Steve Torbit, Director of the National Wildlife Federation Tribal Lands Program, tells Betsy how the tribes indigenous to North America have never needed science to tell them that we need to live in harmony with nature’s cycles. Now that climate change threatens our way of life, how are American tribes responding? "We’re ready to step to the plate." LISTEN (8 min)
Steven Joseph of BanTransFats.com tells Betsy how he took on some of the world’s largest corporations and won, all in the name of your health. And your food!
PART1 (11 MIN) PART 2 (7 min)
On this week’s Treehugger Thursday, Simran Sethi chats with online journalism pioneer Arianna Huffington of the Huffington Post. LISTEN (12 min)
ALSO: EcoTalk producer Will Craven joins Betsy to talk Green Media in ’06, and Green Media in ’07.
The American Heartland’s role in solving global warming was a big topic of discussion this year at the 28th annual Prairie Festival, where Frances Beinecke, President of the Natural Resources Defense Council,was a guest speaker. She speaks about the festival with NRDC communications director Phil Gutis. LISTEN (8 min)
Architect Ed Mazria of Mazria Odems Dzurec says that now is the most important moment in the history of building, construction, and architecture, and that only if that sector meets his 2030 Challenge will we stand any chance at a sustainable society in general: "We are the problem, and we are the solution." LISTEN (11 min)
NRDC‘s Daniel Hinerfeld and Andrew Wetzler say goodbye to outgoing Rep. Richard Pombo, "the single greatest threat to biodiversity in America."
LISTEN (7 min)
Also, a poem to mark today Winter Solstice, "Mockingbird at Winter Solstice" by Eamon Grennan from the Winter Issue of OnEarth.
Picture of Winter Solstice by Sigurd Towrie
What a small many-greyed grapple of agitation
the mockingbird is, jittery on a thin branch
covered in berries but leafless, keeping one eye
and then the other on me, shifting its position,
unsettled by what my next move might be.
But at the opposite solstice this bird’s songs
are the life of leaves in which he’s an invisible singer,
sending melody after melody abroad, sweetening
space — even after midnight — with mimic music,
making the dark itself less dreadful, building
a nest of notes to feel at home in, though it must
be hard with so much to say, so many tunes
swirling through the honeycomb of its bones,
edging out of the white furnace of every feather
to swell its lone throat, setting its voice-box on fire.
— Eamon Grennan
Fake food fills our increasingly laboratory-like supermarkets, the word "organic" could be compromised by companies in search of the latest high-end marketing tag, you’re working later and later every night, and all you want to do is cook good food, eat good food, and listen to good tunes while you’re doing it. Well thank god for Anna Lappé, Bryant Terry, and their cool new cookbook Grub: Ideas for an Urban Organic Kitchen. LISTEN (12 min)
EarthJustice Attorney Jim Pew has won two court orders from the EPA to act to protect us from cement-industry created Mercury pollution, but hasn’t seen any results yet: "If we knew more about how much mercury they’re putting out, the picture would be even bleaker." LISTEN (8 min)
Environment Northeast has just released a roadmap for six NorthEastern States and five Canadian Provinces to reduce carbon emissions a whopping 75% by 2050. EN’s Executive Director Daniel Sosland breaks down the ambitious plan with Betsy.
LISTEN (11 min)
In this week’s Treehugger Thursday Simran Sethi reminds us that record-breaking holiday travel means unbelievable amounts of waste which, for whatever reason, airlines can’t be bothered to recycle. Prince Charles, on the other hand, strives to live an efficient, sensible, and sustainable life, and even much-maligned GM has set targets of its own, with its eye on the earth and, yes, that pesky little bottom line.
LISTEN (7 min)