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.

BP says it’s attached a new cap on its oil well in the Gulf of Mexico. Plumes of oil have covered thousands of square miles of ocean waters and shoreline, leaving Gulf Coast communities reeling from the impact.

BP has squared off against the press, threatening photographers and other journalists with felonies if they come within 65 feet of their cleanup operations. Nevertheless, pictures of the despoiled ocean, oil-coated birds, turtles and marine mammals are making it into the public domain. Joining Earthbeat Host Daphne Wysham in the studio to discuss the the BP oil disaster are the Reverend Lennox Yearwood, the president and CEO of the HipHop Caucus. Joining the conversation after returning from a recent trip to the Gulf is Allison Fisher, Energy Organizer with the group Public Citizen.

Then, how the US Government tested nuclear weapons on the people living in the Marshall Islands. Bob Alvarez, a senior scholar at the Institute for Policy Studies, testified recently before Congress on how the government is now considering cutting off support for the roughly 62,000 affected islanders.

Then, Thinking Outside the Bomb, how native Americans continue to be affected by nuclear weapons testing in the American West.

Image is a nuclear bomb test in the Pacific.

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.

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.

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.

Adding insult to injury, residents all along the Gulf Coast are now having to gut their houses because they were rebuilt after Hurricanes Rita and Katrina with toxic drywall. The Chinese-made drywall releases gases so noxious it’s corroding pipes and electrical wiring. Jim Vallette of the Healthy Building Network’s Pharos Project joins us to explain how the drywall came to include toxic ash and other wastes left over from coal-fired power plants – and the connections between the German multi-national corporation Knauf and its manufacturing plants in China. The Health Building Network’s Pharos Project connects builders with sustainable materials.

The World Bank approved a loan that will create one of the world’s largest coal-fired power plants. The $3.75 billion dollar loan will result in a power plant that emits 23 million metric tons of carbon dioxide each year. Desmond D’Sa of the Environmental Alliance of South Africa talks about how this loan will perpetuate many of the conditions in place under apartheid.

A new film tracks the history and the legacy of Earth Day. Host Daphne Wysham speaks to filmmaker Robert Stone. The film will air on PBS’s program ‘American Experience’ on April 19th.

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

Image by DavidaLan via Flickr – all rights reserved.

An upcoming US Supreme Court Case reviews the Center for Food Safety’s groundbreaking legal victory 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 new 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.

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The Washington, DC Busboys and Poets event featuring Andrew Kimbrell and India activist Vandana Shiva will be Saturday, April 6th from 4 to 6 pm at Busboys and Poets on 5th Street. Reservations are necessary
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Image used courtesy of Happy Sleepy via Flickr.

The massive snowstorms that blanketed the nation’s capitol are just one instance of odd-ball weather this winter. Joining us to discuss the connections between the weather and climate change is Dr. Amanda Staudt, a climate scientist for the National Wildlife Federation.

The sweet smell of success on coal-fired power. Bruce Nilles, the director of the Sierra Club’s national coal campaign, joins us to discuss how nearly all of the 150 planned coal-fired power plants have been stopped nationwide.

Image from Valkyrieh116 via Flickr – all rights reserved.

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

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To give to the people of Haiti affected from a massive earthbeatquake – we suggest Doctors without Borders, Partners in Health or Mercy Corps. Also, our friends at Other Worlds, with three decades of experience working with social movements in Haiti, have this message to share
with you: Other Worlds.
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While the US Senate continues to stall on climate change – allegations continue into oil company lobbyists writing legislation suggested by Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski. Joining host Daphne Wysham to discuss these Senate shenanigans is Steven Biel of MoveOn.org and Courtney Abrams of Environment America.

Then we discuss presidential power and climate change with Kevin Bundy of the Center for Biological Diversity. He’s one of the authors of the new report “Yes, He Can.”

Then a critical discussion on agriculture and climate change. Rachel Smolker of BioFuel Watch joins us to discuss agribusiness, biochar and agricultural offsets.

Music from this edition of Earthbeat is by the Haitian band Tabou Combo from their album Taboulogy. Our theme music is Baladi by Tony Anka, Bellydance Superstars vol. 2.

Image used courtesy of Laura Padgett via Flickr.

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Keep Winter Cold is a yearly polar bear plunge by the Chesapeake Climate Action Network to highlight climate change.
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If you’d like to hear this edition of Earthbeat – please send us an e-mail