Hot Take

We're so excited to bring you Season 2 in July! We'll have new guests, a new format, and the usual combination of media criticism, climate trends, f-bombs and dad jokes. See you soon!

Amid nationwide Black Lives Matter protests, some climate activists have been saying "now's not the time to talk about climate." In this episode we talk about how justice is justice, climate and racial justice are all the same thing, they can't be separated. To access the full-length episode, consider becoming a Hot Take premium subscriber: https://realhottake.substack.com/subscribe

Elon Musk has done some great work making electric cars more of a reality in the U.S. But the hero worship of him can be dangerous, especially when it blinds people to his less-than-helpful moves when it comes to climate. Premium subscribers to our weekly newsletter got a whole feature on this last week, but there were still things we had to leave out, so ... bonus episode! If you want a weekly digest of climate coverage plus original analysis from Mary and Amy, make sure to subscribe to the newsletter!
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It's the S1 finale y'all! Mary and Amy wrap up the season with a look at the ever-evolving climate-COVID-19 story, coverage of climate for climate's sake, and pieces that provide inspiration to keep fighting on climate. Plus some rum-fueled rants and dad jokes, of course.
Subscribe to our newsletter so you won't miss our curated reading lists, original writing and subscriber-only bonus episodes: https://realhottake.substack.com/subscribe
Reading List:
The US has a collective action problem that’s larger than the coronavirus crisis —Patrick Sharkey, Vox https://www.vox.com/2020/4/10/21216216/coronavirus-social-distancing-texas-unacast-climate-change
Putin's Long War Against American Science — William J. Broad, The New York Times https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/13/science/putin-russia-disinformation-health-coronavirus.html
The Reason COVID-19 and Climate Seem So Similar: Disinformation —Amy Westervelt, Drilled News https://drillednews.substack.com/p/the-reason-covid-19-and-climate-seem
‘We Needed to Go’: Rich Americans Activate Pandemic Escape Plans—Olivia Carville, Bloomberg https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-04-19/-we-needed-to-go-rich-americans-activate-pandemic-escape-plans
Think This Pandemic Is Bad? We Have Another Crisis Coming —Rhiana Gunn Wright, The New York Times https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/15/opinion/sunday/climate-change-covid-economy.html 
Upend the political power of carbon polluters — Leah Stokes, The Boston Globe https://www.bostonglobe.com/2020/04/19/opinion/upend-political-power-carbon-polluters/
 The Green New Deal Is Cheap, Actually—Tim Dickinson, Rolling Stone https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/why-the-green-new-deal-is-cheap-actually-965794/
What the 'Humans Are the Virus' Meme Gets So Wrong—Brian Kahn, Earther https://earther.gizmodo.com/what-the-humans-are-the-virus-meme-gets-so-wrong-1842934676
I Am a Mad Scientist—Kate Marvel, Drilled News https://www.drillednews.com/post/i-am-a-mad-scientist 
People Aren’t Bad for the Planet—Capitalism Is—Izzie Ramirez, Bitch Media https://www.bitchmedia.org/article/world-on-fire/ecofascist-messaging-is-increasing-during-coronavirus-pandemic 
I’m pregnant during the coronavirus pandemic, and I’m terrified—Anica Brown, Boston Globe https://www.bostonglobe.com/2020/03/20/opinion/im-pregnant-im-terrified/
In a shrinking world, what will we pass on to our children?—Mary Heglar, The Boston Globe

Live from quarantine! Mary and Amy talk to The Correspondent's Eric Holthaus about how to remain optimistic, the ways corona and climate do and don't intersect, and why you can't sleep on climate just because there's another catastrophe unfolding.
Reading List
We're Not Just Stopping Coronavirus, We're Building a New World, by Eric Holthaus in The Correspondent: https://thecorrespondent.com/385/we-arent-just-stopping-coronavirus-were-building-a-new-world/50968856015-625b9768
Trump Moves Forward On Biggest Environmental Rollback To Date Amid Pandemic Chaos, by Alex Kaufman and Chris D'Angelo in HuffPost https://www.huffpost.com/entry/trump-auto-emissions_n_5e834685c5b6d38d98a50868
States Quietly Pass Laws Criminalizing Fossil Fuel Protests Amid Coronavirus Chaos, by Alex Kaufman in HuffPost https://www.huffpost.com/entry/pipeline-protest-laws-coronavirus_n_5e7e7570c5b6256a7a2aab41
Will Pandemic Relief Become a Petroleum Industry Slush Fund? by Amy Westervelt in Drilled News https://www.drillednews.com/post/will-pandemic-relief-become-a-petroleum-industry-slush-fund
Exxon Now Wants to Write the Rules for Regulating Methane Emissions, by Justin Mikulka in DeSmog https://www.desmogblog.com/2020/03/16/exxon-write-rules-regulating-methane-emissions
The Analogy Between COVID-19 and Climate Change Is Eerily Precise, by Gilad Edelman in Wired https://www.wired.com/story/the-analogy-between-covid-19-and-climate-change-is-eerily-precise/
What Climate Grief Taught Me About the Coronavirus, by Mary Annaise Heglar in The New Republic  https://newrepublic.com/article/157059/climate-grief-taught-coronavirus
The Climate Crisis Will Be Just as Shockingly Abrupt, by Melody Schreiber in The New Republic https://newrepublic.com/article/157078/climate-crisis-will-just-shockingly-abrupt
Here's Why We'll Never Treat the Climate Crisis With the Same Urgency as Coronavirus, by Amy Westervelt in HuffPost https://www.huffpost.com/entry/coronavirus-climate-change-fossil-fuel-profits_n_5e786da4c5b6f5b7c547329e
Sorry, But the Virus Shows Why There Won't Be Global Action on Climate Change, by Jason Bordoff in Foreign Policy https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/03/27/coronavirus-pandemic-shows-why-no-global-progress-on-climate-change/
The Pandemic Isn't Fixing Climate Change, by John Sutter in CNN https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/27/opinions/pandemic-not-fixing-climate-change-sutter/index.html
How the Coronavirus Crisis May Hinder Efforts to Fight Wildfires, by Kendra Pierre Louis in The New York Times

Disasterologist Dr. Samantha Montano joins to answer all our questions about the coronavirus pandemic, what it does and doesn't tell us about climate change, and why we can't take a break from worrying about climate.

Reading List:
Kushner Puts Himself in Middle of White House’s Chaotic Coronavirus Response, by Peter Baker, Maggie Haberman, Zolan Kanno-Youngs and Noah Weiland, New York Times https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/02/us/politics/jared-kushner-coronavirus-trump.html
Trump team failed to follow NSC’s pandemic playbook, by Dan Diamond and Nahal Toosi, Politico https://www.politico.com/news/2020/03/25/trump-coronavirus-national-security-council-149285
DHS wound down pandemic models before coronavirus struck, by Daniel Lippman, Politico https://www.politico.com/news/2020/03/24/dhs-pandemic-coronavirus-146884
Before Trump’s inauguration, a warning: ‘The worst influenza pandemic since 1918’, by Nahal Toosi, Daniel Lippman, and Dan Diamond https://www.politico.com/news/2020/03/16/trump-inauguration-warning-scenario-pandemic-132797
Dr. Montano's Twitter thread on the climate-corona intersection https://twitter.com/samlmontano/status/1243622585801355271?s=21
Dr. Montano's reading list: http://www.disaster-ology.com/home/2020/3/27/march-28th-covid-19-emergency-management-curated-articles-list

All the things the climate story has taught us, or not, about corona, with special guest co-host David Wallace-Wells. David is deputy editor of New York magazine and the author of The Uninhabitable Earth.
Reading list:
Coronavirus Poses Threat to Climate Action, Says Watchdog, Jillian Ambrose in the Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/mar/12/coronovirus-poses-threat-to-climate-action-says-watchdog
What Coronavirus Teaches Us About Climate Change, David Wallace-Wells in New York Magazine https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/02/what-coronavirus-teaches-us-about-climate-change.html
Climate Change Has Lessons for Fighting Corona Virus, by Somini Sengupta in The NY Times https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/12/climate/climate-change-coronavirus-lessons.html 
We’re Getting a Clearer Picture of the Climate Future and It’s Not as Bad as it Once Looked, David Wallace-Wells, New York Magazine https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/12/climate-change-worst-case-scenario-now-looks-unrealistic.html 
The Coming Avocado Politics: What Happens When the Ethno-Nationalist Right Gets Serious about the Climate Emergency, Nils Gilman in The Breakthrough https://thebreakthrough.org/journal/no-12-winter-2020/avocado-politics 
White Supremacy Goes Green, by Beth Gardner in The NY Times https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/28/opinion/sunday/far-right-climate-change.html
Vigilantes in Greece Say ‘No More’ to Migrants, by Martina Stevis Gridneff in The NY Times https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/07/world/europe/greece-turkey-migrants.html 
Coronavirus thread https://threader.app/thread/1220919589623803905 by Eric Feigl Ding
Good Grief, by Emily Atkin in Columbia Journalism Review https://www.cjr.org/special_report/good_grief.php 
Are We Thinking About Climate Migration All Wrong? by Alexandra Tempus in Rolling Stone https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/climate-migration-predicted-number-climate-refugees-962251/amp/

Amidst a global pandemic and the meltdown of the U.S. Democratic primary, guest co-host Sarah Miller joins us to talk about how change gets made outside of existing systems. .
Reading List;
Heaven or High Water, Popula: https://popula.com/2019/04/02/heaven-or-high-water/
The Movie Assassin, Popula:https://popula.com/2018/09/30/sarahs-magnum-opus/
Joe Biden's Sketchy Climate Record, The New Republic: https://newrepublic.com/article/156801/joe-bidens-sketchy-climate-record
What Would Happen if the World Reacted to Climate Change Like It's Reacting to Coronavirus, Fast Company: https://www.fastcompany.com/90473758/what-would-happen-if-the-world-reacted-to-climate-change-like-its-reacting-to-the-coronavirus
Detained at Gidimt’en: Inside the media confinement zone, Ricochet: https://ricochet.media/en/2927/detained-at-gidimten-inside-the-media-confinement-zone
A Pipeline Runs through Southern News Deserts, Columbia Journalism Review: https://www.cjr.org/covering_climate_now/atlantic-coast-pipeline-news-deserts.php
Between the Devil and the Green New Deal, Commune: https://communemag.com/between-the-devil-and-the-green-new-deal/
What Do We Do With Feelings Now That They Don't Matter Anymore?, Longreads: https://longreads.com/2020/03/11/what-do-we-do-with-feelings-now-that-they-dont-matter-anymore/
Shell Is Looking Forward, New York Magazine: https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/03/shell-climate-change.html

Guest co-host Maddie Stone, Earther founder-turned-freelance science journalist talks us through the latest tech and climate angles. Plus: shifts in how financial reporters are talking about climate, the spread of climate misinformation, and media taps into the climate feelings of Gen Z.
Transcript: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/171s0nlm8xvncu4/AAB9wsO7RJNFMnio5J3poKVva?dl=0
Reading list:
The High Stakes Fight Over Bolivia’s Lithium, Protocol:  https://www.protocol.com/bolivia-lithium-morales
$10 Billion? In This Climate?? The Atlantic: https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2020/02/jeff-bezos-will-struggle-spend-10-billion-climate-change/606733/
The Jeff Bezos Climate Superpower that's Bigger than $10 Billion Earther: https://earther.gizmodo.com/the-jeff-bezos-climate-superpower-thats-bigger-than-10-1841771004
Once Again, Why Fossil Fuels Are on the Wrong Side of History Real Money: https://realmoney.thestreet.com/jim-cramer/jim-cramer-once-again-why-fossil-fuels-are-on-the-wrong-side-of-history-15227698
Climate has emerged as a real political issue The Atlantic: https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2020/02/poll-us-voters-really-do-care-about-climate-change/606907/
Trump's Biggest Vulnerability Is His Climate Change Denial Mother Jones: https://www.motherjones.com/environment/2020/02/trumps-biggest-vulnerability-is-his-climate-change-denial/
Revealed: Quarter of all tweets about climate crisis written by bots The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2020/feb/21/climate-tweets-twitter-bots-analysis
Beware oil execs in environmentalists' clothing The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/feb/14/oil-execs-environmentalists-bp-change-oil-climate
Guardian to ban advertising from fossil fuel firms The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/media/2020/jan/29/guardian-to-ban-advertising-from-fossil-fuel-firms-climate-crisis#show-draft-epics
Is Your Favorite News Source Shilling for Big Oil? The Nation https://www.thenation.com/article/environment/media-fossil-fuel-ads/
How climate experts think about raising children who will inherit a planet in crisis The Washington Post

The first month of 2020 proves that the climate story has no chill at all. From the Australian bushfires to big important stories on everything from climate vision to radiioactive fracking, the story just keeps getting bigger and crazier. Special guest co-host Meera Subramanian joins Mary and Amy to break it all down.

About Meera: Meera Subramanian is an award-winning freelance journalist whose work has been published around the world, and her first book is A River Runs Again: India’s Natural World in Crisis from the Barren Cliffs of Rajasthan to the Farmlands of Karnataka, published in 2015 by PublicAffairs. She is currently serving as the president of the Society of Environmental Journalists and the Currie C. and Thomas A. Barron Visiting Professor in the Environment and the Humanities at Princeton University.
Transcript: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/171s0nlm8xvncu4/AAB9wsO7RJNFMnio5J3poKVva?dl=0

Reading list:
United in Change, Meera Subramanian https://orionmagazine.org/article/united-in-change/ 

It’s Not Just Australia, Rachel Ramirez: https://t.co/xCu8Qh7LUn?amp=1 
 
‘Scarier’ Than Hurricane Maria: A Deadly Earthquake Terrifies Puerto Rico https://t.co/Gwlecq5FhV?amp=1 

At the 7th Democratic debate, candidates took every opportunity to talk climate, Zoya Tierstein  https://grist.org/politics/at-the-7th-democratic-debate-candidates-took-every-opportunity-to-talk-climate/

For the first time, the Alarmed are now the largest of Global Warming’s Six Americas https://climatecommunication.yale.edu/publications/for-the-first-time-the-alarmed-are-now-the-largest-of-global-warmings-six-americas/ 
Emily Townsend's Resignation Email https://www.theguardian.com/media/2020/jan/10/news-corp-employee-climate-misinformation-bushfire-coverage-email 

We, the Media, must take some of the blame as Australia Burns, John Birmingham https://t.co/eIp4YB9aOO?amp=1 

It's Not Arson, You Absolute Fucking Morons, Brian Kahn https://earther.gizmodo.com/its-not-arson-you-absolute-fucking-morons-1840862475 

Pregnant Women are Asking for Ultrasounds in Australia, Gina Rushton https://t.co/XUTwPTsdWp?amp=1 

The Concession to Climate Change I Will Not Make in the Atlantic, Jedediah Britton-Purdy https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2020/01/becoming-parent-age-climate-crisis/604372/?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=share 

Noah’s Rainbow , James Murray https://www.businessgreen.com/blog-post/3084916/noahs-rainbow-raising-children-in-an-age-of-climate-crisis 

Amazon’s New Rationale for Working with Big Oil: Saving the Planet, Maddie Stone: