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

An April US Supreme Court Case reviewed the Center for Food Safety’s groundbreaking legal challenge banning the sale and planting of Monsanto’s genetically altered alfalfa. The case mirrors a fierce battle over genetically altered eggplants that is underway in India.

Earthbeat host Daphne Wysham speaks to the Center’s founder, Andrew Kimbrell and international director Debbie Barker.

A report shows how the second richest man in New York is quietly funding climate deniers. We speak to Kert Davies of Greenpeace USA about how David Koch is pouring millions into climate denial campaigns.

Then, ‘Creation Care’ – we speak to Reverend Mitch Hescox, the head of the Evangelical Environmental Network.

Congress throws in the towel on cap and trade provisions in the climate and energy bill, while EPA enforcement attorneys Laurie Williams and William Zabel come forward with the explosive claims that the proposed federal carbon offsets contain “unfixable flaws and waste, fraud and abuse as dangerous as those that nearly brought down the financial system.’ We explore in-depth the problems and prospects for comprehensive energy legislation with Marcia Cleveland, legislative representative for Friends National Committee on Legislation and Bill Snape, senior counsel for the Center for Biological Diversity.

And three months into the Gulf Coast BP Deepwater Horizon oil blowout disaster,  people are seeing the face of unchecked corporate power and  are beginning to ask what sort of lasting reforms can make a difference to make sure the BP disaster never happens again. Antonia Juhasz, director of Global Exchange’s Chevron Program and author of “The Tyranny of Oil: The World’s Most Powerful Industry–and What We Must Do to Stop It ” joins us from Mobile, Alabama for a review of what can be done.

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

An oil disaster in the Gulf Coast as an offshore British Petroleum Drilling Platforms explodes – and oil gushes into the ocean.

Host Daphne Wysham speaks to Casi Callaway, the Mobile Baykeeper in Alabama about the environmental concerns of the oil disaster. Tyson Slocum, the energy director of the group Public Citizen, joins to to review BP’s long history of ignoring safety concerns and fighting government fines. And former oil broker and industry critic Chuck Hamel gives us an insider’s view of BP’s corporate culture – including the company’s encouraging workers to falsify safety statements. Hamel is on the board of POGO – the Project on Government Oversight.

Then, readings by acclaimed indigenous poet Allison Hedge Coke. Her books “Off-Season City Pipe” and “Dog Road Woman” involve autobiographical poems drawing on Allison’s background as a Native American, a tobacco sharecropper and factory worker. She’s won the 1998 American Book Award and has been nominated for two of the prestigious American literary prizes – the Pushcart Prizes.

Music in this week’s edition of the show is St. James Infirmary by New Orleans music legend Kermit Ruffins. Our theme music is Baladi by Tony Anka, Bellydance Superstars vol. 2.

Image by Greg Palast, all rights reserved.

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.

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 the 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.