The Earth’s water cycle, carbon cycle, and nutrient cycle depend on a healthy soil sponge, which is created and maintained by the ongoing work of other species. By restoring and nurturing the soil sponge, humanity has a unique opportunity to unify and come into balance with all life, particularly the world’s essential workers: Plants, fungi, bacteria, worms, insects, and other often unseen underground workers. These beings together create the soil sponge, the basic infrastructure or living matri...
Nov 07, 2022•1 hr 3 min
Just as we analyze the impacts of our food and energy use, equally important is understanding from where our clothes originate, their environmental and social impacts, and how to dispose of them in an environmentally responsible manner. According to a 2017 Ellen MacArthur Foundation report, every second on this planet, the equivalent of a garbage truck full of clothing and textiles is landfilled or burned. On this show we interview Karri Ann Frerichs, CEO and Founder of Circular Fashion LA [http...
Oct 31, 2022•1 hr 2 min
Some 12,000 years ago, our ancestors in the Fertile Crescent turned from being hunter-gatherers to farming. Today, agriculture consumes one-third of global land use and food production creates roughly15% of global greenhouse gas emissions. We have become dependent upon farming; and how we choose to farm now, will surely determine the future of humanity. By increasing biodiversity through using cover crops, integrating wild and domesticated animals, and minimizing or eliminating tillage, Regenera...
Oct 24, 2022•59 min
The poetry of Matt Sedillo [https://www.mattsedillo.com/] -- a fearless, challenging and at times even confrontational blend of humor, history and political theory -- is at times a shot in the arm of pure revolutionary adrenaline. It also is a sobering call for the fundamental restructuring of society in the interest of people not profits. Passionate, analytical, humorous and above all sincere, Matt's poetry revolution is a clarion call for those who know a new world is not only possible but ine...
Oct 17, 2022•57 min
Synthetic herbicides often contain carcinogenic glyphosate and are used largely to eradicate weeds for aesthetic purposes on college campuses and school grounds. Institutions such as these are notorious for utilizing chemicals that have been linked to a host of diseases including: non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, Parkinson’s, asthma, depression, anxiety, ADHD, cancer and leukemia. These deleterious health impacts can be avoided or prevented by implementing and exploring organic options and regenerative l...
Oct 10, 2022•59 min
On this show we explore the world of Shelterwood Collective [http://www.shelterwoodcollective.org], a Black, Indigenous, and LGBTQ-led community forest and retreat center that seeks to heal people and ecosystems through active stewardship and community engagement. Recently they took on the role of stewards for 900 acres of forest in Sonoma County, California, on Unceded Kashaya and Southern Pomo territory. Our guest is Layel Camargo, Co Founder & Co Executive Director of Shelterwood Collecti...
Oct 03, 2022•59 min
Two countries in Latin America have had elections where after decades of US-influenced, multinational corporation dominant governments have lost to insurgent leftist candidates, Xiomara Castro in Honduras, and Gustavo Petro in Colombia. One other country in the Caribbean, Haiti, has faced the same sort of right-wing neoliberal interventionist governments, a recent example ending up with an assassination of President Jovenel Moise in 2021. Right now massive protests have gotten to the point of an...
Sep 26, 2022•1 hr 4 min
Native peoples have used the tool of fire as medicine. Fire was understood to be a spirit, a healer and sacred in its own right. Traditional Native controlled burning, called cultural fire, utilizes ancient agro-forestry practices, technology developed through time by the Karuk tribe and Indigenous Peoples around the world. Elizabeth Azzuz, Secretary of Cultural Fire Management Council, discusses in this interview from 2020 her work using Traditional Native Karuk methods of prescribed burning to...
Sep 18, 2022•58 min
Many people are aware of the Victory Gardens that were hallmarks of WWI and WWII, where people in the United States and in other countries were growing food at home to supplement rations, reduce pressure on the food supply and lift morale. We are in a similar, yet different moment now, having experienced food security and supply chain issues during the pandemic, the urgency of climate change as evidenced by flash floods and intensive wildfires, as well civil wars, economic and humanitarian crise...
Sep 12, 2022•59 min
Unbeknownst to many, the United States is soon to be the largest exporter of oil and gas. With increased drilling and fracking in the Texas Permian Basin and multiple oil and gas pipelines headed for the Gulf of Mexico Coast, the neighboring communities are at the nexus of climate change disasters and community resistance. Port Arthur Texas is home base for the largest oil refinery in North America and a dizzying toxic array of fossil fuel and chemical facilities. But the people are stepping up ...
Sep 05, 2022•58 min
The National Oceanic & Atmospheric Association recently reported that half of the mainland U.S. is currently undergoing drought. The West is experiencing the worst megadrought in 1,200 years, the onset of which began some twenty years ago. Regardless of dire conditions, drought is not a fixed conclusion: it is a sign. A sign of imbalance in our relationships to soil and the water cycle. Drought reflects the consequences of wasteful personal and farming practices, infrastructure that has turn...
Aug 29, 2022•58 min
The truth about the US Indian boarding school policy has largely been written out of the history books. Started in the 1800s across the US and Canada, Indian Boarding schools were government-funded and often church-run. The goal? Forced assimilation of Native children into white society under the belief of “Kill the Indian, Save the Man,” which still contributes to how we see and treat Indigenous Peoples today. Sadly, the marked and unmarked graves of children have been found in the residential ...
Aug 20, 2022•58 min
Lithium is essential to all battery technology currently in use and development worldwide. Due to the transition to renewable solar and wind energy and electrification of vehicles and homes to reduce fossil fuel dependency and address climate change, the appetite for lithium is growing exponentially. While touted as part of a clean and green technology, many are rightfully crying “greenwashing" in response to lithium production and fast tracking mine permits. There is a dark underbelly of lithiu...
Aug 15, 2022•59 min
Devil's urine. That's what Dupont employees called PFAS. These toxic, human made forever chemicals are now in the blood of almost every human on the planet. They are found in drinking water around the world, even Antarctica. And they are used in a broad range of consumer products, like non-stick cookware, stain-resistant clothing, waterproof items, dental floss, and even medical masks. These are only a few examples of many. This group of toxic chemicals, perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substa...
Aug 08, 2022•1 hr 4 min
Our times are demanding that we reconnect to Nature and the place where we live. Given the impacts of the sixth great extinction, it is our personal and collective responsibility to support the return of biodiversity and native habitat. The World Wildlife Fund recently announced that we are losing 10,000 species a year to extinction, primarily due to habitat loss. Despite this, the U.S. has turned over 40 million acres of native-habitat into high-maintenance, lifeless and toxic lawns. According ...
Aug 01, 2022•59 min
The Gulf Coast of Louisiana and Texas face a petrochemical and fracked gas export boom. Super-heat-charged hurricanes strike almost every year. As a result, Black, Indigenous, People of Color, and Low-Income Communities, face an interrelated number of issues including environmental justice; voting suppression; and access to housing, healthcare, clean water, energy, and safe fresh produce, just to name a few. Our guest, Roishetta Ozane, started the Vessel Project of Louisiana [https://www.vesselp...
Jul 25, 2022•58 min
The UN has classified at least 40% of the Earth’s land as degraded. That figure is estimated to be somewhere between 1 billion, even up to 6 billion hectares of degraded land. Much if not most of this degradation can be attributed to human activity, particularly that of modern agriculture, its impacts & methodologies. Land degradation affects the physical health of all life, biodiversity, the nutrient cycling of plants, the quality of our air, water and food and our access to them. World-ren...
Jul 18, 2022•1 hr
The act of composting ensures that food scraps and green waste are never wasted, but returned to enrich the soil. It sequesters carbon, and helps to minimize greenhouse gas emissions from landfills. Furthermore, it also enriches the community, creating cooperative human networks, inclusive spaces, and green jobs. Our guest Michael Martinez, Founder and Executive Director of LA Compost [http://www.lacompost.org], illustrates how composting should and can be available to everyone (no matter if you...
Jul 11, 2022•59 min
As momentum continues to grow around the Land Back movement and Indigenous stewardship worldwide, the value of hearing from Elders who have long studied Indigenous traditions and lifeways, whether adopted or of their heritage, is a growing imperative. Their lived wisdom is essential, a gift and treasure for future generations, and continues the cycle of dynamic, inter-generational learning in the traditional way — the way of direct, felt experience and deep listening. Hear Payoomkawish (Juaneño/...
Jul 04, 2022•1 hr
This week we look into the truth about compostable foodservice and packaging with Erin Levine, Resource Recovery Manager at World Centric [https://www.worldcentric.com/]. We delve into environmental concerns, what is actually biodegradable, how fossil fuel dependence fits into the game, and whether we should focus instead on reusable cups, bags, flatware, etc. We also talk about organics waste, which includes yard waste and plant trimmings, food scraps, and food soiled paper. At approx. 40%, org...
Jun 27, 2022•1 hr
Wetlands are vital to our existence and benefit the ecosystem at large by providing essential habitat for countless species of birds, fish and mammals, slowing water flows, reducing soil erosion, storing water, recharging groundwater, aiding nutrient cycling, and mitigating floods. Host Carry Kim will be interviewing John Villa, Executive Director of the Huntington Beach Wetlands Conservancy [http://hbwetlands.org/index.php], on the Orange County Coast of California. He is working with local, st...
Jun 20, 2022•58 min
EcoJustice Radio Executive Producer Jack Eidt shares speeches and discussions from multiple street actions on national and international climate, environmental, and social justice issues. The main action we feature is in solidarity with the Indigenous Peoples fighting the Coastal GasLink Pipeline now under construction on the West Coast of Canada. The Royal Bank of Canada is financially supporting a 416 mile gas pipeline through Indigenous Wet'suwet'en territory in British Columbia. They are als...
Jun 13, 2022•1 hr 10 min
The Joshua tree is an icon and ecological keystone of the California deserts. However, climate disruption with hotter, drier summers and more frequent brush fires, threatens that some day soon Joshua Tree National Park will no longer have any of their namesake trees. In fact, many other important desert plants and animals face an uncertain future. There exist so many unique symbiotic relationships, from the ocotillo blossoms and migrating hummingbirds to the spiny teddy bear cholla and the innov...
Jun 06, 2022•59 min
Each US resident creates an average of 4.5 to 4.9 pounds of trash per day. For many, once it’s in the garbage can, it’s out of sight, out of mind. However, what if we lived our daily lives walking around with the waste we created? Not throwing it into a trash or recycling can, but having to carry our waste with us wherever we go. Would this change our perception? For 30 days, Environmental Activist Rob Greenfield [http://robgreenfield.org/] has been doing just that, wearing a suit that holds the...
May 30, 2022•1 hr 1 min
Many witnessed the unprecedented loss of ancient Giant Sequoia groves in the Castle Fire in Sierra Nevada, California, the only natural habitat for Sequoias on Earth. They are the world’s largest trees, spanning up to 36 feet in diameter and more than 250 feet in height. And they have been known to live for 3,400 years. Unfortunately, the wildfire damage was so severe, experts estimated, that almost a fifth of the planet’s sequoias died or suffered terminal burns during the blazes. Another old g...
May 23, 2022•59 min
Multiple banks have pledged to clean up their fossil fuel funding with net-zero carbon commitments, but they continue business-as-usual, pushing for profit by championing destructive projects responsible for driving climate chaos. The 2022 annual report, Banking on Climate Chaos [http://www.bankingonclimatechaos.org], revealed that fossil fuel financing from the world’s 60 largest banks has reached nearly $4.6 trillion in the six years since the adoption of the Paris Climate Agreement, with $742...
May 16, 2022•59 min
For bonus content and other benefits, become an EcoJustice Radio patron at https://www.patreon.com/ecojusticeradio This is an encore presentation of an interview we did in 2021 with Timothy Paule Jackson and Nicole Lindsey and Co-Founders and Co-Executive Directors of Detroit Hives [https://detroithives.org/]. Urban bee farms of Detroit are not only rebuilding honey bee populations, they are also rebuilding the city and uplifting the community. Since 1950, 61% of Detroit’s population has moved a...
May 07, 2022•59 min
For an extended version of this interview and other benefits, become an EcoJustice Radio patron at https://www.patreon.com/ecojusticeradio Regeneration continues to gain momentum globally as more human beings awaken to the urgent state of the planet. A clear choice lies before us to either unite and reconnect to the lands, waters, relatives and Ancestors, or face greater peril physically, socially, economically and spiritually. Many people say we are all “indigenous” to somewhere. The times dema...
May 01, 2022•59 min
For bonus content and other benefits, become an EcoJustice Radio patron at https://www.patreon.com/ecojusticeradio Indigenous, social justice, and environmental groups have come together in a caravan to speak out against destructive mega-projects and mining across eight states in Central and Southern Mexico. Our guests are Victorino Torres Nava, Professor of the Náhuatl language [http://www.kalmekak.org] at the Anahuacalmecac Academy and Marcos Aguilar, Head of School of Anahuacalmecac Academy [...
Apr 23, 2022•58 min
For bonus content and other benefits, become an EcoJustice Radio patron at https://www.patreon.com/ecojusticeradio This is an encore presentation of an interview we did in 2021 with Kerry Maeve Sheehan, US Policy Lead for iFixit [https://www.ifixit.com/] and Nathan Proctor, U.S. PIRG Senior Right to Repair Campaign Director [http://uspirg.org/repair]. If you own something, shouldn’t you be able to take it to a technician of your choice or fix it yourself and be given access to the parts, tools, ...
Apr 19, 2022•58 min
