Nature is Not Natural: Climate Change's Challenge to Democracy

Summary: Alex interviews Duke University law professor Jedediah Purdy about the political history of nature and its uncertain future. It's the first episode of 2017. Happy new year! Anywhere you look on the planet, you will find evidence of human behaviour: metalloids in the soil, greenhouse gases in the air, a vortex of trash in the oceans. That is why some scientists have proposed that we are now living in a new geologic epoch. It's called the Anthropocene: the age of humans. Now that we are a literal force of nature, what world will we make? Jedediah Purdy wrestles with that question in his book, After Nature: A Politics for the Anthropocene (Harvard University Press). Cited is a podcast and radio show produced out the world class Michael Smith Laboratories at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. It is written, edited, produced and hosted by Sam Fenn, Gordon Katic and Alexander Kim. If you like the show, please subscribe, rate and review the show on iTunes; follow us on Twitter; like us on Facebook; and send us an email to let us know what you think at cited.podcast@ubc.ca. Cited is supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. We thank them for their support.