Our ideas about climate change are filtered through layers of Stuff, and for us in the West quite a lot of that Stuff is inseparable from being gits to other countries for centuries. We've nabbed land, exploited populations and perhaps most enduringly of all, seen the world as basically being for 'us' to do with as we want. That Stuff dies hard, and, this episode's guest argues, shapes how we think even about what climate change is, never mind how and in whose interests to solve it.
Joining Dave this ep is Dr Ayesha Siddiqi, lecturer in human geography at the University of Cambridge. Ayesha's a postcolonial geographer, which means she 1) is clever and 2) understands how the impacts of things like climate change overlap with legacies of politics, power and security. Most usefully of all for this episode at least, she talks warmly and accessibly about the need to decolonise research and the Western framing of climate change. So: learn stuff.
Owl noises:
-- 06:33 - the wet bulb test, and why it's scary.
-- 40:40 - the Matthew effect of accumulated advantage, and why Matthews have it even easier than Daves.
Your Brain on Climate is a podcast about human psychology vs the climate crisis: what we think, why we think it, and how it all adds up to a planet-sized emergency. Contact the show: @brainclimate on Twitter, or hello@yourbrainonclimate.com.
Support the show on Patreon: www.patreon.com/yourbrainonclimate.
The show is hosted by me, Dave Powell, who you can find @powellds on Twitter. Original music by me, and I twiddle all the production knobs too.
Show logo by Arthur Stovell at www.designbymondial.com.