Explore every episode of the podcast Drilled

Climate journalists Amy Westervelt, Nina Lakhani and Alleen Brown share whether they loved or hated the polarizing, big budget, box office flop, Digger. Plus a discussion on the role of pop culture in confronting the climate crisis and some of the team's favorite socially conscious music and movies. In the second half of the episode, Ugandan environmental journalist Diana Taremwa-Karakire talks about what it's like covering the controversial East African Crude Oil Pipeline or EACOP.

Watch list from today's show:

1. Digger (2026), director Alejandro Iñárritu's big huge climate movie: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bbW1DmEECiM

2. History of Concrete (2026), John Wilson's quirky infrastructure documentary with environmental undertones: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O05arcJjOd0

3. The Great Experiment (2026), a portrait of a polarized United States during Trump's first term, by directors Stephen Maing and Eric Daniel Metzgar: https://www.thegreatexperimentfilm.com/trailer

4. Armageddon (1998) doesn't get remembered as fossil fuel industry propaganda but has a strong pro-oil message. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-8eEniEfgU

5. No Other Land (2024) documents a Palestinian family's fight to defend their land against Israeli settlers and soldiers in the occupied West Bank, by Yuval Abraham, Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal and Rachel Szor: https://releasing.dogwoof.com/no-other-land

6. In The Voice of Hind Rajab (2025), director Kaouther Ben Hania dramatizes the real-life killing of a 5-year-old Palestinian child by Israeli soldiers as she begs paramedics on the telephone to come save her: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hrssPpqv6vc

7. Families Like Ours (2024), Thomas Vinterberg's Danish TV drama with climate displacement as the backdrop: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-AAPM6y7yCA

Listen list from today’s show:

1. Neil Young is as angry as he ever was, and we're here for it. Let's Roll Again was the stand out song (by some distance) from his 2025 album Talkin’ To the Trees, a plea to American carmakers to catch up with China and make better, cheaper electric vehicles. It includes an iconic dig at Elon Musk: “If your a fascist, then get a Tesla. If it’s electric, it doesn’t matter.” https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/neil-young-tesla-lets-roll-again-1235330354/

2. Is Bruce Springsteen's song Streets of Minneapolis corny? Perhaps. But it's still cathartic to sing along to for those of us from the city. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GDaPdpwA4Iw&list=RDGDaPdpwA4Iw&start_radio=1

3. The late Irish musician Sinead O'Connor was often inspired to write about injustices around her, like the beautiful song Black Boys on Mopeds (1990) which is a scathing critique of institutional racism in the UK. https://medium.com/@angel.lloyd/england-is-not-the-mythical-land-of-madam-george-and-roses-6cdb103ec6a

Reading List:

1. Don't Look Up (2021) by Adam McKay was the last big climate satire to hit our screens. It was also a flop with critics, but unlike Digger, was a hit with audiences: https://www.theguardian.com/film/2022/jan/08/dont-look-up-four-climate-experts-on-the-polarising-disaster-film

2. "Indigenous Communities, Activists in Africa Gird for Legal Battles with Governments over Climate Harms," by Diana Diana Taremwa-Karakire: https://drilled.media/litigation-and-law/indigenous-communities-activists-in-africa-gird-for-legal-battles-with-governments-over-climate-harms/

3. "Africa’s Longest Crude Oil Export Pipeline Isn’t Just Taking Indigenous Land, It Is Disturbing the Dead," by by Diana Diana Taremwa-Karakire: https://drilled.media/news/eacop-graves/

4. Indigenous Times (magazine): https://indigenoustime.com/about-us

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Most proposals to keep fossil fuels in the ground rely on taking new minerals out of the ground — especially lithium, a major component in the batteries powering electric vehicles. In Thea Riofrancos' book, Extraction, she visits the communities most impacted by lithium mining, explores the mineral's politics and history, and proposes a pathway toward harm reduction.

Reading list from today’s show:

1. Thea Riofrancos' book, Extraction: The Frontiers of Green Capitalism 

2. Amy Westervelt's new book, Brought to You By: How Corporations Warped the Truth, Conned the Public, and Broke Democracy 

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Tech billionaires have increasing influence over all aspects of our lives, and it's not by accident. Amy Westervelt and Gil Durán both recently published books examining the ideas and individuals driving the phenomenon. They discuss what it has to do with the climate crisis and the deterioration of democracy.

Reading list from today’s show:

1. Gil Durán's new book, The Nerd Reich: Silicon Valley Fascism and the War on Democracy 

2. Amy Westervelt's new book, Brought to You By: How Corporations Warped the Truth, Conned the Public, and Broke Democracy

3. Lithub interview between Gil and Amy

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Amy Westervelt, Nina Lakhani and Alleen Brown chat about Standing Rock 10 years later, Global Witness's latest report on assassinations of land defenders, and why Palestinians in Gaza are land defenders, too. Meanwhile, Afro-Indigenous Garífuna leaders in Honduras have set up an occupation in front of the country's Supreme Court, in defense of their land rights. Nina interviews Karen Spring, coordinator of the the Honduras Solidarity Network, about what this has to do with Trump and the TV show Survivor.

Reading list from today’s show:

1. The Propagandist, Drilled's narrative podcast series on propaganda aimed against the Standing Rock movement

2. Global Witness's annual report on assassinations of land defenders 

3. Nina Lakhani's chapter on ecocide in Gaza is featured in the book Gaza: The Story of a Genocide 

4. Nina's other book, Who Killed Berta Cáceres?: Dams, Death Squads, and an Indigenous Defender’s Battle for the Planet 

5. El libro de Nina, traducción al español, ¿Quién mató a Berta Cáceres? 

6. Reportage desde el campamento de resistencia Garífuna por la periodista Mexicana Blanche Petrich 

7. Amy Westervelt's new book, Brought to You By: How Corporations Warped the Truth, Conned the Public, and Broke Democracy

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Drilled global climate justice reporter Nina Lakhani interviews Elisa Morgera, the UN Special Rapporteur on Climate Change about Morgera’s latest report on the fundamental shortcomings of credit markets. Posed as a solution to the climate crisis, carbon credit markets have for years failed to deliver, while violating the human rights of the people most impacted by the climate crisis. Meanwhile, states have developed carbon tunnel-vision, fixating on schemes to reduce carbon emissions, while avoiding the root cause of the issue: fossil fuels. Lakhani and Morgera discuss all that and more.

Reading list from today’s show:
 
1. Elisa Morgera's latest report on rethinking carbon markets. 

2. Elisa's report on transforming food systems

3. Diana Taremwa-Karakire's recent piece for Drilled on a Kenyan carbon credit project

4. Nina Lakhani’s analysis on the Santa Marta climate conference on transitioning away from fossil fuels 
 
5. More reporting on the failures of carbon markets 
 
6. Amy Westervelt's book: https://geni.us/broughttoyouby

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In this week's episode Alleen Brown speaks with Aru Shiney-Ajay, executive director of The Sunrise Movement about being infiltrated by the feds, why fighting authoritarianism is a climate fight, and more. 

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Amy Westervelt, Nina Lakhani and Alleen Brown on the world on fire, how the media is covering the climate crisis, what's happening with the industry as a whole, and how it all relates to rising authoritarianism. The Spill is our new weekly show to bring you news, rants, and interviews in between narrative seasons.

Reading list from today's show:

• Amy's book: geni.us/broughttoyouby
• The Guardian on fossil fuel companies' war profiteering: https://www.theguardian.com/business/ng-interactive/2026/aug/04/revealed-major-oil-firms-make-93bn-profits-amid-war-and-climate-crisis
• Nina's past reporting on extreme heat deaths: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/ng-interactive/2025/oct/09/extreme-heat-deaths-autopsy
• Drilled coverage of criminal conduct in Venezuela: https://drilled.media/news/hopenhaym
• Drilled reporting on the U.S.-Venezuela-Guyana triangle: https://drilled.media/news/guyana-venezuela
• Alleen's new series "The Propagandist": https://drilled.media/podcasts/drilled/16/s16-ep01

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Alleen could only put together a story like this because she's stayed on the beat for a decade, building relationships and hunting for documents. At the 10-year anniversary of the Standing Rock movement, she gives us a look at why it's important for democracy for journalists to go deeper than breaking news. Speaking of which...Buy Amy's book! https://geni.us/broughttoyouby

For a look at the primary documents underpinning this series, head to https://drilled.media/.This mini-series was reported in partnership with High Country News, and a print feature accompanying it is available on their website: https://www.hcn.org/issues/58-8/inside-standing-rocks-propaganda-war/.

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The pipeline has been built, the protest camps disbanded, but the fight isn't over. As pipeline opponents set up a new camp in Iowa, the Tiger Swan propagandists follow them, this time with the help of an undercover infiltrator. A WhatsApp chat reveals the private spies' machinations.

For a look at the primary documents underpinning this episode, head to https://drilled.media/.This mini-series was reported in partnership with High Country News, and a print feature accompanying it is available on their website: https://www.hcn.org/

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As protests against the Dakota Access Pipeline began to grow in North Dakota, a new seemingly grassroots Facebook page emerged. In this episode we meet the hired gun behind it, Robert Rice, who was working for the pipeline company's private security company, Tiger Swan.

For a look at the primary documents underpinning this episode, head to the Drilled site. This mini-series was reported in partnership with High Country News, and a print feature accompanying it is available on their website. 

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10 years ago, rural North Dakota became the hub of one of the largest Indigenous-led protests in decades, and one of the largest climate protests ever in U.S. history: Standing Rock. What started as a protest against a pipeline turned into a political flashpoint thanks to social media. The pipeline company's private security contractors exploited the moment, using propaganda to fan the flames of long-simmering divisions in the community and amplify the voices of groups that were pro-pipeline or anti-protestor.

A decade later, the community is still divided and the tactics used at Standing Rock have been used to sew division all over the country. Never-before-published documents give us a unique insight into the strategy deployed back then, and into how things got the way they are today.

Drilled: The Propagandist begins on August 25. Pushkin+ subscribers can hear all three episodes early and ad-free. Find Pushkin+ on the Drilled show page on Apple Podcasts or at pushkin.fm/plus. 

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Treating climate solutions like an infinite money cheat might not be a great way to actually solve the problem, though it's sure to make plenty of "green" entrepreneurs rich. It makes sense that businessmen would stay focused on profits, but why do climate advocates keep supporting these ideas?

This season is a collaboration with the Intercept Brasil. You can get the show in Portuguese on their feed as well, and companion stories at: https://www.intercept.com.br/

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With the sustainable aviation fuel industry set to explode, carbon capture has thrown the corn ethanol industry a lifeline...but what does another corn ethanol boom mean for everyone else?

This season is a collaboration with the Intercept Brasil. You can get the show in Portuguese on their feed as well, and companion stories at: https://www.intercept.com.br/

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Industrial agriculture has wrapped itself in a green cloak in Mato Grosso, promising jobs, money and endless opportunities, all in the name of "sustainability." But the good times are only happening for a select few. Local residents are dealing with extreme weather, lack of access to fresh food, and a pesticide overload that has increased the risk of birth defects and lowered lifespans. Meanwhile, Bruce and the guys have now ventured into new territory: the Amazon.

This season is a collaboration with the Intercept Brasil. You can get the show in Portuguese on their feed as well, and companion stories at: https://www.intercept.com.br/

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Bruce's Brazilian business partners run the state of Mato Grosso and the town the company is headquartered in. So while he fights endless pushback to his pipeline project in Iowa, business in Brazil is booming. This season is a collaboration with the Intercept Brasil.

You can get the show in Portuguese on their feed as well, and companion stories at: https://www.intercept.com.br/

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Bruce's venture in Brazil isn't the first time he tried to go global. What an earlier attempt tells us about him, his business, and what's ahead for both Iowa and "the Brazilian Midwest."

This season is a collaboration with the Intercept Brasil. You can get the show in Portuguese on their feed as well, and companion stories at: https://www.intercept.com.br/

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As his American company Summit Carbon Solutions struggles with backlash to a carbon capture pipeline linking corn ethanol plants across the Midwest, Bruce Rastetter is not slowing down. Instead, he’s celebrating some big wins for his Brazilian company, FS Fueling Sustainability, from new ethanol-friendly climate policy to government funding for their carbon capture project.

Pushkin+ subscribers can hear episodes early and ad-free. Find Pushkin+ on the Drilled show page on Apple Podcasts or at pushkin.fm/plus.

Additional resources:

The link between corn ethanol and deforestation

Peer-reviewed research on the climate problems associated with corn ethanol 

An explainer on BECCS (bioenergy with carbon capture and sequestration) 

Reading list on enhanced oil recovery (EOR) 

Read more about the Summit Pipeline project

Carbon Herald on the push to connect Midwest ethanol plants to carbon capture 

Brazilian government document on technical mission to US midwest 

Travel schedule of Brazilian government officials while in the Midwest 

Read more about the explosion of corn ethanol in Brazil: https://drilled.media/news/ethanol-story1

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For decades we’ve heard that “the markets” will solve the climate crisis. On Drilled: Carbon Cowboys, we put that theory to the test, following Bruce Rastetter, a corn ethanol kingpin-turned-carbon entrepreneur from Iowa to Brazil, and asking the big questions: Are these “climate solutions” actually reducing emissions? Is CO2 increasing or decreasing as carbon becomes a commodity? Or is green colonialism just as extractive as the regular sort?

Drilled: Carbon Cowboys begins on May 12th. Pushkin+ subscribers can hear episodes early and ad-free. Find Pushkin+ on the Drilled show page on Apple Podcasts or at pushkin.fm/plus. 

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The U.S. invasions of Venezuela and Iran are more of the same imperialism in service of oil majors. As the climate crisis makes its presence more urgently felt, fossil fascism dictates a doubling-down on extraction and colonialism, and the vilification of those who oppose or stand in the way of that plan.

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Repression of protest has ramped up in the U.S., but everything that's happening now began with the backlash to the Standing Rock protest back in 2016. In today's episode we look at the connections between fossil fascism, petromasculinity, and protest.

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Lots of people are talking about the similarities between Iraq and Iran, but in this episode we place the two in the context of another war—World War I—and the historical arc of fossil fascism.

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What is “artificial intelligence”? Is it a fancy technology? A management consulting buzzword? A PR effort to inflate corporate share prices? A political project designed to shape the world more to the liking of the billionaire class? A way to replace needy human workers with machines?

Perhaps it’s all of that—and more. In her groundbreaking book Empire of AI: Dreams and Nightmares in Sam Altman’s OpenAI, award-winning journalist Karen Hao argues that AI—and the profit-driven infrastructure that surrounds it—is a colonial project. What OpenAI boss Altman and his fellow ideologues in Silicon Valley are pursuing, Hao says, is not just corporate power but imperial power. They are building empires. And as history shows, empires are built on resource extraction, particularly the old-fashioned kind: of labor, energy, minerals, land, water.

Seemingly overnight, tech elites’ feel-good climate promises have evaporated, having been seamlessly swapped for slippery promises that so-called “artificial general intelligence” will save the planet for us. Never mind that AGI is a fantastical concept that has no agreed-upon definition, or that, more fundamentally, it appears nowhere close to existing. In Big Tech’s frenzied pursuit of the “hyperscale” AI dominance that evangelists claim will unlock AGI, as well as its expanding alliances with fossil fuel-backed petrostates and authoritarian political movements, the industry has become an increasingly central contributor to the climate crisis.

In an October conversation with Drilled, Hao discussed how Silicon Valley giants appear to be following the oil and gas industry’s playbook of disinformation and deceit; how Altman and OpenAI’s secrecy and disingenuous rhetoric transformed the field of AI research into corporate PR; and why the destructive trajectory of AI scale and commercialization is not inevitable—no matter what its power-hungry proponents would have you believe.

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This week marks the 10-year anniversary of the hired hit that took Berta Cáceres’s life and robbed both the Honduran and global environmental movements of a uniquely effective leader. Cáceres was targeted by a dam company, with an assist from the police, military, government officials and international banks because of her effective organizing on behalf of her people, the Lenca. Nina Lakhani literally wrote the book on Cáceres’s killing, and in this episode she walks us through what happened then, what’s happening now, the role the U.S. played in all of it, and what Americans can learn from the way Honduran activists continue to show up in the face of violent repression.

Read Nina’s story 

Read Nina’s book

Check out Berta’s organization, Copinh

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Fernanda Hopenhaym, member of the UN Working Group on Business and Human Rights walks Drilled senior global climate justice reporter Nina Lakhani through the many legal pitfalls companies getting involved in the United States seizure of the Venezuelan oil industry might be facing.

Check out the longer story on our website.

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It's easy to feel like climate "doesn't matter" as the United States descends into fascism, as if climate and democracy are somehow separate issues. Researcher Oscar Berglund and Amy Westervelt connect the dots between the global backlash to climate protest and the broader repression we're seeing in supposedly democratic countries around the world.

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In More and More and More, Jean-Baptiste Fressoz shows that the human history of energy is one of accumulation, not substitution. Here, he talks to reporter Adam Lowenstein about how the "energy transition" frame got so entrenched, why clean-energy innovation is not the same thing as decarbonization, how the fossil fuel industry helped launder pipe dreams of dysfunctional technologies into mainstream climate “solutions”, and much more (and more and more).

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When activists Jessica Reznicek and Ruby Montoya take drastic measures to halt construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline, they have no idea that a shadowy private security contractor called TigerSwan has them in its sights. 

Special thanks to:

Alleen Brown and The Intercept (https://theintercept.com/2018/12/30/tigerswan-infiltrator-dakota-access-pipeline-standing-rock/)

You Strike A Match by Julia Shipley (https://grist.org/protest/dakota-access-pipeline-activists-property-destruction/)

Democracy Now (https://www.democracynow.org/)

Be the first to know about Wondery’s newest podcasts, curated recommendations, and more! Sign up now at https://wondery.fm/wonderynewsletter

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Wildfires are becoming more intense, frequent, and destructive as the climate heats up. Drilled reporter Royce Kurmelovs and Canadian author John Vallaint, author of Fire Weather, discuss the climate-fire nexus.

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In this bonus episode of The Black Thread, we examine a single legal case that distilles the Norwegian paradox perfectly: the planned electrification of the Melkøya gas processing plant. It's a key conflict site where Norway's net zero transformation clashes with its fossil fuel industry, Indigenous rights, youth climate activism, worker safety, and even criticism from the United Nation.

Additional resources:
Communicating Climate Change

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Despite growing repression worldwide, climate activists continue to stick it to obstructionists and drive change. In this season's finale, Jennie Stephens (University of Ireland Maynooth) and Sharon Yadin (University of Haifa) share the effective strategies that activists can use to push back against the forces that block climate action.

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It's bleak out there and while climate obstruction can feel overwhelming, there are efforts being made to fight back against it. One of them is litigation and holding corporations legally accountable. Joana Setzer (London School of Economics) speaks to how climate litigation is being used to challenge companies, enforce climate commitments, and push for climate action globally.

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More than a decade ago—when wind and solar power were far more expensive than they are today—Uruguay, long plagued by droughts and energy shortages, transitioned its entire economy such that 98% of its electricity now comes from renewable sources. They did it in just two years, and used the savings to slash the country's poverty rate from 40% into the single digits.

Natasha Hakimi Zapata covers Uruguay's transformation in her book, Another World Is Possible: Lessons for America from Around the Globe. Hakimi Zapata shares how activists and policymakers can learn from Uruguay's transformation and why progressive movements should confidently articulate the economic benefits of renewable energy.

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We're bringing you episode 5 of Dana R. Fisher's COP Out podcast, from the Center for Environment, Equity and Community at American University, featuring our own Amy Westervelt and legendary climate scientist Dr. Katharine Hayhoe talking about what happened at this year's COP, whether the process is fixable, and how to get the benefits of global convening without all the headaches. Check out the rest of Dana's series here.

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Working against regulations on emissions might protect the economic interests of those with money to lose, but why would anyone fight against adapting to survive climate disaster? In the negotiating rooms at COP 30, adaptation was one of the biggest debate areas. Laura Kuhl (Northeastern University) and Stacy-Ann Robinson (Emory University) explain why adaptation policies face scrutiny and opposition.

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Daniel Penny and Amy Westervelt return for the Carbon Bros mailbag episode, answering listener questions from around the world about masculinity, traditional male spaces, vocational therapy, solidarity, and the role of gender in engaging in climate action.

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After four decades of the United Nations climate conference COP, progress on global climate action remains slow. So what isn't working? How is it possible that so much fanfare, so many words, and so much work—much of it genuine and good-faith—has amounted to such little progress?

University of Toronto political science professor Jessica F. Green has some ideas. In Existential Politics: Why Global Climate Institutions Are Failing and How to Fix Them, the longtime observer of global climate negotiations and expert on carbon accounting argues that the COP embodies a “win-win” approach to a problem for which someone has to lose. The challenge is to make sure the right people (and planet) do the winning, while the “fossil asset owners,” as Green describes them, do the losing.

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The United Nations' climate processes were created to drive global climate action, but from the beginning they've faced organized efforts to delay progress. As COP 30 begins, Kari de Pryck (University of Geneva) and Eduardo Viola (Institute of International Relations, Brazil) join Amy to analyze how COP and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change get hijacked by those opposed to climate action, what it means for global climate policy, and what to expect at this year's COP in Brazil.

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We look ahead to Norway's future, exploring how the country might begin to loosen oil's grip on its politics and identity. Hear how different voices envision aligning the country's actions with its values, its reputation, and the realities of climate change. 

Additional resources:
Communicating Climate Change

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Local governments are a double-edged sword when it comes to climate policy, with the power to either do far more or far less than national governments. They can be an agent of change or an agent of obstruction. Rebecca Bromley-Trujillo (Christopher Newport University) and Joshua A. Basseches (Tulane University) walk us through how subnational governments, like states and municipalities, work and how they engage in climate obstruction.

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The United States is a global leader of climate obstruction, but it's not the only guilty country. M. Omar Faruque (Queen’s University, Canada) and Ruth E. McKie (De Montfort University) look at how and why climate obstruction occurs in the Global South, exploring the political, economic, and institutional factors that lead the countries most vulnerable to climate change, and least responsible for emissions, to participate in climate obstruction.

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Do the facts behind the narratives being told by Norway's fossil fuel industry, and government, add up? We hear experts critique some of the stories that keep Norwegian oil and gas pumping, while industry representatives explain the logic behind the rhetoric.

Additional resources:
Communicating Climate Change

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Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and former Wall Street Journal publisher Karen Elliott House, author of The Man Who Would Be King: Mohammed bin Salman and the Transformation of Saudi Arabia, joins Adam Lowenstein to discuss how the crown prince has reshaped Saudi Arabia. They explore if MBS's gamble on economic and social freedoms alongside ciivil and political repression is politically, or environmentally, sustainable and examine how Saudi Arabia's oil and petrochemical industries serve its geopolitical interests. Karen and Adam also discuss the kingdom’s promises about transitioning away from fossil fuels and why it might be a bit less green than climate advocates would hope.

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In this extended conversation, climate policy expert Abdul El-Sayed explores the complexities of the climate crisis and the role of masculinity in shaping how men engage, or fail to engage, with climate solutions.

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A growing number of experts and commentators suggest "petroganda"—the pervasive phenomenon of oil industry manipulation—is at work in Norway, influencing the country's politics, culture, and support for the oli industry. We discuss how "petroganda" guides the information that the public receives, or doesn’t receive, about the relationship between oil and climate change and learn how the story of oil in Norway is told.

Additional resources:
Communicating Climate Change

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For decades, the meat and dairy industries avoided scrutiny for the planet-heating emissions they pump into the atmosphere. As governments began considering methane regulation, the animal agriculture sector starting working on efforts to resist such regulations. Siliva Secchi (University of Iowa) and Kathrin Lauber (University of Edinburgh) expound the concept of "agricultural exceptionalism" and the strategies the agriculture industry uses to keep climate policy at bay.

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The coal, utilities, and transportation industries have all played a major role in stopping governments from regulating emissions or transitioning to cleaner energy. Examining how those effort have taken shape around the world, Jen Schneider (Boise State University) and Gregory Trencher (Kyoto University) break down the strategies these industries use to influence policymakers, resist decarbonization, and slow climate action.

Additional resources:
Climate Obstruction: A Global Assessment

You can now download a FREE copy of the book Climate Obstruction: A Global Survey here! 

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Over the next few weeks, we're sharing a new mini-series, The Black Thread, about Norway's complicated relationship with its identity as both a progressive leader and oil state.

Social norms and cultural values shape Norwegian's identity as a good, caring, nature-loving people. What happens when those values come into conflict with the reality of Norway's outsized influence on climate change?

Additional resources:
Communicating Climate Change

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The climate crisis can feel overwhelming—to witness venture-capital-fueled AI domination, democracy’s steady drift toward authoritarianism, state-sanctioned genocide, and the collapse of one climate boundary after another is to encounter a profound sense of despair. But what if the path forward lies in accepting, rather than resisting, this despair?

In his new book, Learning to Live in the Dark: Essays in a Time of Catastrophe, climate activist and journalist Wen Stephenson argues that the only way to confront the crises of our time is to meet this despair head-on. He shares how he's faced his own climate despairs and offers insights for living in an era of climate, political, and social crisis while holding onto humanity.

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The fossil fuel industry has undoubtedly played a central role in obstructing climate action through lobbying, impacting political influence, and spreading disinformation. Academic Kristoffer Ekberg (Lund University), nonprofit researcher Kert Davis (Center for Climate Integrity), and DeSmog global managing editor Geoff Dembicki walk us through how fossil fuel industry strategies have undermined climate policy, delayed regulation, and furthered climate denial.

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Climate obstruction would not be nearly as effective as it is without the influence of the public relations industry and the willful ignorance of mainstream media. Melissa Aronczyk (Rutgers University) and Max Boycoff (University of Colorado) explain why getting a handle on the media's role in climate obstruction is critical to solving the problem. Melissa and Max examine how strategic communication and media systems have contributed to climate denial, spread misinformation, and delayed action.

Additional resources:
Climate Obstruction: A Global Assessment

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