Presenting: Outside/In

April 1, 2021·1 hr 10 min·6 clips

A lawyer used a Herman Melville story to convince the Supreme Court to take the climate case.

The handoff starts loose. Ayanna and Alex trade climate credentials, newbie teasing, and the threat of a running-man routine over Zoom. That keeps the How to Save a Planet feel alive before Outside/In takes over with a tougher Supreme Court story. The case takes its time. Two years pass between announcement and decision while the group works through strategy, briefs, and what Richard Lazarus calls 50 cats with egos. Then they lose, but not cleanly. The D.C. Circuit splits three ways, so the team avoids a simple defeat and still walks away with a serious legal problem. The problem is standing. The episode explains it without fog: a plaintiff has to show a specific injury tied to the action, or inaction, being challenged. Climate makes that hard. The damage builds slowly, spreads widely, and can look like tomorrow's problem until it is not. The pot metaphor does the job. Water does not jump from cold to boiling without getting hot enough to burn. Lazarus gives the frame, and his book supplies the story of a lawsuit nearly pulled apart by delay, disagreement, and standing law. The EPA stays at the center. The question is whether every ton of carbon adds a little more harm when the agency does nothing. The ending stays open. The Biden administration has promised federal climate action, but the deeper issue remains: will greenhouse-gas authority keep resting on 1970 Clean Air Act technicalities?

As heard by us

A clear, patient look at how climate law gets argued in court.

How to Save a Planet starts with a playful exchange between Ayanna Elizabeth Johnson and Alex Bloomberg, then settles into the legal fight at the center of the episode. The D.C.

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Why you'd press play

For the climate-law backstory behind an EPA fight and the standing question that could make or break it.

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