Earthbeat Radio

It’s ten thousand times worse that carbon dioxide, and it’s sitting in your refrigerator. HFCs were designed to be an ‘environmentally friendly’ alternative to the ozone-hole creating CFCs in our air conditioners and fridges.

For this rebroadcast of Earthbeat, host Mike Tidwell discusses how the White House held closed-door meetings that may result in HFCs becoming a bargaining chip on the worldwide carbon market with David Sassoon, the editor of the website Solve Climate; and Kert Davies of Greenpeace joins the conversation to discuss a safe alternative to HFCs — that are banned by the EPA.

A DC lobbying group forged anti-climate letters – pretending to be grassroots African-American and Hispanic non-profits groups in Virginia. Tim Freilich is a board member of Creciendo Junto, one of the groups whose identity was stolen. Joining the conversation to speak about and other coal company subterfuge is Jeff Biggers, the author of the book The United States of Appalachia.

TV weathermen could be a force for educating the public about the connections between our weather and climate change, but instead they’re often high-profile climate deniers. Joe Romm, editor of the website Climate Progress, discusses the lack of progress on the nightly news.

Image used with permission from listener Eric Crowley via Flickr. Thank you Eric!

Music for this edition of Earthbeat is the song ‘Sweeping’ from The Devil Makes Three.

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

The debut of the new animated film The Story of Cap and Trade. Host Daphne Wysham, who recently penned an op-ed for The Huffington Post on cap and trade, speaks to narrator Annie Leonard and and the founder of Free Range Studios, Jonah Sachs, the animator. The Story of Cap and Trade is featured in The New York Times and creating a stir in the blogosphere.

Then Rolling Stone reporter Matt Taibbi joins us to discuss how the investment bank Goldman Sachs stands to make a killing in the carbon market. And, how activists are planning to demonstrate at the upcoming Copenhagen climate meeting. We speak to Kim Wasserman, the coordinator of the Little Village Environmental Justice Organization, Nadine Bloch of the Mobilization for Climate Justice, and David Solnit, who helped to organize the Seattle demonstrations and is the co-author of the book The Battle of the Story of the Battle of Seattle.

Indonesia recently rounded up and deported international journalists and activists who were in-country to witness the massive, intentionally set, fires that are destroying the country’s tropical rainforest.

Thanks in most part to those fires, Indonesia is the world’s third largest greenhouse gas emitter standing right up with China and the U.S. Joining host Mike Tidwell to discuss the devastation to the area – and its consequences for our climate are Greenpeace forest activists Rolf Skar in San Francisco and Chiara Campione in Italy.

Then we hear about a rock that naturally traps carbon dioxide right out of the air. It’s kinda like the ‘anti-coal;’ we speak to researcher Sam Krevor of Stanford University’s Energy Resources Engineering Department.

Host Mike Tidwell then speaks directly to President Obama on how leadership could drive the United States into a clean energy future, if only he took the reins and lead the nation. Read that commentary here.

Music by Jacco Muller – Viento del Desierto. Our theme music is Baladi by Tony Anka, Bellydance Superstars vol. 2.

Image copyright John Novis for Greenpeace, all rights reserved.

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The EPA tried to silence two of its own staffers when they criticizing the White House’s cap and trade program. Host Daphne Wysham speaks to Laurie Williams and Allan Zabel about their YouTube video that shows how cap and trade is fatally flawed.

We review of the recent UN climate meeting in Barcelona with Ilana Solomon of Action Aid and Janet Redman of the Sustainable Energy and Economy Network. Then, details of President Obama’s climate agreement with China with Julian L. Wong of the Center for American Progress.

Image used courtesy of Sam Feinstein via Flickr.

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Al Gore’s long-awaited follow up to ‘An Inconvenient Truth’ is in bookstores. ‘Our Choice’ is a master plan for fighting climate change. Joining host Mike Tidwell to talk about the book is Joe Romm. Joe is the author of the website Climate Progress and the author of the book Hell or High Water.

Then speaking of high water, we review a lawsuit by victims of Hurricane Katrina against the oil companies that they say contributed to the ferocity of the storm. We speak to Hannah McCrea, the author of the website Warming Law, and F. Gerald Maples, the lead attorney in the case.

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The connections between population and climate change go far beyond the recent comments by conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh. Kathleen Mogelgaard of Population Action International speaks to host Mike Tidwell about how giving women the control they want over the size of their families ends up being a win-win for them, and the climate.

CNN called the recent 350 Day of Action “the most widespread day of political action in the planet’s history.” We speak to 350.org founder and climate hero Bill McKibben.

Then, host Mike Tidwell reviews the latest climate news and views, including his recent op-ed in the Baltimore Sun.

Image from Hyderabad, India’s 350 action, used courtesy of 350.org.

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Denmark’s Ambassador to the United States, Friis Petersen, joins host Daphne Wysham for a discussion on how his country became a world leader in renewable energy, lower greenhouse gases, and a strong national economy. The Danish city of Copenhagen will host the crucial United Nations Climate Summit – COP 15 – in December.

The federal government classifies incinerators as a source of renewable energy. Meg Sheehan of Ecolaw in Massachusetts discusses the irony of naming waste as renewable.

And an architecture research group that’s working to slow climate change – we speak to Edward Mazria, the founder and executive director of Architecture 2030.

Image by Fred Sorensen of Denmark used with permission via Flickr.

Music used is Flight to Denmark by Duke Jordan.

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

If you’d like to hear this edition of Earthbeat – please send us an e-mail

The tsunami and earthquakes that ravaged islands in the Pacific may be just the beginning of an increase in geological disasters due to climate change.

Earthbeat host Mike Tidwell discusses the link with Alan Linde, a geophysicist with the Carnegie Institution of Washington. Bill McGuire, a professor of geophysics and climate at the University College London, who recently organized the first ever conference on the connections between climate change and geological hazards. McGuire is the author of the book, Seven Years to Save the Planet.

The small island nations nations of the world and islands like American Samoa are fighting to keep their heads literally above water with a discussion with Carroll Muffett of the Climate Law and Policy Project.

The worldwide economic downturn has an unexpected silver lining – our carbon emissions dipped as our bank accounts plummeted. Host Mike Tidwell talks dollars and sense with Peter Brown, a professor at McGill University and the co-author of the book Right Relationship.

Image – one of the chain of coral atolls that make up the Maldives islands

Music includes Maldives Night by Max Madisson and Nonu a Togi and Sasa by the Samoan Music Ensemble.

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

If you’d like to hear this edition of Earthbeat – please send us an e-mail

Bestselling author and investigative journalist Greg Palast joins host Daphne Wysham to discuss how the oil company Chevron is behind the firing of hurricane experts at Louisiana State University. The case of fired Louisiana State University professor, Ivor van Heerden is in the movie Big Easy to Big Empty.

Melting sea ice is pushing Pacific walruses onto land and resulting in unusual, massive herds of the animals. On the same week that the federal government agreed to review putting the walrus on the endangered species list – a herd in Alaska stampeded killing hundreds of the animals. Joining us discuss how oil and gas drilling is affecting the walruses is biologist Shaye Wolf of the Climate Law Institute at the Center for Biological Diversity.

The plan to create carbon offsets in the current U.S. climate bill could result in offsetting any true action on climate change. Michael Despines, the Friends of the Earth Climate Resilience Campaign Coordinator, discusses what’s coming us next in the U.S. Senate in this week’s edition of our ongoing series, the Countdown to Copenhagen.

Image copyright The Center for Biological Diversity – Bill Hickey.

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

If you’d like to hear this edition of Earthbeat – please send us an e-mail

Biochar is a type of charcoal that’s the result of burning plant matter with very low oxygen. It’s a sooty, black substance that holds great promise for not only slowing down climate change, but actually reversing it. Host Mike Tidwell discusses the promise of biochar with Durwood Zaelke, the president and founder of the Institute for Governance and Sustainable Development.

Then we discuss the nuts and bolts of the upcoming UN climate talks in Copenhagen. Ideally, nearly 200 countries will come together and leave the meeting with a 50-page treaty that’ll be a framework for the world to plan for worldwide climate change. Joining us to discuss how far away the world is from that goal is Angela Ledford Anderson, a program director for US Climate Action Network.

What’s likely the nation’s largest residential solar project is right here in the nation’s capital. Anya Schoolmaker joins us; she’s the president of the Mt. Pleasant Solar Coop.

Music used in this edition of Earthbeat is ‘Charcoal’ by Mrs. Tanaka.