In This Climate

We voted, and we hope you did, too! On this election night Air Check, we only prognosticate a little bit. We otherwise discuss climate ghost towns, climate refuges or "havens," and the columns on Emily's future home spreadsheet.

Access to fresh, affordable produce varies widely across the U.S., with some of us enjoying yards with soil safe for gardening and others miles from a grocery store. But one thing remains consistent: every tomato, chickpea, and grain of rice carries with it a full lifecycle of environmental impacts. In this Air Check, we talk about food from seed to landfill (or compost) and where we can look to improve the ways we engage with agriculture on micro and macro levels.

Where strong Alabama activist roots meet inadequate wastewater infrastructure, you find the work of Catherine Coleman Flowers. What began as a fight for improved environmental health in Lowndes County has stretched to connect those fighting for environmental justice across the nation with necessary resources. In this episode, Catherine talks with host Janet McCabe about the pervasive issue of wastewater, how it intersects with climate change, and what it's going to take to solve these problems. Check out her new book, Waste: One Woman's Fight Against America's Dirty Secret If you have any thoughts or questions about the show, you can tweet at us or send an email to itcpod@iu.edu.  

In this week's Air Check, we talk about a couple of ballot propositions (Nevada energy and Colorado wolves), why Apple isn't packaging charging adapters with the iPhone 12, and the derecho that swept through Iowa. If you have any thoughts or questions about the show, you can tweet at us or send an email to itcpod@iu.edu.

Merav Ben-David is a wildlife ecologist at the University of Wyoming. Her specialty? The effects of global environmental change on animals and their ecosystems. Her next move? A run for the U.S. Senate. In this episode, host Janet McCabe talks with Dr. Ben-David about what it means for a climate scientist to run for office in a state whose economy has long relied on coal. If you have any thoughts or questions about the show, you can tweet at us or send an email to itcpod@iu.edu.

Does this U.S. election season have your head spinning? In this episode, Grist reporter Zoya Teirstein and LA Times reporter Sammy Roth take us from the national to the local on what's important in terms of the environment. If you have any thoughts or questions about the show, you can tweet at us or send an email to itcpod@iu.edu.

In this week's Air Check, special guest James Bruggers talks with us about U.S. Senate races in Kentucky, South Carolina, Alabama, and Georgia. If you have any thoughts or questions about the show, you can tweet at us or send an email to itcpod@iu.edu.

In this bonus episode, we talk with organizers and participants from the award-winning Educating for Environmental Change program. Kirstin Milks, Adam Scribner, Michael Hamburger, LaStelshia Speaks, and Catherine Boileau explain how they've adapted their practices for the challenges we face today. If you have any thoughts or questions about the show, you can tweet at us or send an email to itcpod@iu.edu.

In this week's Air Check, we talk about propane's cold-weather demand spike, other COVID-environmental backslides, the Affordable Clean Energy Rule, and prolonged Midwestern dryness. If you have any thoughts or questions about the show, you can tweet at us or send an email to itcpod@iu.edu.

With early voting opening around the U.S. and Election Day just about a month away, we want to dive into the races and issues to watch this season. In the first episode of our pre-election series, we go live with policy expert Julian Brave NoiseCat and energy/politics reporter Ben Geman to discuss what this year's elections could mean for climate, resilience, and environmental justice.  If you have any thoughts or questions about the show, you can tweet at us or send an email to itcpod@iu.edu. Not yet registered to vote? If you can, please do that!

In this week's Air Check, we talk about the (former) acting director of the Bureau of Land Management who served unlawfully for 424 days, the scientist running for Senate in Wyoming, and International Coffee Day. Resources: Judge removes Trump’s public lands boss, William Perry Pendley, after governor sued Meet the climate expert running to be the first female scientist in the Senate Rebuilding the coffee system for resilience

We’ve talked a lot about the ways we incarcerate people and subject them to environmentally unsafe conditions. We’ve told stories and shared statistics and legal arguments. We’ll do some of that in this episode, too. But the reason we reached out to Mei Azaad with the Campaign to Fight Toxic Prisons, and the reason she called on Malik Washington, is because improving conditions requires action. Mei and Malik know a lot about how to make that happen. The Campaign to Fight Toxic Prisons: https://fight-toxic-prisons.org/ The San Francisco Bay View: https://sfbayview.com/

In our first Air Check (a short, weekly conversation on current events), we talk through the environmental implications of a changing supreme court, how long Bloomington has been without significant rain, and other weather events with climate change signatures.

This episode, we're taking a deeper look at environmental injustices in an around prisons. How are they sited, what do they emit, and what does all of this mean for people locked inside? We start with the history of the St. Louis and Central Michigan correctional facilities with Dr. Elizabeth Bradshaw, move through trends with Candice Bernd and legal arguments with Taylor Carpenter, and start the discussion around what can be done to improve conditions. America's Toxic Prisons: https://earthisland.org/journal/americas-toxic-prisons/ Taylor's legal note: https://mckinneylaw.iu.edu/ihlr/pdf/vol17p229.pdf

This summer, people in United States and beyond took to the streets to demand racial justice. One of the loudest calls was to defund and abolish the police, but not just the police. Abolitionists have long worked to dismantle the broader U.S. carceral state, which imprisons more people than any other nation. "Abolition has to be 'green.'" Ruth Wilson Gilmore told Chenjerai Kumanyika for the Intercepted podcast. "It has to take seriously the problem of environmental harm, environmental racism, and environmental degradation." In the first episode of our prison ecology series, we go live with critical environmental justice researcher David Pellow to discuss the intersection of mass incarceration and environmental justice.  If you have any thoughts or questions about the show, you can tweet at us or send an email to itcpod@iu.edu.

In the third and final episode of our land defender series, we talk with Eduardo Brondizio, David Rodríguez Goyes, and Stella Emery Santana about the international systems that have long exploited indigenous land and resources, as well as indigenous and peasant resistance efforts and opportunities to support land defenders. If you have any thoughts or questions about the show, you can tweet at us or send an email to itcpod@iu.edu.

According to UK-based Global Witness, 14 land and environment defenders were killed in Honduras over the course of 2019, three years after the murder of celebrated Indigenous land defender Berta Cáceres. In the first episode of our land defender series, we go live with journalist Nina Lakhani to discuss the life of Cáceres and the long campaign against her. We also check in with Indiana Public Broadcasting's Rebecca Thiele, who covers environmental issues in ITC's home state. If you have any thoughts or questions about the show, you can tweet at us or send an email to itcpod@iu.edu.

In the second episode of our land defender series, we talk with land defender Marvin Wilcox and Front Line Defenders representative Adam Shapiro. They walk us through Marvin's story, in which agricultural producers in Panama take on the state and a transnational fruit company to protect their land and health, as well as the patterns commonly encountered by land defenders around the world. If you have any thoughts or questions about the show, you can tweet at us or send an email to itcpod@iu.edu. Resources: ASAMBLEA NACIONAL Ley Nº 55 2019 Dublin Platform Testimony - Marvin Wilcox, Panama Banapiña: Espada de Damócles sobre los productores del Barú

In this bonus episode, Janet McCabe talks with Scott Russell Sanders, who Kathleen Dean Moore described as "an honest man in a time of lies, a wise man in a time of foolishness, a healer in a time of wounds, and a beautiful writer in a time of ugly rants." He taught English at Indiana University and is the celebrated author of more than 20 books including a collection of essays called The Way of Imagination. We talk with him about that most difficult subject of solving our environmental challenges, about his most recent book, and about the wisdom he's accumulated over the years. If you want to reach out with feedback on an episode or with an idea or a pitch, you can send an email to itcpod@indiana.edu. You can also follow us on social media. Our handle is @thisclimatepod. And last but not least, you can leave us a review! It not only helps us, but it helps other listeners find us, and everybody appreciates that.

In the finale of our first season, we talk with environmental attorney Barbara Freese about her new book Industrial Strength Denial and learn about the mechanisms behind corporate climate change denial.