Together Towards Sustainability: Labor's Role in Climate Solutions with Matt Huber

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What if the key to addressing climate change lies at the intersection of labor and environmentalism? In this thought-provoking episode, we're joined by Matt Huber, author of "Climate Change's Class War: Building Socialism on a Warring Planet," to explore this relationship and how climate change is a class phenomenon. We challenge the mainstream analysis that focuses on consumption and lifestyle choices while ignoring the role of ownership and production in providing for those lifestyles.

Together with Huber, we discuss the implications of green jobs and the challenges of industrial policy under the Biden administration. We explore how the Inflation Reduction Act incentivizes domestic manufacturing of solar panels and wind turbines, which could create more permanent, unionized jobs. Our conversation highlights the importance of considering the labor movement when addressing climate change and environmental policies.

Finally, we delve into sustainable agriculture and socialist planning, examining the use of nitrogen fertilizer and the impacts of industrial agriculture. We consider the arguments for degrowth and eco-socialism, and how public transportation systems in other countries have enabled people to live without owning a car. Listen in to better understand how we can work together as a society to build a sustainable future, where the labor movement and environmentalism go hand in hand.

Matthew T. Huber is Professor of Geography at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University. He is the author of Lifeblood: Oil, Freedom and the Forces of Capital (University of Minnesota Press, 2013) and Climate Changes as Class War: Building Socialism on a Warming Planet (Verso, 2022).  We talk about labor, the green movement, and the complications of degrowth.

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Crew:
Host: C. Derick Varn
Audio Producer: Paul Channel Strip  ( @aufhebenkultur )
Intro and Outro Music by Bitter Lake.
Intro Video Design: Jason Myles

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Crew:
Host: C. Derick Varn
Intro and Outro Music by Bitter Lake.
Intro Video Design: Jason Myles
Art Design: Corn and C. Derick Varn

Links and Social Media:
twitter: @varnvlog
blue sky: @varnvlog.bsky.social
You can find the additional streams on Youtube

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