Hot Mess
Season 2018
Hot Mess is a show about how climate change impacts all of us, and about how we can create a better future for our planet and ourselves.
Where to Watch Hot Mess • Season 2018
27 Episodes
- We’ve Ignored Climate Change For More Than a CenturyE1
We’ve Ignored Climate Change For More Than a CenturyWe’ve known about the greenhouse effect for nearly 200 years and about global warming for more than a century, but we’ve had a hard time acting because our brains aren’t a good match for a problem this big. - Why Climate Change is UnjustE3
Why Climate Change is UnjustWhat do you think of when you hear the words “climate change?” Chances are, you might think of sad nature, somewhere far away. But climate change also affects humans, in every corner of the world, including the corner where you live, and where I live. It impacts the people and places we see everyday, and it will impact some of us more than others. - Could Your Neighborhood Survive a Climate Disaster?E7
Could Your Neighborhood Survive a Climate Disaster?Climate change is amplifying extreme weather events like hurricanes, heatwaves and other disasters. What’s the first thing that comes to mind when you think of how best to prepare for this stuff? Moving inland? Buying flood insurance? Stockpiling water? Building stronger relationships might not be high on that list, but maybe it should be. - Why Don’t We Hear About the Ozone Hole Anymore?E8
Why Don’t We Hear About the Ozone Hole Anymore?We don’t hear much about the hole in the ozone layer anymore. That’s because we’ve all but fixed it, thanks to consumer choices and a massive international agreement called the Montreal Protocol. Can we learn anything from this environmental success story that will help us fix climate change? - Who Should Pay To Fix Climate Change?E11
Who Should Pay To Fix Climate Change?Over the past few centuries, a handful of countries reaped the benefits of fossil fuels and developed their economies, emitting a lot of greenhouse gases along the way. We now know these gases have changed the climate. But since the mid-2000s, an interesting shift has occurred. The majority of greenhouse gas emissions are now coming from large developing countries, who are looking for cheap energy sources to drive their own economic growth, just like rich countries before them. - Could Space Mirrors Cool The Globe?E12
Could Space Mirrors Cool The Globe?Humans are running a dangerous experiment on our planet. We're putting more and more carbon dioxide and other gases into the atmosphere, which are trapping the sun's energy, and lo and behold, our planet is heating up in response. To fix this, we could cut carbon dioxide emissions, but that’s been hard. What if there were a shortcut? What if we could reflect some of the sun’s energy away before it had a chance to get trapped? Like… maybe with space mirrors?! - Why Are Hurricanes Getting Stronger?E13
Why Are Hurricanes Getting Stronger?It’s impossible to say that climate change is responsible for any individual storm or hurricane, but climate change is making these storms stronger. How much stronger? It turns out, Hurricane Harvey is the ideal test case to measure how a warming planet and warming oceans, amplify our worst storms. - Climate change will push millions from their homes. Where will they go?E14
Climate change will push millions from their homes. Where will they go?In 2017, storms, floods, and droughts displaced 18 million people from their homes worldwide. And by some estimates, over the next three decades, 200 million people may need to leave their homes to escape the same kind of disasters, made worse by climate change. Where in the world will all these people go? - What's actually the worst greenhouse gas?E15
What's actually the worst greenhouse gas?Earth’s atmosphere naturally contains greenhouse gases. Without them, the world would be way too cold for humans. But we are adding extra greenhouse gases, which are causing Earth to heat up and disrupting weather patterns worldwide. So which of these many gases is heating Earth the most? - What if Carbon Emissions Stopped Tomorrow?E17
What if Carbon Emissions Stopped Tomorrow?Imagine that aliens landed and gifted us a clean, limitless energy source. And instead of killing each other over this technology, we decided to immediately transform the world into a carbon-free society. This wonderous source would power our homes, industries, cars and planes, and humanity’s annual rate of carbon pollution would almost instantly fall to zero. So if we kicked our carbon addiction tomorrow, what would that mean for global warming? - What Indigenous Communities Are Teaching The Rest of Us About Climate ChangeE18
What Indigenous Communities Are Teaching The Rest of Us About Climate ChangeAs the world figures out how to live with a rapidly changing climate, traditional knowledge from indigenous cultures could help us understand just how things are transforming. - Can Farms and Forests Coexist?E20
Can Farms and Forests Coexist?Deforestation is a big problem for the climate. This kind of land use releases more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere than any single country, besides the United States or China. And most of the deforestation in the world today happens because people want to put farms where forests are. So, figuring out how to farm with trees instead of just chopping them down could help us fight climate change. - Coral Reefs Are Dying. But They Don’t Have To.E22
Coral Reefs Are Dying. But They Don’t Have To.Coral reefs cover less than one percent of the seafloor, and yet they’re home to a quarter of all marine life, making them some of the most biodiverse places on Earth. But their future looks bleak. Decades of environmental threats like warming waters and ocean acidification have pushed reefs to the brink. Can we use science to bring them back? - Can We Get Solar Power To Everyone Who Wants It?E23
Can We Get Solar Power To Everyone Who Wants It?By the end of 2016, the US was home to over 1 million household and commercial solar energy operations, with 4 times as many solar panels installed that year compared to just four years earlier. But if you don’t own the roof over your head, or can’t afford this kind of upgrade, are you left out of the solar energy revolution? - Will Big Oil Have To Pay Up Like Big Tobacco?E25
Will Big Oil Have To Pay Up Like Big Tobacco?Today, lawsuits are positioning climate change as this generation's smoking: it pollutes the air, it’s caused by burning chemicals we buy from a handful of huge companies, and it’s dangerous to human health. Fossil fuel companies are being taken to court just like tobacco companies were, because of what they knew and when. Should they be forced to pay for damages from climate change? And can you even sue specific companies when we’ve all benefited from the industrialization that oil and coal made possible? - How to suck carbon dioxide out of the skyE26
How to suck carbon dioxide out of the skyCarbon dioxide gets a lot of grief these days. It’s the main cause of the global warming that’s already damaging coral reefs, ice caps, and coastlines. But for eons, life survived on Earth because natural processes kept CO2 levels within limits, preventing the planet from getting either too cold or too hot. So, if we want to keep earth from warming more than a few degrees, we probably need to supercharge those natural processes, in a hurry. Or maybe even invent some new methods to suck carbon out of the sky at an even bigger scale. The question is, can we capture all that carbon before earth becomes too hot for us?