The climate crisis is changing the way nations think about food, energy, resources, war and peace. Melting ice caps are opening up new trade routes fought over by the world’s great powers, conflicts are waged over food and mineral resources, shifting climates are fuelling migration – and Donald Trump says it’s all just a scam.

Join Arthur Snell as he discusses his new book Elemental: the new geography of climate change and how we survive it. Spanning conflict in the Sahel, Russia’s war in Ukraine, the US coveting Greenland, NEOM in Saudi Arabia, and China’s energy push, Snell explores how the climate crisis is now in every part of our politics. But while there is much to concern us here, there’s hope too. The world faces various futures, and it can adapt and respond to the realities of a changing climate.

📕 Buy Elemental: The New Geography of Climate Change and How We Survive it

https://uk.bookshop.org/a/8711/9781035412945

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Chapters: 

00:00 Introduction

01:20 The Petro-State Panic: Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the End of Oil

03:32 The Sahel Crisis: Climate Migration and Fragile States

08:24 Uranium & Mercenaries: Russia vs. France in Africa

10:25 The Arctic: Melting Ice, Shipping Routes, and Donald Trump

16:21 Ukraine: Why Putin is Weaponizing Food and Farmland

21:35 China’s Monopoly & Russia’s Future as an “Economic Colony”

28:18 The Surprising Winners: Morocco, Interconnectors, and Climate Hope

32:41 Outro

Credits: Presented by Sian Norris

Audio engineering by James Battershill

Theme song ‘Odyssey’ performed by Edward Abela

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