Opportunity Website: Rising Sun ScienceDirect: Energy-related carbon emissions in the building sector Green Jobs Network: Climate Job Training California Climate Investments: Workforce Development
The Global Transition As the global transition to clean energy accelerates, scaling solar infrastructure has emerged as one of the most critical pathways to achieving a net-zero future. However, this rapid buildout could bring an increasingly large amount of waste as solar panels reach their end of life. To avoid this, recycling offers a dual climate solution: it significantly reduces the greenhouse gas emissions associated with primary mining and provides a supply of pre-refined, low-carbon materials that can be used to make new panels. The Role of Solar Panels Transitioning away from fossil fuels and achieving net-zero carbon emissions at a global scale requires rapid deployment of renewable technologies. For solar energy specifically, the amount of solar infrastructure needed on Earth to meet climate goals is about 16 times what has already been built. This buildout demands large quantities of raw materials, including glass, silica sand, silver, copper, and aluminum. While these resources are traditionally mined from the Earth, they can also be recovered directly from solar panels once they reach their end-of-life. Extracting and processing raw materials for solar panels through primary mining is resource-intensive, and recycling those materials significantly reduces the panels’ manufacturing emissions. Similarly, integrating recycled solar glass cullet into manufacturing lowers furnace operating temperatures, cutting energy consumption by 2.5% to 3% for every 10% of cullet added and reducing the overall energy and emissions needed to produce new glass. If solar panels are taken to traditional e-waste recycling facilities, these sites typically rely on bulk shredding, a process that destroys material purity and scatters valuable metals. In contrast, the solar recycling process from SOLARCYCLE uses a step-by-step “reverse manufacturing” sequence in which the company strips away the junction box, removes the aluminum frame, and isolates the specialized glass to recover up to 97% of a panel’s material value. Furthermore, because solar manufacturing has evolved to generate more energy using fewer materials, the elements recovered from decommissioned panels can be the basis to build newer, higher-efficiency arrays that generate even more clean power. The Impact on Energy and Raw Materials Solar panel recycling requires dramatically less energy input, potentially avoiding up to 95% of the CO2 emissions and 95% of the energy needed to mine and process raw aluminum for new solar panels. What’s more, this technology can recover up to 99% or more of key materials like glass and metals. Likewise, because this solution recovers critical resources like silver and copper from existing infrastructure, the technology can be used to mine materials from what has already been produced and collected rather than extracting new minerals from the Earth. This means the technology has the potential to eliminate up to 25% of manufacturing emissions for specialized solar glass, while diverting toxic chemicals like lead and cadmium away from landfills to protect environmental and human health. Challenges: Recyclability and Economics Currently, panels have not been designed for recyclability, making the process of separating their tightly sealed layers a technical challenge. Because solar manufacturers operate on very thin or negative profit margins, they have rarely prioritized design-for-recyclability features, leaving decades of panels that will need specialized, intensive processing when they decommission. Scaling this technology also presents operational challenges because, while recycling thousands of panels is manageable, processing the millions of units at scale will require tooling that a supporting industry cannot yet provide. Solar panel recycling currently struggles to compete economically with traditional waste disposal depending on local geography. In countries like the United States, landfill r
What is TEK? As climate change increases the frequency and severity of extreme weather events, traditional land and water management approaches are proving insufficient to protect ecosystems and communities. Restoring tribal stewardship by re-establishing Indigenous leadership, returning ancestral lands, and applying Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) offers a holistic climate solution. By working with nature through practices like cultural fires, wetland restoration, and natural carbon capture, tribal stewardship builds ecosystem resilience, reduces wildfire and flood risks, and enhances natural carbon sequestration across California. How We Got Here Before European colonization, Native communities managed California’s ecosystems for millennia through practices rooted in place-based TEK. Settler colonialism displaced those communities and severed TEK from ecosystem management. In California, this included the criminalization of cultural burning practices and the non-ratification of 18 negotiated federal treaties in the 1850s, which broke promises to reserve 7.5 million acres of permanent tribal homelands. Decades of fire suppression and environmental degradation have left forests overgrown with dry biomass and ecosystems vulnerable to hazards such as severe wildfires, flooding, and biodiversity loss. What Now? To begin addressing these historical wrongs and build climate resilience, in March of 2026 the California Natural Resources Agency launched a policy aimed at restoring meaningful tribal stewardship across at least 7.5 million acres of land and coastal waters. The policy outlines three pathways: Ancestral land return — land acquisitions by Native communities through state grants and land trust partnerships, Co-Management and collaboration — shared or delegated decision-making power between tribal and non-tribal entities for joint conservation, and Durable tribal access — removal of legal and administrative barriers so Native cultural practitioners can access ancestral territories. Advantages The main advantage of tribal stewardship is its ability to proactively mitigate extreme climate risks and restore ecosystems. Low-intensity cultural burning clears out woody biomass and dry plant material, preventing severe fuel buildup and slowing down catastrophic wildfires. In water ecosystems, restoring native wetland species like tule beds slows down floodwaters, enhances groundwater infiltration, and stabilizes freshwater ecosystems. Similarly, restoration of coastal kelp forests protects critical natural carbon sinks while cooling ocean waters. Likewise, facilitating tribal stewardship can promote Indigenous-led initiatives such as clean energy microgrids, which can provide surrounding rural communities with emergency power, shelter, and resources during climate-induced disasters. Ultimately, grounding land return targets in historical treaty obligations takes concrete, tangible steps toward truth, healing, and repairing historical injustices committed against Native communities. Drawbacks A current constraint of implementing tribal stewardship at scale is the ongoing challenge of securing durable, long-term funding for land reacquisition and management, especially when relying on fluctuating state budget cycles or bond measures. Negotiating co-management agreements also presents deep administrative challenges, as navigating complex, siloed legal structures across federal, state, local, and private landowning entities requires significant time and institutional coordination. Additionally, given that landscapes have suffered from severe
Climate change is upon us. Fires, droughts, hurricanes, sea level rise, and melting ice caps are all part of our new normal. But something else is happening as well. Scientists, innovators, organizations, cities, companies, and citizens are taking action, making progress, and finding solutions. Climate Break brings you stories of climate progress and interviews with climate innovators from California and around the world, in under 2 minutes. Our solution-oriented, radio-ready shows are produced by students and climate law and policy experts at the University of California, Berkeley. Climate Break is a co-production of the Center for Law, Energy, and Environment at UC Berkeley Law and KALW 91.7 FM San Francisco Bay Area, in conjunction with the Berkeley School of Journalism. (For a transcript of the trailer, visit https://climatebreak.org/about-climate-break/)
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