How the Texas Crisis Could Become Everyone's Crisis
b'Last week, freezing temperatures overwhelmed the Texas power grid, setting off rolling blackouts that left millions without power during an intense winter storm. But this story is a lot bigger than Texas: Our world is built around a model of the climate from the 19th and 20th centuries. Global warming is going to crack that model apart, and with it, much of the physical and political infrastructure civilization relies on.\\n\\nAt the same time, there\\u2019s good news on the climate front, too. The Biden administration has rejoined the Paris climate accords, pushed through a blitz of executive orders on the environment, and is planning a multitrillion-dollar climate bill. China has also set newly ambitious targets for decarbonization. Renewable energy is getting cheaper, faster, than almost anyone dared hope. And if you follow climate models, you know the most catastrophic outcomes have become less likely in recent years.\\n\\nI wanted to have a conversation about both the emergency in Texas, and the broader picture on climate. Leah Stokes is a political scientist at University of California, Santa Barbara, and author of the excellent book \\u201cShort Circuiting Policy,\\u201d which, among other things, explores Texas\\u2019 surprising history with renewables. David Wallace-Wells is an editor at large at New York magazine and author of "The Uninhabitable Earth," one of the most sobering, disquieting portraits of our future \\u2014 though he is, as you\\u2019ll hear in this discussion, getting a bit more optimistic.\\n\\nWe discuss whether the Texas crisis is going to be the new normal worldwide, the harrowing implications of how Texas Republicans have responded, why liberals should be cheering on Elon Musk, the difficulties liberal states are having on climate policy, the obstacles to decarbonization, the horrifying truth of what \\u201cadapting\\u201d to climate change will actually entail, why air pollution alone is a public health crisis worth solving, whether nuclear energy is the answer, and much more. I learned so much getting to sit in on this conversation. You will, too.\\n\\nMentioned in this episode:\\n\\n\\u201cMigration towards Bangladesh coastlines projected to increase with sea level rise through 2100\\u201d by AR Bell, et al.\\n\\n\\u201cInequity in consumption of goods and services adds to racial\\u2013ethnic disparities in air pollution exposure\\u201d by Christopher W. Tessum, et al.\\n\\n\\u201cWildfire Exposure Increases Pro-Environment Voting within Democratic but Not Republican Areas\\u201d by Chad Hazlett and Matto Mildenberger\\n\\n\\u201cPrisoners of the Wrong Dilemma: Why Distributive Conflict, Not Collective Action, Characterizes the Politics of Climate Change\\u201d by Micha\\xebl Aklin and Matto Mildenberger\\n\\nRecommendations: \\n\\n"Short Circuiting Policy" by Leah Stokes\\n\\n"The Lorax" by Dr. Seuss\\n\\n"Under a White Sky" by Elizabeth Kolbert\\n\\n"The Ministry for the Future" by Kim Stanley Robinson\\n\\nYou can find transcripts (posted midday) and more episodes of "The Ezra Klein Show" at nytimes.com/ezra-klein-podcast, and you can find Ezra on Twitter @ezraklein.\\n\\nThoughts? Guest suggestions? Email us at ezrakleinshow@nytimes.com.\\n\\n\\u201cThe Ezra Klein Show\\u201d is produced by Rog\\xe9 Karma and Jeff Geld; fact-checking by Michelle Harris; original music by Isaac Jones; mixing by Jeff Geld.'