Science or Conspiracy?

Do you believe in climate science? Or is it a world-wide conspiracy to control your life?

We begin with a digest of a key hearing at the U.S. government, December 2nd, 2009. You'll hear testimony from Dr. John Holdren, Obama's top science adviser, and Dr. Jane Lubchenco, head of NOAA, among other things. The sparks fly when Republicans like Jim Sensenbrenner talk about a global scientific fraud, "scientific fascism" and a "culture of corruption" in science.

I try to referee the event, with the top 30 minutes of audio, from the full 1 hour 46 minute recording. The digest is 7 megabytes in Lo-Fi, and I introduce each speaker. You can download the whole thing here, as a 26 MB Lo-Fi mp3 file.

Just as a sanity check, you can also download Chairman Ed Markey's 8 minute closing remarks here.

The official government web site for the event is here.

Find some of the video of John Holdren on the hacked email controversy, at Joe Romm's Climate Progress blog, here.

In the second half hour, we finally have some fun, among all the bleak news. British broadcaster Hugh Warwick gets his first tattoo. He's been chosen to represent the hedgehog. It's "A Prickly Affair" - fun yet serious, as we try to get close to nature. In America, the book is called "The Hedgehog's Dilemma".

What is the dilemma? It was first expressed by the philosopher Schopenhauer. The hedgehog wants love, but gets hurt by the spines as it approaches. So it withdraws, and then feels lonely.

Warwick suggests we are in the same position now with Nature. We want to experience the wild, but if we do, in our millions, we end up damaging the wilderness. Yet when we withdraw into cities and cyber-life, we feel disconnected. Humans have some hard-wiring to expect and need the smells, touch, and sights of the natural world.

And hedgehogs are marvellous creatures. They can live for an hour and a half without air. When hedgehogs hibernate, you might think they were dead. Yet they are one of the few wild animals we can approach, even nose to nose - because they don't have to run or fight. If threatened, they just curl up in a ball.

Find out all about them, with Hugh Warwick, who's not only written the book, he's studied them, and championed them, for 20 years. Warwick often appears in the BBC and other nature shows. His story about the Hedgehog Olympics in Colorado reminds us of the film "Best in Show".

It's Hedgehog Heaven. Grab that hilarious interview here.

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SHOCK DOCTRINE NOW!

As the world economy crumbles, a combination of corporate high finance is moving to consolidate power - as they do in any emergency.

Naomi Klein explains her new book "Shock Doctrine, The Rise of Disaster Capitalism" - in the light of our current economic meltdown. Suddenly, the trillions givens to major banks and investment gamblers begins to make sense.

Naomi spoke to an enthusiastic audience in Santa Cruz, California on October 17th, 2008. Through the magic of non-profit radio, the speech and Q and A session are rocketing across the country, and around the world. It was all recorded by Radio Free Santa Cruz - a bastion of alternative radio, available 24/7 at www.freakradio.org My thanks to Skidmark Bob for this recording.

As the speech went well over an hour, followed by another half hour of questions and answers, I have dared to draw out:

* the recording of her new film clip
* Klein's theory of Disaster Capitalism, updated for today's times
* the conclusion of the speech, and
* three answers from the Q and A - on what we can do now.

This is one of the most exciting speeches, in a season of barn burners. Apparently, when the system cracks open, our brightest minds are inspired. Naomi Klein, author of "No Logo" and film-maker, is one of them.

You can download the full speech from our web site, just look for "Speeches" in the Audio on Demand Menu, right on our home page. The Q and A session is there also, as an mp3 download.

Alex
Radio Ecoshock
http://www.ecoshock.org

TOM HAYDEN The Birth of Movements

As government and corporate governance fails, we need a wide-spread social movement to address climate change, peak oil, and extinction. Where is it? How does it start?

Tom Hayden witnessed the beginning of a dozen social movements. We gather his insight from a new speech in Vancouver, an Alternative Radio program, and quotes from his 2008 book: "Writings for a New Democracy, The Tom Hayden Reader."

The Reader begins with Hayden's "Letter to a New Young Left" in 1961. There are selections from The Port Huron Statement, a founding document of the '60s revolution in some ways. Hayden was a co-founder of the Students for a Democratic Society, which became fairly radical.

He was arrested at the Democratic Convention protests in Chicago in 1968 - where he was tried for conspiracy to subvert democracy as one of the famous Chicago Eight. They were acquitted by a jury after an amazing trial (beat poet Allan Ginsberg was one of the witnesses for the defense.) Now two movies, with Hayden as one of the characters, are coming out about the Chicago Eight trial, not to mention a stage play which almost anyone can mount.

In the early 70's Tom Hayden met and married film star Jane Fonda. It was Hayden who first dared to visit North Vietnam during the awful war. When Jane accompanied him later, she was pilloried as "Hanoi Jane". The marriage lasted 18 years.

In 1976, Hayden and a couple of dozen activists had to rethink the future. They had gathered in opposition to the Vietnam War. As that war ended, these men and women met to decide the next phase of social activism. From this group came several successful politicians, union leaders and environmental founders.

Tom himself took a run at the U.S. Senate. He was not successful, but the campaign document produced by his group, and reprinted in the Tom Hayden Reader, is still one of the best. It could serve as a platform for Obama. Hayden is a kind of rebel within the Democratic Party, always trying to haul them into social justice.

Tom Hayden did become a successful politician - as a California Senator. He became involved in environmentalism, visited the Amazon in a life-changing experience, and rediscovered his roots in Ireland.

All through this program, we visit the fabric of social activism, watching for signs of how they developed. We also explore Tom Hayden, not as an icon, but as a human who struggles, as we do.

Hayden also considers whether the decision to abandon the search for Peace, after the Vietnam War, was a mistake. He says, as an American trying to solve social ills, imperialist wars just keep on coming. They always drain away social capital - both tax money and social will - from real improvements at home. Just as the war in Iraq is doing now, in both the United States and Canada.

First I recorded a new speech by Tom, in Vancouver, as he traveled up to support a re-birth of the Students for a Democratic Society at the University of British Columbia. At the speech, Tom handed me a thick copy of his collected writings, The Tom Hayden Reader. That took me a month of Summer reading, taking notes, for you.

Then David Barsamian of Alternative Radio came out with a Tom Hayden special called "Movements and Machiavellians". I've given you a few short clips on our topic, and instructions on how to order either the CD, or a cheap $5 download of the speech (well worth it!).

To add another sound viewpoint, Steve Bowell, producer of Ragbag Radio on CFRO in Vancouver, has lent his professional voice to a half dozen key quotes from the Tom Hayden Reader.

The whole project stretched out too long, over three months, but it's finally ready. Enjoy!

Alex Smith

The Radio Ecoshock Show 081017 1 hour CD quality 56 MB or Lo-Fi 14 MB

THE OLD FUTURE'S GONE - ROBERT JENSEN

Robert Jensen's provocative speech launched in Vancouver, appearing on the front pages of Z-Net, Alternet and many more. Our Radio Ecoshock provided the audio links, and thousands downloaded this powerful re-assessment of the Left, and social movements generally.

Jensen is a tenured Professor at University of Texas, Austin. He came to prominence through his work on an feminist perspective of pornography. And then zoomed into news byte of the day status when he said the attacks of 911 were nothing worse than he had seen done to other cities by American forces in pursuit of empire.

The alternative title for this speech is: "The Delusion Revolution: We're On the Road to Extinction and In Denial." How true that is, on many levels, but especially for environmentalists who see the sudden disruption in climate. James Hansen says we are heading toward a new hot-state climate, for example. And species are going extinct at record rates, as we heard from last week's Radio Ecoshock guest, Dr. Peter Ward.

Robert Jensen asks whether the old model of organizing for public protests, to modify bad government policies, is just dead. Maybe, as we all crouch on the couch watching the world undress, the days of mass public movements are dead. See also the book "Bowling Alone" which charts how Americans have stopped joining public clubs, social organizations, and events.

Anyway, the dynamics have changed. The authorities have been developing new technologies and techniques to stop mass public expression. Are you ready to have your ear drums damaged, or even feel like your skin is being burned off, as you rally in public spaces? They have the tools. All that was supposed to be developed for people in far away countries, but now the anti-terror cops are ready for any public gathering.

Jensen says we must re-think, and re-group our efforts for a better world.

We run the whole speech, and then add another 15 minutes of comments from the activist audience, but mostly more strong quotes from Jensen, during the Q and A that followed, in Vancouver, August 11th, 2008.

The theme song is by John Gorka "The Old Future's Gone".

Enjoy - this is one of the pivotal speeches of the year.

Alex Smith
host
Radio Ecoshock

The theme song is by John Gorka "The Old Future's Gone".