Published by 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
Listen on Apple PodcastsGeoengineering 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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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 argues that wind, water and solar power are the most effective tools for reducing emissions, that the development of energy-intensive “unicorn technologies” such as carbon capture and storage only prolongs fossil fuel use. Mark Jacobson is Director of Stanford’s Atmosphere and Energy Program and a co-founder of The Solutions Project, which advances clean, renewable energy systems. His new book is available to buy here from Cambridge University Press, with 20% off using the discount code “NOMIRACLES20”. Further reading: 'Carbon capture does not reduce emissions: these three case studies prove it', Mark Z. Jacobson, Land and Climate Review , 2026. Wind and solar overtook fossil fuels for EU power generation in 2025, report finds, Ajit Niranjan, The Guardian , 2026. No Miracles Needed: How Today's Technology Can Save Our Climate and Clean Our Air, Mark Z. Jacobson, Cambridge University Press , 2023. 100% Clean, Renewable Energy and Storage for Everything, Mark Z. Jacobson, Cambridge University Press , 2020. 'A path to sustainable energy by 2030', Mark Z. Jacobson and Mark A. Delucchi, Scientific American , 2009 Correction notice: in the original upload of this podcast, Bertie mistakenly referred to the publisher of Still No Miracles Needed as 'Stanford University Press', rather than Cambridge University Press. This was removed on 27/1/25. Send us Fan Mail Find all our latest investigations, features and interviews at www.landclimate.org
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 discuss the role of climate change in regime breakdown. He and Alasdair discuss historical examples of societal collapse influenced by climatic conditions, the effects of the “Little Ice Age” on droughts and harvests, and how the Global North might be less resilient than many realise. Dr. Dagomar Degroot is Associate Professor of Environmental History at Georgetown University, an expert on climate change, space exploration and existential risk. His forthcoming book, “Ripples on the Cosmic Ocean: How the Solar System Shapes Human History – and May Help Save Our Planet,” will be published by Penguin in February. Listen to Alasdair and Dagomar’s discussion about the book here. Further reading: ' After Ruining a Treasured Water Resource, Iran Is Drying Up ', Fred Pearce, Yale Environment 360, December 2025. ' Climate crisis or a warning from God? Iranians desperate for answers as water dries up ', Patrick Wintour, The Guardian, November 2025. ' Madagascar’s president dissolves government amid youth-led protests ', The Guardian , September 2025. Goliath’s Curse: The History and Future of Societal Collapse , Luke Kemp, 2025. ' Climate, peace, and conflict—past and present: Bridging insights from historical sciences and contemporary research ', Sam White et al., Ambio, 2025. Megadrought and Collapse: From Early Agriculture to Angkor , Harvey Weiss (ed.), 2017. Questioning collapse : human resilience, ecological vulnerability, and the aftermath of empire , Patricia A. McAnany & Norman Yoffee (eds.), 2010. Send us Fan Mail Find all our latest investigations, features and interviews at www.landclimate.org
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 week, Alasdair is joined by Mia Bennett, co-author with Klaus Dodds of “Unfrozen: The Fight for The Future of The Arctic,” published by Yale University Press. Mia explains the environmental consequences of melting permafrost, the roles multilateral organisations and Indigenous communities have within policymaking, and the growing militarisation of the region. Mia Bennett is Associate Professor of Geography at the University of Washington, and a British Academy Visiting Fellow at UCL’s Centre for Outer Space Studies. Her book "Unfrozen” and long-running blog “ Cryopolitics ” examine Arctic developments – including the science of climate breakdown, national and Indigenous politics, and the emergence of new markets. “Unfrozen: The Fight for The Future of The Arctic,” is available to purchase from Yale University Press here . Further reading: 'Have we reached peak Arctic Circle?' Mia Bennett, Cryopolitics , 2025 '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 Floating Coast: An Environmental History of the Bering Strait, Bathsheba Demuth, WW Norton & Company , 2019 The Paradox of Svalbard: Climate Change and Globalisation in the Arctic, Zdenka Sokolíčková, Pluto Books, 2023 'Russia’s espionage war in the Arctic', Ben Taub, The New Yorker , 2024 Seven poems from Dark Traffic, Joan Naviyuk Kane , 2021 Send us Fan Mail Find all our latest investigations, features and interviews at www.landclimate.org
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 currently a visiting fellow at the University of St. Gallen in Switzerland. She is the author of The Green Ages: Sustainable Practices , winner of the 2021 NDR Book Prize. Its English translation by Geshe Ipsen has been shortlisted for the 2025 Schlegel-Tieck Prize. Further reading: The Green Ages: Medieval Innovations in Sustainability , Annette Kehnel, Profile Books Die sieben Todsünden: Menschheitswissen für das Zeitalter der Krise ( The Seven Deadly Sins: Human Knowledge for the Age of Crisis ), Annette Kehnel, Rowohlt Governing the commons : the evolution of institutions for collective action , Elinor Ostrom, Cambridge University Press Merchants of Doubt: How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco Smoke to Global Warming , Naomi Oreskes, Bloomsbury Managing the Lake Constance Fisheries, ca. 1350-1800 , Michael Zeheter, Berghahn Send us Fan Mail Find all our latest investigations, features and interviews at www.landclimate.org
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 last five years, primarily from private funders in the USA. Fusion expert Matthew Hole tells Bertie Harrison-Broninski that many of these new companies are likely to go bankrupt, and that fusion power is unlikely to be operational in time to contribute to net zero targets. They discuss the different forms of fuel for fusion power, the world’s largest fusion project in France, and the high-risk, high-reward nature of fusion investment. Matthew Hole is a professor at the Mathematical Sciences Institute at the Australian National University and a leading authority on plasma fusion physics. In 2005, he founded the Australian ITER Forum and currently serves as co-chair of the International Fusion Research Council of the International Atomic Energy Agency. Further reading: Billions in private cash is blooding into fusion power. Will it pay off? Professor Matthew Hole, 2025, The Conversation US energy chief tells BBC nuclear fusion will soon power the world, Justin Rowlatt, 2025, BBC Helion Energy starts construction on nuclear fusion plant to power Microsoft data centers, Stephen Nellis, 2025 Reuters What’s fueling the commercial fusion hype? Victor Gilinsky, 2024, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists Iter, the nuclear-fusion project proving that multilateral collaboration still works, Simon Bouvier, 2025, Monocle What’s the difference between fusion and fission? A nuclear physicist explains, Professor Matthew Hole, 2024, The Conversation Send us Fan Mail Find all our latest investigations, features and interviews at www.landclimate.org
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 conversation with Alasdair, he examines the solar system's influence on humanity - and humanity's influence on the solar system. They explore how humans have survived past climate shifts, and how human understanding of climate and space have always been connected. Dagomar Degroot is Associate Professor of Environmental History at Georgetown University and a leading scholar on the Little Ice Age. His first book, “The Frigid Golden Age,” was published in 2018. His new work, “Ripples on the Cosmic Ocean,” is published by Penguin and available to pre-order here . He also has a podcast telling the story of climate's influence on humanity, The Climate Chronicles . Further reading: Little Ice Age Lessons, Dagomar Degroot, Aeon , 2025 The Frigid Golden Age, Dagomar Degroot, Cambridge University Press , 2018 The History of Climate and Society, Dagomar Degroot, IOPScience , 2022 Climate Change in Human History: Prehistory to the Present, Benjamin Lieberman and Elizabeth Gordon, 2022, Bloomsbury The Story of CO₂ Is the Story of Everything: How Carbon Dioxide Made our World, Peter Brannen, 2025, Harper Collins Colonial Cataclysms: Climate, Landscape, and Memory in Mexico’s Little Ice Age , Bradley Skipyk, 2020, University of Arizona Press Send us Fan Mail Find all our latest investigations, features and interviews at www.landclimate.org