Your workout leggings, your morning commute, and the fertilizer to grow your food — what do they have in common? They're all fossil fuel legacies of war. In this episode, we connect the dots between the military and the climate crisis, tracing how wartime decisions made decades ago still shape and pollute our everyday lives.

We sit down with Neta C. Crawford, professor of international relations at the University of St. Andrews and author of The Pentagon, Climate Change, and War, to unpack a staggering blind spot in our global emissions picture: the military. We also follow the money with Commons co-founder Sanchali Pal to understand how the U.S. kept military missions out of the Kyoto Protocol, and what that means for climate targets today. We also hear how our community feels about using their money to avoid funding wars they don't support.

Episode rundown:

• (00:22) - The US military is the world's single largest institutional fossil fuel consumer.
• (01:31) - War's Industrial Afterlife: Nylon, fertilizer, and freeways.
• (05:55) - Community action: from campus divestment campaigns to rethinking their everyday spending.
• (09:02) - A deep dive into military emissions, hidden history, and the case for diplomacy.
• (38:07) - Following the Money: How Big Oil lobbied to keep military emissions off the global books
• (44:18) - Your vote and your wallet are more powerful climate tools than you think.
• (46:10) - Community Classified: Citizens’ Climate Lobby

📱 Want to make your money count? Download the Commons app .

🌎 Find citations and further reading in the full show notes.

📞 Want to submit to the show? We'd love to hear from you!

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Episode Credits

• Listener contributions: Braden Marazzo-Nowicki, Diana Holguin, Drew, Julia Nolasco, Fionaa Bhatia, Nicole Collins
• Research: Makenna McBrierty
• Editing and engineering: Evan Goodchild‍
• Hosting and production: Katelan Cunningham

[This episode originally aired June 19, 2024] Composting is one of the easiest, most rewarding climate actions. You get to repurpose food waste, save money on fertilizer, and give back to the soil. Plus, there are so many ways to do it! On this episode, you'll get a straightforward explanation of how composting works and all the inspiration and guidance you need to start composting — no matter where you live. Listen in to hear:

• Our community's firsthand advice for composting in any living situation
• Your composting questions answered by Dr. Sheridan Ross of Compton Community Garden
• The carbon impact of composting our food waste

📱 Want to make your money count? Download the Commons app .

🌎 Find citations and further reading in the full show notes.

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Episode credits

• Listener contributions: Nicole Collins, Joëlle Provost , Lindsay Kerns, Bo Meisl, Sameera Mokkarala, Melissa Athina, Yolanda Gonzalez, Gracon Ladd, and Daniel Goh‍
• Featured guests: Dr. Sheridan Ross and Sanchali Seth Pal‍
• Editing and engineer: Evan Goodchild‍
• Hosting and production: Katelan Cunningham

In a world that tries to get us to shop fast, slowing down our shopping is an act of resistance. In this community episode, our listeners share how slowing down their shopping habits saved them money, cut down on waste, and made them appreciate their stuff any more.

Episode rundown:

• (00:00) - Why is slow shopping important?
• (03:07) - Slow shopping tips from our community
• (11:25) - Reflections on slow shopping

📱 Want to make your money count? Download the Commons app .

🌎 Find citations and further reading in the full show notes.

📞 Want to submit to the show? We'd love to hear from you!

📷 Follow Second Nature on Instagram.

Episode Credits

• Listener contributions: Grace Kinney-Broderick, Grace Hebert, Molly Barton, Sophia Anderson, Keionna Spalding, Gaby Beaudoin
• Research: Makenna McBrierty
• Editing and engineering: Evan Goodchild‍
• Hosting and production: Katelan Cunningham

The aviation industry has gotten twice as fuel-efficient since 1990, and emissions have still quadrupled. In this episode, we reckon with the guilt of flying, tracing it from economy class all the way up to private jets, where a handful of ultra-wealthy passengers emit up to 500 times more carbon than the average person annually. Plus, we dig into sustainable aviation fuel with Alyssa Norris from Aether Fuels and what it would actually take to make flying something we don't have to feel guilty about.

Episode rundown:

• (00:35) - Should we feel guilty about flying?
• (03:12) - Our flying footprint
• (05:17) - Reckoning with guilty consciences
• (09:52) - What is SAF and why aren’t all planes using it?
• (27:19) - Following the money from private jets to economy
• (37:08) - Individual actions for systemic change

📱 Want to make your money count? Download the Commons app .

🌎 Find citations and further reading in the full show notes.

📞 Want to submit to the show? We'd love to hear from you!

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Episode Credits

• Listener contributions: Lorena, Morgan Gallagher, Bruno Olmedo Quiroga, Darice Chang, Jessica Tucker, Kayla Joy , Lena, Dom Altomari
• Research: Makenna McBrierty
• Editing and engineering: Evan Goodchild‍
• Hosting and production: Katelan Cunningham

Lawns cover more American soil than any other irrigated crop — but who decided they should look this way, and at what cost? In this episode, we trace the centuries-old aristocratic tradition behind the modern lawn, expose the billion-dollar industry profiting from invasive grasses and toxic chemicals, and with the help of nature educator Jason Wise (aka Journeyman), we’ll explore how your patch of green could become something far more prosperous. If you've ever questioned the monoculture outside your front door, this one's for you.

Episode rundown:

• (00:00) - Chapter 1
• (00:49) - Why are lawns a climate issue?
• (02:38) - How did lawns become popular?
• (06:05) - How is our community adapting their lawns?
• (12:34) - Tips to rewind your lawn from Jason Wise (aka Journeyman)
• (34:02) - Who’s profiting off the lawn industry?
• (43:07) - Imagining a lawn-free future

📱 Want to make your money count? Download the Commons app .

🌎 Find citations and further reading in the full show notes.

📞 Want to submit to the show? We'd love to hear from you!

📷 Follow Second Nature on Instagram.

Episode Credits

• Listener contributions: Craig Brown, Nick Blocha, Lena, Grace Kinney-Broderick, Haley Murphy
• Research: Makenna McBrierty
• Editing and engineering: Evan Goodchild‍
• Hosting and production: Katelan Cunningham

Season 5 is coming very soon and this season, we're talking about the thing that's on everyone's mind (whether we like or not) — money.

Maybe you've heard that Native American proverb, “Only when the last tree has been cut down, the last fish been caught, and the last stream poisoned, will we realize we cannot eat money.”

But, the way we spend our money matters, and as a mindful consumer, financial decisions can feel like a burden — especially when we don’t have much control over them. We can often choose where to spend our money, but we can’t choose what companies do with that money.

Our society doesn’t run on money, it runs on the earth— water, soil, plants, air. As of late — we’ll call it the past 300 years — we’ve had a pretty one-sided relationship with these essentials we need to live and that largely has to do with the fact that what we value and the way we value it is measured in dolla dolla bills.

This season we’re talking about —

• How the rising cost of groceries is threatening food security in ways you might not expect
• If giving our money to offsets is actually worth it
• The companies that are lobbying for fossil fuels
• How everyday people are footing the bill for data centers
• Decades of war propping up the fossil fuel industry, and how that extends to our front lawns.
• What it’s going to take to get proper investment in sustainable aviation fuel

Subscribe so you don't miss an episode!

📱 Want to make your money count? Download the Commons app .

📞 Want to submit to the show? We'd love to hear from you!

📷 Follow Second Nature on Instagram.

Episode Credits

• Editing and engineering: Evan Goodchild‍
• Hosting and production: Katelan Cunningham

Have you always wanted to be one of the worldwide community of voices you hear on Second Nature? Now's the time! We're accepting submissions for season 5 and we can't wait to hear from you. For the best shot at getting on season 5, please send in your submissions by April 3. But feel free to continue submitting through April as well.

Submitting to the show is easy!

1. Fill out this form to start your submission to Second Nature.
2. After you fill out the form, you'll receive questions based on the topics you chose, with details about how to submit your audio.
3. Record your audio and send it our way!

• (00:00) - We want to hear from you on season 5!
• (00:40) - How to submit

All season, we’ve rooted ourselves in community. Inspired by vast, underground webs of mycellium we’ve shared ways to create local networks of support, information, and resilience. We’ve talked about how we can use our collective power to prep for climate disasters, protect the water, and use our dollars to resist consumption and combat greenwashing.

On this episode, we're ending the season by reminding ourselves that we’re part of nature and that we can look to our fellow animals, as well as plants and fungi, at any time for lessons in community, resilience, and patience.

📱 Download the Commons app.

🌎 Find citations and further reading in the full show notes.

📞 Want to submit your Community Classified? We'd love to hear from you!

📷 Follow Second Nature on Instagram.

Episode Credits

• Listener contributions: Amber Sit, Ashley Walker, Grace Hebert, Justina, Leena Joshi, Kasia Hertz, Inanna McCarty, Gabrielle Gustilo, Janna, Hockenjos, Mary Klene
• Editing and engineering: Evan Goodchild‍
• Hosting and production: Katelan Cunningham

• (00:00) - Introduction
• (01:41) - We’re all connected
• (03:40) - What our community has learned from nature
• (09:17) - Tracing back the thread of life with Robin Wall Kimmerer
• (29:14) - Looking back at season 4 and what’s to come