Category: 4-FrequentNewsStreams

One of the most powerful tools in the fight against climate change is the money sitting in investment portfolios - especially the trillions of dollars invested on behalf of public retirees. That’s money that could continue to fund fossil fuel development, or help pay for  climate solutions instead.

New York City has implemented an ambitious Net Zero plan for its public pensions. That plan includes divesting from some fossil fuel companies and investing billions of dollars in climate solutions. One company benefiting from that investment is NineDot Energy.   

Wedged between an elementary school and a big box shopping center in the Northeast Bronx, NineDot Energy is operating a battery farm that the city’s utility company, Con Ed, can call on to help relieve the grid when it gets overstressed. “The batteries hold a combined three megawatts of battery storage. That’s enough to power about 3,000 New York City households for four hours on a hot summer day. Last summer, the battery farm was called half a dozen times, which was enough to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by a combined 24 metric tons. That’s the equivalent of nine thousand car trips on the Cross Bronx Expressway.

Currently, the city has the dirtiest energy grid in the state. More than 90% of its power comes from fossil fuels. NineDot Energy is still in growth mode, but battery farms like this could eventually help the grid transition to renewable sources, like wind and solar.

“The sun only shines when nature tells it to; the wind only blows when nature tells it to, but people use electricity when they decide to,” explained Adam Cohen, co-founder of NineDot Energy. “A battery helps mediate that process. It pulls in the extra power when it's available, and then puts it back out when people call for it.” 

On a recent visit to the Bronx facility, 12-year-old Virtue Onoja showed off a mural she helped paint along with other students from the elementary school across the street, envisioning a future powered by cleaner energy.

“One thing about me, I'm definitely an artist,” she said. “I drew a clear blue sky, no pollution, no nothing [and] beautiful yellow flowers and the sun.”

There are also drawings of windmills and electric school buses. “There's still a lot of pollution, not just in the Bronx, but just in New York in general,” Onoja said. “All of this is the goal that we want to achieve.”

This is an excerpt from the latest season of How We Survive. Listen to the full episode here.

Though it’s hard to say how much tariff-driven sticker shock consumers can stomach, some retailers have begun raising their prices. Other companies are rushing to set up “foreign trade zones” which allow them to sit on imported goods while they figure out their next move. In this episode, we'll also discuss how Trump's trade war — and the uncertainty it generates — is affecting a flower delivery business, the job market and American farmers.

 

Thanks to Bob Irving, millions have seen Chicago’s skyline from the best seat in the house — the river. He created the Chicago Architecture Center’s boat tours, which are now a staple of the city’s tourism industry. Irving died earlier this month at the age of 93. Reset reflects on his life and legacy with Geoffrey Baer, WTTW host and architecture boat cruise docent; Laurie Petersen, editor of the AIA Guide to Chicago Architecture; and Linda Miller, president of Friends of Historic Second Church. For a full archive of Reset interviews, head over to wbez.org/reset.

On the show today, Kimberly joins us from an Ontario polling station on Canada’s election day. We’ll get into how President Trump’s trade war has shaped the federal election and may boost voter turnout. Plus, what Canadians are saying about boycotting American products and canceling their U.S. vacations.

Here’s everything we talked about today:

"Canadians vote today after fierce campaign shaped by Trump" from CBC News

"Canada votes in an election upended by Trump. Here’s what to know." from The Washington Post 

"Canada’s Political Landscape Upended by Trump, Trudeau and Tariffs" from The New York Times

Got a question for the hosts? Email makemesmart@marketplace.org or leave us a voicemail at 508-U-B-SMART.

Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter tour kicks off tonight in Los Angeles. So far, tickets for the tour are cheaper and easier to get ahold of than during Beyoncé's 2023 Renaissance tour. That's probably less a reflection on Queen Bey and more that feelings of economic uncertainty are replacing post-pandemic revenge-spending habits. We'll hear more. Plus: a drop in cargo ships from China and dealing with debt in your golden years.

Tomorrow marks 100 days of President Donald Trump's second term in office. We're taking a look this week at what this new administration has meant for the U.S. and global economies. We start today by chatting with Zanny Minton Beddoes, editor-in-chief of The Economist Magazine. And later: Tariffs have been used before by countries around the world to attempt to revitalize domestic industrialization. What can we learn from revisiting that history?

From the BBC World Service: From rising prices to falling trade volumes, the impact of radical new U.S. trade policies is starting to filter through. But China says it's still “fully confident” it will achieve its target of roughly 5% economic growth this year, despite the escalating trade tensions. Also, global airline revenues are expected to top $1 trillion for the first time this year — thanks, in part, to pesky fees.

With a momentous decision to return more than 1,500 acres of land 71 miles west of Chicago to the Pottawatomi, Illinois is righting a wrong committed more than 17 decades ago. When Gov. JB Pritzker in late March signed legislation that will give Shabbona Lake State Park to the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation, this wasn’t just acknowledging Native people once lived on the land. Reset explores what this means and why with Dennis Rodkin, residential real estate reporter for Crain’s Chicago Business. For a full archive of Reset interviews, head over to wbez.org/reset.

Leyla Isik, a professor of cognitive science at Johns Hopkins University, is also a senior scientist on a new study looking at how good AI is at reading social cues. She and her research team took short videos of people doing things — two people chatting, two babies on a playmat, two people doing a synchronized skate routine — and showed them to human participants. After, they were asked them questions like, are these two communicating with each other? Are they communicating? Is it a positive or negative interaction? Then, they showed the same videos to over 350 open source AI models. (Which is a lot, though it didn't include all the latest and greatest ones out there.) Isik found that the AI models were a lot worse than humans at understanding what was going on. Marketplace’s Stephanie Hughes visited Isik at her lab in Johns Hopkins to discuss the findings.

Dave Odd has been supplying Chicago restaurants with foraged produce for years, and now he’s focusing on helping members of the public learn about the edible plants that are all around us. He hosts tours of different Chicagoland neighborhoods to help people identify plants that “could be the difference between life or death.” Reset chats with Dave to learn more about his approach. For a full archive of Reset interviews, head over to wbez.org/reset.