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SUMMARY: Welcome to a power-packed Radio Ecoshock Show. I'm Alex Smith. My guests are George Kourounis, host of
the TV show "Angry Planet", and the solar-powered international musician known as Turtuga Blanku. But first, we'll talk with a
high-powered international lawyer who switched from taking multinational companies into China, to creating new alternatives for
local economies.
Download or listen to this Radio Ecoshock show in CD Quality (56 MB) or Lo-Fi (14 MB)
Or listen on Soundcloud right now!
LAURENCE BRAHM - TOWARD A NEW ECONOMY FOR A DAMAGED WORLD
Radio Ecoshock has remarkable guests. Our next is no exception. He was a lawyer advising China, to bring big name multinational companies into that Asian economy. Now he's writing about anti-globalization, localizing economies, and the coming eclipse of the Western banking model. His latest book is "Fusion Economics - How Pragmatism Is Changing the World".
In the 1990's, as an international trade lawyer, Laurence Brahm was instrumental in bringing big-name multinational into China. In 1996, he wrote a book called "China's Number One" predicting China would become the world's largest economy. That drew heat and criticism, but now, according to the World Bank, China is the world's largest economy.
More and more, Brahm turned to advising the government of China, which he still does. He wrote a biography of Zhu Rongji, the former Premier of China, and often seen as an architect of the modern Chinese economy.
Laurence Brahm
In 2002 Laurence retired from his practice as an investment lawyer, to seek "Shangri-La". In 2005, he moved to Tibet, and started a business restoring buildings. He helped found the Himalayan Consensus (more about that in the interview). One of his role models is the Bengladeshi Muhammed Yunis, founder of micro-credit banking.
Also in 2011, he helped form the African Consensus. One innovations of this Consensus was to say the true cause of violence and terrorism is economic poverty and identity stripping.
In 2011 Laurence attended the Climate Conference in Durban South Africa. He found it useless, and joined the protesters outside. He says China is more aware of the dangers of climate change, especially since the disappearing Himalayan Glaciers will dry out the Yellow River. Brahm is quite aware of the challenges climate change is posing for many countries and peoples.
In 2014 he attended the Nepal Economic Forum (see You tube presentations here), and in 2013 the G20 Counter Summit in St. Petersburg (You tube here).
On the economy, Laurence sees the end of world domination by the Bretton Woods World Bank IMF model. In the near-term he sees two parallel universes: the Western reserve currency system, and the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) system, based mainly on the Chinese currency Yuan (pronounced Yen) and in Beijing.
He sees the latest sanctions on Russia driving that country closer to China. The two can be natural trading partners, because China needs to import clean food (much of China is not able to produce food, and Chinese food may be contaminated); and water (Beijing itself is facing desertification, China needs a lot of water). To make this trade happen, there needs to be more infrastructure, such as pipelines and roads, connecting the two countries.
His latest book is "Fusion Economics - How Pragmatism Is Changing the World". Brahm is a curious mix of a lawyer at home with CEO's and bankers, who also protests as an activist.
Laurence has his own You tube channel.
He talks about "compassionate capital" and "conscientious consumption". Brahm recommends we set up our own alternative financial systems (like local currencies, or bitcoin).
On BBC in December, Brahm said 80% of the wealth of America comes from betting on stocks, currencies and other financial games, and not from producing goods and services. That is not sustainable.
China's super growth came at tremendous cost. Brahm told the BBC that, "about 70% of the underground water in China is undrinkable" (BBC interview 8:49) and "about 60% of all surface water is too toxic for human contact".
Brahm is not a total advocate for all things Chinese. He is critical of their use of fossil fuels, the pollution in major cities, and doesn't think top-down government is good for other countries. He says the emphasis on growth in China was a machine for
burning fossil fuels, which has ruined the environment. We can learn from China, but should not try to emulate them.
He says the oil-fossil fuel sector forms an oligarchy that currently runs America. That is why there is no Amercian leadership on
climate change. Oil-fossil fuels run in a partnership with the Financial Sector, labelled "Wall Street". Quantitative easing, and over a trillion of tax payer money, went to reboot that financial sector, not to the people. He advises the Chinese that government funding should go to a new green economy, instead of the banks.
Laurence is listed as "Chief Economist" for the New Earth Nation (with Sasha Stone).
Download or listen to this Radio Ecoshock interview with Laurence Brahm in CD Quality or Lo-Fi
GEORGE KOUROUNIS - HOST OF ANGRY PLANET TV
There's so much interest in extreme weather. Almost every news cast features a storm. And with climate disruption, there will be plenty more to see.
That's good news for our next guest, George Kourounis. He travels the world looking for adventure and downright dangerous weather, for his television series "Angry Planet". There's a new batch of shows running right now, so it's a pleasure to welcome George to Radio Ecoshock.
There have been 4 Angry Planet series, running on everything from the Weather Network, the Outdoor Life Netowork in Canada to cable TV channels all over the world (including Finland MTV3, TV8 Sweden, and TVB Hong Kong).
This new season 4 has a special emphasis on stories about the impact of global warming, all over the world, but with a focus on the South Pacific. Some countries there are already flooding regularly, and some will disappear as nations during this century, due to rising seas.
You can watch the free Episode One on the Pivot TV web site here.
George got the storm-chasing bug in the 1990's. He's flow into the heart of hurricanes, and run down the back roads in Oklahoma and the Mid-West looking for the big one. He's also a fan of volcanoes. In fact, he and his wife Michelle hiked into a volcano in their wedding clothes to tie the knot in 2006. It's wasn't a dead mountain either. That one has erupted every 5 minutes for the past 800 years, he tells us.
George has been in Amazon forest fires. One time he landed in the South Pacific island of Tuvalu just as they had 354 mm of rain (13.9 inches, over a foot!) in 24 hours. That's an extreme precipitation event for sure.
It's great that Kourounis is so aware of climate change. He worries we are going to leave a legacy to coming generations they may not be able to deal with. He's getting the word out through this new Angry Planet series: the relationship between extreme weather events and climate change. It's refreshing to find an adventure TV host this climate aware. Catch his new Angry Planet series on Pivot TV if you can.
Download or listen to this Radio Ecoshock interview with Geourge Kourounis in CD Quality of Lo-Fi
TURTUGA BLANKU AND HIS SOLAR STUDIO
Regular listeners know one of my hobbies is writing music using computer synthesizers. Martin, who is known at Turtuga Blanku, got in touch, to tell me about his solar studio in the Caribbean. You can visit the studio in this You tube video.
Why the name Turtuga Blanku? It literally means "white turtle" but is also a name given in the Caribbean to the green turtle. You see, Martin is also a diver and ocean lover. He was in the Caribbean at one of the finest dive locations in the world. That's where he got his knick-name.
During the interview, I learned something new (as I often do from guests). Martin tells us that solar panels are less efficient in high heat. While he got lots of power from his panels in the Caribbean (enough to run his house and studio) - he's get as much or more from the same panels in France. The sub-tropics are good for solar.
Martin has just moved back to "the middle of France". He'll set up a solar studio again. Plenty of his neighbors have solar installations, some large ones, thanks to the French policy of guaranteeing a good rate for renewable power, and in some cases, helping finance the original purchase.
We talk a bit about music. Martin has more talents than I - he can play a range of instruments, which he records and then tweaks on a studio computer. It's good stuff - hard to describe - you just have to click around to find the songs you like best. I enjoyed his music, and his conversation.
Find all of Martin's songs, or at least a lot of them, on You tube here.
Then head over and buy your favorite tunes (quite inexpensive) at his Bandcamp page here.
Martin has also done some podcast interviews, including with Alan Weisman, the author of the World Without Us, who also spoke on Radio Ecoshock. Find Martin's interview with Alan here.
In this program I play a clip from a Turtuga Blanku tune called "No More" from his album Golden Bubble.
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My special thanks to those who sent donations this week, and particularly the person who arranged a $10 a month contribution. All that helps me get through the summer, when donations crash. In a way, it's almost unfair that blog readers, and podcast subscribers pay the whole cost of Radio Ecoshock. The non-profit stations prohibit anyone asking for money, other than themselves. So a few people are really paying to get Radio Ecoshock to all those radio listeners on 87 non-profit stations! You are doing a good thing.
SUMMARY: A journey to the "Ecoreality" post-peak-oil community, with UBC Campus Radio. Plus rap star Baba Brinkman's new album "The Rap Guide to Wilderness".
We begin with a slice from the new album "The Rap Guide to Wilderness." It's called "Tranquility Bank" with guest artist Aaron Nazrul. But the genius rapper behind the whole project is Baba Brinkman. I'll be talking with Baba from New York, a little later in the show.
Baba suggests we can't all head to the wilderness, without killing what's left. Along those lines, I'm going to play you a radio documentary which takes up where the film "Escape from Suburbia" left off.
Download or listen to this Radio Ecoshock show in CD Quality (56 MB) or Lo-Fi (14 MB)
Or listen on Soundcloud right now!
A JOURNEY AWAY FROM CIVILIZATION...
In this radio documentary by Gordon Katic, we find Jan Steinman. If the film, Jan and his wife sold their suburban home in Portland, Oregon, and travelled to British Columbia. They were seeking a safe haven to prepare their lives to live without oil, after peak oil threatened a decent from civilization. How did that work out?
We find out, in this program called "The Terry Project", which broadcasts on radio station CiTR on the campus of the University of British Columbia, in Vancouver Canada.
Our host at the station is co-producer Sam Fenn. Our tour guide is journalism student Gordon Katic, a dedicated environmentalist who seldom leaves the big city.
In this interview we hear the song "The Mary Ellen Carter" by Stan Rogers, 1979. It's classic. Watch it on You tube here.
That's real radio. The producers were Sam Fenn and Gordon Katic. As you heard, you can get more of this program, "The Terry Project" at www.terry.ubc.ca.
Find more photos of the EcoReality intentional community here.
THE RAP GUIDE TO WILDERNESS
A listener sent me a link to something called the "Rap Guide to Wilderness". I was dubious, but I listened, and I was astonished. Where did such high quality lyrics - and music - come from?
The artist and possible founder of a whole new branch of green rap is a Canadian, Baba Brinkman. While planting over a million trees in British Columbia, he got a Masters of Arts Degree. That was partly by writing a rap version of "The Canterbury Tales" by the medieval author Chaucer. He's performed at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, on "The Rachel Maddow Show" and at the Sydney Opera House.
The conservation group "The WILD Foundation" asked Baba to create an album, and it's here.
I reached Baba in New York, where he is touring with his off-Broadway show, a complete one-man show, called "The Rap Guide to Evolution".
Frankly, after listening to so much bad rap from somebody's You tube, I was stunned at the quality of Baba's work. Check it out!
For me one of the biggest stories in the world continues to be the way humans are creating a more sterile world. There are only 5 Northern White Rhinos left on the Planet, after a 44 year-old creature died in a zoo this December. Where is "the WILD Foundation" on the need for nature to survive?
The Wild Foundation is advocating the "half for nature" concept promoted by the famous biologist E.O.Wilson. OK, we are going to take up vast amounts of the planet for our cities and our agriculture, but to protect ourselves and biodivesity we need to plan to leave half for nature. Imagine if a developer proposes to pave over 300 acres for a new suburb. The law should require 150 acres to be left in its natural state. Who wouldn't want to live there?
Baba Brinkman isn't just a rah-rah green cheerleader. His lyrics take us deeper into the problems environmentalists must wrestle with. In just one example, Baba finds we shouldn't try to promote a big back-to-the-land movement. Dense cities actually allow more room for nature. There's several controversial issues in his rap music - including the idea that science should use DNA tech to revive some extinct species, like the carrier pidgeon and more. Not everyone will agree that humans should tinker with species creation, or recreation (especially since the original biosphere conditions supporting those creatures may be gone now...)
In our interview, I also asked Baba why he didn't do more on climate change. I know you are tired of hearing my complaint there isn't enough good climate change music. In this case, Baba takes climate change seriously, and hopes to find a sponsor or venue to help him present a whole new rap album and show just on climate change. I'm thinking the Paris climate negotiations in 2015 would be perfect. Now we just need to find a big green group to help fund the development and staging of a new "climate rap" show!
My holiday thanks to a ton of people who send in news links, tweet about Radio Ecoshock, write in with guests and generally keep this program going. N. in Boston, I got your letter and your ideas.
Hello to my listeners in Zurich and Sweden.
To my Australian correspondents, keep it coming. I love the feed-back from the UK.
I appreciate all my online friends in California, Arizona and New England. Carl, you saved the Ecoshock web site.
Hello to my informers in Colorado, and my friends in India and Pakistan. And of course, all the Canadians who gave birth to the show, and Kelly who keeps it on the air in Vancouver. My gratitude and best wishes to all.
SUMMARY: From The Farm in Tennessee, alternative guru Albert Bates rates responses to predictions of doom. Film-maker Anne Macksoud on new movie "The Wisdom to Survive" Plus musical activist Rachelle Van Zanten.
List your alternative speakers and writers - Albert Bates probably knows them all. As a travelling speaker and permaculture teacher at The Farm in Tennessee, Bates brought out a new chart showing responses from "we will find a way with local community" to "why prolong the agony, we are all doomed". We talk about the players in the end game.
Anne Macksoud and film-maker partner John Ankele interviewed many of the same people - plus a lot of young women activists, aboriginal and third world people about the developing climate crisis.
The result is their new film "The Wisdom to Survive, Climate Change, Capitalism & Community". We talk through our
options.
From Canada's West Coast, Rachelle Van Zanten went from a world tour (with "Painted Daisies") to her 400 square foot
off-grid cabin. Her songs have become anthems for those opposing pipelines, tankers, fracking, and tar sands. It's also damn fine music. We chat, and then spin two tunes.
Listen to/Download this Radio Ecoshock Show in CD Quality (56 MB) or Lo-Fi (14 MB) (CD Quality recommended for the music!)
ALBERT BATES
The economy seems to teeter on the edge of break-down, week to week. Fukushima rolls on. Climate scientists are pretty sure we're on our way to catastrophe. That, and a whole lot more, is always lurking in the back our our minds. So...in the great scheme of things, what kind of doomer are you?
Albert Bates has a chart to sort out some of the leading alternative thinkers. Albert is the former lawyer, long-time resident of The Farm in Tennessee, and a well-known speaker and writer about everything from alternative energy to permaculture.
We begin with a ground-breaking article by Permaculture founder David Holmgren in Australia. It's called "Crash on
Demand". (I'll be talking with David next week). Homlgren describes four possible futures, or perhaps responses to the future. One is "Brown Tech" - the path we are on now, substituting high energy sources like Tar Sands and fracking to keep our growth-oriented economy going.
If the Brown Tech succeeds in supplanting the another possibility, namely "'Green Tech" - then our world is doomed to
climate disaster. We can't let that happen says Holmgren. Perhaps if enough people withdraw from the system, taking out their money and their efforts, we could stimulate an economic crash that was bound to happen. The only example we have of any society drastically cutting greenhouse gas emissions was the Soviet Union in the 1990's. Their crash of industry reduced their emissions greatly. That's the kind of cut we need to survive, Holmgren reasons.
If none of that works, then we have the "Lifeboat" society, where each of us tries to survive even in an unstable system, perhaps with permaculture, localized food and local currencies. Or in a worst case, the survivor-prepper idea of isolated fortresses ("beans and bullets").
Albert doesn't claim he is photographing reality. It's a map pointing to something happening in our culture, with some of our spokespeople.
Dmitri Orlov tried to calculate how many people like him, bloggers with hi influence, would it take to bring about the required change to crash the system. He found it would be about 100,000 activists with the same reach, even if a sky-high figure of half his readers actually took action.
Rob Hopkins doesn't want the Crash on Demand. he wants to work with existing structures, including local governments.
In Albert's blog, at peaksurfer.blogspot.ca, he reproduces a super chart by David Pollard. I love some of the slogans that typify each position. We have everything from "preparation in community might save us" to "smash or undermine civilization now to diminish it's damage". Pollard divides his groups into "Collapseniks" and "Salvationists". Find that chart in David Pollard's blog "howtosavetheworld.ca"
I have the feeling "Collapsniks" get the most hits on the Internet, but the idea of saving ourselves is more popular in the hearts of most people.
Listen to/download this interview with Albert Bates in CD Quality or Lo-Fi
Here are more links from this interview with Albert Bates:
And finally, Albert Bates is off to teach a permaculture course in Belize, along with Nicole Foss, Marisha Auerbach, and Christopher Nesbitt. It's at the Maya Mountain Research Farm from February 10th to 22nd, 2014. For Details, or to
register, please see this site, or contact Christopher at info@mmrfbz.org.
The blub for this permaculture course in Belize says:
"Travel far south; to the back of beyond; to a remote valley accessible only by dugout canoe. Study permaculture
surrounded by a lush, productive forest of edibles, medicinals and tropical hardwoods. Eat organic food, sleep in dorms powered by renewable energy, bathe in a sparkling pure river...."
Albert tells us he is changing things up this year, writing:
"This year I have decided to travel less and teach more at home. I suspect we all feel that collapse has been picking up speed, although it comes in fits and spurts, as John Michael Greer points out, not smooth Hubbert curves, and as Richard Heinberg says, it is not evenly distributed. So, since the future in any event is local, I am focusing more on that this year and staying home. From April through October I am offering immersion apprenticeships in ecovillage living and transition towns here in Tennessee, with personal mentorship by me. For those staying a minimum of two months there will be a chance to earn a permaculture design certificate, and for those who may already have that we will be mentoring in diploma and degree tracks. The information on our apprentice program can be foundhere.
THE WISDOM TO SURVIVE - A NEW FILM BY ANNE MACKSOUD AND JOHN ANKELE
When everything is at stake, what is more valuable: answers or questions? We find both in a new film from two self-
proclaimed "old dogs" - New England film makers John Ankele and Anne Macksoud. Their new film is "The Wisdom to Survive, Climate Change, Capitalism & Community".
Anne joins us on Radio Ecoshock.
This movie starts with "us" - and tries to lead us outside, into the eyes of people in the developing world. I don't like that term "developing world" - maybe we should say the remnants of the real world.
The film has feature interviews with more than a dozen folks, including ones you know like Richard Heinbert, James Gustav Speth, Johanna Macy, and Bill McKibben. Just as moving are the interviews with those you don't know yet: the Navajo aboriginal views, and interviews with women struggling in the developing world.
There is a discussion guide that we made for the film which might possibly be of help to you. Here's the link.
Listen to/download this Radio Ecoshock interview with Anne Macksoud in CD Quality or Lo-Fi.
The web site for this film is here. And you'll find a Vimeo trailer for the movie on that page as well. Individuals can buy DVD copies of the film (great for your climate group, church group, or just watching at home) for $29.95. There is a separate link for institutions who want to buy for a public showing (via the distributor Bullfrog Films). The movie is 56 minutes long.
RACHEL VAN ZANTEN
Rachelle Van Zanten is an up and coming song-writer and performer from Canada's West Coast. A while back we played her anthem "My Country" (You tube video here) which talks down the office-bound folks far away that make terrible decisions about her land. She's fed up with people ramming through pipelines and tar sands into pristine First Nations country.
This week we play the entire song "I Fight for Life". It's another of the fine pieces adapted as anthems for people opposed to pipelines, mines, and tankers in Northern waters and aboriginal lands. The recording is super, done at Baker studios in Victoria B.C. Rachelle's latest album is "Oh Mother" released in May 2013.
We also squeeze in part of her newer piece, "Canoe Song".
This program is now in it's 7th year of broadcast. In the Spring of 2014 we have 76 syndicated stations playing the show weekly. Radio Ecoshock is entirely supported by it's listeners (get details here).
All incidental music in this program was written and produced by Alex Smith, including "What Kind of Doomer Are You?"
The web site is ecoshock.org - where you can download all our past programs as free .mp3 files.
I'm Alex Smith, and right now I'm grateful. Thanks to you, and your support for this program, I talk with scientists, authors, activists and artists around the world. It's the opportunity of a lifetime, while humanity and our kindred species face the greatest challenges imaginable. Please join me again on our journey next week.
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.
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.
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.
The biggest climate-driven extreme weather event since Katrina - Boulder's Carolyn Baker reports on fracking leaks, climate, economic hit. Plus Calif. songwriter Dan Imhoff on new album "Agraria".
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Make it rain for those in drought, but make it stop for those in floods, from Colorado to Taiwan and China. I'm Alex Smith.
We open with one of the big stories of 2013, the unbelievable tropical-style rains that flooded Boulder Colorado and points north. More than a foot of rain in 24 hours in some places, in an area that doesn't get that much in the average year.
The Boulder story has everything - climate change, the way higher energy costs to rebuild could break budgets, and lessons in how unprepared we all are. Could the triple punch of climate, economic woes and escalating energy be the pathway toward the collapse of industrial civilization? In just a moment we'll talk with Boulder resident, Carolyn Baker. She's a published expert on collapse and getting ready, inside and out.
Download/listen to this Radio Ecoshock show in CD Quality 56 MB or Lo-Fi 14 MB
No worries. The utility operator, TEPCO had it all under wraps. They tied down the octopus of make-do piping with ropes. Good, good. And they put some weights on the cranes, hoping they wouldn't topple into any of the blown-out reactor buildings, still carrying tons and tons of highly radioactive fuel bundles in their upper stories. That should do it.
It would all be funny if the Fukushima site wasn't so dangerous to the whole Northern Hemisphere. I doubt even their thousand bolt-together tanks holding highly radioactive water could have withstood the 230 kilometers-an-hour, almost 150 miles-per-hour, super winds of Typhoon Usagi that hit Asia later last week.
Both of these typhoons missed hitting the Fukushima plant directly. When will it happen? I think the make-shift badly engineered cover-over by TEPCO will be blown away. At the very least, we can expect one of the buildings to collapse into the already soaked sub-soil. Tons and tons of the most radioactive materials are bound to flow right into the Pacific Ocean, while more will blow over Japan, and possibly the West Coast of North America.
What is your government doing about this world-class disaster risk? Absolutely nothing. Say it again. Absolutely nothing.
Let's run away to beautiful Colorado, a great retreat zone, where mother nature is always kind.
CAROLYN BAKER REPORTING FROM BOULDER AND THE FLOOD ZONE
The recent flash floods around Boulder Colorado have been compared to a Hurricane Katrina moment for America. No matter where you live, this mega-event tells us so much about climate, energy, and preparedness - or lack of it. There's nobody better to cover all this than Boulder resident Carolyn Baker, author of "Navigating the Coming Chaos", and a new book coming out in November titled "Collapsing Consciously, Transformative Truths for Turbulent Times".
Listen to/download this 38 minute interview with Carolyn Baker in CD Quality or Lo-Fi
Regarding the impacts on our society and economy, I think Boulder will turn out to be more significant than just another disaster. I'm hearing comparisons to Katrina already. The Governor says "we will rebuild" as they always do. But like New Orleans, some things will not be, and cannot be "rebuilt". Like the treed stream banks, now turned into unstable, undercut sides. Like places that are obviously set to flood again.
Let's talk about the energy involved. all that infrastructure, including mundane buildings, roads and bridges, were built with oil that cost between $15 and $35 a barrel. Now oil is over $100 a barrel, meaning everything costs 3 to 6 times more, just for the energy. Ditto steel and other components. Events like this will eventually break many cities, states, and even countries.
Keeping with energy, the group East Boulder County United published photos of fracking tanks full of God-Knows-What sitting in flooded fields, tipped over, and even floating down swollen rivers. This fracking equipment was never designed for floods.
I've seen photos in Colorado of fracking towers right beside suburbs, school yards, and even kids playgrounds. We all know fracking operations vent tons of noxious gases. How is that possible?
The Colorado floods also showed the world the unpreparedness of the average citizen. I saw news footage of people desperately being air-lifted away from completely undamaged homes after just four days. It was early September in Colorado. They were in no danger of freezing to death. Didn't they have some food and water stored for emergencies?
Boulder is among the more advanced communities in Transition, or at least a progressive place. We talk about some of the positive things that are going on there.
For one thing, the main folks in the Transition Colorado movement decided their main emphasis had to be on developing local food production and consumption. So they began a new organization now found at localfoodshift.com.
This case of sudden floods in Colorado also reminds us there can be knock-on effects from climate-driven mega weather, a year or years later. In New Jersey, officials are now saying the huge fire that burned down the rebuilt boardwalk was likely caused by electrical systems damaged by Hurricane Sandy in 2012. You have a similar delayed impact in Colorado.
Carolyn explains how last year's giant fires in Colorado added to the flood damage this year. There was no vegetation to soak up the rains, or to hold on to the river banks. Parts of the landscape have been changed never to return.
The widespread damage, and the nearly impossible cost of rebuilding, also point us to a pathway of economic collapse. In this scenario, we just keep getting hit with climate-driven disasters, until we are far too broke and broken to rebuild. Roads don't get rebuilt, bridges stay out, some communities are abandoned.
Everybody should read Carolyn's article "All Dress Rehersals Are Over" published from Boulder on September 16th, 2013. It's powerful and inspired many of the things we talked about today.
Get Carolyn's newest stories and her news service at carolynbaker.net
Listen to/download this interview with Dan Imhoff, complete with song samples, in CD Quality or Lo-Fi (but CD quality is recommended, since you'll get the best sound for Dan's music.)
We interviewed Dan Imhoff about the book he edited on CAFO, the Tragedy of Industrial Animal Factories. Listen to/download that 2010 interview with Dan here. Sadly it's all still happening, and we talk about that again in this show.
But there is a whole other side and talent to Dan Imhoff. He's been a musician for years. Now Dan got together with a hugely talented crew all from Sonoma County California. It sounds so good there I want to move to Sonoma Country, the way Dan tells it.
The Agraria Facebook page is here. You can sample the tunes and buy them here.
Or try out this You tube video of Dan's modern re-write (complete with GMO's) of "Cluck Old Hen".
COMING UP ON RADIO ECOSHOCK!
We've got some great guests coming up, including Nicole Foss (a.k.a. "Stoneleigh"), Richard Heinberg, J.B. MacKinnon (co-author of the 100-Mile Diet). Plus some exciting interviews with young people just starting out on the road to battle climate change, and heading to the Powershift 2013 conference this October in Pittsburg.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Blah blah blah. All those words fill our brain, and miss our hearts.
That is where the musicians step in, to move us along. I'm Alex Smith. Welcome to our annual best of green music show. You'll hear the songs of activism, despair, and love of Mother Earth.
This year we've added three songs for broken economy. You'll hear two new songs for the Occupy Movement.
We kick off with "Change Change" by the Canadian group Thistle, starring Debra Lee Halinda.
Next up, some Frackin Good music from Australia, "My Water's On Fire Tonight" with David Holmes and Dean Bekker, from the album "Wholelottafracking Going On"
"My Water's On Fire Tonight" David Holmes & Dean Bekker 2:32
For those tired of the city, here is the Canadian hit group Mother Mother with "Dirty Town."
American singer-songwriter Neko Case is best known in the Canadian group "The New Pornographers" Here Neko solos with "Never Turn Your Back on Mother Earth"
"Never Turn Your Back On Mother Earth" Neko Case 2:10
Let's dive back down under. We'll start with Australia's Combat Wombat from a benefit album to stop the destructive Lake Cowal gold mine proposed by Barrick. This song is called
"Alternative Energy" Combat Wombat (from the album "Water More Precious Than Gold").
The album isn't online any longer, but you can hear more tracks from it in this April 27th 2006 "Podcasting Nimbin" show.
From New Zealand, with a Polynesia flavor, here is the group Te Vaka, with the song "Our Ocean" written for Greenpeace New Zealand.
Then: "Where We Going to Go" by Ellis Music Productions.
Watch it on You tube here. Written and sung by David Todds, who allows reproduction for non-profit use.
SONGS FOR A BROKEN ECONOMY
It's time to Occupy ourselves with the economic banking rip-off. In music of course, with Radio Ecoshock.
Whether you are talking consumer excess, the banking crash, or the fast-track to wrecking the environment, you can't beat this song:
"Run Away Train" by Texas singer/songwriter Eliza Gilkyson.
There are lots of You tube live versions of this song, but none beat the studio version in this program. Visit Eliza's web site for the latest.
"Runaway Train" Eliza Gilkyson 4:11
I was also struck by the Texas bravery of Gilkyson's 2008 song "Man of God" deep in George Bush country. (Not included in this show).
One of the suprise hits of the Occupy movement comes from Hawaii. Singer Makana was the official music for the APEC Summit leaders dinner. He sang "We Are the Many" - over and over for the surprised dignitaries of the 1 percent.
I first heard this David Rovics "Occupy Wall Street" song from an Iphone at the protests in New York City. David went into the studio, to make this one for the world.
"Occupy Wall Street (We're Going to Stay Right Here)" David Rovics 6:07
music clips from new anti-frackin album from Australia http://www.wholelottafrackingoingon.com
"Act Locally, Think Globally" by MC shea & the Awesomes
"My Water Is On Fire Tonight" by David Holmes & Dean Becker ==================
Welcome to another packed show from Radio Ecoshock.
This week we cover:
* behind-the-scenes panic over reports of methane blowing out of the sea-bed in the Eastern Arctic. This could dramatically increase global warming.
* activist resistance against a wave of gas frackin in Australia - with a new album of great songs
* a feature interview (you heard it here first) with Craig Rosebraugh on his new film about the oil giants: "Dirty Lying Bastards"
* second feature interview with Peter F. Sale. He's the coral expert (20% of coral dead in last two decades) who looks at the "Holocene Mass Extinction Event" (going on right now)
To start you off, here are some links for this program (with more in the articles below)
"Whole Lotta Frackin Going On" album. Some green music sucks. These songs shine. Check them out, listen for free, download cheap, help the cause.
Albums from world music master Ariel Kalma, now living in Australia. He was a pioneer in ambient music, nature sounds, and trance. Now showcasing artists from around the world, especially India and Afria.
RUSHED EXPEDITION FINDS "METHANE TORCHES" IN THE ARCTIC
The research ship RV Polarstern has returned to Bremerhaven, Germany with it's crew of scientists from six countries. They travelled almost 12,000 nautical miles on the 26th Arctic expedition, measuring ice in the polar seas.
The verdict: Arctic sea ice is young and very thin. For centuries, the polar seas have been covered by a thick layer of ice built up over many years. America designed a nuclear submarine capable of breaching up through thick tough ice. Now it's weak, with much less mass - the first step toward losing the Arctic Ice cap due to global warming.
The Greenpeace ice-breaker "Arctic Sunrise" is just now returning to Amsterdam, after a two month expedition with scientists from Cambridge studying ice thickness. The news is alarming, as the Earth's new dark seascape in the Summer Arctic will pump more heat into the oceans, and add to long-term climate change. Scientist Wieslaw Maslowski's team predict the Arctic Ice cap could disappear in Summer as early as 2016.
There is worse - and you won't hear this in the mainstream media at all.
Behind the scenes, officials and scientists in various governments went into panic mode this September. The problem: a big increase in methane gas has been discovered in the Eastern Arctic.
If frozen methane gas under the sea, technically called "clathrates", melt in quantity, we are on the road to a dramatic climate shift beyond imagination.
It happened before, around 56 million years ago. In less than a hundred years the temperature of the Arctic seas rose several degrees, reaching almost 90 degrees Fahrenheit, or 30 Centigrade.
Here is what we know. On September 2nd, the Russian news service RIA Novosti announced, quote:
"A group of Russian and U.S. scientists will leave the port of Vladivostok on Friday on board a Russian research ship to study methane emissions in the eastern part of the Arctic.
'This expedition was organized on a short notice by the Russian Fund of Fundamental Research and the U.S. National Science Foundation following the discovery of a dramatic
increase in the leakage of methane gas from the seabed in the eastern part of the Arctic,' said Professor Igor Semiletov, the head of the expedition.
The group consists of 27 scientists who would attempt to measure the scale of methane emissions and clarify the nature of the process.
The 45-day expedition will focus on the sea shelf of the Laptev Sea, the East Siberian Sea and the Russian part of the Chukotsk Sea, where 90% of underwater permafrost is located.
'We assume that the leakage of methane results from the degradation of underwater permafrost...A massive release of such a powerful greenhouse gas may accelerate global warming,' Semiletov said."
End quote from the Russian press, September 2nd.
Methane is generally said to be 20 times more powerful than CO2 when it comes to trapping solar heat. That is really just an average, because when it first emerges, methane can be as much as 75 times more powerful. It degrades more quickly than C02, becoming less potent in 10 years. But methane degrades into CO2, continuing the greenhouse gases for up to 100,000 years, according to Dr. David Archer.
In the northern sector of the Laptev and Bering seas, the Chief of the expedition, Igor Semiletov reported by phone that "methane torches" (his words) are coming from the ocean sea bed into the atmosphere. Also on board were scientists from Alaska Fairbanks Scientific Research Center and Georgia University.
I can only conclude that as the Arctic sea ice melts back every summer, and seas warm, methane from either deep in the ground, or from clathrates on the shallower sea beds, are starting to melt. The Russians, and scientists from the National Oceanography Center in the UK, has found methane is leaking up from fissures deep inside the Earth. So we have both frozen methane on shallow sea beds, and geological methane, coming up.
That the Americans and Russians sent a ship into the Arctic on such short notice tells you how serious it is. Keep in mind, there is no over-all way to monitor methane emissions from the Arctic, although scientists do monitor global average methane content in the atmosphere. According to my limited research, the amounts coming out of the Arctic so far are smaller than emissions from rice paddies.
We haven't seen anything like a giant increase in methane globally yet. But we are seeing the start of a methane source that could, if it grows, easily tip the planet into a new greenhouse world. Keep your eye on the Arctic methane news.
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FRACKIN GAS - WE MUST POISON THE EARTH MILES BELOW US!
We open the show with "Act Locally Think Globally" by MC Shea Jasmine and the Awesomes. It's from a whole album of 14 anti-fracking songs called Whole Lotta Frackin' Going On.
That's right. We humans aren't satisfied polluting the atmosphere with toxic guck, radioactive particles and greenhouse gases. Nope. Not finished with spreading all our poisons over the surface of every continent.
We just can't rest until we manage to take the most toxic chemical crap we've got, and injecting it at least a mile underground. All to get some more carbon trapping gases to burn out the climate. It's the last frontier, the deep underground, and we'll poison the last fresh water and blow out the coal seams if we can.
The frackers are hitting Australia right now. Their drilling rigs will set up, blow up the deep, and then move on endlessly, till there's nothing left.
Get ready in Britain for more of the same, now that the North Sea gas field production is 25 percent down. They'll tell you it's "green" - much cleaner than coal! Green all the way down to a wrecked planet with more fossil fuels.
Just wait for the Marcellus gas frackin field in New York State to leak into the watershed for millions of people. Oooops. The roving drill companies will fold into their corporate shells and evaporate, leaving the groundwater poisoned for centuries.
Here are the details on the new album, from singer/activist Laura-Doe:
"Australian musicians create CD to warn of dangers of coal seam gas mining
They may not have big advertising budgets like the mining companies, but a group of Australian musicians opposed to coal seam gas (CSG) mining are using the power of song to spread their message.
‘Whole Lotta Frackin’ Going On', (www.wholelottafrackingoingon.com) is a compilation album featuring 14 songs, in a range of genres, from musicians keen to alert Australians about the dangers of ‘fracking’—a process used in CSG extractions where water and chemicals are injected into the rock bed.
The CD is the brainchild of singer/comedienne, educator and women's sexual health activist Laura-Doe. Laura-Doe said she was inspired to write a song, 'Lock The Gate', after seeing the documentary ‘Gasland’ about Coal Seam Gas mining using hydraulic fracturing in the USA.
'There are hundreds of documented cases of water contamination from CSG mining in the USA,” Laura-Doe said. “The fracking process has not been adequately tested with none of the chemicals used assessed by Australia's industrial chemicals regulator'.
'As big budget advertising is not an option for the people being affected by CSG we wanted to use the power of music to get our side of the story across.'
Laura-Doe said she and her producer, Anando Bharti, put a call out for songs via Facebook and email, and through the campaign groups B.S.A.N.E. (Byron Saving Australia's Natural Environment) and Lock the Gate Alliance.
Most submissions came from artists in the Northern Rivers area of New South Wales—next on the mining companies’ exploration agenda in Australia.
'Within two weeks we had over 20 songs submitted. I think this says something about the depth of feeling on the topic amongst the people we reached.'
'Each song on the album conveys a different artist's perspective on the issues involved and they all provide information in an accessible way.'
All songs on the album were donated by the artists for use in this project and the CD was mastered voluntarily by Byron Bay engineer Paul Gomersall. Mullumbimby-based online distributor Music-Mosaic.com have sponsored placing the songs on iTunes and other music sites. Pressing of the CD was funded by the owners of the Crystal Castle at Mullumbimby and online women's web magazine www.yOni.com.
The CD will be offered at cost as a funds and awareness raiser to environmental groups opposing CSG mining.
You can hear and purchase tracks online at www.wholelottafrackingoingon.com and also on iTunes. " - report from Laura-Doe. ==================
BIG OIL: GREEDY LYING BASTARDS
Soon or later, we see the black dragon behind our oil addiction. These are the megacorporations who span the world. They have private armies of security men, and the biggest military in the world behind them. They own politicians, private jets, and maybe a few countries.
But the most potent weapon in the arsenal of Big Oil is the river of money available for public relations. Advertising soothes us, movie placements make us want more, the oil industry is the subtle pusher, who keeps us addicted, keeps us coming back to the pumps, keeps us buying plastic products, and oil-based foods.
If only someone could tell it like it is.
That would be Craig Rosebraugh. Don't be fooled by the technical sounding name of his upcoming film. "Greedy Lying Bastards" is no puff piece for the industry.
Craig Rosebraugh - film maker, academic, writer, and activist. Craig is highly educated, Masters and has Law Degree. The Co-writer is Patrick Gambuti Jr.
He is the film-maker, director, and occasional actor in the new film "Greedy Lying Bastards" to be released in 2012. A rough cut has just been submitted to the Sun Dance film festival.
This is a no-holds barred film about "the power and dominance of the fossil fuel industry." The project started two and a half years ago, going to 14 countries on 5 continents. It covers the poisonous results of spills, corruption, and climate change caused by oil burning.
Some of the locations are Tuvalu (which will disappear as a country due to rising seas), to Uganda (now plagued by droughts and floods), and Peru (where melting glaciers threaten the only water supply for millions). There is also the Niger Delta, where children swim in the goo from oil pollution, and a prominant activist was murdered.
Craig covers a lot of the damage from the BP Deepwater Horizon disaster.
He finds people who cannot get medical care because Gulf doctors are so dependent on oil company business. Many businesses were wrecked. A group of four Florida tourists became sick swimming in oil and chemical dispersants. One died. A lot of Gulf coverage.
We hear about BP claims processing problems, after the big PR campaign by BP. Initial payouts of $5000 per person. Interim payments have been the problem, as losses continued. Only 16% of interim claims have been paid out so far.
Case: Steven Aguanaga, went to Fla Gulf Coast at beachfront hotel in summer of 2010. No sign of contamination. Hotel told them beach was safe, went swimming one afternoon - came back covered with an orange goo. All four in party felt ill. Steven's friend went back in, felt sick, Merrick Valian died within three weeks. Aguanaga continues to have symptoms of chemical exposure.
Case: Mississipi Shirley Tillman and husband very ill after a direct hit of dispersant, out on a boat helping to clean up the oil. Although they protected their grandson Gavin, no beaches for him, no water contact, but got sicker than rest of family. Got it likely from the air.
Case: Clayton Mathern, Louisiana. Clayton out on water half a mile from the rig when it exploded, on a supply ship. In addition to smoke from burning rig, Clayton was covered in dispersant sprayed from the air. Hospitalized several times. During Craig's interview, he was rushed to the hospital. Diagnosed with paralysis in one of his legs.
Few doctors will treat this toxicity. Some doctors turned away patients when BP chemicals were found to be the source of the problem. Doctors themselves are dependent on the industry and it's suppliers. They also fear the litigation, with the huge legal budget BP has.
BP is not paying the medical costs of ongoing toxic health problems. The company made an announcement in November 2010 that they would not pay for medical treatments resulting from the spill. They didn't want to acknowledge there was a problem.
The only option left is to try and sue BP - but these are lower income and poor people with no money for lawyers.
Craig interviews people like Ban Ki Moon, UN Secretary General; Henry Waxman Congressman from California; former EPA Administrator Christine Todd Witman; top scientists from all over the world; and individuals impacted from communities around the world.
He also includes some statements by climate change sceptics.
What emerges is the cost of our deep addiction to fossil fuels and a hope to inspire people to change.
TESTING POLLUTED SEA FOOD
Film makers did their own tests about safety of seafood. They tested shrimp, sand and water. Shrimp was 10 times higher than levels set by Fed Government and BP after the spill.
Oil pollution in Gulf shrimp was found ten times higher than allowed by the EPA. But it is still sold nationally.
At time of Exxon Valdez spill safe level was set at 11 parts per billion in seafood. Then gov't and BP raised "safety" level 45,000 times higher to 500 parts per million, after the BP Deep Water Horizon spill.
Sea food buyers are relying only on smell tests(!) done by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Scientists used their noses to smell levels of hydrocarbons in fish.
"Gulf seafood is still contaminated and ending up in our U.S. food supply." -Craig Rosebraugh said.
CLIMATE CHANGE
Why so many sceptics shown in the film? So many pseudo debates on whether climate change is happening, despite majority of Academies say argument is over.
The fossil fuel industry is the force behind deniers, buying deniers, media, and scientists. They want to create confusion and doubt.
Deniers are buried by their own voices. "Greedy Lying Bastards" covers the industry's PR campaign. Two of worst are ExxonMobil and Koch Industries. In last decade each spent nearly 25 million dollars just funding climate denial campaigns.
HOW CAN WE CHANGE
Forming a new economy. Even the energy companies could convert and make money, but don't. Big oil companies have showcase projects to use in advertisments, but don't plow the investments into making it real. This film shows their investments in renewables are miniscule compared to what they spend on finding and developing more oil.
The oil industry will not/can not regulate itself. Profits are too big a draw. The industry needs an outside government agency. Will Congress do anything?
Plus: we must change ourselves.
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OUR DYING WORLD WITH PETER F. SALE
Here on Radio Ecoshock, you've heard speakers like Dr. Daniel Pauly lament that humans are stripping the oceans bare of species. Blog entry on Pauly here.
His 47 minute speech (45 MB) on the death of the oceans here.
I've played you a clip of Dr. Wes Jackson, on the possibility of a mass extinction event in the seas. And paleoclimatologist Peter Ward told us up to 90% of ocean life was killed, in a big extinction event many millions of years ago.
I took all this in mind, when I got a new book from Peter F. Sale. He works with the United Nations University, and he is a Professor Emeritus at the University of Windsor, Ontario.
The title of his new book through me off at first. It's called "Our Dying Planet, An ecologist's view of the crisis we face." Sometimes I'm called extreme - why would he say the planet is "Dying"?
I'd say Sale was were exagerating, but a new study published in the journal Nature found 75 percent of all mammal species are at risk of extinction within 300 years...
"... A Nature study earlier this year has looked at marine and terrestrial biodiversity threats combined – and found for instance 75 percent of all mammal species to be at risk of extinction within 300 years, and defined such a massive loss of biodiversity as establishing the Earth’s sixth mass extinction event.
That would mean the combined effort of a couple of billion human beings, relentlessly producing and consuming over a couple of centuries time, would somehow have very creatively managed to outweigh the impact of the PETM methane clathrate bomb."
And check out this item: "Climate change will lead to far more extinctions than previously thought..."
We start out the interview with Peter Sale's 40 years in studying coral reefs - how they live, and how they die. I found his description of what coral is, how it works, really kept me going.
We discuss the wonders of coral. Did you know even the sand around coral reefs is biotic, created by the coral?
About 25% of all marine species inhabit coral reefs at some part of their lives. Not all would go extinct without coral, but a lot would.
Since the first major reported mass coral bleaching event in 1983, there have been waves of coral deaths. Sale estimates about 20% of all coral living in the 1970's is now dead.
The main cause is "coral bleaching". This is directly connected to climate change, and heating of the oceans. When there is a hot spell, generally during an El Nino event, global warming adds just enough more to make the corals eject the algae which they use to live. These algae give the coral reefs their color. So the dead reefs are white, instead of a rainbow of bright colors.
Like many species (and crops) coral is already at the top of it's temperature tolerance. Just a little more warming, and we'll lose them all. That will have profound effects, because the coral reefs hold more different types of species (phyla) than even the rainforest. The rainforests have more species overall, because they have so many varied insects. But coral reefs have more different KINDS of animals.
Sale tells us coral reefs also protect the mainland from storms, which will be more important as the seas rise. And they provide billions of dollars of tourist revenues to Australia, the Caribbean, and elsewhere. About 50% of all Gross Domestic Product in the Caribbean is derived from the sea coast. Even if tourists don't visit coral reefs, they lie on beaches created and maintained by coral.
The reasons for coral decline are complex. It is more than raw temperature. Ships break up coral with their anchors. Overfishing deprives the reefs of many key species need to maintain that ecosystem. Peter Sale worries that the environment movement will concentrate on small parts of the puzzle, rather than being able to see the big picture complexity.
Humans are also not very good at understanding exponential change. Listen to the interview for his explanation of why that matters.
Finally, Peter Sale concludes both the book and the interview with his four projections of where this disintegrating ecosystem and economy could go:
1. Belvedere world (the rich countries withdraw into fortresses, and then the rich within those countries go into armed communities, while extinctions continue, and a Mad Max society is left for the rest of us) This is seen as most likely to Sale, the way we are going.
2. Woodstock world (almost hippie-like, humans withdraw into simpler old technology, with less complexity)
3. The third possible future is called "Technopolis". Technology will save us, we withdraw from Nature into a separate tech world. Unlikely says Sale, but some engineers and scientists actually believe this is possible.
4. "New Atlantis" - Sale's vision of how a sustainable but still civilized world might continue. This option is very hard, perhaps unlikely, but a worthwhile goal.
I haven't done justice to the depth of any of these four projections. Get more from our interview, and the longer descriptions in the book "Our Dying Planet".
I thought the book could have been laid out better, with more charts and illustrations. In places Sale tries to approach people unfamiliar with ecology, so Ecoshock listeners might skip those. But there are strong points in the book, and the work on coral shines.
You should get a lot out of the interview, where we took our time to go into depth.
Host of syndicated weekly Radio Ecoshock Show - the cutting edge with top scientists, authors & activists.
Eight years on the air. Previously a researcher for global environment group, print journalist, homesteader, world-traveler, musician, and private investigator.
