A Climate Change with Matt Matern

Today, Matt speaks with Mike Kelland, Co-founder & CEO of Planetary, about using the ocean to pull carbon dioxide out of the air. Planetary adds calcium and magnesium minerals, basically an antacid, to water flowing out of coastal facilities. That lowers local acidity and lets the ocean absorb more CO2 from the atmosphere.
Mike breaks down the UN's new Limiting Overshoot report, which he says puts the carbon removal we need at about 23 gigatons a year, and explains why trees, machines and every other land-based approach top out around 15, leaving the ocean to close the gap. He and Matt also get into the safety question people are afraid to ask, how Planetary's Halifax plant reached 8,000 tons removed, why compliance carbon markets are the key to scaling, and the all-hands, middle-of-winter push that won Planetary an XPRIZE.
Learn more about Planetary at https://www.planetarytech.com
Subscribe now on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get podcasts.
GUEST BIO
Mike Kelland is the co-founder and CEO of Planetary, a Nova Scotia company that restores coastal seawater chemistry to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. He founded Planetary in 2019 with Brock Battochio and ocean scientist Dr. Greg Rau. The company is a two-time XPRIZE Carbon Removal award winner and delivered the world's first independently verified ocean alkalinity enhancement carbon removal credits. Before Planetary, Mike spent about 25 years as a tech entrepreneur, founding several software companies. He holds a bachelor's in electrical engineering from Carleton University and is a Forty Under Forty recipient.
EPISODE RESOURCES
Planetary: https://www.planetarytech.com
Mike Kelland on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mkelland/
A Climate Change on Apple: https://bit.ly/accapplepodcast
A Climate Change on Spotify: https://bit.ly/accspotifypodcast
A Climate Change on YouTube: https://bit.ly/ACCvids

Today, Matt speaks with Drew Shula, trained architect and Founder and CEO of Verdical Group, about the part of the climate problem hiding in plain sight: the buildings we live and work in, which account for roughly 40% of global carbon emissions. 
He breaks down the two halves of a building's carbon footprint, the energy it burns and the materials it's made of, and makes the case that we already know how to build net zero today - almost nothing requires it, which is why net zero is still less than 1% of construction. He and Matt also get into the LA fires, where Drew was displaced from his own home for six days, the city's decision to waive its all-electric requirement for rebuilds, insurance pulling out of fire zones, and why he thinks AI data centers get unfairly singled out.
The 13th annual Net Zero Conference is October 7-8, 2026 at the Los Angeles Convention Center. You can register and learn more at netzeroconference.com
Subscribe now on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get podcasts.
GUEST BIO
Drew Shula is the founder and CEO of Verdical Group, a Los Angeles sustainability consulting firm he launched in 2012 that specializes in green building certifications, engineering services, ESG, and net zero strategy. Trained as an architect at the University of Notre Dame, he has built the firm into a certified B Corporation and 1% for the Planet member with projects in about 25 states and up to ten countries, for clients including NASA, Google, Johnson & Johnson, LAX, Meta and Apple. Verdical Group was named to the Inc. 5000 list of America’s fastest-growing private companies in 2025. Drew is also the founder of the Net Zero Conference and Trailblazer Awards, now in its 13th year, and was the sixth person ever honored as both a LEED Fellow and a Living Future Hero. He grew up in Belfast, Maine, and lives in Los Angeles.
EPISODE RESOURCES
Verdical Group: https://verdicalgroup.com
Net Zero Conference (Oct 7-8, 2026, LA Convention Center): https://netzeroconference.com
Drew Shula at Verdical Group: https://verdicalgroup.com/team/drew-shula/
A Climate Change on Apple: https://bit.ly/accapplepodcast
A Climate Change on Spotify: https://bit.ly/accspotifypodcast
A Climate Change on YouTube: https://bit.ly/ACCvids

Today, Matt Matern speaks with Jim Murphy, Associate Vice President of Legal Advocacy at the National Wildlife Federation, about EPA's proposal to rewrite which streams and wetlands the Clean Water Act actually protects.
Jim explains what the rule would do - by his estimate, removing federal protection from up to 60% of the nation's stream miles and well over 90% of historically protected wetlands - and why streams that don't flow year-round still carry pollution downstream. He and Matt trace how we got here, from the Cuyahoga River fire and the 1972 Clean Water Act through the Supreme Court's 2023 decision, and get into what happens when roughly half the states have no protections of their own to fall back on. They also cover the nitrate crisis overwhelming Iowa's water utilities, what fewer federal permits mean for the AI data center boom, and why Jim thinks clean water may be the issue that pulls conservation back across party lines.
 
Public comment on the proposal closes October 9, 2026. 
Learn more at nwf.org
 
Subscribe now on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get podcasts.
 
GUEST BIO
Jim Murphy is Associate Vice President of Legal Advocacy at the National Wildlife Federation, where he coordinates legal work across the organization's waters and lands programs. He has spent more than 25 years in environmental law and policy, over 20 of them at the Federation, engaging with courts, agencies, and Congress on water, wildlife, energy, and climate. He previously directed the Environmental Advocacy Clinic at Vermont Law School and has worked in private practice, at the Conservation Law Foundation, and as a Capitol Hill staffer. He writes regularly on threats to foundational environmental laws and is based in Vermont.
 
EPISODE RESOURCES
National Wildlife Federation: https://www.nwf.org
Jim Murphy at NWF: https://www.nwf.org/About-Us/Leadership/Jim-Murphy
Comment on the WOTUS proposal (closes Oct 9, 2026) - Docket EPA-HQ-OW-2025-0322: https://www.regulations.gov
A Climate Change on Apple: https://bit.ly/accapplepodcast
A Climate Change on Spotify: https://bit.ly/accspotifypodcast
A Climate Change on YouTube: https://bit.ly/ACCvids
 

Today, Matt Matern speaks with Rob Mullen - artist, author, and Director of the Wilderness River Expedition Art Fellowship - about the boreal forest, the largest land ecosystem on Earth and one most people have never heard of. Rob explains how a forest three times the size of the Amazon holds roughly 80% of the world's liquid fresh surface water, why bigger and more frequent fires have flipped it from a carbon sink into a carbon source, and how conservation funding passed it over for decades because it was too big and too empty to fit the "biodiversity hotspot" model.
He also shares the solo canoe trip that changed the course of his life, the cold call to the Smithsonian that launched two decades of wilderness art expeditions, and the number that stopped Matt in his tracks: 59% of the trees cut in Canada end up as toilet paper and paper towels for the U.S. market.
Get Rob's book, Boreal Wilderland: Art, Science, and Adventure in Earth's Greatest Wilderness, at www.robmullen.com
Subscribe now on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get podcasts.
 
GUEST BIO
Rob Mullen is a wildlife and wilderness artist, author, and Director of the Wilderness River Expedition Art Fellowship, which he founded in 2005 and now runs as a program of the Center for Circumpolar Studies. A native Vermonter with a biology degree from the University of Vermont, he spent years as an advertising artist in New York and California before returning home to paint full-time. He has led roughly 20 wilderness art expeditions from Labrador to Alaska, bringing more than 30 nationally and internationally known artists into the boreal forest. He also chairs the board of the Vermont Wildlife Coalition. His book Boreal Wilderland, with a foreword by Robert Bateman, was published in 2026.
 
EPISODE RESOURCES
Rob Mullen: https://www.robmullen.com
Boreal Wilderland on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/borealwilderland
Wilderness River Expedition Art Fellowship: http://www.circumpolarstudies.org/wreaf/WREAFprojects.html
A Climate Change on Apple: https://bit.ly/accapplepodcast
A Climate Change on Spotify: https://bit.ly/accspotifypodcast
A Climate Change on YouTube: https://bit.ly/ACCvids

Today, Matt Matern speaks with Leah Qusba, CEO of GoodPower, a nonprofit working to win public support for the clean energy transition. They talk about moving the energy conversation away from sacrifice and toward abundance, where clean energy means more jobs, lower bills, and an economy that works for everyone. Leah shares GoodPower's polling with NORC at the University of Chicago, which found about half of Republicans still support large-scale solar, rising to roughly 70% when it's tied to lower energy bills. They also dig into the disinformation targeting renewables, why one in three projects now dies in permitting, and a little-known Arizona utility race putting energy bills on the 2026 ballot.
Check out GoodPower at goodpower.org
Subscribe now on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get podcasts.
GUEST BIO
Leah Qusba is the Chief Executive Officer of GoodPower, a strategic communications, research, and campaigning nonprofit advancing the global renewable energy transition (formerly Action for the Climate Emergency, rebranded in 2025). She has spent 17 years with the organization, building its early programs and leading national campaigns before becoming CEO. Her work focuses on winning public opinion for clean energy in rural, conservative communities - where the vast majority of new solar, wind, and storage is built and where projects most often stall at the local permitting level. A frequent media voice on energy, media, and culture, she leads GoodPower's original polling, its conservative messenger network, and its work countering AI-driven disinformation.
EPISODE RESOURCES
GoodPower: goodpower.org
A Climate Change on Apple: https://bit.ly/accapplepodcast
A Climate Change on Spotify: https://bit.ly/accspotifypodcast
A Climate Change on YouTube: https://bit.ly/ACCvids

Today, Matt is joined again by Cora Stryker, co-founder of Bright Saver. One year after first joining us on the show, a lot has changed. When she was last on, plug-in solar was legal in exactly one state and nobody in the country was selling it. Since then, 35 states plus DC have introduced legislation, nine have signed it into law, and Bright Saver has started shipping kits nationwide at exactly what they cost: $285.30, no markup. Here in California, SB 868 - the Plug and Play Solar Act - just cleared both houses of the legislature and is now sitting on Governor Newsom's desk awaiting his signature.
Cora argues that the climate movement's biggest opportunity is affordability, as only about 3% of Americans rank climate as their top voting priority, while 54% name the economy and household expenses.
Check out Bright Saver at https://www.brightsaver.org
Subscribe now on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get podcasts.
GUEST BIO
Cora Stryker is co-founder of Bright Saver, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit working to make plug-in "balcony" solar affordable and legal across the United States. The organization sells solar kits to its members at cost and advocates for state legislation that treats small plug-in systems like household appliances rather than power plants. She is a serial founder of mission-driven organizations, including the Climate Justice Incubator and GirlBlazer. She studied biology at Brown University and began her career as a rare and endangered plant biologist in Hawaii, later teaching basic writing at a community college.
 
EPISODE RESOURCES
Bright Saver: https://www.brightsaver.org
Is plug-in solar legal in your state?: https://www.brightsaver.org/is-plug-in-solar-legal
A Climate Change on Apple: https://bit.ly/accapplepodcast
A Climate Change on Spotify: https://bit.ly/accspotifypodcast
A Climate Change on YouTube: https://bit.ly/ACCvids

Today, Matt is joined by Saar Safra, co-founder and CEO of Beewise, to talk about one of the quietest threats to our food supply - the collapse of the world's bee colonies. Saar shares how he teamed up with a commercial beekeeper to build the BeeHome: a solar-powered, AI-driven robotic hive that monitors bees around the clock and treats problems automatically, without chemicals. They dig into why bees pollinate roughly 75% of the crops we eat, how monoculture and pesticides have turned farmland into a desert for pollinators, and how Beewise has cut colony collapse from 40–60% down to under 10%. And Saar gives Matt a peak at the company's new Bees for Buildings program bringing pollinators into cities and their goal of scaling this technology to help communities around the world.
Learn more about Beewise at beewise.ag
Subscribe now on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get podcasts.
GUEST BIO
Saar Safra is the co-founder and CEO of Beewise, an agtech company on a mission to save bees and secure the global food supply. A serial entrepreneur - Beewise is his sixth company - he partnered with commercial beekeeper Eliyah Radzyner to build the BeeHome, a solar-powered, AI-driven robotic hive that autonomously monitors and cares for colonies. Beewise is now one of the largest pollination-services providers in the country, operating across more than 300,000 acres for growers including Blue Diamond, Driscoll's, and Taylor Farms. The company has raised roughly $170 million and reports colony collapse rates under 10%, compared with an industry average that can exceed 50%.
EPISODE RESOURCES
Beewise: https://www.beewise.ag
A Climate Change on Apple: https://bit.ly/accapplepodcast
A Climate Change on Spotify: https://bit.ly/accspotifypodcast
A Climate Change on YouTube: https://bit.ly/ACCvids
CURATED LIST OF EPISODES
If you enjoyed this episode of A Climate Change, here is a list of some recent episodes curated especially for you:
Simulating the Future: How Climate Models Shape Policy Decisions with Andrew Jones [Link]
How Personal Change Sparks Global Impact: Joshua Spodek's Sustainability Secrets [Link]
Bill McKibben on Renewable Energy, Political Battles & Hope for the Planet [Link]

Today, Matt Matern speaks with Zak Winnick, founder and CEO of Rangeway Energy, about building America’s first hospitality-forward EV charging network. Zak shares how a career running hotels - and years of frustration as an EV owner - led him to treat charging as an experience rather than just a piece of infrastructure. They discuss why so many public chargers feel unreliable and impersonal, and how Rangeway is targeting the scenic, underserved highways the big networks skip. Zak also explains why the real money is in the amenities rather than the electricity - and how he plans to make Rangeway the "Apple of EV charging."
 
Check out Rangeway Energy at rangeway.co. Interested investors can reach the team at investors@rangeway.co.
Subscribe now on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get podcasts.
 
GUEST BIO
Zak Winnick is the founder and CEO of Rangeway Energy, a startup building America’s first hospitality-forward EV charging network. Drawing on more than 15 years in hospitality operations and IT - and his own experience as a longtime EV owner and EV-community leader - he designs charging destinations that pair reliable fast charging with climate-controlled lounges, thoughtful amenities, and sustainable, often off-grid infrastructure. Rangeway focuses on scenic, underserved corridors, with its first sites planned for Missouri and Southern California. Winnick’s guiding idea is simple: make the stop, not just the charger, the point.
 
EPISODE RESOURCES
Rangeway Energy: rangeway.co
Matt Matern on LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/ACClinkedin
A Climate Change on Apple: https://bit.ly/accapplepodcast
A Climate Change on Spotify: https://bit.ly/accspotifypodcast
A Climate Change on YouTube: https://bit.ly/ACCvids

Today, Matt speaks with Bren Smith, co-founder and co-executive director of GreenWave, about his journey from commercial fisherman to pioneer of regenerative ocean farming. Bren shares how a cod collapse in his native Newfoundland and two hurricanes that destroyed his farm led him to a model that grows seaweed and shellfish with no water, fertilizer, feed, or land - while rebuilding ocean ecosystems. They also discuss GreenWave’s new State of the Kelp Industry report and how kelp is shifting from a “hero climate ingredient” to a working-class problem solver.
Check out GreenWave at https://www.greenwave.org
Read the State of the Kelp Industry report here: https://hub.greenwave.org/lms/resources/state-of-the-kelp-industry/
Bren’s book, Eat Like a Fish, is available wherever books are sold.
Subscribe now on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get podcasts.
Bren Smith Bio:
Bren Smith is co-founder and co-executive director of GreenWave and owner of Thimble Island Ocean Farm. A lifelong commercial fisherman turned regenerative ocean farmer, he pioneered a zero-input model that grows seaweed and shellfish while restoring marine ecosystems. He is the James Beard Award-winning author of Eat Like a Fish and a winner of the Buckminster Fuller Prize and the Curt Bergfors Food Planet Prize. His work has been profiled by 60 Minutes, CNN, The New Yorker, the Wall Street Journal, and National Geographic, and he was named one of Rolling Stone’s “25 People Shaping the Future.”
Episode Resources
GreenWave website: https://www.greenwave.org
State of the Kelp Industry report: https://hub.greenwave.org/lms/resources/state-of-the-kelp-industry/
A Climate Change on Apple: https://bit.ly/accapplepodcast
A Climate Change on Spotify: https://bit.ly/accspotifypodcast
A Climate Change on YouTube: https://bit.ly/ACCvids
Music Credits
Music:
Theme song - SMOOTA, “Save It! (The Mother Earth Boogie)” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3BRuPWPgrvA)
Additional music - Stereo Reform, “Midnight Synthesizer (Instrumental)”

Today, Matt is joined by Dr. Garrett Boudinot, founder and CEO of Vycarb, to talk about a new approach to carbon capture and storage that works with water instead of pipelines and underground wells. Garrett explains how Vycarb's reactor turns CO2 into bicarbonate and stores it safely in the ocean for tens of thousands of years. He shares why traditional carbon capture has been so expensive and hard to site, and how Vycarb bypasses the costly steps to target costs as low as $50 a ton. He also previews what's next as Vycarb scales from its Brooklyn Navy Yard pilot to full commercial projects.
Check out Vycarb at vycarb.com
Subscribe now on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get podcasts.
 
Know a local hero for the planet? Nominate them for Cox Conserves Heroes, funded by the James M. Cox Foundation. Nominate Aug 3–16, vote Sept 28–Oct 4 at cox.partners/cch.
 
GUEST BIO
Garrett Boudinot is the founder and CEO of Vycarb, a climate-tech company pioneering a water-based approach to carbon capture and storage. He earned a PhD studying global carbon cycling and its impacts on ocean and forest ecosystems, then led a carbon-management research program at Cornell University. As an inaugural Activate New York entrepreneurial fellow, he founded Vycarb to accelerate the ocean's natural carbon-storage process - and to measure it in real time. The company runs a pilot at the Brooklyn Navy Yard that captures CO2 and permanently stores it in the East River, and is now scaling toward full commercial projects in the US and abroad.
 
EPISODE RESOURCES
Vycarb: vycarb.com
A Climate Change on Apple: https://bit.ly/accapplepodcast
A Climate Change on Spotify: https://bit.ly/accspotifypodcast
A Climate Change on YouTube: https://bit.ly/ACCvids
 
MUSIC
Theme: SMOOTA - "Save It! (The Mother Earth Boogie)" 
Additional music: Stereo Reform - "Midnight Synthesizer (Instrumental)"