Iowans are often misled by marketing suggesting their energy is clean. In reality, MidAmerican Energy operates five of the country's dirtiest coal plants across the state.

 

This short film uncovers the true cost of coal. It features first-hand accounts from families living near these plants, doctors observing health impacts, and advocates fighting for a better future.

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Join CCL's quarterly Ask Me Anything (AMA) to discuss the latest IPCC report (AR6/WG1) and broader climate science. This session features Dana Nuccitelli, CCL Research Coordinator and leader of the Science Policy Network, alongside Dr. Ben Santer, a distinguished research scientist from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.

Dr. Santer is renowned for his pioneering "climate fingerprint" research, which identifies human influence on global climate. For deeper engagement, explore his work on climate fingerprints and his recent essay on the IPCC report. Additionally, CCL offers a Climate Science Basics Training for foundational understanding.

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Naturalist, artist, and explorer Roseann Hanson highlights the value of field sketching and journaling. She argues this analog practice, from the Stone Age to today, is crucial for connecting people to science and nature conservation and personal well-being in our digital age. With 40 years of experience, Hanson is an acclaimed author (*Nature Journaling for a Wild Life*) and co-organizer of the Wild Wonder Nature Journaling Conference. A Fellow of the Explorers Club and Royal Geographical Society, she teaches nature writing and field notes, drawing on extensive conservation work.

Discover more at the Natural History Institute, or connect with Roseann Hanson via her Field Arts Institute, Facebook, and Instagram.

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Aimee Delach, our Senior Policy Analyst, Climate Adaptation breaks down how climate change is already affecting humans, biodiveristy, and natural communities. You can learn more by visiting:

Aimee Delach, our Senior Policy Analyst, Climate Adaptation breaks down how climate change is already affecting humans, biodiveristy, and natural communities. You can learn more by visiting: dfnd.us/climatechange Video Transcript: Why should you care about climate change? Because climate change is already having devastating effects on both human and natural communities. Climate change is among the greatest threats to biodiversity on our planet. Triggered by our warming climate, extreme weather events – like intense heat waves, strong storms and prolonged droughts – are all on the rise, taking human and wildlife lives each year, and costing billions of dollars in damage. Habitats around the world are beginning to shift, shrink, melt and even disappear entirely due to climate change. Oceans are changing rapidly with higher temperatures and more acidic conditions affecting migration patterns, breeding, food sources and shelter for marine species. Rapid warming and melting ice in the Arctic could be devastating for the animals that depend on it - such as polar bear, walrus, seals, whales, and seabirds. Species like moose, pika and desert tortoise are also facing increased extreme heat and other threats to their survival. And the human costs are huge as well. In 2020 alone, the U.S. suffered 22 weather and climate disasters that cost over $1 billion each. We must act quickly to expand renewable energy and reduce our greenhouse gas emissions to keep the planet from warming any more. But since the effects of climate change are already here now and already impacting wildlife and habitat we must also use the best available science to understand and reduce the specific threats that wildlife and ecosystems are expected to face. Defenders is: 1. Developing and implementing adaptive conservation and management plans 2. We're advocating on Capitol Hill for increased funding for programs combating climate change 3. And we're advising that renewable energy projects are responsibly sited and operated so that they don't threaten wildlife. You can learn more by clicking the link: dfnd.us/climatechange

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Olympic skier Gus Kenworthy and diver Greg Louganis will discuss thriving as LGBTQ+ athletes, the evolution of inclusion in sports, and future advocacy. Kenworthy, an Olympic silver medalist and pioneering openly gay skier, made history competing for the U.S. in the Winter Olympics. He also founded the Worthy Foundation, supporting the LGBTQ+ community. Learn more about Gus here.

Louganis, a diving legend with 5 Olympic medals and unbroken records, continues his legacy as a coach, author, and activist for HIV/AIDS, LGBTQ+, and human rights. Learn more about Greg here. The discussion is moderated by Marcos Pérez-Ogilvie.

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Business revolution: What is the membership economy? New videos DAILY: https://bigth.ink/youtube Join Big Think Edge for exclusive videos:

Business revolution: What is the membership economy? New videos DAILY: https://bigth.ink/youtube Join Big Think Edge for exclusive videos: https://bigth.ink/Edge ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "I think that the membership economy is having as big an impact on business as the industrial revolution," says Silicon Valley consultant Robbie Kellman Baxter. Memberships or subscriptions fundamentally change the relationship between the consumer and the brand by delivering what Baxter calls a "forever promise." The famous example of Blockbuster vs. Netflix illustrates this perfectly. Subscriptions are not a new idea. Charles Dickens released his books to subscribers one chapter at a time, as he wrote them. What's different today is technology and the speed at which even a one-person business can reach a huge number of customers. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ROBBIE KELLMAN BAXTER Based in Silicon Valley, Robbie is the author of The Membership Economy: Find Your Superusers, Master the Forever Transaction & Build Recurring Revenue (McGraw-Hill 2015), andThe Forever Transaction: How to Build a Business So Compelling, Your Customers Will Never Want to Leave (McGraw-Hill 2020). Robbie’s expertise extends to include SaaS, media, consumer products and retail and community organizations. Clients have included Microsoft, Fitbit and the Wall Street Journal. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- TRANSCRIPT: The membership economy is a term that I coined to describe what I was seeing starting about 15 years ago when I was working with Netflix and continuing into this massive transformational trend where companies of all types were moving from a model that focuses on ownership to access, from the transactional to the relational, from anonymous to known, from one payment to many smaller payments and from the organization talking at the customer and hoping they’re listening to multidirectional communication among customers and back and forth between the customers and the organization under the brand umbrella of the organization. So when you put all of those things together you have this kind of painter’s palette to reinvent your business model and that’s what’s driving this membership economy. So membership isn’t a new concept. We have been joining things for as long as there have been humans. We joined clans or tribes. We’ve had professional societies and trade guilds for centuries. Charles Dickens sold his novels in subscription format so people subscribed to have access and as he had the chapters done he would deliver them to his subscribers. So this is not a new concept, but what has changed is the ability to build a business model around it that transcends time and space. So Charles Dickens actually had to know the people he was delivering to, had to print it out, had to bring it to them. Today we can deliver it to strangers digitally and we can do it with time lapse. So that has created so many possibilities for organizations to build this ongoing relationship which is what people want. One example of the difference between a membership economy company and a non-membership economy company is the comparison between Blockbuster and Netflix. So when people, you know, way back when people used to have to go to the corner store to the Blockbuster on a Friday night to see what movies were available to rent, bring them home and it was never the movie that you really wanted. It was whatever happened to be available. And then if you forgot that you had it and you kept it for a few extra days the cost would end up being like triple what you thought it was going to be. And compare that to Netflix where they sent you three DVDs at a time, so three movies that you had on your long list, your queue. You didn’t have to leave your home. You always had three movies at home. And, best of all no late fees. So it’s a very different way of thinking about the model that starts with a forever promise. A promise of what it is that you really want to achieve. So in the case of Netflix versus Blockbuster, which was what really inspired me, what I wanted was to always have movies, professionally created content delivered in the most efficient way possible because I had little babies, with cost certainty – no late fees. And that’s what Netflix delivered on 15 years ago that pretty much put Blockbuster out of business. And today even though they have streaming, even though they create their own content, even though a lot has changed at Netflix they still deliver everyday on that promise of professional created content delivered with cost certainty in the most efficient way possible.

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Money is an agreement, not inherently valuable. Charles Eisenstein explores this concept, arguing that money often fails to address fundamental human needs. His work, including the book

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