The Land & Climate Podcast

Click here to watch the video recording of this interview .  In her latest book, Ann Pettifor argues that we are not governed by politicians or diplomats, but “by wealthy and powerful players in markets based in Silicon Valley, Wall Street, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and the City of London.” These players, she says, largely either ignore the threat of climate breakdown, or see it as a struggl...

Most net zero policies and major scientific models rely on carbon dioxide removal (CDR) to limit global heating to 2℃. The most commonly known methods include afforestation, bioenergy with carbon capture, and direct air capture - but various proposals are emerging for ocean-based CDR technologies.  Could marine CDR offset emissions from sectors that cannot easily decarbonise, or are the costs and...

The 17th Century Little Ice Age wreaked havoc on weather systems and economies around the world. In China, extreme cold and intense droughts led to soaring grain prices, and as food security collapsed, so did the centuries old political regime of the Ming dynasty. Alasdair speaks to Tim Brook about his groundbreaking book ‘The Price of Collapse: The Little Ice Age and the Fall of Ming China’. They...

Scientists warn we are in an age of mass-extinction. Entire species are ceasing to exist at unprecedented rates. When did this age begin, and when did humans start to confront their impacts on ecosystems and living populations?   Sadiah Qureshi explores extinction as ‘unnatural’ and inherently political, by placing humanity at the centre of her latest book, 'Vanished: an Unnatural History of...

Last year, multilateral negotiations for a Global Plastics Treaty broke down after countries failed to agree to limits on plastic production - as opposed to simply regulating plastic waste.  This distinction between 'upstream' and 'downstream' measures to tackle plastic pollution is a point of contention between industry and campaigners, with the plastic lobby favouring recycli...

What happens after a country's electricity infrastructure is destroyed by war? Following the US invasion of Iraq in 2003, Turkish conglomerate Karadeniz Holding had an innovative idea: if ships could be retrofitted as floating power plants, they could be quickly deployed to countries in crisis, then moved elsewhere again when needed.   Gökçe Günel returns to the Land and Climate Podcast to di...

The labour movement has contributed to climate and environmental policy for decades, and developed the concept of a ‘just transition’. Despite this, the relationship between unions and climate policymakers can be strained, with concerns from both parties about how the other will approach job losses from phasing out fossil fuels.   How has trade union policy on decarbonisation developed over the de...

For the second time in five years, conflict has seriously destablised global markets. The effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz due to US and Israeli attacks on Iran has limited trade, causing skyrocketing prices - but not only for oil.  Most fertiliser production relies on liquefied natural gas (LNG). Gulf nations including Qatar and Saudi Arabia are major fertiliser producers, and one third...

With the recent 'AI Boom', the energy demand of computing has risen dramatically. As generative artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots such as Chat GPT, Claude, Copilot and Grok become more mainstream, tech companies are racing to build and power new data centres - the physical 'computer factories' that store and process our information and online services.  This new infrastruct...

Climate change is making the lives of many more difficult. Tens of millions of people are already displaced by weather events each year, and studies show that climate breakdown drives mental and physical health crises, increased conflict, drought, and food insecurity, among many other challenges.  So why do leading climate models primarily measure impacts on Gross Domestic Product (GDP) rather tha...

Long before the recent economic crash and brutal killings of protestors in Iran, the country faced enduring environmental crises. Depleted dams and dried rivers have left stretches of land exposed, sending dust clouds across the country and severely degrading air quality. Last October, President Masoud Pezeshkian warned that the capital, Tehran, may have to be evacuated due to the country's w...

In September 2025, Vladimir Putin acknowledged that the climate crisis presents “risks” for Russia that are “very dangerous”. Though not unprecedented, such statements differ from other Russian government messaging that has argued climate threats are overstated as part of a Western agenda, or that climate change could benefit the country. Is the state’s narrative changing?  This week on The Land a...

President Trump has long expressed ambitions to annex Greenland, with mentions of the US acquiring the Danish autonomous territory dating back to 2019.  But the US relationship and interest with Greenland goes back centuries. In a bonus episode of the Land and Climate Podcast, Alasdair is joined by returning guest and Arctic expert Mia Bennett to examine Greenland’s complex history and connections...

Bertie is joined by Mark Jacobson, Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Stanford University, whose research formed the foundation for the Green New Deal. In his new book, “Still No Miracles Needed: How Today's Technology Can Save Our Climate and Clean Our Air,” he underlines that we have already developed the technologies necessary to solve the climate crisis. Dr. Jacobson argu...

Last September, power cuts and water shortages triggered civil unrest in Madagascar, leading to the dissolution of its government. In recent months, Iran’s water crisis has led to public demonstrations and even a warning from President Masoud Pezeshkian that Tehran could be evacuated. Protests over access to food and water are intensifying globally.  Dagomar Degroot returns to the podcast to discu...

The Arctic is heating four times faster than the global average, with scientists predicting the Arctic Ocean will be completely free of ice in summer by the early 2030s. This rapid melting presents an existential threat to Arctic infrastructure and ecosystems, as well as opening new claims on strategically valuable resources. As temperatures rise in the Arctic, so do geopolitical tensions.  This w...

This week, Bertie Harrison-Broninski speaks with Professor Annette Kehnel, Chair of Medieval History at the University of Mannheim. Kehnel gives us a potted history of sustainability and argues that sustainable practices have existed throughout history, yet our modern collective memory is influenced by ideas of resource exploitation introduced in the 18th and 19th centuries.   Annette Kehnel is cu...

US Energy Secretary Chris Wright has claimed that nuclear fusion can be harnessed within the next five years, and that its application to the electricity grid is expected within eight to fifteen years.  Fusion research has been ongoing for over a century, with experiments beginning in the 1950s, but there has recently been a surge in private investment. Nearly $10 billion has been raised in the la...

Controversial efforts at space tourism, such as by Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin, have reignited old debates about the purpose of space exploration. What relevance does the world beyond our planet have to anyone apart from billionaires and their super-rich clients?  Without defending the growing commercialisation of the space sector, environmental historian Professor Dagomar Degroot offers some answers....

In 2006, the Masdar City project was launched in the United Arab Emirates. Supported by $22 billion in state-funding, it aimed to be the world’s most sustainable city. Situated 6km away from Zayed International Airport, neighbouring a Formula 1 racetrack and golf course, Abu Dhabi’s eco-utopia is full of contradictions. Bertie discusses why oil-rich Gulf states like UAE and Saudi Arabia are invest...

Global heating in 2024 exceeded 1.5C above pre-industrial levels, but most governments continue to extend fossil fuel use. Are we now in a political situation where decarbonisation and mitigation efforts are failing? Is climate disaster irreversible? Alasdair MacEwen discusses these questions with Wim Carton, who returns to the podcast following publication of his new book, The Long Heat: Climate...

As the energy transition accelerates, critical minerals have become increasingly important, and the priorities of extraction for countries in the Global North are beginning to shift. The U.S., EU, and others are now exploring the possibility of on-shoring critical mineral mining -  potentially bringing a divisive industry closer to home.   This week, Alasdair talks to extraction expert Dr. Thea Ri...

Alasdair speaks with Jessica F. Green, author of the new book Existential Politics: Why Global Climate Institutions Are Failing and How to Fix Them , about why thirty years of climate policy have failed to reduce emissions.  They discuss why carbon pricing has been largely ineffective, how net zero pledges are misleading, and why focus must shift from measuring emissions by the tonne to measuring...

Bertie speaks with Mark Parrington about this year’s record-breaking wildfires, and the health implications of increasing air pollution.   Mark is a senior scientist at the EU’s Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service, where he uses satellite imagery to monitor wildfire emissions in real-time.   He tells Bertie about the scale of the recent surge in wildfires across Europe, North America, and the...

Next week, negotiators meet in Geneva to finalise the UN’s historic Global Plastics Treaty, originally announced in 2022. The additional session was scheduled after years of tense international disagreement. Bertie talks to Punyathorn ‘Arm’ Jeungsmarn, Plastics Campaign Researcher at the Environmental Justice Foundation. Arm attended previous rounds of the UN talks, and recently worked on research...