Subjects Archives: Ecology

The Aug. 8 wildfires that devastated parts of Maui are the deadliest in the U.S. since the 1918 Cloquet fire in northern Minnesota. Some two weeks after the fires, the official death toll stands at 115, and authorities in Hawaii have released the names of 388 people still unaccounted for. Tens of thousands have evacuated. Over 3,000 acres burned in Lahaina and neighboring communities.

Clarke: The social and economic consequences of climate change will play out along deeply entrenched fault lines of inequality

The title of this week’s episode is taken from an article to be published in September’s Monthly Review. The author, Jason Hickel, talks to Steve about the topic in his third visit to the podcast.

Thomas Sankara, radical leader and martyr of Burkina Faso, understood that the problem of ecological destruction was rooted in capitalism and imperialism.

While most of the focus was on the general elections in Ecuador, a national referendum was held on oil exploitation in the Amazon.

The industrialized food system is a major source of greenhouse gas emissions, but it is not a major topic at climate talks.

Ottawa has long undermined efforts by impoverished countries to draw greater benefits from their natural resources.

The recent climate victory in the US state Montana is welcome, but a legal strategy must not replace mass mobilisation to combat capitalist economic logic, argues John Clarke

Basically the problem is that our whole planet has been gamified. All the Earth’s life, resources and geography have been folded into this sick game where people commodify them into points called money, for no other reason than to score as many points as possible.

The worst natural disaster in Hawaiian history is still blazing, where Indigenous residents are being pushed out of their homes.

The World Bank plans to use public funds to subsidize private finance, ostensibly to mobilize much more capital to address the climate crisis. But the new plan is not the solution it purports to be.

As temperatures soar in the United States this summer, some among us are lucky enough to be able to remain in air-conditioned interior spaces, ordering food, groceries, clothing, and other products to be delivered to us.

Economists have put forward all kinds of fallacious arguments to justify the prolonged fall in per capita food spending, and hence in nutritional intake, in India, such as mechanisation leading to lower energy needs, change in the age structure of the population, change in tastes and so on. 

The current temperature is between 10 and 20 degrees Celsius above what is normal for this time of year in parts of Chile and Argentina.

Sustainable health practices and policies must be designed to mitigate the effects of climate change and optimize resource preservation.

Mental health challenges are rising alongside temperatures. Research suggests that taking action can help.

The Australian Government made an ad about its bid to host the 2026 UN Climate Summit (COP31) with the Pacific, and it’s surprisingly honest and informative.

Last year, an EU study estimated that more than 60,000 people across Europe died due to heat. This year is likely to be even worse.

This accumulation of tragic evidence, against all the denialist narratives, makes it undeniable that the climate crisis is already here, among us.

“Real relief won’t come until Biden confronts the culprit of deadly oil and gas,” said one campaigner.