RadioActive 7/29/10

Producer/Host:  Meredith DeFrancesco

Topic: International Climate Change Meeting & the Investing in Our Future Act of 2010

Today we look at the status of international climate talks in between the Copenhagen and Cancun meetings of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.
It has only been in the past couple of years that the acceptance of climate changes existence has entered mainstream vernacular in the United States. The scientific community, however, has long pointed to this looming global  problem and its ramifications.  The Intergovernmental panel on climate change reaffirmed in their 2007 4th Assessment Report, “Most of the observed warming over the last 50 years is likely to have been due to the increase in green house gas concentrations… Discernable human influences now extend to other aspects of climate , including ocean warming, continental average temperatures, temperature extremes and wind patterns.”  Governmental policy and public pressure over the past decades, however, has not resulted in comprehensive actionable plans to restructure global systems to impact emissions.
The Climate Bill, which just died in Congress, and which claimed to take aim at climate change, still would have promoted nuclear power, more off shore drilling, and “clean coal”, which requires the yet untested injecting of carbon dioxide into the earth. It also emphasized carbon trading and carbon offsets. The offshore drilling disaster in the Gulf of Mexico helped de-popularize the bill, which still appeared to cater to big energy companies, re-advertising themselves as “greener” companies.
At the international level, countries have been moving to discuss possible solutions through the United nations Framework on Climate Change. The last, so called, Conference of Parties, or COP, meeting was held in Copenhagen this past December. COP 16 is scheduled this fall in Cancun, Mexico.

What is the Copenhagen Agreement?  What was the message coming out of the Bolivia climate meeting?  What are the stipulations put on developing countries in order to receive climate mitigation & adaptions funds?

Guest: Janet Redman, Co-director of the Sustainable Energy & Economy Network at the Institute for Policy Studies

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RadioActive 7/22/10

Producers/Hosts: Amy Browne, Carolyn Coe, Meredith DeFrancesco

Carolyn Coe reports on Palestinian nonviolent resistance in Aida Refugee Camp in Bethlehem.   Speakers: Mazin Qumsiyeh, Prof. at Bethelehem and Birzeit Universities; Abdel Fattah Adelsour, Director and Founder of Alrowwad Cultural and Theater Training Centre in Aida Camp  They describe camp conditions and ways Palestinians have taken nonviolent action to preserve their cultural heritage and to challenge the Israeli occupation.

FMI: www.alrowwad-arts.ps  www.ashoka.org

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RadioActive 7/15/10

Producer/Host: Meredith DeFrancesco

Topics: EPA formulates Clean Water Act Permits required for pesticide applications;  Calais LNG is granted postponement of BEP permitting hearings

What are some of the concerns of Canada concerning LNG tankers in Passamaquoddy Bay?  What is Calais LNG’s connection to Goldman Sachs?  What are some of the areas EPA is still solidifying in it’s NPDES permitting requirements for pesticide applicators?

Guests: Sylvia Broude, Toxics Action Center; Elizabeth Martin-Craig, Pesticides Watch;  Bob Godfrey, Save Passamaquoddy Bay 3-Nation Alliance

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RadioActive 7/8/10

Producer/Host: Meredith DeFrancesco

Topic: Industrial Wind in Maine

Today we look at the controversy around wind power development in Maine.
Wind power has been touted as an alternative energy source, which we need to foster a domestic energy supply and minimize the pollution causing climate change. In the past three years, state government has examined the regulatory process which industrial wind developers must go through to execute projects and have made legislative changes to expedite that process.
Environmental and democracy activists caution that industrial wind is not a panacea. Effects are already being experienced by people located near wind farms, and other projects are poised to develop pristine alpine regions in Maine. Earlier this week, Earth First activists engaged in direct action against the industrial wind development at Kibby Mountain, outside of Stratton, Maine.
Today we here from a number of prospective s, with interviews  with  Bob Weingarten of Friends of the Boundary Mountains, Jonathan Carter of the Forest Ecology Network, and John Kerry, the director of Maine’s Office of Energy Independence and Security

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RadioActive 6/17/10

Producer/Host: Meredith DeFrancesco

Topics: DEP names Bisphenol – A priority chemical; Rep. Andy O’Brian on pesticide spray legislation

The Department of Environmental Protection has named Bisphenol-A the first priority chemical to take on under the Kids Safe Products Act. Steve Taylor with the Environmental Health Strategy Center gives us the latest from a hearing today in Augusta. And we have an update from Rep. Andy O’Brian on the pesticide spray notification legislation signed into law June 8th and the upcoming Board of Pesticides hearings on pesticide spraying next week.

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