WARNINGS: THE RUSSIAN HEAT STORM

Radio Ecoshock Show September 3rd, 2010

GO STRAIGHT TO THE TRANSCRIPT, with lots of links and downloads.

[Radio show starts with a clip from "Fire" by Arthur Brown, 1968][plus news radio clips...]

Welcome back to Radio Ecoshock. Thanks to the 22 college and community stations that carry this show - and Green 960 AM and online, in San Francisco.

And you downloaders and podcast subscribers! You amaze me. I don't keep close track of statistics, but I happened to check downloads of the Radio Ecoshock program for June. These shows come from a dedicated server (ecoshock.net) - so I know how many one hour shows, past and present, are carted away by hungry ears.

The total in June alone? Over 31,000 downloads. From all over the world.

It's my privilege to report for you. Find out listing of all our 2010 programs, with links to every program from the past 5 years, here.

It’s all free mp3’s. Load up your computer or IPOD. I claim no copyright on my work – so go ahead and share these programs with people who need to hear them.
---------

In the Summer of 2010, the world witnessed more signs of climatic instability on a grand scale.

The Arctic Ice again retreated to near-record levels. In the United States, new heat records were set in many states. In fact, 17 different countries set all-time heat records this past Summer, from Latin America through Africa and the Middle East to Russia.

In Pakistan, floods beyond imagination created the world's largest humanitarian disaster.

But the harbinger, messenger from the future, took the Russian people into uncharted Hell. Moscow, at the latitude of Alaska, boiled in the weather of Cairo, while gasping smoky air equivalent to two packs a day of cigarettes, for every man, woman and child.

Russian leaders, who bragged global warming would be good for that Northern country, got a taste of the coming century.

Scientists are still debating whether the abnormal heat, drought, and fires in Russia were caused by climate change. But we know for certain: this is the future, in the coming century, as temperatures climb, as the greenhouse atmosphere thickens with the exhaust of our fossil civilization.

Let us see what we can learn. About how people and governments act under stress. About our vulnerabilities. About our chances of survival.

In the radio show, we go straight to Moscow, talking with Vladimir Tchouprov of Greenpeace Russia. He's got news that never made the mainstream news.

That is followed by more analysis from Dmitry Orlov, author of "Reinventing Collapse: The Soviet Example and American Prospects." Dmitry has been scanning the Russian language press and blog, while talking with people inside and outside the country. Dmitry has some suggestions for survival.

Are you interested in your food supplies? We squeeze in a clip from a press conference with Lester Brown, on the Russian grain export ban, and the impact of climate on world food stocks.

Can we even comprehend these grand events, these warning signs?

I'm Alex Smith, and let's get started.

[READ MORE with all the links - plus 15 lessons from the Russian disaster.]