In This Climate

Ellen Ketterson is the founder of the Environmental Resilience Institute at Indiana University. She discusses her chapter in the new book Climate Change and Resilience in Indiana and Beyond.

We talk with Ben Kravitz about downscaled climate models, especially those that are focused on the Midwest and Indiana.

Gabe talks about strange weather and climate chaos. What can we do; what is being done?

To open our fourth season, we chat with Northeastern University professor of sustainability science and policy Jennie Stephens about climate movement leadership and how it needs to shift if we want to see transformative change.

https://www.jenniecstephens.com/

We're just getting into the fall semester here at IU, so what better time to share an episode that examines methods of environmental education. We revisit conversations about infusing contemplative practice into college sutainability courses, about teaching and learning science with high schoolers, about the potential for music to teach lessons about empathy and sustainability and the potential for visual art to bring ecological data to life.

Featured episodes:

Supporting the change agent: https://open.spotify.com/episode/4OgiTMzeQo2jbE5MJ7DGoA?si=-EQV8V4USSmUmzBu9FtIlA

Educating (virtually) for Environmental Change: https://open.spotify.com/episode/4OgiTMzeQo2jbE5MJ7DGoA?si=-EQV8V4USSmUmzBu9FtIlA

Empathy through environmental music: https://open.spotify.com/episode/4OgiTMzeQo2jbE5MJ7DGoA?si=-EQV8V4USSmUmzBu9FtIlA

Engaging with climate through art: https://open.spotify.com/episode/4OgiTMzeQo2jbE5MJ7DGoA?si=-EQV8V4USSmUmzBu9FtIlA

When we think of this summer's deadly heatwaves and each rollout of temperature projections, it's hard to argue that there's anything more obviously horrifying.

So we wanted to go back through some heat-centric conversations from our archive. They're not not sad, but they all circle around the whys and hows of getting here and being here and going forth. We'll hear about migration histories, participatory design, Indigenous knowledge, and how heat interacts with carceral structures, like prisons.

A future for Las Vegas, part 1: https://open.spotify.com/episode/1ufBmcqampB8wIpGswddpQ?si=0b580da9d34e402e

Building resilience through parks, part 1: https://open.spotify.com/episode/6AEA7QXcLRqHHk7CGOYQjb?si=11f5294b83044e4f

The fire season is far from over, part 1: https://open.spotify.com/episode/5VdidRKyRAQ0OgEc3Jqwv6?si=18c2387714cf4b4f

Prison Ecology: the law and beyond: https://open.spotify.com/episode/4UJl8w739LifH2MvQbH5cu?si=3b4de8a4152149b9

"We do have the technology," Shanti tells Jim in this interview. "What we need to do now is to put in place the policy to enable reaching these goals."

Shanti Gamper-Rabindran is the author of America's Energy Gamble: People Economy and Planet and works at University of Pittsburgh to analyze the economic, legal, and political barriers and opportunities for the energy transition to renewable energy and for economic diversification of fossil fuel-reliant communities in the United States and globally.

The people who form Appalachians Against Piplelines have been resisting the Mountain Valley Pipeline and other extractive, environmentally dangerous projects since 2018, continuing the long tradition of care for the earth and all beings among the mountains.

In this sound-rich audio documentary about AAP's work, Appalachian-grown filmmaker Laura Saunders brings together the stories of folks who have dedicated years of labor, risked arrest, and continue to fight for the wellbeing of their communities.

The ITC team is deeply grateful to all of the storytellers who shared their time, energy, and selves in this episode. See links at the bottom of the show notes to learn more about them.

Thanks also goes to IU's Environmental Resilience Institute for offering High Impact grant funding to pay storytellers like the ones you hear in this episode — those working on the ground toward environmental justice. While our High Impact funding has now come to an end, we at ITC are always happy to collaborate in telling generative environmental justice stories that feel true and useful to the people living them. If you're interested in working together, email [email protected].

AAP Twitter: https://twitter.com/stopthemvp

AAP Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/appalachiansagainstpipelines/

AAP Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/appalachiansagainstpipelines/

Laura Saunders: http://www.saundersdocumentary.com/

Over the past three years (150 episodes!) of In this Climate, some themes and lessons have emerged. One of those is the necessity of more sustainable food systems.

So, this episode, we're pulling interviews from different moments and tying them together for a multidimensional look at how we grow and distribute and consume. We'll hear about Californian water use, local nutrient cycling, unfair coffee trade, and Panamanian campesino land defenders.

Camille Pannu: https://www.law.uci.edu/faculty/lecturers/pannu/

Jason Bradford: https://open.spotify.com/episode/1OBMe3A8erIUcLXCd5TDXZ?si=99d4fadb103d4504

Jessica Eise: https://open.spotify.com/episode/0gLExd4TnGgaRmhKlskcOh?si=75904fcd93f7477d

Marvin Wilcox: https://open.spotify.com/episode/5xj8w9PljHE0z8oUf8Cl3c?si=ab64598768524a49

Wrapping up our tour of community gardens, Curtis Whittaker tells us the story of Faith Farms in the Emerson neighborhood of Gary, Indiana. Over the past nine years, a team from Progressive Community Church has turned a small patch of land into an expansive collection of year-round growing spaces that produce thousands of pounds of produce for a food-insecure community. They've also organized a Junior Master Gardner program and CSA box subscription.

IER story: https://www.indianaenvironmentalreporter.org/posts/from-blight-to-light

Faith Farms Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/faithcdc/