Extinction Rebellion Radio

Oh what a night. The Democratic Party's historic gains came from climate issues, without actually calling them 'climate change.' The War on Iran, inflationary cost of living, and high gas prices are all the short-term manifestations of the climate crisis, and those are what propelled this midterm electoral wipeout. In a straight factual way, we talk through the results and what they mean for clima...

In this episode we hear all about Citizen's Assemblies, randomly selected groups of ordinary people who have a facilitated deliberation on policy. If we did this with climate change, we might get a genuine response to the crisis instead of the dithering of professional politicians. We hear from expert Bob Kolodny about the strengths and weaknesses of this approach and what's happened when it's bee...

We hope that one of the ways of appealing to people that action on the climate emergency is urgent and requires actual sacrifice, inconveniences, and adjustments to our collective life is to say what the climate crisis is—right now. So we do that every few episodes to show what's already happening. This episode takes us into October.

A lot of social unrest and political problems aren't entirely due to climate change. But they are PARTLY due to climate change; climate change makes them worse. We encourage listeners to notice the role that climate might be playing in things that don't seem obviously climate-caused. Explaining that is part of climate advocacy: It might help to reach people who aren't already aware of the vast sco...

This week on XR Radio, we hear about XR's recent actions in New York: Blocking three major banks simultaneously. Citigroup, Bank of America, and JP Morgan Chase are among the largest funder of fossil fuels in the world and XR activists disrupted their flagship branches or headquarters buildings with creative non-violent civil disobedience. We hear about how news media were denied access to at leas...

In the United Nations Genera Assembly, of all places, President Trump threatened to "annihilate" Iran and to ensure "no future generations." He is suggesting nuclear holocaust on the most severe level. For the President of a nuclear superpower to make such a threat is the biggest news of the year, and yet no one seems to be talking about it. Well, we are. And we're letting you know what it has to...

Amid other climate news in this episode: One of the more bizarre pardons President Trump has issued came for a man who claimed he was making electric trucks when he was not. The bizarre circumstances of this case show nothing bad at all about the climate tech industry. In fact, they prove there is great eagerness and a large market for electric trucks. What they discredit is the competence of the...

A rebel group on the Arabian Peninsula called the Houthis have seized the Bab al-Mandab Strait, the narrow strip of water between the Indian Ocean and the Red Sea. This is the corridor for a vast amount of global shipping, the way from Asia to Europe, Africa, and the Americas. Yet another major disruption, or threat of disruption, to oil supplies. Yet another hike in prices of just about everythin...

To avoid forgetting immediately about the climate disasters that are ending and disrupting life all around the world, this episode continues the occasional series of recounting what the climate crisis is doing right now. We cover the glacial collapse in Nepal and Tibet, Typhoon Dolphin shutting down much of Asia, and actual death in Death Valley, among many others.

Europe just had the summer from hell, and incredibly, they have changed E.U. policy to allow MORE carbon emissions, not less. Their land will burn faster and their rivers will dry up faster as a result. This is climate suicide. Also, our comments on the US-Canada trade war, and the US-Venezuela oil extraction agreement.  

We continue to run down the list of what the climate crisis is doing right now in unsparing detail. This month's tally includes the enormous wildfires in France and Spain, the largest those countries have ever seen. The fires went right up to the outskirts of Bordeaux and Madrid. Less widely reported were fires on the outskirts of London, too, where there will likely be a shortage of certain foods...

In this episode, we criticize the way news media report climate science, AND the way that the scientists express it. We have a communication breakdown. The message that volatile weather is due to climate change isn't coming through clearly in news coverage. So scientists (myself included) : let's look in the mirror. We can't wait for the 99% statistical significance threshold each time a reporter...

Unless you've been hiding under a rock, you know that climate change is causing devastating weather, drought, and heat, and it's all piling up in July. From a flood in Accra, Ghana to drought-fueled fires throughout Britain to atrocious air quality across the midwestern and eastern United States, this was an awful month.

Alycee and Matthew talk about the EMPTY promises of Cop 26. Governments from around the world gathered in Glasgow to perform a ritual of talking about climate change while doing absolutely nothing to tackle halt our unfolding climate emergency. As the world faces increasing climate catastrophes that displace millions, accelerate extinction, threaten our food supply, and compromise our health, lead...

"Close the 1.5 degree Celsius gap to stay alive." That's a quote straight out of a World Health Organization report, a report we discuss in this episode. No mincing words. No sugar coating. Just the plain truth: To stay alive, we must close the 1.5 degree Celsius gap. We'll also be speaking with members of the Coalition of Concerned Medical Professionals (CCMP) about our climate crisis and health....

Let's take a look at what climate change has already caused. We do our best to convey the level of destruction and disruption that is happening now. Heat waves, fires, super typhoons, mass evacuations in almost every part of the world. We list it all off, just from recent months (March-June 2026 to be exact). It gets worse from here unless we stop burning fossil fuels.  

Alberta, rich in tar sands oil, has a referendum coming up on whether to secede from Canada. Is Canada really so irredeemable that you want to permanently sever yourself from all of its institutions? Even if the answer is yes, what about that large country bordering you to the south with a president who has no problem with attacking and controlling oil-rich countries? Shorn of its military protect...

What planet is Interior Secretary Doug Burgum on? Not this one. He's recently said that renewables are unaffordable, unsecure, and unreliable so we should use only oil and gas. I wish I was making this up. He has it precisely upside down: It's fossil fuels that are unaffordable, unsecure, and unreliable, as anyone who has tried to buy gas lately knows. Unfortunately New York and New England state...

What is climate change doing to the planet, and the humans and animals who live on it, right now? We answer this question listing some of the major floods, fires, and fatalities of recent months, skipping ahead to the latest heat waves that broiled Europe and spoiled July 4 celebrations in much of the United States.

With the help of one of the world's leading scholars on international relations, we try to re-think the concept of national security for a climate changed world. As the world sees one climate catastrophe after another, it becomes clear that the things we care about cannot be secured by people with guns. So how can we secure it? Also we look at the Russia-Ukrainian border through the lens of climat...

Lee Raymond was one of the great mass murderers in the history of the world. A longtime executive, President, and CEO of ExxonMobi and the mastermind of climate denialist misinformation, he was an ecocidal lunatic who seemed to believe in making more money No Matter What, even if it killed millions and made the world burn. Good riddance, Lee Raymond, and other climate news.

This week, there's a supposed-maybe-hinted-at 'deal' with Iran that's getting more sustained attention than the last time there was supposedly a 'deal' with Iran. Even if this agreement does materialize, there's a whole lot of reasons to doubt that it's going to work. This episode explains seven of those reasons.

We're back to active hostilities in and around the Strait of Hormuz. We're back to very active hostilities in Lebanon and Gaza. In looking at the fallout, the second half of this episode argues that the inflationary pressure from fossil fuels is stronger than central banks can contain. Even interest rate hikes and currency interventions aren't enough to keep inflation down when fossil fuel prices...

The United States is losing the Iran War. They tried to prompt a popular uprising, to change the regime, to unblock the Strait of Hormuz, to extract a promise of no nuclear enrichment. All that has failed. Iran actually extended its fuel blockade to the Emirati port outside the Strait. Now the Trump administration is trying to claim the war is over, even as the missiles continue to fly. This isn't...

Ben Leffel, public policy professor, was with us last episode to talk about cities making efforts to cut their emissions. Those were the good guys in the story. This week we get to the bad guys: climate lobbyists seeking profits, and climate deniers.