Episodes
Published 03/20/24
Mary Annaïse Heglar's first book is out today, The World Is Ours to Cherish— children's book about climate change. It's the first of *three* climate books Mary has coming out in the near future (the other two are a novel, called Troubled Waters, and an essay collection of Black writers on climate). She has been busy writing up a storm since we wrapped up Hot Take (and we've roped her into editing stories for Drilled, too). In this episode we talk about her books, what's happening in climate...
Published 02/27/24
Last year, headlines all over the world proclaimed victory for the environment: finally, after more than a decade of promises, there would be no more drilling in Yasuní National Park, a large swath of the Ecuadorian Amazon. But as Macy Lipkin reports, all wasn't what it seemed. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Published 02/20/24
Published 02/19/24
In her new book Saving Ourselves, Dana R. Fisher compiles years worth of research on protest in general and climate protest in particular for a comprehensive look at tactics, what "works," what a protest "working" even means, where the movement is likely to go next and where it needs to go to achieve real climate action. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Published 02/13/24
The U.S. government's definition of what constitutes an "ecoterrorist" has long driven backlash against environmental activists and in recent years that definition has only broadened. Investigative reporter and Drilled senior editor Alleen Brown dug into this recently and found that the Department of Homeland Security had been warning officials in Atlanta about the threat posed by "Defend the Atlanta Forest" for months before police raided the forest, ultimately killing one protestor, and...
Published 01/31/24
In June 2022, Michel Forst became the first UN Special Rapporteur on Environmental Defenders. In that role he has spent the past year visiting various countries and speaking out about the increasingly onerous laws and aggressive tactics being used against climate protestors. Today he released a statement on the UK, saying he is "extremely worried" about "the increasingly severe crackdowns on environmental defenders in the United Kingdom, including in relation to the exercise of the right to...
Published 01/23/24
About a decade after UK courts made history with the first "climate necessity" ruling in history, the UK government has passed new laws that not only restrict what protesters can do, but also how protesters are allowed to defend themselves in court. Some judges don't apply the new laws so strictly, but others have held people in contempt for just trying to explain themselves. In some courtrooms, the climate necessity defense has been effectively outlawed. How did that happen? And how did it...
Published 01/16/24
While protests against the Dakota Access Pipeline at the Standing Rock Sioux Indian Reservation garnered international news coverage, at the southern end of the pipeline, cops moonlighting as pipeline security were suppressing free speech with impunity. In this episode, reporter Karen Savage tells us what happened at Bayou Bridge, and what lessons the story holds for the climate movement and for anyone who believes in the importance of democracy. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit...
Published 12/19/23
This month, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers closes the comment period on its draft Environmental Impact Statement for the Dakota Access Pipeline, a 1,172-mile pipeline that’s been pumping 500,000 barrels of oil per day since May 2017. The pipeline runs from the Bakken oil fields in North Dakota to southern Illinois, crossing the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers. Over the past six years, every court in the country has ruled that the Army Corps of Engineers did not study the pipeline’s...
Published 12/07/23
With everyone arguing—again—about what science tells us the COP28 negotiations should be aiming for if we want to avoid the worst impacts of climate change, it's a great time to bring you this episode of Vox's Unexplainable, on which Drilled host, reporter Amy Westervelt, walks through how the fossil fuel industry weaponized the most fundamental aspect of scientific research: uncertainty. For show transcripts, go to bit.ly/unx-transcripts For more, go to http://vox.com/unexplainable Learn...
Published 12/06/23
As we resume our season focused on the global criminalization of climate protest, reporter Martha Troian brings us to Canada, where the Wet'suwet'en people have been fighting for years against a gas pipeline they never authorized on their territory. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Published 12/05/23
Bloomberg's Akshat Rathi joins us to make the case that capitalism can be harnessed in service of addressing the climate crisis. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Published 11/22/23
Abeer Butmeh, coordinator of the Palestinian NGOs Network, one of the most important Palestinian environmental organizations, spoke to senior editor Alleen Brown about battling for short-term and long-term survival when your identity itself is criminalized. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Published 11/14/23
We're bringing you an episode of the CBC's Podcast Playlist today, featuring Drilled! In this episode, host Leah-Simone Brown talks to hosts of three shows (including this one) about why folks should listen to their show. Podcast Playlist is the longest-running podcast curation show, a great place to find your next favorite podcast. Check it out wherever you get your podcasts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Published 11/07/23
We'll be back with the rest of our anti-protest season soon, but in the meantime, welcome to a new Drilled miniseries we're calling "Messy Conversations," getting into all the complicated nuance that unfortunately gets cut out of a lot of climate conversations. This week, Magatte Wade, who runs the Center for African Prosperity at the Atlas Network. She wasn't too happy with our recent coverage of Atlas, so we talked about that, the idea that solving poverty and addressing the climate crisis...
Published 11/01/23
Globally, climate activism has shifted over the past few years. It’s more constant now and includes more direct action than ever before. Some of that action has critics, including climate scientists and climate advocates, clutching their pearls and worrying that protest will turn the public away from the urgent need to act on the climate crisis. But social science researchers who study structural change and protest say there’s no historical evidence to back that up; that in fact the only time...
Published 10/17/23
Welcome to Outrage + Optimism, where they examine issues at the forefront of the climate crisis, interview change-makers, and transform anger into productive dialogue for building a sustainable future. In this episode, the hosts discuss the slow progress made at the negotiations in Bonn and how the perceived lack of direction has led many in the climate community to feel anxious about how successful talks will be in Dubai later in the year.  Christiana also touches on the New World Bank...
Published 10/13/23
From Ecuador to North Dakota, British Columbia to New Zealand, the backlash against Indigenous-led environmental protest is always particularly harsh, infused with colonialist entitlement to land, water, and other resources. Historian Nick Estes walks us through what that looks like in the U.S., and the great team behind the documentary The Territory brings us a recent example from Brazil. Check out the film here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Published 10/10/23
Australia's Voice referendum once enjoyed bi-partisan support of more than 60%. But since an aggressive No campaign began in April 2023, that support has plummeted. The folks behind that campaign will be familiar to listeners of this Drilled season: they're primarily Atlas Network think tanks. Jeremy Walker, senior lecturer at the University of Technology Sydney, joins to discuss his new paper on the subject, "Silencing the Voice." You can read that paper here:...
Published 10/10/23
A new report from the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA) looks at the details of Guyana's planned "Gas to Energy" project and finds mostly benefits for ExxonMobil and more debt for Guyana. Read the full report here: https://ieefa.org/articles/guyana-gas-energy-project-unnecessary-and-financially-unsustainable Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Published 10/09/23