Launched in 2024, the Department of Geography and Environment’s ‘Sustainability’ public lecture series explores the complexities of sustainability through a social-science lens.
Drawing on our expertise in environmental economics, biodiversity, climate change, development, environmental justice, political ecology, and sustainable finance, each lecture will deepen your understanding of sustainability and its critical role in shaping our world.
Upcoming events
Autumn Term 2024
White Nationalism and GOP Climate Obstruction
Thursday 10 October
6.30-8pm
Sheikh Zayed Theatre
Speaker: Prof Laura Pulido
In this talk, Laura Pulido considers the relationship between U.S. white nationalism and the Republican Party’s (GOP) record of climate obstruction.
Though the fossil fuel industry’s campaign of disinformation has been well-documented, less understood are the politicians who do its bidding. While many assume the state is simply implementing the desires of the fossil fuel industry, what is called, regulatory capture, this assumes a nonracial state.
Laura argues that regulatory capture does not fully explain the current GOP’s climate obstruction. Instead, she suggests that white nationalism has contributed to this process.
White nationalism generates such profound energy that GOP politicians actively cultivate it to support multiple agendas. Consequently, it has transformed the political landscape. It contributes to climate obstruction in various ways, including through elections, serving as a distraction, and producing new discourses and strategies that are deployed against climate action.
By focusing on three historical moments: the Tea Party movement (2009-15), the Trump Presidency (2015-19), and the War on Wokeness (2021-present), Laura shows how white nationalism supports climate obstruction.
Winter Term 2025
A Lecture by Edward B. Barbier
Winter Term 2025
Speaker: Prof Edward B. Barbier
Edward B. Barbier is a University Distinguished Professor in the Department of Economics, Colorado State University and a Senior Scholar in the School of Global Environmental Sustainability. His main expertise is environmental and resource economics as well as international environmental policy. He has consulted for a variety of national, international and non-governmental agencies, including many UN organizations, the World Bank and the OECD. He has authored over 350 peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters, written or edited 27 books, and published in popular journals and social media. Barbier is a Fellow of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists and is a highly cited scholar on global environmental and sustainability issues. His latest book is the award-winning Economics for a Fragile Planet, Cambridge University Press.
Details to be announced