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...

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...

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,...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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.

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...

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.

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.

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.

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...

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...

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.

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 ‘b******t’ on the greenwashing policies in between), this wide-ranging conversation...

In this episode, Peter and Ryan give listeners a sneak peak at what’s in store for Season 2 of The EcoPolitics Podcast!

The global food system is a very complex set of systems that look incredibly different in different parts of the world. In this episode, we take a look at food systems in Nairobi, Kenya, and in Newfoundland, Canada with our guests, Helena Shilomboleni, PhD, CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture, and Food Security (CCAFS) East Africa at the International Livestock Research Institute in Nairobi, Kenya, and Sarah J. Martin, Assistant Professor in the Department of Political...

What role do ENGOs, or Environmental Non-Governmental Organizations, play in the Canadian ecopolitical sphere? In this episode, we ask this question of Catherine Abreu, Executive Director of Climate Action Network Canada, and Colleen Thorpe, Executive Director of Équiterre. Together they walk us through the roles that their respective organizations play in fighting for climate policy and shifting the cultural norms of Canadian citizens toward a greener and more just society.

Greenwashing, or legitimate Corporate Social Responsibility? Dr. Hamish van der Ven (McGill) helps us understand these concepts before walking us through two case studies.

In this episode we get real about corporate social responsibility, or what Rory MacAlpine of Maple Leaf Foods calls his company’s “shared value” for all its stakeholders.