Thank you. This is Climate to Action, a CSUSM
student podcast. I'm Alex Sandoval. I'm a third
-year student and I'm majoring in psychology.
Being a part of a Climate to Action podcast has
given me more knowledge about climate change
while also learning the ropes and being part
of a podcast. We're here to amplify voices and
explore solutions in the fight against climate
change and to address climate injustice for all
living things. We are committed to incorporating
discussions on Indigenous knowledge in addressing
the climate crisis and to provide a culture to
action in every episode. First, we'd like to
acknowledge that our recording studio is located
on the traditional territory of the Luiseno -Payamcoichan
people. CSUSM and its surrounding areas are still
home to the six federally recognized bands of
the La Jolla, Paula, Palma, Pechanga, Rincon,
and Ceboba Luiseno -Payamcoichan people. It's
also important to acknowledge that this land
remains the shared space among the Kupeño, Kumeyaay,
and Epay peoples. Today's episode is focused
on Climate Change 101. We've invited a CSUSM
chemistry professor, Dr. Hale Keshtkar, to talk
with us about this topic. Thank you for being
here with us today. Hi, Alex. Thank you for having
me. It's a pleasure being here. Tell us a bit
about yourself. Well, as you said, I'm a faculty
at chemistry department. I'm a lecturer, actually,
and I have been working at the chemistry department
for the past three years. The main courses I
teach are environmental chemistry and green chemistry.
That's what my background is. I have a PhD in
environmental chemistry. I did my master's thesis
project on soil pollution and my PhD. thesis
project on air pollution. But I also teach general
chemistry in the chemistry department. Oh, wow.
That's awesome. Can you tell us a little bit
about what got you interested in your field?
Yes, of course. When I was a graduate student
at California State University, Northridge, doing
my master's, I actually got interested in environmental
chemistry because... I took two courses in environmental
chemistry. This was in the 90s. So it was the
beginning of climate change. And as far as I
knew, it was the beginning of environmental chemistry
movement. But that really got me interested.
I pursued environmental chemistry as the research
project that I chose. And then I went to... graduate
group at UC Davis it was called environmental
and agricultural chemistry it it's actually a
research group made up of a lot of different
faculty in different departments chemistry atmospheric
science food science toxicology soil chemistry
so I Did a lot of environmental chemistry after
that. And as I explained, everything I researched
on was also along the lines of environmental
chemistry, air pollution. And then gradually
in different classes that I took, I got more
and more introduced to the issue of climate change.
And then I always wanted to talk about it and
teach it. And I'm so passionate about the environment.
That's awesome. Well, thank you so much for telling
us a little bit about yourself. Since this is
a Climate 101 episode. Can you tell me and our
listeners how you first became aware of climate
change? I know you mentioned it was when you
were in school back in the 90s. And what was
that experience like for you when you realized
what that was? Well, as a scientist, we learn
about the, again, how it works, and it's an evolving
science. So we have actually gained a lot of
knowledge over the past 30, 40 years. The original
science of climate change is not new. We have
known about it. We have known about greenhouse
gases for the past century or so. But we have
paid more attention. to climate change over the
past 30, 40 years. And that's because of the
IPCC, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change,
all these... international organizations that
have brought our attention to the issue and the
fact that we have started seeing the impacts
and scientists have been telling us the urgency
of the matter so as a scientist looking at it
again it was the urgency of the matter that we
need to as a society as a global society We need
to change our ways to address this climate, well,
this environmental issue, I mean. So my reaction
to knowing about it was, as a teacher, I thought
that I can increase the knowledge of others.
give the information, give the background that's
required for people to take action, hopefully.
So I incorporated climate change in every class
that I taught. And hopefully now we have a lot
more students who are knowledgeable about climate
change. And again, the more people... in the
movement of prioritizing climate change as a
problem that we all need to address because it's
going to impact all of us, the faster we can
make a change. We need to have more people in
the movement. And the movement gets bigger when
people are more informed. Do you think it makes
a difference if you mentioned it's a global issue?
If, say, like one half of the world is tackling
it, but the other half isn't, it's still going
to be the same sort of magnitude of a problem?
Well, the problem, as you said, is global. Everybody
is going to be impacted, but everybody is not
really responsible for it. There are certain
countries that are mainly responsible for the
issue of climate change that we are facing today
as a global community. So because some countries
have been more responsible in creating the problem,
they are also more responsible in addressing
the solutions. So that's only because of... because
of the impact each country has had. But the other
aspect is that there are some countries in the
world that have more ability to address climate
change. They have more financial resources. They
have more knowledge. They have more research.
So again, those countries have more responsibility
in addressing the solution. depends on who we're
talking about actually. So those countries that
are more responsible in creating the problem
and those countries who have more resources to
address the problem are definitely the ones that
can make a bigger difference when it comes to
the solutions. Yeah, that makes sense. I understand
that in conversations around the climate crisis,
people sometimes confuse weather and climate.
Can you tell our listeners what the difference
is and why that's important? Yes. Weather is
what you experience when you step outside. It's
the status of our atmosphere at any particular
location for a short period of time. You can
see that weather can change quickly. Last week
we had rain. This week we have a sunny, nice
weather. So change is within a few days. Climate
is the long -term weather patterns for any location,
usually over a longer period of time, around
30, 40 years. So, for example, we know that here
in San Diego in Southern California, we are right
next to an ocean. So is New York. So is North
Carolina. But we see that our weathers are completely
different. I never thought about that. Yeah,
here our weather is usually dry. We don't usually
have a very high humidity in the West Coast.
But the East Coast you go and the humidity is
very high. That's because our oceans are different.
Oceans are a big part of our climate system.
So Pacific Ocean is a lot cooler because of the
cooler currents that we have in Pacific Ocean.
While Atlantic Ocean has warmer currents and
it's a lot warmer. So what does that mean? A
warmer ocean has more evaporation. More evaporation
means you have more water molecules in the atmosphere.
What is humidity? Humidity is presence of water
molecules in the atmosphere. So you have more
water molecules in the East Coast because oceans
are warmer, and that completely changes the pattern
of their climate. So again, here are... Climate
means that we have low precipitation. We don't
have any snow generally. And we have warm summers
and usually mild winters. So over the long term,
that's the climate for our region. Thank you
for that explanation. Many people also don't
understand the difference between climate change
and global warming and tend to use the terms
in the same context. Can you help clear up that
confusion? Global warming means increase in average
temperature of Earth's surface. Climate change
is actually a broader definition. all the changes
that we are seeing in our Earth's system. Global
warming is one of them or the main cause of them.
So as a result of increasing the temperature
and also increasing the heat content in our atmosphere
we have increased The heat content of our oceans.
So part of the heat that has accumulated in our
Earth system is absorbed by our oceans. So our
oceans are getting warmer as well. Because our
oceans are getting warmer, we have more evaporation.
And that means we're going to have more extreme
precipitation. Sometimes we're going to have
more extreme hurricanes. All of these change
in precipitation patterns. sea level rise, melting
of glaciers, all of those are considered signs
of climate change. So these are all part of climate
change. Global warming is only one aspect of
climate change. Is global warming... I guess,
if you will, man -made? Or you know how we keep
saying climate change is something we contribute
to our environment? Would global warming also
be? Or that's just happening because it's natural
on the earth to happen? Okay. I think we can
answer this question after we talk about greenhouse
gases. It's easier to understand that way. Perfect.
Well, that segues us to the next question. When
we talk about greenhouse gases, what exactly
are we referring to and how do they affect Earth?
Okay. You might remember from your science course
in high school or middle school that most of
our atmosphere is nitrogen and oxygen. In fact,
99%. of our atmosphere is nitrogen and oxygen
and less than one percent we have other gases
one of the gases actually two i should say two
of the gases that We have a very small content
or the concentration is very small in the atmosphere.
But they actually make a big impact, our carbon
dioxide and water. These compounds are greenhouse
gases. What does that mean? We all receive radiation
or energy. From the sun, right? The earth receives
radiation from the sun. That radiation, part
of that radiation is actually reflected back
by clouds. And then part of that reaches the
surface of the earth. That surface is land, oceans,
glaciers. All of those are part of the surface.
So they all receive that radiation. And they
have to reflect that radiation back. Why? Because
just imagine if something keeps receiving energy,
it's going to explode. It's unstable if you keep
increasing or accumulating energy in something.
So our Earth also emits some energy back. because
it wants to balance that radiation. The form
of energy that Earth reflects is in the form
of heat, infrared radiation, or heat as we know
it. So this heat is emitted back into the atmosphere.
And in our atmosphere, just imagine that we have
these gas molecules going around. But very tiny,
tiny parts in terms of concentration, tiny amount
in the atmosphere are carbon dioxide and water
molecules. They can absorb that heat that the
Earth emits. The reason for that is their structure.
They have these vibrations in their molecule
that matches actually the vibration of the radiation
that's emitted from the Earth. So they can absorb
that radiation. But again, like any other body,
they can't just keep absorbing radiation. They
have to lose that energy. When they lose that
energy, they lose it in all directions. So about
half of that energy that they lose goes back
to the space and half of that is returned back
to the earth. So that is what greenhouse effect
actually is. Greenhouse gases act like blankets.
When you put a blanket on your body, your body
is also emitting radiation in the form of heat.
The blanket doesn't have any heat by itself.
The function is keeping the heat that your body
emits under the blanket. trapping that heat.
So our Earth actually has had carbon dioxide
and water long before human interruption or human
emissions or man -made emissions of these greenhouse
gases. Those are part of our natural climate
system, actually. The presence of these greenhouse
gases is what has given Earth this very comfortable
temperature range where life can exist. So we
are thankful, we should actually be thankful
to our greenhouse gases because they made our
planet livable. They gave us this nice temperature
range that we can survive, all species can survive.
So what humans have done is increased the number
of blankets, let's say. So our Earth was very
comfortable. It could balance that heat, keep
the temperature. at that really nice range when
there was only one blanket before humans interfered
with the process. But what humans did was they
actually increased the number of blankets. We
have increased the concentration or the amount
of those. carbon dioxide molecules in the atmosphere.
So now we have a lot more carbon dioxide molecules
in the atmosphere to absorb the heat that is
radiated from the earth and return that heat
to the earth. How? Well, it all started with
industrial revolution. We invented steam, not
we, I mean humans, invented a steam engine and
we also had access to fossil fuel. So fossil
fuels are part of what we call carbon cycle.
So carbon, which is an element in the periodic
table, it's... one of the most common elements
in natural systems, definitely one of the most
common elements in any living species. So our
bodies are mainly made up of carbon, hydrogen,
and oxygen. And the Earth moves carbon around
in different parts. And different parts are the
atmosphere, we humans or living beings, the biosphere,
the water system, our oceans, and Earth's crust.
The living organisms, plants, animals that lived
millions of years ago, they died. And the process
of degradation. Their degradation actually happened
under a lot of pressure and very high temperature
in deep parts of the Earth's crust. So fossil
fuels are actually what the system, the Earth
system, made from that degradation over millions
of years. And it's mainly carbon. They are mainly
carbon, hydrogen. They came from living organisms.
So the earth stored most of the carbon in the
form of fossil fuel in the earth's crust. And
there was always an exchange between the oceans,
the earth's crust, biosphere, and atmosphere
of carbon. The main form that carbon is found
in the atmosphere is carbon dioxide. And as I
said, we need carbon dioxide in our atmosphere
because it's what keeps our temperatures nice.
So what we humans did was we took carbon from
its storage, which was fossil fuel, at a very
high rate. at a very high speed, and then we
burned it and we entered carbon into the atmosphere.
The Earth was able to keep the balance for a
very long time, but then we kept emitting carbon
dioxide into the atmosphere. We kept increasing
the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
Carbon dioxide actually has a very long lifetime.
So pretty much every carbon dioxide that we have
emitted since we started emitting carbon dioxide
is still in the atmosphere, somewhere in the
atmosphere. it actually can make it high up in
the atmosphere, and there's a very good mixing
of carbon dioxide. So the carbon dioxide that
we emit here can actually end up somewhere else.
We have a very even, uniform concentration of
carbon dioxide around the Earth in our atmosphere.
So basically... We disturbed that balance that
the earth was keeping. And now because of those
extra blankets, we have increased the temperature.
That usually happens if you do that. If you are
sleeping and you're very comfortable and nice,
and then somebody comes and puts two extra blankets
on you, you get too hot, you get too warm, and
you wake up. So that's what we have done. So
with all this extra heat, what are some of the
impacts of climate change that we're already
seeing at this moment? Well, we already talked
about some of the impacts. There are some global
impacts and there are local impacts. Global impacts,
we can talk about, again, melting of glaciers
that could impact many people around the world.
The global warming is impacting people. It means
hotter days. We have higher temperatures in summertime
in many parts of the world. And we have the longer
periods of hot days. For example, we can have
extra month. or hot days, or two months of hot
days. Of course, that not only impacts humans,
it also impacts agriculture. So we're already
seeing the impact on agriculture and food production.
We can have periods of drought. And again, we
can have periods of extreme precipitation. Whenever
we have precipitation, it could be faster, much
harder, like again we have seen in many parts
of the world. We had flooding in the U .S. last
year. We had a very extreme flood in Spain last
year. caused a lot of damage. We have seen increased
hurricanes here in the U .S. One global impact
is sea level rise. So as I said, our oceans are
warmer and when they're warmer, they expand.
And also we have these glaciers in... the Arctic
regions, in Greenland, in Antarctica, that are
melting as we speak. Those add, where does the
water go when they melt? They add to the oceans.
Those actually change currents in oceans. They
change in temperature. They added fresh water.
into oceans, they change currents. So one impact
that we see is the impact of the increased temperature
in our oceans, the change in currents on marine
ecosystems. and the impact on marine ecosystems
can actually impact people who depend on those
ecosystems for their lives sea level rise can
impact communities that live around the coast
in fact there are some people whose entire lives
are going to be impacted by sea level rise those
are the people who live in low -lying islands
so there are islands all over the all around
the earth that they are very low what they call
low -lying it means that they're not really high
they're not in high elevation basically So as
the sea level rise, then their whole entire island
can actually go underwater. By end of century,
we know that some of these islands are the islands
of Maldives, for example. I don't know if you've
heard of them. They're called heaven on earth.
They're so beautiful. But unfortunately, those
communities, those low -lying communities are
some that are going to be impacted by sea level
rise. And as I said, their whole community can
be wiped out. And these people are not responsible.
You know, they're a very small part of the population
on this planet. They're not very industrialized.
They have not had a lot of greenhouse gas emissions.
So they're not responsible. But they're going
to be impacted greatly, immensely by climate
change. So the impacts, we have some global impacts
and we have some local impacts. Here in San Diego,
of course, we are going to see, again, more extreme,
hotter days, longer, hotter days, extreme precipitation,
flooding, which we have seen also, and drought.
And drought causes wildfires. So locally, we
are going to see some sea level rise because
we have coastal communities. And our agricultural
community is going to be impacted by increased
number of hot days and periods of drought. And
again, wildfires are very close and vivid in
our lives right now with the fires that we saw
in Los Angeles going out of control and impacting
so many people. Yeah, that was scary to witness.
Yes. What can we do to mitigate climate change?
I hear that term a lot, but what does it actually
mean? Okay, so we said that we have increased
the number of blankets. What does that mean in
terms of science? It means that we have increased
the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
How? by emitting carbon dioxide from different
activities and accumulating carbon dioxide in
the atmosphere. So to address climate change
or to limit the increase in temperature, we have
to address the sources. So we know that with
climate models that we have today, And our climate
models are a lot more sophisticated now than
20, 30 years ago, mainly because we have a lot
more data to feed them. So our climate models
can actually predict what would happen or how
much our temperature is going to increase under
different scenarios. So the scenarios are if
we keep emitting carbon dioxide at the rate that
we are emitting or if we decrease our emissions
by certain percentages. So we know that if we
keep emitting carbon dioxide at the level that
we are now, which is around 37%. billion tons
every year globally. 37 billion tons globally.
If we keep emitting that, then our temperature
is going to increase by three, four degrees Celsius
by end of the century. So far, We have actually
increased our temperature by 1 .5 degrees Celsius
from 1880. So since 1880, which is around the
time that we have started emitting, humanity
has started emitting carbon dioxide, which because
it was around industrial revolution. So the standard
or the reference point is before or around industrial
revolution. So around that time, 1880, our concentration
of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere was about
280 ppm, parts per million. That's very small.
That means 280 molecules of carbon dioxide for
every 1 million molecule of air. So very small.
Yes, carbon dioxide is a very tiny part of our
atmosphere, but the impact is a lot. So 280,
fast forward today, 425 parts per million. So
that has caused our... temperature to increase
by about 1 .5 degrees Celsius. That's about 2
.7 Fahrenheit. And we are already seeing the
impacts. So we know that if we keep increasing
the temperature, we are going to see more and
more impacts. And how would humanity... deal
with the consequences, with the cost, human cost,
economic cost. All of that, all the scientists
around the world, IPCC, they all agree that we
need to limit this increase in temperature to
around, well... The goal was to keep it around
1 .5, but now that we are passing 1 .5, we are
hoping that we can keep the temperature between
2 degrees, increase 2 degrees Celsius, increase
from that reference level that we're talking
about. So in order to limit the increase in temperature,
We have to address the source. What is the source?
Our fossil fuel that is being burned and in the
process carbon dioxide is emitted. Where do we
burn fossil fuel? Mainly, of course, it's a little
bit different worldwide in different countries
depending on how industrial they are. and what
they use as their source of electricity. In our
country, the main sources of carbon dioxide are
transportation and power plants, electricity
generation. So we have to address CO2 emission
from these main sources. Of course, we also have
agriculture. Some greenhouse gases from agriculture
and some from industrial processes. But our main
sources are transportation and electricity generation.
So by transitioning to renewable sources or sources
of electricity that do not burn fossil fuels
in the process, which means they are not going
to emit carbon dioxide in the process of generating
electricity, is a form of mitigating or reducing
our emissions. Changing our transportation mode
from internal combustion engine, which burns
gasoline, which is also part of a fossil fuel,
which also emits carbon dioxide, is another mitigation
strategy. So mitigation means steps that we take
to reduce our emission, to hopefully make sure
that we can limit that temperature increase within
a range that we can manage. We know that we have
increased the temperature and we know that we
are going to increase the temperature even if
we stop tomorrow because we still have this accumulation
of greenhouse gases, mainly carbon dioxide in
the atmosphere. But we need to limit it so we
know how to manage it better. Right. So you talked
about mitigation. What's the difference between
mitigation and adaptation? Okay. So we said mitigation
is reducing our emission. But we know that we
have increased the temperature by 1 .5 degrees
Celsius. And we are still going to increase even...
If we stop emitting carbon dioxide tomorrow,
which we all know that we are not. So adaptation
is helping humanity or finding ways for humanity
to deal with the consequences of climate change
with the impacts that we are going to see. in
our communities for example in agriculture so
adaptation strategies basically try to increase
resilience of communities and practices that
we have that help our societies in different
ways Hopefully, listening to this, people can
incorporate that to our lives. What one thing
would you like students to know or simply remember
about climate change? Something that will stick
with them and encourage them to tell others.
I know a lot of the news that we hear about climate
change is not very positive. We hear about the
impacts. That can cause a lot of fear. Climate
change is very scary for most of us, for all
of us, actually. But I want everybody to remember
that we need to think positively about what we
can do to be able to address climate change.
We have a lot of scientists, a lot of people
who are working on solutions, and we actually
have great solutions. We have technology on our
side to help us address climate change, find
solutions. We have a lot of knowledge about Earth's
climate system. Many people around the world
are working on solutions. So I guess my message,
my main message is not to allow fear be the main
feeling that you get when you hear climate change.
Yes, we only hear about the bad side of climate
change on... in the news but the good side which
is what I try to cover in my class a lot is there
are a lot of solutions we actually have a lot
of solutions and we have success stories when
it comes to environmental issues we have had
situations where global community came together
to address a global environmental issue And we
were actually successful in addressing it. So
this could be a lesson for climate change. And
one more thing is we can all contribute. We are
all part of the problem, especially us here in
the U .S. The U .S. is the second largest emitter
of... greenhouse gases the first is china of
course but historically when we look at accumulated
greenhouse gas emissions from the time we started
industrialization the united states is the first
wow so we are the most responsible country for
the emissions for the contributions to the problem,
and we also have the best research, the best
technology, and also financial resources to address
the problems. So because the United States is
the second largest emitter, and the first largest
emitter is China, You know, the Chinese population
is 1 .4 billion. Our population is 330 million.
So when you divide the total emission nationwide
by the population, you see that we here in the
United States, our individual emission is larger
than a Chinese. It's also larger than... People
from many parts of the world. We're only behind
a few countries and none of those countries have
the large population that we have. Those are
all smaller countries, much smaller countries.
So that means that our responsibility is actually
very high. Each of us can change and lower our
emission. And if we all do it, we can make a
big difference. And our change, anything that
we change, impacts people globally because we
are one of the largest emitters. Right. So that
means what I'm trying to say here is we can all
make a difference in so many different ways.
So my message is, one, yes, the news is negative,
but there's also a lot of positive. And we have
to focus on the positive if we want to make a
change, especially your generation. And two,
don't sit and think somebody else has to do it.
We can all take steps to be part of the solution.
Yes, I agree 100%. And it's important for our
generation, like you're mentioning, to take action.
In every episode, we have a call to action. We
like to ask our guests their thoughts about what
our listeners can do to positively impact our
community. What are some simple things people
can do to help with climate change in the San
Diego area specifically? Okay. We talked about
mitigation and adaptation. We can all individually
take steps towards mitigation and adaptation.
So mitigation was reducing emissions. Individually,
what we can do is reduce consumption at any level.
Everything that... We use every day, not just
our food. We mainly think about food when we
talk about consumption. We mainly think about
food. But everything, the clothes you're wearing,
the makeup you use every day, your car, everything
has used some energy for its manufacturing and
production. And that energy emitted some carbon
dioxide and used water. So we have a culture
of consumption here. But a lot of times we don't
really need everything that we buy. Again, from
the food that we eat all the way to everything
else that we use. So reducing consumption. means
reducing the energy use for the manufacturing
of everything that you use, reducing the water
used for the manufacturing, and reducing the
waste. So reducing consumption at any level,
that is not just local to us San Diegans, it's
something that we all have to practice in this
country. Reducing food waste. Food waste is the
third emitter of greenhouse gases worldwide.
If we set food waste as a country, it would be
the third behind the United States. And we here
in this country waste a lot of food. Not just
at the consumer level. We waste a lot of food
at the supermarket level, restaurant level, farm
level. But, of course, as consumers, we can only
reduce our own food waste. Composting. can make
a big difference and our state has actually made
it a lot easy for us a lot very easy for us because
all we have to do at home is to separate our
compostable waste from recyclable and regular
waste that helps us in many different ways here
in san diego we have landfills that are reaching
capacity so we need to reduce the waste that
we send to landfills and our waste management
companies i know edco has this beautiful facility
to actually convert your waste, your food waste,
food scraps, everything that was part of your
food before, into fertilizer. Oh, nice. I took
my green chemistry students to EDCO for a field
trip last semester, and they showed us what they
do with our waste. are compost waste. And they
actually make fertilizer, as I said, and natural
gas that can run their trucks. Wow. So they are
using our waste to generate fuel for their trucks.
And our part in this... beautiful process is
only to separate to make sure that we separate
our compostables from regular waste and make
sure that it goes into our green bin so definitely
here in San Diego where we have this opportunity
to compost we should do it this is something
that every household should do and what else
so these are all mitigation strategies doing
any of these we will reduce our emissions personal
emissions and definitely national emissions but
there are also some adaptation steps or strategies
that we can do as individuals. Adaptation, of
course, depends on the type of impact we're going
to have in our community. We talked about the
impact San Diego County is going to see. So reducing
fertilizer in your backyard, reducing pesticide
in your backyard, adaptation steps. Why? Because
when you align your backyard better with the
local ecosystem, you actually allow wildlife
to thrive better as part of our local ecosystem.
And we know that this extreme Weather, this extra
heat, extreme heat that we're going to see, does
not only impact us. It also impacts wildlife
around us. When it comes to wildfires, we all
are familiar with wildfires. I mean, they're
so fresh in our minds. So we shouldn't forget
it now that we don't hear it in the news anymore.
Wildfires are a very serious and real part of
San Diego community. So what can we do? We can
change the vegetation around our houses to get
them less prone to wildfires. All of us should
be informed about what our cities are doing about
wildfires. If they have any recommendations,
we should try to implement those in our own homes.
It doesn't really work if some homes get fireproof
and some homes don't. We saw that a lot of times
we have conditions that are not very controllable.
We have high wind, very low humidity, and that
means there's not so much predictability on how
or where the fire is going to move. So it's very
important that we move as a community, all of
us. Keep wildfires. Very, very real in our minds.
All our cities have climate action plans. So
my recommendation is, especially for your generation,
to go and see what their city is doing to address
climate change in their community. One last thing
I forgot, sorry. One thing that we can all do
is... Change our diet. And I'm sure you have
heard that before. Yes. So a more plant -based
diet helps with climate change because our meat
production emits a lot of the greenhouse gases
that we have. That's a big part of our agriculture
emission. Here in the U .S., we have a very large
consumption of meat. I'm not asking anybody to
become vegetarian or vegan. All I'm saying is
to reduce. And again, if all of us reduce our
consumption, our meat consumption, then again,
all of that together will make a difference.
I love that. Well, it's reassuring to know we
can all make a difference, even in our everyday
choices. Hale Keshtkar, thank you so much for
breaking all of this down for us. It's so important
to understand the basics of climate change if
we want to make a meaningful and positive change.
And thank you all for tuning in to this episode
of Climate to Action. Remember, whether it's
through learning more, making sustainable choices,
or advocating for change, every step counts.
Keep taking action, and we'll see you next time.
Want to hear more from Climate to Action, a CSUSM
student podcast? Listen wherever you get your
podcasts and follow us on our socials at Climate
to Action. For Instagram and YouTube, that's
at climate2action. For TikTok, it's climate2action.
Visit for updates, behind -the -scenes content,
and more. Finally, Climate2Action wants to remind
you to take climate action. We challenge you
to take the first step in your own climate journey.
Like Professor Keshkar suggested, don't forget
climate change when you don't hear it in the
news. And be mindful of... your environmental
and carbon impact in every step you take and
everything you do. Let's transform our climate
curiosity into climate action together. Remember,
every small change can create a big impact when
we work collectively. Until next time, this is
Alex from Climate to Action signing off.