Earthbeat Radio

Today on Earthbeat, in celebration of the 100th anniversary of International Women’s History month – we talk to women and girls who are making a difference.

Award-winning children’s book author Lynne Cherry focuses on environmental issues. Her latest project Young Voices on Climate Change brings her work to a new medium – film.

The bailout of Wall Street led to billions of taxpayer money going toward banks – instead of people. Nia Robinson, the former director of the Environmental Justice and Climate Change Initiative, spoke with us about how these funds could have gone toward helping African-American communities cope with climate change.

Actress Q’orianka Kilcher co-starred in the Hollywood movie ‘The New World.’ She now works to spread the message of environmental justice in her native Peru and around the world.

Niaz Dorry, Time Magazine Hero for the Planet, and director of the Northwest Atlantic Marine Alliance, is working to bring the ‘buy local’ food movement out to sea.

Music for this edition of Earthbeat includes Protect the World, Last Day on Earth by Kate Miller-Heidke, and Scale Down by Rising Appalachia. Our theme music is “Baladi” by Tony Anka, Bellydance Superstars vol. 2.

Photo by SIDA.

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A high-tech heist of international carbon trading credits. Thieves steal millions of dollars worth of ‘vouchers’ for carbon emissions right out of the bank accounts of European traders. We’ll discuss how this daring theft underscores the weaknesses of cap and trade schemes with Jutta Kill, the climate change campaigner for FERN, an environmental and social justice group that focuses on the European Union and the EU’s impact on forests around the world.

Then, the EPA’s regulation of greenhouse gases comes under attack by Congress.  Some say the EPA is barreling ahead on regulations – others say it’s too little, too late. Joining us to discuss the EPA and its use of the Clean Air Act is Nathan Richardson, a lawyer at the non-partisan think-tank Resources for the Future and Kevin Bundy, a senior attorney for the the Center for Biological Diversity.

Then, Monsanto succeeds in pushing genetically engineered alfalfa on American consumers and organic farmers. Joining us to discuss the effects this GE crop may have on milk, beef and bees is Will Fantel, the co-director of the Cornucopia Institute and Patty Lovera, the assistant director of Food and Water Watch.

Image from Digital Monkey via Flickr, used via a Create Commons license.

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International governments agree to a weakened outcome from the Cancun climate meeting. The World Bank will run the financing and the G-20 countries seem to be running the show. Joining us to discuss the disappointing outcome from the United Nations climate meeting in Cancun is Maude Barlow of the environmental group the Council of Canadians.

Reporting from the streets of Haiti, Beverly Bell tells us about the protests surrounding the suspect outcome of the Presidential election – and how this island nation is dealing with the triple whammy of political upheaval, disease outbreaks and international interference. Bell is with the Other Worlds Project and the Institute for Policy Studies.

In June, we spoke to Beverly Bell about how Haitian farmers were choosing to burn Monstanto seeds instead of planting them.

Music for this edition of Earthbeat includes “Activity” by ‘Bonga and the Vodou Drums of Haiti’ from the album Many Hands, Family Music for Haiti. Our theme music is Baladi by Tony Anka, Bellydance Superstars vol. 2.

Image from Oxfam International – used under a Creative Commons license via Flickr.

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Organized and well-funded groups are undermining climate news and science everywhere from Tea Parties to websites. Joining host Daphne Wysham to discuss the so-called Digg Patriots who go about the Internet ‘hiding’ climate science from the rest of us is Jared Keller, the social media editor for The Atlantic.com. And discussing the millions of dollars that the Koch Brothers spend on right-wing causes is Joe Smyth of Greenpeace. You can track the oil money influence on your local politician at the website – Dirty Energy Money.

Then, how anti-immigration groups are ‘painting themselves green’ by framing border concerns as an environmental issue. Rebecca Poswolsky discusses their efforts; she’s a field organizer for the Center for a New Community and discusses their expose The Green War on Immigrants. Joining us to discuss how the media portrays Hispanics in America is Raul Tovares, a Professor of Communications at Trinity University.

The fight against frankenfish goes to the FDA. The federal government is about to decide on whether or not they’ll approve a new, genetically-altered salmon for human consumption. Startlingly, the FDA doesn’t plan to classify these fish as a food, but instead, as a drug. Eric Hoffman of the Friends of the Earth discusses the human health implications of this decision. Mike Hudson, the president of the Small Boat Commercial Salmon Fishermen’s Association and the founder of Salmon Aid, discusses the potentially devastating effects of these altered states of salmon on wild salmon populations.

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