Talk in Twisted Times

SUMMARY: Deep thinker Frank Rotering introduces his desperate new strategy to split the rich and plunge the world economy into steep contraction. Then Gail Zawacki savages what's left, while she campaigns against the unknown threat of ozone smog. It's a panorama of inner conversations in twisted times.

The weather has gone sideways. Emissions are up. Climate talks are useless. Protests are polite.

Revolution? Not likely. So...

Author Frank Rotering from British Columbia, Canada hosts contractionism.org He called for the usual progressive bottom-up revolution against the consumer society. Now it's too late for that, Frank says. We need to push a schism in the wealthy capitalists who control the game. Some billionaires are beginning to see they will be wiped out along with the rest of us in ecocide.

Download or listen to this Radio Ecoshock show (141022) here in CD Quality (56 MB) or Lo-Fi (14 MB)

FRANK ROTERING: SPLIT THE RICH

Politicians, bankers and businessmen religiously tell you the economy needs to keep on growing, with more products and profits for all. Any sane person can see there are limits to growth on a single planet. As wildlife goes extinct, food chains break, and the climate spins out, we have already surpassed those limits. Even a steady state economy, steady as we are now, would crush the biosphere we depend on.

The only and obvious answer is contraction until we reach a sustainable plateau. That's the territory of Frank Rotering. He's the independent thinker from British Columbia, Canada, and lord of the web site contractionism.org. Frank has two books out, including "The Economics of Needs and Limits". Prepare to have your basic ideas challenged.

Where to start... Let's say Frank thinks the analysis of capitalism by Karl Marx is still useful, while his solutions are not. Until relatively recently, and in his two previous books, Rotering yearned for the same bottom-up revolution many progressive people want. Stimulated by leadership by indigenous people, greens, and activists for social justice, the masses would wake up and demand change.

Now, and especially after reading Naomi Klein's new book "This Changes Everything", Rotering realizes (a) people in the developed countries are not going to revolt and (b) there isn't time left to educate the populace about the true state of affairs. Climate change is just one of several forces that indicate we have less than a decade left, if that, to make radical changes to avoid catastrophe.

While Frank has been a progressive person all is life, the cold facts drive him to a desperate conclusion. Our best and only hope is that enough capitalists will wake up to the dangers, and force changes themselves. That's not an impossible strategy. As you've heard on Radio Ecoshock in the past few weeks, former and current Secretaries of the U.S. Treasury warn climate change can sink our economy (read the wealth accumulated by the capitalist class). Billionaire Michael Bloomberg is on board the same train, worried about climate. Even the oil-rich Rockefellers say they are getting out of fossil fuel investments.

Rotering says as activists we can help speed up a split in the capitalist class. One party realizes we are engaged in the business of ecocide; the other are intent on making more profits while nature goes down into the sixth great mass extinction event. It will be a battle of the titans.

In the interview, I object that it may be a fantasy to depend on the "hero theory" - that the powerful will act to save us. That also relieves each of us from our own responsibility to make the millions of small changes needed to preserve a liveable planet. Frank points out that Naomi Klein also says a small group of billionaires (like Stayer and Branson) are not going to save us. He is not talking about a group of "heroes", but rather a division in a large class of people around the world - the people who have accumulated all the wealth. Their sea-side estates, their businesses, will be hit by climate change, not to mention other high risks faced by their kids.

It's possible, but I'm still not entirely convinced. You can take part in this discussion. Frank Rotering invites all Radio Ecoshock listeners to write him about this strategy. Pour out your objections to test the theory, ask your pointed questions, or make suggestions of how we can push this historic change. All this will be incorporated in Frank's new book, due out in 2015. Beta test social theory! Contact Frank through his web site at contractionism.org.

You can also watch a 2011 video interview with Frank Rotering here. Download or listen to the Frank Rotering interview in CD Quality or Lo-Fi

GAIL ZAWAKI AT WIT'S END

New England's Gail Zawacki is fed up. The Flood Wall Street protest never delivered on it's plan for civil disobedience arrests. It gave up and ate pizzas without ever reaching Wall Street. Zawacki covers a lot of ground in these times of despair and failure. She's also been on a one-woman campaign against the almost unknown threat posed by low-level ozone smog.

From Georgia to New England, leaves are blotchy, trees are dying. It's a sign of the same polluted air that puts up to 20% of our kids with inhalers in the classroom. Low-level ozone is a plague around the world. It weakens plants for a deluge of fungi, insects, and diseases. Yet hardly anyone knows about it. Gail does, and she tells all.

The blog is called Wit's End. So far, it's been read over 11 million times. The author - I want to say artist - is Gail Zawacki. She's edgy. She's on a campaign to save trees from air pollution. But mostly Gail's in a battle against the never-ending conceits humans use to pretend

LINKS FOR THE GAIL ZAWAKI INTERVIEW

We begin by talking about the Flood Wall Street protest. Gail's description of the way this degenerated into a happy pizza party is funny and sad. Revolution? Not!

Read that here.

I just love the photo Gail contributed this week. Gail's dog knows where Wall Street is on a map, why don't the protesters?

Gail talks about the book An Appalachian Tragedy. It detailed the on-going impacts of ozone pollution on America's forests, from Georgia to New England. Nobody in the EPA was interested, and in fact, one person Gail wrote snapped the only "tragedy" was that the book was written at all!

We also discussed the Jack Fishman lecture to celebrate scientist Paul Creutzen's 80th birthday. Fishman realized the threat of low-level ozone back in the early 1990's. View that presentation here.

After a few formalities for Creutzen, Fishman launches into a powerful case indicting ozone. The video is described as: "Tropospheric Ozone in the Anthropocene: Are We Creating a Toxic Atmosphere? Max-Planck-Institut für Chemie Published on Feb 19, 2014

"Talk of Jack Fishman Saint Louis University, USA at the Anthropocene Symposium, Mainz, 2 December 2013. The scientific symposium has been organized by the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry in celebration of the 80th birthday of Paul Crutzen, winner of the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1995."

Get this. This scientist asks if we are "creating a toxic atmosphere". How many people are interested. When I checked, there were 238 views on You tube. Yawn. Toxic atmosphere... who cares?

You can find out about Jack Fishman's "Ozone Gardens" in St. Louis in a .pdf here. School kids get to learn which plants die fastest from our air pollution.

Excerpts from Jack Fishman's 1990 book "Global Alert" are reprinted in this Zawaki blog post (scroll down past the gory photos of plants and trees blighted by ozone...)

Gail talks about the BBC "Global Dimming" documentary (which shows how our dusty pollution is shading Earth enough to hide up to 1 degree C of the greenhouse gases we've actually put into the atmosphere.

Find a transcript of that program here.

Watch the documentary here.

The Radio Ecoshock special on global dimming (20 minutes, 18 MB) is available as a free .mp3 here.

A transcript of Radio Ecoshock special on global dimming, (broadcast Sept 8, 2006) is here.

We also talk about what can happen if the smog on the air stops suddenly, say due to an economic crash, a solar storm knocking out electric grids, or whatever. Will the Earth experience a sudden burst of warming? Probably.

The Radio program Gail recommends is from Radio Lab, "Dust of This Planet" broadcast September 8th. She also likes the following program on September 19th, called "Staring into the Abyss".

Gail mentions Mark Jacobson, a Professor at Stanford who published a plan to switch the world to renewable energy by 2030. Dr. Mark Jacobson will be my guest on Radio Ecoshock soon.

Gails' Wit's End blog often features paintings by the Medieval artist Hieronymus Bosch. Find out more in this Wiki entry.

You can view the complete works of Hieronymus Bosch here.

Gail mentioned the World Bank applauding China's effort to impose a carbon tax. Find that news article here.

The New York Time article by Justin Gillis about ozone damage to crops is here.

Gail says pollution-damaged crops produce less at harest time, but also have less nutrition. Find the Article in the journal Nature "Increasing CO2 threatens human nutrition" reference here. (Only the Abstract is available for free.)

Find the "Apocalypsi Libary at The End of the World" here.

For the Dead Trees - Dying Forests website, click here.

Find Gail's book "Pillage, Plunder & Pollute, LLC" as a free .pdf download on this page.

Or order the print version of the book here on Amazon. It's Gail's terrific summary of her almost one-woman campaign to wake us all up to the on-going damage caused by invisible ground-level ozone pollution. I recommend it.

And of course, don't miss her witty blog, here.

You can download or listen to the Radio Ecoshock interview with Gail Zawacki in CD Quality or Lo-Fi

Gail sailed through a lot of cutting edge material. All of it is backed up by recent papers and articles you will want. Follow the links for yourself.

COMING UP ON RADIO ECOSHOCK

Frank Rotering talked about Naomi Klein's new book "This Changes Everything". Naomi will be my guest on Radio Ecoshock two weeks from now. Gail Zawacki mentioned Stanford's Mark Jacobson, who worked out a path to a world powered by renewables by 2030. Mark will join us soon on the show.

But next week I want to dive into a great gaping sink-hole of mainstream media news coverage. No doubt you've seen fast clips about the two typhoons flooding Japan lately. They don't tell you what is happening at the Fukushima nuclear disaster site, where tons of radioactive water flow straight into the Pacific Ocean on a good day. It's time for a Fukushima update, with our best guide, nuclear engineer Arnie Gundersen. Plus, Arnie has been sending reports to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission about California's most dangerous reactor, Diablo Canyon. As we found out from Fukushima, a blow reactor anywhere in the world quickly becomes everybody's problem, no matter where you live. Stay tuned to Radio Ecoshock.

Our Soundcloud page went over 10,000 listens this week. Check that out. Get all our past programs as free mp3 downloads from the show web site at ecoshock.org. They are only free to all the world thanks to the people who donate to Radio Ecoshock. You can help here.

Donors and subscribers also fund my work on 87 non-profit radio stations. These stations do not pay me anything, and they forbid any program to fund-raise. So I'm counting on you, the podcast subscriber and blog reader, to keep on going.

I'm Alex Smith, saying thank you for listening, and thanks for supporting this show on your non-profit radio station.

I close out the show with a bit of my latest music.

CLIMATE CAPITALISM

RADIO ECOSHOCK MAY 20TH - PART TWO - CLIMATE CAPITALISM

This week I'm covering a whole different look at the climate change puzzle. We've had the anarchists saying we are doomed (and I'm not saying they are wrong). We've had socialists calling for massive change in our whole hierarchy and social order.

But for now, the reality is: capitalism, - business determines most of our working lives and perhaps our climate future.

Yet led by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and funded by Big Oil, a lot of business has spurned any attempts to control carbon emissions in North America.

What if the environmental approach can't save us? What could?

In this week's speech, recorded by Alex Smith for Radio Ecoshock, we'll here a pitch from green entrepreneurs.

Forget about emissions and climate they say. Just focus on energy efficiency and making money from cutting carbon. That may work. It's a kind of radical business approach, and as you will hear, some major corporations are adopting clean energy solutions.

We may have to work with what is.

As co-founder of the Rocky Mountain Institute, Hunter Lovins envisioned green business. She called it "Natural Capitalism." In the year 2000, she was named a "Hero of the Planet" by Time magazine. Hunter Lovins has split from her also famous green tech developer, Amory Lovins. She is a force of her own, and it shows in this new book.

Now Hunter Lovins has teamed up with Professor Boyd Cohen to present a new concept called "Climate Capitalism". Is it possible for mega-corporations, and small business, to become carbon friendly?

In this speech recorded May 16th in Vancouver, Canada, Boyd Cohen says profits from energy savings, not concern for the climate, is what we should be talking about. Hold on to your sacred cows. Boyd Cohen says business can do it.

Cohen was introduced by the green Mayor of Vancouver, Gregor Robertson.

Part way through the speech, Boyd argues against some radical environmentalists - that we must start adapting to a new climate, because it is already here. He gives examples from countries hit hard just in the last year, from Russia to Pakistan to the United States.

Even in adaptation, there are business opportunities. These might include everything from software for measurements, through new types of portable dikes to contain floods (like the Mississippi and the rivers of Manitoba). Like it or not, business is the means of accomplishing some of our adaptation to climate change, and Boyd and Hunter say we must get busy on adapting, before the next climate hit. And we have to do it WHILE continuing our fight to reduce emissions. Both. At once.

You probably won't like Boyd's opinion of Boliva and Evo Morales. While the country sounds heroic in its recognition of climate change, its policy is going nowhere, says Body Cohen. And he knows something. Cohen has spent a lot of time in South America, working to green a wide range of industries, including those in Bolivia. He is fluent in Spanish as well as technology.

Even the coal mines of Columbia can be made a little safer, and more climate friendly, by upgrading the capture of methane escaping from the mines.

You'll like the story of refitting a Brazilian brick-making plant, so it burns less of the Amazon rainforest wood to keep going. And the operation can get a little extra, by selling it's new carbon credits.

Do carbon markets suck? North Americans may think so, but the rest of the world are using these markets, they are growing, and some countries are at least trying to control emissions. In British Columbia, the government is obligated to buy carbon credits - from companies in that Canadian Province. The results are local and visible. I like that.

The Boyd Cohen presentation of "Climate Capitalism" was sponsored by Discovery Parks, Vancouver Greentech Exchange and CO2 IMPACT.

It was the launch of a new book "Climate Capitalism" from New Society publishers. Cohen, an American now teaching at the University of Victoria in British Columbia, co-authored the book with Hunter Lovins, the famous founder of The Rocky Mountain Institute.

Now in the real world of business large and small, these teaching entrepreneurs promote "Climate Capitalism" to cut emissions. It's a different approach to climate change. Find out more at climatecapitalism.org.

Will it catch on? According to this new book, it already has. Including ... are you ready? Walmart. Details inside the book, and our Radio Ecoshock broadcast.

This recording is by Alex Smith of Radio Ecoshock.

EARLY DEPRESSION DAZE

Forget Madoff. Wall St. is the giant Ponzi scheme.

The former NASDAQ Chairman and investing icon Bernard Madoff admits he ran a giant investment scam that lost $50 billion. Everyone, the wealthiest and wise, were taken in. Even the Rothschilds were hit, not to mention Swiss banks, British Banks (Royal Bank of Scotland and HSBC), hedge funds (for a cool ten billion), Jewish charities, university endowments, pensions funds, municipalities. Lots of pain - but it's also illustrative of the much bigger landscape. Wall Street and all the big banks were just Ponzi operations, paying out old investors from new suckers. Can you say "sub-prime"?

Hear, in his own words, audio of Bernie explaining why fraud just isn't possible these days, due to stiff regulation. Yeah right.

It gets worse. The CDS/CDO asteroid is set to strike Earth in 2009. Bets totalling at least $50 trillion dollars come home for settlement. But that is more than the net worth of Earth. As Max Keiser points out - even if every American home and business were sold off to the Chinese and Saudis - the debt still wouldn't be paid.

That is the black hole the American Treasury and the FED (read: the same bank nuts who got us into this mess) are trying to fill up with your children's tax money. There isn't enough money in the world to settle these gambling debts. The idea any of it is going to be paid back is ridiculous. It just goes into the hole, and is never seen again. That is called "deflation".

Why doesn't the government give the money to the people instead? Or at least start up some productive industry, like building alternative energy plants, and more trains. Sadly, the gansters/bankers are in charge of our government now, scaring the politicians worse than Osame bin Laden. And paying them off too.

Alex explains.

Then we interview Michael Byron on surviving the Crunch. He's the author of the Infinity's Rainbow series, and a professor in the San Diego area. His last book is:
""The Path Through Infinity’s Rainbow: Your Guide for Personal Survival and Spiritual Transformation in a World Gone Mad."

Finally, at the request by a couple of listeners, Alex comes clean about his food storage project. How much things cost, how long will wheat last in buckets, why is bulk food so hard to find all of a sudden? Getting in ahead of the curve, as the world food situation - even in plentious America - gets scary.

You will also hear a song I love, capturing the times "Clearcut" by Ethan Miller and Kate Boverman. And, of course, "Food Storage Blues" by Mormon Brother Thompson and the bean sisters.


Alex's food storage audio blog. Bit of music and fun. Radio Ecoshock 081219 1 hour CD Quality 56 MB or Lo-Fi 14 MB

Production Notes: Song "Clearcut" by Ethan Miller & Kate Boverman runs from 27:50 to 30:41. Interrupt for station ID if needed. Other music: "Food Storage Blues" by Brother Thompson. Short clips from maxkeiser.com, Bernard Madoff, Sky News.

SHOCK DOCTRINE NOW!

As the world economy crumbles, a combination of corporate high finance is moving to consolidate power - as they do in any emergency.

Naomi Klein explains her new book "Shock Doctrine, The Rise of Disaster Capitalism" - in the light of our current economic meltdown. Suddenly, the trillions givens to major banks and investment gamblers begins to make sense.

Naomi spoke to an enthusiastic audience in Santa Cruz, California on October 17th, 2008. Through the magic of non-profit radio, the speech and Q and A session are rocketing across the country, and around the world. It was all recorded by Radio Free Santa Cruz - a bastion of alternative radio, available 24/7 at www.freakradio.org My thanks to Skidmark Bob for this recording.

As the speech went well over an hour, followed by another half hour of questions and answers, I have dared to draw out:

* the recording of her new film clip
* Klein's theory of Disaster Capitalism, updated for today's times
* the conclusion of the speech, and
* three answers from the Q and A - on what we can do now.

This is one of the most exciting speeches, in a season of barn burners. Apparently, when the system cracks open, our brightest minds are inspired. Naomi Klein, author of "No Logo" and film-maker, is one of them.

You can download the full speech from our web site, just look for "Speeches" in the Audio on Demand Menu, right on our home page. The Q and A session is there also, as an mp3 download.

Alex

Production Notes for radio stations: There is a 20 second music bed for your station ID exactly at the 30 minute mark. The brief end music clip is Joan Baez "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down".

CRISIS IN CONFIDENCE

News of global breakdown.
Clips from Yale's James G. Speth on eco failure;

comedy duel "The Bugle" on biofuels;

Lester Brown on food crisis; (link is to full 34 minute conference call with the press)

Mel Hurtig on capital flight; (link is to one hour speech "The Truth About Canada")

UBS Swiss Bank as Rogue Capitalism? Billionaries bailing on climate (and you)

- but activist Bill McKibben says civilization has One Last Chance. (link is to Bill's article in the Los Angeles Times - as reprinted at Common Dreams, where the comments are really worth reading too...

Packed Ecoshock Show 080516 1 hour CD Quality (56 MB) or Lo-Fi (14 MB)

Production Notes: 15 sec music bed for station ID at 29:36. Credit to WNYC Leonard Lopate show for Speth clip. Full interview at ecoshock.org. Ditto full speech by Mel Hurtig. Credit www.timesonline.co.uk for the Bugle (with John Oliver and Andy Zaltzman). Quick clip Rolling Stones "19th Nervous Breakdown". Loretta Napoleoni speech on "Rogue Economics" free download at www.ecoshock.net/brownbagger Lester Brown food conference call here
(fast download, only 2 MB, 34 minutes - a great explanation that food crisis is not temporary, but a lasting endemic problem now for planet Earth. Our world food supplies at an all-time low and shrinking. I really recommend you listen to this interview, by one of the world's top grain experts - now head of Earth-Policy.org

Visit our web site soon at http://www.ecoshock.org - where many of these speeches and interviews are currently featured on our main page (scroll down a bit).

Alex Smith
host
Radio Ecoshock

Capitalist Despair & the Climate Deadline

[Show script][to hear the program, click the title above]

[sci-fi - but all too true clip from trailer for new game]

Our opening clip comes not from a documentary of our times, but from a trailer for a new video game called "Frontlines, Fuel of War." I suppose gamers really know the game is up. But, even our collapse, can be made into a profitable fantasy, for the screen.

I'm Alex Smith, and this is Radio Ecoshock.

You know, life has always been a battle between routine and interruptions. I say, we are entering the age of interruptions.

Privileged consumers hope the shopping carts will fill up, forever. Commuting to work, shopping for fun, planning vacations far away. It's been fun living fat. We like it, we want it to go on, living as model consumers, the hope of the world. We'll do almost anything to keep this mobile parade, of bursting store shelves, and stuffed closets. OK, we'll do anything.

The big interruption appears to be the loud cracking sound, as Capitalism buckles under it's own weight. Now that the Wall Street Christmas bonus billions have been given away, by bankrupt firms, the media is allowed to discuss a slight re-adjustment.

[Bush, Cramer, Beck]

Authors like Demitri Orlov, and James Howard Kunstler, suggest the United States is falling, like it's counter-weight, the former Soviet Union. It just took a little longer to appear. Next week we'll have a new speech by Jim Kunstler, recorded in Vancouver by Radio Ecoshock.


You've heard that America's largest bank, Citi-group, is being "rescued" by Muslim state governments. That the largest brokerage, Merill Lynch, declared a $16 billion loss. The largest mortgage lender, Countrywide, was saved by a fire-sale buyout by Bank of America. You probably didn't hear, that the fraudsters who sold all those fantasy investments, took off with $65 billion dollars in bonus money last year, from many of the same companies bleeding multi-billion dollar losses.

Once the enormity of the situtation is realized, soon, there will be endless lawsuits, and government investigations. In fact, the city of Cleveland is already suing several banks, including Wells Fargo. The city alleges these lenders were predators on the poorest people, leading to mass foreclosures. Wrecked, abandoned homes have scarred the city. Over a thousand perfectly good houses have been torn down, after they were wrecked by the angry former home owners, and/or vandalized by the numberless urban poor. Millions of homeless in the country, but we have to tear down houses. It is pitiless madness.

This has led to a new phenomenon in the United States - another measurement of the pain. Some cities are being designated as "refugee cities." This is where people are fleeing the breakdown of municipal services and city life. We have all imagined climate refugees, and those families fleeing war. We never imagined that some major American cities would break down, as they are breaking down.

Here is an excerpt from a speech by a Canadian city Councillor, Clive Doucet, where he describes refugee cities.

[clip][about 5 minutes, Clive Doucet in Vancouver January 14th, 2008, recorded by Radio Ecoshock - the author of new book "Urban Meltdown"]

The flip side: some cities are still functioning. These Doucet calles "refuge" cities - the places where people go for a hope of jobs, medical systems that work, schools that are safe.

The process of capitalism is a transfer of wealth from the many to the few. Nowhere do we see this more clearly than in the sub-prime mortgage scam. Lenders went agressively to the poorest people, to people of color. The African American community was particularly hard hit. Whatever people of color had managed to save, through working two or three jobs, was taken into the banks, with a promise of the American dream. A house of your own. A real bedroom for your kids. Now you can have it. But you can't keep it.

Here is a digest of the radio program "Building Bridges" report, on how sub-prime mortgages were aimed at the poorest communities. This program was broadcast on New York Public Radio, WBAI, on January 14th, 2007. At the end of the full program, there is a phenomenal speech by Martin Luther King in 1965. I have only included a few bits from the original half hour show.

[Building Bridges about 6 min]

You can find "Building Bridges," a labor oriented radio program, at wbai.org. The report on sub-prime and people of color, is available from the organization "United for a Fair Economy." Find them at faireconomy.org. The report is called "Foreclosed: The State of the Dream."

But the sub-prime scam, as we know, was just the water melting down deep, moving the whole financial glacier toward the sea. All the half-baked mortgages, and loans to people counting on ever-increasing real estate values, in their homes, were re-bundled as Collateralized Debt Obligations, CDO's, and other strange derivatives. The original mortgage values, already over-inflated, were multiplied several times, to many investors, as capitalist banks do. That mountain of multiplied debt was then sold off, all over the world. Big German and Korean banks bought them. Pension funds bought them. Small municipalities from Wisconsin to the Australian outback bought them.

After all, the ratings companies said these investments were "AAA." Now the companies and banks which issued them, like Merrill Lynch and Citigroup, are writing off their own CDO's, as worthless.

Worse, banks and all sorts of institutions bought insurance for their investments, in case there was a loss. The insurance companies have no hope of paying off all the bad debt. The insurance companies themselves will go bust, or be bailed out by governments. You, the taxpayer, and your children, will go into big debt, just to pay off the scandals of Wall Street. Just like the Savings and Loan government bailout, which still hasn't been paid off.

All this turmoil leads many of us to wonder whether Capitalism can survive. A simple history of capitalism shows the close links to piracy. Now the pirates have left with their billions for off-shore havens. The industrial system of America has been gutted, shipped overseas. Confidence in the dollar and government bonds is shattered. And you know when George Bush steps in to "help" - the disaster is already out of control. Bush is like the character George Costanza in the Sienfeld comedy TV show. George discovers that every instinct he has is wrong. He should do the opposite.

History will show that George Bush and his administration has gone wrong on almost every important issue. They stalled action on climate change, in America, and internatonally, during the key period when action might have saved terrible changes. We know his record on Katrina. Now he wants to hand out $800 to everybody to go shopping. That should fix the missing trillions - I said trillions - of dollars in the phoney pumped up world of finance.

But all this is the human circus, on a blue planet in deep trouble. Many Greens deeply doubt that Capitalism can meet any of the challenges it creates. All the light-bulb changing, the phoney trades in carbon that let the smokestackes keep belching, the failed climate talks. Can there be a "green capitalism" - or will we see abrupt social change in reaction to abrupt changes in financial markets, the oil supply, and the ever-more inhospitable climate?

I don't pretend to know the answers. I am not now, nor have I ever been, a Communist. Still, here are two speakers who claim green capitalism is impossible. That some sort of social action - socialism - must develop into a new economic and political model for the Long Emergency.

First up, George Monbiot, columnist for the Guardian newspaper in Britain, and author of the book "Heat, How to Stop the Planet Burning". Monbiot spoke at the climate rally in Britain on December 8th. You can hear the whole speech on youtube - Monbiot is spelled monbiot. But I want to play just a clip with the clearest description I've ever heard of Capitalism, and why it must grind down the planet to nothing, to continue growing.

[Monbiot - 5 minutes]

Very profound. In Capitalism, we must mine more, cut more, pollute more, filling the world with plastic trinkets and machinery, to justify the increase in the money supply, that is assumed by compound interest. Capitalism must always grow, or collapse. We have grown to "peak everything." We are hauling out the last beast of the forest, for food and decoration, cutting down rainforests to grow bio-fuel for SUVs, grabbing the last edible creatures of the sea. We have grown to 6 or 7 billion people, all wanting cars, monster homes, and more fatty foods. When we reach the limit, we begin the process of collapse, whether slowly over decades, or very quickly, indeed.

I've just recorded another speech by eco-socialist Ian Angus. The event was called "Can We Stop Climate Change?", held in Vancouver January 20th, 2008. Angus sums up our situation after the failure of the Bali climate talks in December.

[Ian Angus speech about 20 min, recorded by Radio Ecoshock]

You just heard Ian Angus with the green eco-socialist view on climate change. Find Ian Angus at his blog climateandcapitalism.com.

I'm Alex Smith, this is Radio Ecoshock, and we're deep into the subject of climate and capitalism.

I began this show with the hot topic of the day, the unraveling economy. It is exciting to live during big changes, even bad ones. When we come out of the haze of sports talk, and celebrity gossip, we gaze at crumbling institutions. Most people duck back inside the mass media cocoon, while the political debate becomes ever more irrelevant. Expect miles of ink, and a billion hours of social attention, to focus on the American economy, and world-wide waves of worry. We can all pretend we are adults, to learn that the word "derivative" really means "scam." That is where our municipal and pension funds went. But remember, life is interruption.

While humans spin their attention, the giant interruption is growing unseen in the sky, moves in ocean currents, cracks open miles down, under the ice. We call it climate change. Whatever happens to the War in Iraq, the collapse of the economy, and all those important things - we somehow have to focus. To focus the nation. Because, as we hear now from Evan Goldstein, we have just three years, until 2012, to create massive social change. To warp away from the carbon economy.

The alternative, is a planet of struggle, the hardest of times, for ourselves, and all our descendents. At least in this interview, taken from the program "Between the Lines", we find a growing awareness of the climate deadline, stimulated in the schools.

[clip, Evan Goldstein][about 6 min]

Evan Goldstein was interviewed for the alternative news program "Between the Lines." Find them at btlonline.org.

We need to hear about this climate crisis, over and over again. We are so easily distracted by ourselves, by the culture that demands all of our attention, all of our hours. Besides, the shift in the planet is so enormous, we can hardly imagine it.

As Rajendra Pachauri, a leading spokesperson for the IPCC told one reporter:

"You can read as much as you want on these subjects, but it doesn't really enter your system. You don't really appreciate the enormity of what you have," Pachauri said.

He sees all the scientific evidence. And he can still hardly comprehend what it means.

But I don't think the parlysis of fear is any answer. Just this week I heard a stimulating interview in the program "Mind Over Matters." Francis More Lappe, the author of "Diet for a Small Planet," - way back in the 70's, has written two books about conquering personal fear, and moving toward self-empowerment. Even in a crazy world.

Here is a tiny sample of Lappe:

[Lappe clip - Mind Over Matters interview]

During the interview, we learn that Lappe, for all her fame and expertise, went through years of self-doubt and fear. She described her struggle and ultimate victory over fear in her book "You Have the Power". I intend to read that.

Lappe's new book is called "Getting A Grip, Clarity, Creativity, and Courgae in a World Gone Mad." Find out more at www.gettingagrip.net.

Abrupt climate change may also bring abrupt social change. Is it time for eco-justice? For community? Maybe the Long Emergency will not end up in the global battle zones predicted by our video game writers. In fact, I predict the far-flung American bases will be closed. The new world economy, one more based on localized production and renewable energy, cannot afford the waste of militarism.

It doesn't have to be that way. Abrupt social change has happened. It could be happening now.

I'm Alex Smith, your host at Radio Ecoshock. You can download all our programs, and a ton of good green radio, free, from our website at ecoshock.org.
Thanks for joining me this week.

I'd like to dedicate our closing song to all the Wall Street brokers, and bankers, who made off like bandits. This is classic Joni Mitchell, with "Raised on Robbery."