On New Year’s Day 2007, The New York Times published an article by Andrew Revkin titled "A New Middle Stance Emerges in Debate over Climate", setting off a firestorm on enviro-blogs and highly-critical editorials written by, among others, Grist Magazine staff writer David Roberts. Just where exactly is this ‘middle’? Does this ‘middle’ really find "An Inconvenient Truth" to be  alarmist and further afield of their beliefs? What is the rhetorical value of being seen to occupy a middle ground? What is the danger in labeling like-minded people ‘extreme’?

Andrew Revkin and David Roberts join Betsy to talk about the existence of a climate ‘middle’ and where something like "An Inconvenient Truth" or  EcoTalk for that matter, fits on the spectrum of opinions on Climate Change. PART 1 (11 min)
PART 2 (7 min) PART 3 (7 min)

Michael Dietrick, MD, Executive Director for the Water Planet Environmental Broadcast Service, chats with Betsy about their experience sharpening their climate expertise at Al Gore’s climate training camp last week. LISTEN (13 min)

Betsy dials in from Al Gore’s Climate Training Conference in Tennessee where she is one of 200 Climate Messengers learning the Gore slide show from An Inconvenient Truth and preparing to take it back to their townships and communities around the nation. Here Betsy chats with Resident Scientist Dr. Michael McCracken, who first testified to Congress on climate change in 1975. If anybody knows how to present this issue in laymen’s terms, it’s Dr. McCracken, who has some very interesting things to say about the different type of snowfall slamming Denver this winter.

PART1  PART 2

Columbia University Center for Climate Systems Research Scientist Mark Chandler says that the accumulation of greenhouse gases in our atmosphere as well as a predicted El Nino could make 2007 the hottest year on record. He speaks to us from Madison, Wisconsin, where the lakes might go unfrozen in winter for the first time on record. LISTEN (6 min)

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)

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)

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)