Polluted cities kills hundreds of thousands. Under-reported plague from vehicle emissions. 2 interviews.
We are honored to Dr. Joel Schwartz, Harvard's top expert on air pollution. I discuss Dr. Schwartz' testimony to Congress in late 2007. His presentation is still available on the Net, as a .pdf file. It is on Carbon Soot and Global Warming.
Schwartz presents one of the two most scary maps I have ever seen. (Number one was the map showing the new world regime under climate change, attached to a presentation to the Royal Society late in 2007, by Sir James Lovelock....)
The Schwartz map is simple: is just shows where particulate soot, dangerous to human health, is congregating. Gray means very unhealthy amounts of particulates, black means lethal levels.
In the United States, the whole of New England is gray, with black blotches. There is more heavy pollution over the Louisiana/Texas refinery area, and of course gray and black over Southern California.
But all of Europe is one gray area, with huge blobs of black. In our interview, I ask Dr. Schwartz whether the new diesel cars being sold in Europe have filters to preserve the air. Not nearly enough, was the reply. Apparently, about 70% of all new private cars sold in Europe are diesel, not gas. That means a lot of particulates. There are new stricter rules for emissions from these new cars, but it won't stop the rash of heart attacks, pneumonia, and prenatal damage from diesel particulates.
Worse, the Europeans have been buying diesels for a long time - and the engines can last up to 30 years. That means decades more diesel smoke from all the old engines still in use. Dr. Schwartz says anyone could tell, even blindfolded, whether they were breathing European or American air.
We cover a new study from England, by Professor George Knox, finding that pneumonia deaths, thousands of them, caused directly by transport emissions, have been missed by medical authorities. The situation now is killing more people than the famous killer smog of 1952, but the reporting system just doesn't pick it up.
The Joel Schwartz interview is a must - if you live in a city. We talk about smog canyons, how people die, and what could be done about it.
The program starts, though, almost at the other end of the world, in Alaska, with Dr. Riki Ott. Why would we call a marine expert on oil spills, to find out about city smog? Because after the Exxon Valdez spill, the American government spent hundreds of millions of dollars in research into the toxicity of oil. It was the first time such research was ever done. They found that even small amounts of oil was toxic not just to fish, but to mammals - including mammals like ourselves.
After the research, in 1999, the EPA quietly added one oil component, the PAH's, to the most deadly list of bio-accumulative toxic materials - along with things like DDT. The Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons are in your blood stream and mine. They persist, build up, and lead to cancer, birth abnormalities, and other ugly things.
Dr. Riki Ott has the expertise to explain how toxic oil is infiltrating our cities and our lives - and the bravery to speak out against a well-oiled system.
As you know, all the major TV newscasts now depend upon car advertising. So do the newspapers, which run full page ads, classified ads, and whole sections about cars they want you to want. This mainstream media is never going to tell you what this single Ecoshock program reveals.
Nanoparticles in your bloodstream - and carbon soot makes more global warming.
There are two basic kinds of air particles that impact climate. The sulphates, which come mainly from coal burning, can actually cool the planet a bit, by reflecting sunlight back into space. But these particles don't stay air-borne for more than a few weeks. It is a temporary effect.
Black soot, from coal plants and from vehicle emissions, absorbs the sun's energy, heating up the planet. It is the second largest cause of global warming. These particles also land on the snow regions, especially in the Arctic. White snow reflects a lot of solar heat back into space - but when it becomes darker, grayish, the energy is absorbed. The snow may melt earlier, or ice may not form as thickly.
I found it interesting that Dr. Schwartz, in his testimony to Congress, said that cleaning up coal emissions in North America, and car emissions, is a double win. We can save as many as 200,000 lives a year - and cut out the second largest emitter in the world. Why kid ourselves, and send money to China, or some forest project in Indonesia, when we can save lives, and reduce climate change, with action right at home. I agree.
Finally, we talk to both our guests about what we need - to breath better, live longer.
Radio Ecoshock Show 080425 1 hour CD quality 56 MB or Lo-Fi 14 MB
Production Notes: end song "Highway to Hell" by Midnight Oil (cut in if you need more time for Station ID's); opens with Gino Vannelli clip "Wild Horses". No copyright on interviews. Major media, loaded with car ads, will never report this story. Please help get it out there.
Alex Smith
host
Radio Ecoshock
Thursday, April 24, 2008
Thursday, April 17, 2008
ADDICTED TO OIL
Why can't we kick the habit?
Interview w. psychologist Bruce Alexander, author of the upcoming book "Globalized Addiction". Bruce is a professor emeritus at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver. He has worked with heavy drug addicts in the poorest part of town - but finds we are all increasingly addicted, to a lot of things, in the consumer society. We point to the junkie, while developing the same addictive habits, and brain reactions, as we over-spend on things we don't need.
Alexander won a prize for controversy, with his work.
We run a clip from Nate Hagens at ASPO (why we don't react to Peak Oil). Nate believes the rational brain has not yet conquered our earlier reptilian brains. Actually, he bases this on neuroscience, rather than any kooky idea. So we "know" oil may run out, or the climate may be wrecked, but are programed to choose reward now, over any future consideration.
Nate was previously a big time investor, before becoming an energy analyst. He is a co-editor at the popular web site The Oil Drum (theoildrum.com)
Plus clips on addiction and hope from Dr. Gabor Mate, Terry Tamminen. Terry was Gov Schwarzenegger's green adviser, and published a book on oil addiction, called "Lives Per Gallon". His full book tour speech is on our site, at ecoshock.org
Tim Flannery, author of "The Weathermakers" explains new plan to replace gas burning cars in Denmark with wind-powered electric. Even re-charging parking spots and battery exchange stations. We offer the full speech at our site.
Plus new quotes from Al Gore, from his April 2008 presentation at TED.
Plus an original radio play: "Ecovention"- a parody of the A & E addiction program "Intervention". They cover addiction to drugs, eating disorders, alcohol - but we think oil addiction needs its own show too...the drama, the tears, of kicking the oil habit.
Ecoshock Show 080418 1 hour CD quality 56 MB or Lo-Fi 14 MB
Production notes: song "Addicted to Oil" by Bruce Kerr. Cut last two minutes of music if time needed for announcements or station ID's.
Interview w. psychologist Bruce Alexander, author of the upcoming book "Globalized Addiction". Bruce is a professor emeritus at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver. He has worked with heavy drug addicts in the poorest part of town - but finds we are all increasingly addicted, to a lot of things, in the consumer society. We point to the junkie, while developing the same addictive habits, and brain reactions, as we over-spend on things we don't need.
Alexander won a prize for controversy, with his work.
We run a clip from Nate Hagens at ASPO (why we don't react to Peak Oil). Nate believes the rational brain has not yet conquered our earlier reptilian brains. Actually, he bases this on neuroscience, rather than any kooky idea. So we "know" oil may run out, or the climate may be wrecked, but are programed to choose reward now, over any future consideration.
Nate was previously a big time investor, before becoming an energy analyst. He is a co-editor at the popular web site The Oil Drum (theoildrum.com)
Plus clips on addiction and hope from Dr. Gabor Mate, Terry Tamminen. Terry was Gov Schwarzenegger's green adviser, and published a book on oil addiction, called "Lives Per Gallon". His full book tour speech is on our site, at ecoshock.org
Tim Flannery, author of "The Weathermakers" explains new plan to replace gas burning cars in Denmark with wind-powered electric. Even re-charging parking spots and battery exchange stations. We offer the full speech at our site.
Plus new quotes from Al Gore, from his April 2008 presentation at TED.
Plus an original radio play: "Ecovention"- a parody of the A & E addiction program "Intervention". They cover addiction to drugs, eating disorders, alcohol - but we think oil addiction needs its own show too...the drama, the tears, of kicking the oil habit.
Ecoshock Show 080418 1 hour CD quality 56 MB or Lo-Fi 14 MB
Production notes: song "Addicted to Oil" by Bruce Kerr. Cut last two minutes of music if time needed for announcements or station ID's.
Friday, April 11, 2008
SOLAR TO SAVE US
Calif. scientist Nate Lewis says CO2 is rising rapidly - and why only Solar can power the Earth.
This includes Repodcast clip from ABC National's "In Conversation" with Robyn Williams. Robyn finds Nate frustrated with the gush of greenhouse gases in the last few years. We are going the wrong way, while conferences conference, politicians talk, and consumers take teeny tiny green steps.
That leads to disaster, but scientist Lewis quickly knocks out the nuclear option. By his calculation, we would have to start building a new nuclear power plant, starting today, every day, basically forever, to meet the world's power needs (they only last about 40 years, and so we never quite make it, given the developing world's needs.) Nuclear really is no answer.
But the Sun has more than enough. A single hour of the Sun energy striking the Earth, if we could capture it all, is equal to the total power consumption of our entire current civilization.
Lewis explains that we can get enough solar, and build a civilization with it. We just need to get going. It is an impassioned speech, one of many scientists trying to get humans to act, while action is still possible.
Then Wall Street insider of Climateer Investing explores solar market & new tech that could do the job. This interview is almost half an hour, from a person plugged into the multi-million dollar trades in alternative energy. Our guest explains how solar energy subsidies by governments can lead to some strange results. In fact, in some cases, subsidies might even be a transfer of wealth from the poorest people/ratepayers to the wealthy (who actually install the solar capacity, in part paid for by the rest of us...)
We talk about what is going on overseas in solar, and whether the big oil companies were sincere when they bought solar companies (you guess....) Best of all, we peak into the hot new solar tech coming online - especially thin cell solar, which is reaching the Holy Grail of alternative energy: it can be build at the same cost as coal. Why would we ever use coal, if clean solar can do it cheaper? And the Google boys are in the race, with their company Nanosolar. Lots of info on what could be the world's most important topic: how solar energy could power the next civilization.
Plus our look at who owns India's Tata, and why World Bank is financing Tata Ultra Mega coal plants as "clean energy." Just recently, the United States, Britain, and other OECD countries announced a multi-billion dollar clean energy fund. The World Bank is supposed to run it.
Unbelievably, an arm of the World Bank, the International Finance Corporation (IFC) is funding a $4.4 billion project to build five 800 MW coal-fired power plants in India - and they are calling it "clean coal". It even qualifies under the "Clean Development Mechanism" under the Kyoto Protocol! That's it: burning mega coal to save the planet.
We give the details on this "Tata Ultra Mega" project - and learn about "supercritical" coal burning. Yes it is more efficient, but it will still release millions and millions of tons of CO2 into the atmosphere - in a state renowned for it's sun power. Wrong way Jack.
I always wonder who the mega-billionaires are, who could stop a project like this. We investigate Tata, and find a maze of Parsi charities own a big chunk. The Parsi (also spelled Parsee) are a tiny (less than 100,000 people) minority in India, who arrived from Iran many centuries ago. They are very successful business people, and own India's largest industrial conglomerate: Tata. It is the same Tata who just announced a cheap people's car, that will soon flood the roads, and skies, of India.
The Parsi are renowned for their charity. So even though a Tata is still CEO, he doesn't really own control. However, there is one large block of stocks owned by another Parsi giant, the Mistry family. Palonnji Mistry took up Irish citizenry, now becoming the richest Irish citizen! But his whole empire runs out of Bombay. Remember, Tata also bought out the English steel industry, now known as Corus.
Anyway, these are the people who may help wreck the climate of India, while trying to help their own people get the electricity they need to develop. The ideals are good, the technology choice is absolutely suicidal. We hope Tata Group will reconsider, and go solar.
Ecoshock show 080411 1 hour CD Quality 56 MB or Lo-Fi 14 MB
Production Notes: Our feature ending song is "Until the Day is Done" from new album "Accelerate" by R.E.M. Participating stations can cut it, if you need more time for local station announcements.
This includes Repodcast clip from ABC National's "In Conversation" with Robyn Williams. Robyn finds Nate frustrated with the gush of greenhouse gases in the last few years. We are going the wrong way, while conferences conference, politicians talk, and consumers take teeny tiny green steps.
That leads to disaster, but scientist Lewis quickly knocks out the nuclear option. By his calculation, we would have to start building a new nuclear power plant, starting today, every day, basically forever, to meet the world's power needs (they only last about 40 years, and so we never quite make it, given the developing world's needs.) Nuclear really is no answer.
But the Sun has more than enough. A single hour of the Sun energy striking the Earth, if we could capture it all, is equal to the total power consumption of our entire current civilization.
Lewis explains that we can get enough solar, and build a civilization with it. We just need to get going. It is an impassioned speech, one of many scientists trying to get humans to act, while action is still possible.
Then Wall Street insider of Climateer Investing explores solar market & new tech that could do the job. This interview is almost half an hour, from a person plugged into the multi-million dollar trades in alternative energy. Our guest explains how solar energy subsidies by governments can lead to some strange results. In fact, in some cases, subsidies might even be a transfer of wealth from the poorest people/ratepayers to the wealthy (who actually install the solar capacity, in part paid for by the rest of us...)
We talk about what is going on overseas in solar, and whether the big oil companies were sincere when they bought solar companies (you guess....) Best of all, we peak into the hot new solar tech coming online - especially thin cell solar, which is reaching the Holy Grail of alternative energy: it can be build at the same cost as coal. Why would we ever use coal, if clean solar can do it cheaper? And the Google boys are in the race, with their company Nanosolar. Lots of info on what could be the world's most important topic: how solar energy could power the next civilization.
Plus our look at who owns India's Tata, and why World Bank is financing Tata Ultra Mega coal plants as "clean energy." Just recently, the United States, Britain, and other OECD countries announced a multi-billion dollar clean energy fund. The World Bank is supposed to run it.
Unbelievably, an arm of the World Bank, the International Finance Corporation (IFC) is funding a $4.4 billion project to build five 800 MW coal-fired power plants in India - and they are calling it "clean coal". It even qualifies under the "Clean Development Mechanism" under the Kyoto Protocol! That's it: burning mega coal to save the planet.
We give the details on this "Tata Ultra Mega" project - and learn about "supercritical" coal burning. Yes it is more efficient, but it will still release millions and millions of tons of CO2 into the atmosphere - in a state renowned for it's sun power. Wrong way Jack.
I always wonder who the mega-billionaires are, who could stop a project like this. We investigate Tata, and find a maze of Parsi charities own a big chunk. The Parsi (also spelled Parsee) are a tiny (less than 100,000 people) minority in India, who arrived from Iran many centuries ago. They are very successful business people, and own India's largest industrial conglomerate: Tata. It is the same Tata who just announced a cheap people's car, that will soon flood the roads, and skies, of India.
The Parsi are renowned for their charity. So even though a Tata is still CEO, he doesn't really own control. However, there is one large block of stocks owned by another Parsi giant, the Mistry family. Palonnji Mistry took up Irish citizenry, now becoming the richest Irish citizen! But his whole empire runs out of Bombay. Remember, Tata also bought out the English steel industry, now known as Corus.
Anyway, these are the people who may help wreck the climate of India, while trying to help their own people get the electricity they need to develop. The ideals are good, the technology choice is absolutely suicidal. We hope Tata Group will reconsider, and go solar.
Ecoshock show 080411 1 hour CD Quality 56 MB or Lo-Fi 14 MB
Production Notes: Our feature ending song is "Until the Day is Done" from new album "Accelerate" by R.E.M. Participating stations can cut it, if you need more time for local station announcements.
Thursday, April 3, 2008
Climate: Who, If Not Us?
In this show: a new speech by Thomas Homer-Dixon, author of "Ingenuity Gap" and "Updside of Down" Toronto 080320.
Homer-Dixon says a carbon surge threatens the world, breaking IPCC predictions.
He outlines the latest science, and makes an odd suggestion of how the Internet might help save us.
This is one of the most powerful speeches I have heard this year. It was recorded by John-Paul Warren of Toronto - an example of the kind of recording and exchange that is pushing exchange of new climate knowledge, via the Internet. Thanks John-Paul for sending this in to Radio Ecoshock. Look for more from John-Paul, including a new speech by Tim Flannery...
Plus, this week we have an Ecoshock interiew with climate modeller Andreas Schmittner. He is an ocean science specialist who is working the world's best computer model - looking up to 500 years into the future. According to British scientist James Lovelock (who summarizes the science of others in this case) - our atmosphere was formed by tiny organisms in the sea. Without them, we wouldn't have an oxygen layer to breathe.
Now Schmittner has published research saying we haven't taken into account the full force of ocean life, once the oceans heat up. Will plankton blooms add to carbon? Can a warmer ocean accept as much of our excess carbon? Schmittner's models show, so far, that even if we stopped producing all carbon emissions by 2100 - the world would continue to heat up, a lot, for the next one or two hundred years! The science isn't certain, but it's a huge red warning flag - and another reason we need to act very quickly to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
All in all, this show is a stunning, scary look at gap between the new atmosphere, and human inaction.
Ecoshock show 080404 1 hour CD quality 56 MB or Lo-Fi 14 MB
Production notes: no station IDs. Clips from "Turn Off the Light" by Nelly Furtado (Canadian) and "Mother Earth" by Shane Philip (Cdn). Clip of Pres candidate John Edwards in New Orleans on climate.
Homer-Dixon says a carbon surge threatens the world, breaking IPCC predictions.
He outlines the latest science, and makes an odd suggestion of how the Internet might help save us.
This is one of the most powerful speeches I have heard this year. It was recorded by John-Paul Warren of Toronto - an example of the kind of recording and exchange that is pushing exchange of new climate knowledge, via the Internet. Thanks John-Paul for sending this in to Radio Ecoshock. Look for more from John-Paul, including a new speech by Tim Flannery...
Plus, this week we have an Ecoshock interiew with climate modeller Andreas Schmittner. He is an ocean science specialist who is working the world's best computer model - looking up to 500 years into the future. According to British scientist James Lovelock (who summarizes the science of others in this case) - our atmosphere was formed by tiny organisms in the sea. Without them, we wouldn't have an oxygen layer to breathe.
Now Schmittner has published research saying we haven't taken into account the full force of ocean life, once the oceans heat up. Will plankton blooms add to carbon? Can a warmer ocean accept as much of our excess carbon? Schmittner's models show, so far, that even if we stopped producing all carbon emissions by 2100 - the world would continue to heat up, a lot, for the next one or two hundred years! The science isn't certain, but it's a huge red warning flag - and another reason we need to act very quickly to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
All in all, this show is a stunning, scary look at gap between the new atmosphere, and human inaction.
Ecoshock show 080404 1 hour CD quality 56 MB or Lo-Fi 14 MB
Production notes: no station IDs. Clips from "Turn Off the Light" by Nelly Furtado (Canadian) and "Mother Earth" by Shane Philip (Cdn). Clip of Pres candidate John Edwards in New Orleans on climate.
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