Welcome to “In a Warming World” a podcast that critically examines cultural narratives that minimize climate change in order to reveal how ecological social change is not only possible but necessary. I’m Moira Marquis, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Economic concerns are some of the most compelling ways to derail serious conversations on climate action. The specious but common sense “but what about jobs?” has been unfortunately reinforced by the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown which resulted in both rising unemployment rates and concomitant decreased emissions. While climate and economy are often juxtaposed as irreconcilable, this characterization relies on a fossil fuel dependent economy that demands endless growth. In this episode, alternative economic models are discussed alongside the current economic model’s environmental impacts and employment shortfalls.

Sources Discussed

Hickel, Jason. Degrowth: A Theory of Radical Abundance. Dec. 2019.
Ho, Bong Joon. Snowpiercer. Moho Film, Opus Pictures, 2013.
Hochschild, Arlie Russell. Strangers in Their Own Land: Anger and Mourning on the American Right. New Press, The, 2016.
Millward-Hopkins, Joel, et al. “Providing Decent Living with Minimum Energy: A Global Scenario.” Global Environmental Change, vol. 65, Nov. 2020, p. 102168. ScienceDirect, doi:10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2020.102168.
Wiedmann, Thomas, et al. “Scientists’ Warning on Affluence.” Nature Communications, vol. 11, no. 1, 1, Nature Publishing Group, June 2020, p. 3107. www-nature-com.libproxy.lib.unc.edu, doi:10.1038/s41467-020-16941-y.