Green Dreams: A Podcast Series

Free! Just us for a one-night eco-extravaganza!

Green Dreams: A Podcast Series, Power Shift: Keywords for a New Politics of Energy and The Canadian Climate Backtracker

6:30 pm to 9:30 pm / Society Clubhouse / 967 College St, Toronto, ON

Please join us for the launch of the Green Dreams, a five-part podcast series developed by Cited Podcast and the book Power Shift: Keywords for a New Politics of Energy, published by West Virginia University Press. We will also be introducing attendees to the Canadian Climate Backtracker.

Green Dreams

Each episode of Green Dreams tells the story of a radical environmental thinker. Each episode of Green Dreams tells the story of a radical environmental thinker and their utopian (or dystopian) dreams for our green future. Should we make that dream a reality, or is it actually a nightmare? Over approximately six episodes, we will explore influential environmental theorists, policy wonks, activists, technologists, and other experts who have shaped modern environmental politics–sometimes for the better, and sometimes for the worse. Our ultimate goal is to reveal the underlying political and theoretical traditions animating today’s competing environmental visions. Episodes include:

The Green Cosmos: Gerard O’Neill’s Space Utopia

In the 1970s, Gerard O’Neill drew up detailed plans for large space colonies. The Princeton physicist claimed that these colonies could beam limitless energy back down to Earth, solving all our environmental problems. As climate change accelerates, O’Neill’s once-forgotten green dream has become influential again; many of today’s corporate space evangelists refer to themselves as “Jerry’s Kids.” For solutions to Earth’s problems, should we look to the stars?

The Green Wonks: The Birth of Liberal Environmentalism

An Alberta oil man and a socialist policy wonk from Saskatchewan banded together to think up “eco-development,” a precursor to today’s sustainable development. This unlikely duo forged a global consensus at the United Nations, effectively codifying the reigning orthodoxy of liberal environmental governance. They told us that capitalism and sustainability are indeed compatible. Might that be the most utopian of all green dreams?

The Green Dragon: China’s Search for Ecological Civilization

A former journalist and environmental campaigner named Pan Yue rose through the ranks of the Chinese Communist Party championing the concept of “ecological civilization.” This green dream combines elements of Daoism and Confucianism to suggest a radical re-orientation of humanity’s relationship to the natural world. Is the idea a radical alternative to sustainable development, as the CCP claims? Or is it just a cynical cover for eco-authoritarianism?

The Green Lifeboat: Garrett Hardin’s Tragic Environmentalism

An ecologist in California claimed that iron laws of nature locked humanity into destroying our environment. This meant that we must reign in unfettered capitalism, lest we over-populate our world and deplete our common resources. That argument made Garrett Hardin one of the most-influential and most-celebrated environmentalists to ever live. Yet, he harbored a dark secret that made his green dream a green nightmare.

The Green Monkey Wrench: Dave Foreman’s Guide to Ecological Sabotage

A cowboy hat-wearing Goldwater conservative named Dave Foreman got religion and then founded the most radical environmental group of recent memory, Earth First! They dreamed of a ‘deep ecology’ that recognized the inherent value of nature, and they committed to protecting that nature at almost any cost. Yet, in putting the earth first, was humanity relegated to a distant second place?

Green Dreams was funded by a SSHRC Connection Grant (PI Imre Szeman, Co-I Tanner Mirrlees) and produced by Cited Media. To contact Cited: gordon@citedmedia.ca

Power Shift: Keywords for a New Politics of Energy

Power Shift traces recent social and cultural shifts in how we understand and imagine energy, the environment, and the challenges of global warming. Across the globe, the need to transition to renewables has become the guiding reality of our energy present and future, despite continuing resistance to change. But what does this moment of energy transition look like for those struggling to make it happen in a way that benefits every individual and all communities?

Featuring brief essays on 101 key terms by scholars, artists, and activists from around the world and across disciplines, Power Shift offers an expansive, kaleidoscopic guide to the history of petromodernity, recent technological and social developments, and pathways to new energy futures. The book offers new insights into the emergent politics of energy, contrasting today’s environmental and climate movements with the geopolitical contests of the Cold War era. It explores the still unfolding story of energy transition by focusing on the ongoing struggles of communities and individuals against decisions made by corporations, governments, and international organizations.

Canadian Climate Backtracker

The Canadian Climate Backtracker is a new public resource designed to monitor and document policy regression on climate commitments made by the Canadian federal government. Launched by the Institute for Environment, Conservation and Sustainability at the University of Toronto Scarborough in June 2025, the Backtracker addresses a crucial and under-examined gap in the public understanding of Canadian climate policy. The Backtracker shows how promises by governments to mitigate climate change are frequently rolled back, delayed, quietly abandoned, or rhetorically reframed in ways that can obscure the loss of climate ambitions and actions. These reversals, while sometimes identified by journalists or advocacy organizations as they happen, are seldom tracked systematically. The Backtracker makes these policy reversals visible and accessible and show them to be not just as isolated policy moves, but part of a broader political dynamic now in process and gaining strength—what we describe as climate backtracking.