Author Richard Heinberg on new book "Our Renewable Future: Laying the Path for One Hundred Percent Clean Energy". Plus plankton expert Dr. Michael Behrenfeld: is the foundation of ocean life in trouble?
Interviews by Alex Smith for Radio Ecoshock
Occasional music by Alex Smith
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You want a nice green world full of solar panels and wind machines? So do I, but as we are about to find out, that isn't going to be easy, if it's possible at all. Of course, trying to survive in a climate wrecked by fossil fuel emissions may not be possible either.
Richard Heinberg is known around the world as an energy expert. He's a leader and Senior Fellow at the Post Carbon Institute, author of 13 books, and a returning guest on Radio Ecoshock.
So when I got his newest book, written with David Fridley from the Berkeley Lab, I expected a triumphant plan for our transition to renewable energy in that post-carbon world. I was surprised, and we are all in for a big surprise, about how hard this change is going to be. It's all in the new book "Our Renewable Future: Laying the Path for One Hundred Percent Clean Energy" published in June 2016.
Dr. Michael Behrenfeld. He's is a Senior Research Scientist and Professor at Oregon State University. Mike specializes in marine algae research. Behrenfeld is also the principal investigator for a special 5-year NASA project called NAAMES - the North Atlantic Aerosols and Marine Ecosystems Study.
We talk about the state of global plankton, prospects under climate change and warming oceans - and the way plankton can help the development of clouds above the ocean, which helps cool the planet.