Climate Change Impacts on America

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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

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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.

FIRESTORM - Carbon Rising

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We begin with a first hand report from climate front-line - the California fires, with Maria Gilardin. Maria is the host of the TUC radio program, originating from San Francisco. This time she is sending out last emails, from her straw bail house, surrounded by four major fires in Mendicino County, California.

Although Maria has produced some excellent programs on climate change, including interviews with scientists like James Hansen of NASA, perhaps she never expected to be threatened by drying forests, heat, and drought, so soon. We only got her story because she has a satellite uplink, using solar power. All other electricity in the area is down. Her story is very moving.

That is followed by a report from the aboriginal people in the Yukon's dying forests. Around Hay River, as in Alaska and even in Washington State, the Spruce Bark Beetle has killed off vast areas of trees. It was formerly controlled by cold winters, but no longer, thanks to climate change. Just another sign of how the North is heating up.

The First Nations people, as they prefer to be known, have always lived from and in the forest. The animals they hunted and knew are dying off. The elders report even the number of squirrels and ground hogs is way down. No wonder, with a dead gray forest all around. The trees look ghostly. As in California, the people must cut down trees around their homes, as they wait for the fires that will surely come.

A rare type of freshwater salmon is also affected, perhaps from the changing chemistry of all the dead needles washing into their prehistoric lake system. A young woman speaker describes the way the community is trying to monitor their changing ecosystem, and plans to evacuate. A front line story, recorded by Radio Ecoshock.

Then one of Canada's top climate scientists, Dr. Gordon McBean reports on rising CO2. Since 2000, we have increased emissions by 2 per cent per year, and the last count, for 2006, is 3 percent. Despite all the talk about controlling emissions, the greenhouse gases are pouring out of developed and developing countries, completely out of control. McBean, who was deeply involved in the IPCC, gives a good short account of our current situation.

In early July, McBean led a group of Canadian scientists writing an open letter to Prime Minister Stephen Harper, calling for immediate and concrete action to limit greenhouse gas emissions. The same thing is happening all over the world. Dr. Andrew Glikson, who spoke in our last Radio Ecoshock Show, has forwarded a letter sent by Australian scientists, warning that a climate shift may create a world where mammals may not survive. That's us, folks.

Leaving on a lighter note, sort of, we add to an on-going series of short features on how to feed yourself and your family, should it come to that. From the Sagebrush Variety Hour on community radio in Idaho, we interview Bucky Buckaw on raising backyard chickens.

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

Production Notes: 30 sec music bed for station ID at 30:38. Song "Fix It Or Stop Complaining" by Dan Berggren.

Please note, Alex is going on holidays - but has prepared new programs for a hot Summer series.
These will be podcast to you as a group - load up your computer, CD-Player or Ipod for summer listening.

A WARNING FROM THE PAST

This week's Radio Ecoshock broadcast is about past greenhouse worlds, quick climate shifts, and mass extinctions caused by changes to the atmosphere.

Dr. Andrew Glikson studies comet/asteroid impacts, volcanoes, and past climates. He's been doing it for 40 years.

While studying the oldest record of life on Earth, in the Australian outback, Glikson found a relationship between comet or asteroid impacts and the generation of living things. We do not yet know whether life forms (such as bacteria) actually arrived from outer space - or whether the impact generated energy and unique chemical conditions that caused certain natural reactions to duplicate themselves.

All that is a side issue to this speech, which is an education on the dominating role of the atmosphere in determining the state of life on Earth. Whether caused by impacts or volcanoes, or even gradual tilts in the Earth axis, a changing atmosphere can make life luxurious - or kill off up to 90% of all species.

The science explained by Andrew Glikson in this speech find a parallel in the book "Under A Green Sky" by Peter Ward, a scientist in Washington State. We are talking, for example, about the Permian mass extinction, about 200 million years ago. The ocean lost it's oxygen, and life surived in only a few pockets of the ocean. Most land species were exterminated.

Of the five past great extinctions (we are apparently living in the 6th extinction now) - FOUR WERE CAUSED BY CLIMATE CHANGE. Not hits from outer space. For the survival of our species, we need to know what happened - and few people alive know more than Andrew Glikson, as he summarizes not only his own research, but the general science now developing in the field.

This speech from Australia National University explains our current shift toward a hot-state planet - much faster than ever before. It has been slightly modified for radio, (to fit in an hour) with the permission of Dr. Glikson.

Learn about your planet (or die?)

The Radio Ecoshock Show 080704 1 hour CD Quality 56 MB or Lo-Fi 14 MB

Alex
Radio Ecoshock

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.

Re Send of Building Sanity, Passivhaus Workshop

Hi folks!

Sorry, but last week's podcast send was incomplete. You didn't get the full show. So here is a re-send - the workshop on how to save 90% on building energy costs (and greenhouse gases) is too important to miss.

That was the Radio Ecoshock show for June 13th, 2008.

Won't happen again.

Alex.

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...

SAFE CLIMATE OR ENDLESS WAR?

Those are the choices.

CONNECTIONS FOR THIS WEEK'S RADIO ECOSHOCK SHOW
Week of May 30th, 2008

Guest: Michael T. Klare (new book "Rising Powers, Shrinking World")
Listen to the Ecoshock Klare interview here.
(http://www.ecoshock.org/downloads/nuclear/ES_Klare_RisingPowers_LoFi.mp3)
Read his blog at http://www.tomdispatch.com

Space For Peace activist Bruce Gagnon
Listen to the Gagnon interview separately here.
www.ecoshock.org/downloads/nuclear/ES_Gagnon_080521_LoFi.mp3
His web site is http://space4peace.org

Dimitri Orlov on "Re-inventing Collapse. The Soviet Example and American Prospects";
I read the 5 steps of collapse from Orlov's blog at
http://cluborlov.blogspot.com (look for "older posts" at bottom). Then a clip from Orlov talking with KMO on the C-Realm podcast (http://c-realm.org).

Listen to that whole Orlov segment from the Ecoshock show here www.ecoshock.org/downloads/peakoil/ES_Orlov_Collapse_LoFi.mp3

Robert Kennedy Jr. on 5 men who run almost all U.S. media.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQIkMZadApY&feature=related

Is the American empire collapsing? Where are the $$ for new transpo & energy systems, or climate adaptation?

Download this Radio Ecoshock Show 1 hour here: CD Quality (56 MB) or Lo-Fi (14 MB)

I was in Berlin just after the Wall had fallen. A visit to East Berlin was quite instructive - they were living the low energy life - no bright street lights, no neon signs or advertising at all.

My West German hosts were still shaking their heads in disbelief. Their government discovered the only thing keeping Russian troops in East Germany was this: the Soviet government was so bankrupt, it could not afford to bring the soldiers home. There was no housing for the troops back home, so German workers went into the Soviet Union to build apartment buildings. Then the Russian bases were closed.

Is America headed toward the same state of bankruptcy? The United States has bases in over 100 countries. The government puts it all on Master Card, they borrow the whole cost from the countries, the ones who manufacture consumer goods, and provide the oil.

In an article titled "Portrait of an Oil-Addicted Former Superpower," Michael Klare writes: "Whether we know it or not, the energy Berlin Wall has already fallen - and the United States is an ex-superpower-in-the-making."

Michael T. Klare is a professor of Peace and World Security Studies for the Five Colleges, based in Massachusetts. He is a defense columnist for The Nation Magazine. His books "Resource Wars", and then "Blood and Oil" explained our times, just ahead of time. And his newest book is "Rising Powers, Shrinking Planet: The New Geopolitics of Energy." It has just come out, published by Metropolitan Books.

We discuss how militarism, and endless war, threaten our ability to adapt and survive rapid climate change. Read more from Michael Klare at his blog:
http://tomdispatch.com

Dimitri Orlov lived through the fall of the Soviet empire. He has a new book "Re-inventing Collapse. The Soviet Example and American Prospects." After some delay, that book is finally available. The publisher is New Society.

This book on collapse emerged from a series of articles titled "Post-Soviet Lessons For A Post-American Century" appearing on the web site "From the Wilderness" hosted by Michael C. Rupert. Rupert was a former cop who dedicated himself to investigating political cover-ups. In August of 2006, Rupert mysteriously disappeared, saying he no longer felt safe in the United States, after various threats and break-ins. His archive is still on the Net at fromthewilderness.com.

Anyway, Orlov outlines 5 stages or signs of collapse which I will read from his blog. Then we'll hear a short clip of Orlov, taken from the C-Realm podcast hosted by KMO.

In his blog, Orlov writes:

"Elizabeth Kübler-Ross defined the five stages of coming to terms with grief and tragedy as denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance, and applied it quite successfully to various forms of catastrophic personal loss, such as death of a loved one, sudden end to one's career, and so forth. Several thinkers, notably James Howard Kunstler and, more recently John Michael Greer, have pointed out that the Kübler-Ross model is also quite terrifyingly accurate in reflecting the process by which society as a whole (or at least the informed and thinking parts of it) is reconciling itself to the inevitability of a discontinuous future, with our institutions and life support systems undermined by a combination of resource depletion, catastrophic climate change, and political impotence....

Stage 1: Financial collapse. Faith in "business as usual" is lost. The future is no longer assumed resemble the past in any way that allows risk to be assessed and financial assets to be guaranteed. Financial institutions become insolvent; savings are wiped out, and access to capital is lost.

Stage 2: Commercial collapse. Faith that "the market shall provide" is lost. Money is devalued and/or becomes scarce, commodities are hoarded, import and retail chains break down, and widespread shortages of survival necessities become the norm.

Stage 3: Political collapse. Faith that "the government will take care of you" is lost. As official attempts to mitigate widespread loss of access to commercial sources of survival necessities fail to make a difference, the political establishment loses legitimacy and relevance.

Stage 4: Social collapse. Faith that "your people will take care of you" is lost, as local social institutions, be they charities or other groups that rush in to fill the power vacuum run out of resources or fail through internal conflict.

Stage 5: Cultural collapse. Faith in the goodness of humanity is lost. People lose their capacity for "kindness, generosity, consideration, affection, honesty, hospitality, compassion, charity" (Turnbull, The Mountain People). Families disband and compete as individuals for scarce resources. The new motto becomes "May you die today so that I die tomorrow" (Solzhenitsyn, The Gulag Archipelago). There may even be some cannibalism."

Orlov doesn't predict cannibalism as a future for America - he just says some societies have reached terrible stages, and give examples in his book from the dislocated African tribe described in the book "The Mountain People" by Colin M. Turnbull.

Hopefully, by learning from previous cases of collapse, we can learn how to do better, as individual, and as a society. We shouldn't wait until things drop down to the bottom of the pit of collapse.

Find out more about Dimitri Orlov from his blog at cluborlov.blogspot.com - Orlov is spelled orlov.

Let's hear just a couple of minutes from KMO's C-Realm podcast, number 96 for May 14th, 2008. KMO and Orlov are discussing whether the people of the Soviet Union were actually better situated for collapse of their system.

Is anybody sorry the old Soviet Union is gone? They kept massive millions of their own people in prisons. Interrogators used torture. The press was censored and distorted to propaganda. You wouldn't want to live in a society like that.

I run a clip of Bobby Kennedy explaining how 5 corporations control almost all of the TV, radio and print that persuade Americans. Most of the investigative journalists have been fired. The right wing dominates it all. And Kennedy explains how Bush, in exchange for millions in donations, created a new wave of illness and pollution in the United States. The link for this powerful Youtube expose it posted above. Watch it and weep.


And that is why you need alternative media, underground radio, and people like our next guest, Bruce Gagnon.

People all over the world want the United States to take a leadership role in cleaning up fossil fuel emissions, before we lose a livable climate.

Our next guest, Bruce Gagnon says America has far different plans. Instead of converting the economy, the military industrial complex will war it's way to control of the world's energy, through domination of space.

Bruce Gagnon is a Senior Fellow at the Nuclear Policy Research Institute and Co-ordinator of the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space. Find that at space4peace.org.

You must watch the video "Arsenal of Hypocracy" available from that site, and on Google Video. One hour of your time, one big enlightenment about the shiny new announcements from NASA, and the real reason America wants to dominate space.

We also discuss near-space as a threatened environment in its own right. Greens worry about protecting Antarctica, and the Amazon, without realizing that the space around the planet is so infested with space junk, we may not be able to get away from Earth - ever.

Maybe that would be a good thing for the rest of the universe, consider what we are doing down here.

Alex Smith
host
Radio Ecoshock

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

IF YOU LOVE THIS PLANET

Helen Caldicott's new broadcast/podcast program #1.

Hands up everyone who wants to hear about nuke reactor safety.....

Nobody?

Perfect. That's just the way the nuclear industry wants it - as they plan a new "renaissance" of reactor construction as a "solution" to climate change. Really, the same big corporations want the government to back and insure their risky plans to rake in billions of bucks.

George Bush loves the plan. So does the military. Republican candidate John McCain just told nutty talk show host Glenn Beck he's like to see America get 80% of it's electricity needs from nuclear power - just like the French do.

Joseph Romm, the energy expert from climateprogress.org did the math. That means 700 new reactors, which we could build over the next 100 years, so long as we stop building anything else.

Newt Gingrich loves nuclear power too. Obama has big nuclear donors in his home state - but hey, all the candidates take money from the nuclear lobby.

For the sake of sanity, please listen to Helen Caldocott's interview with David Lochbaum, Director of the Nuclear Safety Project for the Union of Concerned Scientists. In Blogger, just click the title above. Or download the fast Lo-Fi version shown below.


You'll hear about near-melt-downs of U.S. reactors, spent fuel as terrorist targets, and a failure to protect public safety.

Not much of that gets reported in the mainstream news. Funny, since once of the biggest nuclear reactor makers, General Electric, owns a TV network.

Even with 10 years of warning, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) failed to demand reactor changes when inconvenient for business operators. The wall of one American reactor was eaten away to a single layer of failing metal - ready to blow. Was that the one near you?

As Chernobyl taught us, we are all down-wind from a blown reactor. The radioactive particles go into the upper atmosphere, and rain down upon the world, raising cancer rates, and worrying millions.

Meanwhile, all the so-called "spent fuel" (still highly radioactive) is kept in tanks, concrete bunkers, wherever - around the plants. Some are above ground, easy targets for terrorism, especially an airplane hit.

Also read Helen Caldicott's 2006 book: "Nuclear Power Is Not The Answer To Global Warming - Or Anything Else."

Ecoshock show 080509 1 hour

CD quality 56 MB or Lo-Fi 14 MB.

Production Notes: quick intro, re-intro (at 28:26), exit. Includes clips from original 1983 documentary If You Love This Planet, starting at 45:40.
Stations needing time for ID or announcements cut into documentary clip. Or burn it and play it.

The web address given in the show not will not be up until June. I add helencaldicott.com & beyondnuclear.org, which work now.

Alex Smith
host
Radio Ecoshock

HIGHWAY TO HELL: How Smog Kills

Polluted cities kills hundreds of thousands. Under-reported plague from vehicle emissions. 2 interviews.

We are honored to have as a guest on this weeks' show: Dr. Joel Schwartz, Harvard's top expert on air pollution. I discuss Dr. Schwartz' testimony to Congress in late 2007. His presentation is still available on the Net, as a .pdf file. It is on Carbon Soot and Global Warming.

Schwartz presents one of the two most scary maps I have ever seen. (Number one was the map showing the new world regime under climate change, attached to a presentation to the Royal Society late in 2007, by Sir James Lovelock....)

The Schwartz map is simple: is just shows where particulate soot, dangerous to human health, is congregating. Gray means very unhealthy amounts of particulates, black means lethal levels.

In the United States, the whole of New England is gray, with black blotches. There is more heavy pollution over the Louisiana/Texas refinery area, and of course gray and black over Southern California.

But all of Europe is one gray area, with huge blobs of black. In our interview, I ask Dr. Schwartz whether the new diesel cars being sold in Europe have filters to preserve the air. Not nearly enough, was the reply. Apparently, about 70% of all new private cars sold in Europe are diesel, not gas. That means a lot of particulates. There are new stricter rules for emissions from these new cars, but it won't stop the rash of heart attacks, pneumonia, and prenatal damage from diesel particulates.

Worse, the Europeans have been buying diesels for a long time - and the engines can last up to 30 years. That means decades more diesel smoke from all the old engines still in use. Dr. Schwartz says anyone could tell, even blindfolded, whether they were breathing European or American air.

We cover a new study from England, by Professor George Knox, finding that pneumonia deaths, thousands of them, caused directly by transport emissions, have been missed by medical authorities. The situation now is killing more people than the famous killer smog of 1952, but the reporting system just doesn't pick it up.

The Joel Schwartz interview is a must - if you live in a city. We talk about smog canyons, how people die, and what could be done about it.

The program starts, though, almost at the other end of the world, in Alaska, with Dr. Riki Ott. Why would we call a marine expert on oil spills, to find out about city smog? Because after the Exxon Valdez spill, the American government spent hundreds of millions of dollars in research into the toxicity of oil. It was the first time such research was ever done. They found that even small amounts of oil was toxic not just to fish, but to mammals - including mammals like ourselves.

After the research, in 1999, the EPA quietly added one oil component, the PAH's, to the most deadly list of bio-accumulative toxic materials - along with things like DDT. The Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons are in your blood stream and mine. They persist, build up, and lead to cancer, birth abnormalities, and other ugly things.

Dr. Riki Ott has the expertise to explain how toxic oil is infiltrating our cities and our lives - and the bravery to speak out against a well-oiled system.

As you know, all the major TV newscasts now depend upon car advertising. So do the newspapers, which run full page ads, classified ads, and whole sections about cars they want you to want. This mainstream media is never going to tell you what this single Ecoshock program reveals.

Nanoparticles in your bloodstream - and carbon soot makes more global warming.

There are two basic kinds of air particles that impact climate. The sulphates, which come mainly from coal burning, can actually cool the planet a bit, by reflecting sunlight back into space. But these particles don't stay air-borne for more than a few weeks. It is a temporary effect.

Black soot, from coal plants and from vehicle emissions, absorbs the sun's energy, heating up the planet. It is the second largest cause of global warming. These particles also land on the snow regions, especially in the Arctic. White snow reflects a lot of solar heat back into space - but when it becomes darker, grayish, the energy is absorbed. The snow may melt earlier, or ice may not form as thickly.

I found it interesting that Dr. Schwartz, in his testimony to Congress, said that cleaning up coal emissions in North America, and car emissions, is a double win. We can save as many as 200,000 lives a year - and cut out the second largest emitter in the world. Why kid ourselves, and send money to China, or some forest project in Indonesia, when we can save lives, and reduce climate change, with action right at home. I agree.

Finally, we talk to both our guests about what we need - to breath better, live longer.

Radio Ecoshock Show 080425 1 hour CD quality 56 MB or Lo-Fi 14 MB

Production Notes: end song "Highway to Hell" by Midnight Oil; opens with Gino Vannelli clip "Wild Horses". No copyright on interviews. Major media, loaded with car ads, will never report this story. Please help get it out there.

Alex Smith
host
Radio Ecoshock

ADDICTED TO OIL

Even President George Bush admits we are addicted to oil. But what does that really mean?

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF ADDICTION

Dr. Bruce Alexander, a professor emeritus at Simon Fraser University in Canada, is a pioneer researching addiction. His ideas are so unconventional, he won the Stirling Prize for controversy. Bruce Alexander is currently writing a book titled "The Globalization of Addiction: A Study in the Poverty of the Spirit." - coming out this summer.

"Addiction is a democratic disease, affecting both the rich and the poor. Sadly, scientific medicine has made no progress on addiction." In addition to addictions to tobacco, alcohol, and other drugs, Alexander reminded attendees that other addictions that will increase with globalization include gambling, pornography, and shopping."

Dr. Alexander's recent study for the Centre for Policy Alternatives, "The Roots of Addiction in Free market Society", is available online, as a .pdf file.

In our Radio Ecoshock interview, we pick Dr. Alexander's brain, on the addiction that could change our climate, virtually forever - fossil fuels.

PEAK OIL AND ADDICTION

I've been listening to a talk given by Nate Hagens, at the 6th ASPO Peak Oil Conference, in Ireland. Nate is completing his PHD at the University of Vermont. There is a video of his speech online - and Hagens goes into great detail about our brain formation, and the importance of neurochemicals that determine, he says, our actions.

Rather than using our relatively recently developed neo-cortex, to making rational long-range decisions, Hagens says science repeatedly shows, we use older portions of the brain, to ensure a continuing dose of chemicals like dopamine. He suggests this inability of the brain, to let thinking dominate decision making, is one of the reasons humans are unable to make better choices for the future, like alternative energy. Instead we just keep sucking up oil, which rewards us right away, today.

Nate Hagens is perhaps unique in his experience. In his twenties, he was selling big investments, covering hundred of millions of dollars. In that world, there is a big discount for future risk, instead of taking profits now.

Hagens claims psychological tests, in monkeys for example, seem to show that novelty and reward are absolutely necessary for our brain functioning. This could lead to an explanation, of why his rich clients needed to keep making even more millions, or why the suburban housewife must buy yet another pair of expensive shoes. The more expensive, the more the charge card is loaded up, the better the chemical hit in the brain. It makes me wonder...Is our whole society really in a state near overdose?

By now almost all of us know the oil society is killing us, in many ways. We know exhaust is poisoning our lungs, deadly car crashes, the foreign wars, and now horrible prospects of climate change. And yet we still go like addicts to the gas pumps, and fill up. Why, why, why? And what can we do?

Everyone likes to laugh about the hippies going back to the land... but are those people seeking a more natural environment, where their addictions to things like television, shopping, and lottery tickets can subside? Could that be part of the answer, making our living arrangement more suitable, for the mammals we really are?

How can we apply what you've discovered, about the myths and realities of addiction, to really kick the fossil fuel habit, before it kills us?

RADIO PLAY "ECOVENTION"

While addiction is very serious, we just had to poke fun at ourselves as oil addicts. In this Radio Ecoshock show, you hear our new radio play "Ecovention." It is a parody of the A & E program "Intervention" which deals with addictions to drugs, alcohol, eating disorders, gambling and so on.

Four people helped out with this radio drama:
Matt Codrington is an up and coming Canadian actor, playing the role of "Gordon" the SUV-driving oil addict. His wife "Annette" is played by Colleen Kimmett - who in real life is a tech and science journalist. Colleen may be producing some pieces for Radio Ecoshock in the future. Sister "Ginny" was played by an anonymous radio industry personality, and Gordon's buddy "Norman" was none other than "The Simulator" - who hosts the wildly popular video podcast "It's The End of the World As We Know It" found at submedia.tv.

The play is fun, and can be downloaded to pass around, from our web site at ecoshock.org.

ADDICTED TO OIL SONG

We also got permission from Loose Bruce Kerr to play his parody of the hit "Addicted to Love" by Robert Palmer. Now it's "Addicted to Oil" - and the lyrics are great. Bruce Kerr, who is a lawyer for Sun Microsystems (good thing I got permission first!) says he is now working on a video for the song.

A BUFFET OF AUDIO CLIPS

Then we play a collection of short clips on oil addiction, and our hopes of overcoming it. You hear a snatch from a speech given by Terry Tamminen, formerly green advisor to Gov. Schwarzenegger of California. Terry wrote "Lives Per Gallon" - one of the definitive books on oil addiction. I recorded his book tour speech in Vancouver over a year ago.

You also hear a short clip from the new speech given by Tim Flannery in Toronto, also available in full from our web site. This was recorded and passed along by John-Paul Warren. Flannery describes new developments in Denmark to replace oil burning cars by all-electric ones. A company will make the new cars, and another group will make one in every six parking spaces in Copenhagen equiped with re-charging posts. You drive up, park, and plug in. The system recognizes your registration, and charges you for the power you use.

Not enough juice? The new system will also have hundreds of "refilling stations" where you can quickly exchange for a new battery. This is supposed to be faster than filling up at an old style gas station, because the cars are designed for it. Neat, eh?

We end up with a few sample quotes from Al Gore's recent (April 2008) presentation at TED, the Technology, Entertainment and Design folks. TED has some great talks, and you can still find Al Gore's new video there. Highly recommended.

In the end, I hope we all think deeply about this oil habit. It's in our lives, in our brains. But just like tobacco, or heroin, we can kick the habit. We must - of face a ruined climate, and continuous wars - not to mention empty wallets!

Good luck - and let's get clean together.

Alex Smith
Radio Ecoshock

PEAK OIL = TRANSPORTATION REVOLUTION

This week's program begins with a quick review of planet-shaking news.

Then, we go to the book launch of "Transportation Revolutions: Moving People and Freight Without Oil"

The authors are Richard Gilbert & Anthony Perl. I recorded that on March 18th, in Vancouver, Canada.

You get the speech by Richard Gilbert, plus some of the Q and A.

Both the talk, and the book, are loaded with real facts and figures on future transpo, and how to get there, sustainably. Finally, some answers.

Are you ready to see U.S. airports shrink from 300 to 30, as the oil runs out? We learn why electric cars will dominate the road. Electric railroads.

Richard Gilbert, an energy expert from Toronto Canada, opens with a speech explaining (a) the inevitability of Peak Oil and (b) what we can do about it - if we start now.