The Feds set up a $20 (B) billion dollar trust with BP to clean up the massive oil disaster the Gulf. Tyson Slocum of Public Citizen and Kate Sheppard of Mother Jones Magazine join host Daphne Wysham to discuss the fund, and its limitations.

Infants are born ‘pre-loaded’ with over 300 chemicals in their blood, that’s according to a new study by the Environmental Working Group. EWG senior researcher Jane Houlihan discusses toxic chemicals like BPA and tells us how to protect ourselves and our children.

Then, The Bag Monster attacks our studios. Andy Keller, aka The Bag Monster, comes into our studios to discuss the thousands of plastic shopping bags that pollute waterways and greenspaces. Joining the Bag Monster to discuss plastic bag pollution – and the failure of a ban on plastic bags in the California state legislature is Bryan Early of Californians Against Waste.


Image : The Bag Monster invades St. Louis, copyright Andy Keller

Earthbeat Host and IPS Fellow Daphne Wysham conducted a special one-hour interview with Dr. James Hansen, NASA’s top climate scientist, as an Earth Day 40th anniversary special.

In this broadcast of that interview, Dr. Hansen discusses the role of nuclear power in the climate crisis, the need for alternatives to cap and trade as a solution to climate change, and the possibilities that Earth will become like Venus due to fossil fuel consumption.

A video of the interview is available. Our theme music is Baladi by Tony Anka, Bellydance Superstars vol. 2

Host Daphne Wysham interviews Dr. Helen Caldicott about the influences exerted by the nuclear power industry. Then Brad Plumer of New Republic moderates a debate at the National Press Club between Arjun Makhijani, president of the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research and Dr Patrick Moore, co-chair of the Clean and Safe Energy Coalition about the safety, cost and feasibility of nuclear power as a solution to the climate crisis.

Our theme music is Baladi by Tony Anka, Bellydance Superstars vol. 2.
Image used courtesy of Michael S. Anderson via Flickr

Can architects save the world? The architects with Architecture 2030 think they might just be able to design their way to major greenhouse gas emission cuts in this country—while preventing the next mortgage meltdown and putting America back to work—all in a matter of years. And in our second segment,  Cecil Corbin-Marks of We Act for Environmental Justice explains how public transit riders have a critical role to play in helping the United States cut its greenhouse gas emissions dramatically while putting people back to work.

Tales of hope and inspiration from the US Social Forum in Detroit.

In this edition, Host Daphne Wysham speaks with Reede Stockton of Global Exchange, who, together with the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund, has worked with the city of Mt. Shasta in challenging corporations trying to alter the weather for profit.

We hear from a young activist who is disseminating climate change survival strategies via youth-run media. We also hear from a seasoned energy activist, Al Weinrub, about a David and Goliath victory for clean energy in California.

And the Vietnamese fisherfolk that are being left behind as they try to pick up their lives in the aftermath of the BP oil blowout disaster in the Gulf.

Fracking for natural gas can cause flames to shoot out of water faucets and pollute groundwater with unknown chemicals – and yet the EPA has little authority to regulate this process used by the natural gas industry in 38 states. In this rebroadcast edition of Earthbeat, Host Daphne Wysham speaks to Abrahm Lustgarten about the 60 stories he’s written about fracking for the non-profit investigative journalism group – ProPublica.

Then, a discussion on how the rest of the world is leaping forward on a clean energy future with Lester Brown. Lester is the president of the Earth Policy Institute and the author of an editorial in the Washington Post and the book, Plan B 4.0 Mobilizing to Save Civilization.

Our theme music is Baladi by Tony Anka, Bellydance Superstars vol. 2.

A lifelong shrimper and fisherwoman from the Gulf Coast details years of lax regulation and unsafe conditions forced upon fishermen by oil and chemical companies. Diane Wilson made headlines when she covered herself in oil in protest during the recent Senate hearings on the BP oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. The Texas native is also a founder of CodePink. She spoke with Earthbeat host Daphne Wysham prior to her arrest on Capitol Hill.

Florida Senator Bill Nelson has stood up to calls to ‘Drill, Baby, Drill’ for decades. This longtime Democrat recently discussed the oil industry’s pressure on lawmakers during a recent appearance at a Congressional Quarterly weekly event in Washington.

Then, Daphne Wysham’s conversation with the author of Diet for a Small Planet, Frances Moore Lappe on her new project, Getting a Grip 2.

From the EPA to the Department of the Interior to the President himself – a review how the Obama Administration is handling the BP oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico.

Host Daphne Wysham speaks to Kieran Suckling, the executive director of the Center for Biological Diversity.

Then, an update on the UN climate negotiations in Bonn, Germany with Rachel Smolker, the co-director of BioFuel Watch and Janet Redman, the co-director of the Sustainable Energy and Economy Network and a fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies.

And a presentation by author Michael Klare on the follies of our relentless pursuit of extreme energy. Klare’s latest book is Rising Powers, Shrinking Planet.

Oil is now washing up all along the Gulf Coast as a result of the disaster of an open, gushing BP oil well in the Gulf of Mexico.

Joining host Daphne Wysham with a first hand account of the ongoing disaster is Bob Deans, the director of federal communications for the Natural Resources Defense Council. Joining the conversation with a view on what’s occurring on Capitol Hill and the Obama Administration’s plans to continue offshore oil drilling is Kyle Ash, the senior legislative representative for Greenpeace.

Investigative reporter Mark Schapiro joins us to discuss his investigation on how forests in Brazil are becoming a commodity on the worldwide ‘carbon market.’ Mark is a senior correspondent for the Center for Investigative Reporting – and his series on the carbon market is for Frontline World.

Carbon Nation is a new feature film about the current revolution of entrepreneurs across America who are focusing on clean, renewable energy. We speak to filmmaker Peter Byck about his documentary in which some of these ‘climate pioneers’ don’t even believe that climate change is occurring. Or as one of Byck’s subjects puts it, “even if you’re a greedy bastard and you just want cheap power, you’d still do these things.”

Music in this week’s edition of the show is by Sanjay Mishra with special guest Jerry Garcia, the album is Blue Incantation. Our theme music is Baladi by Tony Anka, Bellydance Superstars vol. 2.

Image: A Brown Pelican is cleaned at the Fort Jackson Wildlife Rehabilitation Center after it became coated with oil from the disastrous Gulf oil spill

The People’s Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth was a three-day conference that took place in Cochabamba, Bolivia and focused on giving a voice to indigenous people, environmental justice activists and others locked out of the United Nations’ previous Copenhagen Climate Conference.

Host Daphne Wysham’s reporting from Bolivia includes a conversation with Beverly Keene, the international coordinator of Jubilee South, a network of organizations that work on debt and development.

Plus, a discussion of how the world’s governments are giving cash and carbon credits for ending illegal activity – gas flaring – under the UN ‘clean development mechanism.’ Wysham speaks to Nnimmo Bassey, Nigeria’s executive director of Environmental Right Action / Friends of the Earth about these open air flames burning off natural gas and his impressions of the Bolivia conference.

Clayton Thomas Muller is a longstanding champion for environmental justice. He’s a member of the Cree Nation in Canada and he heads the Indigenous Environmental Network’s project on Tar Sands project. We hear from Clayton at one of the town hall-style meetings he’s been holding across Canada about his experience at the UN climate meeting in Copenhagen.

Our theme music is Baladi by Tony Anka, Bellydance Superstars vol. 2.

Image of dancers getting ready to go on stage at Univalle, Tiquipaya – by Daphne Wysham all rights reserved.