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The Land & Climate Podcast

Land and Climate Review

The editorial team from The Land and Climate Review interview thinkers and policymakers in the world of economics, land-use and climate policy. Find more on our site at www.landclimate.org

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October 16 · 35 min
How does capital steal from the future?
How is a monopoly organised? What does 'the economy' really mean? Is the conception of growth misleading? To answer these big questions, Timothy Mitchell sits down with Alasdair to discuss his latest book, The Alibi of Capital: How We Broke the Earth to Steal the Future on the Promise of a Better Tomorrow. The political theorist and historian, whose previous book analysed the political power of Big Oil, now seeks to re-examine modern understandings of the economy. He moves away from the idea of growth as owning or consuming more, and instead explains it as burdening future generations with the cost of resources consumed today. Providing concrete examples, from Uber to billionaires, the housing market to AI, Timothy comments on the 'Great Acceleration' of human activity since 1950, and how all of this contributes to the current climate breakdown. “We are continuously selling the future to those who can access the funds to purchase it, and the rest of us are living with the burden of having to pay it back at an increased price”. Further reading: The Alibi of Capital: How We Broke the Earth to Steal the Future on the Promise of a Better Tomorrow by Timothy Mitchell, 2026 'The Great EconoCon: Climate Crisis and the Misconception of Growth', Critical Times, 2026 'Destroying nature will aways be profitable', Land and Climate Review, 2024 Carbon Democracy: Political Power in the Age of Oil by Timothy Mitchell, 2023 'Economy shall (no longer) mean economisation', Journal of Cultural Economy, 2022 Related episodes: 'Are financial markets destroying climate ambition?' with Ann Pettifor 'Why is wellbeing ignored in climate modelling?' with Inge Schrijver 'Is climate crisis really an economic threat?' with Ståle Holgersen 'Can renewables ever be profitable enough?' with Brett Christophers Send us Fan Mail Find all our latest investigations, features and interviews at www.landclimate.org
October 2 · 33 min
Do ancient mass extinctions offer lessons for our future?
Environmental journalist Edward Struzik returns to the Land and Climate Podcast to discuss his latest book, Animal Diaspora: Decoding Ice Age Mysteries to Reveal the Future of Migration. The book reconstructs migration patterns of animal populations from the last Ice Age, finding that millions of mammoths, reindeer, and early humans moved into the Americas after rapid periods of warming and cooling temperatures displaced them from their habitats. In conversation with Bertie, Edward Struzik gives insightful examples of how temperature shocks often lead to extinction, such as rising sea levels that cut off land access and stopped migration around 11,000 to 13,000 years ago. “Warming after the last ice age resulted in two-thirds of the large mammals in North America going extinct - very similar to what is taking place now.” Listen to Bertie and Edward discuss parallels between the last mass extinction and the present day, and what the Ice Age can reveal about the current climate crisis. Preorder Animal Diaspora from Princeton University Press by clicking here. Related episodes: What is the history of extinction? - with Sadiah Qureshi Meltdown: is it too late for the Arctic? - with Mia Bennett How are assumptions around science and migration undermining climate policy? - with Sonia Shah How urgent is the need to restore our peatlands? - with Edward Struzik Further reading: 'With Sea Ice Melting, Killer Whales Are Moving Into the Arctic', Yale E360, 2025 'The cryosphere is nearing irreversible tipping points – and the world is not prepared', Land and Climate Review, 2025 'Remembering dreams of a green peace', Land and Climate Review, 2025 'Rain Comes to the Arctic, With a Cascade of Troubling Changes', Yale E360, 2024 'How Tensions With Russia Are Jeopardizing Key Arctic Research', Yale E360, 2023 'Swamplands: Edward Struzik’s bog book is a call for cultural change', Land and Climate Review, 2021 'Is Warming Bringing a Wave of New Diseases to Arctic Wildlife?', Yale E360, 2018 'How a Wayward Arctic Current Could Cool the Climate in Europe', Yale E360, 2017 Send us Fan Mail Find all our latest investigations, features and interviews at www.landclimate.org
September 18 · 58 min
Why is TotalEnergies facing allegations of war crimes in Mozambique?
Content advisory: this episode describes events that listeners may find distressing. Five years ago, in the small coastal town of Palma, Mozambique, 500 fighters from the ISIS-affiliated al-Shabab group stormed a community living and working beside a multi-billion-dollar natural gas field part-owned by France's biggest company, TotalEnergies. As insurgents swept through Palma, they beheaded and shot men, women and children indiscriminately, among them construction workers contracted to build Total's gas plant. British journalist Alex Perry spent almost two years investigating the massacre, and established the death toll among Palma's population was over 1,000 people. Perry’s reporting has since won a Polk Award and a True Story Award, and has been shortlisted for the Orwell Prize. Alasdair chats to Perry about his new book, Blood Will Flow: The Murderous Business of Oil and Gas - now longlisted for the Financial Times Business Book of the Year - which provides a full account of events in Palma and their aftermath. TotalEnergies did not respond to a request for comment from The Land and Climate Podcast. The Land and Climate Podcast has not independently verified Alex Perry's account of events, and guests' views do not necessarily represent the editorial views of The Land and Climate Podcast. In November 2025, TotalEnergies rejected accusations of complicity in war crimes, torture, and enforced disappearances in Mozambique. Legal investigations are ongoing. See TotalEnergies' past statements on this issue at the links below: 'Mozambique LNG: TotalEnergies welcomes the launch of official investigations in Mozambique', March 2025 'Mozambique LNG: Clarification by TotalEnergies', November 2025 'Chronology of exchanges between TotalEnergies and media about Mozambique LNG' Further reading: Blood Will Flow: The Murderous Business of Oil and Gas, by Alex Perry, 2026 The Elements of Power: A Story of War, Technology, and the Dirtiest Supply Chain on Earth by Nicholas Niarchos, 2026 'Climate diplomacy must shift focus from markets to land rights', Land and Climate Review, 2025 'Cobalt mining kills. Who is sorting it out?', Land and Climate Review, 2023 'To stop fossil fuel finance, The Equator Principles must change', Land and Climate Review, 2021 My Traitor’s Heart: A South African Exile Returns to Face His Country, His Tribe, and His Conscience by Rian Malan, 1990 Send us Fan Mail Find all our latest investigations, features and interviews at www.landclimate.org
September 4 · 44 min
How does corporate agriculture profit from conflict in Colombia?
Colombia is one of the most unequal countries in the world regarding agriculture and land ownership. Violence in the Colombian countryside has often allowed corporate agriculture to displace land once held by small farmers, known as “campesinos”, and transform it into new frontiers for capital. Jaskiran Kaur Chohan tells Alasdair that “armed conflict undermines the productive systems of campesinos, which reinforces the corporate food regime and the modernisation of agriculture”. They discuss how corporate food regimes take root in the aftermath, and how the country's smallholders can survive. Dr Kaur Chohan is a political ecologist at the University of Bristol, whose work focuses on rural communities in Colombia and the intersection of violence, conflict, and agriculture. Further reading: 'Violent conflict, capitalism and insurgent food sovereignty', The Journal of Peasant Studies, 2026 'Have monopolies broken agricultural markets?', The Land and Climate Podcast, 2025 'The corporate food regime in conflict zones: Armed violence and agriculture in the Zona de Reserva Campesina-Valle del Río Cimitarra, Colombia', Geoforum, 2024 'Sugar cane is eroding Colombian biodiversity', Land and Climate Review, 2024 'Tough Tradeoffs: Coca crops and agrarian alternatives in Colombia' , International Journal of Drug Policy, 2021 'Slow violence and corporate greening in the war on drugs in Colombia', International Affairs, 2021 'Zonas de Reserva Campesina: ¿Estrategia de Desarrollo Regional y contra el Desplazamiento?', Mama Coca, 2020 'Grassroots masquerades: development, paramilitaries, and land laundering in Colombia', Geoforum, 2013 Broken Republic: Three Essays, Arundhati Roy, 2011 Send us Fan Mail Find all our latest investigations, features and interviews at www.landclimate.org
August 28 · 32 min
In Review: Plastics
With five and a half years of content, The Land and Climate Podcast has an overwhelmingly large back catalogue. We have always aimed to produce evergreen episodes, however, and many of our older interviews still have insights and relevance in 2026. This is why we are launching a new offering, alongside our usual programming, called 'In Review'. Alasdair and Bertie pick one topic per episode, playing highlights from our favourite interviews and discussing recent developments. First up: plastics. Following reports that the current draft of the much-delayed UN Plastics Treaty is even less ambitious than the one rejected by many nations last year, Bertie and Alasdair listen to interview excerpts about microplastics, false solutions to plastic waste, and industry lobbying around the Treaty negotiations. Featuring clips of science journalist Matt Simon, Punyathorn Jeungsmarn (Arm) from Environmental Justice Foundation, and Dr Rob Ralston from The University of Edinburgh. Listen to the original episodes: 'Has the plastics industry co-opted the circular economy?' with Rob Ralston, 2026 'What if climate politics is about power, not carbon?' with Jessica Green, 2025 'Can the world regulate plastics?' with Punyathorn Jeungsmarn, 2025 'How badly have microplastics harmed ecosystems, climate, and human health?' with Matt Simon, 2022 Further reading: 'Leaked memo shows how U.S. aims to weaken global limits on plastic pollution', Washington Post, August 2026 'UN plastic treaty is going backwards, experts say', The Guardian, August 2026 'The Global Plastics Treaty must include production reduction', Land and Climate Review, 2025 'There is so much to say about plastic pollution. Why are we not talking about it?', Land and Climate Review, 2023 A Poison Like No Other: How Microplastics Corrupted Our Planet and Our Bodies by Matt Simon, 2022 Send us Fan Mail Find all our latest investigations, features and interviews at www.landclimate.org
August 7 · 35 min
Is reducing energy use a political taboo?
Solar and wind power is growing worldwide, but so is electricity consumption: as a result, renewables are often only added to the energy mix, rather than replacing fossil fuels. Reducing energy demand would make net zero more achievable, but it recieves far less attention than decarbonisation efforts. This may be due to a perception that managing energy demand would be politically unpopular, requiring governments to make radical interventions into people's lifestyles and spending. Oliver Broad, Senior Research Fellow at University College London, tells Alasdair that such fears are unfounded. His team's research found that the UK could reduce energy demand by 52% without new tech or overly disruptive societal change, and has worked with policymakers and public focus groups to demonstrate political acceptability. Further reading: 'Policymakers and academics envision energy demand reductions beyond typical policies in the United Kingdom', Nature Energy, 2025 'Policymaker-led scenarios and public dialogue facilitate energy demand analysis for net-zero futures', Nature Energy, 2025 'Energy demand reduction options for meeting national zero-emission targets in the United Kingdom', Nature Energy, 2022 'Real people or "economic processing units"? The limited understanding of people's roles in energy and climate governance', Energy Research & Social Science, 2022 'A low energy demand scenario for meeting the 1.5 °C target and sustainable development goals without negative emission technologies', Nature Energy, 2018 'Invisible energy policies: A new agenda for energy demand reduction', Energy Policy, 2018 Send us Fan Mail Find all our latest investigations, features and interviews at www.landclimate.org
July 24 · 44 min
Is geoengineering a security threat?
Geoengineering research is growing, as scientists look for increasingly radical means to protect humanity from the disastrous impacts of global heating. Less publicly, concerns are also building about the use of these techniques for geopolitical disruption or control. Technologies such as solar radiation management (SRM) and stratospheric aerosol injection (SAI) are controversial amongst climate scientists: they could buy us time through a temporary cooling effect, but they would not actually stop global heating, and could cause other negative impacts. Danielle Young tells Alasdair that scientific research on these technologies often lacks alignment with political realities. While scientists plan for multilateral governance regimes to protect global populations from heat, government and military officials are more likely to think about SRM or SAI in terms of weaponisation and international power struggles. Dr Danielle Young is an Assistant Professor in Politics and International Studies at The University of Leeds. Her research focuses on the geopolitical and security implications of emerging solar geoengineering technologies. Further reading: 'Why we need to explore conflict and competition around solar geoengineering', PLOS Climate, 2026 'Who could deploy stratospheric aerosol injection? The United States, China, and large‐scale, rapid planetary cooling', Global Policy, 2025 'How will capitalism react to climate collapse?', Land and Climate Review, 2025 'Who Can Govern from a House on Fire? International Order, State Responsibility, and the Problem of Solar Radiation Modification', Ethics & International Affairs, 2024 'Scientific models versus power politics: How security expertise reframes solar geoengineering', Review of International Studies, 2024 'Considering stratospheric aerosol injections beyond an environmental frame: The intelligible ‘emergency’ techno-fix and preemptive security', European Journal of International Security, 2023 'Do-or-Die: Should we be talking about geoengineering?', Land and Climate Review, 2022 'The Geopolitical ecology of solar geoengineering: From a ‘logic of multilateralism’ to logics of militarization', Journal of Political Ecology, 2020 Geoengineering, the Anthropocene and the End of Nature, Jeremy Baskin, 2019 ‘The entwined Cold War roots of missile defense and climate geoengineering’, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, 2019 Send us Fan Mail Find all our latest investigations, features and interviews at www.landclimate.org
July 10 · 43 min
Are financial markets destroying climate ambition?
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 struggle for resource control. The “unregulated actions of private actors and institutions in global markets have led to the increasingly rapid breakdown of the world’s climate and ecosystem.” In a special episode of The Land and Climate Podcast, recorded live in front of an audience as part of London Climate Action Week, Bertie and Ann discuss the influence financial markets exert over climate policy, and strategies to reassert democratic control. Ann Pettifor is a political economist known for predicting the 2008 financial crisis, successfully campaigning to cancel approximately $100 billion in debt owed by poor countries, and for co-authoring and advocating the Green New Deal. In January 2026, Verso published her latest book, The Global Casino: How Wall Street Gambles with People and the Planet. Buy a copy from Verso's website before 31st July and recieve 30% off with the following discount code: CLIMATEREVIEW30 Further reading: Ann's Substack, System Change. The Case for the Green New Deal, 2019 The Production of Money: How to Break the Power of Bankers, 2018 Send us Fan Mail Find all our latest investigations, features and interviews at www.landclimate.org
June 26 · 31 min
Can ocean technologies combat climate change?
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 risks too great? Bertie sat down with oceanographer David Ho to discuss these questions, shortly after he returned from the 4th International Conference on Carbon Dioxide Removal in Milan. David Ho is a professor at University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, and a lead author on the upcoming IPCC methodology report on carbon dioxide removal and carbon capture, utilisation and storage. His 2023 article for Nature criticising overreliance on CDR has been downloaded more than 100,000 times. Further reading: 'Three challenges to marine carbon dioxide removal', npj Ocean Sustainability, November 2025 Principles for responsible and effective marine carbon dioxide removal development and governance, 2025 'Marine carbon dioxide removal may be a future climate solution', Dialogues on Climate Change, November 2024 'Can coastal and marine carbon dioxide removal help to close the emissions gap? Scientific, legal, economic, and governance considerations', Elementa: Science of the Anthropocene, August 2024 'Deployment expectations of multi-gigatonne scale carbon removal could have adverse impacts on Asia’s energy-water-land nexus', Nature Communications, July 2024 'Carbon dioxide removal is not a current climate solution — we need to change the narrative', Nature, April 2023 Send us Fan Mail Find all our latest investigations, features and interviews at www.landclimate.org
June 12 · 26 min
Was Chinese history shaped by climateflation?
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 discuss the importance of climate changes in the rise and fall of empires, and the lessons that can be learned from climate-induced famines in dynastic China. Dr Book is a Canadian historian and an Emeritus Professor at the University of British Columbia (UBC). He held the Republic of China Chair at UBC’s Centre for Chinese Research until his retirement in 2022. Further reading: ‘What is climate-flation?’, Land and Climate Review, March 2026 The Price of Collapse: The Little Ice Age and the Fall of Ming China by Timothy Brook, 2023 The Frigid Golden Age: Climate Change, the Little Ice Age, and the Dutch Republic, 1560–1720 by Dagomar Degroot, 2018 ‘Climate change and society in the 15th to 18th centuries’, WIREs Climate Change, March 2018 ‘Nine sloughs: profiling the climate history of the Yuan and Ming Dynasties, 1260-1644’, Journal of Chinese History, November 2016 The Troubled Empire: China in the Yuan and Ming Dynasties by Timothy Brook, 2013 Send us Fan Mail Find all our latest investigations, features and interviews at www.landclimate.org
May 29 · 37 min
What is the history of extinction?
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 Extinction'. In conversation with Bertie, she traces the history of the concept of extinction in European thought and its connection with settler-colonial politics. Bertie and Sadiah also discuss present day conservation policy, and echoes of imperialist thought within it. Sadiah Qureshi is a Chair of Modern British History at the University of Manchester, and a historian of science, race and empire. Further reading ‘Vanished: An Unnatural History Of Extinction,’ is available to purchase from Penguin here. This week, Professor Qureshi delivered the annual Wilkins-Bernal-Medawar Prize Lecture for the Royal Society. You can watch that here. 'What can histories of Empire teach us about modern environmental efforts?', The British Academy, December 2025 'Reversing extinction', aeon '‘A billionaire will pay a lot of money to shoot a recreated being’: historian Sadiah Qureshi on extinction and empire', The Guardian, June 2025 Send us Fan Mail Find all our latest investigations, features and interviews at www.landclimate.org
May 15 · 34 min
Has the plastics industry co-opted the circular economy?
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 recycling advocacy over efforts to curb plastic production. Alasdair discusses this issue with Dr Rob Ralston, who researches the different stakeholders within the industry lobby, and the ways in which this bloc has co-opted formerly radical policy frameworks, such as the idea of 'circular economy', to delay major policy interventions. Rob Ralston is a lecturer in Public Policy at the University of Edinburgh, and an expert in global health and environmental politics. Further reading: Click here for our other podcasts and articles on plastic pollution on Land and Climate Review. 'Ultra-processed foods are a key driver of the global plastics pollution crisis', Nature Food, April 2026 'The battle for plastic hegemony: the petrochemical historical bloc and the UN Global Plastics Treaty', Review of International Political Economy, March 2026 Plastics, Profits and Power: How petrochemical companies are derailing the Global Plastics Treaty, Greenpeace, 2024 The Fraud of Plastic Recycling, Center for Climate Integrity, 2024 'Future-Proofing Capitalism: The Paradox of the Circular Economy for Plastics', Global Environmental Politics, April 2021 Send us Fan Mail Find all our latest investigations, features and interviews at www.landclimate.org
May 1 · 38 min
Is the idea of 'energy transition' misleading?
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 discuss her latest book, which uses the history of ‘powerships’ and their operations in Ghana to analyse the unexpected ways that geopolitics, business and conflict shape energy systems, and to question the concept of a linear energy transition. Gökçe Günel is Associate Professor in Anthropology at Rice University. Her 2019 book “Spaceship in the Desert: Energy, Climate Change and Urban Design in Abu Dhabi” explored Masdar City project - discussed in our previous episode here. Her new book, “Floating Power: Energy, Infrastructure, and South-South Relations,” published by Duke University Press, is available to purchase here. Further reading: ‘Energy accumulates: Ghana shows that the “energy transition” is more myth than fact’, Land & Climate Review, 2026 ‘Cin Fikir: Infrastructure, War and Progress’, Against Catastrophe, 2025 ‘Leapfrogging to Solar’, South Atlantic Quarterly, 2021 ‘Energy Accumulation’, e-flux Architecture, 2020, Spaceship in the Desert: Energy, Climate Change, and Urban Design in Abu Dhabi, 2019 Send us Fan Mail Find all our latest investigations, features and interviews at www.landclimate.org
April 17 · 35 min
How do trade unions influence climate policy?
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 decades, and what are union leaders’ perspectives on more radical academic arguments, such as the need to structure economic policy around other metrics than GDP? With particular focus on Germany and the UK, Bertie talks to Vera Trappmann about union engagement with green policymaking, what a just transition means for workers, and how this varies between Global North and South. Vera Trappmann is Professor of Comparative Employment Relations at Leeds University, where she co-leads the Priestley Centre for Climate Futures. Her work focuses on climate change’s impact on workers, as well as union movement perspectives and policies on climate issues. Further reading: 'Perspectives on Social and Justice Issues in Climate Policy – Comparing the Just Transitions, Sustainable Welfare and Eco-Social Policy Literatures', Milena Büchs, Vera Trappmann, Gina Moran, Max Koch, WIREs Climate Change, 2026 'Trades unions, climate policy and just transition in the UK', Vera Trappmann, Jo Cutter, Ursula Balderson, 2026 'German Trade Unions and Decarbonisation: A Transition to Green Growth, A‐Growth or Degrowth?' Vera Trappmann, Dennis Eversberg, Felix Schulz, Industrial Relations Journal, 2025 What workers want: Conditions for a fair and just transition in the UK, Vera Trappmann, Jo Cutter, and Alice Garvey, 2025 'Conjunctures of eco-social partnership unionism: The German Trade Union Confederation’s climate policies over three decades', Vera Trappmann, Dennis Eversberg, Felix Schulz, Industrielle Beziehungen, 2024 Send us Fan Mail Find all our latest investigations, features and interviews at www.landclimate.org
April 1 · 21 min
Growing pains: how will the fertiliser crisis affect food supply?
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 of the world's seaborne fertiliser trade usually passes through the Strait, which is currently unavailable. Other fertiliser producing nations are reducing production due to limited gas supply. Are food shortages inevitable? Alasdair is joined by Noah Gordon to discuss the international and environmental politics of fertilisers. They discuss fertiliser production, its uses and misuses, its role in global inequality and whether gas dependency can be avoided. Noah Gordon is the acting Co-Director of the Sustainability, Climate and Geopolitics Programme at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington, D.C. Further reading: 'The Other Global Crisis Stemming From the Strait of Hormuz’s Blockage', Emissary, March 2026 'A Trump Order Protected a Weedkiller. And Also a Weapon of War.' New York Times, March 2026 How to Feed the World by Vaclav Smil, 2025 'How a few giant companies came to dominate global food', Land and Climate Review, May 2025 'Why was organic policy blamed for Sri Lanka’s financial crisis?' Land and Climate Review, June 2024 'Fertiliser emissions could be cut to ‘one-fifth of current levels’ by 2050', Carbon Brief, February 2023 The Alchemy of Air by Thomas Hager, 2009 Titans of Industrial Agriculture by Jennifer Clapp, 2025 Send us Fan Mail Find all our latest investigations, features and interviews at www.landclimate.org
March 20 · 34 min
Is Big Tech telling the truth about AI's climate impact?
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 infrastructure is significantly increasing greenhouse gas emissions - but tech companies argue that the climate innovations and efficiency improvements catalysed by AI tools will offset negative impacts. Could such claims prove true, or are they greenwashed PR? Alasdair puts this question to writer and energy analyst Ketan Joshi, who recently authored a report on AI's climate impacts alongside several leading nonprofits. Further reading: Read more from Ketan on climate and AI on his blog, here. 'Does Generative AI “Work”? That’s a Misleading Question.', Ketan Joshi, The New Republic, March 2026 The AI Climate Hoax: Behind the Curtain of How Big Tech Greenwashes Impacts, Ketan Joshi, February 2026 'Crypto and AI exploit conflict zones and fossil fuels – with destructive consequences', Hito Steyerl, Gago Gagoshidze and Miloš Trakilović, Land and Climate Review, July 2025 Empire of AI, Karen Hao, May 2025 'Big Tech’s green promises are hypocritical gestures', Nick Dyer-Witheford and Alessandra Mularoni, Land and Climate Review, April 2025 SYSTEM OVERLOAD: How new data centres could throw Europe’s energy transition off course, Beyond Fossil Fuels, February 2025 Send us Fan Mail Find all our latest investigations, features and interviews at www.landclimate.org
March 6 · 24 min
Why is wellbeing ignored in climate modelling?
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 than human wellbeing? Inge Schrijver joins Alasdair on the podcast to discuss her new research into this question, and to explain how climate models work, how they are used, and what they are missing. Inge Schrijver is a PhD researcher at the Institute of Environmental Sciences at Leiden University. Her study, “Inclusion of wellbeing impacts of climate change: a review of literature and integrated environment–society–economy models,” was co-authored with René Kleijn, Paul Behrens and Rutger Hoekstra, and is available to read here. Further reading: ‘Climate action saves lives. So why do climate models ignore wellbeing?‘ Inge Schrijver, Paul Behrens and Rutger Hoekstra, The Conversation, 2025 ‘Degrowth in the IPCC AR6 WGIII‘, Timothée Parrique, 2022 ‘Sufficiency means degrowth‘, Timothée Parrique, 2022 ‘Is climate modelling undermined by economics and ideology?‘, The Land & Climate Podcast, 2022 ‘The appallingly bad neoclassical economics of climate change‘, Steve Keen, Globalizations, 2020 WISE Horizons project Send us Fan Mail Find all our latest investigations, features and interviews at www.landclimate.org
February 20 · 27 min
Are the Iran protests a climate story?
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 water bankruptcy. Have these problems contributed to the civil unrest this winter? Bertie puts this question to Dr. Sanam Mahoozi, who reports on Iran for the US news press, and recently completed a PhD researching media framings of environmental protests in the country. Sanam traces the developments of climate politics and environmental media coverage in Iran, against the backdrop of a highly uncertain political future. Further reading: Sanam’s recent news reporting for The New York Times Sanam’s writing about Iranian reporting and environmental issues for The Conversation Media Framing of Iran’s 2021 Water Protests, Sanam Mahoozi, 2025, City, University of London Send us Fan Mail Find all our latest investigations, features and interviews at www.landclimate.org
February 6 · 34 min
Are Russian climate politics changing?
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 and Climate Podcast, Alasdair MacEwen is joined by Marianna Poberezhskaya to discuss the history of complex and often contradictory climate politics in Russia. They also discuss Russia’s burgeoning climate conspiracism, the history of climatology through the fall of the Soviet Union and Russia’s increasingly isolationist stance on climate cooperation. Marianna Poberezhskaya is an Associate Professor in Politics and International Relations at Nottingham Trent University, where she researches climate discourse from non-democratic governments and their nations’ media, with particular focus on Russia. Further reading: 'Explainer: How Russia seeks to 'instrumentalise' climate issues at COP30', Clare Denning, 2025, BBC 'Conspiracies as one of the dangers of online climate change communication: origins, spread, and impact', Marianna Poberezhskaya, 2025, Routledge handbook on climate crisis communication pp. 229-239 'Climate obstruction in Russia: surviving a resource-dependent economy, an authoritarian regime, and a disappearing civil society', Marianna Poberezhskaya and Ellie Martus, 2024, Climate obstruction across Europe pp. 214-242 'Russian climate scepticism: an understudied case', Teresa Ashe and Marianna Poberezhskaya, 2022, Climatic Change 172 (3-4) Send us Fan Mail Find all our latest investigations, features and interviews at www.landclimate.org
January 30 · 25 min
What does the US really see in Greenland?
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 to the US, Trump’s recent interest, and her views on the reasons behind them. Mia Bennett is the co-author of "Unfrozen: The Fight for the Future of the Arctic," published by Yale University Press. She is an associate professor of geography at the University of Washington and the founder of Cryopolitics, a blog covering contemporary and historic developments in the Arctic. Further reading: Unfrozen: The Fight for the Future of the Arctic, Yale University Press, 2025 Trump and Rutte cannot make a deal without Greenland at the table', Julie Rademacher, Financial Times, 2026 'Greenland: Staying with the Polar Inuit. How a secret military base helped trigger the silent collapse of an Arctic world', Ludovic Slimak, The Conversation, 2026 'The cryosphere is nearing irreversible tipping points – and the world is not prepared', Letizia Tedesco, Josephine Z. Rapp and Petra Heil, Land and Climate Review, 2025 The Ice at the End of the World: An Epic Journey into Greenland's Buried Past and Our Perilous Future, Jon Gertner, Postscript Books, 2019 Crimson, Niviaq Korneliussen, Anna Halager (Translator), Virago Books, 2018 So You Want to Own Greenland?: Lessons from the Vikings to Trump, Elizabeth Buchanan, Hurst Publishers, 2025 This Cold Heaven: Seven Seasons in Greenland, Gretel Ehrlich, Fourth Estate, 2003 Send us Fan Mail Find all our latest investigations, features and interviews at www.landclimate.org

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