What if the most important step you can take for biodiversity is simply… noticing?

Species are disappearing far faster than we can track, and for many of them, our entire scientific record amounts to a handful of specimens scattered across museum shelves.

My guest today, Scott Loarie, has spent the last decade building one of the most hopeful counterforces to that trend: iNaturalist. What started as a simple idea — “What if anyone could help record the living world with their phone?” — has grown into one of the largest biodiversity datasets on Earth. Most of what scientists now know about many species comes not from elite field research, but from millions of everyday people noticing what’s around them.

We talk about how climate change scrambles ecosystems, how citizen science has outpaced some traditional biology, and why biodiversity may be one of the last unpolarized environmental spaces left. iNaturalist works not because it’s high-tech, but because it taps into something deeply human: curiosity. A butterfly in your backyard becomes a datapoint for global science. A moment of noticing becomes a contribution that actually matters.

In a world where climate action often feels abstract and distant, biodiversity offers something intimate: a reason to look closer.

If you want to start, download the iNaturalist app, step outside, and snap a photo. It’s a tiny act that scales surprisingly far.

Referenced:

• iNaturalist — iOS | Android

• Seek — for under 13

• IUCN Red List

Get connected:

• Scott Loarie — iNaturalist | LinkedIn

• Ben - LinkedIn | Climate Papa

Feedback? Guest ideas? Get in touch by emailing ben@climatepapa.com

Music: Slynk & Lazy Syrup Orchestra - Mellow Kinda Hype (Balkan Bump Remix)

How do you make decisions for the next hundred years based on evidence you only know today? That’s the question Gary Yohe has spent more than four decades wrestling with. One of the first five economists in the world working on climate change back in the early 1980s, Gary served as the Coordinating Lead Author for multiple IPCC report chapters, including the Fourth Assessment that shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize. His research has shaped how the world understands climate risk, bridging economics, science, and policy. Instead of chasing a perfect century-long plan, he argues we should treat climate as a risk management problem—act, learn, adjust. It’s an idea that changed the field: policy as an iterative process rather than a single bet on the future.

We talk about how this shift happened and what it means today, from San Francisco’s sea-level strategy—where most of the city plans for a two-foot rise, but why the Embarcadero prepares for six—to the limits of insurance as climate risk becomes unpriceable. Gary channels John Holdren’s line that “we can abate, we can adapt, or we can suffer,” and explains why the catastrophic tail risks will never be fully insurable. He shares lessons from decades of human behavior research: how Florida’s hurricane-proof houses paradoxically increased deaths as people stopped evacuating, and how Outer Banks homeowners started building intentionally ‘disposable’ beach houses when insurance vanished. Along the way, he reflects on the communication gap that dogs climate science—how misinformation can be careless, but accuracy must be flawless—and the discipline it takes to keep public trust.

Now in his seventies, Gary calls himself “a foot soldier in the climate wars.” What keeps him going isn’t blind optimism but something sturdier. Quoting Václav Havel, he distinguishes hope from optimism: optimism expects things will work out; hope believes your actions might make a difference. That’s what motivates him when he imagines his nine-year-old twin granddaughters asking, “Papa, what did you do when all this was happening?” His answer: “I was doing everything I could. And I really thought I might make a difference. And that gave me enough hope to think it was worth the time to do it.”

Referenced:

• IPCC 4th Assessment
• Climate Cafe

Get connected:

• Gary - Wesleyan | Climate Cafe
• Ben - LinkedIn | Climate Papa

Feedback? Guest ideas? Get in touch by emailing ben@climatepapa.com

Music: Slynk & Lazy Syrup Orchestra - Mellow Kinda Hype (Balkan Bump Remix)

Agriculture, forestry, and land use together account for nearly 24 % of global greenhouse gas emissions. Yet somehow land sits in a weird blind spot: ignored by climate conversations focused on energy and transport, underanalyzed by markets, and mispriced by farmers and timber investors alike. That’s the problem, and opportunity, we’re going to discuss today.

I sit down with Danan Margason, founder and CEO of Aarden, to explore how AI can help land owners understand their options. Aarden sits at the center of a messy, trillion-dollar decision problem—enabling landowners and capital allocators to evaluate a single parcel across radically different paths: timber harvests vs. solar fields, carbon projects vs. housing, restoration now vs. monetizing later.

We dive into the systems thinking behind land use and why this is such a massive market that’s been underserved by technology.

Along the way, Danan shares his journey from crew boats in Seattle to Booking.com, through Carbon Direct’s push for high-quality removals, and into company-building back with his original crew buddy.

Referenced:

• Aarden.ai

• Jobs

• Land use

• Stepchange Show

Get connected:

• Danan - LinkedIn | danan@aarden.ai

• Ben - LinkedIn | Climate Papa

  
  

Feedback? Guest ideas? Get in touch by emailing ben@climatepapa.com

Music: Slynk & Lazy Syrup Orchestra - Mellow Kinda Hype (Balkan Bump Remix)

✨ Special teaser from the Stepchange Show. Details here. ✨

🎧 Listen to the full episode:

• Apple Podcasts

• Spotify

• YouTube

• Substack

• Any other podcast player search: ‘Stepchange’

  
  

Today’s Climate Papa episode is a quick teaser from my other project, The Stepchange Show.

Anay and I spent months digging into the hidden backbone of our modern world: data centers. These warehouses of machines quietly power everything from your email to AI — and now use more electricity than some countries.

This short preview pulls back the curtain. If it sparks your curiosity, head to the full episode on the Stepchange Show through the links above.

What happens when you take the two biggest sources of emissions in the US—transportation and electricity—and smash them together at breakneck speed?

In this episode of Climate Papa, I sit down with Apoorv Bhargava, the co-founder and CEO of WeaveGrid. We explore the massive, unfolding challenge and opportunity of integrating millions of electric vehicles onto a grid that wasn't built for them. WeaveGrid sits at the very center—building the critical software layer to orchestrate this transition, turning EVs from a potential liability into a powerful asset for a cleaner, more resilient energy system.

We dive deep into the systems thinking required to solve climate change, busting common memes around EV charging, and discussing why the real bottleneck isn't just charging stations, but the grid itself. Apoorv shares why he’s wary of buzzwords like "Virtual Power Plants" (VPPs) and makes the case for building trust and genuine partnership with the massive incumbent industries—like utilities and automakers—that are central to the energy transition.

Along the way, Apoorv opens up about his personal journey: from a childhood seeing the impacts of energy and water scarcity firsthand to the all-consuming life of a founder, and why focusing on the human side of the work is essential for the long haul.

Referenced:

• WeaveGrid

• Volts podcast by David Roberts on “enshitification”

Get connected:

• Apoorv - LinkedIn | apoorv@weavegrid.com

• Ben - LinkedIn | Climate Papa

Feedback? Guest ideas? Get in touch by emailing ben@climatepapa.com

Music: Slynk & Lazy Syrup Orchestra - Mellow Kinda Hype (Balkan Bump Remix)

Ben sits down with Michael Leggett—former Google and Facebook design leader turned climate entrepreneur—to explore the invisible but essential machinery behind the clean energy economy. Michael is the co-founder and Head of Product at Ever.green, a startup working to democratize access to high-impact renewable energy deals.

Ben and Michael go deep into the world of renewable energy credits (RECs), power purchase agreements (PPAs), and the shifting landscape of carbon accounting. Why is it that only ~1,000 companies today participate in the kind of long-term clean energy contracts that actually help bring new solar and wind projects online? What happens when companies buy cheap, after-the-fact RECs and claim 100% clean energy? And how might emerging standards like 24/7 carbon-free energy reshape what counts as climate impact—for better or worse?

Along the way, Michael shares his own journey from Big Tech to climate, how becoming a parent shaped his urgency, and why he remains (cautiously) optimistic that Team Earth can get it right—if we keep the focus on real-world outcomes and the systems and incentives that guide those outcomes.

Referenced:

• Ever.green

• Rethinking Scope 2 Accounting by Ever.green

• Stepchange Show: Coal Part II

Get connected:

• Michael - LinkedIn

• Ben - LinkedIn | ⁠Climate Papa⁠

Feedback? Guest ideas? Get in touch, by emailing ⁠ben@climatepapa.com⁠

Music: Slynk & Lazy Syrup Orchestra - Mellow Kinda Hype (Balkan Bump Remix)

In this live crossover episode of Climate Papa and Volts, I sit down with renowned climate journalist David Roberts for a conversation bridging the personal and the planetary. David traces his unlikely path from doctoral philosophy drop out into journalism—and how his early love of systems thinking shapes his work today.

We dive into the puzzle that is the energy transition. With clean energy solutions now tangible and increasingly affordable, David sees his role not just as a reporter, but as a guide through the nested challenges of decarbonization—from grid reform to housing to the politics of permitting.

We dive into David’s approach to writing (“talk like you’re at a bar with a smart friend”), his current obsessions (electricity and land use), and why abundance, not austerity, should define the climate movement. Along the way we try to answer if humans might be smart enough, as a species, to outrun the fate of the protozoa.

David was thoughtful, funny, and full of hope—with very little room for BS.

Referenced:

• Stepchange Show: Coal I

• 9Zero Seattle

• In defense of Ethical Naturalism

• Is humanity smarter than a protozoan?

• What's up with electric aviation?

Connect:

• David - Volts

• Ben - LinkedIn | ⁠Climate Papa⁠

Feedback? Guest ideas? Get in touch, by emailing ⁠ben@climatepapa.com⁠

Music: Slynk & Lazy Syrup Orchestra - Mellow Kinda Hype (Balkan Bump Remix)

What if the biggest climate impact from companies like Google wasn’t in their operations, but in how they shape the decisions of billions of people?

In this episode of Climate Papa, I sit down with Travis McCoy, Director of Product for Sustainability at Google. We talk about his journey into climate, the pivotal moment that pushed him to make the leap, and how Google is leveraging its massive distribution to help individuals, businesses, and governments make lower-carbon choices.

Travis shares why he believes climate action isn’t just about reducing emissions—it’s about changing systems at scale. And we have a mini product-jam on what it could mean for tech leaders and product builders to build climate native products.

Referenced:

• Electrify by Saul Griffith

• Google’s sustainability work: Google Sustainability

• Project Sunroof by Google: Project Sunroof

• The Stepchange Show

Get connected:

• Travis - LinkedIn

• Ben - LinkedIn | ⁠Climate Papa⁠

Feedback? Guest ideas? Get in touch, by emailing ⁠ben@climatepapa.com⁠

Music: Slynk & Lazy Syrup Orchestra - Mellow Kinda Hype (Balkan Bump Remix)