Breathing clean air and drinking clean water are fundamental rights. However, these rights have been denied to many low-income communities and communities of color, who often live next to massive industrial facilities that pollute the air and water. Our guest is Dr. Mustafa Santiago Ali [https://www.mustafasantiagoali.com/] former EPA official and now Executive Vice President at the National Wildlife Federation and Founder and CEO of Revitalization Strategies. He has been working toward solving ...
May 22, 2023•1 hr 2 min
While we continue to hear of and experience the perils of global heating and climate disruption, some of us fundamentally understand that the ecosystem is not broken. Rather it is human connection to Nature that is in dire need of a correction. Or better stated, a re-connection. According to the World’s Soil Resources Report from the UN of the top 10 threats to soil, soil erosion ranks number one, because it is happening globally. Although desertification intensifies at an alarming rate, and nar...
May 15, 2023•1 hr 5 min
The transition from a fossil-fuel economy to a clean-energy economy is going to require the United States to build a lot of solar, wind, geothermal, energy storage and transmission and distribution systems as soon as possible. We also must consider the infrastructure necessary for building resilience and adaptation to climate change, such as sea walls, flood protection systems, and water storage systems. Some argue one of the biggest barriers to building all this is the time and costs associated...
May 08, 2023•1 hr 3 min
Water security. Water quality. Access to water. The threat of water privatization. Our relationship to water and how we value it. Ours is a future where the preciousness of water is being tested. Every drop counts. Will humanity act as if water is a gift rather than as an entitlement, a “right” or an exclusive commodity to profit from? Our guest this week, Boris Ochoa-Tocachi, CEO and Senior Hydrologist of ATUK Consultoría Estratégica out of Ecuador [https://atuk.com.ec/profesionales/boris-ochoa...
May 01, 2023•1 hr 1 min
Greenhouse gases from fossil fuels, such as carbon dioxide and methane, are warming the planet. This warming is then setting in motion ice and permafrost melting, release of more greenhouse gases, more heat and storms – these are feedback loops, which then feed upon themselves, as well as interact with each other and spiral further out of control. In this show, we sat down in 2022 with Susan Gray, Director and Bonnie Waltch, Senior Producer and writer of the five-part documentary series, “Climat...
Apr 24, 2023•59 min
According to the LA City Sanitation District, a staggering 4,000 tons of food waste is generated in Los Angeles County on a daily basis. This food includes “dinner” scraps as well as spoiled fruit and vegetables from grocery stores and restaurants. Recently, the program Organics LA & SB1383 now requires Los Angeles residents compost their food scraps in order to reduce our mountain of organic waste and divert it away from landfills. The aim is to reduce organic waste in landfills by 75% by 2...
Apr 24, 2023•1 hr 2 min
As house prices escalate, the concept of living in smaller homes has gone viral. Whether fixed to land or portable, the tiny house movement has swept across the US. Yet, what is the day-to-day reality of living the downsized life? Our guests this week, Lindsay Wood - The Tiny Home Lady [https://www.thetinyhomelady.com/] - and Teresa Bradley from Tiny Green Adventures [https://www.youtube.com/@tinygreenadventure3464], bring a dose of reality to the challenge, but also the splendor, of living simp...
Apr 17, 2023•59 min
On this show we feature the late writer and activist Mike Davis, labeled an “urban historian,” who further took on geography, politics, economics, sociology and literature. His focus was the dislocation and separation brought on by capitalist society: people from land, work from ownership, individuals from each other, all in the service of profit. And he showed how this dislocation resulted in climate, environmental, and social disasters. His solution was communities connecting together and to t...
Apr 10, 2023•1 hr 5 min
In the coming decades, at least thirteen million coastal U.S. residents will have to pack their bags and move from their homes, rising sea levels and superstorms put lives at risk and cause billions of dollars in damages. In the popular tourist town of Charleston, South Carolina, climate denial, widespread gentrification, over development, and racial issues compound. The city, like so many other coastal regions across the world, has no workable plan to relocate its most vulnerable populations aw...
Apr 03, 2023•1 hr 2 min
Biodynamics emerged through the work and passions of Austrian philosopher and scientist Dr. Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925). It began with his infamous lectures in 1924 which inspired farmers to a new yet ancient way of integrating scientific understanding with a recognition of spirit in nature. Stewart Lundy, Education and Media Manager of the Josephine Porter Institute for Applied Bio-Dynamics [http://www.jpibiodynamics.org], joins us to discuss Steiner’s legacy in the advancement and growth of res...
Mar 27, 2023•1 hr 1 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 worlds 60 largest banks has reached nearly $4.6 trillion in the six years since the adoption of the Paris Climate Agreement, with $742 ...
Mar 20, 2023•58 min
Solar. Wind. Renewable energy. The Biden administration issued a plan that envisions the US generating 45% of its electricity from solar panels by 2050. Climate change, justice, and equity are increasingly on the hearts and minds of millions of people globally as we continue to witness imbalance upon the planet; the manifestations are glaringly obvious. Forbes magazine noted the world will likely quadruple the number of solar panels in the world over the next decade. But despite public wishes fo...
Mar 14, 2023•56 min
We’ve been “saving the planet” for decades and environmental crises just continue to compound. All this Tesla driving, green-roofed corporate headquarters, and carbon trading seems to accomplish little to nothing — all while low-income communities of color continue to suffer the worst consequences. Jenny Price is an ardent advocate for increasing public environmental access, activism, and effectiveness in solving the myriad of challenges we face. She joined us in 2022 to talk about her latest b...
Mar 13, 2023•58 min
The fashion industry contributes to roughly 10% of all global carbon emissions (releasing 1.2 billion tonnes of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere every year). It is also the world’s second worst offender in terms of water and plastic pollution, seeing that the majority of our clothes are made from plastic and contribute to microplastic pollution. In this show, our guest Dr. Joanne Brasch, Special Projects Manager for California Product Stewardship Council, walks us through the current state o...
Mar 06, 2023•1 hr 5 min
Land Back, the movement to return the stolen lands of the USA, also known as Turtle Island, to the original Indigenous peoples who inextricably belong to them, has been accelerating for some time now. Indigenous peoples have "lost" roughly 99% of the lands they once inhabited, according to a 2021 data set published in Science. 42% of tribes in historical records have no recognized land base today. Radical imagination is required to forge a new, and also perhaps ancient way out of the injustices ...
Feb 27, 2023•1 hr 5 min
Is a 100% clean, renewable energy future by the year 2050 possible? Our guest, Stanford Professor Mark Z. Jacobson proposes that the most efficient and socially and environmentally just way is to replace fossil fuels through a combined implementation of Wind, Water, and Solar energy solutions. Are these solutions perfect? No. However, when compared to other so-called energy solutions like nuclear, biofuel, biomass, waste to energy, and hydrogen (just to name a few) these three (Wind, Water-Geoth...
Feb 20, 2023•1 hr 5 min
Sacred Sueños Reforestation Project: Off-Grid and Off-Road in the Andes A simple life. Many of us dream of this. Especially those living separated from the natural rhythms of nature in favor of endless technological conveniences and gadgetry. We are bombarded by a daily onslaught of unnatural sights, sounds, smells, and superfluous information. The fascination with what Henry David Thoreau wrote about his living experiment in simplicity on Walden Pond continues for those perhaps disheartened by ...
Feb 13, 2023•1 hr
From the late 1800s to the early decades of the 1900s, African Americans started to occupy and steward recreational sites and public spaces throughout the United States, and thus challenged racial hierarchies while expressing Black identity on the social landscape. In her book, ‘Living The California Dream: African American Leisure Sites During The Jim Crow Era’, our guest historian Alison Rose Jefferson [http://www.alisonrosejefferson.com] examines how African American leisure sites were a cata...
Feb 06, 2023•58 min
Glyphosate is one of the most common ingredients in herbicides, and the main ingredient in Bayer/Monsanto's infamous weedkiller: Round Up. The latter is one of the worlds most widely used herbicides with various applications including: weed control in agriculture, vegetation control, as a crop desiccant, in consumer home gardens and lawns, and in massive aerial spraying to control illegal crops. It is also used extensively in home gardens and lawns, landscape, ornamental nursery, forestry, roads...
Jan 30, 2023•1 hr 2 min
Fueled by influencers, celebrities, and a wellness community, white sage has become a hot commodity from body products to the infamous smudging sticks of bundled dry leaves. However, most people are unaware that most white sage is poached from the wild and sold on the black market. White sage, also known as salvia apiana, only grows naturally from Southern California to Baja Mexico where it is stolen from the wilds and sold all over the world in boutiques, big box stores, and online. But at what...
Jan 23, 2023•59 min
For over two thousand years we have overlooked the scientific and cultural impact of human feeling. USC neuroscientist Dr. Antonio Damasio argues feelings and emotions are what make up human intelligence, consciousness, and the capacity for cultural creation. Thus when we look to engineering and policy solutions to our ecological collapse based on computational brainpower and artificial intelligence, we get lost along the way. By adopting a biological understanding of feeling, we can create a fr...
Jan 16, 2023•1 hr
The fossil fuel industry has been promoting hydrogen as a reliable, low carbon, next-generation fuel to power cars, heat homes, and generate electricity. However, currently 99% of the annual supply of hydrogen comes from fracked methane gas. So will switching to hydrogen only lock us into continued fossil fuel use and additional investments in fossil fuel infrastructure? Proponents argue that when hydrogen is made using renewable power it can cut climate-warming industrial carbon pollution from ...
Jan 09, 2023•57 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...
Jan 03, 2023•1 hr 7 min
The proliferation of suburban sprawl, built where wildlife live and thrive, threatens the safety and genetic diversity of wild animals and plant species. Migrating wildlife of all shapes and sizes must contend with humans driving on the 4.8 million miles of roads in the US, facing the danger of colliding with vehicles. Aside from driving less, one strategy to mitigate these accidents has gained bipartisan acceptance: providing wildlife crossings that facilitate connectivity for a diverse group o...
Dec 28, 2022•58 min
In 1830 the U.S. government implemented the Indian Removal Act, which led to the infamous Trail of Tears (1837-39), the removal or forced relocation of the Cherokee Nation. Thus, roughly 15,000 Cherokees were removed from their homes in Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina, Tennessee and other states under both U.S. military force and state militias. Despite these acts of genocide and the resulting criminalization of cultural traditions and lifeways, the Cherokee and so many other Indigenous peoples...
Dec 19, 2022•1 hr 1 min
What would it take to transform a 100 year old house sitting near oil fields into the most sustainable clean energy zero-emissions house? That was the challenge our guest, architect Avideh Haghighi, took up with her personal project she named ZeroHouz [http://www.zerohouz.com]. We discuss the dangers of gas appliances inside homes and why people should consider replacing - and how to replace - their “natural” gas (or some people call it fossil gas) stove, furnace, air conditioning and water heat...
Dec 12, 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...
Dec 05, 2022•58 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. In this encore presentation, our guest, Roishetta Ozane, started the Vessel Project of L...
Nov 29, 2022•58 min
Native people inhabited the Connecticut River Valley of western Massachusetts for more than 10,000 years. It is the homeland of many First People, all related to one another. They are called the Sokoki, Pocumtuck, Nonotuck, Woronoco, and Agawam. Many other tribes visited and still visit this Native homeland. Among them are the Abenaki, Nipmuck, Wampanoag, Narragansett, Mohegan, Pequot, Mohican, and Mohawk. These tribes are recognized today by states or the federal government as sovereign nations...
Nov 21, 2022•1 hr 3 min
Microplastics, small, micro sized plastic fragments are showing up in our water sources, rain, drinking water, and beverages like beer. It is in food, salt, and seafood. Moreover, it has recently been found in human breast milk, placentas, human lungs, and blood. One report indicated that blue whales are consuming 10 million pieces of microplastic particles a day. As plastic fragments, it continues to shed fibers smaller than a strand of human hair. Most the time we are unaware how and when this...
Nov 14, 2022•58 min
