Providing ideas to help make the world a better place for this and future generations
#1621 Climate Monologues, Stories of Climate Change and the plight of all Irthlingz
I caught up with Sharon Abreu after a performance of her one woman show, The Climate Monologues, at the United Solo Theatre in New York City. Sharon channels the voices of people affected by climate change, and brings their stories to life via monologues and music. Check out more by visiting:
climatemonologues.com, irthlingz.com and send Sharon a tweet @SharonAbreu
This episode of 50 Shades of Green Divas features Syd Mandelbaum, founder of Rock and Wrap it Up, an anti-poverty think tank, which works to feed those in need by taking unserved food from concert and sporting events, and delivering what is collected to local food charities. This not only helps feed those who go hungry, it minimizes waste in landfills, and thus reduces greenhouse gas emissions. The organization is also working to feed veterans and get needed supplies to women who cannot afford feminine products. For more information go to rockandwrapitup.org
Kandi Mossett of Indigenous Rising Dakota Pipeline
Show #1618 A powerful conversation with Kandi Mossett, of Indigenous Rising, who is literally on the front lines of one of the current battles in the climate justice fight against the Dakota Access Pipeline. There are many reasons you need to listen to Kandi and learn more about what’s at stake.
Crowded trains, broken roads, and traffic jams are all part of the commuting nightmare we face as citizens living in the NY Metro area.
Traffic, what is it good for, absolutely nothing…. Crowded trains, broken roads, and traffic jams are all part of the commuting nightmare we face as citizens living in the NY Metro area. There are solutions at hand, and our guest this week, Alex Matthiessen, who is the Director of the Move NY Campaign, and President of The Blue Marble Project is working on those solutions. How can the NY Fair Plan help decrease traffic congestion, and create a source of funding for the MTA and City Transit to make improvements to fix the problems? It’s time to bring our transportation system into the 21st century. Listen in and learn how. Get more info at iheartmoveny.org
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This week’s show goes “nuclear” as we talk to John Kelly, former Director of Licensing at the Indian Point Nuclear Energy Center
This week’s show goes “nuclear” as we talk to John Kelly, former Director of Licensing at the Indian Point Nuclear Energy Center, which is currently operated by Entergy. He was also the radiation protection manager at the plant, and has vast knowledge of plant operations, and how nuclear power works to create energy. Tune in to find out how spent fuel rods are stored, and other facts about the nuclear industry. For more info go to nrc.gov (see nuclear reactors).
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Electric cars are cool, electric cars are fun, electric cars don’t pollute the air we breathe, so why aren’t there more of them on the road? My co-host Brian Horowtiz and I chat about this and other topics, with my guest Seth Leitman, Green Living Guy. Seth is an EV car aficionado, and author of a series of books called the Green Guru Guides. He is working with the Solarize initiative in Westchester County to promote solar energy. Seth will be lecturing and touring colleges this Spring, to spread the word about green living. For more information go to greenlivingguy.com
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My guest this week is Victor Provenzano, eco-consultant and author, who has written articles for clean tech websites. His article for Clean Technics, entitled The Intermittence of Wind and Solar, has been well received, and has been widely circulated. In addition, Victor is currently working on a new book, Beyond Global Warming, which will emphasize that solutions to current ecological problems are being developed, and will hopefully be put into place within the next decade. You can also check out Reinventing Fire: Bold Business Solutions For The New Energy Era, by Amory Lovins, to get more detailed data, analysis and modeling regarding the future of energy. For more info go to Rocky Mountain Institute: rmi.org
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It is no secret that mainstream media coverage of environmental issues is slow-moving, and many stories go un-reported in the press. Climate change deniers spout their ideology with reckless abandon. Enter my guest this week, Andrew Nikiforuk, an award winning environmental writer based in Calgary, Canada, who has written a new book about the hydraulic fracturing industry entitled Slick Water: Fracking and One Insider’s Stand Against the World’s Most Powerful Industry. The book traces the saga of Jessica Ernst, and the path she takes to hold Encana Oil and Canada’s environmental government agencies, responsible for secretly fracking hundreds of gas wells around her home, in a rural area northeast of Calgary. A cover-up ensues, which leads Ms. Ernst to take legal action against the various parties for their role in contaminating land, water and air in her community. For more information andrewnikiforuk.com and to amazon.com to check out his new and older works.
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This weeks episode takes us to the Global Women’s Climate Justice Day of Action at the UN, sponsored by the Women’s Earth and Climate Action Network (WECAN). This event was attended by women from over 50 countries. To have such a collection of amazing women in one place, who presented stories of courage and resilience in combating climate change was deeply touching. Women play a key role in adapting solutions to climate change, and it was an honor to speak with WECAN founder Osprey Lake, environmentalist visionary Sally Ranney, as well as Neha Misra founder of Solar Sister, Harriet Shugarman Executive Director of ClimateMama, Executive Director of CELF Katie Ginsberg and student Coreena, and Patricia Gualinga-Montalvo, Indigenous Leader of Ecuador, whose interview was translated by Amazon Watch’s Executive Director Leila Salazar-López. For more information visit wecaninternational.org
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By Susan Lutz
Forests are dying. Polar bears starving, ice caps shrinking. The list grows. We’ve spent a lifetime stomping on the planet and now world leaders gather in the hopes of finding a solution before we hit the tipping point. Can we pull back? Can we save ourselves?
I read positive stories: a community garden in Haiti becomes a center of growth and revitalization; the price of solar power is dropping fast and becoming an extremely viable alternative energy source; climate adapted strategies are manifesting and working to stabilize wildlife. Around towns, I see trees being planted, youth conversing about important issues. This is great. And there are many more examples of success and ideas which are moving us forward.
Yet, I read bad news, too: the UK starts to cut millions of dollars from its renewable resources; the threat of disease increases due to insects gaining the ability to live longer and travel farther; the sea level is rising; and of course, we’ve all seen the pictures of the polar bears starving. Some days, it’s hard to read the news. Some days it does seem like we’re just going to tip over and sink.
I recently heard a lecture on the cause and effect of our actions and the impact our choices have on climate change. The most interesting, and most powerful, I thought, was this: What are we willing to give up? In this country, the majority of cars during rush hour consist of single drivers. Bottled water and soda fill our vending machines, and we don’t give a second thought to the short pleasure we get versus the amount of toxins in each bottle. We like our stuff. We like our creams, cars, deals online, new phones, and processed, over-packaged foods.
The summit on climate change brings together world leaders. The model of coming together to talk; understanding our differences; taking note of those suffering the most; and, moving forward with dialogue. Regardless of how difficult the task is, it is one we must implement from the highest of offices to the grass-roots level.
We wait too long to act. We wait to change gun laws until terror steps into our cafes (if even then). We wait to ban trophy hunting and poaching and watch as species become threatened and face habitat loss and even become extinct. We’re slowly melting under the take-the-money-and-run philosophy of getting what we need, now, and forgetting how it will hurt us in the future.
When my son picked up an acorn the other day, he thought it was the grandest of discoveries. I held it up and told him it was amazing. We carried it with us as if it were a piece of gold. Our food supply, our land, our water – they truly are gold. We must realize this now, or we will watch as the world melts and slowly slips away.
“Between its celebrations of privilege, and the angst of its reckonings, human life gathers unto itself a chaos of contradictions… If we are ceaseless tamperers, we are also from time to time unobtrusive, Though we shout, so may we whisper.” (Michael Charles Tobias, quote from his work, After Eden: History, Ecology and Conscience) My guest this week is Michael C. Tobias, President of Dancing Star Foundation, who is a global ecologist, humanitarian, explorer, author, filmmaker, educator and animal rights activist. 195 nations are set to converge in Paris, a city recently struck by incomprehensible acts of terrorism, for the COP 21 (Conference of Parties), with the hopes of reaching an agreement to to set limits on carbon emissions to reduce the detrimental effects of global warming. Rich and poor nations must gather to form partnerships to be agents of change, rather than agents of destruction. Negative ideology has to be redirected, and ethics, compassion and morality, along with science and technology must lead the way to solutions. For more information go to www.dancingstarfoundation.org
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How compassionate is the New York State Compassionate Care Act of 2014 legalizing the use of medical marijuana? My guest this week, New York State Senator Liz Krueger, a lead advocate for legalizing marijuana for both medicinal and also for recreational use, gives us some insight into the pros and cons of the current bill, and why it needs to be enhanced to allow coverage for more diseases. Senator Krueger has also sponsored the Fossil Fuel Divestment Act to limit the investment in oil and gas stocks in NYS pension funds. For more information go to: nysenate.gov/senators/Liz-Kruger or send a tweet @LizKrueger
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