What to Do While Waiting (for the Crash)

SUMMARY Author Richard Heinberg on geopolitics, finance, and environment of the slow crash. Global Crossing and Green Festivals President Kevin Danaher on transition to green economy. Unicyclist for climate Joseph Boutelier. Radio Ecoshock 140507 1 hour.

Welcome to Radio Ecoshock. I'm Alex and in this program we'll visit with Kevin Danaher, a founder of Global Crossing and President of the Green Festival, plus a visit to the studio by young Joseph Boutelier, riding his unicycle across the Rocky Mountains to draw attention to climate change.

But first, I need to ask one of the old hands about what to do while waiting for the crash. Richard Heinberg is next.

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

RICHARD HEINBERG: WAITING FOR THE CRASH

There's a movie "What to Do in Denver When You are Dead". Now we know this carbon-based civilization is dead-ending in bankruptcy and climate chaos. What are we supposed to do while we wait for collapse?

It's time to call in a life-line. Richard Heinberg has written about this future for decades, in books like "The Party's Over", "The End of Growth" and his recent fracking book "Snake Oil". He is the Senior Fellow-in-Residence at the Post Carbon Institute in California.



My food stash from 2009 is still in my basement unused. Everyone is predicting the crash that never seems to come. What if this crazy, deadly system just keeps eating up the earth and the atmosphere for another ten or twenty years?

MICHAEL C. RUPPERT - WAS IT LEADER BURN-OUT?

There's also the problem of leader burn out. The most glaring recent example is Michael C. Ruppert, the 911 activist, founder of Collapsenet, and host of the Lifeboat Hour radio show who killed himself.

Richard has known Mike Ruppert for years, and spent more time with him when Mike was living in Sebastapol. Is Mike's death a reflection on a whole movement? Heinberg says "no". Mike had his own personal problems, and had talked about suicide on many occasions. Ruppert's former lawyer says the same thing. If you are interested, the best explanation I've found is here on the Cherispeak blog. The best radio show, consisting of a half dozen interviews with those who knew Mike, was just done by Global Research. Info on the program is here or download that one hour show as a free mp3 here (from the famous radio4all.net).

There are times when I feel tired, when I feel beat. I interview scientists warning about climate change, and really bright people trying to bring the world's attention to absolutely critical threats. But my show never gets the million viewers of a single cat video. People talk about celebrity scandals, or errant billionaires, but a dying future just doesn't make the news or even dinner table conversation.

I've had scientists like Dr. Tim Garrett on Radio Ecoshock, explaining why this fossil economy has to crash, to prevent an all-out climate catastrophe. We've had economists explain the whole banking system is based on fraud and corruption. How does this planet-killing machine keep on going?

ENERGY AND GEO-POLITICS: THE UKRAINE

We hear the drum beats for a divided world again, with US and Europe versus Russia and China. Is it a sign of desperation, the need to distract the population from dead-end jobs and a dead-end civilization? Is it a kind of military bail-out? Richard says an expected bonanza of fracked gas is likely not behind this geopolitical tussle. After all, Poland was supposed to be a fracking Mecca, but most companies have pulled out of there. It's a very expensive way to develop gas or oil.

Another big piece of news hardly anyone will hear: western energy companies are in bed with Vladimir Putin. BP owns part of one of the world's biggest energy companies, the Russian firm Rosneft. Exxon/Mobil has a giant play with Rosneft to do exploratory drilling in the Arctic Sea north of Siberia. The first drilling will cost more than a half billion dollars, for a reserve estimated at over 9 billion dollars. Now the CEO of Rosneft is banned from travelling to the US, and the American energy companies might get caught up in the boycotts. Everything is so interconnected with globalization that I can't help but think this so-called economic war will blow-back into a nasty fall for the world as a whole, including the United States.

The bright side could be this: nobody should be drilling in the Arctic anyway. Their is no way to "clean up" spills there, like the BP spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Plus, the extra fossil fuels will kill off the planet for sure.

FOOD PRICES AND COMMUNITY

Then there's food prices. California, the whole state, is now declared in drought. The Texas cattle industry sold out last year, herds are down due to their drought. Anybody and everybody can see food prices going up and up. Will it drive more people into urban farming, back-to-the-land, kitchen gardens or what?

In the interview, we try to come up with a short-list of projects every community, and maybe even small groups of friends, can take on, to build our resiliance, and maybe a sustainable future. I'll start: I think all lawns should be ripped up and turned into food gardens. If you don't have time to garden, let a new industry of urban farmers do it.

Ripping up streets is another. We could keep a few for emergency access, but most of that pavement is helping kill us. Cars can make good planters. I've seen a couple in Vancouver that were flourishing with flowers and food, once you hack the roof off....

When a community comes to Richard, and they do, he shares that kind of advice with us that a small town, or even a mid-sized city, can proceed toward a sustainable future.

What about our culture! Richard plays a mean violin, and does public speaking, like to real people instead of just TEXx on You tube. Richard tells us a sustainable planet needs culture, and gives us some examples.

We've talked a little about really living, as though the future mattered. I hope people do it. But I also think we're soft and unprepared for what our system failure, and natural system failure, will bring. Are people ready, in their heads, to sweat out a few months of hundred degree plus weather, over 30 C.? Can we withstand flooding of coastal cities time after time? Doesn't there come a point when this already bankrupt system just cannot rebuild?

Is there a way for people to get ready for a one-two punch of economic crash and climate disruption, beyond putting bullets and beans in the basement? We can't cover all that, but we try.

Richard Heinberg is one of the pioneers in the post carbon world to come. Richard appears in major publications and media. His books are all still essential reading. Try "The Party's Over", "Peak Everything", and recently "Snake Oil: How Fracking’s False Promise of Plenty Imperils Our Future." Find Richard as the senior Fellow-in-Residence at the Post Carbon Institute, postcarbon.org, follow his ongoing "Museletter", or just visit richardheinberg.com.

He also publishes regularly at the Post Carbon web site called "Reslience.org". That used to be Energy Bulletin, until they realized it was about much more than that. Reslience.org often runs Radio Ecoshock features as well. It's a great resource, take a look.

Listen to/download this 31 minute in-depth interview with Richard Heinberg in CD Quality or Lo_Fi

KEVIN DANAHER: CONSUMERS VERSUS GREEN FESTIVALS

In the world of activism, we split into two branches. One attacks the existing human system, things like globalization, the World Bank, and social inequality. The other protests our destruction of nature, while struggling to create a pathway to a survivable future.

Our guest is one of the rare souls who marries both together. Dr. Kevin Danaher is the author, co-author, and editor of 11 books. Some expose the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and the cabal of the 1 percent. Others lay out the grassroots of a greener world. Kevin co-founded the Global Exchange, long dedicated to social justice. But he also founded and continues to share leadership of Green Festivals in major American cities, including Los Angeles and New York, and coming up, Washington DC at the end of May 2014.

He's an activist in San Franciso as well, where he founded Friends of the SF Environment. Kevin's PhD from the University of California is in sociology.

Many of us desperately hope we can avert a catastrophic disruption of our climate. Kevin has talked about this, asking if humanity can save itself. Can we?

Many, if not most of us, have given up on government as an agency that can help us out. Princeton just released a study saying America is an oligarchy, not a democracy. Quoting a summary of that study by Mike Krieger "even when 80% of the population favored a particular public policy change, it was only instituted 43% of the time." Now we understand why banks get bailed out but ordinary people just lose their homes. Is democracy dead?

Kevin makes me laugh out loud with one simple idea. Members of Congress should wear uniforms he say, like other public servants, such as firemen or policement. These Senators and Congressmen could wear jump suits like NASCAR drivers, with the logos of their corporate sponsors on the outside for all to see (instead of on the inside, where we can't see those $$$).

I can see why Kevin is in demand as a public speaker. He covers everything from the corporate take over of the world to a transition to the Green economy.

Then we get down to Green Festivals. Kevin is basically in charge of those conglomerations of green businesses and speakers that visit a half dozen major American cities. There was just a Green Festival in New York in April, and Kevin will deliver a major speech at the Washington DC Green Festival at the end of May. After listening to this lively interview, D.C. listeners should get down to hear Kevin on the 31st.

Are these festivals just another excuse for more consumerism? I know some of my listeners think that. But after attending a Mother Earth News Fair last year, I found small family-run business - real people who want to make a living without damaging the Earth, and maybe even offering tools to lead a sustainable life. Even though I'm suspicious of trying to buy our way out of this eco-mess, I'll cut some slack for people trying to make an honest living. They may be the vanguard of a new, truly sustainable economy. That's my opinion. You decide after listening to Kevin in this interview.

Download or listen to this 21 minute interview with Kevin Danaher in CD Quality or Lo-Fi

UNICYCLIST FOR THE PLANET

Climate change hangs over the next generation even more. What can one person do?

Joseph Boutilier has set off on a cross-Canada trip to raise public awareness. His vehicle is just a single wheel, a unicycle. Joseph cycled into my village, after crossing the Coastal mountains of BC. That's not easy!

Unicycles have no gears like a mountain bike. He has a small kind of aluminum suit case attached to the unicycle, built by his Uncle. This climate activist worked at a regular job for three years saving up the money to do this trip. He's depending on finding friendly homes to stay in as he crosses Canada, so if you hear Joseph is coming, please reach out to give your support, a meal and a bed. He'll be meeting with Mayors and media all along, to bring attention to the inter-generational injustice of climate change.

As you'll hear in the interview, Joseph is well spoken, an inspiring young man. I'm so please to see youth in motion. He's certainly that. This journey began in Victoria, British Columbia, and should end this fall in Canada's captial, Ottawa BC, several thousand miles in all. Joseph hopes to get more attention for climate change before the Canadian elections.

Joseph Boutilier is an example of a young person who can't just let climate disruption sweep the Earth and keep quiet about it. He's found his way of speaking out. Have you found yours?

Follow Joseph Boutlier at his web site here.

You can listen to Radio Ecoshock on our new Soundcloud page. The opening music for this program featured links from Festival Trance 2 by Function Loops. You'll find more new music from me on the SoundCloud page, like this short 2 minute piece called "Drum Wood".

My sincere thanks to everyone who donated to Radio Ecoshock over the past month. We now have enough money to cover all the bills into the new fall season in September. Listeners make this show possible.

Thanks for paying attention to what matters. I'm Alex, for Radio Ecoshock.

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.

Growing the Life You Want To Live

From the Mother Earth News Fair, we hear about Life on the "Farmstead." Lisa Kivirist turning your dreams of small scale food into a living in Wisconsin. Lisa has tips for us all. Then we go solar with author and speaker Dan Chiras, plus solar electrician Brad Burkhartzmeyer - the questions you would ask are answered.

Download/listen to this Radio Ecoshock Show in CD Quality or Lo-Fi

Download/listen to my interview with Lisa Kivirist in CD Quality or Lo-Fi

Download/listen to my interview with Dan Chiras in CD Quality or Lo-Fi

Download/listen to my interview with Brad Burkhartzmeyer in CD Quality or Lo-Fi

Listen to this Radio Ecoshock right now (courtesy of archive.org)



LISVA KIVIRIST "ECOPRENEUR"

Lisa Kivirist and John Ivanko

Let's meet Lisa Kivirist.

There were so many useful angles to this interview. For one thing, we learn about the transition out of the city. But what will you do there to survive and pay the bills? Lisa and her husband John Ivanko managed a balance of food production, local business, and book writing - successful for the past 17 years.

They've developed and then written about "ecopreneurship" - developing an income from what you love to do - and what is good for the Earth. Oh and by the way, Lisa and John run a "carbon negative business". They soak up more carbon than they emit. Isn't that the only way to a future?

Their latest book is "Rural Renaissance: Renewing the Quest for the Good Life". If you want to learn from this dynamic couple personally, book into their top-rated green bed and breakfast outside Monroe, Wisconsin. Find their web site here.

Just one of the many tips that impressed me: setting a time after the Christmas feasting to really eat up all those supplies you bought in bulk, or stored away from the previous season. A time of buying no food, but working up good recipes from what you have.

Linda is an experienced and engaging speaker, and we had some laughs along the way. Enjoy this one!

DAN CHIRAS - ALTERNATIVE ENERGY EXPERT

Dan Chiras

Radio Ecoshock continues from the Mother Earth News Fair in Puyallup Washington. Does it pay to go solar? Dan Chiras worked alternative energy for three decades, writing 30 books in the process. Dan visited me in the Radio Ecoshock mobile studio.

Dan is a 30 year veteran of the battle to bring clean green energy to America. Currently he's the Director of the Evergreen Institute located in Gerald, Missouri. Dan also has two blogs in Mother Earth News magazine.

His first blog is on building Net Zero energy homes. In fact, if you search for "Dan Chiras Net Zero Energy" you'll land in his Mother Earth News blog. Or you can go to the Mother Earth News web site and find the blog here.

One of Dan Chiras's many books that appealed to me was "Things I Learned Too Late in Life".

His second Mother Earth News blog is called "Dan Chiras on Loving Life". It may sound corny, but Dan thinks a positive love for people and all Nature can be healing for the planet.

Behind all that, are mountains of books, articles, You tube videos, and public appearances by Dan Chiras - absolutely crammed with plans and tips to install everything from solar to wind and beyond.

In our interview, we concentrated on solar energy. On of our previous off-grid guests suggested the real place to start is not solar electricity, but "solar thermal" even just to heat hot water for your home. We talk through all that, and Dan gives us a lot in a short interview.

MORE SOLAR POWER WITH BRAD BURKHARTZMEYER<br>

Brad Burkhartzmeyer

We just have time to squeeze in a few minutes with a very experienced solar designer and installer from Washington State, Brad BurkHartzmeyer.

Brad founded Sun's Eye solar power which has installed lots of solar juice in area of Tacoma Washington, and beyond. It becomes apparent during our interview the importance of checking out the training and credentials of your solar installer. Maybe the guy down the road is not your best choice. Some states require a trained electrician, with more courses on solar installation. Others do not. Buyer check it out!

In the program I only had time for just a sample from my full 18 minute interview with Brad Burkhartzmeyer. We talk about roof angles, solar water heating and more. Get the full interview as a free mp3 download here.

If you've ever considered solar power, give that interview a listen.

At one point I was wondering. Brad suggested the average full solar power system costs between twenty and thirty thousand dollars. Twenty thousand for a solar system? No way I thought. Then I get in my $25,000 car which will break down in three years and costs thousands to run every year. Maybe a lifetime supply of sun power would be a better buy.

Plus, the system will pay for itself, and can even turn a profit, if your local provider allows meters that can run backwards, paying you for the extra power you produce. A nice check coming in.

We know electricity rates will just go up and up. With solar you get a guaranteed low rate, which just gets more competitive as time goes by.

At the Mother Earth News Fair, the whole mobile radio studio was powered by the sun. Join me won't you, in the clean energy revolution?

THANK YOU LISTENERS!

You can help support this program, at our web site, ecoshock.org.

My thanks to listeners who made it possible to record so many great guests at the Fair.

I'm Alex Smith, saying there's lots more Radio Ecoshock coming next week. Let's meet again then.

We finish up the program with a small slice of sun-loving music by Vastmandana, out of Oakland California.

Green Medley: Climate, Population, Off-Grid

American scientist Virginia Burkett: violent weather threats to coastal energy. Activist Dave Foreman on population & immigration. Sheri Koones "Prefabulous & Almost Off-Grid" green building. Radio Ecoshock 130403 1 hour.

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DR. VIRGINIA BURKETT: WILL CLIMATE STORMS DAMAGE OUR ENERGY SYSTEM?



Dr. Virginia Burkett, USGS

In this show, leading American scientist Virginia Burkett explains how a more violent climate could damage the fossil fuel infrastructure we currently count on. Dr. Viginia Burkett is the Chief Scientist for Climate and Land Use Change at the U.S. Geological Survey. She has been a lead author in past reports for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

Dr. Burkett is from Louisiana, and was a specialist there in the oil and gas sector. She well remembers the impacts of Hurricane Katrina, and has studied the impacts of that 2005 storm on offshore facilities, coastal lands ripped away, and damage to both ports and refineries.

Up to one third of all oil imported into America comes through the Gulf States. When those are knocked out, even pipelines supplying heating oil as far away as New England are threatened.

Add in the constant rising seas, and we could see a situation where gas and oil products could be in short supply if climate change brings more violent storms to the Gulf Coast. Burkett expects those storms will arrive again, and more often.

Massive amounts of American highways also run near the coast. The damage to the bridged and highways of the Gulf States was extreme after Katrina. That means food and other supplies may not get through. Where, in these days of bankrupt governments, will we find the money to constantly rebuild coastal highway systems, including the interstates?

Burkett notes that after Katrina, some freight railway traffic was routed further inland, as far as St. Louis, to avoid the coast. We'll see more of that - but then what happens to the passenger rail trains near the coast, where about 50% of Americans live? Freight generally helps pay for passenger lines. The dream of using more passenger trains to help save climate emissions may be endangered by rising seas and storm surges from existing climate change.

In our interview, we also discuss this document: "Public Review Draft USGS Global Change Science Strategy: A Framework for Understanding and Responding to Climate and Land-Use Change", U.S. Geological Survey, Reston, Virginia, Open-File Report 2011-1033, 32 p.

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Listen to this Radio Ecoshock show right now.





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DAVE FOREMAN SPEAKS OUT ON POPULATION AND IMMIGRATION



Dave Foreman

Dave Foremen came to public attention in the early 1980's with his involvement with the Earth First! environmental activist movement. Few people know that Dave worked with more conventional conservation groups in the 1970's, before he realized that wasn't working.

Dave published "Ecodefense: A Field Guide to Monkeywrenching" - disabling logging and other equipment to save the ancient forests and habitat for wildlife. The introduction is by Edward Abbey. That book is still available online here.

The authorities didn't like that book and that kind of eco-activism. In my opinion, the FBI entrapped him in the early 1990's, by charging Foreman with handing his book (remember free speech?) to an undercover FBI agent investigating the bombing of a power line in the South West. Dave had nothing to do with the bombing, but got labelled with all that by the media. Some people today still think he's guilty because of that media smear. Learn more about that case here.

In fact, Dave Foreman went on to become a Director of the Sierra Club. He left that group in 1998 when Sierra Club renounced it's previous policy of limiting the size of the U.S. population.

In our interview, Foreman emphasizes he is a "conservationist" rather than an "environmentalist". He wants to save room for other species, and does so through his group The Rewilding Institute.

We talk about world over-population, and immigration. Dave just published an essay on all that in the book "Life on the Brink: Environmentalists Confront Overpopulation." Plus he has his own book "Man Swarm and the Killing of Wildlife."

Dave Foreman doesn't hold back. We have a lively conversation which is sure to generate some comments from listeners.

Please remember the views expressed by our guests may not reflect my own, or those of our radio stations. On the other hand, unless we want to see Ethiopia go over 100 million people, and Nigeria to 300 million, we've got to start talking frankly about over-population (before the rest of the species and Nature get wiped out!)

SHERI KOONES: PREFABULOUS AND ALMOST OFF THE GRID



Radio Ecoshock is all about local and hand made. So why the heck am I enthused about factory-built homes?

It all started with my interview and recorded workshop on the Austraian super low energy "Passivhaus" design with architect Guido Wimmers. Google "radio ecoshock and Guido Wimmers" to find that on our site at ecoshock.org. That will take you to a two part workshop on Passivhaus design. Or listen to my 21 minute interview with Guido here.

Guido says in no uncertain terms that we cannot build super tight low energy homes using standard construction on site. They need to be build on jigs, inside, with very strict standards to make everything fit literally seamlessly. It's a new way of looking at Green construction. Plus, there is less waste in the factory production method.

My interest was further stimulated by the new book by Sheri Koones called "Prefabulous and Almost Off the Grid". Sheri uses photos and text to illustrate leading edge prefab homes across the United States - from New England to the South West.



Author Sheri Koones

For example, we find out Christine Tod Whitman, former New Jersey Governor and former head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, built a model low-energy pre-fab home. Sheri Koones describes some of the choices Christine made. The home looks like it has been there for 100 years.

Robert Redford wrote the foreword to this book.

I was also interested to see a prefab go up in Chicago, where the building codes are notoriously difficult to meet.

My wife and I are looking into a green-enabled home at a much lower cost from Marlette homes, a subsidiary of Clayton Homes. That is controlled by Warren Buffett. Apparently Buffett decided factory homes are the future of new buiding at low cost, in times of high energy prices.

Check out the Sheri Koones interview for insight into all that. Find her blog here.

Please remember to support Radio Ecoshock at our web site, ecoshock.org.

Tune in next week, and thank you for listening.

From Growing Greens to Fukushima

Expert urban gardening tips from John Kohler, host of popular "Growing Your Greens" channel on You tube. Then speech by Dr. Helen Caldicott March 12, 2013 on medical and ecological consequences of the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan. Radio Ecoshock 130327 1 hour

FREE MP3 DOWNLOADS FROM THIS PROGRAM

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Listen to/download my interview with urban gardener John Kohler (28 minutes) in CD Quality or Lo-Fi

WELCOME!

Hey welcome to Radio Ecoshock. This week it's a best of times, worst of times show.

We start out with John Kohler, the "growing your greens" guy on You tube. John is an enthusiastic learner and teacher about urban gardening. He helped push me further along the path to growing my own and juicing it as great raw plant food. Our interview is full of lots of things you can do. I've posted some links below of my favorite Kohler You tube videos to get you started.

Then it's off to New York City for a dose of the awful truth from the long-term nuclear guardian, Helen Caldicott. In her time to speak on the second anniversary of the Fukushima Daiichi triple melt-down in Japan - Helen lays it out. Due to increased radiation, toxic chemicals, and climate change, life on earth is in the Intensive Care Unit. The aging Caldicott says it's up to us - we are all physicians for the Earth now. It's a powerful speech from a famous force for sanity.

First though, it's time to get you growing your greens.

LISTEN TO THIS RADIO ECOSHOCK PROGRAM RIGHT NOW!



MY LIST OF JOHN KOHLER YOU TUBE VIDEOS



John Kohler

Here is a whole browsing list of John Kohler "growing your greens" videos on You tube.

I like this one about aquaponics in Oakland.

This one of growing veggies in the winter in Cleveland has a lot to say, I think. We talk about it in our interview.

I learned a few more things about the power of growing sprouts from this pro sprout-grower in Florida. It features Shawn from gotsprouts.com.

Looking for plants for quick salads in winter, inside, with minimum equipment?

MORE OF MY FAVORITE GROWING YOUR GREENS VIDEOS

How to Make Compost Tea.

Why does John advise against planting potatoes in your urban garden?

How to grow a vegetable garden if you rent your home.

Is plastic bad to use as a container to grow food?

Grow 20 Square Feet of Vegetables in 4 ft Square of Space with the Phytopod Container Garden (245,00 views).

Edible garden on a condo patio.

Suburban homestead garden on 1/10th of an acre.

Suburban Homesteading Edible Victory Garden Edible Estate on 1/10th of an Acre (143,000 views).

Solar powered aquaponic system (plus examples of espalier fruit growing for small gardens)(plus two types of tower growing)(agrotower.com).

City Encourages Upgrooting Grass to Grow Sustainable Vegetable Gardens.

Best Way to Consumer Leafy Green Vegetables (Juicer).

How to Start A Raised Bed Vegetable Garden In Your Backyard - Planning.

Reduce or Eliminate WhiteFly and Aphids with Worm Castings.

Urban Farm in San Francisco Gives Away Thousands of Pounds of Food Free.

How to Keep Cats Out of Your Raised Bed Garden.

How to Build a 4' by 4' Raised Bed Garden From Start to Finish.

Extended Front Yard Urban Vegetable Garden Tour.

Growing Vegetables in the Shade - What Can I Grow?

John's plant-specific videos are hits, on growing cucumbers, or squash (often with over 80,000 views heading to 200,000 each)

HERE ARE SOME JOHN KOHLER WEB SITES

His business is discountjuicers.com (only ships within USA). But you'd never know that from watching his "growing your greens" You tube channel. John really does give away all he's learning, without pushing his business at all.

John Kohler founded Living Foods.com

His Facebook page is here.

To get more on John's vision of the healthiest diet visit his site OK Raw

And of course his main "Growing Your Greens" channel on You tube, where you can learn so much.

ALEX GETS A JUICER

John has re-inspired me. I was drinking vegetable juice in Los Angeles back in the '70's, and I was growing lots of veggies in the '80s. It's just one of those things that keeps coming back. We learn again, and start again. Sometimes life is more like a spiral than a line through time.

I bought a juicer this week, but not from John. He only sells within the United States. A local drug store chain had a sale on the "Big Boss Vita Press". It's a slow juicer that squeezes the veggies with a rotating auger.

The Breville high speed juicers are great if you are into hard fruits like apples, or maybe carrots or beets. But they don't do well with leafy greens. Plus, a Brevill has an 850 Watt motor, sounding like an airplane in your kitchen. It turns at about 10,000 revolutions per minute. By contrast, my slow-speed juicer needs just 150 Watts, meaning it uses less power. I can run if from my solar panel. The whole process with slow juicing is much more relaxing, I think.

The Vita Press cost me $169 dollars, with a one year in-store warranty, and a two year factory warranty. I seriously considered buying one of the Omega models John shows in his videos. They are probably better quality and may last longer. But like many people, I have a low income. I just couldn't afford more than $300 for my juicer.

I'll let you know how the cheaper one works out. Last night we had a super green drink, including a bargain on organic black Kale. It feels so much healthier than the overdose of bread, cereal, and potatoes I'd been falling into over the winter. I can't wait for the local farmers' market to open. Hopefully by next year we'll be in a place where we can grow most of our own.

John is pretty well feeding himself from a standard house lot in California. He's got several videos of tips for more northern folks, from the compost-heated greenhouse through sprouting greens anywhere inside, in the depths of winter.

MY LITTLE INDOOR GARDEN

For those who heard about my experiment with a little planter with indoor lights, I can report trying a couple of things. First off, I asked myself, what would some listeners do? I tried the Walmart brand planting soil, which promised it would need little watering. That turned out about as useless as I thought it would. The plants were starting to die off, because the soil stays way too wet.

I carefully removed my small plants, chucked the Walmart stuff, and went with a version of "Mel's mix" - one third peat, one third vermiculite (not perlite!), and some compost. I also added some clean sand, heated up in the oven to get rid of any outside life. Small containers benefit from sand, I think, to help drain the soil.

Now my kitchen herbs and lettuce are doing great. I had to cut back the hours of light for the lettuce, and move it back a bit, because it was heading straight to seed under all the light from the T5 flourescent, running 16 hours a day. Things have grown so fast, I had to move the lights up 6 inches in the first two weeks.

I like having the fake sunlight in my studio as I prepare Radio Ecoshock, in the dark spring of rainy Vancouver. Burning just 24 watts, it's not too hard on the atmosphere I suppose - plus all our power comes from hydro-electric dams. Pretty soon we'll have the real stuff from the sun.

My thanks to listeners who responded with ideas for a seed show. I've got something in the works for that. I've also appreciated the feedback on our Facebook page, the blog, and from the contact form on the web site as ecoshock.org. I can't promise to answer everyone, but I read it all. Listeners provide a lot of direction and tips for this program. That's the way it should be. I appreciate your support.

Stay tuned for one of the great voices of the environment, Helen Caldicott.

HELEN CALDICOTT - THE MEANING OF FUKUSHIMA



Dr. Helen Caldicott

Last week I ran selections from symposium "The Medical and Ecological Consequences of the Fukushima Nuclear Accident" New York March 11-12 by Helen Caldicott Foundation & Physicians for Social Responsibility. That program covered 5 key myths about the Fukushima disaster. Things like: It isn't over, the unreported extra dangers to women and small children, and the myth that wildlife is thriving at Chernobyl in the Ukraine, despite the continuing radiation there.

That symposium was full of surprises. The key driving force behind it was the 75-year-old anti-nuclear campaigner, the world-renowned Dr. Helen Caldicott. She helped fund it, along with other medical professionals in the group Physicians for Social Responsibility.

By the second day, Helen was tired. It was her turn to speak. But nothing stops Helen. By the end of her talk, I was touched and restimulated by our duty here, to care for humans, wildlife, and all life. We are part of a giant living planet, attached and responsible. Helen Caldicott reminded me why I make Radio Ecoshock every week, and why you come to listen.

Use the links above to download her speech at the March symposium in New York City. To fit radio time, I removed her reading of a letter from Dr. Arjun Makhijani.

You can view videos of all the speeches as delivered at the symposium here.

I hope Helen is wrong about the future of genetic damage in humans. She says science shows it can take up to 20 generations for the damage from radiation to show up, being carried in recessive genes. If so, the atomic testing, Chernobyl, Fukushima, and every day releases from all kinds of nuclear power plants and nuclear waste - could add up to a future with hundreds or thousands of genetic diseases popping up in humans and wild life. You and I will not live to see it.

I hope she is wrong. But it's probably foolish to bet against Dr. Caldicott, with all she knows. Once upon the world stage, there can be a process where a strong honest person can grow bigger than most of us. That is how I think of her.

Personally I don't believe we are coming to an end, but rather a new beginning with a difficult and strange birth.

Life on Earth is in the intensive care unit, Helen Caldicott says. She passes her torch to us, saying we must all become physicians now, caring for life, for everything that lives. Nothing else in life - not the money, the prestige, the highs - nothing else matters more than we accept this role. We may have to sit up through the night with our patient, with no concern for ourselves.

Nobody around here doubts the night will come. I believe life will continue in a new morning.

I'm Alex Smith. Stay tuned next week for more hope and despair, with some great guests on Radio Ecoshock.

Please support Radio Ecoshock with your donations. You can use PayPal or any credit card, at the upper right of this blog. Would you rather donate a smaller amount per month? Subscribe at our web site, on this page.

Thank you for listening - and for caring about your planet!

Annual Ecoshock Green Music Festival 2012

The Radio Ecoshock annual best of Green music festival. Eclectic mix of voices found or sent in by the artists, mood music for a climate-safe, species-friendly world. Radio Ecoshock 121229 1 hour.

Download in CD Quality (56 MB) recommended for this music show.

If you are on a slow connection, you can use this lower quality Lo-Fi version (14 MB)

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Welcome to the annual Radio Ecoshock Green Music Festival. All year people send in their favorites, and even original recordings direct from the artists. Everyone has a different taste in music, and I've tried to touch a lot of countries and styles. But really, these are my picks. I have to enjoy the song, before it makes this mix. It's time to reflect on the bad news and the good vibes that only artists can bring us.

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PLAYLIST WITH SOURCES AND NOTES:

[1] Craig Anderton "When the Grid Goes Down"

Watch it on You tube.



We kick off with a vision of dystopia. Craig Anderton wrote and performed "When the Grid Goes Down", thinking of the electric grid knocked out by a solar storm. Radio Ecoshock has covered this awful possibility, where the whole system goes down for month or years. This is remixed and mastered version released in October 2012.

Craig has been doing the music scene a long time. He had three albums out when he was in his 20's back in the 1970's. Craigs a specialist in electronic music and mixing. Find him at craiganderton.com.

This is the mixed and mastered version of "When the Grid Goes Down," and includes a video. Written and performed by Craig Anderton. Drums: Greg Morrow, Damage. Bass: Juliette Duval.

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[2] Jack Johnson "Gone"

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Back from the brink of disaster, we find the softer Jack Johnson singing about our the vacuum of consumer culture, in this song titled "Gone." Johnson is an American surfer singer with more than five albums out. He organizes the annual Kokua Festival in Hawaii.

See video and lyrics here.

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[3] Karen Savoca "Two Little Feet"

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Next up "Two Little Feet" by Karen Savoca. Karen stands and delivers with her big bass drum, and the excellent guitar work of Pete Heitzman. Her latest album is "Promise" recorded in their 19th century church studio in the hills of upstate New York. It's available from CDBaby.com - and check out her earlier album "In the Dirt" for some back-to-the-land music. Find more at karensavoca.com.

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[4] Rachel Van Zanten "My Country"

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I love it when a rocker and singer gets active for what she loves. Rachel Van Zanten is from Northern British Columbia, but she toured 11 years with bands. Now Rachel as a solo artist, writes this powerful anthem "My Country" about the First Nations people and their battle against Tar Sands pipelines and fracking damage to their land.

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Official video for this song here.

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[5] REM "Until the Day Is Done".

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Always biting on the social scence hitmakers REM brought this one out on the album "Accelerate". It's called "Until the Day Is Done"This is the American rock band from Athens, Georgia who conquered the world. After entering the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2007, the band split up in 2011.

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REM fansite.

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[6] Vastmandana "No More Denial"

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Out of Oakland, California, from the multi-talented musician and master gardener Dana Pearson, playing as Vastmandana. This sample clip "No More Denial" is one of many pieces Dana provided to Radio Ecoshock from his collection of one-man-band electronic instruments.

Listen to his music as Vastman at soundclick.com

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[7] Red Valley Fog "Come Winter"

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Part of the new climate awareness music coming out of the folk genre, Singer Ben Grosscup is with the Massachusetts Chapert of the Northeast Organic Farming Association. The song "Come Winter" was written by Ethan Miller, bu Grosscup and his buddy Dan Inglis have the only recording of it.

Find their music here.

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[8] Dan Mangan "Sold"

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From Vancouver, Canada, Dan Mangan is an award-winning international writer and singer. After his hit album "Nice, Nice, Very Nice" Mangan shone forth with some gorgeous blends of music and dreamy electronica in his newest called "Oh Fortune". His web site is danmanganmusic.com.

We play his song "Sold".

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His web site is http://www.danmanganmusic.com -------------------

[9] Gil Scott Heron "Shut 'em Down"

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This anti-nuclear song comes from the late African American poet, jazzman, musician and author Gil Scott Heron. He passed in 2011, and is sorely missed. One of Gil's best known spoken poems is "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised." "Shut 'em Down" came out in 1979.

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gil_Scott-Heron "Shut 'em Down" came out in 1979. Find it on You tube.

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[10] Evan Greer "Even If the End Is Near"

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Love for the hardest of times, from Evan Greer and Friends. Evan describes himself as a radical queer social justice singer/songwriter. Greer's home base is in Boston. He or she has sung with all the greats, covered the big causes, and is pushing toward personal greatness in everything from folk to punk. His/her website is evangreer.org. Check out the latest song "I Want Something" but my pick for this show is "Even If The End Is Near".

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[11] SkarKat "End of Days"

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Next up is the dark "End of Days" from Scarkat. This rapper was born in Dubai, then struggled to make it as an immigrant in Toronto, Canada. I cleaned up this version a bit for radio, but Scarkat sees it all happening. Find him here.

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[12] Earthrise Soundsystem "Ajnabee - Stranger"

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OK this next short song "Ajnabee" or "Stranger" isn't a green song. I just find this short piece of Indian blend inspiring when things look bad. The music comes from a duo of techno musicians doing a lot of Yoga music for White Swan records: DJ, writer, and yogi Derek Beres teams up with producer/percussionist Duke Mushroom. Derek's yoga sessions have been on all the big networks. And check out their bio to find the astounding list of big name artists who worked with Duke Mushroom.

Their web site is earthrisesoundsystem.com.

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[13] Ben Sollee "Panning for Gold"

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I'm not religious, and yet this song clicked with me. Maybe it's the disarray we humans make. I heard it first in the new film YERT, Your Environmental Road Trip. Ben Sollee's "Panning for Gold" is from his latest album "Half Made Man" Ben is relatively young, from Kentucky, with a full range ear for performance art. Plus, Sollee plays his own Cello. Check out his song "Bury With My Car", and more at bensollee.com.

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[14] Australian kids "Protect the World"

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It's time for the kids to sing. It's their future at stake. This group from Australia does a good job with "Protect the World". The music comes from an online video by Shakti Burke for Kyogle Climate Action Network. I found it at generationgreen.tv Search for their Top 6 Environmental Songs and you'll find some good green videos.

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[15] Tina Turner. "A Change Is Gonna Come"

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We'll end with one of the most famous songs written by Sam Cooke, and first recorded in 1963. This live recording with master guitarist Robert Cray comes from the 1980's, when Tina Turner was touring in Europe. The American superstar Tina Turner can inspire us to carry on. I believe it. A change is gonna come. We will see it through together.

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Her official web site.

Catch this on You tube.

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Check out our regular programs each week on 63 radio stations in the United States, Canada, the UK, and occasionally Australia. Download Radio Ecoshock by Itunes podcast or from our web site at ecoshock.org. I'm Alex Smith, signing off from the annual Radio Ecoshock Festival of Green Music.

Thanks for being there.

Burning Down the House

IMPORTANT NOTE FOR RADIO STATIONS, PODCAST SUBSCRIBERS AND LISTENERS

1. This is the last new Radio Ecoshock show for this season. We are offering radio stations and downloaders 8 replay programs. They are the most downloaded, most popular shows of the past year.

2. Find those shows, in several formats here: http://www.ecoshock.net (or on our main web site, http://www.ecoshock.org)

3. Radio stations, at Ecoshock.net you will find both the one hour straight through version (choose “CD quality”) or two 29 minute halves, allowing you time for Station ID and announcements.

4. The next new Radio Ecoshock program will be released September 5th. There will be no podcasts or posting until then. All shows are also posted on Pacifica Audioport, in addition to Ecoshock.net.

Our feature interview this week is with Daniel Rirdan, author of a new book “The Blueprint: Averting Global Collapse.” You can download/listen to that interview in CD quality or Lo-Fi. Our second guest is Brita Belli, Editor of E Magazine, and author of their cover article “This Is Your Ocean on Acid”. Almost half the show is my own news report on climate, the failure of media to report it, and some good news about the growth of Radio Ecoshock, as we wrap up this season. Music: "Burning Down the House" by the Talking Heads.

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

BURNING

As I prepared this program, Colorado is burning. So are parts of Utah, where I was just camping. It's everything we've been warning about on this program literally for years. Climate change has struck. Normal isn't a word we'll get to use again in our lifetimes.

In America, 1011 heat records fell in one month. In Coweta Oklahoma, a kid managed to fry bacon on the sidewalk. Firefighters had to wait for nightfall to even get close to the fires. Mostly, nothing human, not even machines, could approach the towering walls of fire.

In Toronto Canada it's been summer since April. Millions of people are sweating it out in filthy smog.

You've heard it is sweltering in a stormy heat all up and down the U.S. East Coast. In fact, 25 states have temperatures over 100 degrees (38 C) this week. About 4 million people in the Washington D.C. and Virginia area lost electricity in storms that ran up to 90 mile an hour winds, stronger than some hurricanes. So those folks have to endure the heat and humidity without air-conditioning. Welcome to the future.

I recall talking with Stuart Staniford, author of the "Early Warning" blog, about how much heat humans can take as a species. It turns out if the humidity is quite high, we can't survive sustained temperatures of 35 degrees C, even with fans or whatever. We can't perspire enough, and that is our last ditch cooling mechanism. People die in high heat because of that, especially if night time temperatures don't drop low enough to recover a proper core temperature.

Thank goodness the Virginia Legislature passed an Act banning global warming!

The NASA map for May shows excess heat all over the world, except for the Pacific Northwest and Australia, which are colder than usual. Everybody else is getting a double helping of 100 degree plus heat, 38 degrees C in the shade. Globally, it was the hottest land temperature in May ever.

Funny, I haven't heard much from the global cooling guys lately. Nobody is buying those lies any more. But the usual billionaires plan to stuff it down your throat anyway.

In Australia, where climate change has driven drought-stricken farmers to suicide, where roaring fires have killed hundreds - the country's richest woman, Gina Rinehart, is trying to take over Fairfax, the big newspaper and television chain that Rupert Murdoch doesn't own.

Gina loves climate denier Ian Plimer, and wants another denier, Andrew Bolt, promoted to top spot on television. It's a board room battle with respected Australians pleading for a little sanity in the daily paper, maybe with editorial independence.

Just like the Koch Brothers in the USA, billionaires can drag off both media and politics to suit their need to pollute for profit. Maybe it would be a good thing if Rinehart can turn Australia's media into a climate denier circus. It would be the last act of newspaper suicide in that country. Young people, whose future is being ruined, know better. They are already moving to social media and the Net. Once the big lie is flouted in their faces, it could be the end of newspapers down-under. Credibility gone.

Not that American or Canadian media are doing any better. Covering the Colorado fire story, the weathercasters blow up the horror of the heat, and the high winds, without ever mentioning climate change. Apparently they've never heard of climate science.

There should be some kind of aware do the major TV networks for the number of times they can report obvious climate-caused damage without ever mentioning the truth behind it. Everyone can win that award. See Joe Romm's excellent summary of the horrible media cover-up at thinkprogress.org.

We'll have to hand out another prize for dumb journalism for every reporter who doesn't know the West is also burning because the Pine Bark beetle and other borers killed off entire forests. Nobody even mentions this!

That beetle problem is straight out of global warming. The winters haven't been cold enough to kill off these pests. Every forest worker, the logging companies, the State governments, everybody knows warmer winters have killed off masses of trees. Now they are burning, what a surprise! The reporters, or their editors, need to be spanked for leaving that out.

Still on climate, extreme rainfall events are coming too fast to report them all. Duluth Minnesota was drowned, but how about Florida! Tropical storm Debby, not even a hurricane, dropped 5 to 7 inches of rain over three days. Towns nowhere near the sea, a lake or a river - flooded, as water erupted out of the ground.

Super storm cells washed over the Midlands of Britain. Flash flooding all over England and Wales in the past week, called "Biblical".

We've got some ideas from science about why it burns, or dumps tons of rain or snow, for weeks - why the weather stalls. Scientists think the melting sea ice in the Arctic has disrupted the Jet Stream. In his blog "Early Warning" Stuart Staniford has a great explanation.

It turns out the Jet Stream, travelling high above the Earth, is bent into ox-bow-like waves as the planet turns. In a nutshell, these are called Rossby Waves. We'll have to do a whole Radio Ecoshock show on them. The Rossby waves used to undulate with some regularity over the Northern continents, bringing a mixture of weather systems, including heat, cooler periods, and rain. Our agriculture is built on them.

At a Weather and Climate Summit in January, Rutgers oceans scientist Dr. Jennifer Francis advanced the theory that more open water in the Arctic is impacting these Rossby Waves. The result is much slower movement of more extreme weather patterns, called "blocking". It's been documented several times since 2007. That may explain the months-long extravaganza of heat and drought over Texas and Oklahoma last year, and the strange summer in March over Eastern North America this year. It's wild to think that melting Arctic sea ice could even be part of the burning American West.

I'll toss a link to the video of the Jennifer Francis presentation into my blog at ecoshock.info. Check it out. Be the first on your block to actually understand why the weather is so messed up.

Here is a copy of the paper on Arctic melt impacts on our weather.

Also check out "Weird Winter March Madness" - from the Yale Climate forum

Part Two has more on Rossby waves with Jennifer Francis and Jeff Masters

Oh yeah, the Arctic sea ice is the lowest ever recorded for this time of year, lower than the jaw-dropping record of 2007. Of course you saw those headlines, the big TV news stories about that. Not!

Under the remaining ice, so thin it is almost translucent, scientists have discovered vast pools of algae growing under the Arctic ice. They've never seen it before. We have no idea how that will impact the algae feeders who arrive later in the real summer. Or why it's there. Normally, and there is no normal anymore, algae doesn't get enough light to grow under the ice.

EXXON/MOBILE CEO SAYS "DON'T WORRY"

But hey, as you are packing up the kids and photos in your five minutes to evacuate, the head of Exxon/Mobile says "don't worry!".

At a meeting of the Council on Foreign Relations, Exxon/Mobil CEO Rex Tillerson said global warming is happening, but it's quote "manageable." He admits burning fossil fuels are causing the climate to change. Too bad Exxon funded so many climate deniers for so many years, saying it isn't happening, or humans aren't causing it.

Tillerson told the well-connect big wigs, quote “As a species that’s why we’re all still here: we have spent our entire existence adapting. So we will adapt to this,” ...“It’s an engineering problem, and it has engineering solutions.”

Rex Tillerson says we'll adapt. So get busy adapting, because this big oil company needs to keep making billions of dollars in profits every quarter. No matter what.

FUKUSHIMA STILL

By the way, the nuclear disaster at Fukushima continues to percolate along. Debris is hitting the West Coast of both the United States and Canada. Some of it will be radioactive. Canada has no plans and no budget to clean any of it up.

Meanwhile the nuclear operator Tepco finally sent some workers into the super-dangerous Reactor Number One. It's been too radioactive to approach, but they got a sensor down below the former reactor container. What did they find? The highest levels of radioactivity yet. It's over 10,300 millisievert an hour. That's enough to quickly kill humans, making them sick within minutes.

Agence France Press laconically reports "Demolition of the three reactors, as well as the plant's No. 4 unit, is expected to take 40 years and will need the use of new technologies."

That is, new technologies that don't exist yet. The Japanese explain the sky-high readings are due to problems with the nuclear fuel. Problems? Everybody knows the reactor melted down, and then melted through its containment. Nobody knows for sure where the lava-like nuclear material is right now. Is it percolating on the concrete floor? Will it go through to hit the water table? Or just out into the Pacific Ocean?

Stay tuned for the Fukushima cliff-hanger. There are two more reactors just like that. Under extreme international pressure, the Japanese have announced they will speed up efforts to remove nuclear fuel rods from the semi-demolish fuel pool in Reactor Number Four. Radio Ecoshock was one of those voices, with nuclear expert Arnie Gunderson warning a collapse of the Reactor Four fuel pool could be a world-poisoning event, and near final for large parts of Japan, including Tokyo.

Several listeners made that Gunderson Ecoshock interview into You tube videos, like this one, which have many thousands of views. When it really matters, the word gets around.

WARMING THE GEOLOGY OF FUKUSHIMA

This week, thanks to a listener tip, I heard a podcast from The Guardian newspaper in the UK. In it, Dr. Bill McGuire, a volcanologist and specialist in quakes and volcanoes, explains how global warming will destabilize the Earth's crust due to three factors:

One: in some places, as under the remaining glaciers of Iceland, there exist volcanoes which have been more or less "corked" by the mass of ice over it. When that ice cover melts, they blow. That isn't the case near Fukushima Japan.

Two: as ice over a mile thick melts in places like Siberia or Greenland, the pushed-down land rises, causing quakes, and underwater landslides that lead to tsunamis. We can't rule this out as a factor at Fukushima.

Three: the melted water goes elsewhere in the world, distorting our orbit slightly, but also causing different pressures, especially in places under the ocean where the crust is thin, or already in transition (being "subducted").

Again, I wonder... I have read elsewhere that the sea is not level. More water is drawn to areas with heavy layers of ocean crust, especially to certain types of rocks. Simple calculations of mass draw more water to such places. The sea is more than two dozen feet lower in a place in the Indian Ocean, where the underlying crust has less mass. It is a couple of feet higher around the island of Japan, where very dense rock under the sea has lots of mass. So Japan attracts more of the glacier melt water, as sea levels rise.

Did the added mass of the melting Arctic glaciers help trigger the massive undersea earthquake and resulting tsunami that wiped out the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear reactors?

Here is a link to an article about it.

Find the audio here.

I'd heard about this human-induced change to geology. But until I listened to the podcast, I didn't really GET it.

McGuire says the rapid temperature rise in the Arctic will lead to a period of geological destabilization, featuring volcanoes, quakes, and tsunamis much more than we have experienced. He cautions these will not happen in places where the pre-existing stress point, loose underwater slopes, or volcanoes do not already exist. The global melting just exacerbates that situation, and causes them to bunch up into a much shorter period of time. We'll see more surprising and destabilizing events.

Geologists and paleoclimatologists have already found several periods of melt-caused instability going back millions of years. We had one period like it between 10 and 20 thousand years ago, when the big North American and Eurasian glaciers melted back, over a thousand years or so.

None of this is good for the nuclear industry, with so many plants built in quake prone zones, or right near the ocean where a combination of rising seas, more violent storms, and increased tsunamis will surely cause more Fukushimas.

I could spend the next hour just reporting the warning signs of extreme ecological collapse, leading with the demise of the climate as we know it. Should we just give up? Is there a way out?

DANIEL RIRDAN: “THE BLUEPRINT – AVERTING GLOBAL COLLAPSE”

We go to an interview with Daniel Rirdan. He’s one smart cookie. Daniel tells us he was planning on writing a book about humanity on trial. As he worked on our Defense, Daniel realized there just may be some ways out of a global ecological and social collapse.

Rirdan did tons of research (he’s an interactive map guru). Can solar energy really power the world? Is there a technology to take out billions of tons of carbon dioxide from the air, to save the last of the polar ice? Apparently all that is possible.

I know there will be complaints about this interview from people who are fundamentally opposed to a “technical fix”. But Rirdan isn’t advocating dangerous nuclear power, or spraying sulfur in the clouds. His tech solutions really are the kind we’d like to see. He’s done the number crunching, and really extended existing green tech to find a way.

Daniel has a series of half a dozen videos on his web site. If you like your info that way, go through it, see what you think. The book contains all the details, charts and connections to back up the videos. Start with this trailer.

Given the mess we are in, along with Dr. David Suzuki who recommends this book, I think we have to listen closely to ways to save ourselves, and the natural world, from a giant change in both climate and the species (i.e. mass extinction). This is no time to close off our ears, I say.

OCEAN ACIDIFICATION: THE ORPHAN PROBLEM – HOW WE KEEP DUMPING CARBON INTO THE SEA

Earlier in this program, I lamented the shallow coverage of forest fires in the Western United States, and extreme rainfall events all over the world. It's as if scientists didn't write papers warning this would happen as the atmosphere is polluted with carbon dioxide. They did warn us. And most of the public still don't connect the dots, thanks to a criminal collusion between news and weather reporters, and their corporate advertisers and owners.

Take this case, raised by Joe Romm over at Think Progress.org. The headline is: "Kardashians Get 40 Times More News Coverage than Ocean Acidification". The folks at Media Matters counted up the stories. It's a solid wall of reporting about these no-talent gossip babes, and a tiny sliver on page 92 telling the good folks at home one minor detail: our carbon pollution has changed the chemistry of the vast ocean.

Oh yeah, and by the way, in teeny tiny print, we'll lose the coral reefs, a bunch of sea food you love, and plankton at the base of the whole world food web. Did ya hear about what Kim said after her latest divorce? What was the size of the settlement, and who is sleeping with her ex?

Trying to save the reputation of at least one little pocket of the media, E Magazine did a cover story on ocean acidification in June 2012. We're going to talk to the author and editor of that green journal.

I interview Brita Belli, the Editor of E Magazine, one of the few green journals to survive the advent of the Net. Brita wrote an excellent cover article about ocean acidification, and we talk about the three main reasons why we have to care really quickly.

A REPORT ON RADIO ECOSHOCK

We are wrapping up this season of Radio Ecoshock with this program. During the summer, I've picked out the most downloaded programs from the past year, the ones that broke through and still stand tall, for our summer broadcasts.

As I look back over the past year, there have been a lot of good things happening for Radio Ecoshock. We added over twenty stations, including the prestigious WPFW in Washington D.C., and Resonance FM in London. More and more Net stations are picking up Radio Ecoshock. We have two based in New York alone, including the rapidly growing Progressive Radio Network.

I've found other stations are picking up occasional shows, or just some feature interviews. Thanks to KBOO in Portland for running a show recently. C'mon Oregon listeners, write KBOO and get Radio Ecoshock on the air every week!

Ditto to my Australian listeners. Would you write 4ZZZ in Brisbane? They are on the edge of becoming our first station in Australia. Give them a push.

Every station matters to me. You matter to me. That's why I do the show.

Just this month we launched the new Radio Ecoshock web site. It's still in its infancy, but Carl has given me some really powerful tools to develop the site next fall. We still have gazillions of programs and other green audio for you to download as free mp3s. Load up your computer, IPOD or mp3 player for the summer at ecoshock.org. And we finally have a search engine for the site.

Thanks to another volunteer, we have a better blog at ecoshock.info. It's easier to read, and I can include photos of my guests.

Our podcast list grew by a third this year. That's a solid base of listeners and communicators who tend to pass on the program to others. We are slowly developing our Facebook community, and this year Radio Ecoshock began tweeting out every new show. It's a start.

We added about a dozen videos to You tube this year, with the help of fans. I'd love to see every show up there, but I just can't do it all. My first love is making a great radio show for you. That is what I pour my life into. The rest comes as it can.

All in all, Radio Ecoshock has grown in a bunch of different media this year, partly because the fringe issues I started covering back in 2006 are now flying in everybody's face. It's too big to deny. The question starting next September is: what are we gonna do about it?

Stay tuned for the best of Radio Ecoshock this summer, some shows you missed, some scientists and activists that need to be heard again. I'm Alex Smith. Thank you so much for listening.

Planet Shift - No Return

Twenty one scientists say Earth approaches a "state shift". The ecosphere may change rapidly, never to return. Interview with Dr. Arne Mooers. Planetary boundary talks at Rio+20 w. Oxfam's Kate Raworth, & Johan Rockstrom of Stockholm Resilience Institute. Interview w. Australian green home builder John Morgan. Radio Ecoshock 120627 1 hour. Listen to/download this 1 hour program in CD quality (56 MB) or Lo-Fi (14 MB)

Welcome, welcome to a full helping of warnings, despair, good humor, and one man's example to the world.

I'm Alex Smith, with so much audio we must orient and load up quickly. Direct from the alternative presentations at the Rio Plus 20 conference, you will hear two short hot speeches on the economy that's never counted, and the assault on a new science of planetary boundaries. Independent environmental journalist Stephen Leahy sent us the exclusive audio of Kate Raworth and Johan Rockstrom in Rio.

Then we'll journey to Australia. The self-sufficient John Morgan tells us about his 9 star home that needs no furnace or air-conditioner. Plus a look at Australia's new carbon tax, coming into effect July 1st.

But first, a group of 21 scientists, from very different fields of study, produced a special briefing for the Journal Nature, ahead of the meeting of world leaders in Rio de Janeiro for the second Earth Summit. They concluded Earth, our planet home, could be heading for a massive shift, a new state not seen for millions of years. It's spine-chilling, so I'll need to call on my radio side-kick for this program, none other than Charles Prince of Wales.

[Charles quote one] That is from Prince Charles, as he addressed the Rio leaders by video link, on June 19th, 2012. Watch it on You tube.

Charles demanded scientists and other experts come out of their silos to assess what is really happening in the world. That is exactly what happened when a group of scientists were organized by the Berkeley campus of the University of California. We go now to one of the participants, Arne Mooers of Simon Fraser University.

STUDY PREDICTS IMMINENT IRREVERSIBLE PLANETARY COLLAPSE - ARNE MOOERS INTERVIEW

Listen to/Download the Arne Mooers interview (18 min) here in CD quality or Lo-Fi.

The technical review of the paper published in Nature is here.

Here is a quick summary about this paper, from the Simon Fraser University Press release:

"Study predicts imminent irreversible planetary collapse

June 06, 2012

Using scientific theories, toy ecosystem modeling and paleontological evidence as a crystal ball, 21 scientists, including one from Simon Fraser University, predict we’re on a much worse collision course with Mother Nature than currently thought.

In approaching a state-shift in Earth’s biosphere, a paper just published in Nature, the authors, whose expertise spans a multitude of disciplines, suggest our planet’s ecosystems are careering towards an imminent, irreversible collapse.

Earth’s accelerating loss of biodiversity, its climate's increasingly extreme fluctuations, its ecosystems’ growing connectedness and its radically changing total energy budget are precursors to reaching a planetary state threshold or tipping point.

Once that happens, which the authors predict could be reached this century, the planet’s ecosystems, as we know them, could irreversibly collapse in the proverbial blink of an eye.

'The last tipping point in Earth’s history occurred about 12,000 years ago when the planet went from being in the age of glaciers, which previously lasted 100,000 years, to being in its current interglacial state. Once that tipping point was reached, the most extreme biological changes leading to our current state occurred within only 1,000 years. That’s like going from a baby to an adult state in less than a year,' explains Arne Mooers. 'Importantly, the planet is changing even faster now.'

The SFU professor of biodiversity is one of this paper’s authors. He stresses, 'The odds are very high that the next global state change will be extremely disruptive to our civilizations. Remember, we went from being hunter-gatherers to being moon-walkers during one of the most stable and benign periods in all of Earth’s history.'"

One of the take homes from this key interview is this: many of us (including myself at times) believe we can stop polluting and things will go back to "normal". The 350.org campaign seems to imply this as well: if we remove CO2, we can go back to Nature as it was.

This new study by the 21 scientists points out a grave risk: in fact Nature makes sudden shifts for which there is no return.

Arne Mooers gives the simple example of the cod fishery off Canada's East Coast. Everyone presumed if we stopped over fishing the cod, they would return. It didn't happen. Why? Once this upper predator fish was removed, a completely different ecological system moved in, with different species. Things don't go back to where they were.

It's a sobering thought. Mooers says their work cannot absolutely predict a planet-wide ecological shift will happen, or when. It has happened rapidly in the past. We may be seeing some signs, but scientists are not even sure there are a series of warning signs. We may not be able to predict it.

The main idea is a big game changer. Previously, even in reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) climate models assumed incremental change. For example, if you know sea levels are rising 3 centimeters a year, you can say what the sea level will be in the year 2100.

This paper suggests natural systems don't work along nice predictable curves like that. Things go along in one way, as they have more or less for the last 10,000 years - but then the climate can experience a big shift, along with the whole ecosphere. Some species disappear, as they are now. Others replace them. Nothing returns the same.

KATE RAWORTH

In the campaign to stop or at least limit climate change, what about the economy? Why is Europe skirting collapse? Why are billions of people starving while the rich dine sumptuously on the consumer buffet?

Here is 8 minutes with Kate Raworth of Oxfam, explaining her growing "doughnut" campaign at the Rio +20 side conference. She was recorded live by independent journalist Stephen Leahy, who sent the audio directly to Radio Ecoshock. Thank you Stephen.

Kate explains three giant loop-holes in the way economics is taught in schools. For example caring for families has no economic value (they say). The environment is not factored in. Listen to her short speech - it got enthusiastic applause from the inspired crowd.

Listen to/download these two Rio +20 speeches (17 minutes total) in CD quality here or Lo-Fi here.

Find Kate Raworth's blog on "Doughnut Economics" here.

THE ATTACK ON PLANETARY BOUNDARIES SCIENCE

But wait. There's more. No doubt you've heard scientists led by the Stockholm Resilience Institute have compiled a chart of 9 planetary boundaries we must not cross, if our civilization is to survive. The citation for the original article published in Nature in 2009 is here.

Get the real goodies direct from the Stockholm Resilience Institute here.

That includes an embedded video of Johan Rockstrom explaining the concepts in a TED presentation. It's all just common sense, backed up by the work of thousands of scientists. Yes, there are limits to what we can do to Nature and still survive as a civilization. Is anybody surprised by that?

Apparently "yes". The science of planetary boundaries is now under attack by pollster Ted Nordhaus and the hostile mis-named "Breakthrough Institute."

Here is the Breakthrough Institute attack.

Be sure and read the comments below, which trash this release.

We uncovered Ted and former green cross-over Michael Shellenberger in two Radio Ecoshock specials back in 2007, as this duo proclaimed "environmentalism is dead". Here are the links to programs exposing these two, their alleged "institute", and their funding.

Plotting the Green Death 1

Plotting the Green Death 2

Keep in mind that Ted Nordhaus is not a scientist. He is a pollster. But hey, that's good enough to unseat years of scientific work by some of our best! Just sow a little doubt, delay some more, and keep those corporate mega-profits rolling in.

As Stephen was recording Johan Rockstrom of the Stockholm Resiliency Institute, backroom dealers were stripping out any reference to "planetary boundaries". Lazy leaders were quick to jump on the anti-science being pedaled by the Breakthrough Boys. Anything to keep the killer society going. Listen in, as Johan Rockstrom speaks in Rio.

SELF-SUFFICIENT LIVING IN AUSTRALIA

Now, off to Australia!

I really like this interview with John Morgan. In a rural area outside Victoria, in South Eastern Australia, John built a comfortable and affordable home that requires no furnace, no air-conditioning, and no power lines.

Listen to/Download the John Morgan interview in CD Quality or Lo-Fi

In a recent Radio Ecoshock interview with Dr. Guy McPherson, we learned maintaining a comfortable shelter for human bodies is a principal driver for the continuing use of fossil fuels. We create a lot of climate damage just to keep our homes cool in the heat, and warm in winter.

Despite a reputation as a coal exporting country, Australia is stimulating better housing as a way to cut greenhouse gas emissions. With the farming industry and the fabulous barrier reef threatened, Australia has developed a Nationwide House Energy Rating Scheme.

Our next guest is going to explain it, and how he gained 9 out of ten stars in his owner-built home.

John Morgan's eco-house is found in a rural area near Victoria, in South Eastern Australia. As we spoke at the end of June, John is dealing with the cold of the Australian winter.

Morgan house in Australia

This is Morgan's next generation experimental home. He's been working away at this since the late 1960's, and people are still talking about his previous homes, like his self-sufficient house located at Musk near Daylesford in Central Victoria.

As he explains in our interviews, John doesn't want to be dependent on the grid for electricity or water. He says things like:

"My electricity falls down on me from the sky, so I store it in batteries".

"My fresh water falls down on me from the sky, so I store it in tanks".

"I live with high levels of comfort and low levels of cost".

"I generate zero carbon emissions - so why doesn't everyone do this?"

"It is not rocket science".

John is a physicist, and has taught electronics and technical trades, so he does have expertise, even though he is not a rocket scientist.

A whole host of consideration goes into building this latest home. For one thing, John reverses the Australian trend of putting brick or stone on the outside of a house, and then timber framing inside. His wood and lots of insulation are on the outside. The inside walls have lots of masonry, to build up thermal mass to store the heat or cold.

There is a greenhouse tucked on one corner of the place. When needed, he can funnel heat generated there, even on a sunny winter day, into the main house. John is also growing seedlings to reforest part of his 20 acres (formerly a sheep paddock) - plus some of his own food.

John has over 3,000 Watts of solar power on the place, and enough battery power to keep him going for several cloudy days.

The bonus of this place: it isn't all the expensive. I ask John if we need to be millionaires to be self-sufficient. Not at all. Morgan estimates his place cost about $165,000 Australian dollars in 2008 - about the same now in American dollars. That would be considered low cost for a new home anywhere, and it includes his solar power kit and giant water storage tanks (fed by roof collectors).

To meet that price, which he hoped would encourage others, John did away with anything fancy in the way of architecture. His home isn't meant to look impressive. It just leaves him comfortable, with no bills to pay - not bad in these deteriorating economic times, with ever-rising energy prices.

You can find out more about John from his contributions to this blog from the rural Australian town of Ballarat.

Here are some more super-efficient Australian home projects to check out.

Building Our 9 star home (blog) in Preston, Melbourne Australia

See also the Permablitz, a permaculture blitz "Eating the suburbs - One backyard at a time" in Melbourne

Here is another one, built in Vale, Perth

Another one in Perth

Here is a quote to explain the Australian rating program:

"What is a 9-star energy rated house? According to the NatHERS scale – the federal government-administrated Nationwide House Energy Rating Scheme that was introduced to assess the potential thermal comfort of Australian homes on a scale of zero to 10 stars – occupants of houses rated at or around the 10-star mark are unlikely to need much, if any artificial cooling or heating. At the other end of the scale, a zero-rated house means the building shell does practically nothing to reduce the discomfort of hot or cold weather.

As the NatHERS website points out, houses built in 1990 averaged about 1 star on the scale. And before the introduction of national energy efficiency regulations for houses in 2003, less than 1 per cent of Australian houses achieved 5 stars. These days, however, the average “well-designed home” is now being built at around 6 stars."

We are out of time. I'm Alex, saying thank you for accompanying me on this hard journey. May we meet in a better world.

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