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Tag: ecotalk

Frank O’Donnell helps the EPA define “success”

Written by William Craven on . Posted in Clean Air Watch, Frank O'Donnell.

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Clean Air Watch President Frank O’Donnell stops by to parse the EPA Chief Steve Johnson’s latest announcement on the Bush Administration’s efforts to "reduce" greenhouse gas emissions: "The bottom line is the actual volume of emissions continues to grow. The climate and the planet doesn’t care so much about intensity or rates of things, they care about  actual volume of pollution that’s effecting the climate." LISTEN (12 min)

But as is often the case in the large bureaucratic confines of the EPA
(where many career environmentalists continue to work diligently for a
green America), there is some good news as well: The EPA at long last
has proposed tougher air pollution standards for new lawnmowers and
other small engines that work off of gasoline. It’s not cars, but this
proposal would make a big impact. Of course, the tried and true method
of conservation is to crack open a beer and let your lawn grow out, in
principled defiance of nagging family members and neighbors. Tell them
EcoTalk gave you permission.

Elizabeth Kolbert: Field Notes From A Catastrophe

Written by William Craven on . Posted in Books, climate change. 1 Comment on Elizabeth Kolbert: Field Notes From A Catastrophe

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Elizabeth Kolbert’s vivid, intimate accounts of climate change through the eyes of people in the Netherlands, Iceland, and Alaska were initially published in the New Yorker Magazine and later compiled in the book Field Notes from a Catastrophe. Since "Field Notes" was first published, Kolbert has written a stunning piece on ocean acidification, and has profiled one-time boy wonder of the environmental movement Amory Lovins, now 49 years old and still the eternal optimist.

PART ONE (11 min) PART TWO (7 min)

"One of Amory’s basic points is that if you don’t use energy, you’ve
found a new energy source. A barrel of oil we don’t use, is a barrel of
oil found, in a way. If we just made cars more efficient, we would
basically found the equivalent of Saudi Arabia’s oil reserves right
under Detroit."

Here Kolbert shares her thoughts on all that she’s investigated
and reported, not only on climate change but on the political and
social climate of climate change. She’s one of the most valuable
chroniclers of Our time on Earth, and we were thrilled to have her in
our Green Street studio.

The Environmental Working Group uncovers a Toxic Two-Timer

Written by William Craven on . Posted in Health.

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Environmental Working Group Executive Director Richard Wiles tells Betsy about digging up the all-too-convenient fact that a contractor hired by the National Institute of Health to judge the risk of toxic chemicals was simultaneously moonlighting for the chemical industry itself. Fortunately, even the current Fed leadership decided that the other foot had to drop on this one: "Some of the principals in this company have a long history of working as expert witnesses for corporate polluters." LISTEN (12 min)

Science Teacher faces Harrassment for teaching Common Sense

Written by William Craven on . Posted in climate change.

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Oregon Teacher of the Year Award Recipient John Borowski tells Betsy about the pressure he’s faced from school administrators to stop teaching his students how science can be practically applied to the largest challenge that they will inherit from us, climate change. Mr. Borowski points to corporate pressure on science teachers nationwide not to tell our kids too much about their future, but he teaches undeterred, determined to respect his students’ education and teach them to think critically about the world: "I ask kids to take a newspaper article on the environment and analyze it. I always told them that I’ll grade the paper based on two things: you presentation of facts, and how well you analyze those facts. But I’m not going to grade them on their opinion."  LISTEN (11 min)

SustainLane: How Green is Your City?

Written by William Craven on . Posted in Books, Green Cities.

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SustainLane Chief Strategy Officer Warren Karlenzig joins Betsy to talk about how SustainLane has ranked the 50 greenest cities in the nation in their attractive and handy new book How Green is Your City?  The top three cities are on the West Coast, but cities from Boston to Honolulu have  green habits and new efforts, from Farmer’s Markets to Tap Water to Public Transportation, that they should be proud of and build upon: "Cities can learn from one other. They’re using these rankings to compare their metrics, how they’re performing in different areas on everything from green building to sustainability management."  LISTEN (7 min)

Marty Essen: Cool Creatures, Hot Planet

Written by William Craven on . Posted in Books.

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Marty Essen tells Betsy about the adventures to be found on our precious, joyous, and yes, hair-raising planet, chronicled in his new book Cool Creatures, Hot Planet :  "There are a lot of creatures out there that aren’t warm and cuddly, that you might want to wipe off the map, but when you do that, you lose things for humans. For example…" LISTEN (8 min)

TXU Goes Nuclear

Written by William Craven on . Posted in Nuclear Power. 1 Comment on TXU Goes Nuclear

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Two months ago major headlines were made when a coalition of environmental groups, financiers, citizen activists and energy giant TXU cut a deal to stop the construction of a number of archaic coal-fired power plants in the state of Texas. At the time the deal stuggested to us a blueprint for the way businesses and activists can work together: citizens and Rainforest Action Network worked the streets and the internet, NRDC and Environmental Defense sought common ground with TXU in the boardroom, and the banks did the numbers. The future looked bright indeed.

A little too bright, apparently. This week TXU announced that it was partnering with Mitsubishi to build some of the largest nuclear plants in our nation’s history in Texas, and….nobody’s talking about it. Aside from the Wall Street Journal, newspapers aren’t following up. The environmental groups have been quiet. Friends of the Earth Executive Director Norman Dean fills the void: "It looks to me like TXU and its partners did not put all their cards on the table at the time the deal was cut. The irony is that Texas is the number one producer of wind power, and is perfectly situated to meet its growing energy needs through wind power and other renewable energy sources. If we were putting the subsidies that we’re putting into nuclear power into wind power, we’d have a lot more supply at this point." LISTEN (11 min)

Newsweek: Save the Planet…or Lindzen

Written by William Craven on . Posted in climate change.

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EcoTalk gives major props to the bevy of magazines that are doing entire issues dedicated to one of the only issues that really matters, but when one single page in Newsweek seeks to debunk the other 80 or so pages of the magazine, EcoTalk must take out its scalpel and dissect that malignant piece of paper.
Oh, What a surprise! Noted climate change skeptic Dr. Richard Lindzen! Climate Institute Chief Scientist Dr. Michael MacCracken says that while Dr. Lindzen holds his scientific colleagues to incredibly high standards, he lowers the bar a bit for his own statements: "As I read that piece, and it’s only about 7 or 8 paragraphs, I noted down a dozen things that were quite misleading or deceptive."   LISTEN (11 min)