Cool Solutions for a Hot Planet

It's a quick one-two punch this week. Later we'll hear from the and only Albert Bates on the wonder of biochar and how it might save the world climate. But first, an Australian expert explains how humans die off in a hotter world.

Download/listen to this Radio Ecoshock show 131127 in CD Quality (56 MB) or Lo-Fi (14 MB)

HOW WILL OUR ECONOMY COPE WHEN IT'S TOO HOT TO WORK OUTSIDE?

For example, people dream of moving to tropical Darwin in Northern Australia. Some do, but then move back when they can't handle heat and humidity. With even Melbourne suburbs hitting almost 50 degrees C. - what will happen to Australia when the world warms more than 2 degrees C? What about Spain, or the Southern U.S.?

Dr. Elizabeth Hanna ANU

Here to help us is Dr. Elizabeth Hanna. She's a nurse with a doctorate, and National Convenor of the Climate Change Adaptation Research Network for Human Health, at Australian National University.

Some scientists, and authorities like the International Energy Agency, warn humanity is headed for a world 3.5 degrees C. hotter in as little as 25 years. More is possible. Hanna says a rise of 4 to 6 degrees C is "not compatible with human existence."

Perhaps you think we will just turn up the air conditioner. But much of the world's work is done outside. Can humans cope with those kind of temperatures?

Did you know more Australians already die of heat than from automobile accidents? That in places like Darwin, 80% of violence, both male to male and domestic abuse, happens during hot, humid spells?

Big corporations talk a lot about worker productivity. Worker safety - not so much. The military found out the hard way (through dead troops) the limits to exercise in heat. But miners, farmers, electric system workers, and even public nurses are under threat during heat waves.

Hospital admissions soar during heat waves. You may not even realize you are approaching a fatal event, as dehydration lowers intellectual judgement. Learn what the limits are in this Radio Ecoshock interview, done while Dr. Hanna was in Warsaw at the COP 19 climate talks.

Download/listen to this 20 minute interview with Dr. Hanna in CD Quality or Lo-Fi.

ALBERT BATES: BIOCHAR IS REAL - PLUS ECOVILLAGE UPDATE

From America's original back-to-the-land, The Farm in Tennessee, this is alternative guru Albert Bates. His keynote speech at the Bioneers Chicago Great Lakes 2013 conference was recorded for Radio Ecoshock by Kelly Pierce of the Chicago Independent Media Center.

Download/listen to this keynote address by Albert Bates in CD Quality or Lo-Fi

It's hard to summarize this fine speech. It's loaded with facts, insight and ideas. One principal theme: the original inhabitants of South America had a more fully developed civilization in the Amazon than we have been told. They used a type of agriculture which continually enriched the soil, instead of depleting it, as European-style farming does.

This matters a lot. Albert explains the many benefits of biochar. That's vegetative material burned without oxygen. It forms a carbon that can last in the soil for hundreds of years.

Biochar, Albert explains, is porous - full of cavities which become enriched with fungi and bacteria the ecosystem and our gardens require. Even more, if we made biochar in a large way, we could sequester massive amounts of carbon taken out of the atmosphere.

Even Dr. James Hansen has said biochar on a big scale could help delay or even avert the worst of climate change. The soil holds massive amounts of carbon.

We've been releasing it for thousands of years through our farming methods. We can recapture it by using the wisdom of the aboriginal people of the Amazon.

During his talk, Albert Bates also gives us an update on the astonishing growth of eco-villages around the world. There are thousands in Sri Lanka, more in Japan, the UK, Scandinavia, and of course North America. It's almost enough to give a person hope.

Find out more about the many works of Albert Bates here.

WHAT ALBERT SHOWED IN A FILM

During the speech, Albert show a film which could not be broadcast. Here are my summary notes of the part of the presentation:

The film describes projects for soil nutrients. It begins with how to create a large "tea bag" to infuse water with super nutrients. First, the chlorine must be removed from the water. They bubble it for 24 hours, and then added a product called "Micromate" from Mesa Verde which locks up any remaining chlorine.

They add things like different soils, worm castings, bat guanao. Soak the bag in water for 24 hours, trying to get at least 1/3 of bag contents to exit into water. They added "fish hyrolosate", ground up fish in a liquid form, as a micro-meal for fungi and bacteria. You can add kelp, or ground feathers (feathermeal). You can also use biochar, providing that is ground up very finely. After getting your liquid plant food out of teabag, plant the teabag in a compost pile or other area you want stimulated.

Albert also demonstrates an area torn up and compressed by a construction project. It was barren, full of gravel, and soil-less. They sprayed the compost tea, seeded grass and mulched that with straw. They got a lot of growth, in just one month.

The film further explored how to keep carbon in the ground, instead of releasing it as a greenhouse gas. It "is agriculture that builds rather than mines the soil."

HOT GARDEN TIP

Bates cautions against adding biochar straight into the garden. You might actually see a decrease in production the first year. Why? Because the biochar needs to fill up with fungi and bacteria - which are taken from the garden soil. It's like a hotel for micro-nutrients.

The answer is to add you biochar to the compost pile, or a fallow area, for a year or so. Then put that into the garden, for super results.

You won't want to miss this important talk by Albert Bates!

WRAP UP

Don't forget, you can download all our past programs as free mp3's at our web site, ecoshock.org. You'll also see information on how to support the program here.

I'm Alex. Thanks for listening.

Dirty Activism

What happens when millions of urban Americans decide to grow food? Soil activist Nance Klehm on "dirty activism" - reclaiming a city waste stream to make new gardens. Why is it illegal? Plus: Fukushima update from Alex & stimulating new green music: after Hurricane Sandy and Taiphoon Haiyan, the rich are heading for the hills.

Listen to/download this Radio Ecoshock show 131120 in CD Quality (56 MB) or Lo-Fi (14 MB)

FUKUSHIMA NUCLEAR DISASTER UPDATE: A DANGEROUS MOMENT FOR HUMANITY

Here is the latest from the crippled nuclear reactors at Fukushima Daiiche in Japan.

A robotic survey at Fukushima Reactor Number 1 showed what everyone already knew: highly radioactive water is leaking from the containment vessel to the reactor floor in the basement.

One of the few sources of information is a visiting professor to Hosei University, named Hiroshi Miyano. He says these parts may have been dislodged in the hydrogen explosion at Reactor 1 in March 2011, indicating severe damage occured to the reactor.

Miyano went on to say the same level of damage and radioactive leaks can be expected at Reactors Two and Three, which also exploded. The operator, Tokyo Electric Power Company, did not release an estimate of the amount of radioactive materials leaking from these three reactors.

THE DANGEROUS "MOMENT" AT REACTOR 4

At Reactor 4, the delicate operation to remove uranium and plutonium in fuel rods perched atop the damaged building has begun. Other governments are pressuring Japan to get the fuel out of Reactor 4 before a major earthquake can crash the building or cut off the water cooling supply.

A popular article in Washington's Blog claims attempts to remove Reactor 4 fuel is the most dangerous moment for humanity since the Cuban Missle Crisis in the 1960s. I agree - but this "moment" will drag on for at least a year, possibly several years. After the press has become bored with that project, the ultimate danger of a large nuclear reaction remains.

THE FUEL RODS WILL NOT BE EXPOSED TO AIR

The TEPCO fuel removal plan is only slightly less risky than I feared. Each fuel bundle would be lifted by a remote-operated crane, and hopefully placed within a casket - with the whole operation done underwater. If successful, the casket would be sealed, hauled out by a different crane, and trucked to another ground-level fuel pool on the site. That pond is already over-burdened with nuclear fuel from years of operating the plant.

At Reactor 4, the Japanese have not explained what will happen if one of these fuel bundles contains loose or damaged rods which come in contact with one another.

TEPCO has removed the visible debris that fell into the fuel pool, which included the building roof and a giant industrial crane. What really counts though, is what fell into the nuclear fuel bundles themselves. That remains.

What if rods damaged by debris drop extremely radioactive pellets on the fuel pool floor, or deep within the casings? Were the fuel bundles damaged in the major explosion in Reactor Building 4? What if adjacent fuel rods come into direct contact with one another during the operation?

TEPCO just admitted this week there are up to 80 damaged fuel rods in various Fukushima reactor fuel ponds. Several are in Reactor 4, including fuel bundle badly bent. They've known about that one since 1982 and never did anything about it. It makes you wonder how many other reactors around the world could not unload their fuel in an emergency, due to damaged rods that were never dealt with.

IF GASES DO GET OUT: WHERE WILL THE WIND BLOW?

TEPCO put a Kevlar shroud over the steel beam structure perched over the damaged building. If radioactive gases are released, the company says this will collect the gases and shoot them up a higher chimney, trying to protect the workers below. Up the chimney to where? To the Fukushima area? To winds over Japan? To winds blowing toward Hawaii, Alaska and California? They don't say.

Some experts fear a nuclear reaction is possible. That could mean the whole Fukushima site should be evacuated. But then who would run the daily cooling pumps required to keep all the leaking radioactive water circulating toward the thousand make-shift holding tanks? Preventing an even greater nuclear disaster, both for Japan and the Pacific Ocean, requires many workers on site daily. One false step could take radioactivity beyond the limits of human survival.

Could a nuclear explosion shoot more radioactive particles high into the atmosphere, to fall on North America and the whole Northern Hemisphere? It's certain the Pacific Ocean would get another burst of radiation. If distributed, there is enough nuclear material in the Reactor 4 fuel pool to poison the northern hemisphere.

THE WORST IS YET TO COME

There's plenty more nuclear fuel balanced in the roof of the damaged reactor building 3. That building is seldom discussed because that whole building is too radioactive to be approached, even by robots. Reactor 3 was running a special super plutonium blend called MOX when it exploded. Nuclear fuel remains in Reactors 1 and 2 as well.

Keep in mind, removing nuclear fuel from Reactor 4 may be the EASIEST part of this attempted salvage operation. Radioactivity at Unit 4 is low enough humans can walk around in it. No human has been able to approach Reactors 1 to 3 with in their melt-down state. Even robots are damaged by high radioactivity. Plus there is no plan, and no known technology, to retrieve the melted reactor cores. Nobody is sure where those melted cores are, except they are below and outside the "containment" structures.

The Fukushima nuclear accident is far from over. The worst is yet to come.

NEW SONG: THE RICH ARE GONNA MOVE TO THE HIGH GROUND

Musician Geoff Berner of Vancouver

Regular listeners know the million dollar ocean-front properties of the wealthy are due for a rude wave of storms and rising seas. Vancouver song-writer Geoff Berner is on the case with this observation: in more ways than one, "The Rich Are Gonna Move to the High Ground".

Geoff was recorded outdoors in downtown Vancouver, beside a chain link fence and sign saying "Habitat Closed". Watch it on You tube here. Or check out this Facebook page with the lyrics.

Geoff Berner was recorded by Matt Cote for his upcoming film "A Date with Ed". Find it on You tube. Geoff's web site is here.

NANCE KLEHM - RECLAIMING CITY SOIL

Our feature speaker this week is Nance Klehm on bioremediation in the cities. She tells us how to read our surroundings. We also learn about plants that soak up radiation - good to know in Fukushima times.

Nance sees compost as an act of revolution. She's a landscape designer, horticultural consultant and permaculture expert. But mostly, I think Nance is a social activist who isn't afraid to get her hands dirty.

This recording was made by Kelly Pierce of the Chicago Independent Media Center for Radio Ecoshock - at the Bioneers 2013 Chicago Great Lakes conference at the start of November.

Normally you'll find a formal introduction and all that. Instead, Nance found herself in a room with no microphone - after leaving a breakout session on direct action. There, the Reverend Billy of the Church of Stop Shopping fled the room hoping to avoid being arrested. That's where we come in.

Listen to/download this 45 minute talk by Nance Klehm in CD Quality or Lo-Fi

It's hard to face up to our waste products isn't it? To gather up the goo and turn it into soil for city gardens. It's called bioremediation - returning landscapes to natural production using plants. Our guide is Nance Klehm from spontaneousvegetaion.net. Her latest project is called "The Ground Rules." They gather organic waste from business to create compost and soil for the cities.

ONE MORE GREAT SONG

Our closing song was created by Toronto-based singer, rapper, filmmaker and activist Gaiaisi.

There is an astounding video for this music which you have to see. It has the best of free footage donated by project collaborators 350 dot org, Climate Reality, Greenpeace, the Rain Forest Action Network and WWF.

But they still need to purchase rights from the BBC series Planet Earth. Gaiaisi needs your help to make sure this video can remain free on You tube, to reach the whole world. Find his change-the-earth-music-video-project on indiegogo.com.

It's one of the best environmental videos of the year for sure. Track it down. Plus here is the Gaiaisi web site with downloads.

NEXT WEEK

Next week we'll hear about one of the few hopeful solutions for climate change. It's the big picture of soil carbon and biochar from Albert Bates, long-time guru at The Farm in Tennessee. Don't miss that.

Please help Radio Ecoshock keep going. You can make a one-time donation, or become one of the needed 150 monthly donors who keep this show on the air. Get the details here.

I'm Alex Smith. Thank you for listening, and caring about your world.

Shopping the Planet to Death

Growthbusters producer Dave Gardner on municipal growth ponzi schemes. Plus hot green "sermon" on direct action vs. consumer stupor - by Reverend Billy Talens of the Church of Stop Shopping. Radio Ecoshock 131112 1 hour

Download/listen to this Radio Ecoshock show in CD Quality (56 MB) or Lo-Fi

The Earth and it's humans are unsettled as we enter Radio Ecoshock this week. It appears the Japanese government may have censored Internet communication about the impact of the October 25th 7.5 earthquake right off the coast from the blown reactors at Fukushima. Even so, the harsh news about radiation spreading across the Pacific is leaking out from every alternative media outlet, into the mainstream consciousness.

SUPER TYPOON HAIYAN/YOLANDA

This past week, the strongest tropical cyclone ever to hit land arrived in the Philippines, well south of the capital Manila. Meteorologist and former NASA storm chaser Jeff Masters quotes U.S. Navy satellite estimates of land speed winds of 190 to 195 miles per hour.

Remember when the United Nations climate scientists warned of more violent storms? Well here we are. Super Typoon Haiyan hit with the force you'd expect in a Tornado, but a tornado 600 kilometers, 372 miles in diameter. Take a look: it's a frightening giant storm. on a small planet, and another excursion into the new climate of planet Earth.

Everyone on Earth needs to see this tearful speech by Yeb Sano, Philippines delegate, at the COP 19 climate talks in Warsaw Poland, just after the typhoon struck.

Yeb Sano added:

“We cannot sit and stay helpless staring at this international climate stalemate,” Sano told delegates today in Warsaw, according to a transcript by the Responding to Climate Change Website. “We refuse to accept that running away from storms, evacuating our families, suffering the devastation and misery, having to count our dead, become a way of life.”

- from BloombergBusiness Nov 11, 2013

Australian scientists are willing to credit warmer seas with adding strength to Haiyan.

Others rationalize: why were the other typhoons this year not as strong, if those climate conditions were there?

Consider Jim Hansen's argument that climate loads the dice that more extreme weather events will happen.

FAST DECAY OF SOCIAL ORDER

Meanwhile, we also see a preview of what can be expected from massive dislocations caused by weather panic. Looting, and armed gangs taking food, arrive very early. It may be delayed a day or two in more advanced economies, as people have more faith help will arrive - but when it doesn't the reaction may be even more extreme. The army may be called in to fight off desperate civilians.

THIS MEGA-STORM HAS WIDESPREAD IMPACTS ON HUMAN CONSCIOUSNESS EVERYWHERE

Also to be considered: do not think that the images of huge distress and human suffering do not affect people in the West. Those TV images, newspaper images, radio voices will create suffering even in many of us far from the scene.

Much of this operates subconsciously, and piles up in waves of social change - some for better, some for worse in the United States, Canada, Europe and Australia, as well as Japan and China. We are all affected, and this will change life, economies, and politics in subterranean ways, as humans become less sure of their surroundings, of nature, of their economies and lives. Climate change is a threat not just to the poor of places like the Philippines, but to us all.

Right now, humans in their homes, in their hearts, in quiet places in their minds are making decisions based on what they experience of Typhoon Haiyan/Yolanda.

Some will make that supply of food and water. Others will buy guns. Some will begin to talk openly of their climate fears; others will bury it even deeper under carefully developed webs of denial, or outrageously stupid hate.

ONE WAY TO WRECK THE PLANET: SHOP TILL IT DROPS

As individuals, we feel so small. What can we do? All around us the blissful crowd is getting ready for a shopping extravaganza. Our "thanksgiving" demands an eruption in the malls. It will transfer more species and toxic materials into our closets, garages, storage units and landfills. We'll celebrate the Christmas holiday with another giant burst of carbon into the overloaded atmosphere.

GROWTHBUSTERS DIRECTOR DAVE GARDNER

In this program, Dave Gardner, gives you options, including a free viewing of his influential film "Growthbusters". Find out how you can watch the movie growthbusters for free, at times convenient for anyone anywhere on the planet, go here.

The free screening is on Black Friday, and to accommodate people on any side of the planet, on Black Saturday as weel. As Dave says, instead of shopping for more useless stuff, get your mind out of the consumer trap with this film.

Listen to the Dave Gardner interview (21 minutes) in CD Quality or Lo-Fi

The "growthbusters" are doing some great work. It goes way beyond shopping, into the way our consumer economy and brainwashed minds work.

Dave Gardner has been an activist in Boulder Springs, Colorado (and even ran for office there). He brings a new outlook to the table: the way municipalities conspire with merchants and developers to always grow, grow grow - even when that overwhelms the quality of life that attracted people in the first place.

Is your city better when the population explodes? Not likely. Transportation snarls, the cost of living goes up, community suffers, and happiness generally goes down.

THE REVEREND BILLY TALEN RAISES THE ANTE WITH DIRECT ACTION

Then, the man all the advertisers and banks don't want you to hear. The Reverend Billy Talen from the Church of Stop Shopping makes a brilliant speech recorded for Radio Ecoshock at the Chicago Great Lakes Bioneers 2013 conference.

Billy tells us the cost of direct action to save the planet. It's one of the most soul-searching looks into how and when we should take action. Talk, even Radio Ecoshock, is not enough. We are still going down the tubes.

Billy Talen's sermon was delivered while the police waited to arrest him. The government, pretending to represent "the people" want to toss Billy Talen in prison for a direct action at the JP Morgan Chase Bank in New York. The bank, he says, is the biggest climate destruction financier on the planet.

I've recorded a lot of speeches. This is one of the best, don't miss it.

We are sunk so deep in the consumer culture, the economy will crash if we stop. It will crash anyway, leaving a polluted world drained of natural life. Nobody warns us more clearly than the Reverend Billy Talen and his Church of Stop Shopping Choir.

I play you Billy's speech at the Chicago Great Lakes Bioneers 2013. This recording was made for Radio Ecoshock on November 2nd, by Kelly Pierce of the Chicago Independent Media Center.

Listen to this moving 35 minute Billy Talen speech in CD Quality or Lo-Fi.

If you like it, share it, pass on the link!

The Reverend Billy Talen is a New Yorker who works with talented artists and activists in the Church of Stop Shopping Choir. All music heard in this show is by the Church of Stop Shopping Choir.

Billy uses fundamentalist-style preaching - but this time to convert us from the consumerism that is wasting the planet.

Right after this speech Billy was arrested for his group's protest the JP Morgan Chase Bank - and possibly for disturbing the peace at the Roosevelt University/Chicago Bioneers direct action panel. More on that next week.

As Billy says, these banks hide behind a cloak of respectability and power, while they loan out money to coal plants, dangerous oil drilling, and a host of projects that are wrecking the planet for all future generations.

OVER-REACTING TO CIVIL PROTEST

You think Russia is punishing Greenpeace activists, the Arctic 30, with crazy overblown charges like Piracy? What about America, where authorities and authoritarianism keeps us all inside the boundaries carefully set by corporate psychology and power?

By the way, the Arctic 30 are still locked up in a Russian prison, for almost two months now, but they were moved in a prison train to Saint Petersburg last week.

Check out this Greenpeace web site, to see who these brave activists (plus two journalists) really are.

The alleged American democracy wants Billy and his crew to spend a year in horrible prison for appearing as extinct frogs in a bank branch. A little group of artists singing and dancing in a bank branch are being charged with "riot". Really?

Is the system that fragile, that endangered, that even a peep of protest means prison?

For every man and woman thrown into jail by the zealous protectors of corporate crime, let another thousand step forward.

As Billy tells us, nothing real has been accomplished for America - in civil rights, gender equality or anything else, without direct activists willing to face jail, or even death. What greater cause is there than trying to pass on a living planet to our children and grandchildren.

Go to revbilly.com to find out how you can help. For one thing, you can purchase the movie "What Would Jesus Buy". I think Jesus would buy this film, but you can watch the whole thing on You tube as well.

At least buy the CD featuring some of the Church of Stop Shopping Choir music I'm playing in today's program.

The Reverend has moved me. Let him move you too. We can't wait for our Nelson Mandela or Martin Luther King to show up. The planet is wasting, each of us need to join or make a movement.

THANKS FOR SUPPORTING RADIO ECOSHOCK!

Next week we'll hear more from the Bioneers. What happens when most city dwellers realize they should grow some of their own food? It's off to Home Depot to "buy" soil - that is stripped from a farm somewhere else.

You will learn about alternatives, and about soil - the system that feeds us all.

I'm Alex Smith. Help Radio Ecoshock at our web site, ecoshock.org. Pass out our free download mp3s of past shows. Join the growing number of celebrities, local shakers, and scientists speakng out. Become an earth activist!

Earthaluja.

Is This Peak History?

A joint study between the University of Maryland and a Barcelona University digs deep into our energy future. From Berlin, guest Christian Kerschner. Janaia Donaldson of Peak Moment TV interviews Alex Smith. Radio Ecoshock 131106 1 hour.

Listen to/download this program in CD Quality (56 MB) or Lo-Fi (14 MB)

Peak oil. It isn't what you think, and it hasn't gone away. From Berlin, I interview Christian Kerschner about a new European-American energy depletion study.

But what is Radio Ecoshock all about? Find out as Janaia Donaldson of Peak Moment TV interviews me - and of course I'll take my turn, asking Janaia why we are all living in the "peak moment" of human history.

In this interview I summarize the historic threats posed by climate change and Fukushima - all based on the scientists and experts I've interviewed.

I'm Alex Smith. Welcome to Radio Ecoshock.

JOINT AMERICICAN-EUROPEAN UNIVERSITY STUDY OF PEAK OIL

Dr. Christian Kerschner, University of Barcelona

Has Peak Oil been blown away by shale, tar sands and fracking? What industries are already in trouble with today's high oil prices? A joint study between the University of Maryland and a Barcelona University digs deep into our energy future.

Our guest is Christian Kerschner. He's with the Institut de Ciència i Tecnologia Ambientals, from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. We reached him in Berlin.

Download or listen to this 18 minute interview with Christian Kerschner in CD Quality only.

ECONOMIC VULNERABILITY TO PEAK OIL

The project called is "Economic Vulnerability to Peak Oil."

A key graphic accompanies this paper in the journal Global Environmental Change. It is the "vulnerability map" - demonstrating which sectors are most vulnerable to high energy prices or shortage, and even more important, their role in the overall economy.

For example, the actual plastics plants do not rank high in their contribution to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of any country. But think about it. Almost everything uses plastic somewhere in its construction. If plastic becomes more and more expensive, the cost of everything you buy goes up. If shortages of plastic develop, even for short periods, there could be giant impacts on the economy and our lives.

I expect some investment firms will look closely at these findings. For example, a pension fund may not want to buy thirty-year bonds in airlines or chemical plants. But guest Christian Kerschner disagrees. He thinks a much-needed function, like chemical production, may simply draw more resources from the overall budget, causing the collapse of other industries, not the chemical plants.

Think of giving up luxury products to buy the necessities. Makers of luxury products fail, not the chemical industry itself. This is just one example from many examined in the study.

Christian Kerschner has a lot to offer. Unlike many peak oil pundits, he's studied and graduated looking at alternative economics. In addition to Peak Oil and resource scarcity, Kerschner also studied and published about steady-state economics.

I think an economy which survives its own carbon use will have to be much smaller. In our interview Christian agrees.

In this paper, I was intrigued by the concept that energy flows may be limited simply by available technology. That imply that no matter how much money we throw at developing fossil fuels, we still hit a ceiling, a point where the return on investment is too low to continue. That's different than saying there is no further oil or gas out there.

Christian Kerschner is an ecological economist from the Institut de Ciència i Tecnologia Ambientals, at Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Co-authors of this paper include Christina Prellb, Kuishuang Fengc, and Klaus Hubacekc, from the University of Maryland.

I think this joint-university work, bridging the Atlantic, is a milestone for the study of Peak Oil, and resources generally. Here is a link to the informative press release, plus the paper abstract complete with the all-important graphics in an easier to see format are further down on that abstract page.

ALEX SMITH MEETS JANAIA DONALDSON, ON PEAK MOMENT TV

Janaia Donaldson, host of Peak Moment TV

Peak Moment TV has been going since 2006. Host Janaia Donaldson and producer Robin Mallgren travel around the West Coast of North America, looking for issues and solutions. Find out more here.

The program was inspired by the problems of Peak Oil - but expanded into a range of issues, including energy, resource shortages, and the environment. This program looks intently for people who offer solutions.

Judging by their backlog of worthwhile programs on the Net, this dynamic duo found the people you want to hear from most. Shows cover things like local currency, small-scale food production, alternative energy for the rest of us, and much more.

It was an honor to be invited. Janaia offered me the challenge to outline the dual mega-problems of climate change and the nuclear meltdowns at Fukushima, Japan.

That's a big menu. I did my best to summarize what my guests have taught me - and our Radio Ecoshock listeners. We looked at the sudden arrival of climate symptoms, like the melting Arctic and super-storms - decades before they were expected by mainstream scientists. I explained the vanguard of climate scientists as I've found them.

We also discuss the impact of climate change on the economy, especially our total dependence on the flow of money from fossil fuel exploration and production. If we are to survive, we need to escape that addiction.

Then it's on to Fukushima, where nuclear experts like Arnie Gunderson, and activists like Helen Caldicott, have schooled me well. I've also studied English-language blogs from Japan, Japanese media, and American activists.

Adding it up: Fukushima is out of control. If you think my fears for threats there are too extreme, watch this short video clip of esteemed Canadian geneticist and broadcaster Dr. David Suzuki, recorded from a panel discussion at the University of Alberta on October 30th.

Going even further with my concerns of a building Four collapse at Fukushima, Suzuki says such an event means Japan is "toast". And - the West Coast of North America might have to be evacuated, due to an unprecedented release of radiation.

In this Peak Moment interview, I explain why.

For what it's worth, last month I moved out of Vancouver, two mountain ranges to the East and inland. Fear of Fukushima was not our primary motivation to leave, but it was on my mind. Frankly, we just don't know how this nuclear mega-threat will turn out, do we?

For more, listen to the interview, and our past Radio Ecoshock shows on Fukushima. I've never stopped covering it. The accident will not be "over" in our lifetimes.

WHAT IS PEAK MOMENT?

Following our lengthy TV interview, I ask Janaia Donaldson about her program. She suggests we are at an essential moment in human history, and the history of the planet. I would interpret this to mean our direction now could determine success or human extinction. This is a critical time.

It turns out that Peak Moment TV is still broadcast on community access television in the United States and other countries - but the larger and developing audience is on the Internet. Programs from 7 years ago, like "Suburban Renewal - One Backyard at a Time" have over 35,000 views. And there are over 250 shows available - all free!

I totally recommend this program. Like me, in these show I think you'll find ideas for your future, for a sustainable and enjoyable future. You will meet and explore with inspiring folks who looked for answers, and found solutions.

Here is the Peak Moment TV channel on You tube. This is the Peak Moment TV web site.

You can download or listen to my appearance on Peak Moment TV, as an audio file, here in CD Quality or Lo-Fi. The audio is courtesy of Robin Mallgren. I'm hoping you can use this interview to educate others coming into these issues. Please spread these links far and wide.

Find Janaia Donaldson as a Radio Ecoshock guest (8 minutes) here in CD Quality or Lo-Fi.

The Alex Smith interview will be released as a video later this month.

Thank you Janaia and Robin for everything you do!

COMING UP:

Next week we'll visit the best of the Chicago Great Lakes Bioneers conference. You think only the Russian persecute green activists who speak out? Stay tuned, as America goes after it's own conscience - just as we head into the insanity of another "holiday" season of senseless mass consumption and planetary destruction.

Support Radio Ecoshock if you can, at the web site, ecoshock.org. And grab free mp3s of all our past programs. If you search "Radio Ecoshock" on You tube, you will find a few of my own videos.

I'm Alex. Thank you for listening - and caring about your world.