Climate Change Oppression: A Podcast with Amali Tower

“It’s not difficult to understand that a population that makes its livelihood off the land would find climate change oppressive, and would find climate change to be tantamount to persecution.”

By
●
Environment
●
November 16, 2023

All signs indicate that 2023 will be the hottest year on record, yet again. If this sounds like something you’ve heard before, it is. Every year it seems like records are set, broken, and then broken again in cities, states, countries, and regions across the world. The heat, droughts, floods, and storms are putting pressure on people and their livelihoods, primarily in the Global South. As founder and executive director of the organization Climate Refugees, Amali Tower explains in this podcast, these climate disruptions are causing more and more displacement in the world, and each year the number of displaced people increases by the millions. Border Chronicle readers should recognize Amali’s name: this is not only her second podcast (please check out the first one here), she also wrote a piece for us one year ago titled “Finding a Solution to Climate Displacement: Time to Divert Border Enforcement Billions into Loss and Damage Finance”.

In this conversation, as we approach the annual United Nations Climate Change Conference in the United Arab Emirates (that begins on November 30), Amali offers a provocative reframing of climate change and its impact on people. Climate change, she says, is a form of oppression for the majority of the world. By placing climate as an equivalent to persecution (similar to political, economic, or racial persecution), she challenges prevalent Global North narratives and offers new ways to view, think about, and tackle climate and displacement in the world. She asks listeners to consider this following question when thinking about people on the move: “How has the situation risen to such an oppressive level that I have absolutely no recourse but to leave my home country?” And, finally, Amali insists that it is the people with these lived experiences who should be leading the important climate conversations.  Listen to this podcast and you might not think about climate and migration in the same way again.  

Please check out this report that Climate Refugees published in August.

The Border Chronicle relies on you to keep the lights on. Support local border journalism today by becoming a paid subscriber for just $6 a month or $60 a year.

Author
Todd Miller

Todd Miller is Editor-in-Chief and co-founder of The Border Chronicle. He is the author of four books that examine border militarization and its externalization, surveillance technology and industry, climate change, and the search for alternatives. His books include Build Bridges, Not Walls: A Journey to a World Without Borders (City Lights, 2021) Empire of Borders: The Expansion of the U.S. Border Around the World (Verso, 2019),  Storming the Wall: Climate Change, Migration, and Homeland Security (City Lights, 2017), and Border Patrol Nation: Dispatches from the Front Lines of Homeland Security (City Lights, 2014).

Todd’s forthcoming book is a deep examination of water as a border issue in an age of climate-induced heat waves and drought. It will be published by Seven Stories Press in 2027.

Besides The Border Chronicle, articles by Todd have appeared in the New York Times, The Nation, San Francisco Chronicle, In These Times, Guernica, TomDispatch, and Al Jazeera English, among other places. He has also authored and co-authored reports on border surveillance, the border industrial complex, and climate change for the Amsterdam-based Transnational Institute, where he is a fellow.

Todd’s book Storming the Wall received the Izzy Award in 2018 for “path-breaking and in-depth reporting.” He also received first place in “Community immigration reporting” by the Arizona Press Club in 2013. Todd has a bachelor’s degree in Latin American Studies and Journalism from Prescott College, where he is also an adjunct professor.

In his spare time, Todd likes to travel, read, philosophize, and hang out with his two kids—whether it be going to a dance recital or being a basketball coach.

Related Articles
Salvemos Las Lagunas: A Morning with the Collective Working to Save Mexicali’s Last Urban Wetlands
By
●
Environment
●
September 8, 2026

The New River flows north across the US-Mexico border, where its lagoons provide vital habitat for hundreds of birds. For a decade, a community organization has worked to protect these crucial waterways.

Swarm Intelligence: A Reporter’s Notebook on the Freedom of Movement in the Maasai Borderlands
By
●
Environment
●
September 3, 2026

Could solutions to climate woes such as drought be found in the freedom of mobility? This on-the-ground report from the Kenya-Tanzania border examines that question and more.

Wall Watch: Mapping Trump’s $46 Billion Border Mega-Project
By &
●
Border Militarization
●
August 25, 2026

In this week’s podcast, Melissa del Bosque and Geographer Dugan Meyer explain how the Border Chronicle’s new project, Wall Watch, helps residents document and understand the massive construction project underway at the U.S.-Mexico border.