Climate Change Impacts on America

Ecoshock Show 080815

Top IPCC organizer & U of Arizona Professor Jonathan Overpeck speech at Washington U. given on April 1st, 2008.

After updating the world climate report, Overpeck predicts climate impacts on North America.

His focus, on the two worst climate problems for America:

1. Rising seas. More than half of Americans live within 50 miles of the sea coast. Many American cities, like New York, and States, like Florida, may be flooded by rising seas (plus storm surges) within the experience of our children - or sooner. The implications are enormous.

2. The drying of the West. Already well underway. Dry soils, and 20 percent of normal rainfall this spring (and hot temperatures) are behind the North California fires we now know. Overpeck explains why tree species are dying, and the great droughts that have driven humans from the South West in the past. This time, we have triggered this phenomenon, as the Jet Stream moves North, the former rains move with it.

Overpeck gives a clear explanation, with predictions for Americans that sound to me a lot like what has hit Southern Australia. The possibility of centuries-long drought.

1 hour CD Quality 56 MB or Lo-Fi 14 MB.

Production Notes: 30 second music bed for station ID at 30:14

Methane Burps & Tele-Everything

Ecoshock Show 080808

Guest host KMO from C-Realm podcast interviews David M. Bushnell, Chief Scientist from NASA Langley Research Center.

Lots of doom, but really good solutions too.

Thanks to KMO for sharing this rare interview.

1 hour CD Quality 56 MB or Lo-Fi 14 MB

Production Notes: 30 second music bed for station ID at 33 min

ENDLESS SUMMER

Ecoshock Show 080801

Surf is up and the heat is on.

We begin with a review of the UK climate activist scene. Hear a representative of "Rising Tide" describe British climate protests, including boarding coal trains headed for a massive polluting power station. Courtesy of RiseUp! Radio - a community program from Nottingham England.
We also hear a short clip from a new/old climate radio program coming out of London, called "The Two Degrees Show".

Phil England has been doing this program for a couple of years, and it just got new funding, for a new series. In the re-opener he interviews a top UK climate scientist to get the latest juice, and goes after government administrators to see how they resolve the conflict between proclaimed carbon reduction goals - versus the construction of new highways and everlasting airport construction. That is broadcast from Radiance FM, the finest alternative radio station in the UK.

Radio Ecoshock tries to keep track of climate activism at least in the English-speaking world, and this week's review of the UK scene balances our previous coverage from Canada, the United States, and Australia.


Then we go to a hot speech by Canadian scientist and broadcaster Dr. David Suzuki. He's worried about where all the wild things will go, as the climate shifts too rapidly out from under them.

Suzuki became known to millions as the brilliant scientist who educated us all with the television program "The Nature of Things" (which is still broadcast all over the world in re-runs). Now 70 something, Dr. Suzuki heads his own environmental advocacy group, the David Suzuki Foundation, based in British Columbia.

This speech, where David doesn't hold back much! - was recorded in Toronto by our fellow posse recording friend, John Paul Warren. Excellent job John Paul, and thanks for sending this one in.

If you want to capture important speech and events in your city or town, take a look at our "How to Record for Radio" page on the Ecoshock web site. It all helps.

This is the Radio Ecoshock Show for August 1st, 2008 - sent out early because Alex Smith is on vacation. He is, "with Nature."

1 hour CD Quality 56 MB or Lo-Fi 14 MB

Production Notes: 30 second music bed for station ID at 29:34 Song "Endless Summer" by Ghostly Penguin Display.

Coping With Climate Change

Ecoshock Show 080725

How can we face it? 2 interviews: Pulitzer prize winner Catherine Ellison, and climate/nuclear historian Spencer Weart.

Catherine Ellison is one of America's top reporters. She caught me attention again when she wrote about the difficulty of telling kids about climate change. What should we tell them? What should we tell ourselves. We discuss that, and also a bit on her earlier book "The Mommy Brain" - on how giving birth and raising children actually stimulated parts of the brain. A little on women, and how they handle the stress of climate change, too. Catherine is just a smart, stimulating, grounded person - I loved doing the interview with her.

Spencer Weart is someone who educated and tortured me, with his book "Nuclear Fear". I had a lot of resistance to the book. Partly it is because Weart is a nuclear physicist, in fact he's a top member of the nuclear scientists organization. In the book, he analyzed why we were so terrified of this new technology. The images of mad scientists, and other quasi-religious fears that have always been with us.

Ostensibly, Weart is trying to exorcise these demons, so we can all build new nuclear plants, or something. In fact though, the book turns out to be a kind of psychological cleanser for a lot of Cold War fears, built into our psyches. And Weart himself admits nuclear tech scares him too, at times. I recommend the book, even though I dislike (hate) nuclear weapons, and nuclear power.

But the real reason I called Spencer Weart: he is also an environmental historian. His book "The Discovery of Global Warming" explains how we rose to consciousness on this subject. It's also handy for the new generation of students, who know less about how we got here. How did our ideas about climate change develop? Weart knows.

That's why I though he would be a good interview, knowing how to cope with both nuclear fear, and with climate change. How does he do it? It was a good chat, with helpful info, and that's why I'm running it again, just as the news about possible complete extinction of our species looms closer to possibility. (See previous Ecoshock programs, like "Climate Criminals" on James Hansen, and "A Warning from the Past" with Dr. Andrew Glikson...)


This is an updated replay from our 2007 season. 1 hour CD Quality 56 MB or Lo-Fi 14 MB Our one and only re-run of the year. Not because we don't have enough good audio, but because it's time to heal ourselves, somewhat. Many of our newer listeners would have missed this show.


Production Notes: Music "Mother Earth" by Shane Philip (Canadian content)

CHANGE OR BURN The Australian Experience

Ecoshock Show 080718

Speech by top climate/economic adviser to new Australian government, Prof. Ross Garnaut.

His report is an update of the famous Stern Report in the UK - with even better accounting for China and all Asia. Professor Garnaut was the Australian Ambassador to China, and knows places like Indonesia well. So his view is from a developed country, but knowing the huge growth and challenges happening in Asia - which may well tip the climate of the world.

I think Garnaut's report will likely be the basis for American action in 2009 - no matter who wins the Presidency. The world is watching (and listening). Since this speech, Garnaut has released his report.

Although he recommends various actions, including a carbon trading scheme, in public comments Garnaut has called the climate threat "diabolical". He has almost thrown up his hands, saying that special interests may prevent humanity from protecting the remains of the climate system. Rather radical for a former establishment figures - but Australia is deep in a killer drought which threatens one of the great agricultural production areas of the world. Their wheat exports are already down, adding to world hunger.

Australia voted for climate action - in this speech you hear the proposals and direction that many developed countries might take.

Then we dive into the "Clean Development" scam. Unscrupulous people have taken advantage of loop-holes in the United Nations system meant to reduce climate emissions. Their fake reductions, and investments in plants that would have been build anyway, takes billions out of real clean energy. I've included a clip from the BBC program "One Planet" where an Indian industrialist admits taking CDM money for projects already funded elsewhere. "Why not?" he asks, as the BBC records.

My point is not just that an enforcement plan is needed - but the whole idea we can continue to burn coal in the first world, and pay off someone far away for the pollution, is nuts. We need to stop producing greenhouse gases right here in the developed world, first, and now.

1 hour CD Quality 56 MB or Lo-Fi 14 MB

Production Notes: Good insert spots for ID at 29:30, and 43:19 to 44:03 No copyright music. Clip from BBC One Planet.

HANSEN: CLIMATE CRIMINALS

NASA scientist James Hansen shakes up Capitol Hill (and the media) with explosive testimony to the Select Committee on Energy Independence and Climate Change. For one thing, he thinks oil industry executives who purposely (and secretly) fund groups to confuse the public about climate science – should be charged with crimes against humanity.

Here are the links to supplement this week’s Radio Ecoshock show:

James Hansen Testimony to Select Committee (June 23, 2008) as a .pdf file.
Title: Global Warming 20 Years Later: Tipping Points Near

James Hansen interview on NPR’s Diane Rehms show (080623) audio file mp3

Other Hansen speeches.

Beyond Zero Emissions Melbourne Australia interview with James Hansen Top US scientist says carbon emissions must stop.
Lo-Fi 30 min 5 MB

JAMES HANSEN SPEECH Mind-blowing, must-listen speech in Texas, on the new hot-state planet. Part 1 27 MB 30 min Part 2 27 MB 30 min Courtesy TUC Radio, San Francisco. Part 3 Questions & Answers 30 min

“The White House Climate Report” (actually from NOAA)
“Weather and Climate Extremes in a Changing Climate”

NOAA Press Release explaining this report. June 19, 2008.

Democracy Now “IRS Audited Greenpeace at Request of Exxon Mobil-Funded Group”
March 24, 2006. Text and download available.

Greenpeace database of anti-environmental groups secretly funded by Exxon Mobil
(exxonsecrets.org)

This week’s Radio Ecoshock show is a fast-moving collection of Dr. Hansen’s quotes this week, plus a few other recent ones – woven in with media reaction to his comments on oil exec’s heading for trial.

There is a lot more to Hansen’s message though. Pick up some solid science – and why at 385 parts per million of CO2 we have already PASSED the danger point. Emissions must go down, not up.

Dr. Hansen makes two key suggestions:

1. Stop building any new coal plants, and stop using coal altogether by 2030

2. Build a new power grid. Our current electricity distribution system wastes as much energy as consumer use. Think about that. Hansen says with a new low-loss system as a national priority, then alternative energy really could power the nation.

For fun, I’ve tossed in a fight between Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and conservative CNN talk show host Glenn Beck, CNN’s climate Quisling.

Then Democracy Now does real investigative reporting, to show how Exxon has funded climate deniers, just like the tobacco industry denied cancer. One Exxon front group even sent the IRS against Greenpeace (likely with the help of the Bush Administration, my guess…)

And so it goes. A fine mix, with a touch or Reggae. Clip bonanza to bring you up to speed on the debate - and shocking truth about our climate emergency.

Alex Smith
Host

Radio Ecoshock

COLLAPSE & CLIMATE CRISIS

Dmitry Orlov interview. Author of Reinventing Collapse: The Soviet Example and American Prospects." Orlov compares end of Soviet & American empires.

His advice for Presidential candidates, as oil era ends is priceless. Hear about "The Collapse Party" platform....

We run a clip from the Minneapolis National Conference on Media Reform (Professor Lawrence Lessig of Stanford on how media sows doubt on global warming, which doesn't exist in climate science...) Then I reference two hours of key speeches from that Conference, available in program number 415 of the underground series "Unwelcome Guests" by Lynn Gary. Find that at the busy website www.radio4all.net

Search by producer "Unwelcome Guests" - but be warned, the site can be too busy to respond well during peak hours. Go in off-peak hours to get your Media Reform files. radio4all is the backbone for distributing radio works by independent producers - including Radio Ecoshock.

Also: Animal rights & global warming: Anthony Marr interview. Anthony runs "HOPE" which stands for "Heal Our Planet Earth". He's been a long time activist on everything from Tigers to biodiversity of the Amazon, and the abuse of farm animals in agribusiness.

Anthony came to the realization that climate change will wipe out more species, faster, than pharmaceutical testing could ever dream of. Animal rights activists need to get on board fighting climate change - but will they?

I hope so, just as I'm sick of seeing all the coverage about climate impacts on humans. As though we aren't going through a mass extinction event. As though animal's lives don't really matter to the animals themselves. As though all the creatures don't have an inherent right to live on this planet too.

Amory Lovins tells government that Nukes are no answer to climate change. Our 6 minute clip is from Lovin's testimony to Congress, at the Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming on March 12th, 2008. It's been a long time since I've heard such a devastating put-down of the nuclear power illusion, in just a few minutes.

I wont' try and summarize what he said - listen in.

Check out some other really interesting testimony to the Committee, with some video, at:
http://globalwarming.house.gov/pubs/testimony

Alex on oil company Net trolls. I was reading a suggestion in Grist that the recent one in 500 year, never seen before, floods in the Mid West might actually be related to climate change. Then the writer gets pounded in the comments - with a pseudo scientific explanation by "Ralph". Ralph says the climate is cooling, and Brad is just a tool.

I always wonder who those trolls really are. Checking out "Ralph" I find Ralph Hansen PHD.
It turns out Ralph is "gainfully employed in the energy industry." What a surprise.

Then I start thinking about all the "independent" military hacks that appeared on TV, really still employed by the Pentagon, as propagandists. Do you suppose that Exxon/Mobil, with $40 billion profits, and other big oil companies (not to mention PR companies hired by the Saudi's) - just might spend a few bucks on blog sites, and a thousand blog commenters like Ralph?

This might explain why any climate science posted on the Net is immediately hit with a torrent of bricks and boos. A newcomer to the Net might think the American public HATES the idea of climate change, or any plan to do something about it.

Funny, real public opinion polls show just the opposite. People are concerned about climate change, and want to save the climate.

We've known the mainstream media, following the lead of the Bush Administration, has long been a force for climate denial and befuddlement. But don't underestimate the psychological operations and paid hacks on the Net as well. It's all propaganda, new and old.

Speaking of mainstream, Discovery Channel has launched a 24 hour "green" themed channel. find it at planetgreen.com

I was a little horrified to see green decorating tips, as the world goes down, but it's a step in the right direction?

How about ABC News bringing out a new special for this September on the possible collapse of civilization due to climate change and other pressures? You can even contribute to the program, and game the end of civilization!!! (at Earth2100.tv)

Their trailer is about as scary as anything I can produce. Is Radio Ecoshock about to be put out of business by Disney's ABC? Don't hold your breath waiting for that. I notice their news program still depends on a 50/50 toxic mix of drugs ads and car/truck/SUV ads. Hardly the stuff of the new age.

Add it all up, and here you go, The Radio Ecoshock Show for June 20th, 2008. Crisis radio.

Alex Smith - your host.

Ecoshock 080620 1 hour CD Quality 56 MB or Lo-Fi 14 MB.

Production Notes: Check out this stinging social song "We Can't Make It Here Anymore" by James McMurty. We take the time to play the whole thing. Best I've heard in a while, almost a country Dylan, back when Dylan had something to say.

Insert quick station ID over music at 29:03 if needed. Or cut into song if you need more.

BUILDING SANITY - PASSIVHAUS WORKSHOP

A follow up to last week's program "Building Madness - Constructing Climate Change"

This week: a real solution to making our buildings way more efficient. Called "Passivhaus" in Germany, the technique really means much more than "house" - but all buildings.

This week we present an exclusive one hour workshop on super-low energy houses, office & municipal buildings with Dr. Guido Wimmers. His company web site at eqcanada.com

Guido Wimmers is from Austria, where he studied and designed super low energy buildings.
He is likely the only person in Canada who could certify a home or other structure as meeting the "passivhaus" standards, which are voluntarily regulated by several Institutes in Europe.

Over 12,000 "passivhaus" buildings have already been constructed in Europe. The method involves using solar input through windows, a very tight inner barrier and outer wind screen, plus a heat-controlling air exchanger. During the winter, even our body heat and warmth from electric appliances (even your computer) are held inside, instead of lost as waste. Very little fossil fuel needs to be added.

As he describes in the talk, one passivhaus office building had an air conditioner installed for summer use - but it was found to be unnecessary. These buildings are also much more comfortable for humans - because there are no big cold or hot spots. Everywhere has a comfortable uniform heat or coolness. Kids in a "passivhaus" school design like it so much, they come home and wish for the same.

This is an energy revolution. As explained in the previous program on "Building Madness" - our buildings use 48% of all fossil fuels - and waste most of it! Buildings use more than all transportation combined. Our cities are really carbon smokestacks, and there is a much better way to do it. North Americans and people everywhere need to learn this technology. Even older homes can be retro-fitted.

We can reduce fossil fuel consumption, bills & greenhouse gas emissions (!) by 90%. Dr. Guido Wimmers explains how.

Ecoshock Show 080613 1 hour CD Quality (56 MB) (click title above) or Lo-Fi (14 MB)

Recorded by Alex Smith, 080524 in Vancouver, Canada.

BUILDING MADNESS Constructing Climate Change

QUICK GUIDE AND LINKS - RADIO ECOSHOCK PROGRAM June 6, 2008

Voices on this program:

ANTHONY PERLE Simon Fraser University Urban Studies Program, Co-author of "Transport Revolution" Download that book launch speech Here.

Download 20 minute presentation at "Our Transportation Future" 080522 Here.

RICHARD REGISTER Clip from "A Sustainable World" on KCSB radio, in Santa Barbara. Download full interview Here.

LARRY FRANK J. Armand Bombardier Chairholder in Sustainable Transportation at the University of British Columbia in the School of Community and Regional Planning and Institute. "Our Transportation Future" Presentation at SFU Downtown Vancouver, 080522 21 minutes 5 MB Here.

SIR NORMAN FOSTER Grand old man of green architecture, based in Britain, major buildings all over the world. Audio from DLD Conference Munich Jan 2007. See full video at:

www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/174

DERRICK JENSEN Deep green author of "Endgame: Volume 1: The Problem of Civilization and Volume 2 Resistance". Activism Beyond Hope interview on Wild Earth Radio 29 min 27 MB or "Kick It Over" Ecoshock intro to Derrick Jensen 26 min

GUIDO WIMMERS Austrian architect now in Vancouver, Canada. Expert on "Passivhaus" super low-energy building design and retrofits. His workshop next week on Radio Ecoshock.

AL GORE Clip from 2006 speech on Zero Emission Buildings.

RADIO SHOW TRANSCRIPT:

Another evening downtown, another forum. This one is called "Our Transportation Future". The usual suspects are on stage: three professors and a city engineer. Smugness about our city invades the room. We have reached our goals for cars downtown, years early. The new buzz-word "eco-density" makes all the glass-walled condos sound so green. The local joke: the city has a new symbolic bird: the crane.

The mayor is pro-development. The Premier or Governor is a friend of developers. Everybody seems to feed on campaign donations from building bigger and bigger cities.

Pedestrians are still run down regularly in this model city. A two bedroom condo downtown sells for a quarter million dollars. Glossy full page advertisements show the new suave bourgeois couple luxuriating in their tiny mansions, with granite counter-tops, piled sixty stories high.

It's all set up like a magnet for the rich. Working class people can't afford anything in this planner's dream. Down below, not shown on the slides, a growing swarm of homeless people dig through the dumpsters for pop cans. I'll bet half the population is on drugs, legal or illegal, just to kill the pain. The gnawing sense of disconnection.

Everyone is part of the growth agenda. They either work for the developers, or struggle clean up their mess. The city tries to add enough bushes, and strips of grass, like billboards to remind the prisoners of by-gone nature.

Lost in a memory of real hills, with real seasons, something in me snaps. I interrupt the dream with a rude question....

READ MORE...

CRISIS OF CONFIDENCE

Is it just me... or is the world falling apart?

The Radio Ecoshock Show 080516

Worried? Need a hole to hide in?

All through Western history, the human herd has reached panic points. Civilization was expected to end. And sometimes it did.

In this program, we'll take the bullet train through global defrosting, climate adaptation, rogue capitalism, economic crash, selling out, capital flight, and the food crisis.

You will hear samples from a conference call with world food expert Lester Brown, and clips from a tell-all speech by the radical Canadian nationalist Mel Hurtig. Top Harvard environmental teacher James Gustav Speth says environmentalism has utterly failed. An expert in the hidden economy, Loretta Napoleoni explains Rogue Capitalism. Bill McKibben says we have one last chance.

LINKS FOR THIS SHOW:

Here are some links to the full interviews and speeches referenced in this show:

Lester Brown press call conference on the causes of the world food crisis (34 minutes in a tiny fast-downloading file). Brown, of Earth-Policy.org says this isn't a passing crisis, but a new trend which will cause mass starvation from here on out.

Mel Hurtig "The Truth About Canada" book launch speech (1 hour) on sell-out, corporate concentration, merger with U.S. and capital flight.

WNYC Leonard Lopate interview with Yale's James G. Speth

Loretta Napoleoni book launch speech "Rogue Economics" (1 hour)

Here is the best spot to find Bill McKibben's "Last Chance for Civilization" article - with some really intelligent blog reader comments - at commondreams.org.

TRANSCRIPT FOR THIS SHOW:

You can find the whole thing tied together in this rough and ready transcript for the show.
Learn how the billionaires are skipping out on taxes - and on paying for the energy and transportation transformation we will need to confront climate change.

This includes a brief profile of one rogue corporation: the Swiss banking giant UBS. Just after we went to air, a former UBS executive was arrested, charged with helping a California billionaire avoid U.S. taxes. Just one of many.

American listeners will also be interested in Mel Hurtig's description of secret meetings - a real-life conspiracy among the business elite (and your elected representatives) to sell out America, Canada, and Mexico to create the North American Union (that nobody voted for, and nobody wants...)

You have to get that from the audio of the program. Blogger readers, click the title above, or get the one hour program (14 MB) at:
http://www.ecoshock.net/eshock08/ES_080516_Show_LoFi.mp3

There is a hilarious bit on biofuels from John Oliver (the "Senior Correspondent" on Jon Stewart's "Today Show") and Andy Saltzman in this program. Find their running series "The Bugle" at the Times Online site here.

The whole food crisis is so sick we need to poke black fun at our wasteful fat selves, to see through our thick lenses. Then Lester Brown tucks into the real issues, including a call for an end to the heartless process of using up food for SUV fuel.

IMPORTANT Note to Podcast listeners:

By popular demand, I have switched this podcast to the smaller Lo-Fi format (32 Kbps, mono).
This downloads faster, stores better on your hard drive, and sounds pretty good.

The only downside is slightly less quality, if you are into good stereo sound for your Ipod or sound system. And you can't burn this LoFi version direct to older style CD's. It will burn to CD as an mp3 file, which can be played by newer CD players, computers, DVD players, etc.

If you are a radio station getting the podcast from this source, you should switch over to the podcast found at our radio support site: www.ecoshock.net

That site will continue to podcast the full 56 MB 44 Hhz version. There is an easy sign-up podcast subscription button there. Then you can burn direct to CD from the podcast, and toss it into any station CD player. This is handy for late night, or unattended play.

Other listeners who want to continue receiving the higher quality 56 MB version are quite welcome to sign up for the podcast coming from www.ecoshock.net as well. You don't need to be a radio station to use that podcast.

One final note: we need more stations! As the number of stations go up, it gets easier for me to bring on the big name authors and scientists. Although, I have to say, we have had no problems so far!

Still, if you can contact your local non-profit college or community radio station, please ask them to add Radio Ecoshock to their programing. I realize there is a lot of competition for local air space, but we need one big environment program with the world view. Things like climate change are too important. We can't just say "Oh sorry, we don't have time to tell listeners about that..."

Please write or email requests to your local station. If you get some contact with a program director or station manager, can you forward it to me? My address is
radio [at] ecoshock.org.

I'm also trying to find more Low Power FM stations to broadcast the show. Your suggestions (and their contact info) are also very welcome.

We need a revolution to save what's left - and I'm hoping podcast listeners, and blog readers, will help out. From the emails I have received from you - we have a really intelligent bunch here! A lot of activists, scientists, professionals, and even government people are listening to Radio Ecoshock.

I appreciate the tips and help people send in. Some programs, including next week's "Too Hot to Handle" - come from listener tips. This has become a group effort - thanks so much!

Alex Smith
host
Radio Ecoshock

Wall Street & the Climate Crash

This week we dig into the Wall Street Mess. Are we headed into the next Great Depression? We'll talk to a Finance Campaigner at the Rainforest Action Network, to see how they fought some big bankers, and won. That interview with Matt Leonard of RAN is only available in the audio program.

But first, Wall Street needs to dig themselves out with a new bubble scam. Why not use our concern about climate change. If a new American Administration takes on carbon emissions, they may hand out billions in new wealth, as tradable pollution credits. In just a couple of minutes, we'll talk with an anonymous Wall Street insider, about the big banker's plans to get rich, on climate change.

There are lots of clips from the recent Bear Stearns debacle, to similar stuff from 1929. About 8 minutes of multimedia audio in the show.

But for blog readers, let's get into Warren Buffett. (And incidentally, DNA tests have shown he is no relation to the singer Jimmy Buffett...)

What does the world's richest man say about climate change? Can the multi-billion dollar empire of Warren Buffett help prevent the catastrophe?

At the age of 77, the CEO of Berkshire Hathaway is listed by Forbes magazine at the top of the capitalist heap, with 62 billion dollars at his command.

Buffett says he is not as good at giving away money, as making it. So, he has an agreement to steer countless billions from his estate, 83 percent of it, to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. That Foundation may be one key in the future fight against climate change, but not yet.

Gate himself has said precious little about climate change. The Foundation is immunizing and helping poor African kids, but is apparently not yet tuned into the changing winds that stripped North Africa of its annual rain. We can only hope that the Arctic Ice melt last year, and continued storm damage in the United States and elsewhere, will melt the hearts of Bill and Melinda, so they begin to tackle climate change with the billions at their command.

Meanwhile, there is gigantic cult of following Warren Buffett's investments, and his sayings. Whole books are devoted to being like Buffett. And the man has some common sense, without a doubt. Here is what Buffett said about the current economic debacle, on CNBC March 4th, 2008.

[clip on Wall Street bankers drinking their own cool-aid]

I've done an exhaustive search of the Net, and various media archives, and here is Buffett on climate change:

[TV static]

That's right. Nothing, nada. Is is possible this old-world man of sensible plaid shirts, and down-to-Earth companies, hasn't heard we are in trouble? While companies all over the globe are publishing advertising, about their new committment to saving the world, and themselves, from wrenching climate change, Mr. Buffett is Mr. Invisible. Why?

I've been wondering why Buffett is misssing in action, and words, for years. But our guest today, the proprieter of the Climateer Investing blog, pointed out that Buffett's company reporting for 2007, which included a long philosophical report from Chairman Buffett, says absolutely nothing about climate change.

It's not that Buffett companies are not agents of climate change. He owns many polluting industries. He also owns companies with major exposure to global warming, especially his massive holding of insurance companies. Every other big insurance company, companies like All-State and Munich Re, have acres of reporting on their exposure to climate change damages. The series of big Florida hurricanes, followed by Katrina, topped off their years of research showing an increase in catastrophic climate-related events, around the world, since the 1980's.

Well, let's talk about Warren Buffett.

Warren does not have a limousine. He drives himself in his own Cadillac, and is a big supporter of General Motors. He is known for his frugality, rather than the usual conspicuous consumption of other billionaires. Buffett has lived in the same small house for the past 50 years.

The richest man does know about climate change. In a letter in 1993, he told investors that possible global warming indicated that, quote, “catastrophe insurers can’t simply extrapolate past experience.”
"If there is truly ‘global warming,’ for example, the odds would shift, since tiny changes in atmospheric conditions can produce momentous changes in weather patterns.” The question was still "if" back then.

However, even more recently, he seems still on undecided about climate science. Buffett doesn't actually say that storms are impacted by "“atmospheric, oceanic or other causal factors." Its just the huge insurance losses have caused him to be more cautious. Hardly an endorsement of climate change, from the head of the third largest insurance company on Earth.

In an article in 2006, Al Gore said: "The best long-term investors, including Warren Buffett, now realise that climate change can materially impact company returns." But there is litte on the Net to indicate that Gore and Buffett are close friends, or anything like that. However, Buffett has come out in support of the Democrats for 2008. He is on the record as unhappy with the Bush administration management, if it can be called that, of the economy.

Inevitably, some of Buffett's subsidiaries are involved in climate change mitigation, one way or another. For example, PacifiCorp, a utility owned by the Berhsire Hathaway empire, will make a joint feaibility study in Wyoming, with a coal-fired power plant using Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC). That could be called a kind of carbon capture tech. The EPA, and the Electric Power Research Institute are looking at this technology, which gasifies coal, makes electricity, and then grabs the carbon for sequestration, as a way to keep coal plants working, without wrecking the climate. We shall see.

NetJets Europe, a subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway, is hoping to develop a plan to offset, or otherwise remediate, its carbon emissions.

Meanwhile, other parts of the empire churn out planet-destroying levels of CO2. His companies make giant recreational vehicles, are involved in the trucking industry, and his utilities emit lots of carbon. For example, Buffett bought over $2 billion of the debt issued by the gross polluter TXU, the Texas utility. Berkshire Hathaway also ownd MidAmerican Energy Holdings, another utility conglomerate. One of those subsidiaries is Yorkshire Electricity and Northern Electric, with 3.8 million customers, making it the UK's third largest electricity producer.

His subsidiary Northern Natural pipelines reportedly carries about 8% of the natural gas used in America. But MidAmerican also has wind farms, as we will hear in a moment.

Buffett's recent investment in the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp, 10 percent of the railroad giant, has to be seen as climate friendly, considering the much greater efficiency of rail travel. Of course, the company should be moving to more electric rail power. And yet, at least 20% of Burlington Northern's business is just hauling coal from Wyoming to big power plants in the Midwest. Dirty fingerprints, there.

And Buffet is a big supporter of the Canadian Tar Sands. Here is a clip from the National Post, February 7th, 2008:



If Warren Buffett refuses to comit himself publicly to the reality of climate change, and ignores it in his annual company reports, he isn't so shy about Peak Oil. Let's listen to this interview on CNBC in March of 2008.

[CNBC interview]

My thanks to the Climateer Investing blog for some of these tips. Find at climateerinvest.blogspot.com. His entry for February29th is Who Cares What Warren Buffett Thinks About Global Warming?

Well, I do, and you should too. If this seemingly amiable man at the top of the heap doesn't get it, we are all in trouble. This is no place to hedge bets. This is a planet that needs leadership, and so far, Mr. Buffett has failed to provide it, and that is damaging.

That's my opinion, I'm Alex Smith, for Radio Ecoshock.

Mark Jaccard: 20 Years of Climate Failure

Why have all the political climate plans failed so badly? Targets are set, with big announcements, and yet greenhouse gas emissions just keep going up, and up.

Canada's Professor Mark Jaccard has developed scientific models, to study how governments cope with the climate challenge. His results are solid, and controversial.

Just knowing about the climate threat is obviously not enough. As consumers, we know, but just keep polluting. Some politicians mean well, but we can't seem to change our carbonized society. If knowing is half the battle, getting real protection for our atmosphere requires the other half: the dirty work we all want to avoid: taxes and compulsory controls on greenhouse gas emissions. Laws with teeth.

This talk is about how nice guys finish with a wrecked climate. Maybe we have to seek other arrangements - with plans that nobody likes. Comfortable consumers don't want to change, politicians don't want to lose votes, business doesn't want to lose money. So, how can we really get emissions down?

Who is Mark Jaccard? Professor Mark Jaccard is a much sought advisor, to many levels of government. Based out of Simon Fraser University, in British Columbia, Canada - Jaccard has served on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. He leads the School of Resource and Environmental Management, at Simon Fraser University, in Vancouver, Canada. For several years Jaccard Chaired the B.C. Utility Commission - in charge of the energy supplies for millions. Jaccard is the author of 90 scientific papers, and three books - including "Sustainable Fossil Fuels" and his latest: "Hot Air," co-authored with famous Canadian journalist Jeffery Simpson.

As one of the few people with real solutions for governments, Jaccard is in constant demand. He has advised the Chinese government, the Canadian government, and worked with other scientists around the world. In addition to a 20 year teaching career at Simon Fraser University, Jaccard has his own consulting company, and is also funded by the C.D. Howe Institute.

Throughout all this, Mark Jaccard tries to maintain the unbiased stance of science. He is not an environmentalist, a business hack, or a politician. Jaccard has analyzed why climate policies fail, and how they could work, in any country. The facts, as he finds them, are controversial, and yet increasingly implemented by governments. That is why we need to learn from this speech delivered in Vancouver on March 4th, 2008 at the Canadian Memorial United Church.

The speech was organized by VTAAC, Voters Taking Action on Climate Change. It was recorded by Radio Ecoshock.

Studies and models by Jaccard's team, and bolstered by other social scientists all over the world, tell us that human habits are very hard to change. I guess we can include oil addiction.

It also seems there are several layers of "knowing" about something. I may "know" that smoking is bad for me, and still smoke. But at some point, I "know" I have to quit, and do. Reaching that gut level of knowledge that leads to real action is the key, when it comes to controlling greenhouse gas emissions. How can we do it?

The problem gets worse because governments are basically geared to inaction on any contentious issue. They don't want to upset voters. Jaccard says environmental groups haven't helped, by insisting that solutions to the carbon energy problem are "easy" and "cheap". The Greens say we don't need new power plants, because energy efficiency will take care of the problem. In his speech, Jaccard goes over a long history of seeking energy efficiency, and says the reality isn't so easy or cheap at all.

Just take the example of refrigerators. Fridges got more and more efficient from the 1950's to the 1970's, without any real government pressure. But that good news was blown away by people buying larger fridges, bar fridges, coolers to take to the beech, and just plain more fridges per household. Sometimes efficiency just leads to people using more of the product, not less.

The solutions of subsidizing green choices doesn't work either, says Jaccard. First of all, some people will buy energy efficient appliances, for example, without any government subsidy. The real trick is to find those people who were going to buy a gas hog, and give the subsidy to them - that leads to a real gain. But how can you find the people who need the subsidies?

And how can you develop a subsidy for all the new and crazy uses people find for energy? A government just works out rules for gas BBQ's (with an accompanying growth of bureaucracy) - and then people start bringing "outdoor heaters" to soccer games, not to mention patio heaters for bars, and a thousand other uses not envisioned by anyone. The subsidy games ends up very wasteful, not hitting the right people, and creates more and more government workers and offices to look after it.

Anyway, countries like Canada who have depended on the light touch methods - like "information," "energy efficiency," subsidies, and "change your light bulbs" - have already experienced 20 years of failure. Like almost every other country in the world, including the United States and Europe, Canada's carbon emissions have just kept skyrocketing. None of that works in the real world.

The awful truth is: when it comes to a problem this big, the individual cannot solve it. Jaccard asks: "What did you do to reduce your sulfur dioxide emissions?" back in the '80's when Acid Rain was the big problem. Obviously, governments made big industry clean it up. We didn't do much, other than complain the lakes were dying.

Same thing for climate. When the modelers add up all the benefits of changing light bulbs, going for more mass transit, and buying green - the planet still goes under with climate change. In fact, it takes massive social change, including big industry, to have a hope of preventing the worst of climate change. And that takes a kind of bravery of leadership in governments - that we haven't seen so far.

The inconvenient truth about social behavior: somebody has to make us do it. Again, Jaccard gives the example of school zones. Almost any sane person will agree that drivers shouldn't speed through school zones when there are children about. Surely, just common sense, good will, and love of kids will make these school zones safe, since we all agree it is good? No...we have patrol cars handing out tickets, stiff laws, fines - because someone needs to enforce the law.

Ditto carbon emissions.

Despite his earlier book "Sustainable Fossil Fuels" - Jaccard isn't pushing "clean coal" or anything like that. In this speech, he claims to be agnostic when it comes to using a carbon tax, a cap and trade system, or a hybrid that uses market mechanisms to reduce greenhouse gases. Any of those can be designed to work, he says, so long as the government is willing to enforce laws that work in reality.

Personally, as soon as I hear the words "climate policy" my eyes glaze over. I've heard so much bull-shit, and seen so many fabulous announcements and "super-green" plans go down uselessly. So, I had low expectations for this speech. Surprise. Professor Jaccard has been lecturing for 20 years, with students who challenge him - so he does know how to communicate. It's a good speech - which taught me some of the realities we need to know, if we demand that governments act on climate. Act how? What really works?

I'm hoping people in many countries will check out this speech, especially in America, where a lot of tough decisions need to be made, to reduce the load from one of the world's biggest polluters. The climate threat is so huge, we all need to understand "climate policy" - and what to demand.

Alex.

www.ecoshock.org

NOT SO COOL FARMING

The report is called "Cool Farming: Climate impacts of agriculture and mitigation potential" It's from Greenpeace International.

We have with us one of the authors, Dr. Pete Smith from the School of Biological Sciences, University of Aberdeen. Dr. Smith was also a lead author, reporting for last year's climate series, from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

The total amounts of greenhouse gases coming from human agriculture are surprising to me. Your report finds that farming contributes at least 20 percent, and perhaps even up to a third, of all human-made greenhouse gases.

Dr Smith and I looked at a lesser-known greenhouse gas - nitrogen dioxide, usually shown on charts as N2O. It has a global warming potential 296 times higher than that of carbon dioxide. So it only takes a tiny amount of nitrogen dioxide to kick up a great deal of global warming.

According to Greenpeace:

"The overuse of fertilizers and the resulting nitrous oxide emissions have the highest share of agriculture’s contribution to climate change:
the equivalent of 2.1 billion tonnes of CO2 every year. And, the energy-intensive production of fertilizer adds another 410 million tonnes of CO2-equivalents. Of all chemical products,
fertilizers are among the greatest contributors to global greenhouse gas emissions."

We know fertilizers were poisoning various river systems, and adding dead zones to coastal ocean areas - but I did not know they were such a potent force to change the climate.

That's why we spent some time, in this Ecoshock interview, going over how fertilizer really works. It is made from natural gas - another fossil fuel in short supply. As James Howard Kunstler told us in previous Ecoshock programs, the big fertilizer plants formerly located in Alabama and Louisiana - close to the Gulf of Mexico gas fields - have now moved to the Middle East. The American gas fields are in decline, so fertilizer manufacturing goes where the gas is.

That means our fertilizer is shipped thousands of miles by (oil-burning) ships. It also means that a Middle East conflict could not only cut off oil to the United States - but the very fertilizer required to feed America, used by the industrialized farm systems. Another vulnerability.

It might not even take a war to start this shift. Competition, and higher prices from China and India, could divert fertilizer away from both America and Europe.

You would think the big global warming gases would be in production of the fertilizer. Nope. Although those plants do spew out plenty of greenhouse gases, remember, the fertilizer itself contains fossil fuel derived greenhouse gases, especially nitrogen dioxide. Most of that goes into the water supply (our rivers and lakes, causing eutrophication) - but a significant amount just evaporates directly from the field, or from cow manure.

One solution would be to use other farming methods to build up the natural soil, so we don't need these fossil fuel fertilizers. At the very least, farmers need to find ways to use the minimum amounts of chemical fertilizers. They need to contain the greenhouse gas emissions from their fields and feed-lots.

BIO-FUELS

Then we looked at all the former forest land that is being bull-dozed to make "green" biofuels. I want to refer our listeners to a study done by Paul Crutzen at the Max Planck Institute, along with a whole group of international scientists, titled "Nitrogen dioxide release, from agro-biofuel production, negates global warming reduction by replacing fossil fuels." That was published August 1st, 2007.

That study finds that the process of growing biofuels creates so much nitrogen dioxide, as a powerful greenhouse gas, that we actually ADD to global heating, when we try and use biofuels.

MITIGATION

Dr. Smith, and the Greenpeace report, has some very positive suggestions for mitigation. Many of these are simple steps that could at least slow down the heating of the planet. I know farm talk isn't very sexy these days - but since we all eat - we all have to take responsibility for our impact on the planet's ecosystem derived from farming.

Following my chat with Dr. Pete Smith, I went for a Greenpeace agriculture campaigner based in Vancouver, Canada - Josh Brandon. Josh has real credentials in the field. He's been working on GM (Genetically Modified) food, trying to get labeling, at the very least, in Canada. Really, Greenpeace wants the experimentation on our food chain stopped until we know more about the impacts and risks.

Now Greenpeace has realized that farming itself is at least 20% of our climate change problem, maybe more. So, Josh Brandon has to morph into a climate change campaigner as well.

We focused on the situation in North America, and the changes Greenpeace want, to help preserve out climate.

Surely, it isn't necessary to burn out the planet, with droughts, storms, and floods, just to eat? Brandon doesn't think so, and again, there are some obvious improvements we can make to our farming process.

Here is where to find the 20 page summary of the report (558 KB) as a .pdf file.

www.greenpeace.org/international/press/reports/cool-farming

The full version (995 KB pdf file) is here:

www.greenpeace.org/international/press/reports/cool-farming-full-report

Or just Google "Greenpeace International Cool Farming"

Check out the interview. Food activism is becoming strong - not just for our own health, but for the continuing health of the whole ecosystem.

Alex Smith
host
Radio Ecoshock
www.ecoshock.org

PLANKTOS: OFFSETS REAL & IMAGINED

[In Blogger, to hear the show, click the title above.]

When we purchase carbon offsets, or companies claim to be "carbon neutral" - are we kidding ourselves?

In the first of a two-part radio series, we look at one of the best-known "green" carbon offset companies, Planktos Corp. I spend the whole show interviewing the CEO, Russell George.

You can always learn a lot about the workings of the ocean, from Russ George. He tells us plankton, the very basis of the food chain, is greatly reduced since 1980. That means less food all the way up to fish, which are also declining severely.

George explains that just as water rising from the ocean creates the rain that feeds the land - so dust from the land has been feeding phyto-plankton, (also called algae) for millenia. But now George thinks that the extra CO2 tossed into the atmosphere has allowed groundcover, like grass, to stay greener into the summer. That means less dust, and less micronutrients like iron, reaches the ocean.

Plankton are thought by many scientists to have been (a) the source of all of our oxygen, and (b) a regulating factor (possibly) leading to ice ages. They are a huge engine that, when blooming, can suck incredible amounts of CO2 out of the air. Are they a big solution to climate change? Can they buy us time, while we install alternatives to fossil fuels?

Planktos Corp is planning to create new, permanent forests in Hungary, and then in the Queen Charlotte Islands (Haida Guai) of British Columbia. They will sell these carbon credits, mainly to hungry, would-be-green institutions and companies in Europe. The new carbon markets are already worth billions.

Russ George also has a dream to take rock dust, from natural iron ores, out to the Pacific, to "feed" the algae, and stimulate new blooms.

About a dozen government-funded expeditions have tested this idea. They found that new plankton did occur, but the impacts on the ecosystem, and the real carbon that gets stored, is difficult to predict. Major environment groups, including Greenpeace and the World Wildlife Fund have strongly opposed Planktos' proposed "Voyage of Discovery" to the Pacific. Paul Watson, founder of the Sea Shephard Society, has threated direct action to stop the project. He has been known to ram ships at sea.

Meanwhile, Planktos Corp purchased a former U.S. Research ship, the Weatherbird II. Already months late, it's in Florida, loading equipment for the voyage, allegedly with a former Greenpeace captain signed on.

We asked Russ George about his critics, and about his business prospects - which are always right on the edge, as a start up company that could make billions, or go bust.

This is important radio, about the future of our oceans, and whether climate capitalists can act independently there. I urge you to download the one hour program and listen.

Next week, in part two, we'll hear more from Russ George, from the Chicago Green Festival, but I'll also interview his critics, including stock watcher David Baines, and Pat Mooney from the environmental ETC Group.

You can now subscribe to the weekly one-h0ur Radio Ecoshock show, as a podcast.

Sign up for your IPOD, or any podcast receiver software, on this page:

http://feeds.feedburner.com/EcoshockShowNotes

NEW: You can also find the full text transcript of our interview with Russell George of Planktos.

Alex Smith
host
Radio Ecoshock
www.ecoshock.org

IPCC Future Forecaster: Andrew Weaver

Click the title above to hear an 11 minute interview with Dr. Andrew Weaver, lead author of the "future predictions" section of the IPCC report released in February in Paris.

We discuss the role of scientists, and the reliability of the future predictions in the report.

Dr. Weaver says there is some good news: he was directly involved in wrapping up oceans research which indicates a catastrophic failure of the Atlantic Converyor Belt, (often called the "Gulf Stream") is VERY UNLIKELY to happen this century. There were worries that melting Arctic Ice, and Greenland ice, could reduce salinity in the ocean current that makes the U.S. Northeast, Britain, and Northern Europe habitable. Apparently, despite massive Arctic melts, so far the current research (literally) indicates we shouldn't be worried about this in the near term.

However, Dr. Weaver concludes we are in for very difficult times, even if we reduce carbon quickly, as we must. And if we cannot decarbonize, our legacy to children and grandchildren will be massive flooding, storms, droughts, and heat.

We discuss the role of Canada's Arctic. If the vegetative carbon, billions of tons of it, is unfrozen - that is if the new heat melts the permafrost - then massive amounts of Greenhouse Gases will be released. This may be a critical tipping point. Science does not yet know how much of this vegetative matter will become carbon dioxide, and how much methane.

It all depends how much is under water - the swamps and lakes of the North. The previously frozen plant material would decompose without oxygen, and thus become methane - a Greenhouse gas 12 times more powerful than carbon dioxide. Over this huge continental area, a relatively rapid release of methane over a few years, or even a decade, could tip the climate out of control, leading to the ultimate heat described by Sir James Lovelock - the last humans gathered around the Arctic Sea to escape the heat further South.

If the vegetation rots where oxygen if present, then it releases carbon dioxide. Still bad, but not necessarily fatal.

It all depends on how much, how fast, and in what gaseous form this carbon heads into the sky. And science doesn't know.

Dr. Weaver also describes a just-released study which compares previous IPCC estimates, which have been given every 6 years since 1990 - to what actually happened. The earlier predictions were not only realized, they were conservative, below the heat and other ramifications of climate change that hit us.

There is reason to believe the current IPCC estimates are also low. It was a consensus judgement at the last, involving many countries, including those committed to making money from fossil fuels.

These are my impressions, after the interview - you decide.

Alex
www.ecoshock.org