Ask MIT Climate

How can climate change cause both more intense droughts and more severe floods? With help from Prof. Mathew Barlow, we dive into the water cycle on a warming planet, and learn how the basic physics of water moving through the atmosphere can explain a lot of the strange weather we need to prepare for as the world heats up.

For a deeper dive and additional resources related to this episode, visit: https://climate.mit.edu/podcasts/e9-dry-spells-and-downpours

For more episodes of Ask MIT Climate, check out askmitclimate.org. Plus, find us on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube for outtakes, bonus content, and more climate knowledge from MIT. As always, we love hearing from our listeners; email us at askmitclimate@mit.edu.

In our previous episode, we spoke with Dr. Sarah Das, a Scientist Emeritus at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, about how climate change is affecting the big polar ice sheets of Antarctica and Greenland. She’s been traveling to the poles for her research since the nineties, and this week, she’s taking us behind the scenes: into the world of glacier science, “boomerang flights,” and ice as far as the eye can see.

A video version of this episode is available on our YouTube channel. For a deeper dive and additional resources, visit: https://climate.mit.edu/podcasts/bonus-ice-sheets-polar-scientist.

For more episodes of Ask MIT Climate, check out askmitclimate.org. Plus, find us on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube for outtakes, bonus content, and more climate knowledge from MIT. As always, we love hearing from our listeners; email us at askmitclimate@mit.edu.

The frozen parts of our planet—from sprawling polar ice sheets and floating sea ice to mountain glaciers and frigid soils—face profound risks from climate change. Already, a warmer world has transformed these landscapes, with consequences that span the globe. Dr. Sarah Das, a Scientist Emeritus at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, joins to discuss her decades-long career studying the Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets and help us understand how changes to the polar regions affect people now and in the future.

We thank WHOI for providing audio recorded during supraglacial lake research in Greenland. (Credit: Chris Linder, ©Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution).

For a deeper dive and additional resources related to this episode, visit: https://climate.mit.edu/podcasts/e8-polar-ice-warming-world.

For more episodes of Ask MIT Climate, check out askmitclimate.org. Plus, find us on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube for outtakes, bonus content, and more climate knowledge from MIT. As always, we love hearing from our listeners; email us at askmitclimate@mit.edu.

From cars and ships to bridges and skyscrapers, steel forms the landscape of modern life. At the same time, steelmaking is one of the world’s biggest industrial sources of climate-warming carbon dioxide. Antoine Allanore, a professor of metallurgy at MIT, explains how CO2 became so entrenched in the chemistry of steelmaking—and the creative ways scientists and engineers are trying to get it out.

We gratefully acknowledge Katie Daehn, postdoctoral associate, and Matthew Michalek, Ph.D. student and research assistant, of the Allanore Group for additional assistance and participation in this episode. 

For a deeper dive and additional resources related to this episode, visit: https://climate.mit.edu/podcasts/e7-hard-look-steel

For more episodes of Ask MIT Climate, check out askmitclimate.org. Plus, find us on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube for outtakes, bonus content, and more climate knowledge from MIT. As always, we love hearing from our listeners; email us at askmitclimate@mit.edu.

Solutions to climate change, like building clean energy, come with a price tag. But unchecked warming also brings serious costs. As we make investments to rein in our climate pollution, how should we weigh costs and benefits? Dr. Jennifer Morris of MIT joins the show to explain how economists have tried to pin down the dollar costs of a warming planet, and why a clear answer has proved elusive. Together, we’ll ask how the tools of economics can help us plan for a better, more prosperous future, even in the face of uncertainty.

For a deeper dive and additional resources related to this episode, visit: https://climate.mit.edu/podcasts/e6-economists-guide-climate-change

For more episodes of Ask MIT Climate, check out askmitclimate.org. Plus, find us on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube for outtakes, bonus content, and more climate knowledge from MIT. As always, we love hearing from our listeners; email us at askmitclimate@mit.edu.