As 2024 comes to a close, we are taking this time to focus on hope. While this year has been rough for the climate and the environment in many ways, there is also so much good happening out there. There are wins to celebrate and reasons for optimism.
Today, Sea Change sits down with an expert on hope, and learn why evidence-based hope is essential in our fight against climate change.
To learn more about evidence-based hope and hope expert extraordinaire Elin Kelsey, click here!
Thank you so much for listening to Sea Change this year. We wish all of you a peaceful, joyful, and hopeful 2025.
This episode is hosted by Halle Parker and Eva Tesfaye. Carlyle Calhoun is our managing producer. Our sound designer is Emily Jankowski and our theme music is by Jon Batiste. Sea Change is a WWNO and WRKF production. We're a part of the NPR Podcast Network and distributed by PRX. Sea Change is made possible with major support from the Gulf Research Program of the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. WWNO's Coastal Desk is supported by the Walton Family Foundation, the Meraux Foundation, and the Greater New Orleans Foundation.
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TRANSCRIPT
EVA: 2024 has been a rough year for the environment and climate. Global climate talks and the push to cut down the world’s plastic waste failed. The United States — the world’s second-largest fossil fuel polluter — elected a president who still calls global warming a hoax.
HALLE: But, no, Eva, we are not going to end the year on that. There have been some real bright spots. Renewable energy is the fastest-growing energy source in the US. For the first time, the U.S. is producing more energy from the wind than from burning coal.
EVA: Speaking of coal, if we look across the Atlantic, the United Kingdom shut down its very last coal plant this year. Eliminating one of the dirtiest and most polluting forms of energy.
HALLE: Plus, a landmark case in Montana found that state residents not only have a right to a clean environment, but a stable climate. It was a huge breakthrough for youth climate activists.
EVA: Over in the animal world, after decades of advocacy by indigenous tribes on the West Coast, salmon returned to the Klamath (CLAM- ith) river for the first time in a century. It took a long time, but the voice of the people led to the historic removal of dams. And the fish are already reaping the benefits.
HALLE: And in what may be the most promising news, the world’s top energy nerds, the International Energy Agency expects global demand for fossil fuel to peak by the end of the decade. Then, the world will enter the era of clean electricity. This still isn’t fast enough, and a lot could go wrong, but that’s a clear sign of progress.
EVA: These are all reasons for optimism, and, dare I say, hope.
MUSIC
EVA: I’m Eva Tesfaye.
HALLE: I’m Halle Parker, and you’re listening to Sea Change.
EVA: You might’ve guessed it, but today’s episode is about hope and why one expert says our emotions are so critical to the fight against burning fossil fuels and global warming.
HALLE: Earlier this year, I mentioned that the word “hope” doesn’t always feel right to me. I try to stay positive, but hope feels hard with such huge forces and systems working against the change the climate needs.
Eva talked to an author who said she focuses on the word, possibility, which I liked. But today’s interview might’ve converted me.
EVA: Halle sat down with Elin Kelsey. She’s an international thought leader in the climate justice movement, who is all about solutions and hope. But not just any hope — evidence-based hope. The kind that doesn’t just rely on blind faith or wishful thinking. It’s hope informed by the fact that there are good things happening in this world. Wins to be celebrated and evidence that we are moving in the right direction.
HALLE: She calls out the media for bombarding people with just the problems. And challenges us not to forget the solutions, to uplift the reasons for hope and wonder.
EVA: That’s coming up.
OUTRO:
HALLE: This episode was hosted by me, Halle Parker and Eva Tesfaye. Carlyle Calhoun is our managing producer. Our sound designer is Emily Jankowski and our theme music is by Jon Batiste.
If you want to support Sea Change, share this episode with a friend.
Sea Change is a WWNO and WRKF production. We're a part of the NPR Podcast Network and distributed by PRX. Sea Change is made possible with major support from the Gulf Research Program of the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.
WWNO's Coastal Desk is supported by the Walton Family Foundation, the Meraux Foundation and the Greater New Orleans Foundation.
Thank you so much for listening to Sea Change this year. We wish all of you a peaceful, joyful and hopeful 2025.