On this episode of the root simple podcast Kelly and I speak with climate scientist Peter Kalmus, author of Being the Change: Live Well and Spark a Climate Revolution. Peter was a guest on episode 39, but we thought we’d bring him back because much has changed in climate science and, spoiler, it’s pretty scary. But there’s also some hopeful things to talk about including Peter’s new book.

Peter Kalmus is an atmospheric scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, with a Ph.D. in physics from Columbia University. He lives in suburban Altadena, California with his wife and two children on 1/10th the fossil fuels of the average American. Peter wanted me to remind listeners that the ideas and opinions he expresses in this interview are his. Peter is not speaking on behalf of NASA, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, or the California Institute of Technology. During the podcast we discuss:

• Climate change guilt
• The dangers of techno-optimism
• Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Report
• Grief
• The documentary about Peter
• Carbon taxes
• #FlyingLess and flyingless.org
• No-Fly Climate Sci
• Citizen’s Climate Lobby

Peter’s website is beingthechangebook.com and you can interact with him on Twitter @climatehuman.

If you’d like to leave a question for the Root Simple Podcast please call (213) 537-2591 or send an email to [email protected]. You can subscribe to our podcast in the iTunes store and on Stitcher. Closing theme music by Dr. Frankenstein. A downloadable version of this podcast is here.