GND Media

This episode was first broadcast on March 15th 2021

Peaceful protest could be seen as the hallmark of political movements in the late 20th and early 21st century, causing disruption to everyday life with mass gathering and turning the political headwind through chants, crowds and banners. From the Iraq War protests in 2003 to the Extinction Rebellion direct actions of 2019 turning the other cheek and love thy neighbour have been core tenants around a politics and respectability. The key questions is though, did they change anything? Does Capital listen to Labour without a threat?


Our guest this week is author and associate lecturer at Lund University Andreas Malm. Andreas is a prolific writer on climate change and capitalism with titles including "Fossil Capital" Corona, Climate, Chronic Emergency" and "White Skin Black Fuel". We discuss the sanitising of political and civil movements,  the strategic value of property destruction for a cause and combating climate despair and fatalism.

Links
How to blow up a Pipeline
https://www.versobooks.com/books/3665-how-to-blow-up-a-pipeline

kim stanley Robinsons' Ministry for the future
https://www.waterstones.com/book/the-ministry-for-the-future/kim-stanley-robinson/9780356508832

Ende Gelaende- the climate activsts Andreas has worked with
https://www.ende-gelaende.org/en/

Shout outs
Ende Gelande- climate activists based on germany taking on lignite mining
@Ende__Gelaende

Low Carbon Homes- for supporting the retrofit Get-in Project
@lowcarbonhomes

Friends of Carrington Moss- defending local green space in Greater Manchester
@FriendsMoss


Trees not cars - Congrats on beating Manchester council on the building of a carpark
@TreesNotCars

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It's been said on this podcast many times that the working class will be the ones who make sure we have a just transition. For the last few years deciding who the working class are has been up for debate. Are graduates in minimum wage jobs the working class? Are plumbers on £80k a year the working class? How will climate change affect these categories?

This week on the show we are joined by writer and activist Keir Milburn. Keir is the author of “Generation Left” and is a co-host of ACFM on Novara Media. Keir is also a founding member of the think tank Abundance.

We discuss who the working class in 21st century Britain are, how climate and class politics have expressed themselves in the past, the horrendous spycops saga and how it affected climate activists in the 2000's, what current climate activist have forgotten from previous movements, how to discuss the realities of planetary boundaries in politics without having a reductive vision for the future and whether climate organisers should use moral arguments in their campaigning.


P.S WE'RE ALL LEEDS ARNT WE?!

LINKS
Check out Working Class Voices HERE
https://www.gndmedia.co.uk/working-class-voices

Check out Keir's work at Abundance HERE
https://www.in-abundance.org/

You can listen to ACFM HERE
https://novaramedia.com/category/audio/acfm/

You can buy Keir's book Generation Left HERE 
https://www.wiley.com/en-gb/Generation+Left-p-9781509532247

Listen to our episode with Jason Hickel HERE
https://www.gndmedia.co.uk/podcast-episodes/degrowth-jason-hickel

Shout out
Issac Rose and Manchester Housing Action.  Check out Issac's work at Greater Manchester Housing Action HERE
http://www.gmhousingaction.com/

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We've always said that environmentalism needs to understand class if it wants to protect the world from climate catastrophe. Degrowth has been accused by some on the Left as green austerity or just a terrible political message.

To debunk degrowth myths and to discuss why class is at the heart of any just transition and a degrowth economy we are join by Jason Hickel. Jason is the author of"Less is More: How Degrowth Will Save the World"  and a world-leading scientist and scholar on degrowth.

We discuss how class politics and environmentalism should work in tandem, why capitalism can't stop the climate crisis, why Universal Basic Services (UBS) is at the heart of a degrowth economy, how trade unions need to remember their radical past and how the EU conference on beyond growth is opening the doors for more radical policy in Europe.

Links
Read Jason's book "Less is More: How Degrowth with Save the World"  HERE
Read "The Conquest of Bread" by Pëtr Kropotkin  HERE

Shout outs
Prabhat Patnaik & Utsa Patnaik, authors of "Capital and Imperialism", which you can buy HERE

Max Ajl, Check out our episode with him back in 2021 HERE

Senegalese economist Ndongo Samba Sylla

Mark Burton for introducing Ads to Degrowth. 

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It is, we promise, worse than you think.  Or maybe it was?  For all the fear and genuine suffering covering the globe from actual happening climate change, maybe, just maybe,  we are on a path that isn't all out destruction of the Earth? 

This week on the show we are joined by climate writer and columnist  David Wallace-Wells. David writes for New York Magazine, The New York Times and is author of best selling book The Uninhabitable Earth. We discuss how David got into climate journalism and how writing The Uninhabitable Earth made him more hopeful about the future, the paradox of Republican politicians and climate investment, and how we persuade people about the benefits of the green energy transition.


Links
Read Davids' original article HERE

Get a copy of Davids' book "The Uninhabitable Earth" HERE

Shout outs
Varshini Prakash - co founder of the Sunrise Movement

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In 1950, world shipping was roughly half a million tonnes of cargo. As of 2019 it's now 11 billion tonnes. A mind blogging increase in 70 years.  Shipping  is one of the most resistant and slow sectors to clean up its climate act, with only a commitment to reduce emissions by 50% from the International Maritime Organisation at 2050.  So what can we do to green maritime trade? And has the answer been blowing in the wind all this time?

This week Ads and Andrew are joined by Dr Christiaan De Beukelaer to discuss his new book "Trade Winds: a voyage to a sustainable future of shipping".  We discuss how a couple of weeks of research at sea  turned into half a year due to COVID-19, How global shipping made capitalism even more extractive,  the realities of going back to sail powered shipping and  why the IMO might be more effective compared to other U.N institutions.

Links
You can pick up Christiaan's book  Trade Winds: a voyage to a sustainable future of shipping" HERE

Read the International Maritime Organisations Carbon targets HERE

Learn more about the sail cargo organisations like Timbercoast HERE

Shout outs
Alson Kelen and the  Waan Aelõñ in Majel (WAM) team.  Check out their great work HERE 

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If you're living in a house that was built in the last 20 years, chances are the bricks it's made from travelled 18,000 miles to build your front door. The question is, why? As ever, the pursuit of profit has the economy doing mad things and bad things for the climate. Turns out carbon emissions don't cross borders when you write them down. 

This week we are joined by Laurie Parsons,  Senior Lecturer in Human Geography at Royal Holloway, to discuss his new book "Carbon Colonialism: How rich countries export climate breakdown".  We discuss the "Global Factory" and how rich nations export their emissions to the global South, and how the logic of colonialism has informed international development and aid programs. We also get into how, by accepting framing from elite universities on climate change, we miss different visions of value and society.

Links
Pick up Carbon Colonialism HERE

Shout out
Environmental defenders in Cambodia

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It's time for our regular update from the climate movement in the USA. This week we are joined by fossil fuel and climate journalist Dharna Noor. Dharna has just started a new role as a climate reporter for the Guardian US, with previous work at the Boston Globe and Gizmo. 

We discuss how the "biggest climate legislation" in the US  is still supporting the fossil fuel barons, how Joe Biden has backtracked on oil drilling in the Arctic Circle, recent developments in the US climate movement and the tragic murder of a climate activist at the hands of the police.


Links
Alex's piece in the Bristol Cable about the sorry state of Bristol's housing stock.

David Griscom's piece for GND Media on the IRA


Shout outs
Anthropologist  Nicole Fabricant
Journalist  Lucas Batt
Any new climate conscious councillors. We need you now more than ever. 

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The IPCC report always comes as a splash for those in the climate movement, ringing the alarm bells ever more about our planet's awful condition. But who writes it? And who gets to write it? how do these influential documents and frameworks come about and how do those who write it, affect the narrative around climate breakdown?

This week we are delighted to be joined by one of the leader authors for the latest IPCC report Yamina Saheb. We discussed how the IPCC reports get made and who gets to make it, the working conditions of the people writing it,  how those most affected by current climate breakdown are cut out of the decision making processes. Yamina also updates us on the protests in France and how the Gilet Jaune and the climate movement are linked together.



Links
The Energy Charter Treaty
 
Why the The Energy Charter Treaty is a threat to climate action- article by War on Want

Yamina's piece on Sufficiency in Buildings and Cites

Shout outs
Friend of the show Julia Steinberger  @JKSteinberger 

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What's that old line? Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different outcomes is a sign of madness.

There is plenty of consensus around what we should be doing to mitigate the worst affects of climate breakdown, but if all the methods we are using the ones that got us in this predicament in the first place, chances are they're not going to work. Is the dominant climate strategy built on a series of dangerous assumptions? 

This week on the show we are joined by Ben See. Ben is a  high school teacher and  climate activist based in Paris . We discuss the potential underlaying assumptions that could be scuppering radical change to save the planet.  Is an economic system built on assumed rationality putting the brakes on necessary  change?  Are hopes of technological fixes wasting time? How do we communicate our situation to the children who will grow up in ecosystem collapse?



Links
Andrew's  piece on climate grief

IPCC AR 6th synthesis report
IPBES report on global biodiversity  and eco systems.

Environmental Audit committee report

Shout outs
The climate justice movement

Innes Fitzgerald- UK under 20s cross country runner who won't fly to take part in competitions due to its climate implications.  Read about Innes here

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If you're someone who is engaged with climate breakdown, you may be stunned by the lack of action you're seeing on it from our politicians, institutions and media. You may even find yourself frustrated at how climate change is framed as a problem that is looming on the horizon, or just a technical equation waiting to be solved. So why is this the case? Why do so many of those in power communicate on climate so poorly?

This week on the show we are joined by Dr. Genevieve Guenther. Genevieve is the founder of End Climate Silence, an organisation that is trying to tackle the sticky semantic subject of climate communication. We discuss how language itself can shape our responses to climate change, why journalists are all too happy to adopt right wing framings of the issue and how we can use art to understand our current predicament.

Links
End Climate Silence

Platforms just transition for oil and gas workers.

Working Class Voices series

Shout out
fossil fuel non proliferation treaty 
https://fossilfueltreaty.org/

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