Residents of the Global North may be justly wringing their hands about flooding, droughts, and freak weather, but the most worrying effects of climate change are expected to hit the countries of the Global South, especially those in the broad regions on either side of the equator. Christian Parenti has reported from that vast area and discusses the shape that climate-related social dislocation is already taking, as well as the militarized plans of the rich countries to keep poor climate refugees out.

California has 1100 miles of coastline; most of it is eroding and all of it is changing in myriad ways. Gary Griggs has written a book about the coast's history, geology, climate, and resources. He also addresses the impact of rising sea levels and the history of oil extraction off California's coast.

How do we know climate change is happening, and will happen? Are climate skeptics correct when they argue that computer modeling, upon which global climate knowledge largely rests, is speculative and unreliable? In his new book, Paul Edwards describes the process of making global climate knowledge and the nature of the scientific consensus that has emerged.

Clifford Odets was called before HUAC in 1952; one of his first plays was about unionized workers choosing to strike. Walt Odets talks about his father's life and work. Also, Dario Robleto's sculptures in the UC Berkeley Art Museum exhibition Human/Nature address multiple phenomena, among them melting glaciers, extinction, and mourning.

It's a grand thought experiment rooted in one man's passion for the environment. In The World Without Us, Alan Weisman asks, What would happen if humans suddenly disappeared? Which human creations would last, and which would not? And would nature ever fully recover?

What's unprecedented about the current economic meltdown? Can national governments effectively address the crisis, or are people's movements a better source of ideas? And why should the situation of workers in China matter to people everywhere? Jeremy Brecher and Tim Costello, co-directors of the Global Labor Strategies project, share their ideas.