Earthbeat Radio

****
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.
****

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.

***
Keep Winter Cold is a yearly polar bear plunge by the Chesapeake Climate Action Network to highlight climate change.
***

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.

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

A funny — and historically accurate — history of all our stuff. In this rebroadcast we speak to Annie Leonard, the woman behind the short film The Story of Stuff.

Host Daphne Wysham then speaks to Economic Hit Man John Perkins about how he undermined the financial systems of developing countries on behalf of the US Government. Then we’ll get a grip on this world gone mad with Frances Moore Lappe, the author of ‘Diet for a Small Planet.’ She discusses her latest work, Getting a Grip.

Music used in this edition of Earthbeat is ‘Dollars and Cents’ by Radiohead.

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

‘Cash for Clunkers’ is touted as a green program – but experts say it actually takes funds away from dollars already dedicated to a loan program for renewable energy.

Host Daphne Wysham investigates with Michael Gerrard, the professor of environmental law at Columbia Law School and the director of its Center for Climate Change Law. Joining the conversation is Henry Jacoby, a professor of management ad co-director of the Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

India is considering a massive solar program that it hopes will help provide that country with needed power. Shankar Venkateswaran joins us from India; he’s the social policy director for the group SustainAbility. In our studios is Namrata Patodia, an international fellow at the Pew Center on Global Climate Change.

And the Navajo Nation goes green. Natasha K. Johnson, the legislative staff assistant for the Navajo Nation Office of the Speaker talks about the new resolution that focuses on green energy jobs, and Wahleah Johns, the co-director of the Black Mesa Water Coalition, speaks about the effort to move the Navajo from extractive industries to green ones.

Music for this edition of Earthbeat is from the soundtrack to the TV show Dexter on Milan Records.

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

Image used courtesy of Tabbi Kat via Flickr.

The climate bill passing through Congress punishes countries that don’t take action – but what if America gets a taste of its own medicine? Host Mike Tidwell speaks about the potential of sanctions against the U-S if we continue to drag our feet on fighting climate change with Lori Wallach, the director of Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch and Marty Spitzer, the legislative director for the Center for Clean Air Policy.

Then we’ll discuss how the mainstream media continues to miss the big story of climate change with Mike Lemonick, a senior writer with the website Climate Central and the former science and environment writer for Time Magazine.

Then, the connections between climate denial and Bigfoot believers, we’ll speak to Hasan Nazar, the legislative representative for the League of Conservation Voters and the editor of the website that uncovered the Sasquatch connection, Really-Seriously.

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

Image used courtesy of Robert English via Flickr.

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

Grassroots organizing is often the key to true political change. The term implies that the creation of the movement come, not from the top down, but instead from the rising up of a group of like-minded average people.

Today on Earthbeat we’re going to focus on three groups that are tapping their roots to press politicians into true action on climate change. Joining host Daphne Wysham in our Washington, DC studios is Steven Biel of MoveOn’s Political Action team and Whit Jones, the action field director for the campus climate group Energy Action. On the telephone, fresh from his direct action at Mount Rushmore is Matt Leonard, an actions campaigner with Greenpeace.

Then, a wake-up call for coastal and riverfront communities. A new report by the National Wildlife Federation shows how climate change in greatly increasing flooding across the U.S. Joining us to discuss the problem, and some solutions that communities can take to protect themselves, is NWF climate scientist Amanda Staudt.

At the recent G8 meeting, the world’s major industrialized democracies failed, yet again, to identify a way that the developed world could help poorer countries cope with the effects of climate change. Soon there will be the meeting of the G20 – the world’s 20 leading economies and of course the U.N. continues to hold ongoing climate meetings leading up to the Copenhagen meeting in December.

Joining us to discuss if any of these meetings will result in strong action in providing financial assistance to countries that will be most affected by climate change is Ilana Solomon, a policy analyst for ActionAid, an international group whose aim is to fight poverty worldwide, and Janet Redman, the co-director of the Sustainable Energy and Economy Network at the Institute for Policy Studies.

Music for this edition of Earthbeat comes from the album Planet Passion.

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

Image used courtesy of Greenpeace, all rights reserved.

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

Today on Earthbeat, host Mike Tidwell discusses how President Obama is missing in action when it comes to climate leadership.

‘Black carbon’ makes up 50 percent of the non-carbon dioxide global warming pollution in our atmosphere. In this rebroadcast of an April 2009 interview, we speak to Durwood Zaelke, the president and founder of the Institute for Governance and Sustainable Development.

The TED talks are renown for bringing together some of Silicon Valley’s leading thinkers and innovators. John Doerr is a partner in the famed venture capitalism firm Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers and known for investing in Amazon, Google and others before they were household names. John is now focusing his efforts, and his fortune on green technology.

Alex Steffen is the founder of the website Instructables and is the cofounder and executive editor of the website WorldChanging. He speaks about how innovation will help us create a sustainable future.

Music for this edition of Earthbeat comes from the album Seven Serenades for Scalloped Fretboard Guitar by Matthew Montfort.

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

Image used with permission by DJ Xavior via Flickr.

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

The Nigerian military’s Joint Task Force launched a full-scale assault on villages in the oil-rich Niger Delta on May 13, 2009. The military says the action is targeted at militants in the area. But reports from the ground suggest hundreds and perhaps thousands of innocent civilians have been killed. Humanitarian aid groups and journalists are banned from entering the Delta.

Billions of dollars in oil is extracted from under the feet of the people in the Niger Delta, and yet the region is marked by abject poverty.

Host Daphne Wysham sat down with the founder and director of the non-profit group, the Niger Delta Professionals for Development – Joel Bisina. Joining the conversation is Mary Ella Keblusek, the group’s international director. Mary Ella is also an associate producer of the forthcoming documentary on the Niger Delta, Sweet Crude.

Oil companies are now coming under legal fire for polluting the Amazon and for allegedly working hand-in-hand with corrupt governments in oppressing the people living in oil-rich areas globally.

Antonia Juhasz joins us to discuss the one oil company’s actions – Chevron’s – and shares with us the contents of her just-released alternative annual report on the oil company. Juhasz is the author of the book The Tyranny of Oil. Her alternative annual report on Chevron is entitled, The True Cost of Chevron.

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

Today on Earthbeat host Mike Tidwell debates the massive Waxman-Markey climate bill with Joe Romm, the editor of the blog Climate Progress, and the author of the book, Hell and High Water.

Waxman-Markey is the shorthand for the massive, over 900-page climate change legislation introduced by Congressmen Henry Waxman of California and Edward Markey of Massachusetts.

Then Mike discusses a blue-ribbon military report that says that America’s national security is gravely threatened by our country’s reliance on fossil fuels. The authors of the report include a former Army Chief of Staff, Commanders-in-Chief of U-S forces around the world, general officers from the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps, and a former NASA space shuttle astronaut.

Joining us to discuss the report is the executive director of the Military Advisory Board of the Center for Naval Analsyes, the non-profit research arm of the center – Sherri Goodman.

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

Music for this edition of Earthbeat comes from the album Seven Serenades for Scalloped Fretboard Guitar by Matthew Montfort.

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