Preview: The Radio Ecoshock Show
The Radio Ecoshock ShowLatest science, authors, issues - from climate change, oceans, forests, pollution, Peak Oil, the economy, and peace. Ready for re-broadcast, computer, IPOD, or mp3 player. No copyright. As heard on CFRO Vancouver, and over 48 college & community radLast Build Date: Tue, 07 Feb 2012 23:54:27 PST Copyright: This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License
Fracking - The Rest of the Story Tue, 07 Feb 2012 23:54:27 PST src="http://www.archive.org/embed/ES120208" width="320" height="60" frameborder="0"> http://bit.ly/yVj7Jt Gasland director Josh Fox arrested at U.S. Congress Hearing on Fracking Feb 1, 2012. Speakers Rep Harris (R-MD), Rep Miller (D-NC), Kathleen Sgamma (Industry), John Fenton (well poisoned, Pavillion Wyoming), Theo Colborne (on air pollution health impacts of fracking, for Great Lakes United NGO). Then interview with EPA whistle-blower Dr. Marsha Coleman-Adebayo, inspiration for the No Fear Act. Radio Ecoshock 120208 1 hour. In this program, you'll hear the voices of Congress, and the voices Congress doesn't want you to hear. First Josh Fox, the Oscar nominated director of the documentary "Gasland" is arrested at the Energy and Environment Subcommittee - on EPA Hydraulic Fracturing Research. Acting Chair Andy Harris had Fox arrested for trying to film this Hearing, despite pleas from minority head Brad Miller, for freedom of the press. Then listen Congressman Harris denounce Obama and the EPA for lack of "transparency". Why doesn't he want to be on camera? Harris attacks the EPA, and promotes the glories of the oil and gas industry, especially fracking.But first, we hear the voices Congress didn't. Fred Fenton, rancher from Pavillion Wyoming, speaks of the suffering and neglect of those living in gas industry polluted zones. His is just one of several suffering as groundwater was poisoned by fracking chemicals. Listen to 4 speakers in the press conference call organized by WORC, the Western Organization of Resource Councils. (25 min). Here is the Q and A (16 min)US Representative Andy Harris, Republican from Maryland denounced the EPA study - that showed hydraulic fracking for gas poisoned ground water in Pavillion, Wyoming. The wells are owned by the Calgary-based Canadian energy company Encana.Here is a link to that draft study, and this to the press release that went with it.Congressman Brad Miller, Democrat from North Carolina shows up as the only person to speak for fracking victims and the EPA.Also in this program: Theo Colborne of TEDX, The Endocrine Disruption Exchange, tells you about the choking, toxic air-born chemicals from fracking. At this Energy and Environment Subcommittee - EPA Hydraulic Fracturing Research, held February 1st, 2012 in Washington, the EPA witness was Regional Administrator James B. Martin. His defense of the science and his agency was weak.As we'll hear in our concluding interview with whistle-blower Marsha Coleman-Adebayo, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is already weakened from within by persistent racism, sexism, and cover-ups for corporate America.This program is stuffed with audio. Find still more bonus audio and source material linked below.THE HOUSE HEARING ON FRACKINGAs Committee Sub-Chairman Andy Harris begins, and calls repeatedly for "transparency", keep in mind his action before the web cameras were turned on. Harris had Josh Fox, the famous Director of the Oscar-nominated fracking film "Gas Land" arrested.In our program, you hear the opening remarks of Rep Harris, a powerful spokesman for the oil and gas industry, promoter of fracking, and acidic critic of the Environmental Protection Agency, or any need for the Federal Government to interfere with industry. Even when sick citizens call for action, when the State fails to protect them.Then a rebuttal by Democratic Congressman Brad Miller. Miller, from North Carolina, seems to be the only one in the room who cares about fracking victims, and supports the EPA. Maybe that is because Miller is not seeking re-election in North Carolina - so he doesn't need the oil and gas industry kick-back money (I'm sorry, "campaign donations") that most Congressmen and Senators crave.The witnesses were heavily stacked in favor of the fossil industry. Wyoming sent Tom Doll, from the Wyoming Oil & Gas Conservation Commission. The State makes big money from fracking. Tom Doll claimed the EPA caused the pollution they found just by drilling two test wells. Even the man-made chemicals must have come from this testing,[...]
Forever Planting (for Peak Oil & Climate Change) Wed, 01 Feb 2012 14:26:53 PST src="http://www.archive.org/embed/ES120201" width="320" height="120" frameborder="0"> http://bit.ly/xFN24v Speech by Wes Jackson of the Land Institute to ASPO 2011 (the Association for the Study of Peak Oil and Gas USA) in Washington D.C. Recorded by Gerri Williams for Ecoshock. Plus, carbon-cycle Australian scientist Dr. Michael Raupach of CSIRO on carbon to soil solutions, including biochar. Radio Ecoshock 120201 1 hourPLANTING A LONG-TERM SOLUTION We depend utterly on fossil fuels, especially to grow our food. From natural gas comes the millions of tons of fertilizers. Oil provides herbicides and pesticides. All is planted and harvested with oil power, driven, shipped or flown to your table. For now. Until fossil fuels become too expensive, too rare, too polluting to use. We only have a short time to find other ways. Wes Jackson offers some answers, for our food supply during peak oil and climate change. Raised on a Kansas farm, Jackson is a biologist, a geneticist, and botanist. In 1976 he left university life to found "The Land Institute", which he still heads. He's going to explain "natural systems agriculture", in a powerful speech given to the Association for the Study of Peak Oil USA. Recorded in Washington D.C. November 4, 2011 by Gerri Williams for Radio Ecoshock. Then we'll hear a different assessment of the potential for sequestering carbon in the soil, and biochar, from carbon cycle expert Dr. Michael Raupach of the Australian national science agency, CSIRO. This Radio Ecoshock program is part of our "Big Picture" solutions series.(image)
Oil to Occupy: The Restless West Coast Tue, 24 Jan 2012 21:23:38 PST src="http://www.archive.org/embed/ES120125" width="320" height="120" frameborder="0"> http://bit.ly/waNOYN "Oil Free Coast" 3 speakers against Tar Sands pipelines and tankers in Canada, including First Nations. Then on-scene audio from Occupy Wall St West in San Francisco Jan 20th. Awaiting arrest, and crowd microphones against corporate takeover.Two weeks ago on Radio Ecoshock we heard from Australia and the distant past. Last week a top British scientist warned us of super-dangerous climate change. Now we head for the restless West Coast of North America. In Canada, trillion-dollar corporations and countries are desperately searching for a way to ship dirty Tar Sands crude, after the Obama administration said "No" to the Keystone XL pipeline. They want to build a new pipeline across the Rocky Mountains, across countless rivers and wilderness, across native lands.And two Texas billionaires are plotting to turn the once green city of Vancouver into a major oil shipping port.They want to make more billions polluting the atmosphere and changing the climate forever.You will hear three speakers in a packed public meeting promise neither plot will succeed.Then we'll take to the streets of San Francisco, with as-it-happens audio during the Occupy Wall Street West protests. Our Bay Area correspondent Karen Nyhus interviews environmentalist Ananda Tan as he waits with locked arms to be arrested. Then the risky radio the mainstream won't dare: you are there as the crowd microphone chants the words of Ted Nace, on the Court House steps, demanding justice. That's in our second half hour.From tanker mania to Wall Street greed, I'm Alex Smith, and this is Radio Ecoshock.OIL FREE COAST On Sunday January 22nd I recorded "Oil Free Coast, Tankers and Pipelines" at the Roundhouse Community Centre in downtown Vancouver, Canada. The event began with the voice of an amazing ten-year-old singer and song-writer, little Ta' Kaiya Blaney, the First Nations wonder. I'll play you a minute of her anti-tanker song "Shallow Water" - then we'll go to our speakers Art Sterritt, Rex Weyler and Nathan Cullen. Listen to the whole song. Here are links to the You tube video of "Shallow Waters" and the Ta' Kaiya Blaney web site. More details on the song and recording from You tube:"10 year old Ta'Kaiya Blaney is Sliammon First Nation from B.C., Canada. Along with singing, songwriting, and acting, she is concerned about the environment, especially the preservation of marine and coastal wildlife. Shallow Waters was a semi-finalist in the 2010 David Suzuki Songwriting Contest, Playlist for the Planet. The song was recorded in studio by Audio Producer Joe Cruz. Footage from Vancouver, BC was filmed by Colter Ripley. Footage of the traditional ocean-going canoe from the Squamish Nation (Burrard Inlet, North Vancouver, BC) ; Ta'Kaiya in traditional cedar bark regalia (Tofino, BC); the Oil Refinery in Burrard Inlet; and the Vancouver Aquarium was filmed by Tina House. Additional footage contributed from Canada Greenpeace and Living Oceans Society. Lyrics on Drychum channel."Ta' Kaiya belted it out live at the Roundhouse, surprising us with such a strong adult voice from a small young singer. She will wow delegates at the Rio 2012 Conference. Also look for her song "Earth Revolution". THE NORTH TAR SANDS PIPELINELet's start with the northern pipeline, proposed by the Enbridge Corporation, crossing thousands of miles of mountains and wilderness, reaching from the climate-killing Tar Sands to the delicate fjords of Canada's West Coast. Our host is Linda Kemp, a sustainable living expert from Langara College.[Art Sterritt presentation]That was Coastal First Nations leader Art Sterritt, recorded January 22nd, in Vancouver, Canada by Alex Smith. The event "Oil Free Coast, Tankers and Pipelines" was at the Roundhouse Community Centre in downtown Vancouver. It was presented by Coastal First Nations, and by Member of Parliament Nathan Cullen.Sterritt gave a very moving speech, saying British Columbia w[...]
Kevin Anderson: The Brutal Logic of Climate Change Wed, 18 Jan 2012 15:08:22 PST src="http://www.archive.org/embed/ES120118" width="380" height="60" frameborder="0"> http://bit.ly/wulkTw "The future is impossible" says Dr. Kevin Anderson, former Director of UK's top climate research institute, the Tyndall Centre. Speech in London lays out our awful tilt toward an unlivable climate. Followed by discussion with Washington's Dr. William Calvin. Welcome. I'm Alex. Are you ready for the bad news about climate change? Really?I'm going to play you a speech too awful to run during the holidays. People with clinical depression and very young children may want to avoid this program.It's also going to be a challenge for our many North American listeners, because our speaker is Kevin Anderson. From his recent post as Director of the Tyndall Centre, the UK's top academic institute researching climate change, Anderson speaks quickly, says a lot, and holds nothing back.This lecture is part of the London School of Economics Department of International Development Friday Lecture Series. The title is "Beyond 'dangerous' climate change: emission scenarios for a new world" Anderson calls it "the brutal logic of climate change." This talk set up a blaze of urgency, and a stiff warning to people and governments: we are failing to address the greatest challenge ever faced by humanity. Something unimaginable is happening.Following this edited-for-radio speech, I'll chat again with Professor William Calvin from the University of Washington. He sees the bleakness, but offers a grain of hope.I'm going to throw you into the deep end with this one. I suggest you download the program from our web site at ecoshock.org, or find links in the blog at ecoshock.info. Things are not what they seem.This speech courtesy of the London School of Economics Lecture Series was recorded October 21st, 2011. The subtitle for this talk is "Brutal Numbers and Tenuous Hope". Dave Roberts of Grist wrote two articles about the implications of this talk, which he called "The Brutal Logic of Climate Change". Try this one, and this one.Find a .pdf of Kevin Anderson's pivotal paper on our near hopeless situation of unfolding climate change here.A recording of the original speech, running 1 hour 28 minutes with a Q and A is here.And you can find the slides for that here.To get a written summary, I can't do better than the Dave Roberts Grist articles linked above. Dave even throws in some helpful graphs.My own conclusions from this speech could be:1. The 2 degree target (keeping below 2 degrees of global mean temperature rise to prevent dangerous climate change) is quite arbitrary, and likely too high. As Dr. James Hansen of NASA points out, we should be at 350 parts per million CO2 to keep the Arctic and Antarctic ice sheets which moderate our climate. In previous history, levels higher than that triggered melting of the ice sheets, and eventually a much hotter greenhouse world. We are currently at 390 ppm and rising fast.2. That 2 degree target is no guarantee of a "safe" climate, but just a 50% chance of staying within merely "dangerous" climate change, and "extremely dangerous climate change".3. As we are almost 1 degree above pre-industrial times already, with at least 1 degree hidden by aerosol pollution (including sulfates from world coal plants) - it may already be too late to stay at 2 degrees.4. The RATE of increase of our emissions is steadily going up, meaning the dangerous impacts of climate change keep getting closer and closer to us in time. Not 2050, but sooner. Yet government reports keep assuming 1 or 2% increase in emissions, when we are generally increasing at 3% over the past few years, and hit almost 6% in 2010. That is a 6 % increase over the increasingly high emissions during all the past years.5. Kevin Anderson is particularly critical of all the government assessments which low-ball the emissions and the impacts. He says some climate scientists try to tell politicians, but those warnings are polished up as they rise through the [...]
CLIMATE MAY FORCE HUMAN EVOLUTION Mon, 09 Jan 2012 23:58:28 PST (object) (embed)http://bit.ly/wTeVfl What caused 5 previous mass extinctions of species? Scientists say we are in the 6th one now. Australian scientist Andrew Glikson reads the past, suggests the troubled future. Dr. Andrew Glikson of Australian National University studied the rocks and the timelines. He's also an expert on asteroid hits. Glikson was the Principal Research Scientist, for the Australian geological Survey Organization. Now he works with the Australian National University, and the Planetary Science Institute. You get a deep 44 minute interview with a world-class climate scientist and geologist - on what the past says about our future under climate change. Dr. William Calvin of the University of Washington is author of over a dozen books, including "Global Fever, How to Treat Climate Change" and "A Brain for All Seasons, Human Evolution and Abrupt Climate Change". We have a short chat, about how the ice ages shaped our brains, and recent signs of climate shift. Followed by Calvin's introduction in a speech at the University of Victoria, by Dr. Colin Campbell of the Sierra Club. Insightful on the way climate shapes our species, and all species.(image)
Oil Shock - The No Growth World Wed, 04 Jan 2012 16:03:02 PST http://bit.ly/zVEXwh Radio Ecoshock 120104 Oil Shock the Post-Growth World with Jeff Rubin, Charles Maxwell from ASPO 2011 and interview with Italy's Ugo Bardi on climate change vs. peak oil.The price of oil hits you at the pump, in your food bill, and everything you buy. What if you can't afford it?For years, I've covered Peak Oil as the story of a limited resource. Meanwhile, the oil industry, glutted with billions in profits, keeps drilling deeper offshore, finds more dirty oil in the Tar Sands. They have a mountain of goo in the "heavy oil" of Venezuela - the industry just needs to build more refineries capable of handling it. And we can always make more oil by liquefying coal!All these options drop from using about one barrel of oil to get 100 barrels, like the pressurized oil wells we grew up, to using one barrel of equivalent energy to get three (like the Tar Sands.) That means many, many times more emissions for every mile or kilometer we drive, house we heat, or factory we run. Oil costs soar and it's a recipe for climate disaster.Meanwhile, big oil companies, aided and abetted by polluting countries like Canada and Russia, are already plotting to drill in the extreme conditions under the Arctic ice. One leak there, stays for centuries. Nobody can clean it up, and the oil-eating bacteria are few in the cold environment. We can't let that happen. Oil companies must not take advantage of the ice they helped melt.What about Peak Oil?Economist Jeff Rubin says we've hit a new kind of peak oil: the peak price our civilization can pay and still grow. We've passed that point now, Rubin says. If China and India grow, Western countries must shrink. And "shrinking" isn't pretty. Expect unemployment, disappointed dreams, and governments drowning in debt they cannot repay.Who is Rubin? He was the Chief Economist at CIBC World Markets, a global-scale bank trading operation. As a forward thinker on energy issues Jeff Rubin gets a lot of press and TV appearances. His 2009 book "Why Your World Is About To Get a Whole Lot Smaller" (8 minute You tube here) shook up the financial world. He predicts an end to globalization, and a return to regional production, due to ever-rising oil prices.In this week's Radio Ecoshock show you hear Jeff Rubin's presentation at ASPO 2011. That was the annual conference of the Association for the Study of Peak Oil and Gas USA, in Washington D.C. at the beginning of November 2011.Then you'll get the main clips from a talk by Charles T. Maxwell. He is the senior Energy Analyst for Weeden Co. Charley's been a top ranked energy authority for years. Charlie outlines who has more oil (very few countries, like Norway and Columbia) and who is running out fast (like Mexico and maybe Saudi Arabia).Rubin and Maxwell were recorded by Radio Ecoshock Washington correspondent Gerri Williams, and presented courtesy of ASP USA. As far as I know, Radio Ecoshock is the only place to find these recordings online.But neither of these gurus include the challenge and damage of climate change in their forecasts. They don't mention it. Why not? To wrap up that angle, we'll finish off the show with a Radio Ecoshock interview with Ugo Bardi. He's a cross-breed, as founder of ASPO Italy, and an editor at the Oildrum.com blog - but also part of the Italian climatologist scene. I'll ask Ugo why these two camps, don't talk much to each other.JEFF RUBINWiki on Jeff Rubin here.Jeff Rubin is a Canadian with a Masters in Economics from McGill University. But he sounds like a Texan, with almost a drawl. Maybe he spent so much time with Texan oil men?Jeff was chief economist from 1992 to 2009 for CIBC World Markets, a huge Canadian global trading and investment company, part of the equally huge Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC). By correctly predicting many trends, Rubin made a lot of people a lot of money. In 2009, Rubin decided to resign from CIBC to pursue h[...]
FUKUSHIMA: TRUTH AND CONSEQUENCES Thu, 29 Dec 2011 15:04:07 PST http://bit.ly/tEreAe Japan announces a fake "cold shutdown" & a new study says 14,000 Americans died of radiation from the Fukushima nuclear accident.COLD SHUTDOWN AT FUKUSHIMA - THE BIG LIEIn his infamous 1925 book "Mein Kamptf" Adolf Hitler coined the term "the big lie". This lie, he said, should be so "colossal" that no once could believe anyone quote "could have the impudence to distort the truth so infamously."This is Alex Smith. I am sorry to report the government of Japan, the Prime Minister of Japan, has resorted to the big lie, trying to cover up the on-going nuclear disaster at the Fukushima Number 1 nuclear power plant.On December 16th, Prime Minister Noda announced all reactors at Fukushima had reached the safe and stable state of "cold shutdown". The accident is over, he said, and carry no further signficant danger to the public of Japan or the world.We'll talk to nuclear industry expert Arnie Gundersen about this lie, and the truth of Fukushima.I'll also interview Janette Sherman, co-author of a peer reviewed paper suggesting 14,000 Americans died due to the wave of radiation that swept over North America in March and April of 2011, after four massive explosions at the Fukushima Dai-Ichi site. That is an idea so shocking, we want to deny it immediately. Radio Ecoshock will investigate. Scroll down for that big story, which you won't see in any mainstream media.You'll also hear a short clip from Japanese activist Kazuhiko Kobayashi, translated from his tour in Germany in October.Kobayashi reveals the secret power structure of Japan, an explanation of how a government with a the sad history of nuclear bombing, could lie now about this horrible nuclear accident, costing still more lives in Japan. The same infernal hidden Troika of power keeps nuclear power going in North America and Europe.So much to hear, to absorb, to know deeply.Here is the big lie, as carried on NHK English language TV from Japan."Japan's Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda says the crippled reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant have been successfully brought to a state of cold shutdown.The state is a target in the second phase of a timetable established by the government and the Tokyo Electric Power Company to bring the plant under control.At a meeting of the government nuclear disaster task force on Friday, Noda declared that the reactors are now stable and that the second phase is complete.He said radiation levels at the periphery of the plant site will remain low if another accident occurs."In this Radio Ecoshock program I interview Arnie Gundersen, a long-time nuclear industry executive, who left the field after blowing the whistle on unsafe reactors. We talk about what "cold shutdown" means, and whether that applies to Fukushima.MORE EXPLOSIONS AT FUKUSHIMA?I also ask Arnie whether there is still a possibility of another explosion at Fukushima Daiichi. Gundersen explains the operator, TEPCO, must constantly pump nitrogen into the reactors, because there is a bubble of hydrogen at the top. The nitrogen is to keep out oxygen, which could lead to another massive explosion, and more serious radiation. If that system fails, another reactor, or three reactors, could blow up again.Gundersen has done calculations on the remaining mass of fuel, now called "corium" because it is a mixture of metals, mostly around 100 tons of hot uranium, but also all the metals used in the fuel rod containers and other inner parts of the reactor, which melted down together.A serious question: could one of these three reactors experience a "China Syndrome"? That is where molten fuel melts through the last of the containment concrete, burning down to the water table below, and then suffers a massive radioactive steam explosion. Arnie calculates that a China Syndrome is unlikely now at Fukushima. There just isn't enough heat piled in the right way to burn all the way out, so long as w[...]
GREEN MUSIC FESTIVAL Mon, 19 Dec 2011 21:11:48 PST http://bit.ly/rOp3k3 Welcome to our annual best of green music show. You'll hear the songs of activism, despair, and love of Mother Earth.So much "blah blah blah" in the media. All those words fill our brain, and miss our hearts.That is where the musicians step in, to move us along. I'm Alex Smith. This year we've added three songs for broken economy. You'll hear two new songs for the Occupy Movement.PLAYLIST WITH LINKS TO THE ARTISTSWe kick off with "Change Change" by the Canadian group Thistle, starring Debra Lee Halinda."Change Change" Thistle 2:43More Thistle music on CD Baby.Next up, some Frackin Good music from Australia, "My Water's On Fire Tonight" with David Holmes and Dean Bekker, from the album "Wholelottafracking Going On""My Water's On Fire Tonight" David Holmes & Dean Bekker 2:32For those tired of the city, here is the Canadian hit group Mother Mother with "Dirty Town.""Dirty Town" Mother Mother 2:28Web site. You are listening to the Radio Ecoshock green music special - eco activist songs from around the world.From Germany, here is Michael Montecrossa with his Fukushima song, "Talkin End Game""Fukushima Song Talkin End Game" Michael Montecrossa 3:51You tube video.Michael's web site.American singer-songwriter Neko Case is best known in the Canadian group "The New Pornographers" Here Neko solos with "Never Turn Your Back on Mother Earth""Never Turn Your Back On Mother Earth" Neko Case 2:10Let's dive back down under. We'll start with Australia's Combat Wombat from a benefit album to stop the destructive Lake Cowal gold mine proposed by Barrick. This song is called "Alternative Energy" Combat Wombat (from the album "Water More Precious Than Gold"). The album isn't online any longer, but you can hear more tracks from it in this April 27th 2006 "Podcasting Nimbin" show.From New Zealand, with a Polynesia flavor, here is the group Te Vaka, with the song "Our Ocean" written for Greenpeace New Zealand."Our Ocean" Te VakaTheir web site is cool.You are tuned to the Radio Ecoshock Green Music festival. This is the Seattle Band, Million Dollar Nile with their song "Don't Kilowatt"."Don't Kilowatt" Million Dollar Nile 4:10Before we get to our set of new Occupy songs, let's remember what this Earth is all about.We start with "Hallowed Be Thy Ground" by Casey Neill You tube video of that song here (audio not as good as studio version).That is followed by "Earth" by Imogen Heap, ....Here is a You tube video about Imogen's film "Love the Earth"And here is her web site.Then: "Where We Going to Go" by Ellis Music Productions.Watch it on You tube here. Written and sung by David Todds, who allows reproduction for non-profit use.SONGS FOR A BROKEN ECONOMYIt's time to Occupy ourselves with the economic banking rip-off. In music of course, with Radio Ecoshock. Whether you are talking consumer excess, the banking crash, or the fast-track to wrecking the environment, you can't beat this song:"Run Away Train" by Texas singer/songwriter Eliza Gilkyson. There are lots of You tube live versions of this song, but none beat the studio version in this program. Visit Eliza's web site for the latest."Runaway Train" Eliza Gilkyson 4:11I was also struck by the Texas bravery of Gilkyson's 2008 song "Man of God" deep in George Bush country. (Not included in this show).One of the suprise hits of the Occupy movement comes from Hawaii. Singer Makana was the official music for the APEC Summit leaders dinner. He sang "We Are the Many" - over and over for the surprised dignitaries of the 1 percent.Makana "We Are The Many" 5:23You tube video here.His web site.I first heard this David Rovics "Occupy Wall Street" song from an Iphone at the protests in New York City. David went into the studio, to make this one for the world."Occupy Wall Street (We're Going to Stay Right Here)" David Rovics 6:07Official "Occupy Walls Street" song video here.[...]
CLIMATE DOWN IN DURBAN Mon, 12 Dec 2011 09:42:02 PST http://bit.ly/tFbPAQ United Nations agreement fails to protect climate. Indian analyst prefers failure to empty climate agreement at COP17 Durban Dec 2011. James Hansen at AGU San Francisco Dec 6. Durban wrap up with Janet Redman of IPS. Australian Prof. Michael Raupach on burst of new carbon & changing world. Radio Ecoshock 111214 1 hour. Diplomats from all over the world are returning home after a hard-won agreement in Durban, South Africa. They agreed to do nothing to save our climate from disaster.Our governments will talk until 2015, and then maybe do something serious about greenhouse gas emissions in 2020. By then, as Radio Ecoshock listeners know, we will be committed to at least 3 and a half degrees Centigrade hotter world in 2100, than our ancestors knew in 1750. It will only get hotter after that. In this Radio Ecoshock special, we hear four reports. From India, journalist, author and political analyst Praful Bidwai tells Stephen Leahy of IPS a failure in Durban would be better than what we got. We go outside the spin of Western media.Then to San Francisco, to hear NASA's Dr. James Hansen at the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union. He describes our unique and dangerous path.Back to South Africa, where Janet Redman has survived the gruelling Durban conference sessions, to give us the wrap up. What did and didn't happen, along with the American role.We finish up with an interview with Dr. Michael Raupach from Australia's National Science Agency. He's part of the Global Carbon Project which just published the bad news about our "monstrous" increase in emissions.New science, predictions of doom, and a world in paralysis - it's another Radio Ecoshock show.THE VIEW AT THE DURBAN CLIMATE CONFERENCE - FROM INDIAAt the Durban COP-17 Climate conference, India was blamed for not going along with the game. We're going to hear from Praful Bidwai, the author of "The Politics of Climate Change and The Global Crisis" and a well-known Indian commentator. Praful was interviewed by Stephen Leahy of the Independent Press Service on Friday December 9th. The meeting was not over, but everything in the interview stands.Praful agrees the Indian economy is growing fast - but all the profits are going to the upper 10 or 15 percent of the population. While 500 million people still don't have electricity, India can hardly be counted as a "developed" country.Bidwai also talks about the bullying, and outright bribery of countries at these climate conferences. Small Island states, who may disappear with rising seas, are told to agree to offers from large polluters, or risk getting nothing at all. Other countries are threatened by the risk of withholding loans or investments.The European Union wanted a legally binding treaty. They offered to extend the Kyoto Protocol, and meet their commitments within that. Russia and the United States didn't want to extend the Protocol. Canada came to the conference threatening to withdraw first, because Canada has no intention of meeting those emission reductions. Production from the Tar Sands comes first, and Canada is already at least 25% over what it promised in Kyoto. The United States never ratified Kyoto, despite it's promotion by Al Gore.India objected to being legally bound to reduce emissions, even before it produced electricity for its citizens. Why should they do without, while the West continues to reap the benefits, and waste even more?In the end, as we hear from Janet Redman, the Durban conference agreed on something called an extention of Kyoto, but without any legally binding reductions until at least 2020.Every other commitment was likewise hollowed out, becoming many steps backwards, says Praful Bidwai. Payments into the $100 billion a year climate adaptation fund are uncertain, and not coming any time soon. The whole idea of the West ta[...]
Winter Gardening, Guerrilla Gardening Wed, 07 Dec 2011 11:20:09 PST http://bit.ly/w0fBnz Master winter gardener Eliot Coleman grows year round in Maine, USA. UK, guerrilla gardener Chris Tomlinson secretly plants food. "HumptyDumptyTribe" warns global famine from climate change comng soon. Winter greenhouse interview from "Locavore," with Martin Ronda at the U. of Guelph Centre for Urban Organic Farming. Radio Ecoshock Show 111207 1 hour.SHOW LINE UP - WITH INTERVIEW DOWNLOADS1. "Winter Gardening with Eliot Coleman" How to grow food in winter, even in Northern climates. Master gardener Eliot Coleman, from Four Seasons Farm in Bar Harbor Maine, grows (and sells) vegetables year-round, using inexpensive portable "hoop house" greenhouses, with no added heat source. Classic how-to interview, from Radio Ecoshock Show 111207 23 minutes 5 MB2. "Guerrilla Gardening" How to create an edible landscape on public and private lands. UK "Guerrilla of Love" Chris Tomlinson explains how he secretly plants food, perennials and trees, in waste lands, untended gardens, and even city streets. Fun interview on serious topic, as economy erodes. From Radio Ecoshock show 111207 9 minutes 2 MB3. "Global Famine Starts in Texas"From You tube, excellent rant and demonstration of Texas heat killing off ability of garden plants to set fruit. Above 85 degree F days, and without going below 68 F nights - no tomatoes, beans, mellons, nada. A portent of coming global famine as global warming develops, says this You tube poster "Humptydumptytribe". 9 minutes selected for Radio Ecoshock 111207 Global Famine Starts in Texas 2 MBfull video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-AEESU4k2dA4. "Locavore: Winter Gardening in Canada" Nuts and bolts of how to grow vegetables even in a Canadian winter, with no extra heating. Walter Garrison, host of "Locavore" on CFRU Guelph, Ontario interviews Martin Ronda in greenhouse of Guelph Centre for Urban Organic Farming. Excerpts for Radio Ecoshock 111207 18 minutes. 4 MBEXTENDED SHOW NOTES:1. "Winter Gardening with Eliot Coleman" We want fresh, organic, local food. Now with a sour economy, and rising food prices, that all gets even better. But most of us buy agribusiness produce in the winter, when Nature doesn't exactly encourage growing our own.Master gardener Eliot Coleman says we CAN grow food year-round - and you don't have to live in Florida or Southern California to do it. From his famous "Four Seasons Farm" in Harborside Maine, Eliot tells us how, in his "Winter Harvest Handbook".A few notes from our interview:1.1 Coleman uses a combination of plastic and fabric to keep plants from freezing in the Maine winters.The first is UV-resistant greenhouse grade plastic over simple hoops made out of plastic piping. This outer "greenhouse" is light and portable. Later, Eliot explains why.Inside, there is a second fabric cover over the rows of plants. This is "spun-bonded" fabric, sold by seed houses and other garden supply stores. It is easily moved off the plants during the daytime, to allow as much light as possible. But it retains the soil heat during the night, to keep crops alive.2. There are no pots, and no tables. Everything is grown in the ground. See above.3. The greenhouse is mobile because:3.1 it can shelter warm weather crops, like tomatoes, to get the maximum, and then moved over the cold weather crops as needed3.2 fixed greenhouses, Coleman says, tend to build up problems like insects or moulds. If the ground is exposed to the elements for part of the year, this is far less likely to happen.4. Aside from heat, the critical element is light. Maine, he says, is on a similar latitude to Southern France. It gets as much light as northern Italy, where everyone expects fresh greens daily. There is enough light in the northern U.S., and southern Canada to grow through the winter. (See also the Guelph interview below). Pe[...]
CLIMATE SOLUTION: FROM AIR TO SOIL Wed, 30 Nov 2011 18:10:02 PST READ THE NEW ALEX SMITH INTERVIEW IN GRIST MAGAZINE.Please pass that link, or this short link http://bit.ly/rxc5lj to all your email contacts, or post it in blogs. Add it to comment sections. Help get the word out, so we can get more listeners and more stations. Radio Ecoshock is broadcast on over 50 stations now. I'm working on extending it further, with more news in coming weeks. If you pass around this Grist interview you can really help!THIS WEEK'S PROGRAM: CLIMATE SOLUTION: FROM AIR TO SOILNo this isn't another Radio Ecoshock program of doom! Instead, we are going to look at one of several large-scale solutions available. This new/old technology can grab carbon out of the air, and store it back in the soil.Short Description:"Desperately looking for a clean way to remove dangerous carbon from the atmosphere, Alex interviews Allan Savory of the Savory Institute. His project to capture carbon into the soil, using intelligent herd management in Zimbabwe, is on the short-list for the Virgin Earth Challenge. We follow up with Abe Collins, a carbon farming leader in Vermont, USA. Plus organizing for local food in North Carolina (even in hard times) - Aaron Newton at ASPO 2011. "More detail, starting with ALLAN SAVORY AND THE SAVORY INSTITUTEIn 2007, billionaire Richard Branson announced the Virgin Earth Challenge. He offered a 25 million dollar prize to the best method to remove greenhouse gases from the atmosphere, with no harmful impacts. Out of 2600 submissions, Allan Savory and the Savory Institute survived to the current short-list of 11 technolgies to do it. We talk with Allan Savory, the 76 year old pioneer biologist and agriculturalist from Zimbabwe.Savory is an fascinating interview. He also won the 2010 Buckminster Fuller Challenge, for a world-changing technology. Plus, futurist Seth Itzkan (who went to Zimbabwe to see for his own eyes) tells me old Allan went out into the African night with a large rifle, to protect the camp from a pride of lions that had taken a big cow the night previous. That's character.Seth's Africa blog here.Wanna know what it's like to sit out in lion country without a gun? Check out this short video with Seth and "Knowledge the lion chaser."Yet, as you hear in this interview, Savory absolutely insists we need all the predators, from lions through hyenas to wild dogs. The behavior of herd animals changes when predators exist. The herd bunches up, fertilizes the ground and works it in with their hooves, and then move on in a tigher group. This benefits the land, as Savory shows repeatedly on his large experimental farm in Zimbabwe, near Victoria Falls. The vegetation roars back, where neighboring lands experience hard packed soil and desertification. Even the ground water comes back, with year-round ponds appearing. His knowledge could literally transform the landscape of the world, if applied.Forget what you know about animals and land management. Desertification is not what you think. A very old relationship between animals and grass lands could reverse the damage. It may even be a mega-solution for climate change. In a classic interview, I talk with a world-recognized pioneer in natural land management, Allan Savory, founder of the Savory Institute.Allan Savory was born into white-ruled Rhodesia. He became a biologist, a game manager, a member of Parliament. Savory resigned and went into exile over the racist policies of that government. Now the country is called Zimbabwe, and Savory has returned often, to teach and to test his methods of restoring water, life, and carbon to the land.His best known book is "Holistic Management: A New Decision Making Framework" written with his wife Jody Butterfield.In 2003, Savory won the Banksia International Award, quote "to recognise extraordinary indiv[...]
Fracking Gas = Climate Crash Tue, 22 Nov 2011 22:38:14 PST For years, governments, industry, and TV ads told us natural gas is the safe bridge fuel while we move away from dirty coal and oil.Cornell University scientist Robert Howarth wondered "Is that true?". When Howarth found no science to back up big claims for the gas industry, he and a team from Cornell went to work.The results are startling. In the short-term, escaped methane from gas fracking threaten to tip us into catastrophic climate change. The total impact of the shale gas industry may be worse than coal. In the United States, where thousands and thousands of new gas wells are drilled, almost half of all greenhouse gas emissions may come from methane. The "natural" gas industry is the largest single source of methane emissions.The frackers vent loads of gases for the first two weeks after drilling, before connecting pipes. They could collect (and sell) this "waste" methane (read "climate killer") but don't bother. Natural gas storage facilities also vent methane as part of their designed operation. Old leaking gas delivery systems complete the job.Methane is rising in the atmosphere. New science from Dr. Drew Shindell shows in the first 20 years, methane is 105 times more powerful a greenhouse gas than CO2. Even at 100 years, Shindell finds methane is combining with other air pollution to generate an impact 33 times more powerful than CO2. Not 21, as determined in the 1990's by the IPCC. That old figure is still being used by industry and governments. Expect a change as Shindell becomes the new lead author of this section in the upcoming IPCC.You must hear Dr. Robert Howarth explain the importance of new science on methane. he is the expert, I am not.The industry insists we only calculate methane over a 100 year period. But the latest report from the International Energy Agency (generally a conservative source) says our climate future will be determined in the next 5 years. More new science suspects the burst of methane helped tip us into a mass extinction 250 million years ago.The 20 year time frame for methane could be the jolt that tips other systems into positive feedback loops. Like igniting the peat in the Arctic. Or warming shallow seas enough to release frozen methane clathrates from the bottom (which started to happen last year). If either of those go, we are toast.Robert Howarth has taken a lot of abuse for even daring to assemble a comprehensive look at the total greenhouse gas impact of the gas fracking industry, whether it is coal bed gas or shale gas. And we haven't even discussed the fact fracking is now known to cause earthquakes, uses incredible amounts of fresh water, and risks polluting whole watersheds with a single leak of the mass toxic chemicals pumped underground.The United Kingdom may be next. With gas production from the North Sea fields down by 25 percent, there is a public relations push to get lots of gas fracking in the UK. This may be the next big environmental battle there.Fracking mania has hit Canada and Australia as well. Everyone needs to know what the latest science says.Program includes 27 minute speech by Professor Robert Howarth of Cornell at ASPO USA 2011, November 2nd in Washington D.C. Recorded by Carl Etnier of Equal Time Radio, Vermont. My thanks to ASOP USA for this fine presentation.Then a follow-up interview this week with Robert Howarth, to fill in his hurried climax of the speech - that methane emissions, when calculated over 20 years, using the new higher rate discovered by Drew Shindell - could add up to at least 44% of all greenhouse gas emissions in the United States! We discuss this, and the importance of a 2006 paper by Dr. James Hansen of NASA, on the importance of controlling methane emissions.I covered that in 2006 here for blog entry, or download the audio[...]
5 Years to Climate Hell Wed, 16 Nov 2011 14:52:08 PST BONUS AUDIO: TELECONFERENCE with Lester Brown by Earth Policy Institute (recorded by Alex Smith) Download full conference in CD quality (22 minutes) here.Welcome. This week we have a show packed with good news, horrible news, and crazy news - all about the coming climate shift.Here is a quick show overview, with more notes below.Yes, those greenie extremists say we have only five fossil polluting years left before Planet Earth is thown on an unstoppable path toward extreme climate change. Oh wait, this warning comes from the conservative voice of 28 major countries, the International Energy Agency. It's the most depressing news yet.Lester Brown of the Earth-Policy Institute has at least a dribble of good news. U.S. greenhouse gas emisisons are starting to drop. And it's not just because Americans are broke with no manufacturing left. I hate to talk good news against a tsunami of evil tidings, but you will hear some of what Lester told the world press in a news teleconference.Diana Bronson is the Program Manager for an international organization called the ETCGroup, with offices in Canada, the U.S., Mexico, and the Philippines. Their latest book is "Earth Grab, Geopiracy, the new Biomassters, and Capturing Climate Genes."Haven't heard about that? We'll also talk about synthetic biology, geoengineering and other risky projects your mother never told you about.We speak to Emily James, executive producer of "The Age of Stupid". Her new film, "Just Do It" follows the climate camps which foreshadowed the whole Occupy movement, and the young activists who won't take climate wrecking lying down. "Just Do It" is a tool for activist training. It's already being shown in Occupy camps around the world.We wrap up with a short clip from the Occupy song "We Are the Many" which Hawaiian singer Makana snuck into the APEC summit dinner. Despite record security, Makana sang to the assembled powers about the rage of the many left out. It's hard to keep out all of the people all of the time. ==============The big International Energy Agency, the IEA, which hasn't given a hoot about climate change for decades, suddenly issued a stark warning.As the Guardian newspaper headline says: "If fossil fuel infrastructure is not rapidly changed, the world will 'lose for ever' the chance to avoid dangerous climate change.""The door is closing" says IEA Chief Economist Fatih Birol, and if we can't change our energy infrastructure in the next five years, quote, "The door will be closed forever."If we add up all the fossil fuels we could still burn, and stay below the 450 parts per million thought to keep us below 2 degrees of global warming - and keep the Greenland Ice sheet - we only have a little left. In fact, the IEA study calculates we will have burned at least 90% of that last reserve by 2015. By 2017, if we want a habitable climate for our descendents, we have to stop burning all fossil fuels, and prevent other human-made greenhouse gases from entering the atmosphere.In 2010, we tossed a record 30.6 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, about 6% more than the year before.Quoting from the report, the International Energy Agency says:"On planned policies, rising fossil energy use will lead to irreversible and potentially catastrophic climate change.”“… we are on an even more dangerous track to an increase of 6°C [11°F]…. Delaying action is a false economy: for every $1 of investment in cleaner technology that is avoided in the power sector before 2020, an additional $4.30 would need to be spent after 2020 to compensate for the increased emissions.”A global average warming of 6 degrees Centigrade, or 11 degrees Fahrenheit is the disaster that British scientist Sir James Lovelock warned us about years [...]
Plane Justice - Banned In America Thu, 10 Nov 2011 09:14:56 PST BONUS AUDIO THIS WEEK: The complete interview with Dan Glass, the famous "Plane Stupid" campaigner from the UK. The crazy actions that highlighted the serious impacts of expanding airports and air travel. 32 minutes Lo-Fi 7 MB.Rockin' out with the Steve Miller Band, this is Radio Ecoshock. Big old jet airliner, the magic of flying, we can fly! Humans love those roaring jets so much, we hardly notice the 5 percent boost to greenhouse gases from all the jet fuel burned.You may not love them so much if you live within 12 miles of any airport, where the cancer, heart deaths, sleepless nights and wrecked lives grow. It's not just the noise. Cancer-causing chemicals fly from the exhaust and drop into communities all over the world.As the world economy peaks in growth, and starts to shrink in resources, the airline industry and their government boosters still plan on a mad burst of expansion. Over 3,000 American airports plan new runways, like runway number eight at O'Hare in Chicago, or JFK in New York.Victims under the flight paths are blamed by the industry, and abandoned by major environmental groups in the U.S. and Canada.Not so in the UK. British and Scottish green groups boosted public awareness. 3,000 camped out to stop the expansion of Heathrow airport in London. They killed the third runway. We'll talk to leader John Stewart in Britain. Although John has no criminal record, he's been banned from America in a horrible loss for free speech, and airport protest groups.In this program, you will hear what Stewart planned to say on the recent Aviation Justice Tour in the U.S. and Canada.Then we'll hear from one of the most experienced airport expansion campaigners in the U.S. Debi Wagner has been fighting off pollution from SeaTac airport in Seattle for decades. She knows where the cancer grows.I'll squeeze in a bit from British "Plane Stupid" campaigner Dan Glass, the man who super-glued his hand to the Prime Minister's sleeve. He too got a visit from one of Obama's top FBI agents.I'm Alex Smith. The dream of mass flight for humans is killing the planet, and wrecking the lands below. Get ready for a hard landing.[...]
Live From the Occupy Oakland General Strike! Thu, 03 Nov 2011 16:22:59 PDT Remember this?The chaotic scene in Oakland, California on the night of October 25th. Former Marine Scott Olsen received serious head injuries after being shot at very close range by police clearing the Occupy Oakland site and streets.An investigation has been called into police actions. The Mayor apologized. The injury to Olsen invigorated Occupy Wall St protesters and others around the country.The ugly violence, played out on TV's around the world, also caused other Mayors to reconsider, and let their Occupy protesters stay.By November 2nd, activists called for a General Strike in Oakland. The results were mixed with some unions cooperating. But the transit system, most institutions, and the big shipping port of Oakland remained open.Until the evening, when the crowd of a few thousand grew upwards to 5,000 or much more. They marched to the Port gates and forced operations to shut down, at one of America's biggest shipping zones.Late that evening I received emails (and audio) from several Oakland protesters and media activists who were satisifed with the peaceful occupation of the city.Occupy Oakland went from police brutality to widespread public engagement,with hardly any police around.But later that night, in the early hours, with a dwindling crowd, there were a few break-ins, window smashing, and more confrontations with police.The next morning, November 3rd, the tent city called a meeting to discuss the "destructive anarchists" as one blog called them. Occupy Oakland campers considered an apology, and a work-crew to clean up broken glass downtown. The assembled group re-affirmed their non-violence.This is just one of the divisions and challenges in the midst of the Occupy movement. The majority favor non-violence. A minority want to go much further, into violent revolution if need be.Meanwhile, a Radio Ecoshock correspondent from the Bay Area, long time media activist Karen Nyhus, sent us a series of short on-the-scene recordings of another big topic in the Occupy movement: the role of the 99% opposing governments dominated by fossil fuel billionaires, intent on profiting from damage to our climate. They want justice.Here we go - actuality from the Occupy Oakland protesters, November 2nd, the day of the general strike. You hear a fascinating set of interviews, from activists to the down-but-not-out.You'll hear cat-calls from corporate media. Would you believe Rupert Murdoch's Wall St. Journal keeps writing headlines that it's all over, or the protesters are just drug-addicted bums? What a surprise! Big TV interviews all the Mayors and Chiefs of Police.We interview the people who were there.All recordings are by media activist Karen Nyhus, thank you Karen - keep it up!If you have audio for Ecoshock, use yousendit.com to send your mp3 file to this address: radio at ecoshock.orgPlease send an email first, asking if your audio idea will work for our program.I'm Alex Smith, thank you for listening.[...]
DURBAN Conference of the Polluters Wed, 02 Nov 2011 17:05:10 PDT This week is our first broadcast in the UK. Join us every Tuesday Noon on Resonance 104.4 FM, London. Radio Ecoshock is now carried by 48 stations on 3 continents.This program is about the upcoming "Conference of the Polluters" in Durban, South Africa. After the disappointments of Copenhagen and Cancun, does anyone really care? Do we the have the luxury of despair, as rising greenhouse gases threaten everything we know, and coming generations?The real show at Durban, offically known as COP-17, the United Nations Conference of the Parties (to the Kyoto Protocol) - is the what happens outside the gathering of world leaders and their industrial supporters. In this show you hear those other voices. Directly from South Africa, Professor Patrick Bond lays out the awful truth, where climate talks have gone into the dead zone. The climate justice movement strives to change all that. I ask Dr. Bond: "Will it be safe to protest in Durban?" That's not a given, considering South African police have shot some protesters in recent years. But it may not be any worse than Copenhagen, where Danish police forced up to a thousand people into a "Kettle" and kept them penned up in bitter sub-zero cold. That's what you get for giving a damn.Don't miss this interview with Patrick. It's so loaded with good points, I've written a special blog with notes here - and that doesn't touch the surface of all the up-to-date activist info this very plugged-in man brings up in our wide-ranging talk on climate. You can download/listen to the 23 minute Patrick Bond interview separately.Through a UK-based organization called the World Development Movement, you hear two more voices from Durban. Bandile Mdlalose is general secretary of Abahlali baseMjondolo, a shack-dwellers' movement in KwaZulu Natal, South Africa. And from the South Durban Community Environmental Alliance, campaigner Bongani Mthembu explains what everyone from Occupy London knows, what you already know, about corporate control of our governments. I've chosen the best short clips from a video of Bandile and a video of Bongani on the WDM site.Bongani seems right in touch with the Occupy London protesters in St. Paul's and around the world. He knows what you know: big corporations have taken over our governments.We need to understand: Durban is already "occupied". Like most African cities, and in fact most countries of the world, there is a large community of people living in shacks. Most have no services. No electricity, no sewage, no safe running water. The police only arrive to evict them.World Development brought Bandile, from the Shack Dwellers movement, for an 8 city tour of the UK this Fall, to help raise awareness of the realities of Durban, as the COP-17 climate talks fast approach.From London, I chat with Murray Worthy, a policy analyst for the World Develpment Movement. Murray explains the recent Durban activist tour, and expectations for the coming climate conference. Listen/to download the whole WDM segment (18 minutes) here.Learning from the exclusion of activists in Copenhagen, environnment groups are working to empower youth from developing countries, using new media. In San Francisco, I find Madeline Kovacs of Project Survival Media. Along with Shadia Fayne Wood, Madeline is helping to empowert youth media teams coming to Durban, from India, Kenya and more. Those teams will create fresh reports, from outside the walls of power and pollution.Again, you can download or listen to the Madeline Kovacs interview (15 minutes) here.We leave with a song for the Occupy Movement, "Change Change" by the Canadian singer known only as "Thistle". I hope to post it [...]
HOMELESS - A Tour of Four Cities Thu, 27 Oct 2011 12:05:32 PDT Some of the people camped out in Occupy Wall Street have no where else to go. As reported by Associated Press, Occupy encampments from Portland, Oregon through L.A. to Atlanta are finding homeless people moving into tent cities set up by protesters.Some Occupy sites are finding bylaws written to send away the homeless are being used to prevent Consitutional rights to Freedom of Assembly and expression.Polls show millions of Americans are just one paycheck away from losing their homes. Many more are already in foreclosure, being evicted, or already out on the street. Lots of us worry, could I be next? Could you handle it, the way things are now?Maybe the rights of the homeless will matter to you, down the line.Radio Ecoshock is going to take you on a quick tour of homelessness in North America. We'll visit New York City, where 36,000 school children have no home. San Francisco, where it is illegal to sit or lie on the sidewalk. Even in the capital, in Washington D.C. we'll find the homeless next to the limousines and lobbyists. In Canada, there is a little progress in Vancouver, with street-sleepers reduced by 80%.There are somewhere between 600,000 and a million homeless people in America. The wild thing is: America is flooded with empty houses. One in ten homes in the United States is vacant. That's about 18 million homes.If we guestimate there are as many as 500,000 families needing a home, there are 36 empty homes for every homeless family in America!When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1989, all housing was owned by the government. As Dmitry Orlov has told us on Radio Ecoshock, people just stayed where they were. So there was no wave of homelessness in Russia or it's member states.But America is stuck. Houses sit empty. Sometimes the banks even tear them down. But people - many of them families with young children - keep getting foreclosed, evicted, kicked out into the street. Apparently Capitalism just can't handle de-growth.As winter approaches, and the economy heads into the dumpster, homelessness is growing in New York City. The nasty surprise is that both the State and City appear to be slashing help for the homeless in their hour of greatest need.Radio Ecoshock visits the Big Apple with Gisell Routhier, Policy Analyst for the NYC Coalition for the Homeless.New York is setting new records for homeless people, and for homeless families. See this and this.We talk with Jennifer Friedenbach, Executive Director of the San Francisco Coalition on Homelessness. Why has this formerly welcoming city gone into a media orgy of bashing the poor?We'll go on to Washington, D.C. to speak with Michael Ferrell, Executive Director of the District’s Coalition for the Homeless, to see what is going on there.Our last stop is Vancouver, Canada - with famous anti-poverty activist Jean Swanson of the Carnegie Community Action Project (CCAP), and author of the book "Poor Bashing: The Politics of Exclusion".This ain't no social cause. Homelessness in a land of wealth is a national disgrace.In San Francisco we learn the city has stopped counting the number of homeless people found dead on the streets every year. The average is at least one hundred dead. In just one city.An estimated 37,000 homeless Americans die every year.About 155 of them murdered, some as hate crimes, for fun or out of a desire to kill someone vulnerable.More data here. You won't see this on TV, but there is a National Homeless Persons’ Memorial Day on December 21, 2011, to remember those victims of a system that just didn't care.World Homeless Day this year was on October 10th. Remember that? All the news special[...]
From Occupied Territory Wed, 19 Oct 2011 19:33:25 PDT Happy Birthday humans! At the end of October 2011, the 7th billion person will be born on Earth. With over a billion humans already going to bed hungry every night, this may not be a blessed event.Just twelve years after we hit the 6 billion mark in 1999, it's going to a be a lot harder to look after the new arrivals. The extra billion people will find an unstable climate, declining energy and resources, and a host of other challenges.To help us sort out what it means, and what can be done, we are joined by Robert Walker, Executive Vice President of the Population Institute in Washington. He's the author of a new report "From 6 Billion to 7 Billion: How Population Growth is Changing and Challenging Our World."Read more (and find a link to download/listen to this interview as a separate 21 minute piece).THE RENEWABLE ENERGY HANDBOOK - RADIO WORKSHOPThe dream and the need for renewable energy just keeps getting stronger. You want to help avoid drastic climate change. You want to be independent, even if the system goes down. Perhaps you want to live outside the gird, in a home or camper. Maybe you just want to save money, as electricity and fuel prices keep rising.Everybody talks about it. But how can we really do it? In this program, We get a fast work-shop of ideas and techniques. My guest has the best how-to guide on the market. It's called "The Renewable Energy Handbook", written by William H. Kemp, and published by Aztext Press.Listen to/download the Bill Kemp interview separately here (35 minutes).Here are three other resources you might find handy related to this subject:Lo-Tech magazine (useful online blog)No-Tech magazine (check it out)And this edition of a bright new podcast called "The Extra Environmentalist". Here is their web site, but right now I'm recommending Podcast Episode 21 "When Technology Fails". It's a useful interview with engineer and author Mat Stein about his first book "When Technology Fails" - a huge Bible of alternative ways of doing things without high tech. Anybody expecting collapse may want to get that book. I found it poignant that Stein is under financial stress himself, after getting ripped off by the publisher, and then finding himself in foreclosure (along with a million or more other Americans).Stein is bringing out a new one "When Disaster Strikes". Really. Listen to this podcast.In Spring 2011 we talked with Aztext publisher Cam Mather, about his adventures living off-grid in Ontario, Canada. We shared a lot, since I also lived on a homestead without electricity for 10 years. And I've lived for months on solar power.(Download or listen to that June program "Your Renewable Energy Path Now" here.)In the new radio interview, we learn about the home built by Bill Kemp and his wife with the aim of energy self-sufficiency. As a person with technical training and experience, Kemp has spent the past 20 years experimenting with living with renewables.First, the Kemps are not living without electricity! They have most of the usual kitchen and home appliances. But they chose those appliances carefully, checking labels to find ones using the least electric load. Bill Kemp stresses this point: if you hope to use renewable energy, step one is to greatly reduce your energy demands. The extra power wasted costs a lot of money.Kemp has both a wind generator, and 2700 watts of installed solar power. The solar panels are mounted on "trackers" that aim the solar most directly at the available sun, moving throughout the day and seasons.The hundred foot wind tower also doubles as an antenna location for local cell service ([...]
Robert Walker: From 6 to 7 Billiion Tue, 18 Oct 2011 22:17:23 PDT Happy Birthday humans! At the end of October 2011, the 7th billion person will be born on Earth. With over a billion humans already going to bed hungry every night, this may not be a blessed event.Just twelve years after we hit the 6 billion mark in 1999, it's going to a be a lot harder to look after the new arrivals. The extra billion people will find an unstable climate, declining energy and resources, and a host of other challenges.To help us sort out what it means, and what can be done, we are joined by Robert Walker, Executive Vice President of the Population Institute in Washington. He's the author of a new report "From 6 Billion to 7 Billion: How Population Growth is Changing and Challenging Our World."Robert Walker has been on every major television network - yet I get the feeling the average Western citizen thinks population growth is just a problem on the other side of the world.Are we bored with the population challenge? Why should we care?Aside from report chapters on solutions, some of the most interesting pages in this report compare the global prospects in 1999 - the six billion person world - with the outlook in 2011.We start with something at the top of most people's minds these days - the economy. The American economy looked great in 1999. Real estate expanded as banks were able to unload mortgages, resold as securities to other banks and investors all over the world. It was the beginning of the great Ponzi scheme which collapsed in 2008.The Glass-Steagall Act, which limited such transactions between a bank holding company and security dealing was repealed in November 1999. From the Radio Ecoshock interview, Robert Walker:"Oil prices shot from $10 a barrel in 1999 to an average of over $100 a barrel today. The prices of grains, and other essential food stuffs, have more than doubled. Hunger and severe poverty have a substantial come-back. The fight against climate change has been nearly abandoned.The global economy has been battered by two Recessions since 1999. ... Water scarcity and resource limitations have grown more acute. And the transition to a Green economy has not been swift as many people hoped.So we are facing a much different world today, including the economy, but not limited to the economy."Alex Smith: "In 1999, Peak Oil was something for a few pundits relegated to the fringe. Now the International Energy Agency and the military say we've passed the Peak. Our civilization is based on cheap fossil fuels, so how are we going to support an extra billion people?"Robert Walker: "That's the critical question. If we are having trouble today feeding 7 billion people - and as you indicated earlier, there are about 1 billion people on the planet today who go to bed hungry at night. And there is plenty of reason to believe it's going to get more difficult, not easier."Walker goes on to discuss the threat of climate change, loss of topsoil, water tables being pumped out, and more.For example, food production in developing countries will have to double, to meet the expected population of 8 billion as early as 2023.Meanwhile, the cost of basics, like bread, have doubled for the world's poorest people. Fifty to nintey percent of their income is spent on food for the day.Walker also points out that just like Climate deniers, there are population deniers. Perhaps those who saw world population go from 1 and a half billion in 1900 to 6 billion by 1999 think this expansion can just go on forever.Some believe a technical fix will save the planet from population overload. Walker says we have now reached the [...]
Bastards of a Dying World Tue, 18 Oct 2011 08:06:44 PDT Welcome to another packed show from Radio Ecoshock!This week we cover:* behind-the-scenes panic over reports of methane blowing out of the sea-bed in the Eastern Arctic. This could dramatically increase global warming.* activist resistance against a wave of gas frackin in Australia - with a new album of great songs* a feature interview (you heard it here first) with Craig Rosebraugh on his new film about the oil giants: "Greedy Lying Bastards"* second feature interview with Peter F. Sale. He's the coral expert (20% of coral dead in last two decades) who looks at the "Holocene Mass Extinction Event" (going on right now)To start you off, here are some links for this program (with more in the articles below)"Whole Lotta Frackin Going On" album. Some green music sucks. These songs shine. Check them out, listen for free, download cheap, help the cause. Albums from world music master Ariel Kalma, now living in Australia. He was a pioneer in ambient music, nature sounds, and trance. Now showcasing artists from around the world, especially India and Afria.Film trailer for "Dirty Lying Bastards"Book site for "Our Dying Planet" by Peter F. Sale=====================RUSHED EXPEDITION FINDS "METHANE TORCHES" IN THE ARCTICThe research ship RV Polarstern has returned to Bremerhaven, Germany with it's crew of scientists from six countries. They travelled almost 12,000 nautical miles on the 26th Arctic expedition, measuring ice in the polar seas.The verdict: Arctic sea ice is young and very thin. For centuries, the polar seas have been covered by a thick layer of ice built up over many years. America designed a nuclear submarine capable of breaching up through thick tough ice. Now it's weak, with much less mass - the first step toward losing the Arctic Ice cap due to global warming.The Greenpeace ice-breaker "Arctic Sunrise" is just now returning to Amsterdam, after a two month expedition with scientists from Cambridge studying ice thickness.The news is alarming, as the Earth's new dark seascape in the Summer Arctic will pump more heat into the oceans, and add to long-term climate change. Scientist Wieslaw Maslowski's team predict the Arctic Ice cap could disappear in Summer as early as 2016.There is worse - and you won't hear this in the mainstream media at all.Behind the scenes, officials and scientists in various governments went into panic mode this September. The problem: a big increase in methane gas has been discovered in the Eastern Arctic.If frozen methane gas under the sea, technically called "clathrates", melt in quantity, we are on the road to a dramatic climate shift beyond imagination. It happened before, around 56 million years ago. In less than a hundred years the temperature of the Arctic seas rose several degrees, reaching almost 90 degrees Fahrenheit, or 30 Centigrade. Here is what we know. On September 2nd, the Russian news service RIA Novosti announced, quote: "A group of Russian and U.S. scientists will leave the port of Vladivostok on Friday on board a Russian research ship to study methane emissions in the eastern part of the Arctic.'This expedition was organized on a short notice by the Russian Fund of Fundamental Research and the U.S. National Science Foundation following the discovery of a dramatic increase in the leakage of methane gas from the seabed in the eastern part of the Arctic,' said Professor Igor Semiletov, the head of the expedition.The group consists of 27 scientists who would attempt to measure the scale of methane emissions and clarify the nature of the process.The 45-da[...]
SUDDEN & ABRUPT CHANGE Wed, 05 Oct 2011 17:01:41 PDT It's a fine time for bad news bears. World floods continue, this time in Asia. The Arctic has an ozone hole. Oh yeah, the global financial system is on the edge of bankruptcy.The economic system and the ecosphere are at risk of massive and abrupt change. From the popular financial blog "The Automatic Earth" writer "Ilagi" on the European banking mess, and blowback to America. Boston Globe journalist Dianne Dumanowski reads from book "The End of the Long Summer" (our former stable climate). Two part interview of Alder Stone Fuller on the risk of abrupt and violent climate change. It's not just James Lovelock. Dozens of major scientists warn heating could rise up to 8 degrees C. in a decade, with extreme weather all through. It has happened before. Time to "shock-proof" our basic system. Radio Ecoshock 111005 1 hour. Credits:Economy news mashup courtesy KaputtRadio Some background music by Vastmandana at soundclick.com--------------All eyes and ears are on the rumblings of a financial crash in the European banking system. Our correspondent from "The Automatic Earth" (one of the top 3 finance blogs) reports from Europe.Ilargi says Greece is a distraction from the bankruptcy of American banks and governments. He also says more debt cannot solve too much debt. The Ponzi scheme (which holds our pensions and savings as well) has to end somewhere.With a nod to OccupyWallSt.Greens need to pay attention, Ilargi says, because any money needed for things like solar conversion, mass transit, new energy grid, are being tossed away right now to the black holes of banking and derivative debt. We will leave our children no options. They may fight for bare survival, eating up the last of the Earth.Whatever happens financially, our second guest, Alder Stone Fuller, says massive climate change can no longer be avoided.The IPCC shows slow steady growth of heat and rising seas. Alder Stone says reality is nothing like that. We will go through a long period of extreme weather, and possibly a sudden jump of more than 8 degrees in a decade.Listeners and readers, I want you to know the idea of rapid climate change is not fringe science. On January 2010, I interviewed Dr. Michael MacCracken, one of America's leading scientists. He was a principle author of a collection of papers called "Sudden and Disruptive Climate Change".Earlier, in December 2007, I interviewed a specialist in ancient plant life, Dr. Bob Spicer of Open University in the UK. He described previous greenhouse worlds for us. We know the world climate can change to very different states.Such wild swings in climate have happened many times in Earth's past. We can find them in the geological record. The last 10,000 years were abnormally stable.Alder Stone taught advanced climate theory in his own academy in Eugene Oregon, and has now moved to New England. He's doing roving workshops, and setting up an online course, to learn about "Type II" climate shift, and Gaia theory.The Intergovenmental Panel on Climate Change, the IPCC has given us loads of graphs showing a gradual rise of heating and sea level. That is "Type I" climate change. In this program, you hear what experts fear, and the media never talks about, "Type II" climate shifts.After giving us the bad news, Alder Stone Fuller talks about coping skills, and the need to keep going as survivors. In addition to "The End of the Long Summer" by Dianne Dumanowski, Alder strongly recommends we read two more books: 1. "With Speed and Violence" by UK journalist Fred Pearce, and 2. "Deep [...]
How A Far Away Island Can Rock Your World Wed, 28 Sep 2011 16:25:48 PDT FAR AWAY PLACES WILL ROCK YOUR WORLDI'm hoping my bank will still be open next Monday. Most of us are trying to get through the next week. Half of us can't live without the next paycheck.Will Europe survive? Despite the smiling faces of banking experts on TV, too many signs say "Wecome to the Great Depression". And some 1930's-style slowdown isn't the worst that could happen.In the constant drum-beat of beat-down times, it's pretty hard to care what is happening somewhere else, in places we don't ever hear about. That climate stuff, that's years away too, except for the weird weather this year.This is Radio Ecoshock. I'm Alex Smith. I'm going to convince you that a relatively small island on the other side of your world can break the climate wide open. BURNING UP INTO THE ATMOSPHEREStrange fires in Asia helped start the hottest year on record, before 2010. They are burning again right now, blanketing South East Asia with acrid smoke. And loading up the atmosphere with a new burst of carbon, possibly as large as the exhaust from every car on Earth.The tropical forest blaze, larger than Amazon fires, is on Sumatra, which is part of Indonesia. What happens there, could determine whether we make it, as a civilization, or eventually, as a species.We'll hear from Dr. Florian Siegert in Munich Germany, who can see it all from space.Indonesia is also the world's second largest coal exporter. That feeds the second largest coal power race on the planet: India. 173 new coal-fired plants have been approved this year alone. It's a mania that is already failing, even while it destroys so much.Peasants and fishermen have been killed by police protecting coal plant sites from protests. The scale of ecological damage is amazing. The threat to our climate frightening.We don't hear anything about this, as we pray our jobs will keep going, or worry we'll never get another one. But we'll talk with Indian electricity expert Shankar Sharma to get the real picture. You'll hear the sounds of protests, and learn how this global coal resistance is hooking up Indian peasants to the poorest people in Appalachia, USA.GLOBAL DIMMING HIDES THE BAD NEWSWe won't have to wait until 2050 to find out what happens if the coal rush plays out. As Steve Connor, the Science Editor for Britain's "Independent" newpaper wrote July 5th, pollution from the one-new-one-a-week Chinese coal plants has hidden the true warming impact in a phenomenon known as global dimming. We started covering global dimming in this Radio Ecoshock show in 2006.The new Indian coal plants, growing like mushrooms along the coast, will do the same. For a few years. But that protective smog lasts only a few years at most, and could clear in less than a month, if production suddenly stopped. Perhaps after a solar flare. Or a really big economic break-down. Or riots.When the "wisp of smoke", as James Lovelock called it, is washed out of the atmosphere, we could experience a severe heating event. This could manifest locally, or globally. No one knows.I asked Dr. Florian Seigert about this, but that was not his specialty. We did discuss whether the peat fires of Indonesia in 1997 helped power the planet into the record-breaking heat of 1998.[Siegert interview in audio]Learn about peat fires and Professor Florian Siegert's work in this article.These are my conclusions, based on Dr. Siegert's interview, but also on talks with other scientists.* Indonesia is burning off tropical forests faster than anywhere[...]
CORRUPTION OR TRUE ENERGY? Wed, 21 Sep 2011 13:28:31 PDT In this week's show, we hear about another huge rain disaster in Pakistan, Dengue fever panic, and how that tropical disease is coming to America, thanks to climate change. I've included a few survival tips for you.Then a full 45 minute speech by Robert F. Kennedy Jr, the long-time "green Kennedy" and former host of the "Ring of Fire" show on the Air America network. Whether he's talking the evils of coal, or the stranglehold of corporate media on our news, Kennedy pulls no punches. It's a raw speech, delivered at the Commonwealth Club of California last June. I thought you should hear it."EXTREME PRECIPITATION EVENTS" - OR CALL IT RECORD-BREAKING RAINThe team of hurricanes and tropical storms working up the East Coast set a bunch of records. Binghamton New York had an extreme rainfall event higher than ever recorded. The whole Susquehanna River flooded all the way down through Pennsylvania into Maryland. Spring floods? Sure we expect that. Now we have fall floods?A couple of weeks ago, it was wet, wet, wet all around the D.C. area. As the Chief Meterorologist for the Capital Weather gang reported, the rain in the first and second week of September was just off the charts.How about September 8th, at Fort Belvoir, the Army base in Fairfax County, Virginia. The National Weather Service reported 7 inches of rain in 3 hours, quote "off the charts above a 1000-year rainfall."There was a one in 50 to 100 year rainfall near Elliott City, Maryland. 5.47 inches in 3 hours near Franconia in Virginia - a once in 500 years rainfall event. The whole DC Baltimore metro area rainfall hit levels that might be expected every 10 to 25 years.Joe Romm at the Climate Progress blog reminds us of Nashville's "Katrina" - the one in 1000 year crazy flooding there last year. And Coastal North Caronlina experienced a second one in 500 year rainfall, two in just the last 11 years!Don't forget that deadly flood that hit Queensland Australia in January 2011 - after a long, long drought. People, cars, and buildings were washed away. The barely reported floods in China this year. And record flooding in Rio de Jainero last year. I've already mentioned one fifth of Pakistan went under water in 2010 flooding.These are called "extreme precipitation events". We need a better popular name. How about "drowners"?We have changed the atmosphere. Globally warmer air now holds 4% more water vapor. That doesn't sound like much, until it falls on your head and home. Likely it's a similar amount to the entire contents of the Mediterranean Sea being added to the atmosphere. That's not a scientific statement, just a wild example from me, trying to wrap my head around what 4 percent more water in the air means. And it will keep going up, as the atmosphere warms. Maybe it won't be rising seas that drown civilization first - it could be rain falling from the sky.If the local weather is cold enough, the extreme moisture falls as snow. Not that anybody on the East Coast and Washington would remember last winter's unusually heavy dump. Only the idiots who deny climate science thought it was a sure sign of "global cooling".We'll hear the truth from someone living it in Pakistan.But first, a little blast from the past, as Radio Ecoshock reaches back to a program called "The Unknown Climate" on April 9th, 2010 warning listeners about "global wetting" - the new hard rains predicted by science. In fact, as you'll hear, we asked American climate scientist Noah D[...]
Fighting Fossil Goo - Activism Thu, 15 Sep 2011 15:43:49 PDT This program features environmental activists and action.We begin with iconic anti-globalist author Naomi Klein, interviewed by Daphne Wysham from Earthbeat Radio. Naomi was outside the White House, September 2nd, on the Indigenous Peoples day of protest against the Keystone XL Pipeline proposed to carry dirty Tar Sands oil to refineries in Texas.Klein outlines the long-standing plot by the Canadian government and the Tar Sands oil companies to export oil to Europe. The Europeans are discussing whether this will be allowed.But Americans are being sold on the project as boosting "energy independence" and "security" as though the Tar Sands are good for everyone. People are not being told the heavy oil sands product will be turned into diesel fuel to be sold to Europe (with Italy a major buyer) and to South America. It has nothing to do with replacing oil from more dangerous sources in the Middle East.You must hear the analysis put forward by Naomi Klein.Then I interview Tzeporah Berman, one of the more famous environmentalists produced by North America. She rose to international attention as a primary spokeswoman at Clayoquot Sound, trying to prevent clear cutting of that ancient temperate rainforest. Over 700 Canadians were arrested at Clayoquot. Berman was hit with 857 counts of assisting in criminal action. Her lawyer argued her rights to free speech, and won.After a key position in the environmental group Forest Ethics, and a long battle to help save the Great Bear Rainforest, Tzeporah Berman is now the co-director of the Climate and Energy Campaign for Greenpeace International.After our in-depth interview, on how and why someone becomes an activist - I play you a clip recorded at the launch in Vancouver of her new book "This Crazy Time". On stage, Berman was questioned by the editor of the online magazine "The Tyee" - David Beers.You hear about the new campaigns Greenpeace is developing. For example, Volkswagen, through a business lobby in Europe, is stalling on new fuel efficiency regulations. Using a parody of their successful advertising video, Greenpeace calls on VW to come back from the Dark Side. There is also a campaign on Facebook against.... Facebook. Unlike Microsoft, which just opened a new server farm in Ireland powered by wind, Facebook uses tremendous amounts of coal-powered electricity. It's all in the Greenpeace report "Dirty Data" which is available free online.We learn that the electricity required to keep one personal Avatar going is equal to the power consumed by the average family in Brazil. Even this blog is creating climate emissions, no doubt.Following that book launch clip, we go back to Daphne Wysham and the Director of the Indigenous Environmental Network, Tom Goldtooth - speaking outside the White House. He asks President Obama to stop the Keystone XL pipeline, and to stop the poisoning of the land and its people.At the end, there are more passionate please from aboriginal speakers, including those Cree people who live right next door to the Tar Sands. Many of them have cancer at a young age. It's a sad story that needs to be told, before this fossil madness goes further.Again, my thanks to Daphne Wysham, the long-time host of Earthbeat Radio, for this special contribution. She never gives up on the cause.We are up to 41 stations now - thanks to many long-time listeners who have recommended us to local non-profit radio stations.Alex SmithhostRadio Ecosho[...]
Growing Through The Storm Wed, 07 Sep 2011 16:22:26 PDT What can we learn from the storms and fires? Will gardening still be possible if the climate is disrupted? Where will fertilizer come from after Peak Oil?In this Fall 2011 Kick-off show, we have three interviews.LEARNING FROM HURRICANE IRENE"Peak Oil Shrink" psychologist Kathy McMahon starts out. Watching the TV reports, and being kind of a "prepper" - Kathy got caught in Hurricane Irene in Vermont. As the roads washed out, making a strange journey home, Kathy learned to watch what is developing in the actual emergency around you, rather than going by TV forecasts. What wasn't predicted: the real problem in New England was not high hurricane winds, but the extreme rainfall event.You've heard Vermont was very hard hit. Not just the mountain roads, but even parts of the Interstate system were flooded out, along with bridges. The Interstate is supposed to be built for the "100 year flood". I guess we just had that.Kathy has a lot more to tell us about our psychology in an emergency, how we handle ourselves in stressful times. I think this is a really useful interview.GROWING YOUR FOOD ON A CITY LOTJules Dervaes and his family started growing food on their standard city lot (1/10th of an acre) in Pasadena, California - because they needed the food. That was about 10 years ago.Now they produce record "crops" from their home garden, over 7 tons of produce in 2010. They did it even with the usual asphalt driveway, and even a bunch of cement in the back yard.You will hear how container gardening can be mixed with in-ground to find just the right conditions for each plant. How to save water and weeding by the way you plant. Some tips on keeping the garden alive during high heat waves. That is surely necessary knowledge as global warming develops.In fact, this year of 2011 was a real challenge for Jules and his three adult children. There was a long period of heat and poor growing conditions in California, and even experienced gardeners are struggling. The Dervaes family will still feed itself handsomely, but they may not have the extra income they hoped for selling the extras to organic restaurants. Nature is always teaching us how to adapt.Jules has a wealth of knowledge, which the family freely shares on their various web sites. Start out with their main page at: urbanhomestead.orgRead the family daily blog at: littlehomesteadinthecity.orgThe Dervaes family also runs a store at: urbanhomesteadsupply.comOr find people in your area through the social network at:freedomgardens.orgAnd finally, for those who want to talk about raising chickens, bees, or larger animals in the city, try: barnyardsandbackyards.orgLots to chew on there! Everybody should hear this interview with Jules, to know your prospects for feeding yourself or family, should the need arise. Self-sufficiency is coming to the city.THE END OF GROWTHRichard Heinberg is one of our favorite guests. He's the Senior Fellow at the Post Carbon Institute, and author of so many seminal books. Find his web site here.Richard is also featured on a news site I check daily, the really helpful Energy Bulletin. Bookmark that.I really "grokked" Peak Oil by reading Heinberg's book "The Party's Over." He made the case that our energy supplies are limited, and what that means for society.We last talked to Richard on Radio Ecoshock about his book "Blackout". That one is kind of a sleeper, I think. Not that it puts you t[...]
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