In Episode 81 [20] of the CounterVortex podcast [21], Bill Weinberg takes stock of the fast-mounting manifestations of devastating climate destabilization—from Oregon [22] to Siberia [23], from Germany to Henan [24]. In Angola, traditional pastoralists are joining the ranks of "climate refugees [25]" as their communal lands are stricken by drought [26]. In Iran's restive and rapidly aridifying Ahwazi region, protests over access to water [27] have turned deadly. These grim developments offer a foreboding of North America's imminent future [28]. Yet media commentators continue to equivocate, asking whether these events are "linked to" or "caused by" climate change—rather than recognizing that they are climate change [29]. And the opportunity for a crash conversion from fossil fuels that was posed by last year's pandemic-induced economic paralysis, when already depressed oil prices [30] actually went negative [31], is now being squandered. Oil prices are again rising [32], with the return to pre-pandemic dystopian "normality."
Listen on SoundCloud [20] or via Patreon [33].
Production by Chris Rywalt [37]
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Erratum: This podcast was, of course, recorded on July 23, 2021—not (as erroneously stated) Feb. 23.