The EcoPolitics Podcast
Education Podcasts
The Ecopolitics Podcast is a 16-episode audio series offering core content for university students studying environmental politics in Canada. The show is created and co-hosted by Dr. Ryan Katz-Rosene (University of Ottawa) and Dr. Peter Andrée (Carleton University), and funded by the Shared Online Projects Initiative. All episodes are freely available for use under a Creative Commons Licence 4.0 (CC BY-NC-ND). Instructors and students of environmental politics everywhere are invited to use the podcasts in their own teaching and learning. Episodes cover a range of themes central to the study of environmental politics in a Canadian context, from environmental justice to federalism to climate action and more! Enjoy the show, and let us know what you think.
Location:
Canada
Genres:
Education Podcasts
Description:
The Ecopolitics Podcast is a 16-episode audio series offering core content for university students studying environmental politics in Canada. The show is created and co-hosted by Dr. Ryan Katz-Rosene (University of Ottawa) and Dr. Peter Andrée (Carleton University), and funded by the Shared Online Projects Initiative. All episodes are freely available for use under a Creative Commons Licence 4.0 (CC BY-NC-ND). Instructors and students of environmental politics everywhere are invited to use the podcasts in their own teaching and learning. Episodes cover a range of themes central to the study of environmental politics in a Canadian context, from environmental justice to federalism to climate action and more! Enjoy the show, and let us know what you think.
Twitter:
@EcopoliticsP
Language:
English
Episodes
Episode 3.6: Is the local a romantic eco-myth? A critical appraisal of ‘Thinking Globally, Acting Locally’
2/28/2022
Does the environmentalist motto, ‘Think Globally, Act Locally’, point us towards sustainable food systems’ solutions? In this episode, Dr. Navin Ramankutty from UBC and Ken Meter from the Crossroads Resource Center in Minneapolis explore whether locally produced foods, provided by small-scale farmers, are inherently more sustainable than that which comes from larger producers many miles away. The discussion suggests that scale and proximity are not necessarily correlated with better environmental performance across the board, but that there are still good reasons for building strong food systems at the community level, and ensuring that small scale farmers can earn a sustainable livelihood.
Duration:00:40:37
Episode 3.5: How can we confront the environmental challenges associated with Canadian mining?
1/31/2022
Mining is an essential component to our everyday lives, providing us with the raw materials we need to create a wide variety of products. However, while mining contributes to our technological progress, it comes with an often hidden dark side rife with environmental and human rights abuses. When more than 60% of the world's mining companies are based in Canada, what does this mean for us as everyday ecocitizens? What responsibilities do we have with respect to holding these companies to account for their use and abuse of people and planet? These are some of the questions we drill into today with guests Chandu Claver, International Spokesperson for the Cordillera Peoples' Alliance, Teresa Kramarz, Associate Professor at the University of Toronto, and Sheri Meyerhoffer, Canadian Ombudsperson for Responsible Enterprise (CORE).
Duration:01:00:24
Episode 3.4: What does a just transition really entail? From green jobs to decolonization
12/16/2021
Climate change and its impacts on the economy, the planet, and, of course, us, is top of mind for a lot of folks these days. One potential solution that merges economic and climate needs is the transition away from fossil fuels as an energy source, to greener options. But with so many people relying on the fossil fuel industry for their livelihoods, how do we ensure a transition to a whole new energy source is just? This is one of the many questions we touch on in today's episode. Our guests, Luisa Da Silva, Executive Director of Iron and Earth, and Heather Milton-Lightening, a long-time Indigenous climate activist and current student, share with us their different views on just transition, and what we need to consider if we're really going to make it work.
Duration:00:39:46
Episode 3.3: How do we confront capitalism’s excesses? Between revolution and reform
12/9/2021
How do we confront capitalism's ecological record? In this episode we get some answers from Dianne Saxe (Deputy Leader of the Green Party of Ontario), and Professor Matt Huber (Syracuse Univer“How do we confront capitalism’s ecological record?” In today's episode, we tackle this question with help from Dianne Saxe, President of SaxeFacts, and Deputy Leader of the Green Party of Ontario and Matt Huber, Professor in the Department of Geography and the Environment at Syracuse University. From two unique perspectives -- that of an environmental lawyer and a Marxist Geographer -- we dig into the ways in which capitalism is implicated in climate change, and how capitalistic forces might be influenced for the betterment of people and planet.
Duration:00:41:41
Episode 3.2: Can we eat our way to sustainability? A deep dive into sustainable protein
11/18/2021
To consume or not consume meat? That is the question plaguing many an environmentally conscious person as we grapple with our personal responsibilites in the face of a warming climate. However, as our guests Paige Stanley, PhD Candidate at the University of California, Berkeley and Tara Garnett, Director of TABLE, a platform for informed discussion about food systems at University of Oxford point out, the answer isn't so black and white. In today's episode, we dive into the nuances of protein production, exploring both the macro and micro ways that farmers, scientists, and everyday people are tackling sustainable food systems. Ultimately, we strive to answer the question: Can we truly eat our way to sustainability?
Duration:00:48:22
Episode 3.1: What does it mean to be an Eco-Citizen? Intro to Everyday Ecopolitics Season Three
11/11/2021
What is eco-citizenship and what does it entail? These are the overarching questions that guide this episode's discussions with Manvi Bhalla, Graduate Student and Co-Founder of Shake Up The Establishment & missINFORMED, and Kimberly Nicholas, Associate Professor of Sustainability Science at Lund University. From an introduction to intersectionality and its importance in climate justice action, to the Eat Lancet Report's rough guidelines for how to reduce one's carbon footprint, this wide-ranging discussion explores all the facets of what it means to be an eco-citizen, and who bears the most responsibility for taking action to slow climate change.
Duration:00:34:18
Episode 2.14: Global Cities, Environmental Politics, and Low Carbon Transition
4/26/2021
Just over a decade ago, the world’s urban population surpassed its rural population in a trend of urbanization that is expected to continue for decades to come. This trend has raised some interesting questions with respect to how cities can participate in global sustainability efforts and how they might have a say in the governance of environmental politics. In this episode, we dive into these questions with Dr. Harriet Bulkeley, Professor in the Department of Geography at Durham University and at the Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development at Utrecht University.
Duration:00:46:24
Episode 2.13: Resources, Population and the Global Environment: A Case Study in Water
4/19/2021
Recorded on World Water Day, in this episode, we speak with Dr. Farhana Sultana, Associate Professor in the Department of Geography and the Environment and the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University to discuss all things water. Our conversation touches on the human right to water and sanitation, the ways in which water is a cross-cutting, multisectoral entity, and how governance of water, and further, privatization, is complicated, and can often be detrimental, to ensuring our rights to water.
Duration:00:52:55
Episode 2.12: Metaphors for Climate Governance
4/12/2021
In this episode, which is a re-broadcast of an episode from Season 1, we speak with Steven Bernstein, Distinguished Professor of Global Environmental and Sustainability Governance, University of Toronto, and Matthew Hoffmann, Professor of Political Science, University of Toronto, about carbon lock-in (the ways in which our culture currently reinforces our use of fossil fuels) and two different metaphors for thinking about how we might challenge the carbon lock-in mindset both locally and internationally.
Duration:00:47:59
Episode 2.11: Growth, Degrowth, Agrowth
4/8/2021
What is the relationship between economic growth and the environment? What is 'green growth' and why does the degrowth movement oppose it? And what does it mean to be agnostic about growth in the context of sustainability? In this episode we speak with two scholars who approach these questions from a degrowth perspective - Dr. Susan Paulson from the University of Florida, and Dr. Bengi Akbulut, from Concordia University in Canada. The episode also delves into Global South perspecitves on the growth-environment debate.
Duration:00:47:43
Episode 2.10: Dairy Cows, Climate Change and Settler Colonialism: Insights from Aotearoa/New Zealand
4/5/2021
Aotearoa/New Zealand's dairy sector contributes 1/4 of that country's greenhouse gas emissions. Dr John Reid (University of Canterbury), and Dr. Hugh Campbell (University of Otago), show us how Māori sustainability values are having a growing influence on the sector's response to the challenge of net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.
Duration:00:42:16
Episode 2.9: Indigenous Environmental Rights: The Maya of Belize
3/29/2021
In this episode we speak to Cristina Coc, Executive Director of the Julian Cho Society and Spokesperson for the Toledo Alcaldes Association/Maya Leaders Alliance, and Filiberto Penados, Chair, Julian Cho Society about the connections between indigenous rights and land conservation. Together, we take a closer look at the fight for recognition of the Maya people's rights to land in Belize. Overall, we conclude that this struggle is a global struggle, not just for indigenous rights to land, but for survival of all on a just and healthy planet.
Duration:00:53:27
Episode 2.8: Environmental Justice and the Anthropocene
3/22/2021
In this episode we talk about Indigenous environmental justice with Dr. Kyle Whyte (University of Michigan, and citizen of the Potawatomi Nation). Dr. Whyte explains how indigenous knowledge, identity, and kinship networks can reshape contemporary ecological politics.
Duration:00:39:36
Episode 2.7: Multilateral Agreements and Institutions in Global Ecopolitics
3/15/2021
In this episode we talk with Dr. Radoslav Dimitrov, Associate Professor at Western University to learn more about multilateral environmental agreements. How are they created? How are they enforced? Dr. Dimitrov also explains why some MEAs are essentially "hollow" or "empty" despite appearing to onlookers as legitimate institutions.
Duration:00:41:17
Episode 2.6: Great Power Politics and the Environment
3/8/2021
Dr. Yixian Sun (University of Bath), and Dr. Matthew Paterson (University of Manchester), explain how the world's most powerful countries - from Great Powers in the G7 to emerging powers in the BRICS - shape ecopolitical outcomes on the global stage.
Duration:00:41:17
Episode 2.5: Global Ecopolitics After COVID-19: Social Movements and International ENGOs
3/1/2021
There's no denying COVID-19 has had a major impact on the climate movement. After non-governmental organizations worked so hard to access global climate decision-making, being without the ability to organize protests and the like has left the movement disconnected from the major decision-makers again. But it's an important year for climate decisions. In this episode, we speak with Dr. Jen Allan, Lecturer in the School of Law and Politics at Cardiff University to get a better sense of how NGOs are navigating COVID, and the potential opportunities that may arise for climate decisions post-COVID.
Duration:00:39:24
Episode 2.4: Eco-colonialism and Environmental Justice in the Global South
2/22/2021
In this episode, we explore the theme of wildlife conservation and the tensions that exist between how people in the global north tend to view these issues versus how they are perceived and experienced by the rural people who live alongside wild animals in countries like Botswana in southern Africa. To discuss these themes, we speak with Joseph E. Mbaiwa, Professor of Tourism Studies at University of Botswana, and Chris Brown, Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science at Carleton University about Botswana's 2014 hunting ban on African elephants. Through this example, we explore the political and eco-colonial contexts that influenced both the institution of the ban, as well as the ban's impact on communities within Botswana.
Duration:02:56:26
Episode 2.3: Theory and Method in Global Environmental Politics
2/15/2021
What are some of the main theoretical approaches and methods used in the study of Global Ecopolitics? In this episode Dr. Raul Pacheco-Vega (FLACSO) provides some very helpful answers and further explains the relationship between theory and method for students of Global Ecopolitics.
Duration:00:28:37
Episode 1.12: The Politics of Decarbonization
2/9/2021
Proposing a new metaphor for decarbonization, Dr. Steven Bernstein (Toronto) and Dr. Matthew Hoffmann (Toronto) discuss how we might challenge carbon lock-in from local action to global governance.
Duration:00:49:37
Episode 2.2: Introduction to Global Ecopolitics – Part 2
1/17/2021
In this episode, we speak with Dr. Hayley Stevenson, Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science and International Relations at l’Universidad Torcuato Di Tella in Buenos Aires, and Dr. Simon Dalby, Professor at the Balsillie School of International Affairs, Wilfrid Laurier University. From defining the field of global ecopolitics to delving into the concept of environmental security (and calling 'bullshit' on the greenwashing policies in between), this wide-ranging conversation helps set the scene for Season 2 of The EcoPolitics Podcast.
Duration:01:11:46