Maxwell School News

Farhana Sultana, professor of geography and the environment, has edited and contributed to this collection, which exposes how legacies of colonialism, imperialism, and capitalism co-produce and exacerbate the climate crisis, create disproportionate impacts on those who contributed the least to climate change, and influence global and local responses. (Routledge, 2024).

The Maxwell School professor talked about the effects of climate change and importance of geographical knowledge during her remarks for the Voices from the Global South series.

Playing into those politics are gasoline prices, which have become a partial barometer of economic security, says Matthew Huber, professor of geography and environment. He also notes that that the oil and gas industry has history of funding research that contradicts climate science.

“This is a massive flooding event...and the floods were quite rapid in their onset. There are over 5 million people who are marooned or stranded and devasted across 11 districts, 23 reported deaths now but those figures will rise and relief cannot reach many people,” says Farhana Sultana, professor of geography and the environment. 

Shana Gadarian, professor of political science, notes that while rising temperatures may not shape vote choice directly in the United States this year, they will likely increase the salience of climate as an issue. “This will especially be the case for candidates on the left, where voters name the environment and climate as issues they care about,” she says.

“If we can’t find a way to do decarbonization and climate policy, in addition to materially improving working people’s lives…I really do fear that a lot of working people aren’t going to be that sympathetic to the climate agenda,” says Matthew Huber, professor of geography and the environment.

“There is a quite substantial lag between addition of atmospheric carbon due to wildfire and the eventual removal of at least some of it by the regrowing forest. So, over the course of those decades, the net impact of the fires is a contribution to climate warming,” says Jacob Bendix, professor emeritus of geography and the environment. 

“Now this is where we reached this impasse where if we really want to totally restructure the grid, totally grow it in ways that can serve decarbonization, and AI...then perhaps this sort of more integrated, more central planning, more coordinated and socialized investment model could be more useful than this very scattered and sort of fragmented system we have now,” says Matt Huber, professor of geography and the environment.

“The turn to a ‘politics of building’ is a welcome change in environmental thinking, but the green Left is still at odds in important ways with the labor movement, which better understands what is needed for deep decarbonization and, most importantly, has the power to help bring it about,” writes Matthew Huber, professor of geography and the environment.

“We try to explain the environmental, economic and social benefits as well as possible unintended consequences and risks of the net-zero transition to decision makers,” says Jay Golden, founder and director of the lab and the Pontarelli Professor of Environmental Sustainability and Finance in the Maxwell School.

“Globally, safe water access for all can be achieved only by involving Indigenous and local communities in water governance and climate planning. People are not voiceless, they simply remain unheard. The way forward is through listening,” says Farhana Sultana, professor of geography and the environment.

While there is an unavoidable conflict in a petrostate hosting a climate summit, it may also be fitting: The country that was home to the oil industry’s beginnings may also host negotiations that could one day bring the petroleum era to an end. “It is possible to frame it as something of a closure,” says Natalie Koch, professor of geography and the environment.

Women in Bangladesh suffer disproportionately during floods, as Farhana Sultana, professor of geography and the environment, has documented in a study, in part because they bear the brunt of responsibility for managing water and food for their household, as well as taking care of their children.

"One of the challenges that's coming out of the COP is a focus on language rather than actual politics," says Farhana Sultana, professor of geography and the environment. "So we can talk about abated/unabated [fossil fuels], whether there's possibilities for different forms of use, which source it's coming from. But I think what we really need to focus on is the overall production."

"President Biden promised a 'whole of government' approach to the climate crisis after taking office. But his absence at the COP28 meeting signals a lack of interest in the dangers of the ongoing climate crisis. Given that the United States is the world's largest emitter, this should be an international scandal," says Matthew Huber, professor of geography and the environment.

“Carbon inequality is effectively a colonisation of the atmosphere by the capitalist elite of the planet through hyper-consumption and pollution, while the cost of that climate coloniality is borne disproportionately by the marginalised and vulnerable communities in developing countries,” says Farhana Sultana, professor of geography and the environment.

In his two-part essay on the Build Public Renewables Act (BPRA), Professor of Geography and the Environment Matthew Huber examines the labor question and assesses dubious campaign claims that BPRA is a climate victory.

“As the world prepares for COP28, the onus is on global leaders, corporations and individuals to rise to the occasion and champion the cause of climate justice. Wealthy nations must start putting real funding towards loss and damage, while ramping up their mitigation and adaptation efforts, and reining in the influence of the fossil fuel industry in climate policies,” Farhana Sultana, professor of geography and the environment, writes in The Guardian.

“Unlike people, climate change doesn’t take a holiday,” says Robert Wilson, associate professor of geography and the environment. “In coming years, tourists will need to prepare to evacuate from vacation spots, often with little notice.” 

"Rather than tackling the problem of who owns and controls fossil-fuel based production (a relative minority of society), carbon behaviouralism aims its sights on the “irresponsible” choices of millions of consumers of all classes," writes Matt Huber, professor of geography and the environment.