Dave Roberts is an energy and climate writer at Vox and a senior fellow at the Kleinman Center for Energy Policy at the University of Pennsylvania. He started as his career covering climate science and clean energy technology, but -- for reasons we discuss here -- he now writes just as much about political psychology, media ecosystems, political institutions, and how they intersect with climate change. We cover a lot in this conversation, including:



“Tribal epistemology,” and why it’s crucial to climate paralysis



How the GOP went from the party of cap-and-trade to the party of climate denial



Why the right and left-wing media ecosystem’s diverged so dramatically



What today’s climate activists get right about our politics that their predecessors got wrong



The carbon tax dead-end



How nuclear energy became so divisive



The conflicting moral and social visions at the heart of the climate movement



Why it is impossible to separate technological innovation from the policy ecosystem that shapes it



Whether climate change really is an “existential” threat



What climate change will mean for the world’s poor





References:

Dave Roberts on America's "epistemic crisis."

Book recommendations:

Caught Stealing by Charlie Huston

"State of the Species" by Charles C. Mann



My book is available for pre-order! You can find it at www.EzraKlein.com.

Submit questions for our upcoming "Ask Me Anything" at ezrakleinshow@vox.com

You can subscribe to Ezra's new podcast Impeachment, explained on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Overcast, Pocket Casts, or your favorite podcast app.

Credits:

Producer and Editor - Jeff Geld

Researcher - Roge Karma

Engineers - Cynthia Gil

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