In this special Earth Day episode of Science Quickly, host Rachel Feltman turns to three environmental experts for a healthy dose of climate hope. Climate scientist Kate Marvel, atmospheric chemist Susan Solomon and environmentalist Bill McKibben share stories about times in the past when humanity encountered grave environmental threats and succeeded in overcoming them. From beating the London smog to healing the ozone layer to rapidly scaling up renewable energy—these stories offer hope and lessons for saving the planet

Recommended Reading:

Articles by Kate Marvel for Scientific American

Kate Marvel’s personal website

Susan Solomon Group: Atmospheric Chemistry and Climate Change at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology

 

Solvable: How We Healed the Earth, and How We Can Do It Again. Susan Solomon. University of Chicago Press, 2024

Here Comes The Sun: A Last Chance for the Climate and a Fresh Chance for Civilization. Bill McKibben. W. W. Norton, 2025

Third Act Initiative, a nonprofit organization founded by Bill McKibben to encourage people older than age 60 to take part in climate action

E-mail us at sciencequickly@sciam.com if you have any questions, comments or ideas for stories we should cover!

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Science Quickly is produced by Rachel Feltman, Fonda Mwangi, Sushmita Pathak and Jeff DelViscio. This episode was edited by Alex Sugiura, with fact-checking by Shayna Posses and Aaron Shattuck. Our theme music was composed by Dominic Smith.

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