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)

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