Earthbeat Radio

Billionaires Bill Gates and Richard Branson are funneling millions of dollars into far-out solutions to climate change. It’s called geoengineering and these high-risk, planet-altering schemes are already underway. Joining host Daphne Wysham to discuss these plans is Diana Bronson of the ETC Group in Montreal, Canada.

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.

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 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

Advancements in China and India on greenhouse gas emission targets and leaps forward on renewable energy resources in China and India may be leaving the United States behind.

Earthbeat host Daphne Wysham discusses 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 a recent editorial in the Washington Post and the forthcoming book, Plan B 4.0 Mobilizing to Save Civilization.

David Bookbinder, the chief climate counsel of the Sierra Club and Tyson Slocum, the head of Public Citizen’s energy program discuss the pending U.S. action in the Senate on the nation’s first major legislation to fight climate change.

Image used courtesy of Laura Padgett via Flickr.

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

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‘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.

Today on Earthbeat, host Daphne Wysham discusses the threat to EPA authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions under the latest climate legislation passed in the House with the Sierra Club’s senior counsel for climate change – David Bookbinder, and Matt Pawa, the legal director of the Global Warming Legal Action Project which is run by the Civil Society Institute. Matt suggests The Clean for more information about the House version of the bill. An editorial on the EPA’s authority by Daphne Wysham can be found on Alternet.

We discuss the need to move beyond just ‘green jobs’ with Joe Uehlein, the founder of the Labor Network for Sustainability and the former AFL- CIO representative to the UN Commission on Global Warming and Sean Sweeney, the director of Cornell University’s Global Labor Institute.

Is President Obama is putting our taxpayer money where his mouth is when it comes to the country’s climate security? We speak to the author of the new report ‘Military versus Climate Security’ with its author Miriam Pemberton of the Institute for Policy Studies.

Music for this edition of Earthbeat comes from The Devil Makes Three.

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

Image used courtesy of J. Reed via Flickr, licensed by Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic.

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

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.

The global economic collapse has shown the folly of letting Wall Street traders run the world. The result is a wake-up call to those who believed that climate change could be fixed by carbon credits in the global market. The alternative is a carbon tax. In this encore edition of Earthbeat, host Daphne Wysham speaks to Charles Komanoff of the Carbon Tax Center.

Then, a debate at the National Press Club in Washington, DC between two environmental leaders on the merits and problems of relying on nuclear power to fight global warming. Patrick Moore is the co-chair of the Clean and Safe Energy Coalition, he debated Arjun Makhijani, the president of the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research.

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

Image used courtesy of Pixelens Photography via Flickr.