Extinction Rebellion Radio

This episode makes three points that aren’t getting explained well in the media coverage or in social media discussions. First, this is about fossil fuels. Iran and the Straight of Hormuz that it controls would be infinitely less strategic, and the fallout of this war infinitely less severe for other countries, were it not for our deep reliance on oil and gas. Second, there’s not really an off-ramp from this situation. The people saying there is are thinking from the American perspective, not the Iranian perspective. Third, this really was a wholly unprovoked attack against a government the U.S. does not like, but that posed no threat and with no credible pathway to change the regime into something better.

We offer a climate-oriented response to Trump's most recent State of the Union address. In contrast to the opposition party's response, this one has no poll testing, no superficial point-scoring seeking votes or quotes, and no partisanship. We talk about the bloody rhetoric, the in-chamber ceremonies, and the little bit of policy President Trump mentioned to explain why he did it this way.

In this interview Larry Ward, author of the book America's Racial Karma, connects his Buddhist analysis of race in the United States to the climate crisis. The conversation shows how the suffering of the earth entangles with the patterns of America's struggles with race; both proceed from acquisitive intentions. Larry passed away last year, 2025. Rest in peace and rest in power.

Let's talk about Greenland, before everybody forgets about it. Less than a month ago, the United States was almost in a military standoff with eight European countries, two of them nuclear powers. The E.U. was threatening to cut off all trade with the United States, which would have caused a depression on both sides of the Atlantic. And NATO, the biggest alliance on the globe, might now be caput. Is President Trump just a moron, or is there a climate change explanation for why the U.S. felt it had to 'own' Greenland? This episode answers that question.

The world is beset by floods, fires, inundations, mudslides, landslides, gas explosions, on and on. We chronicle them here to share with the world just how extensive this is, at present, right now. It's somewhat mesmerizing to listen to. This episode covers approximately the end of summer 2025.

Delhi, the capital city of India, has the worst air quality ever measured. The super-massive carbon emissions make the daily air as gray as fog. This week we talk with Yukti Singh, a physician born and raised in Delhi, who grew up breathing this air. Not only does she have first hand information about it that's interesting, and enough medical expertise to explain what this does to a human body, but she has a perspective on its role in life that, in many respects, fits the global climate crisis.

We're still digesting the recent events in Venezuela. There is way too much to say not to do a second episode about it. Last week we argued this was straight up colonization. This week I'm challenging listeners a little bit by suggesting that because this new oil imperialism is so clear cut without pretext and without claiming any redeeming factors, this is easier to oppose than the older imperialist colonization was. Plus some of the legal complications that might ensue from how they've handled President Maduro so far.

What's happening in Venezuela is colonization for oil. There's no secret agenda, they're not hiding it, it's what they say it is: an attempt at direct control of the largest reserve of oil in the world. It's backed up by a naval blockade and a threatened invasion. The Trump administration isn't saying this behind closed doors but right out in the open, on global television. This week's episode starts to take stock of this new world. We end with some ways to push back.

This is the latest in our occasional series running down the climate disasters that are happening now, presently. We hope to convey the level of destruction and disruption that climate change is creating across the world right now. It's not a problem for the future or for our children or grandchildren. It's a problem for us. And it will only get worse from here if we keep on burning mass quantities of fossil fuels. [Aired October 2025]

With the help of Marina Rivera Ramos of Rutgers University, we explore indigenous perspectives that are relevant to climate change. The place-based collective continuance has lessons for how we might live differently from how we do. If we had based more of our society on these indigenous world views, we might have avoided climate change altogether, and maybe if we do going forward, we might reduce some of its worst effects.