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Ten days out from Election Day, it looks like the worst has been averted. A presidential candidate who ran on the most ambitious climate platform the US has ever seen soundly defeated one who has spent the last four years torching environmental regulations, installing fossil fuel barons in the highest executive offices, and casting doubt on the reality of the climate crisis itself. 

Yet the early days of the transition have underlined that Joe Biden is far from the candidate that the climate movement dreamed of—and that his plans for mitigating the crisis fall far short of what the science demands. Further clouding the picture, Democrats’ chances of winning control of the Senate and passing anything even close to meaningful climate legislation have been whittled down to just one date: January 5, when Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock will have a second chance at ousting Georgia’s Republicans.

So where should the climate movement be focusing its energy over the coming weeks, months, and years as we enter the Biden era? Kate and Daniel sit down to debrief a tumultuous election—and what could be an even more tumultuous next phase.

Further reading

Kate: Will Biden Repeat Obama’s Mistakes? (New Republic)

Kate: The Democrats Will Suffer if They Abandon the Green New Deal (New Republic)

Daniel: With Joe Biden, There’s Still a Case for Climate Optimism (Novara Media)

Daniel: The Case for Social Housing (with Mark Paul, The Justice Collaborative)

Climate Change | President-Elect Joe Biden 

Climate Mandate – The Team We Need to Combat the Climate Crisis (Sunrise Movement, Justice Democrats)

The Climate21 Project

Deconstructed: What Happened? (Ryan Grim with Ilhan Omar and Mike Siegel, The Intercept)  

What Went Wrong for Congressional Democrats in 2020 (Open letter from New Deal Strategies, Justice Democrats, Sunrise Movement, Data for Progress)

Andy Levin viewed as likely contender for Biden’s labor secretary (Melissa Nann Burke, Detroit News)

Obama and the Arugula Scandal (Daily Kos)

Joe Biden and climate change: 10 executive actions President-elect Biden is planning (Umair Irfan, Vox)

Belabored: Labor at the Ballot Box 

Working People Dragged Joe Biden Over the Finish Line (Jane McAlevey, The Nation)

Rio Grande Valley Republicans (Mike Davis, London Review of Books)

Strikes during the New Deal, via Raj Patel

A Crisis Wasted: Barack Obama’s Defining Decisions by Reed Hundt

The post Hot & Bothered: A Glide Path to Ruin appeared first on Dissent Magazine.

In the final episode of this pandemic edition of Hot & Bothered, Kate and Daniel reflect on the lessons of the last few months and the prospects for ecosocialism in this decade. They discuss a new, $1.5 billion green infrastructure bill introduced by House Democrats; why dismantling the carceral state is key to climate politics; how the climate movement and the left more broadly has advanced in terms of contesting for power over the last decade; and why the zombie neoliberalism metaphor is, itself, undead. 

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Many thanks to everyone who pitched in on Patreon to make the season possible. If you liked this edition of Hot & Bothered, it’s also not too late to rate and review us on iTunes or your podcast platform of choice, and to join the conversation on Twitter with #HotBotheredClimate.

Summer syllabus

Democrats unveil $1.5 trillion infrastructure plan (Rebecca Beitsch, The Hill) 

Latin America’s Green New Deal (Daniel Aldana Cohen and Thea Riofrancos, NACLA Report on the Americas)

A Crisis Wasted (Reed Hundt, Simon & Schuster)

Kate: Why Abolishing ICE Is Good Climate Policy (In These Times)

Crisis Cities: Disaster and Redevelopment in New York and New Orleans (Kevin Fox Gotham and Miriam Greenberg, Oxford University Press)

We, The Sovereign (Gianpaolo Baiocchi, Wiley)

Katrina: A History, 1915–2015 (Andy Horowitz, Harvard University Press)

Jamaal Bowman Set to Oust Rep. Eliot Engel in Major Progressive Power Grab (Aída Chávez, The Intercept)

Kate: Inside the Fight to Shape Biden’s Climate Policy (New Republic)

Colin: French city of Dunkirk tests out free transport – and it works (France 24)

Colin: Paris’s new public housing push aims to offset soaring rents (France 24)

The post Hot & Bothered: A Decade to Win appeared first on Dissent Magazine.

The growing call to defund the police is inextricable from a wider push to democratize our institutions—from city governments up to the Federal Reserve Bank—so that they serve the multiracial working class rather than Wall Street. This, at its core, is what the Green New Deal is all about. But what does an abolitionist, ecosocialist program look like in practice? 

This week, Kate and Daniel speak to Jasson Perez, Senior Research Analyst at ACRE (the Action Center on Race and the Economy) and organizer with the Afro-Socialists & Socialists of Color Caucus of DSA. They discuss why defunding the police is an essential step toward ending anti-Black violence; how the Fed could step in to end austerity from the municipal level up; and what leftists around the country can learn from the coalition-building efforts that are transforming Chicago. Perez, who has previously worked as an organizer at SEIU Local 73 and BYP100, and as a researcher at the Cook Center on Social Equity, explains why working toward police and prison abolition is key to building social movements more broadly and, ultimately, expanding the horizon of a vibrant working-class life.

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Also, an announcement: our next episode will be the last in this season of Hot & Bothered. Many thanks to everyone who pitched in on Patreon to make the season possible. If you’re one of those generous people, look out for an email from us in the coming days with more details. And don’t miss our virtual happy hour on Monday, June 22. 

If you liked the season, it’s also not too late to rate and review us on iTunes or your podcast platform of choice, and to join the conversation on Twitter with #HotBotheredClimate.

Further reading

Critical Resistance

The answer to police violence is not ‘reform’. It’s defunding. Here’s why (Alex S. Vitale, The Guardian)

Yes, We Mean Literally Abolish the Police (Mariame Kaba, New York Times)

Andrea J. Ritchie on Why We Need a World Without Police (Colorlines)

The Federal Reserve Can Help Workers in a Time of Crisis (Jasson Perez, Jacobin)

Fed Up: The National Campaign for a Strong Economy

On “targeted universalism”: From a Tangle of Pathology to a Race-Fair America (Alan Aja, Daniel Bustillo, William Darity, Jr., and Darrick Hamilton, Dissent)

‘Cops,’ Long-Running Reality Show That Glorified Police, Is Canceled (Nicole Sperling, New York Times)

Aiming to Underachieve: How a Federal Reserve Lending Program for Local Governments is Designed to Fall Short (Center for Public Democracy)

The post Hot & Bothered: An Abolitionist Green New Deal, with Jasson Perez appeared first on Dissent Magazine.

It took the mainstream climate movement a long time to come around to the idea that racial justice is climate justice. And while that understanding has solidified in recent years under pressure from frontline communities—shaping the push for a Green New Deal—many environmental groups are still uncertain about how to put it into practice. 

For New York Communities for Change (NYCC), connecting the dots between racial injustice and the climate crisis isn’t just a question of principle—it’s a daily reality. In places like the Rockaways, NYCC members living in disinvested public housing were among the hardest hit by Superstorm Sandy in 2012. Others, in neighborhoods like Brownsville, live in some of the city’s worst heat islands and food deserts. 

The grassroots, membership-based organization—which was instrumental in iconic campaigns like the Fight for $15—has recently mobilized its base of working-class Black and Brown New Yorkers to enable some its biggest climate victories, from low-carbon buildings legislation to blocked pipelines to state-level energy policy. In this episode, Kate and Daniel talk to NYCC’s Climate and Inequality Campaigns Organizer Patrick Houston to learn more about the group’s organizing model and how it has helped make New York a national leader on climate justice. 

If the mainstream climate movement wants to center racial justice in its work—and win in the process—it could learn a lot from NYCC and Patrick Houston.

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If you like the episode and want to hear more, sign up as a monthly member at patreon.com/hotbotheredclimate today. It’s thanks to those who are able to contribute that we’re able to make the podcast free for anyone to listen to. 

Paying members will get access to perks like a monthly happy hour with Kate, Daniel, and friends, a free ebook of A Planet to Win: Why We Need a Green New Deal  by Kate Aronoff, Alyssa Battistoni, Daniel Aldana Cohen, and Thea Riofrancos, and much more. 

Don’t hesitate: sign up on Patreon today.

Further reading

New York Communities for Change

This Group Pioneered the Fight for $15. Can They Transform the Fight for Affordable Housing Too? (Sarah Jaffe, the Nation)

New York City is about to pass its own Green New Deal (Adele Peters, Fast Company)

Third Strike for Williams Pipeline (Jarrett Murphy, City Limits)

The post Hot & Bothered: Putting Racial Justice First, with Patrick Houston appeared first on Dissent Magazine.

As uprisings against police violence and for black liberation have swept the nation over the past ten days, the climate movement has taken note. Groups ranging from the Sierra Club to the League of Conservation Voters have issued statements condemning racist violence; the Sunrise Movement and 350.org have gone further, echoing the call from racial justice organizers to defund the police. 

What will it take for the climate movement to move beyond statements of solidarity and advance a strategy of targeted divestment from racist institutions, in order to reinvest those resources—and many more, besides—in communities of color? This week, Kate and Daniel talk to J. Mijin Cha, a professor at Occidental College whose research focuses on climate and environmental justice, and in particular on how to shape a just transition to a low-carbon economy. They discuss the last week’s uprisings; California’s not-so-successful attempt to achieve environmental justice through a cap-and-trade program; and what a post-pandemic jobs program needs to look like.

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If you like the episode and want to hear more, sign up as a monthly member at patreon.com/hotbotheredclimate today. It’s thanks to those who are able to contribute that we’re able to make the podcast free for anyone to listen to. 

Paying members will get access to perks like a monthly happy hour with Kate, Daniel, and friends, a free ebook of A Planet to Win: Why We Need a Green New Deal  by Kate Aronoff, Alyssa Battistoni, Daniel Aldana Cohen, and Thea Riofrancos, and much more. 

Don’t hesitate: sign up on Patreon today.

Further reading

Freedom to Thrive: Reimagining Safety & Security in Our Communities (Center for Popular Democracy, Law for Black Lives, Black Youth Project 100)

Movement for Black Lives Policy Platform

Mijin Cha

Environmental Justice, Just Transition, and a Low-Carbon Future for California (J. Mijin Cha, Madeline Wander, and Manuel Pastor, Environmental Law Institute)

Rising from the ashes, a Buffalo suburb ends its dependence on coal (Elizabeth McGowan, Grist)

Reversing Inequality, Combatting Climate Change: A Climate Jobs Program for New York State (J. Mijin Cha and Lara Skinner, The Worker Institute)

A Green Stimulus to Rebuild Our Economy (Medium)

The post Hot & Bothered: Why Defunding the Police is Key to a Just Transition, with J. Mijin Cha appeared first on Dissent Magazine.

On April 20, oil prices did something they’ve never done before. The value of West Texas Intermediate crude, a U.S. benchmark, dipped below zero for a few hours—trading as low as negative $40 a barrel.

“I don’t think any of us can really believe what we saw today,” one industry analyst told AP. “This kind of rewrites the economics of oil trading.”

Like so many other facets of the COVID-19 crisis, however, this unprecedented crash exposed long-running cracks in the facade. The fracking boom that drove a decade of record U.S. oil and gas production was never really profitable to begin with. Has its bubble finally burst?

This week, Kate and Daniel talk to Bethany McLean, author most recently of Saudi America: The Truth about Fracking and How It’s Changing the World as well as the bestselling The Smartest Guys in the Room: The Amazing Rise and Scandalous Fall of Enron, with Peter Elkind. 

In this episode, McLean—who has tracked the industry’s shaky footing for years—traces the ups and downs of the industry from the 1970s to 2008 to today, and assesses whether a new recession will speed the transition away from fossil fuels—or hand oil barons a life raft.

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If you like the episode and want to hear more, sign up as a monthly member at patreon.com/hotbotheredclimate today. It’s thanks to those who are able to contribute that we’re able to make the podcast free for anyone to listen to. 

Paying members will get access to perks like a monthly happy hour with Kate, Daniel, and friends, a free ebook of A Planet to Win: Why We Need a Green New Deal by Kate Aronoff, Alyssa Battistoni, Daniel Aldana Cohen, and Thea Riofrancos, and much more. 

Don’t hesitate: sign up on Patreon today.

Further reading

The Next Financial Crisis Lurks Underground (Bethany McLean, New York Times)

Coronavirus May Kill Our Fracking Fever Dream (Bethany McLean, New York Times)

Fracking, explained (Brad Plumer, Vox)

Are Crude Oil & Natural Gas Prices Linked? (Adila Mchich, CME Group) 

Fractivism: Corporate Bodies and Chemical Bonds (Sarah Ann Wylie)

The Fracktivists (Colin Kinniburgh, Dissent) 

Oil Fall (Gregor Macdonald) 

Kate: A Moderate Proposal: Nationalize The Fossil Fuel Industry (The New Republic)

The post Hot & Bothered: Has the Fracking Bubble Finally Burst? with Bethany McLean appeared first on Dissent Magazine.

The New Deal is often remembered for bringing the United States Social Security, the Works Progress Administration, and a blossoming of working-class culture underwritten by federal arts programs. In many parts of the country, it also cemented the vicious institutional racism of Jim Crow, the result of a devil’s bargain struck with the Southern Dixiecrats. 

Equally important, though, was the New Deal’s transformation of the American landscape. Federally backed and locally implemented programs created virtually all U.S. state parks, electrified much of rural America, and put millions of people to work building and renovating everything from the Appalachian Trail to local sewer systems.  

What can we learn from this history as the climate movement fights for a Green New Deal today? On this week’s show, Kate and Daniel talk to Billy Fleming, director of the McHarg Center in the Weitzman School of Design at the University of Pennsylvania. Fleming, who also worked in the Obama administration’s White House Domestic Policy Council and coauthored the Indivisible Guide, connects the dots from the 1930s to the present, discussing not just the kinds of policies that should anchor a Green New Deal, but how to advance an effective inside-outside strategy to win them as we gear up for 2021.

Kate and Daniel also touch on the defeat of the Williams Pipeline in New York, why climate politics always comes back to housing, and why Democrats should really be pushing for a green jobs program in states like Pennsylvania and Texas, which are hemorrhaging fossil fuel jobs—and also happen to be key swing states.

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If you like the episode and want to hear more, sign up as a monthly member at patreon.com/hotbotheredclimate today. It’s thanks to those who are able to contribute that we’re able to make the podcast free for anyone to listen to. 

Paying members will get access to perks like a monthly happy hour with Kate, Daniel, and friends, a free ebook of A Planet to Win: Why We Need a Green New Deal by Kate Aronoff, Alyssa Battistoni, Daniel Aldana Cohen, and Thea Riofrancos, and much more. 

So don’t hesitate: sign up on Patreon today.

Further reading

Third Strike for Williams Pipeline (Jarrett Murphy, City Limits)

Kate: How Democrats Can Win Coal Country—and the 2020 Election (New Republic)

Kate, on Heather Zichal: Joe Biden’s Sketchy Climate Record (New Republic)

Design and the Green New Deal (Billy Fleming, Places Journal)

Creative Competition: Georgia Power, the Tennessee Valley Authority, and the Creation of a Rural Consumer Economy, 1934–1955 (Brent Cebul, Journal of American History)

The Living New Deal

To Rebuild Our Towns and Cities, We Need to Design a Green Stimulus (Billy Fleming and Alexandra Lillehei, Jacobin) 

Letter: A Green Stimulus to Rebuild Our Economy (Medium)

The post Hot & Bothered: Designing a Green New Deal, with Billy Fleming appeared first on Dissent Magazine.

In its sheer scope, climate change may be an unprecedented threat. But that doesn’t mean communities—in particular communities of color—haven’t faced existential threats before. As we now navigate the twin crises of climate and the COVID-19 pandemic, who better to lead a mass movement for a greener, more equal future? 

Mary Annaïse Heglar has addressed many of these themes in her recent writing for outlets including the Boston Globe, the New Republic, and ZORA, as well as on Hot Take, the podcast and newsletter she co-hosts with Amy Westervelt. This week, she talks to Kate and Daniel about climate grief; why we don’t have to choose between caring about police violence and caring about the polar bears; and why Bernie Sanders’s campaign message didn’t resonate with many (especially older) black voters. 

Plus, Kate and Daniel talk about the green jobs hidden in the oil fields, and why Joe Biden has his work cut out for him if he really wants to be the next FDR.

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If you like the episode and want to hear more from Kate and Daniel, sign up as a monthly member at patreon.com/hotbotheredclimate today. It’s thanks to those who are able to contribute that we’re able to make the podcast free for anyone to listen to. 

Paying members will get access to perks like a monthly happy hour with Kate, Daniel, and friends, a free ebook of A Planet to Win: Why We Need a Green New Deal by Kate Aronoff, Alyssa Battistoni, Daniel Aldana Cohen, and Thea Riofrancos, and much more. 

So don’t hesitate: sign up on Patreon today.

Further reading

Kate: The Oil Crash Could Be Geothermal’s Big Break (The New Republic) 

Kate: There Are Green Jobs Hiding in the Oilfields (The New Republic)

Biden Is Planning an FDR-Size Presidency (Gabriel Debenedetti, New York)

Climate Change Isn’t the First Existential Threat (Mary Annaïse Heglar, ZORA)

What Climate Grief Taught Me About the Coronavirus (Mary Annaïse Heglar, The New Republic)

In a shrinking world, what will we pass on to our children? (Mary Annaïse Heglar, Boston Globe)

G.O.P. Coronavirus Message: Economic Crisis Is a Green New Deal Preview (Lisa Friedman, New York Times)

Some Young Republicans Embrace a Slower, Gentler Brand of Climate Activism (James Bruggers, Inside Climate News)

The post Hot & Bothered: A Climate Story to Win a Multiracial Majority, with Mary Annaïse Heglar appeared first on Dissent Magazine.

From crocus blooms to interstates, the material world we live in sets the conditions for our politics. What would it take to establish collective, democratic rule over the material terms of our shared lives? How can we, as an “infrastructure species,” transform both our physical and political infrastructures—and even ourselves in the process? And how can we build an ecosocialism that can win in the months and years ahead?

These are some of the questions guiding the work of Jedediah Britton-Purdy, professor of law at Columbia Law School and author, most recently, of This Land Is Our Land: The Struggle for a New Commonwealth and After Nature. On this week’s show, Kate and Daniel talk to Jedediah about his vision of commonwealth politics; the challenges of organizing in a socially distanced world; where the law fits in; and whether coming together also means naming new enemies. 

Kate also suffers through Planet of the Humans so you don’t have to, and Daniel tells us why we should be worried about Joe Biden’s commitment to a green stimulus. 

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If you like the episode and want to hear more from Kate and Daniel, sign up as a monthly member at patreon.com/hotbotheredclimate today. It’s thanks to those who are able to contribute that we’re able to make the podcast free for anyone to listen to. 

Paying members will get access to perks like a monthly happy hour with Kate, Daniel, and friends, a free ebook of A Planet to Win: Why We Need a Green New Deal by Kate Aronoff, Alyssa Battistoni, Daniel Aldana Cohen, and Thea Riofrancos, and much more. And as a special thank you to everyone who’s able to pitch in right away, supporters who sign up by May 1 will automatically get bumped up to the next subscription tier. 

So don’t hesitate: sign up on Patreon today.

Further reading

Kate: The Important Debate Planet of the Humans Misses (The New Republic) 

Michael Moore’s Planet of the Humans gets clean energy and climate activism terribly wrong (Leah Stokes, Vox) 

How did Michael Moore become a hero to climate deniers and the far right? (George Monbiot, The Guardian)

Biden Camp Finds Selling Point in Ailing Economy: His Work on 2009 Recovery (Glenn Thrush, New York Times)

Kate: The Democrats Screwed Up (The New Republic) 

Bernie Sanders’s Campaign Was Trying to Save American Democracy (Jedediah Britton-Purdy, Jacobin)

Building a Law-and-Political-Economy Framework: Beyond the Twentieth-Century Synthesis (Jedediah Britton-Purdy, David Singh Grewal, Amy Kapczynski & K. Sabeel Rahman, Yale Law Journal)

Law and Political Economy Blog

Connecting the Dots Between Mass Incarceration, Health Inequity, and Climate Change (Seth J. Prins and Brett Story, American Journal of Public Health)

The post Hot & Bothered Podcast: A New Commonwealth, with Jedediah Britton-Purdy appeared first on Dissent Magazine.

Under the weight of COVID-19, every lie we’ve been told about how the economy works is busting open, and our institutions are revealing themselves to be incapable of offering a path to recovery. Worse yet, many governments are using the crisis as a pretext for a punishing return to austerity. 

Why? The answer can be summed up in one word: debt, an issue that Astra Taylor has spent the last several years organizing around as co-founder of the Debt Collective. Also a prolific writer and documentarian, Astra is the author most recently of Democracy May Not Exist, but We’ll Miss It When It’s Gone and director of the companion film What Is Democracy? She has recently written about both the food system and debt crises as they intersect with the pandemic (and climate change, too).

On this week’s show, Kate and Daniel talk to Astra about what the coronavirus pandemic has to do with eating meat, whether we really need a technocratic savior, why debt relief is inherently tied to democracy, and more. Kate and Daniel also take a look at the toxic record of Larry Summers, and why Democrats shouldn’t let him anywhere near the party platform.

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If you like the episode and want to hear more from Kate and Daniel, sign up as a monthly member at patreon.com/hotbotheredclimate today. It’s thanks to those who are able to contribute that we’re able to make the podcast free for anyone to listen to. 

Paying members will get access to perks like a monthly happy hour with Kate, Daniel, and friends, a free ebook of A Planet to Win: Why We Need a Green New Deal by Kate Aronoff, Alyssa Battistoni, Daniel Aldana Cohen, and Thea Riofrancos, and much more. And as a special thank you to everyone who’s able to pitch in right away, supporters who sign up by May 1 will automatically get bumped up to the next subscription tier. 

So don’t hesitate: sign up on Patreon today.

Further reading

Kate: Don’t Let Larry Summers Block Climate Progress Again (The New Republic) 

Progressive groups call on Biden to remove Summers as economic adviser (J. Edward Moreno, The Hill)

Petition: Tell Joe Biden to remove Larry Summers as economic advisor (Sunrise Movement and Justice Democrats)

Astra: The Covid-19 pandemic shows we must transform the global food system (with Jan Dutkiewicz and Troy Vettese, The Guardian)

Kate: The World Order Is Broken. The Coronavirus Proves It. (The New Republic) 

Astra: Cancelling student debt was always the right thing to do. Now it’s imperative (The Guardian)

Astra: Bad ancestors: does the climate crisis violate the rights of those yet to be born? (The Guardian)

Why Mitch McConnell Wants States to Go Bankrupt (David Frum, The Atlantic) 

The Fed could undo decades of damage to cities. Here’s how. (Destin Jenkins, Washington Post)

Daniel and Dan Kammen: Climate crisis will deepen the pandemic. A green stimulus plan can tackle both (The Guardian)

The Debt Collective 

The post Hot & Bothered Podcast: Debt vs. Democracy, with Astra Taylor appeared first on Dissent Magazine.