NRDC Senior Attorney Cara Horowitz tells Betsy how the US Navy has violated California State Law by using sonar, which is harmful and potentially fatal to whales, in protected waters. LISTEN (8 min)
Visit Whales in Danger to watch the video…
CEO of Natural Capitalism Solutions and co-founder of the Rocky Mountain Institute, Hunter Lovins sits down with Betsy to talk about writing Climate Protection Manuals for cities, Richard Branson’s $25 million challenge, and how the business case for climate change is simply a matter of supply and demand: "There’s so much money to be made and saved through behaving responsibly towards the planet, that business is now one of the leading exponents of sustainability. This is no longer philanthropy, or environmental activism. This is good business."
PART ONE (11 min) PART TWO (7 min)
Tikkun founder Rabbi Michael Lerner has long advocated for reasserting the spiritual dimension inherent in the progressive values of charity, peace, and stewardship of the earth. Here he tells Betsy about the link between his concept of ethical consumption with kosher habits, the skepticism which accompanied the 20th century’s greatest social movements, how we should all come out of the closet as spiritual beings, the Marshall Plan as a blueprint for tackling climate change, and welcoming the religious right into the climate cavalry. Whew! It’s another jam-packed interview.
PART ONE (12 min) PART TWO (8 min) and his blog
Director of the 2.3 million-strong Texas Baptist Christian Life Commision, Suzzi Paynter tells Betsy how, more than anything recent like An Inconvenient Truth, her denomination’s efforts to protect Texas from TXU’s 18 planned coal-fired power plants is the natural articulation of a faith that requires its faithful to act as stewards of all creation. LISTEN (11 min)
Richard Louv is Director of the Children & Nature Network and author of Last Child in the Woods: Saving our children from Nature Deficit Disorder — a book that one of our guests cites as an influence on a weekly basis. Richard and Betsy talk about what we all risk by raising children who lack a connection with the outdoors, parents’ fears of the outdoor world, and also Louv’s upcoming activities in Washington, DC, including offering ideas on how to integrate nature education into the upcoming revisions to No Child Left Behind. LISTEN (12 min)
John Rivera, the Founder & CEO of the US Sustainable Energy Corporation, tells Betsy about his new biofuel (not biodiesel!), made at a much much faster rate than other fuels and also from 100% renewable resources, that will be both a solution to global warming and a key to an energy-independent future for our nation: "We’re not like anything else out there," he says. LISTEN (8 min)
Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders tells Betsy about his letter to the American Enterprise Institute in response to their offer of $10,000 to any scientist who would challenge science showing that global warming is human-caused, so that they can continue to sow confusion, and put the brakes on all the progress we, the majority, are making: “It is a sad state of affairs when major corporations like Exxon Mobil and others are trying to cast doubt on the scientific work being done by very serious scientists on such an important issue.” Betsy wonders, “Don’t they live on this planet?” Senator Sanders also shares his hopes for the passage of The Global Warming Pollution Reduction Act of 2007 that he is co-sponsoring with California Senator Barbara Boxer.
LISTEN Part 1 (11 min)
LISTEN Part 2 (7 min)
Mighty Leaf Tea founder Gary Shinner sits down with Betsy to talk about Mighty Tea’s biodegradable tea bags, evolving along with the evolving organic food sectors, and the cardiovascular and anti-cancer benefits of tea. LISTEN (11 min)
Jane Kirkland joins Betsy to reminisce about attending Al Gore’s Climate Training Conference, and to tell the funny story of the accident that led to her writing an award-winning series of educational books designed to increase our children’s exposure and consciousness of the outdoors. LISTEN (9 min)
Betsy’s climate change debate buddy Chris Horner (of the Competitive Enterprise Institute) pays a visit to EcoTalk to continue the conversation they had last week on Fox News’ Hannity & Colmes. The difference in Horner’s tone between his Fox and EcoTalk visits is striking, and underscores the ways in which he and like-minded cohorts continue to dangerously mislead the American people. Here Horner frequently hides behinds a dense wall of techno-babble that none of the scientists that we’ve had on our show have ever come close to touching. PART ONE (10 min)
In the second part of our talk with Chris Horner, New York Times climate reporter Andy Revkin (and author of The North Pole Was Here) checks in to fact-check some of Horner’s more erroneous points. PART TWO (8 min)