The Land & Climate Podcast

• Can tech really save us from climate disaster?

  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 Politics When It’s Too Late, co-authored with Andreas Malm. Wim also explains the desperate technological solutions being considered for carbon dioxide removal and geoengineering, which he argues could do more harm than good.Wim Carton is a senior lecturer at the Lund University Centre for Sustainable Studies. His research centres on carbon capture and negative emissions. The Long Heat is the second book he has co-authored with Andreas Malm for Verso Books, after 2024's Overshoot: How the World Surrendered to Climate Breakdown.Further reading:Click here to buyThe Long Heat from Verso Books.Overshoot: has the world surrendered to climate breakdown?, Land and Climate Review, 2024 Is climate modelling undermined by economics and ideology?, Land and Climate Review, 2022   Overshoot: Navigating a world beyond 1.5°C, Planet B Productions and the Strategic Climate Risks Initiative., Laurie Laybourn, 2025 Scientists Clash over whether Polar Geoengineering Is a Dangerous Gamble, Scientific American, Alec Luhn and Andrea Thompson, 2025  A ‘doom loop’ of climate change and geopolitical instability is beginning, The Conversation, Laurie Laybourn and James Dyke, 2024 The Sunlight Managers, The Break-Down, Sofia Menemenlis, 2025 Click here for our website to read all our most recent Land and Climate Review features and pieces.

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• Is the race for minerals unnecessary?

  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 Riofrancos, who explains the tension between the harmful consequences of mining and the key role of extractive industries in facilitating the energy transition. She outlines the history of lithium mining in Chile, the environmental and human-rights consequences of extraction, and why we may have overestimated the quantities of critical minerals we actually need. Thea Riofrancos’ new book Extraction: The Frontiers of Green Capitalism, published by Island Press and W.W. Norton & Company, is available for purchase here. Thea is an associate professor of political science at Providence College and a strategic co-director of the Climate and Community Institute. Further reading Electric cars are drying up the desert, Meabh Byrne, 2023, Land and Climate Review  The ‘critical minerals’ rush could result in a resource war, Thea Riofrancos, 2025, Financial Times  The Security–Sustainability Nexus: Lithium Onshoring in the Global North, Thea Riofrancos, 2023, MIT Press Direct Endogenous Participation: Prior Consultation in Extractive Economies, Thea Riofrancos, Julia Falleti, 2017 World Politics  Click here for our website to read all our most recent Land and Climate Review features and pieces.

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• What if climate politics is about power, not carbon?

  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 profitability.  Jessica is a professor of Political Science at the University of Toronto, and an expert in carbon pricing and global governance. Her new book addresses the climate crisis through asset revaluation and is available to preorder from Princeton University Press here.   Further reading:  The Decarbonization Bargain: How the Decarbonizable Sector Shapes Climate Politics, Nils Kupzok and Jonas Nahm, Cambridge University Press, 2024 The False Promise of Carbon Offsets, Jessica F. Green, Foreign Affairs, 2023 Collaborative Advantage: Forging Green Industries in the New Global Economy, Jonas Nahm, Oxford University Press, 2021 Follow the Money, Jessica F. Green, Foreign Affairs, 2021 Does carbon pricing reduce emissions? A review of ex-post analyses, Jessica F. Green, Environmental Research Letters, 2021 Making Climate Policy Work, Danny Cullenward and David G. Victor, Wiley, 2020 Click here for our website to read all our most recent Land and Climate Review features and pieces.

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• Have wildfires become a major public health risk?

  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 Arctic, and the health impacts of particulate matter and long-range pollution transport. They also discuss the climate implications as wildfires – especially in Arctic peatlands - release millions of tonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere.  Further reading:  Arctic Climate Change Update 2024: Key Trends and Impacts, AMAP , 2024 State of Wildfires 2023-2024, Earth System Science Data, 2024 'Global, regional, and national mortality burden attributable to air pollution from landscape fires: a health impact assessment study', The Lancet, 2024  'EU wildfires worst on record as burning season continues', The Guardian, 2025 'Why are Europe and the Arctic heating up faster than the rest of the world?' Copernicus, 2025  'Current wildfire situation in Europe', The Joint Research Centre: EU Science Hub, 2025 Click here for our website to read all our most recent Land and Climate Review features and pieces.

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• Can the world regulate plastics?

  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 about problematic solutions to plastic pollution.Arm discusses his experience of the negotiations and the influence of industry lobbying, as well as issues around the implementation of policies addressing plastic waste – from bioplastics to recycling.  Further reading:  False solutions unmasking policy gaps in addressing plastic pollution in Thailand and Southeast Asia, Environmental Justice Foundation, 2025 A global treaty to limit plastic pollution is within reach – will countries seize the moment? The Conversation, 2025   Room for Reduction: Towards sustainable production and consumption of plastics in Thailand, Environmental Justice Foundation, 2024   There is so much to say about plastic pollution. Why are we not talking about it? Land and Climate Review, 2023 Click here for our website to read all our most recent Land and Climate Review features and pieces.

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